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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Nuttie's Father, by Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Nuttie's Father
+
+Author: Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+Posting Date: June 12, 2009 [EBook #4053]
+Release Date: May, 2003
+First Posted: October 21, 2001
+Last Updated: November 10, 2001
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NUTTIE'S FATHER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sandra Laythorpe.  HTML version by Al Haines.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Nuttie's Father
+
+
+by
+
+Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+       I.  ST. AMBROSE'S CHOIR.
+      II.  MONKS HORTON.
+     III.  HEIR HUNTING.
+      IV.  A NAME.
+       V.  SUSPENSE.
+      VI.  THE WATER-SOLDIER.
+     VII.  THAT MAN.
+    VIII.  THE FATHER.
+      IX.  NEW PLUMES.
+       X.  BRIDGEFIELD EGREMONT.
+      XI.  LAWN-TENNIS.
+     XII.  OUT OF WORK.
+    XIII.  DETRIMENTALS.
+     XIV.  GOING AGEE.
+      XV.  A CASTLE OF UMBRELLAS.
+     XVI.  INFRA DIG.
+    XVII.  AN OLD FRIEND.
+   XVIII.  A FRIEND IN NEED.
+     XIX.  THE VORTEX.
+      XX.  WOLF.
+     XXI.  URSULA'S RECEPTION.
+    XXII.  DISENCHANTMENT.
+   XXIII.  A FAILURE.
+    XXIV.  FARMS OR UMBRELLAS.
+     XXV.  THE GIGGLING SCOTCH GIRL.
+    XXVI.  THREE YEARS LATER.
+   XXVII.  THE BOY OF EGREMONT.
+  XXVIII.  A BRAVE HEART.
+    XXIX.  A FRESH START.
+     XXX.  NUTTIE'S PROSPECTS.
+    XXXI.  SPES NON FRACTA.
+   XXXII.  BLACKS IN THE ASCENDANT.
+  XXXIII.  THE LOST HEIR.
+   XXXIV.  FETTERS RENT.
+    XXXV.  THE HULL OF THE URSULA.
+   XXXVI.  NUTTIE'S KNIGHT.
+  XXXVII.  FOUND AND TAKEN.
+ XXXVIII.  THE UMBRELLA MAN.
+   XXXIX.  ANNAPLE'S AMBITION FALLEN.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+ST. AMBROSE'S CHOIR.
+
+  'For be it known
+  That their saint's honour is their own.'--SCOTT.
+
+
+The town of Micklethwayte was rising and thriving.  There were
+salubrious springs which an enterprising doctor had lately brought into
+notice.  The firm of Greenleaf and Dutton manufactured umbrellas in
+large quantities, from the stout weather-proof family roof down to the
+daintiest fringed toy of a parasol.  There were a Guild Hall and a
+handsome Corn Market.  There was a Modern School for the boys, and a
+High School for the girls, and a School of Art, and a School of
+Cookery, and National Schools, and a British School, and a Board
+School, also churches of every height, chapels of every denomination,
+and iron mission rooms budding out in hopes to be replaced by churches.
+
+Like one of the animals which zoologists call radiated, the town was
+constantly stretching out fresh arms along country roads, all living
+and working, and gradually absorbing the open spaces between.  One of
+these arms was known as St. Ambrose's Road, in right of the church, an
+incomplete structure in yellow brick, consisting of a handsome chancel,
+the stump of a tower, and one aisle just weather-tight and usable, but,
+by its very aspect, begging for the completion of the beautiful design
+that was suspended above the alms-box.
+
+It was the evening of a summer day which had been very hot.  The choir
+practice was just over, and the boys came out trooping and chattering;
+very small ones they were; for as soon as they began to sing tolerably
+they were sure to try to get into the choir of the old church, which
+had a foundation that fed, clothed, taught, and finally apprenticed
+them.  So, though the little fellows were clad in surplices and
+cassocks, and sat in the chancel for correctness sake, there was a
+space round the harmonium reserved for the more trustworthy band of
+girls and young women who came forth next, followed by four or five
+mechanics.
+
+Behind came the nucleus of the choir--a slim, fair-haired youth of
+twenty; a neat, precise, well-trimmed man, closely shaven, with
+stooping shoulders, at least fifteen years older, with a black poodle
+at his heels, as well shorn as his master, newly risen from lying
+outside the church door; a gentle, somewhat drooping lady in black, not
+yet middle-aged and very pretty; a small eager, unformed, black-eyed
+girl, who could hardly keep back her words for the outside of the
+church door; a tall self-possessed handsome woman, with a fine
+classical cast of features; and lastly, a brown-faced, wiry hardworking
+clergyman, without an atom of superfluous flesh, but with an air of
+great energy.
+
+'Oh! vicar, where are we to go?' was the question so eager to break
+forth.
+
+'Not to the Crystal Palace, Nuttie.  The funds won't bear it.  Mr.
+Dutton says we must spend as little as possible on locomotion.'
+
+'I'm sure I don't care for the Crystal Palace.  A trumpery tinsel
+place, all shams.'
+
+'Hush, hush, my dear, not so loud,' said the quiet lady; but Nuttie
+only wriggled her shoulders, though her voice was a trifle lowered. 'If
+it were the British Museum now, or Westminster Abbey.'
+
+'Or the Alps,' chimed in a quieter voice, 'or the Ufizzi.'
+
+'Now, Mr. Dutton, that's not what I want.  Our people aren't ready for
+that, but what they have let it be real.  Miss Mary, don't you see what
+I mean?'
+
+'Rather better than Miss Egremont herself,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Well,' said the vicar, interposing in the wordy war, 'Mrs. Greenleaf's
+children have scarlatina, so we can't go to Horton Bishop.  The choice
+seems to be between South Beach and Monks Horton.'
+
+'That's no harm,' cried Nuttie; 'Mrs. Greenleaf is so patronising!'
+
+'And both that and South Beach are so stale,' said the youth.
+
+'As if the dear sea could ever be stale,' cried the young girl.
+
+'I thought Monks Horton was forbidden ground,' said Miss Mary.
+
+'So it was with the last regime', said the vicar; 'but now the new
+people are come I expect great things from them.  I hear they are very
+friendly.'
+
+'I expect nothing from them,' said Nuttie so sententiously that all her
+hearers laughed and asked 'her exquisite reason,' as Mr. Dutton put it.
+
+'Lady Kirkaldy and a whole lot of them came into the School of Art.'
+
+'And didn't appreciate "Head of Antinous by Miss Ursula Egremont,"' was
+the cry that interrupted her, but she went on with dignity
+unruffled--'Anything so foolish and inane as their whole talk and all
+their observations I never heard.  "I don't like this style," one of
+them said.  "Such ugly useless things!  I never see anything pretty and
+neatly finished such as we used to do."'  The girl gave it in a tone of
+mimicry of the nonchalant voice, adding, with fresh imitation, "'And
+another did not approve of drawing from the life--models might be such
+strange people."'
+
+'My ears were not equally open to their profanities,' said Miss Mary.
+'I confess that I was struck by the good breeding and courtesy of the
+leader of the party, who, I think, was Lady Kirkaldy herself.'
+
+'I saw!  I thought she was patronising you, and my blood boiled!' cried
+Nuttie.
+
+'Will boiling blood endure a picnic in the park of so much ignorance,
+folly, and patronage?' asked Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Oh, indeed, Mr. Dutton, Nuttie never said that,' exclaimed gentle Mrs.
+Egremont.
+
+'Whether it is fully worth the doing is the question,' said the vicar.
+
+'Grass and shade do not despise,' said Miss Mary.
+
+'There surely must be some ecclesiastical remains,' said the young man.
+
+'And there is a river,' added the vicar.
+
+'I shall get a stickleback for my aquarium,' cried Nuttie.  'We shall
+make some discoveries for the Scientific Society.  I shall note down
+every individual creature I see!  I say! you are sure it is not a sham
+waterfall or Temple of Tivoli?'
+
+'It would please the choir boys and G. F. S. girls quite as much, if
+not more, in that case,' said Miss Mary; 'but you need not expect that,
+Nuttie.  Landscape-gardening is gone by.'
+
+'Even with the county people?' said Nuttie.
+
+'By at least half a century,' said Mr. Dutton, 'with all deference to
+this young lady's experience.'
+
+'It was out of their own mouths,' cried the girl defiantly.  'That's
+all I know about county people, and so I hope it will be.'
+
+'Come in, my dear, you are talking very fast,' interposed Mrs.
+Egremont, with some pain in the soft sweet voice, which, if it had been
+a little stronger, would have been the best in the choir.
+
+These houses in St. Ambrose's Road were semi-detached.  The pair which
+the party had reached had their entrances at the angles, with a narrow
+gravel path leading by a tiny grass plat to each.  One, which was
+covered with a rich pall of purple clematis, was the home of Mrs.
+Egremont, her aunt, and Nuttie; the other, adorned with a Gloire de
+Dijon rose in second bloom, was the abode of Mary Nugent, with her
+mother, the widow of a naval captain.  Farther on, with adjoining
+gardens, was another couple of houses, in one of which lived Mr.
+Dutton; in the other lodged the youth, Gerard Godfrey, together with
+the partner of the principal medical man.  The opposite neighbours were
+a master of the Modern School and a scholar.  Indeed, the saying of the
+vicar, the Rev. Francis Spyers, was, and St. Ambrose's Road was proud
+of it, that it was a professional place.  Every one had something to do
+either with schools or umbrellas, scarcely excepting the doctor and the
+solicitor, for the former attended the pupils and the latter supplied
+them.  Mr. Dutton was a partner in the umbrella factory, and lived, as
+the younger folk said, as the old bachelor of the Road.  Had he not a
+housekeeper, a poodle, and a cat; and was not his house, with lovely
+sill boxes full of flowers in the windows, the neatest of the neat; and
+did not the tiny conservatory over his dining-room window always
+produce the flowers most needed for the altar vases, and likewise
+bouquets for the tables of favoured ladies. Why, the very daisies never
+durst lift their heads on his little lawn, which even bore a French
+looking-glass globe in the centre. Miss Nugent, or Miss Mary as every
+one still called her, as her elder sister's marriage was recent, was
+assistant teacher at the School of Art, and gave private drawing
+lessons, so as to supplement the pension on which her mother lived.
+They also received girls as boarders attending the High School.
+
+So did Miss Headworth, who had all her life been one of those people
+who seem condemned to toil to make up for the errors or disasters of
+others.  First she helped to educate a brother, and soon he had died to
+leave an orphan daughter to be bred up at her cost.  The girl had
+married from her first situation; but had almost immediately lost her
+husband at sea, and on this her aunt had settled at Micklethwayte to
+make a home for her and her child, at first taking pupils, but when the
+High School was set up, changing these into boarders; while Mrs.
+Egremont went as daily governess to the children of a family of
+somewhat higher pretensions.  Little Ursula, or Nuttie, as she was
+called, according to the local contraction, was like the child of all
+the party, and after climbing up through the High School to the last
+form, hoped, after passing the Cambridge examination, to become a
+teacher there in another year.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+MONKS HORTON.
+
+  'And we will all the pleasures prove,
+  By shallow rivers, by whose falls
+  Melodious birds sing madrigals.'--Old Ballad.
+
+
+It was holiday-time, and liberties were taken such as were not
+permissible, when they might have afforded a bad precedent to the
+boarders.  Therefore, when two afternoons later Mary Nugent, returning
+from district visiting, came out into her garden behind the house, she
+was not scandalised to see a pair of little black feet under a holland
+skirt resting on a laurel branch, and going a few steps more she beheld
+a big shady hat, and a pair of little hands busy with a pencil and a
+blank book; as Ursula sat on the low wall between the gardens, shaded
+by the laburnum which facilitated the ascent on her own side.
+
+'Oh Miss Mary!  Delicious!  Come up here!  You don't know how charming
+this is.'
+
+She moved aside so as to leave the ascent--by an inverted flower-pot
+and a laurel branch--open to her friend, thus knocking down one of the
+pile of books which she had taken to the top of the wall.  Miss Nugent
+picked it up, 'Marie Stuart!  Is this your way of studying her?'
+
+'Now, you know 'tis holiday time, and volunteer work; besides, she was
+waiting for you, and I could not help doing this.'  She held out a
+hand, which was scarcely needed, and Mary sprang lightly to share her
+perch upon the wall.  'Look here!'
+
+'Am I to guess the subject as in the game of historic outlines,' said
+Miss Nugent, as the book was laid on her lap.  'It looks like a
+modern--no, a mediaeval--edition of Marcus Curtius about to leap into
+the capital opening for a young man, only with his dogs instead of his
+horse.  That hound seems very rationally to object.'
+
+'Now don't!  Guess in earnest.'
+
+'A compliment to your name.  The Boy of Egremont, poor fellow, just
+about to bound across the strid.'
+
+'Exactly!  I always feel sure that my father must have done something
+like this.'
+
+'Was it so heroic?' said Miss Mary. 'You know it was for the hundredth
+time, and he had no reason to expect any special danger.'
+
+'Oh, but his mother was waiting, and he had to go.  Now, I'll tell you
+how it must have been with my father.  You know he sailed away in a
+yacht before I was born, and poor mother never saw him again; but I
+know what happened.  There was a ship on fire like the Birkenhead, and
+the little yacht went near to pick up the people, and my father called
+out, like Sir Humphrey Gilbert--
+
+          "Do not fear, Heaven is as near
+           By water as by land."
+
+
+And the little yacht was so close when the great ship blew up that it
+got sucked down in the whirlpool, and rescuers and all died a noble
+death together!'
+
+'Has your mother been telling you?' asked Miss Mary.
+
+'Oh no! she never mentions him.  She does not know.  No one does; but I
+am quite sure he died nobly, with no one to tell the tale, only the
+angels to look on, and that makes it all the finer.  Or just suppose he
+was on a desert island all the time, and came back again to find us!  I
+sometimes think he is.'
+
+'What?  When you are _quite sure_ of the other theory?'
+
+'I mean I am quite sure while I am thinking about it, or reading
+Robinson Crusoe, or the Swiss Family.'
+
+'Oh!'
+
+'Miss Mary, has no one ever told you anything about my father?'
+
+'No one.'
+
+'They never tell me.  Mother cries, and aunt Ursula puts on her
+"there's-an-end-of-it look."  Do you think there is anything they are
+waiting to tell me till I am older?'
+
+'If there were, I am sure you had better not try to find it out
+beforehand.'
+
+'You don't think I would do anything of _that sort?_  But I thought you
+might know.  Do you remember their first settling here?'
+
+'Scarcely.  I was a very small child then.'
+
+Miss Nugent had a few vague recollections which she did not think it
+expedient to mention.  A dim remembrance rose before her of mysterious
+whisperings about that beautiful young widow, and that it had been said
+that the rector of the Old Church had declared himself to know the
+ladies well, and had heartily recommended them.  She thought it wiser
+only to speak of having been one of their first scholars, telling of
+the awe Miss Headworth inspired; but the pleasure it was to bring a
+lesson to pretty Mrs. Egremont, who always rewarded a good one with a
+kiss, 'and she was so nice to kiss--yes, and is.'
+
+'Aunt Ursel and mother both were governesses,' continued the girl, 'and
+yet they don't want me to go out.  They had rather I was a teacher at
+the High School.'
+
+'They don't want to trust their Little Bear out in the world.'
+
+'I think it is more than that,' said the girl.  'I can't help thinking
+that he--my father--must have been some one rather grand, with such a
+beautiful name as Alwyn Piercefield Egremont.  Yes; I know it was that,
+for I saw my baptismal certificate when I stood for the scholarship; it
+was Dieppe,--Ursula Alice, daughter of Alwyn Piercefield and Alice
+Elizabeth Egremont, May 15, 1860.  James Everett--I think he was the
+chaplain at Dieppe.'
+
+Mary Nugent thought it the wisest way to laugh and say: 'You, of all
+people in the world, to want to make out a connection with the
+aristocracy!'
+
+'True love is different,' said Ursula.  'He must have been cast off by
+his family for her sake, and have chosen poverty--
+
+     "To make the croon a pund, my Alwyn gaed to sea,
+      And the croon and the pund, they were baith for me."'
+
+
+Miss Mary did not think a yacht a likely place for the conversion of a
+croon into a pound, and the utter silence of mother and aunt did not
+seem to her satisfactory; but she feared either to damp the youthful
+enthusiasm for the lost father, or to foster curiosity that might lead
+to some painful discovery, so she took refuge in an inarticulate sound.
+
+'I think Mr. Dutton knows,' proceeded Nuttie.
+
+'You don't mean to ask him?'
+
+'Catch me!  I know how he would look at me.'
+
+'Slang!  A forfeit!'
+
+'Oh, it's holiday time, and the boarders can't hear.  There's Mr.
+Dutton's door!'
+
+This might in one way be a relief to Miss Nugent, but she did not like
+being caught upon the wall, and therefore made a rapid descent, though
+not without a moment's entanglement of skirt, which delayed her long
+enough to show where she had been, as Mr. Dutton was at the same moment
+advancing to his own wall on the opposite side of the Nugent garden.
+Perhaps he would have pretended to see nothing but for Nuttie's cry of
+glee.
+
+'You wicked elf,' said Miss Mary, 'to inveigle people into
+predicaments, and then go shouting ho! ho! ho! like Robin Goodfellow
+himself.'
+
+'You should have kept your elevation and dignity like me,' retorted
+Ursula; 'and then you would have had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Dutton
+climbing his wall and coming to our feet.'
+
+'Mischievous elves deserve no good news,' said Mr. Dutton, who was by
+no means so venerable that the crossing the wall was any effort or
+compromise of dignity, and who had by this time joined Mary on her
+grass plat.
+
+'Oh, what is it!  Are we to go to Monks Horton?' cried Nuttie.
+
+'Here is a gracious permission from Lord Kirkaldy, the only
+stipulations being that no vestiges of the meal, such as sandwich
+papers or gooseberry skins, be left on the grass; and that nobody does
+any mischief,' he added in an awful tone of personality.  'So if I see
+anybody rooting up holly trees I shall be bound to interfere.'
+
+'Now, Mr. Dutton, it was only a baby holly in a chink.'
+
+'Only a holly tree!  Just like the giant's daughter when she only
+carried off waggon, peasant, oxen, and all in her pinafore.'
+
+'It is not longer than my finger now!'
+
+'Well, remember, mischief either wanton or scientific is forbidden. You
+are to set an example to the choir-boys.'
+
+'Scientific mischief is a fatal thing to rare plants,' said Mary.
+
+'If I'm not to touch anything, I may as well stay at home,' pouted
+Nuttie.
+
+'You may gather as many buttercups and daisies as the sweet child
+pleases,' said Mr. Dutton; whereupon she threatened to throw her books
+at his head.
+
+Miss Nugent asked how they were to go, and Mr. Dutton explained that
+there was only a quarter of a mile's walk from the station; that return
+tickets would be furnished at a tariff of fourpence a head; and that
+there would be trains at 1.15 and 7.30.
+
+'How hungry the children will be.'
+
+'They will eat all the way.  That's the worst of this sort of outing.
+They eat to live and live to eat.'
+
+'At least they don't eat at church,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Not since the peppermint day, when Mr. Spyers suspended Dickie Drake,'
+put in Mary.
+
+And the Spa Terrace Church people said it was incense.'
+
+'No.  Nuttie!'
+
+'Indeed they did.  Louisa Barnet attacked us about it at school, and I
+said I wished it had been.  Only they mustn't eat peppermint in the
+train, for it makes mother quite ill.'
+
+'Do you mean that Mrs. Egremont will come?' exclaimed Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Oh yes, she shall.  It is not too far, and it will be very good for
+her.  I shall make her.'
+
+'There's young England's filial duty!' said Mary.
+
+'Why, I know what is good for her, and she always does as "I wish."'
+
+'Beneficent despotism!' said Mr. Dutton.  'May I ask if Miss Headworth
+is an equally obedient subject.'
+
+'Oh! Aunt Ursel is very seldom tiresome.'
+
+'Nuttie! Nuttie! my dear,' and a head with the snows of more than half
+a century appeared on the other side of the wall, under a cap and
+parasol.  'I am sorry to interrupt you, but it is cool enough for your
+mother to go into the town, and I wish you to go with her.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+HEIR HUNTING.
+
+  'And she put on her gown of green,
+  And left her mother at sixteen,
+       To marry Peter Bell!'--WORDSWORTH.
+
+
+In the shrubberies of Monks Horton were walking a lady somewhat past
+middle age, but full of activity and vigour, with one of those bright
+faces that never grow old, and with her a young man, a few years over
+twenty, with a grave and almost careworn countenance.
+
+More and more confidential waxed the conversation, for the lady was
+making fresh acquaintance with a nephew seldom seen since he had been
+her pet and darling as almost a baby, and he was experiencing the
+inexpressible charm of tone and manner that recalled the young mother
+he had lost in early boyhood.
+
+'Then your mind is made up,' she said; 'you are quite right to decide
+on having a profession; but how does your father take it?'
+
+'He is quite convinced that to repeat my uncle's life, dangling on as
+heir, would be the most fatal mistake.'
+
+'Assuredly, and all the legal knowledge you acquire is so much in
+favour of your usefulness as the squire.'
+
+'If I ever am the squire, of which I have my doubts.'
+
+'You expect Mr. Egremont to marry?'
+
+'Not a future marriage, but one in the past.'
+
+'A private marriage!  Do you suspect it?'
+
+'I don't suspect it--I know it.  I have been hoping to talk the matter
+over with you.  Do you remember our first governess, Miss Headworth?'
+
+'My dear Mark, did I not lose at Pera the charms of your infancy?'
+
+'Then neither my mother nor my grandmother ever wrote to you about her?'
+
+'I do remember that it struck me that immunity from governesses was a
+compensation for the lack of daughters.'
+
+'Can you tell me no details,' said Mark anxiously.  'Have you no
+letters?  It was about the time when Blanche was born, when we were
+living at Raxley.'
+
+'I am sorry to say that our roving life prevented my keeping old
+letters.  I have often regretted it.  Let me see, there was one who
+boxed May's ears.'
+
+'That was long after.  I think it was that woman's barbarity that made
+my father marry again, and a very good thing that was.  It was wretched
+before.  Miss Headworth was in my own mother's time.'
+
+'I begin to remember something happening that your mother seemed unable
+to write about, and your grandmother said that she had been greatly
+upset by "that miserable affair," but I was never exactly told what it
+had been.'
+
+'Miss Headworth came when I was four or five years old.  Edda, as we
+used to call her in May's language, was the first person who gave me a
+sense of beauty.  She had dark eyes and a lovely complexion.  I
+remember in after times being silenced for saying, "not so pretty as my
+Edda."  I was extremely fond of her, enough to have my small jealousy
+excited when my uncle joined us in our walks, and monopolised her,
+turning May and me over to play with his dog!'
+
+'But, Mark, Mr. Egremont is some years older than your father.  He
+could not have been a young man at that time.'
+
+'So much the worse.  Most likely he seemed to her quite paternal. The
+next thing I recollect was our being in the Isle of Wight, we two
+children, with Miss Headworth and the German nurse, and our being told
+of our new sister.  Uncle Alwyn and his yacht were there, and we went
+on board once or twice.  Then matters became confused with me, I
+recollect a confusion, papa and grandmamma suddenly arriving, everybody
+seeming to us to have become very cross, our dear Miss Headworth
+nowhere to be found, our attendants being changed, and our being
+forbidden to speak of her again.  I certainly never thought of the
+matter till a month ago.  You know my uncle's eyes have been much
+affected by his illness, and he has made a good deal of use of me. He
+has got a valet, a fellow of no particular country, more Savoyard than
+anything else, I fancy.  He is a legacy, like other evils, from the old
+General, and seems a sort of necessity to my uncle's existence.
+Gregorio they call him.  He was plainly used to absolute government,
+and viewed the coming down amongst us as an assertion of liberty much
+against his will.  We could see that he was awfully jealous of my
+father and me, and would do anything to keep us out; but providentially
+he can't write English decently, though he can speak any language you
+please.  Well, the man and I came into collision about a scamp of a
+groom who was doing intolerable mischief in the village, and whom they
+put it on me to get discharged.  On that occasion Mr. Gregorio grew
+insolent, and intimated to me that I need not make so sure of the
+succession.  He knew that which might make the Chanoine and me change
+our note.  Well, my father is always for avoiding rows; he said it was
+an unmeaning threat, it was of no use to complain of Gregorio, and we
+must digest his insolence.  But just after, Uncle Alwyn sent me to hunt
+up a paper that was missing, and in searching a writing-case I came
+upon an unmistakable marriage certificate between Alwyn Piercefield
+Egremont and Alice Headworth, and then the dim recollections I told you
+of began to return.'
+
+'What did you do?'
+
+'I thought I had better consult my father, expecting to hear that she
+was dead, and that no further notice need be taken of the matter. But
+he was greatly disturbed to hear of the certificate, and would hardly
+believe me.  He said that some friend of my grandmother had written her
+word of goings on at Freshwater between his brother and the young
+governess, and that they went off at once to put a stop to it, but
+found us left with the German maid, who declared that Miss Headworth
+had gone off with Mr. Egremont in the yacht.  No more was heard of my
+uncle for six weeks, and when he came back there was a great row with
+the old General, but he absolutely denied being married.  I am afraid
+that was all the old sinner wished, and they went off together in the
+yacht to the West Indies, where it was burnt; but they, as you know,
+never came to England again, going straight off to the Mediterranean,
+having their headquarters at Sorrento, and cruising about till the
+General's death ten years ago.'
+
+'Yes, I once met them at Florence, and thought them two weary pitiable
+men.  One looked at the General as a curious relic of the old buck of
+the Regency days, and compassionated his nephew for having had his life
+spoilt by dangling after the old man.  It was a warning indeed, and I
+am glad you have profited by it, Mark.'
+
+'He came back, after the old man died, to club life in London, and
+seldom has been near the old place; indeed, it has been let till
+recently, and he wants to let it again, but it is altogether too
+dilapidated for that without repairs.  So he came down to see about it,
+and was taken ill there.  But to return to what my father told me. He
+was shocked to hear of the certificate, for he had implicitly believed
+his brother's denial of the marriage, and he said Miss Headworth was so
+childish and simple that she might easily have been taken in by a sham
+ceremony.  He said that he now saw he had done very wrong in letting
+his mother-in-law take all the letters about "that unhappy business"
+off his hands without looking at them, but he was much engrossed by my
+mother's illness, and, as he said, it never occurred to him as a duty
+to trace out what became of the poor thing, and see that she was
+provided for safely.  You know Mrs. Egremont says laissez faire is our
+family failing, and that our first thought is how _not_ to do it.'
+
+'Yes, utter repudiation of such cases was the line taken by the last
+generation; and I am afraid my mother would be very severe.'
+
+'Another thing that actuated my father was the fear of getting his
+brother into trouble with General Egremont, as he himself would have
+been the one to profit by it.  So I do not wonder so much at his
+letting the whole drop without inquiry, and never even looking at the
+letters, which there certainly were.  I could not get him to begin upon
+it with my uncle, but Mrs. Egremont was strongly on my side in thinking
+that such a thing ought to be looked into, and as I had found the paper
+it would be best that I should speak.  Besides that there was no
+enduring that Gregorio should be pretending to hold us in terror by
+such hints.'
+
+'Well, and has there been a wife and family in a cottage all this time?'
+
+'Aunt Margaret, he has never seen or heard of her since he left her at
+Dieppe!  Would you believe it, he thinks himself a victim?  He never
+meant more than to amuse himself with the pretty little governess; and
+he took on board a Mr. and Mrs. Houghton to do propriety, shady sort of
+people I imagine, but that she did not know.'
+
+'I have heard of them,' said Lady Kirkaldy, significantly.
+
+'She must have been a kind friend to the poor girl,' said Mark.  'On
+some report that Lady de Lyonnais was coming down on her, wrathful and
+terrible, the poor foolish girl let herself be persuaded to be carried
+off in the yacht, but there Mrs. Houghton watched over her like a
+dragon.  She made them put in at some little place in Jersey, put in
+the banns, all unknown to my uncle, and got them married. Each was
+trying to outwit the other, while Miss Headworth herself was quite
+innocent and unconscious, and, I don't know whether to call it an
+excuse for Uncle Alwyn or not, but to this hour he is not sure whether
+it was a legal marriage, and my father believes it was not, looking on
+it as a youthful indiscretion.  He put her in lodgings at Dieppe, under
+Mrs. Houghton's protection, while he returned home on a peremptory
+summons from the General.  He found the old man in such a state of body
+and mind as he tries to persuade me was an excuse for denying the whole
+thing, and from that time he represents himself as bound hand and foot
+by the General's tyranny.  He meant to have kept the secret, given her
+an allowance, and run over from time to time to see her, but he only
+could get there once before the voyage to the West Indies.  The whole
+affair was, as he said, complicated by his debts, those debts that the
+estate has never paid off.  The General probably distrusted him, for he
+curtailed his allowance, and scarcely let him out of sight; and he--he
+submitted for the sake of his prospects, and thinking the old man much
+nearer his end than he proved to be.  I declare as I listened, it came
+near to hearing him say he had sold his soul to Satan!  From the day he
+sailed in the Ninon he has never written, never attempted any
+communication with the woman whose life he had wrecked, except one
+inquiry at Dieppe, and that was through Gregorio.'
+
+'What! the valet?'
+
+Yes.  I believe I seemed surprised at such a medium being employed, for
+Uncle Alwyn explained that the man had got hold of the secret
+somehow--servants always know everything--and being a foreigner he was
+likely to be able to trace her out.
+
+'I daresay he profited by the knowledge to keep Alwyn in bondage during
+the old man's lifetime.'
+
+'I have no doubt of it, and he expected to play the same game with me.
+The fellow reminds me, whenever I look at him, of a sort of incarnate
+familiar demon.  When I asked my uncle whether he could guess what had
+become of her, he held up his hands with a hideous French grimace.  I
+could have taken him by the throat.'
+
+'Nay, one must pity him.  The morals of George IV.'s set had been
+handed on to him by the General,' said Lady Kirkaldy, rejoicing in the
+genuine indignation of the young face, free from all taint of vice, if
+somewhat rigid.  'And what now?'
+
+'He assured me that he could make all secure to my father and me, as if
+that were the important point; but finally he perceived that we had no
+right to stand still without endeavouring to discover whether there be
+a nearer heir, and my father made him consent to my making the search,
+grinning at its Quixotism all the time.'
+
+'Have you done anything?'
+
+'Yes.  I have been to Jersey, seen the register--July 20, 1859--and an
+old French-speaking clerk, who perfectly recollected the party coming
+from the yacht, and spoke of her as tres belle.  I have also
+ascertained that there is no doubt of the validity of the marriage.
+Then, deeply mistrusting Master Gregorio, I went on to Dieppe, where I
+entirely failed to find any one who knew or remembered anything about
+them--there is such a shifting population of English visitors and
+residents, and it was so long ago.  I elicited from my uncle that she
+had an aunt, he thought, of the same name as herself; but my father
+cannot remember who recommended her, or anything that can be a clue.
+Has any one looked over my grandmother's letters?'
+
+'I think not.  My brother spoke of keeping them till I came to London.
+That might give a chance, or the Houghtons might know about her.  I
+think my husband could get them hunted up.  They are sure to be at some
+continental resort.'
+
+'What's that?' as a sound of singing was heard.
+
+'"Auld Langsyne."  The natives are picnicking in the ravine below
+there.  They used to be rigidly excluded, but we can't stand that; and
+this is the first experiment of admitting them on condition that they
+don't make themselves obnoxious.'
+
+'Which they can't help.'
+
+'We have yet to see if this is worse than an Austrian or Italian
+festival.  See, we can look down from behind this yew tree.  It really
+is a pretty sight from this distance.'
+
+'There's the cleric heading his little boys and their cricket, and
+there are the tuneful party in the fern on the opposite side.  They
+have rather good voices, unless they gain by distance.'
+
+'And there's a girl botanising by the river.'
+
+'Sentimentalising over forget-me-nots, more likely.'
+
+'My dear Mark, for a specimen of young England, you are greatly
+behindhand in perception of progress!'
+
+'Ah! you are used to foreigners, Aunt Margaret.  You have never
+fathomed English vulgarity.'
+
+'It would serve you right to send you to carry the invitation to go
+round the gardens and houses.'
+
+'Do you mean it, aunt?'
+
+'Mean it?  Don't you see your uncle advancing down the
+road--there--accosting the clergyman--what's his name--either Towers or
+Spires--something ecclesiastical I know.  We only waited to reconnoitre
+and see whether the numbers were unmanageable.'
+
+'And yet he does not want to sit for Micklethwayte?'
+
+'So you think no one can be neighbourly except for electioneering! O
+Mark, I must take you in hand.'
+
+'Meantime the host is collecting.  I abscond.  Which is the least showy
+part of the establishment?'
+
+'I recommend the coal cellar--'and, as he went off--'poor boy, he is a
+dear good fellow, but how little he knows how to be laughed at!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A NAME.
+
+  'Sigh no more lady, lady sigh no more,
+    Men were deceivers ever,
+  One foot on sea and one on land--
+    To one thing constant never.'--Old Ballad.
+
+
+'So you have ventured out again,' said Lady Kirkaldy, as her nephew
+strolled up to her afternoon tea-table under a great cedar tree:
+
+'The coast being clear, and only distant shouts being heard in the
+ravine--
+
+          '"Like an army defeated
+            The choir retreated;
+            And now doth fare well
+            In the valley's soft swell,"'
+
+said the aunt.
+
+'At least you have survived; or is this the reaction,' said the nephew,
+putting on a languid air.
+
+'There were some very nice people among them, on whom the pictures were
+by no means thrown away.  What would you say, Mark, if I told you that
+I strongly suspect that I have seen your lost aunt?'
+
+'Nonsense!' cried Mark, as emphatically as disrespectfully.
+
+'I am not joking in the least,' said Lady Kirkaldy, looking up at him.
+'I heard the name of Egremont, and made out that it belonged to a very
+lady-like pretty-looking woman in gray and white; she seemed to be
+trying to check and tame a bright girl of eighteen or so, who was in a
+perfect state of rapture over the Vandykes.  I managed to ask the
+clergyman who the lady was, and he told me she was a Mrs. Egremont, who
+lives with her aunt, a Miss Headworth, who boards girls for the High
+School; very worthy people, he added.'
+
+'Headworth?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'But if it were, she would have known your name.'
+
+'Hardly.  The title had not come in those days; and if she heard of us
+at all it would be as Kerrs.  I ventured further to put out a feeler by
+asking whether he knew what her husband had been, and he said he
+believed he had been lost at sea, but he, Mr. Spyers I mean, had only
+been at Micklethwayte three or four years, and had merely known her as
+a widow.'
+
+'I suppose it is worth following up,' said Mark, rather reluctantly. 'I
+wish I had seen her.  I think I should know Miss Headworth again, and
+she would hardly know me.'
+
+'You see what comes of absconding.'
+
+'After all, it was best,' said Mark.  'Supposing her to be the real
+woman, which I don't expect, it might have been awkward if she had
+heard my name!  How can we ascertain the history of this person without
+committing ourselves?'
+
+Lord Kirkaldy, an able man, who had been for many years a diplomatist,
+here joined the party, and the whole story was laid before him.  He was
+new to Micklethwayte, having succeeded a somewhat distant kinsman, and
+did not know enough of the place to be able to fix on any one to whom
+to apply for information; but the result of the consultation was that
+Lady Kirkaldy should go alone to call on Miss Headworth, and explain
+that she was come to inquire about a young lady of the same name, who
+had once been governess to the children of her sister, Lady Adelaide
+Egremont.  Mark was rather a study to his uncle and aunt all the
+evening.  He was as upright and honourable as the day, and not only
+acted on high principle, but had a tender feeling to the beautiful
+playfellow governess, no doubt enhanced by painful experiences of
+successors chosen for their utter dissimilarity to her.  Still it was
+evidently rather flat to find himself probably so near the tangible
+goal of his romantic search; and the existence of a first cousin had
+been startling to him, though his distaste was more to the taking her
+from second-rate folk in a country town than to the overthrow of his
+own heirship.  At least so he manifestly and honestly believed, and
+knowing it to be one of those faiths that make themselves facts, the
+Kirkaldys did not disturb him in it, nor commiserate him for a loss
+which they thought the best thing possible for him.
+
+Miss Headworth was accustomed to receive visitors anent boarders, so
+when Lady Kirkaldy's card was brought to her, the first impression was
+that some such arrangement was to be made.  She was sitting in her
+pretty little drawing-room alone, for Nuttie and her mother had gone
+out for a walk with Miss Nugent.
+
+The room, opening on the garden, and cool with blinds, had a certain
+homely grace about the faded furniture.  The drawings on the walls were
+good, the work quaint and tasteful.  There was a grand vase of
+foxgloves before the empty grate, and some Marshal Nial roses in a
+glass on the table.  The old lady herself--with alert black eyes and a
+sweet expression--rose from her chair in the window to receive her
+guest.
+
+Lady Kirkaldy felt reassured as to the refinement of the surroundings,
+and liked the gentle but self-possessed tones of the old lady.  She
+noticed the foxgloves.
+
+'Yes,' said Miss Headworth, 'they are the fruits of yesterday's
+expedition.  My two children, as I call them, brought them home in
+triumph.  I cannot tell you what pleasure Lord Kirkaldy's kindness gave
+them--and many more.'
+
+'I am glad,' said the lady, while she said to herself, 'now for it,'
+and sat forward.  'It struck me,' she said, 'on hearing your name that
+you might be related to--to a young lady who lived a good while ago in
+the family of my sister, Lady Adelaide Egremont.'
+
+A strange look came into Miss Headworth's eyes, her lips trembled, she
+clutched tightly the arm of her chair, but then cast a puzzled glance
+at her visitor.
+
+'Perhaps if you heard of me then,' said the latter, 'it was as Lady
+Margaret Kerr.'
+
+'Yes,' said Miss Headworth, then pausing, she collected herself and
+said in an anxious voice,  'Do I understand that your ladyship is come
+to inquire for my niece, being aware of the circumstances.'
+
+'I only became aware of them yesterday,' said Lady Kirkaldy.  'I was in
+Turkey at the time, and no particulars were given to me; but my nephew,
+Mark Egremont, your niece's old pupil, came to consult us, having just
+discovered among his uncle's papers evidence of the marriage, of which
+of course he had been ignorant.'
+
+'Then,' exclaimed Miss Headworth, holding her hands tightly clasped,
+'Shall I really see justice done at last to my poor child?'
+
+'It is young Mark's most earnest wish and his father--'Lady Kirkaldy
+hesitated for a word, and Miss Headworth put in:
+
+'His father!  Why would he never even acknowledge either Alice's
+letters or mine?  We wrote several times both to him and Lady Adelaide,
+and never received any reply, except one short one, desiring he might
+not be troubled on such a subject.  It was cruel! Alice said it was not
+in his writing.  She had done very wrong, and the family might well be
+offended, but a poor child like her, just eighteen, might have been
+treated with some pity.'
+
+'My sister was in declining health.  He was very much engrossed.  He
+left the matter to--to others,' said Lady Kirkaldy.  'He is very sorry
+now that he acquiesced in what was then thought right.  He did not then
+know that there had been a marriage.'
+
+'I should have thought in that case a clergyman would have been bound
+to show the more compassion.'
+
+Lady Kirkaldy knew that the cruel silence had been chiefly the work of
+the stem Puritan pitilessness of her mother, so she passed this over,
+saying, 'We are all very anxious to atone, as far as possible, for what
+is past, but we know little or nothing, only what my nephew Mark has
+been able to gather.'
+
+'Little Mark!  Alice always talked of him with great affection.  How
+pleased she will be to hear of his remembering her.'
+
+'Would you object to telling me what you know of this history?' said
+Lady Kirkaldy.  'I am afraid it is very painful to you, but I think we
+should understand it clearly.  Please speak to me as a friend, as woman
+to woman.'
+
+'Your ladyship is very kind,' said the poor old lady.  'I have only
+mentioned the subject once since we came to settle here, seventeen
+years ago, but such things one cannot forget.  If you will excuse me, I
+have some dates that will assist my accuracy.'
+
+She hurried away, and came back in a few moments, having evidently
+dried some tears, perhaps of thankfulness, but she paused as if
+reluctant to begin.
+
+'I think your niece had no nearer relation than yourself,' said Lady
+Kirkaldy, anxious to set her off and at ease.
+
+'Oh no, or she never would have been so treated.  She was an orphan. My
+poor brother was a curate.  He married--as young men will--on
+insufficient means, his strength gave way, and he died of diphtheria
+when this poor child was only two years old.  Indeed, two little ones
+died at the same time, and the mother married again and went to
+Shanghai.  She did not long live there, poor thing, and little Alice
+was sent home to me.  I thought I did my best for her by keeping her at
+a good school.  I have often wished that I had given up my situation,
+and become an assistant there, so as to have her more under my own
+eyes; but I fancied it important to receive a salary out of which I
+could save.  I am wearying your ladyship, but I can't but dwell on the
+excuses for my poor child.'
+
+'Indeed I wish to hear all the details,' was the sincere and gentle
+answer.
+
+'I had her with me generally in the holidays, and I confess I was
+absolutely alarmed to see how pretty the child was growing, knowing how
+great a disadvantage it often is.  She was always a good girl, not
+naturally so studious as could be wished, but docile, merry, gentle, a
+favourite with every one, and peculiarly innocent and childish.  I
+wished her to remain a few years longer as teacher, but it so happened
+that Lady Adelaide Egremont, coming to consult the head of the
+establishment about a nursery-governess, saw Alice, and was so much
+struck with her sweet face, which was all sunshine then, as to insist
+on engaging her.'
+
+'Ah! my dear sister, I remember her enthusiastic letter about her
+pretty governess, and her boy's affection for her, an affection that
+has lasted--'
+
+'It seemed so safe.  A clergyman's family in the country, and so kind a
+lady at the head, that, though Alice had been educated for a superior
+governess, it appeared the best beginning she could have. And she was
+very happy, and met with great kindness.  Only, unfortunately, Lady
+Adelaide was delicate, and for many weeks entirely confined to the
+sofa.  Mr. Egremont's elder brother was much there.  He seemed to my
+poor inexperienced child quite elderly, and his attentions like those
+of--of an old uncle--she told me afterwards--'
+
+'He must really have been over forty--'
+
+'No doubt my poor Alice was unguarded.  We know what a merry, happy,
+childish girl may be, but I never heard that her conduct was even
+censured while she remained at Baxley, though I find that Captain
+Egremont used to join them in their walks, under pretext of playing
+with the children.  Then she was sent to Freshwater with the two eldest
+children during Lady Adelaide's confinement, and there, most
+unjustifiably, Captain Egremont continually visited them from his
+yacht, and offered to take them out in it.  Alice knew she ought not to
+go without a married lady on board, and he brought a Mr. and Mrs.
+Houghton to call, who were very kind and caressing to her and the
+children, so that she thought all was right.  Oh! Lady Kirkaldy, I
+don't mean to defend her, I daresay she was very giddy and silly, she
+reproaches herself, poor dear, but I do say that a wicked advantage was
+taken of her innocence and ignorance.  She says that she had begun to
+grow a little uneasy at the way people looked when Captain Egremont
+joined them on the beach; and the nurse, a German, said something that
+she could not understand.  On the 1st of July--yes--but I have the date
+here--came a telegram to the hotel to have rooms for Lady de Lyonnais
+and Mr. Egremont ready by the evening.  The whole place knew it, and
+some meddling person burst on Alice with the news, roughly and coarsely
+given, that they were coming to call her to account for her goings on.
+Captain Egremont found her crying in the utmost terror, and--she really
+hardly knew what he said to her--she thinks he offered to shelter her
+on board the Ninon, from Lady de Lyonnais' first wrath while he and
+Mrs. Houghton explained matters; but she cannot tell, for she lost her
+senses with fright, only knew that he was kind and sweet to her in her
+distress, and thought only of escaping.  Well, I don't excuse her.  Of
+course it was the most terrible and fatal thing she could have done,
+and--' The good old lady was quite overcome, and Lady Kirkaldy had
+tears in her eyes as she said,
+
+'It was frightful folly--but she was guarded.'
+
+'Yes, her innocence was guarded, thank God,' said Miss Headworth
+fervently.  'You see she did know that Mr. and Mrs. Houghton were on
+board, and Mrs. Houghton was a truly kind protector who deserved her
+confidence, though, poor lady, she admitted to me that her own conduct
+had not been-strictly correct.'
+
+'How long was it before you heard of her?'
+
+'There was a dreadful letter from Mr. Egremont enclosing what was due
+of her salary, and then I heard no more for seven months.  I went to
+the Isle of Wight and made all inquiries, but the nurse and children
+had gone away immediately, and I could obtain no trace of them.'
+
+'Then she--your niece, never wrote.'
+
+'She was afraid, poor dear.  She had never been at her ease with me.
+Her mother had taught her to think me strict and harsh, and she had
+never opened to me in those days.  Besides, he had forbidden her.  At
+last, however, in January, came a letter from this Mrs. Houghton,
+telling me that my Alice was very unwell at Dieppe, that nothing had
+been heard of her husband, Captain Egremont, to whom she had been
+married on the 20th of July at St. Philippe, in Jersey, and that she
+herself was obliged to leave the place almost immediately; but she
+would, if possible, wait till my arrival, as Mrs. Egremont was not in a
+condition to be left alone.  My dear friends, with whom I was then
+living, were as kind as possible, and set me free to go.  I was there
+in three days, and truly the dear, beautiful, merry girl I had parted
+with only a year before was a sad piteous sight.  Mrs. Houghton seemed
+broken-hearted at leaving her, thinking there was little chance of her
+living; but Mr. Houghton, who, I am afraid, was a professed gambler,
+had got into some scrape, and was gone to Paris, where she had to
+follow him.  She told me all about it, and how, when Captain Egremont
+fancied that a marriage in the Channel Islands was one he could play
+fast and loose with, she had taken care that the formalities should be
+such as to make all secure.  Foolish and wrong as poor Alice had been,
+she had awakened all the best side of that poor woman's nature, and no
+mother could have been more careful and tender.  She gave me the
+certificate--here it is--and assured me that it would hold good.  I
+have shown it to a lawyer, and he said the same; but when I sent a copy
+to Mr. Egremont, my letter was returned unopened.'
+
+'Captain Egremont had denied the marriage, and they believed him,' said
+Lady Kirkaldy.  'It is hard to believe that he could be so heartless,
+but he was in bondage to the old General Egremont, and dreaded losing
+his inheritance.'
+
+'So he told them in his one visit to Dieppe.  He said he must keep his
+marriage secret, but promised an allowance, on condition that Alice
+would live quietly at Dieppe, and not communicate with any one of her
+own family or his.  He had left £100 with her, but that was nearly
+gone, and she had never heard from him.  It had preyed on her, and she
+was so ill that I never expected, any more than Mrs. Houghton, to see
+her recover.  I stayed there with her; she could not be moved, even if
+she would have consented, when she was continually expecting him; but
+at last--four days after her little girl was born--came the news of the
+Ninon having been burnt, with all on board, three months before.  Do
+you know, strange to say, though I had feared so much to tell her, she
+began to revive from that time.  The suspense and watching were over.
+She saw that he had not deserted her, and believed that he had loved
+her to the last.  She cried a great deal, but it was in a peaceful,
+natural way.  I wrote then, as I had already written, to Lady Adelaide
+and to Mr. Egremont, but was not answered.'
+
+'I can account for that,' said Lady Kirkaldy.  'My sister had been
+ordered to Madeira in the autumn, and there they remained till her
+death in May.  All the letters were sent to my mother, and she did not
+think fit to forward, or open, any bearing on the subject.  In the
+meantime Mr. Egremont was presented to the family living, and on his
+return moved to Bridgefield Egremont.  And you came here?'
+
+'Of course I could not part with my poor Alice again.  Mr. and Mrs.
+Fordyce, whose daughter I had long ago educated, had always kept up a
+correspondence with me, and, knowing all the story, proposed to me to
+come here.  He was then rector of the old church, and by their help and
+recommendation, with such capital as I had, we were able to begin a
+little school; and though that has had to give way to the High School,
+what with boarders, and with Alice's employment as daily governess, we
+have, I am thankful to say, gone on very well and comfortably, and my
+dear child has recovered her cheerfulness, though she can never be
+quite what--I think she was meant to be,' said the old lady, with a sad
+smile, 'though perhaps she is something better.'
+
+'Do you think she was absolutely convinced of his death?'
+
+'Do you mean that he is alive?' exclaimed Miss Headworth in dismay.
+'Oh! he is a wickeder man than even I supposed, to have forsaken her
+all these years.  Is my poor child in his power?  Must her peace, now
+she has attained it, be disturbed?'
+
+'There is a great deal to take into consideration,' said Lady Kirkaldy.
+'I had better tell you how this visit of mine came about, and explain
+some matters about the Egremont family.'
+
+She then told how Captain Egremont, after a brief service in the Life
+Guards, had been made to retire, that the old General, whose heir he
+was, might keep him in attendance on him.  Already self-indulgent and
+extravagant, the idleness of the life he led with the worn-out old roue
+had deadened his better feelings, and habituated him to dissipation,
+while his debts, his expensive habits, and his dread of losing the
+inheritance, had bound him over to the General.  Both had been saved
+from the fire in the Ninon, whence they were picked up by a Chilian
+vessel, and they had been long in communicating with home. The General
+hated England, and was in broken health.  He had spent the remaining
+years of his life at various continental resorts, where he could enjoy
+a warm climate, combined with facilities for high play.
+
+When at length, he died, Captain Egremont had continued the life to
+which he had become accustomed, and had of late manifested an
+expectation that his nephew Mark should play the same part by him as he
+had done by the General, but the youth, bred in a very different tone,
+would on no account thus surrender himself to an evil bondage. Indeed
+he felt all the severity of youthful virtue, and had little toleration
+for his uncle's ways of thinking; though, when the old man had come
+home ill, dejected, and half blind, he had allowed himself to be made
+useful on business matters.  And thus he had discovered the marriage,
+and had taken up the cause with the ardour stimulated by a chivalrous
+feeling for the beautiful vision of his childhood, whose sudden
+disappearance had ended his brightest days.
+
+'I suppose it is right and generous of the young man,' said Miss
+Headworth.  'But since the--the man is alive, I wish my poor Alice
+could have been left at peace!'
+
+'You forget that her daughter has rights which must be taken into
+consideration.'
+
+'Little Nuttie!  Dear child!  I should so far like her to be provided
+for, so far as that she need not go out in the world to earn her own
+livelihood.  But no! better be as we are than accept anything from that
+man!'
+
+'I quite understand and respect your feeling, Miss Headworth,' returned
+the lady; 'but may I return to my question whether you think your niece
+has any doubt of her husband being dead.'
+
+Miss Headworth considered.  'Since you ask me, I think she has kept the
+possibility of the life before her.  We have never mentioned the
+subject, and, as I said, the belief in his death ended a great suspense
+and sense of wounded affection.  She began soon and vigorously to turn
+her attention to the support of her child, and has found a fair measure
+of happiness; but at the same time she has shrunk from all notice and
+society, more than would be natural in so very young a widow and so
+attractive, more than I should have expected from her original
+character.  And once, when she did apprehend symptoms of admiration,
+she insisted that I should tell the history, enough, as she said, to
+make it plain that it was impossible.  There was one night too, when
+she had scarlatina, and was a little lightheaded, only four years ago,
+when she talked a good deal about his coming back; but that might have
+been only the old impression on her brain, of that long watching at
+Dieppe.  He--Captain Egremont, does not yet know where she is?'
+
+'No, certainly not.  But I fear he must.'
+
+'I suppose he ought,' sighed Miss Headworth; 'but in the meantime, till
+we know what line he takes, surely she need not be unsettled by the
+knowledge of his existence.'
+
+'By no means.  You had better act as you think best about that.  But
+you will not object to my nephew, her old pupil, Mark, coming to see
+her?  I will make him promise not to enter upon the subject.'
+
+Miss Headworth had only time to make a sign of reluctant acquiescence
+when the door opened and mother and daughter came in.  Nuttie first,
+eager as usual and open-mouthed, unaware that any one was there, for
+Lady Kirkaldy, wishing to avoid talk and observation, had left her
+carriage at the livery stables, and walked to St. Ambrose Road.  The
+girl, whom in a moment she classed as small, dark, and oddly like May
+Egremont, stopped short at sight of a stranger; the mother would have
+retreated but for Miss Headworth's nervous call 'Alice, my dear, here
+is Lady Kirkaldy.'
+
+Very lovely was Lady Kirkaldy's impression as she saw a slender figure
+in a dark gray linen dress, and a face of refined, though not
+intellectual, beauty and sweetness, under a large straw hat with a good
+deal of white gauziness about it, and the curtsey was full of natural
+grace.
+
+'You do not know me,' said Lady Kirkaldy, taking her hand, 'but I am
+aunt to some former pupils of yours, one of whom, Mark Egremont, is
+very anxious to come and see you.'
+
+'Mark!  My dear little Mark,' and her face lighted up.  'How very kind
+of him.  But he is not little Mark now.'
+
+'He is not a very big Mark either.  Most of the Egremonts are small. I
+see your daughter takes after them,' said Lady Kirkaldy, shaking hands
+with Ursula, who looked at her in unmitigated amazement.
+
+Alice faltered something about Lady Adelaide.
+
+'My dear sister fell into a decline, and died while the three children
+were still babies.  Poor things, I believe they had a sad time till
+their father married a Miss Condamine, who has been an excellent
+stepmother to them.  I have been to see them, but Mark was not then at
+home, so he has come to me at Monks Horton.  When will he find you at
+home?  Or may I bring him in at once.  He was to meet me at
+Micklethwayte.'
+
+'I should like very much to see him,' was the answer.  And Miss
+Headworth was obliged to say something about her ladyship taking a cup
+of tea.  Lady Kirkaldy, knowing that Mark was on the watch, set off in
+search of him, and found him, as she expected, pacing the pavement in
+front of the church.  There was no great distance in which to utter her
+explanations and cautions, warning him of her promise that the
+intelligence of the husband's being alive was to be withheld for a
+fitter time, but he promised dutifully, and his aunt then took him in
+with her.
+
+The recognition of her claims was a less stunning shock to Alice
+Egremont than to her aunt.  Shielded by her illness, as well as by her
+simplicity and ignorance, she had never been aware of her aunt's
+attempted correspondence with the Egremonts, nor of their deafness to
+appeals made on her behalf.  Far less had it ever occurred to her that
+the validity of her marriage could be denied, and the heinous error of
+her elopement seemed to her quite sufficient to account for her having
+been so entirely cast off by the family.  The idea that as wife or
+widow she had any claims on them, or that Ursula might have rights
+above those of Mark, had not come into her mind, which, indeed, at the
+moment was chiefly occupied by the doubt whether the milk was come in,
+and by ordering in the best teacups, presented by the boarders.
+
+Thus she was in the passage when Mark entered, and his exclamation
+instantly was 'Oh, Edda, dear old Edda!  You aren't a bit altered!' and
+he put his head under her hat and kissed her, adding, as she seemed
+rather startled, 'You are my aunt, you know; and where's my cousin?
+You are Ursula?'
+
+He advanced upon Nuttie, took her by the hand and kissed her forehead
+before she was aware, but she flashed at him with her black eyes, and
+looked stiff and defiant.  She had no notion of kisses to herself,
+still less to her pretty mother whom she protected with a half proud,
+half jealous fondness.  How could the man presume to call her by that
+foolish name?  However, that single effusion had exhausted Mark's
+powers of cordiality, or else Nuttie's stiffness froze him.  They were
+all embarrassed, and had reason to be grateful to Lady Kirkaldy's
+practised powers as a diplomate's wife.  She made the most of Mrs.
+Egremont's shy spasmodic inquiries, and Mark's jerks of information,
+such as that they were all living at Bridgefield Egremont, now, that
+his sister May was very like his new cousin, that Blanche was come out
+and was very like his mother, etc. etc.  Every one was more at ease
+when Lady Kirkaldy carried the conversation off to yesterday's
+entertainment, hoping no one had been overtired, and the like.  Mrs.
+Egremont lighted up a little and began telling some of the expressions
+of delight she had heard, and in the midst, Nuttie, waking from her
+trance of stiff displeasure, came plump in with 'Oh! and there's a
+water-soldier, a real Stratiotes aculeatus in your lake.  May we get
+it?  Mr. Dutton didn't think we ought, but it would be such a prize!'
+
+'Ursula means a rare water-plant,' said Mrs. Egremont gently, seeing
+that Lady Kirkaldy had no notion of the treasure she possessed.  'She
+and some of her friends are very eager botanists.'
+
+'I am sure you may,' said the lady, amused.
+
+'Thank you!  Then, O mother!  Miss Mary and I will go.  And we'll wait
+till after office hours, and then Gerard Godfrey can come and fish it
+out for us!  Oh, thank you.  He wants the pattern of the Abbot's cross
+for an illumination, and he can get some ferns for the church.'
+
+Soon after this ebullition, Lady Kirkaldy carried off her nephew, and
+his first utterance outside the door was 'A woman like that will be the
+salvation of my uncle.'
+
+'Firstly, if you can bring them together,' said his aunt; 'and
+secondly, if there is stuff enough in that pretty creature.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+SUSPENSE.
+
+  'Where shall the traitor rest
+  He, the deceiver?'--SCOTT.
+
+
+Poor Miss Headworth's peace of mind was utterly destroyed.  That the
+niece whom she had nursed back to life and happiness, and brought to
+love her as a mother, should be at the mercy of a man whom she looked
+on as a heartless profligate, was dreadful to her beyond measure. And
+it involved Ursula's young life likewise?  Could it be a duty, after
+these eighteen years, to return to him?  What legal rights had he to
+enforce the resumption of the wife he had deserted.  'I will consult
+Mr. Dutton,' said the old lady to herself; 'Mr. Dutton is the only
+person who knows the particulars.  He will give me the best advice.'
+
+And while Miss Headworth, over her evening toilette, was coming to this
+resolution in one bedroom, Nuttie, in another, was standing aghast at
+her mother's agitation, and receiving a confession which filled her
+with astonishment.
+
+'I can't think why that gentleman should go and be so affectionate all
+on a sudden, 'quoth Nuttie;' if he is my cousin, and so fond of you,
+why couldn't he have come to see us before?'
+
+'Oh, Nuttie, dear, you don't understand why it is so good of him!  My
+dear, now this has come, I must tell you--you must hear--the sad thing
+your mother did.  Yes, my dear, I was their governess--and--and I did
+not--In short, my dear, I eloped.'
+
+'You, mother!  Oh what fun!' cried the girl in the utter extremity of
+wonder.
+
+'Nuttie!' exclaimed Mrs. Egremont, in a tone of horror and
+indignation--nay, of apprehension.
+
+'O mother--I didn't mean that!  But I can't get to believe it.  You,
+little mother mine, you that are so timid and bashful and quiet. That
+you--you should have done such a thing.'
+
+'Nuttie, my dear, can't you understand that such a thing would make me
+quiet?  I am always feeling when I see people, or they bring their
+daughters here.  "If they only knew--"'
+
+'No, no, no!  They would still see you were the sweetest dear.  But
+tell me all about it.  How very much in love you must have been!' said
+Nuttie, a magnificent vision of a young sailor with curly hair and open
+throat rising before her.
+
+'I think I was more frightened than in love,' faintly said Mrs.
+Egremont.  'At least I didn't know it was love, I thought he was only
+kind to me.'
+
+'But you liked it?' said Ursula magisterially.
+
+'I liked it, oh, I liked it!  It gave me a feeling such as nothing else
+ever did, but I never thought of its being love, he was so much older.'
+
+'Older!' exclaimed Nuttie, much taken aback.  'Oh! as old as Mr.
+Dutton?'
+
+'Mr. Dutton is thirty-six, I think.  Yes, he was older than that.'
+
+'Mother, how could you?'  For to be older than Mr. Dutton seemed to the
+youthful fancy to be near decrepitude; but she added, 'I suppose he was
+very noble, and had done great things.'
+
+'He was the grandest gentleman I ever saw, and had such, a manner,'
+said the mother, passing over the latter suggestion.  'Anyway, I never
+thought what it all meant--all alone with the children as I was--till I
+found people looking at me, and laughing at me, and then I heard Lady
+de Lyonnais and Mr. Egremont were coming down, very angry, to send me
+away.  I ought, I know it now, to have waited, for they would have
+written to my aunt.  But I was horribly frightened, and I couldn't bear
+to think of never seeing him again, and he came and comforted me, and
+said he would take me to Mrs. Houghton, the kind lady who was staying
+in the Ninon, and they would make it all square for me--and then--oh!
+it was very sweet--but I never knew that we were sailing away to Jersey
+to be married!  I knew it was very dreadful without any one's leave,
+but it was so noble of him to take the poor little governess and defend
+her, and it wasn't as if my mother had been alive.  I didn't know Aunt
+Ursel then as I did afterwards.  And Mrs. Houghton said there was
+nothing else to be done.'
+
+'O don't leave off, mother.  Do tell me.  How long did you have him?'
+
+'Six weeks then--and afterwards one fortnight at Dieppe.  He was not
+free.  He had an old uncle, General Egremont, who was sick and
+hot-tempered, and he was obliged to keep everything secret from him,
+and therefore from everybody else.  And so I was to live at Dieppe,
+while he went out to take care of his uncle, and you know--you know--'
+
+'Yes, I know, dear mother.  But I am sure he was saving somebody else,
+and it was a noble death!  And I know how Aunt Ursel came to Dieppe,
+and how I--your own little Frenchwoman--came to take care of you.  And
+haven't we been jolly without any of these fine relations that never
+looked after you all this time?  Besides, you know he is very likely to
+be on a lonely coral island, and will come home yet. I often think he
+is.'
+
+'My dear child, I have been happier than I deserved,' said Alice
+Egremont, drying her eyes.  'But oh! Nuttie, I hope you will be a wiser
+woman than your mother.'
+
+'Come, don't go on in that way!  Why, I've such advantages!  I've Miss
+Mary, and Aunt Ursel, and Mr. Spyers, and Mr. Dutton, and you, you poor
+little thing, had nobody!  One good thing is, we shall get the
+water-soldier.  Mr. Dutton needn't come, for he's like a cat, and won't
+soil his boots, but Gerard is dying to get another look at the old
+ruin.  He can't make up his mind about the cross on one of the
+stone-coffin lids, so he'll be delighted to come, and he'll get it out
+of the pond for us.  I wonder when we can go.  To-night is choir
+practice, and to-morrow is cutting-out day.'
+
+Miss Headworth was not sorry that the small sociabilities of the
+friends did not leave her alone with her niece all that evening, or the
+next day, when there was a grand cutting-out for the working party,--an
+operation always performed in the holidays.  Miss Headworth had of late
+years been excused from it, and it gave her the opportunity she wanted
+of a consultation with Mr. Dutton.  He was her prime adviser in
+everything, from her investments (such as they were) to the
+eccentricities of her timepieces; and as the cuckoo-clock had that
+night cuckooed all the hours round in succession, no one thought it
+wonderful that she should send a twisted note entreating him to call as
+early as he could in the afternoon.  Of course Nuttie's chatter had
+proclaimed the extraordinary visitors, and it needed not the old lady's
+dash under "on an anxious affair" to bring him to her little
+drawing-room as soon as he could quit his desk.  Perhaps he hastened
+his work with a hope in his heart which he durst not express, but the
+agitation on the usually placid face forbade him to entertain it for an
+instant, and he only said, 'So our expedition has led to unforeseen
+consequences, Miss Headworth.'  And then she answered under her breath,
+as if afraid of being overheard: 'Mr. Dutton, my poor child does not
+know it yet, but the man is alive!'
+
+Mr. Dutton compressed his lips.  It was the greater shock, for he had
+actually made inquiries at the Yacht Club, but the officials there
+either had not been made aware of the reappearance of the two
+Egremonts, or they did not think it worth while to look beyond the
+record which declared that all hands had perished, and the connection
+of the uncle and nephew with the Yacht Club had not been renewed.
+Presently he said, 'Then hers was a right instinct.  There is reason to
+be thankful.'
+
+Miss Headworth was too full of her own anxieties to heed his causes for
+thankfulness.  She told what she had heard from Lady Kirkaldy and from
+Mark Egremont, and asked counsel whether it could be Alice's duty to
+return to the man who had deserted her, or even to accept anything from
+him.  There was an impetuous and indignant spirit at the bottom of the
+old lady's heart, in spite of the subdued life she had led for so many
+years, and she hardly brooked the measured considerate manner in which
+her adviser declared that all depended on circumstances, and the manner
+in which Captain Egremont made the first move.  At present no one was
+acting but young Mark, and, as Mr. Dutton observed, it was not a matter
+in which a man was very likely to submit to a nephew's dictation.
+
+There was certainly no need for Mrs. Egremont to _force_ her presence
+on him.  But Mr. Dutton did think that for her own sake and her child's
+there ought to be full recognition of their rights, and that this
+should be proved by their maintenance.
+
+'I imagine that Ursula may probably be a considerable heiress, and her
+lights must not be sacrificed.'
+
+'Poor little girl!  Will it be for her happiness?  I doubt it greatly!'
+
+'Of that I suppose we have no right to judge,' said Mr. Dutton,
+somewhat tremulously. 'Justice is what we have to look to, and to allow
+Nuttie to be passed over would be permitting a slur to be cast on her
+and her mother.'
+
+'I see that,' said Miss Headworth, with an effort.  'I suppose I am
+after all a selfish, faithless old woman, and it is not in my hands
+after all.  But I must prepare my poor Alice for what may be coming.'
+
+'If any terms are offered to her, she had better put the matter into a
+lawyer's hands.  Dobson would be a safe man to deal with.'
+
+Miss Headworth was amazed that he--who had helped her in many a little
+question bordering on law--should not proffer his aid now in this
+greatest stress.  He was a resolute, self-controlled man, and she never
+guessed at the feeling that made him judge himself to be no fitting
+champion for Alice Egremont against her husband.  Ever since, ten years
+ago, he had learnt that his beautiful neighbour did not regard herself
+so certainly a widow as to venture to open her heart to any other love,
+he had lived patiently on, content to serve her as a trustworthy
+friend, and never betraying the secret hope so long cherished and now
+entirely crushed.
+
+He was relieved to escape from the interview, and the poor old lady
+remained a little more certain as to her duty perhaps, but with a
+certainty that only made her more unhappy, and she was so restless and
+nervous that, in the middle of the evening's reading of Archbishop
+Trench's Lectures on History, Alice suddenly broke off in the very
+middle of a sentence and exclaimed, 'Aunt Ursel! you are keeping
+something from me.'
+
+Miss Headworth made a faint attempt by saying something about
+presently, and glancing with her eyes to indicate that it was to be
+reserved till after Nuttie's bedtime, but the young lady comprehended
+the signs and exclaimed, 'Never mind me, Aunt Ursel,--I know all about
+mother; she told me last night.'
+
+'It is!' broke in Mrs. Egremont, who had been watching her aunt's face.
+'You have heard of _him_.'
+
+'Oh, my father!  You really have!' cried Nuttie.  'Then he really was
+on the desert island all this time; I was quite sure of it.  How
+delightful!'  She jumped up and looked at the door, as if she expected
+to see him appear that instant, clad in skins like Robinson Crusoe, but
+her aunt's nervous agitation found vent in a sharp reproof: 'Nuttie,
+hold your tongue, and don't be such a foolish child, or I shall send
+you out of the room this instant!'
+
+'But aunt?' gasped Alice, unable to bear the suspense.
+
+'Yes, my poor dear child.  Captain Egremont with the General got off
+with some of the crew in a boat when the Ninon was burnt.  He spent a
+good many years abroad with the old man, but he has now inherited the
+family place, and is living there.'  Miss Headworth felt as if she had
+fired a cannon and looked to see the effect.
+
+'Ah, if we could have stayed at Dieppe!' said Mrs. Egremont.  'But we
+did write back to say where we could be heard of.'
+
+'That was of no use.  Mark found no traces of us when he went thither.'
+
+'Did he send Mark?'
+
+'No.  My dear Alice, I must not conceal from you that this is all Mr.
+Mark Egremont's doing.  He seems to have been helping his uncle with
+his papers when he came on the evidence of your marriage, and,
+remembering you as he does, he forced the confession of it from the
+captain, and of his own accord set forth to discover what had become of
+you and to see justice done to you.'
+
+'Dear little Mark!' said she; 'he always was such an affectionate
+little boy.'
+
+'And now, my dear, you must consider how you will receive any advances
+on his part.'
+
+'Oh, Aunt Ursel, don't!  I can't talk now.  Please let me go to bed.
+Nuttie, dear, you need not come yet.'
+
+The desire for solitude, in which to realise what she had heard, was
+overpowering, and she fled away in the summer twilight, leaving Nuttie
+with wide open eyes, looking after her vanished hero and desert island.
+
+'My poor Alice!' sighed the old lady.
+
+'Aunt Ursel!' exclaimed Nuttie, 'was--I mean--is my father a good or a
+bad man?'
+
+'My dear, should a daughter ask such a question?'
+
+'Aunt Ursel, I can't help it.  I think I ought to know all about it,'
+said Nuttie gravely, putting away her childishness and sitting down by
+her aunt.  'I did not think so much of it when mother told me they
+eloped, because, though I know it was very wrong, people do do odd
+things sometimes when they are very much in love (she said it in a
+superior patronising tone that would have amused Miss Headworth very
+much at any other time); and it has not spoilt mother for being the
+dearest, sweetest, best thing in the world, and, besides, they had
+neither of them any fathers or mothers to disobey.  But, then, when I
+found he was so old, and that he kept it a secret, and must have told
+stories only for the sake of money (uttered with extreme contempt), I
+didn't like it.  And if he left her as Theseus left Ariadne, or Sir
+Lancelot left Elaine, I--I don't think it is nice.  Do you think he
+only pretended to be lost in the Ninon to get rid of her, or that he
+could not find her?'
+
+'The Ninon was really reported lost with all on board,' said Miss
+Headworth.  'That was ascertained.  He was saved by a Chilian ship, and
+seems to have been a good while making his way back to Europe.  I had
+taken care that our address should be known at Dieppe, but it is quite
+possible that he may not have applied to the right people, or that they
+may not have preserved my letter, so that we cannot feel sore that he
+was to blame.'
+
+'If he had been worth anything at all, he would have moved heaven and
+earth to find her!' cried Nuttie; 'and you said yourself it was all
+_that_ Mark's doing!'
+
+'He seems to be a very upright and generous young man, that Mr. Mark
+Egremont,' said Miss Headworth, a whole romance as to Nuttie's future
+destiny sweeping across her mind in an instant, with a mental
+dispensation to first cousins in such a case.  'I think you will find
+him a staunch champion even against his own interests.'
+
+Perceptions came across Nuttie.  'Oh, then I am a sort of lost heiress,
+like people in a story!  I see!  But, Aunt Ursel, what do you think
+will happen?'
+
+'My dear child, I cannot guess in the least.  Perhaps the Egremont
+property will not concern you, and only go to male heirs.  That would
+be the best thing, since in any case you must be sufficiently provided
+for.  Your father must do that.'
+
+'But about mother?'
+
+'A proper provision must be insisted on for her,' said Miss Headworth.
+'It is no use, however, to speculate on the future.  We cannot guess
+how Mr. Mark Egremont's communication will be received, or whether any
+wish will be expressed for your mother's rejoining your father.  In
+such a case the terms must be distinctly understood, and I have full
+trust both in Mr. Mark and in Lady Kirkaldy as her champions to see
+that justice is done to you both.'
+
+'I'm sure he doesn't deserve that mother should go to him.'
+
+'Nor do I expect that he will wish it, or that it would be proper; but
+he is bound to give her a handsome maintenance, and I think most
+probably you will be asked to stay with your uncle and cousins,' said
+Miss Headworth, figuring to herself a kind of Newstead Abbey or some
+such scene of constant orgies at Bridgefield Egremont.
+
+'I shall accept nothing from the family that does not include mother,'
+said Nuttie.
+
+'Dear child, I foresee many trials, but you must be her protector.'
+
+'That I will,' said Nuttie; and in the gallant purpose she went to bed,
+to find her mother either asleep or feigning slumber with tears on her
+cheek.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE WATER-SOLDIER.
+
+  'Presumptuous maid, with looks intent,
+  Again she stretched, again she bent,
+  Nor knew the gulf between.'--GRAY.
+
+
+It all seemed like a dream to Ursula, perhaps likewise to her mother,
+when they rose to the routine of daily life with the ordinary interests
+of the day before them.  There was a latent unwillingness in Mrs.
+Egremont's mind to discuss the subject with either aunt or daughter;
+and when the post brought no letter, Ursula, after a moment's sense of
+flatness, was relieved, and returned to her eager desire to hurry after
+the water-soldier.  It was feasible that very afternoon.  Mary Nugent
+came in with the intelligence.
+
+'And can Gerard come? or we shall only look at it.'
+
+'Yes, Gerard can come, and so will Mr. Dutton,' said Mary, who,
+standing about half-way between Mrs. Egremont and her daughter, did not
+think herself quite a sufficient chaperon.
+
+'He will look on like a hen at her ducklings,' said Nuttie.  'It is
+cruel to take him, poor man!'
+
+'Meantime, Nuttie, do you like an hour of "Marie Stuart?"'
+
+'Oh, thank you!'  But she whispered, 'Aunt Ursel, may I tell her?'
+
+'Ask your mother, my dear.'
+
+Leave was given, half reluctantly, and with a prohibition against
+mentioning the subject to any one else, but both mother and aunt had
+confidence in Mary Nugent's wisdom and discretion, so the two friends
+sat on the wall together, and Ursula poured out her heart.  Poor little
+girl! she was greatly discomfited at the vanishing of her noble vision
+of the heroic self-devoted father, and ready on the other hand to
+believe him a villain, like Bertram Risingham, or 'the Pirate,' being
+possessed by this idea on account of his West Indian voyages.  At any
+rate, she was determined not to be accepted or acknowledged without her
+mother, and was already rehearsing magnanimous letters of refusal.
+
+Miss Mary listened and wondered, feeling sometimes as if this were as
+much a romance as the little yacht going down with the burning ship;
+and then came back the recollection that there was a real fact that
+Nuttie had a father, and that it was entirely uncertain what part he
+might take, or what the girl might be called on to do.  Considering
+anxiously these bearings of the question, she scarcely heard what she
+was required to assent to, in one of Nuttie's eager, 'Don't you think
+so?'
+
+'My dear Nuttie,' she said, rousing herself, 'what I do think is that
+it will all probably turn out exactly contrariwise to our imaginations,
+so I believe it would be wisest to build up as few fancies as possible,
+but only to pray that you may have a right judgment in all things, and
+have strength to do what is right, whatever you may see that to be.'
+
+'And of course that will be to stick by mother.'
+
+'There can be little doubt of that, but the how?  No, dear, do not let
+us devise all sorts of _hows_ when we have nothing to go upon. That
+would be of no use, and only perplex you when the time comes. It would
+be much better to "do the nexte thinge," and read our "Marie Stuart."'
+
+Nuttie pouted a little, but submitted, though she now and then broke
+into a translation with 'You know mother will never stand up for
+herself,' or 'They think I shall be asked to stay with the Egremonts,
+but I must work up for the exam.'
+
+However, the school habit of concentrating her attention prevailed, and
+the study quieted Nuttie's excitement.  The expedition took place as
+arranged.  There was a train which stopped so that the party could go
+down by it, and the distance was not too great for walking back.
+
+Mr. Dutton met them on the platform, well armed with his neat silk
+umbrella, and his black poodle, Monsieur, trotting solemnly after him.
+Gerard Godfrey bore materials for an exact transcript of the Abbot's
+monumental cross, his head being full of church architecture, while
+Nuttie carried a long green tin case, or vasculum as she chose to call
+it, with her three vowels, U A E, and the stars of the Little Bear
+conspicuously painted on it in white.
+
+'You did not venture on that the other day,' said Mr. Dutton.  'How
+much of the park do you mean to carry away in it?'
+
+'Let me take it,' said Gerard politely.
+
+'No, thank you.  You'd leave it behind, while you were pottering over
+the mouldings.'
+
+'You are much more likely to leave it behind yourself.'
+
+'What--with my soldier, my Stratiotes, in it?  I think I see myself.'
+
+'Give it to me,' said Gerard.  'Of course I can't see you carrying a
+great thing like that.'
+
+'Can't you, indeed?'
+
+'Gently, gently, my dear,' said Miss Mary, as the young people seemed
+very near a skirmish, and the train was sweeping up.  Then there was
+another small scuffle, for Nuttie had set her heart on the third class;
+but Mr. Dutton had taken second-class tickets, and was about to hand
+them into a carriage whence there had just emerged a very supercilious
+black-moustached valet, who was pulling out a leather-covered
+dressing-case, while Gerard was consoling Nuttie by telling her that
+Monsieur never deigned to go third class.
+
+'It is a smoking carriage,' said Miss Nugent, on the step.  'Pah! how
+it smells,' as she jumped back.
+
+'Beautiful backy--a perfect nosegay,' said Gerard.
+
+'Trust that fellow for having the best.'
+
+'His master's, no doubt,' suggested Mr. Dutton.
+
+'You'd better go in it, to enjoy his reversion,' said Nuttie.
+
+'And where's my escort, then?'
+
+'Oh, I'm sure we don't want you.'
+
+'Nuttie, my dear,' expostulated Miss Nugent, dragging her into the next
+carriage.
+
+'You may enjoy the fragrance still,' said Nuttie when seated.  'Do you
+see--there's the man's master; he has stood him up against that post,
+with his cigar, to wait while he gets out the luggage.  I daresay you
+can get a whiff if you lean out far enough.'
+
+'I say! that figure is a study!' said Gerard.  'What is it that he is
+so like?'
+
+'Oh! I know,' said Nuttie.  'It is Lord Frederick Verisopht, and the
+bad gentlefolks in the pictures to the old numbers of Dickens that you
+have got, Miss Mary.  Now, isn't he?  Look! only Lord Frederick wasn't
+fat.'
+
+Nuttie was in a state of excitement that made her peculiarly
+unmanageable, and Miss Nugent was very grateful to Mr. Dutton for his
+sharp though general admonition against staring, while, under pretext
+of disposing of the umbrella and the vasculum, he stood up, so as to
+block the window till they were starting.
+
+There was no one else to observe them but a demure old lady, and in ten
+minutes' time they were in open space, where high spirits might work
+themselves off, though the battle over the botanical case was ended by
+Miss Nugent, who strongly held that ladies should carry their own extra
+encumbrances, and slung it with a scarf over Nuttie's shoulders in a
+knowing knapsack fashion.
+
+The two young people had known one another all their lives, for Gerard
+was the son of a medical man who had lived next door to Miss Headworth
+when the children were young.  The father was dead, and the family had
+left the place, but this son had remained at school, and afterwards had
+been put into the office at the umbrella factory under charge of Mr.
+Dutton, whose godson he was, and who treated him as a nephew.  He was a
+good-hearted, steady young fellow, with his whole interest in
+ecclesiastical details, wearing a tie in accordance with 'the colours,'
+and absorbed in church music and decorations, while his recreations
+were almost all in accordance therewith.
+
+There was plenty of merriment, as he drew and measured at the very
+scanty ruins, which were little more than a few fragments of wall,
+overgrown luxuriantly with ivy and clematis, but enclosing some fine
+old coffin-lids with floriated crosses, interesting to those who cared
+for architecture and church history, as Mr. Dutton tried to make the
+children do, so that their ecclesiastical feelings might be less
+narrow, and stand on a surer foundation than present interest, a
+slightly aggressive feeling of contempt for all the other town
+churches, and a pleasing sense of being persecuted.
+
+They fought over the floriations and mouldings with great zest, and
+each maintained a date with youthful vigour--both being, as Mr. Dutton
+by and by showed them, long before the foundation.  The pond had been
+left to the last with a view to the wellbeing of the water-soldier on
+the return.  Here the difficulties of the capture were great, for the
+nearest plant flourished too far from the bank to be reached with
+comfort, and besides, the sharp-pointed leaves to which it owes its
+name were not to be approached with casual grasps.
+
+'Oh Monsieur, I wish you were a Beau,' sighed Nuttie.  'Why, are you
+too stupid to go and get it?'
+
+'It is a proof of his superior intelligence,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'But really it is too ridiculous--too provoking--to have come all this
+way and not get it,' cried the tantalised Nuttie.  'Oh, Gerard, are you
+taking off your boots and stockings?  You duck!'
+
+'Just what I wish I was,' said the youth, rolling up his trousers.
+
+But even the paddling in did not answer.  Mr. Dutton called out
+anxiously, 'Take care, Gerard, the bottom may be soft,' and came down
+to the very verge just in time to hold out his hand, and prevent an
+utterly disastrous fall, for Gerard, in spite of his bare feet, sank at
+once into mud, and on the first attempt to take a step forward, found
+his foot slipping away from under him, and would in another instant
+have tumbled backwards into the slush and weeds.  He scrambled back,
+his hat falling off into the reeds, and splashing Mr. Dutton all over,
+while Monsieur began to bark 'with astonishment at seeing his master in
+such a plight,' declared the ladies, who stood convulsed with cruel
+laughter.
+
+'Isn't it dreadful?' exclaimed Ursula.
+
+'Well!  It might have been worse,' gravely said Mr. Dutton, wiping off
+the more obnoxious of his splashes with his pocket handkerchief.
+
+'Oh I didn't mean you, but the water-soldier,' said Nuttie.  'To have
+come five miles for it in vain!'
+
+'I don't know what to suggest,' added Gerard.  'Even if the ladies were
+to retire--'
+
+'No, no,' interposed Mr. Dutton, ''tis no swimming ground, and I forbid
+the expedient.  You would only be entangled in the weeds.'
+
+'Behold!' exclaimed Mary, who had been prowling about the banks, and
+now held up in triumph one of the poles with a bill-hook at the end
+used for cutting weed.
+
+'Bravo, Miss Nugent!' cried Gerard.
+
+'Female wit has circumvented the water-soldier,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Don't cry out too soon,' returned Mary; 'the soldier may float off and
+escape you yet.'
+
+However, the capture was safely accomplished, without even a dip under
+water to destroy the beauty of the white flowers.  With these, and a
+few waterlilies secured by Gerard for the morrow's altar vases, the
+party set out on their homeward walk, through plantations of whispering
+firs, the low sun tingeing the trunks with ruddy light; across heathery
+commons, where crimson heath abounded, and the delicate blush-coloured
+wax-belled species was a prize; by cornfields in ear hanging out their
+dainty stamens; along hedges full of exquisite plumes of feathering or
+nodding grass, of which Nuttie made bouquets and botanical studies, and
+Gerard stored for harvest decorations.  They ran and danced on together
+with Monsieur at their heels, while the elders watched them with some
+sadness and anxiety. Free-masonry had soon made both Mary and Mr.
+Dutton aware of each other's initiation, and they had discussed the
+matter in all its bearings, agreed that the man was a scoundrel, and
+the woman an angel, even if she had once been weak, and that she ought
+to be very resolute with him if he came to terms.  And then they looked
+after their young companions, and Mr. Dutton said, 'Poor children, what
+is before them?'
+
+'It is well they are both so young,' answered Mary.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THAT MAN.
+
+  'It is the last time--'tis the last!'--SCOTT.
+
+
+Sundays were the ever-recurring centres of work and interests to the
+little circle in St. Ambrose's Road.  To them the church services and
+the various classes and schools were the great objects and excitements
+of the week.  A certain measure of hopeful effort and varying success
+is what gives zest to life, and the purer and higher the aim, and the
+more unmixed the motives, the greater the happiness achieved by the
+'something attempted, something done.'
+
+Setting apart actual spiritual devotion, the altar vases, purchased by
+a contribution of careful savings, and adorned with the Monks Horton
+lilies, backed by ferns from the same quarter; the surplices made by
+the ladies themselves, the chants they had practised, the hymns they
+had taught, could not but be much more interesting to them than if they
+had been mere lookers on.  Every cross on the markers, every flower on
+the altar cloth was the work of one or other of them; everything in the
+church was an achievement, and choir boys, school children, Bible
+classes, every member of the regular congregation, had some special
+interest; nay, every irregular member or visitor might be a convert in
+time--if not a present sympathiser, and at the very least might swell
+the offertory that was destined to so many needs of the struggling
+district.
+
+Thus it was with some curiosity mingled with self-reproach that Nuttie,
+while singing her Benedictus among the tuneful shop-girls, to whom she
+was bound to set an example, became aware of yesterday's first-class
+traveller lounging, as far as the rows of chairs would permit, in the
+aisle, and, as she thought, staring hard at her mother.  It was well
+that Mrs. Egremont's invariable custom was never to lift her eyes from
+her book or her harmonium, or she surely must have been disconcerted,
+her daughter thought, by the eyes that must have found her out, under
+her little black net bonnet and veil, as the most beautiful woman in
+church,--as she certainly was,--even that fine good-for-nothing
+gentleman thinking so.  Nuttie would add his glances to the glories of
+her lovely mother!
+
+And she did so, with triumph in her tone of reprobation, as she trotted
+off, after the early dinner, to her share of Sunday-school work as
+usual under Miss Nugent's wing.  It began with a children's service,
+and then ensued, in rooms at the factory, lent by Mr. Dutton, the
+teaching that was to supply the omissions of the Board School; the
+establishment of a voluntary one being the next ambition of St.
+Ambrose's.
+
+Coming home from their labours, in the fervent discussion of their
+scholars, and exchanging remarks and greetings with the other teachers
+of various calibres, the friends reached their own road, and there, to
+their amazement, beheld Miss Headworth.
+
+'Yes, it really is!' cried Nuttie.  'We can't be too late?  No--there's
+no bell!  Aunt Ursel!  What has brought you out?  What's the matter?
+Where's mother?'
+
+'In the house.  My dear,' catching hold of her, and speaking
+breathlessly, 'I came out to prepare you.  He is come--your father--'
+
+'Where?' cried Nuttie, rather wildly.
+
+'He is in the drawing-room with your mother.  I said I would send you.'
+Poor Miss Headworth gasped with agitation.  'Oh! where's Mr.
+Dutton--not that anything can be done--'
+
+'Is it _that man_?' asked Nuttie, and getting no answer, 'I know it is!
+Oh Aunt Ursel, how could you leave her with him?  I must go and protect
+her.  Gerard--come.  No, go and fetch Mr. Dutton.'
+
+'Hush! hush, Nuttie,' cried her aunt, grasping her.  'You know nothing
+about it.  Wait here till I can tell you.'
+
+'Come in here, dear Miss Headworth,' said Mary, gently drawing her arm
+into hers, for the poor old lady could hardly stand for trembling, and
+bidding Gerard open the door of her own house with the latch-key.
+
+She took them into the dining-room, so as not to disturb her mother,
+sent Gerard off after Mr. Dutton in the very uttermost astonishment and
+bewilderment, and set Miss Headworth down in an easy-chair, where she
+recovered herself, under Mary's soothing care, enough to tell her story
+in spite of Nuttie's exclamations.  'Wait! wait, Nuttie!  You mustn't
+burst in on them so!  No, you need not be afraid.  Don't be a silly
+child!  He won't hurt her!  Oh no!  They are quite delighted to meet.'
+
+'Delighted to meet?' said Nuttie, as if transfixed.
+
+'Yes,' said her aunt.  'Oh yes, I always knew the poor child cared for
+him and tried to believe in him all along.  He only had to say the
+word.'
+
+'I wouldn't,' cried the girl, her eyes flashing.  'Why didn't you ask
+him how he could desert her and leave her?'
+
+'My dear! how can one come between husband and wife?  Oh, my poor
+Alice!'
+
+'How was it, how did they meet, dear Miss Headworth?' asked Mary,
+administering the wine she had been pouring out.
+
+'You hadn't been gone half an hour, Alice was reading to me, and I was
+just dozing, when in came Louisa.  "A gentleman to see Mrs. Egremont,"
+she said, and there he was just behind.  We rose up--she did not know
+him at once, but he just said "Edda, my little Edda, sweeter than ever,
+I knew you at once," or something of that sort, and she gave one little
+cry of "I knew you would come," and sprang right into his arms.
+I--well, I meant to make him understand how he had treated her, but
+just as I began "Sir"--he came at me with his hand outstretched--'
+
+'You didn't take it, aunt, I hope?' cried Nuttie.
+
+'My dear, when you see him, you will know how impossible it is.  He
+_has_ that high-bred manner it is as if he were conferring a favour.
+"Miss Headworth, I conclude," said he, "a lady to whom I owe more than
+I can express."  Just as if I had done it for his sake.'  Miss Nugent
+felt this open expression dangerous on account of the daughter, and she
+looked her consternation at Mr. Dutton, who had quietly entered,
+ruthlessly shutting Gerard Godfrey out with only such a word of
+explanation as could be given on the way.
+
+'Then he comes with--with favourable intentions,' said Mary, putting as
+much admonition as she could into her voice.
+
+'Oh! no doubt of that,' said Miss Headworth, drawing herself together.
+'He spoke of the long separation,--said he had never been able to find
+her, till the strange chance of his nephew stumbling on her at Abbots
+Norton.'
+
+'That is--possib--probably true,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'It can't be,' broke in Nuttie.  'He never troubled himself about it
+till his nephew found the papers.  You said so, Aunt Ursel!  He is a
+dreadful traitor of a man, just like Marmion, or Theseus, or Lancelot,
+and now he is telling lies about it!  Don't look at me. Aunt Ursel,
+they are lies, and I _will_ say it, and he took in poor dear mother
+once, and now he is taking her in again, and I can't bear that he
+should be my father!'
+
+It was so entirely true, yet so shocking to hear from her mouth, that
+all three stood aghast, as she stood with heaving chest, crimson
+cheeks, and big tears in her eyes.  Miss Headworth only muttered, 'Oh,
+my poor child, you mustn't!'
+
+Mr. Dutton prevented another passionate outburst by his tone of grave,
+gentle authority.  'Listen a moment, Ursula,' he said.  'It is
+unhappily true that this man has acted in an unjustifiable way towards
+your mother and yourself.  But there are, no doubt, many more excuses
+for him than you know of, and as I found a few years ago that the
+people at Dieppe had lost the address that had been left with them, he
+must have found no traces of your mother there.  You cannot understand
+the difficulties that may have been in his way.  And there is no use,
+quite the contrary, in making the worst of him.  He has found your
+mother out, and it seems that he claims her affectionately, and she
+forgives and welcomes him--out of the sweet tenderness of her heart.'
+
+'She may--but I can't,' murmured Nuttie.
+
+'That is not a fit thing for a daughter, nor a Christian, to say,' Mr.
+Dutton sternly said.
+
+''Tis not for myself--'tis for her,--'objected Nuttie.
+
+'That's nonsense; a mere excuse,' he returned.  'You have nothing at
+all to forgive, since he did not know you were in existence.  And as to
+your mother, whom you say you put first, what greater grief or pain can
+you give her than by showing enmity and resentment against her husband,
+when she, the really injured person, loves and forgives?'
+
+'He's a bad man.  If she goes back to him, I know he will make her
+unhappy--'
+
+'You don't know any such thing, but you do know that your opposition
+will make her unhappy.  Remember, there's no choice in the matter. He
+has legal rights over you both, and since he shows himself ready (as I
+understand from Miss Headworth that he is) to give her and you your
+proper position, you have nothing to do but to be thankful.  I think
+myself that it is a great subject of thankfulness that your mother can
+return so freely without any bitterness.  It is the blessing of such as
+she--'
+
+Nuttie stood pouting, but more thoughtful and less violent, as she
+said, 'How can I be thankful?  I don't want position or anything.  I
+only want him to let my--my own mother, and aunt, and me alone.'
+
+'Child, you are talking of what you do not understand.  You must not
+waste any more time in argument.  Your mother has sent for you, and it
+is your duty to go and let her introduce you to your father.  I have
+little doubt that you will find him very unlike all your imagination
+represents him, but let that be as it may, the fifth Commandment does
+not say, "Honour only thy good father," but, "Honour thy father."  Come
+now, put on your gloves--get her hat right, if you please, Miss Mary.
+There--now, come along, be a reasonable creature, and a good girl, and
+do not give unnecessary pain and vexation to your mother.'  He gave her
+his arm, and led her away.
+
+'Well done, Mr. Dutton!' exclaimed Miss Nugent.
+
+'Poor Mr. Dutton!'  All Aunt Ursel's discretion could not suppress that
+sigh, but Mary prudently let it pass unnoticed, only honouring in her
+heart the unselfishness and self-restraint of the man whose long,
+patient, unspoken hopes had just received a death-blow.
+
+'Oh, Mary!  I never thought it would have been like this!' cried the
+poor old lady.  'I ought not to have spoken as I did before the child,
+but I was so taken by surprise!  Alice turned to him just as if he had
+been the most faithful, loving husband in the world.  She is believing
+every word he says.'
+
+'It is very happy for her that she can,' pleaded Mary.
+
+'So it is, yes, but--when one knows what he is, and what she is!  Oh,
+Mr. Dutton, is the poor child gone in?'
+
+'Yes, I saw her safe into the room.  She was very near running off up
+the stairs,' said Mr. Dutton.  'But I daresay she is fascinated by this
+time.  That sort of man has great power over women.'
+
+'Nuttie is hardly a woman yet,' said Miss Nugent.
+
+'No, but there must be a strong reaction, when she sees something
+unlike her compound of Marmion and Theseus.'
+
+'I suppose there is no question but that they must go with him!' said
+Miss Headworth wistfully.
+
+'Assuredly.  You say he--this Egremont--was affectionate,' said Mr.
+Dutton quietly, but Mary saw his fingers white with his tight clenching
+of the bar of the chair.
+
+'Oh yes, warmly affectionate, delighted to find her prettier than ever,
+poor dear; I suppose he meant it.  Heaven forgive me, if I am judging
+him too hardly, but I verily believe he went to church to reconnoitre,
+and see whether she pleased his fancy--'
+
+'And do you understand,' added Mr. Dutton, 'that he is prepared to do
+her full justice, and introduce her to his family and friends as his
+wife, on equal terms?  Otherwise, even if she were unwilling to stand
+up for herself, it would be the duty of her friends to make some
+stipulations.'
+
+'I am pretty sure that he does,' said the aunt; 'I did not stay long
+when I saw that I was not wanted, but I heard him say something about
+his having a home for her now, and her cutting out the Redcastle
+ladies.'
+
+'Besides, there is the nephew, Mr. Mark Egremont,' said Mary.  'He will
+take care of her.'
+
+'Yes,' said Mr. Dutton.  'It appears to be all right.  At any rate,
+there can be no grounds for interference on our part.'
+
+Mr. Dutton took his leave with these words, wringing Miss Headworth's
+hand in mute sympathy, and she, poor old lady, when he was gone, fairly
+collapsed into bitter weeping over the uncertain future of those whom
+she had loved as her own children, and who now must leave her desolate.
+Mary did her best with comfort and sympathy, and presently took her to
+share her griefs and fears with gentle old Mrs. Nugent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE FATHER.
+
+  'I do think this lady
+  To be my child.'--King Lear.
+
+
+Nuttie, in her fresh holland Sunday dress, worked in crewels with wild
+strawberries by her mother's hands, and with a white-trimmed straw hat,
+was almost shoved into the little drawing-room by Mr. Dutton, though he
+was himself invisible.
+
+Her eyes were in such a daze of tears that she hardly saw more at first
+than that some one was there with her mother on the sofa.  'Ah, there
+she is!' she heard her mother cry, and both rose.  Her mother's arm was
+round her waist, her hand was put into another, Mrs. Egremont's voice,
+tremulous with exceeding delight, said, 'Our child, our Ursula, our
+Nuttie!  Oh, this is what I have longed for all these years!  Oh,
+thanks, thanks!' and her hands left her daughter to be clasped and
+uplifted for a moment in fervent thanksgiving, while Nuttie's hand was
+held, and a strange hairy kiss, redolent of tobacco-smoking, was on her
+forehead--a masculine one, such as she had never known, except her
+cousin Mark's, since the old rector died, and she had grown too big for
+Mr. Dutton's embraces.  It was more strange than delightful, and yet
+she felt the polish of the tone that said, 'We make acquaintance
+somewhat late, Ursula, but better late than never.'
+
+She looked up at this new father, and understood instantly what she had
+heard of his being a grand gentleman.  There was a high-bred look about
+him, an entire ease and perfect manner that made everything he did or
+said seem like gracious condescension, and took away the power of
+questioning it at the moment.  He was not above the middle size, and
+was becoming unwieldy; but there was something imposing and even
+graceful in his deportment, and his bald narrow forehead looked
+aristocratic, set off between side tufts of white hair, white whiskers,
+and moustaches waxed into sharp points, Victor Emmanuel fashion, and a
+round white curly beard.  His eyes were dark, and looked dull, with
+yellow unwholesome corners, and his skin was not of a pleasant colour,
+but still, with all Nuttie's intentions of regarding him with horror,
+she was subdued, partly by the grand breeding and air of distinction,
+and partly by the current of sympathy from her mother's look of perfect
+happiness and exultation. She could not help feeling it a favour,
+almost an undeserved favour, that so great a personage should say, 'A
+complete Egremont, I see. She has altogether the family face.'
+
+'I am so glad you think so,' returned her mother.
+
+'On the whole it is well, but she might have done better to resemble
+you, Edda,' he said caressingly; 'but perhaps that would have been too
+much for the Earlsforth natives.  William's girls will have enough to
+endure without a double eclipse!' and he laughed.
+
+'I--I don't want--' faltered the mother.
+
+'You don't want, no, but you can't help it,' he said, evidently with a
+proud delight in her beauty.  'Now that I have seen the child,' he
+added, 'I will make my way back to the hotel.'
+
+'Will you--won't you stay to tea or dinner?' said his wife, beginning
+with an imploring tone which hesitated as she reviewed possible chops
+and her aunt's dismay.
+
+'Thank you, I have ordered dinner at the hotel,' he answered, 'and
+Gregorio is waiting for me with a cab.  No doubt you will wish to make
+arrangements with Madame--the old lady--and I will not trouble her
+further to-night.  I will send down Gregorio to-morrow morning, to tell
+you what I arrange.  An afternoon train, probably, as we shall go no
+farther than London.  You say Lady Kirkaldy called on you.  We might
+return her visit before starting, but I will let you know when I have
+looked at the trains.  My compliments to Miss Headworth.  Good evening,
+sweetest.'  He held his wife in a fond embrace, kissing her brow and
+cheeks and letting her cling to him, then added, 'Good evening, little
+one,' with a good-natured careless gesture with which Nuttie was quite
+content, for she had a certain loathing of the caresses that so charmed
+her mother.  And yet the command to make ready had been given with such
+easy authority that the idea of resisting it had never even entered her
+mind, though she stood still while her mother went out to the door with
+him and watched him to the last.
+
+Coming back, she threw her arms round her daughter, kissed her again
+and again, and, with showers of the glad tears long repressed, cried,
+'Oh, my Nuttie, my child, what joy!  How shall I be thankful enough!
+Your father, your dear father!  Now it is all right.'  Little sentences
+of ecstasy such as these, interspersed with caresses, all in the
+incoherence of overpowering delight, full of an absolute faith that the
+lost husband had loved her and been pining for her all these years, but
+that he had been unable to trace her, and was as happy as she was in
+the reunion.
+
+The girl was somewhat bewildered, but she was carried along by this
+flood of exceeding joy and gladness.  The Marmion and Theseus images
+had been dispelled by the reality, and, with Mr. Dutton's sharp reproof
+fresh upon her, she felt herself to have been doing a great injustice
+to her father; believed all that her mother did, and found herself the
+object of a romantic recognition--if not the beggar girl become a
+princess, at any rate, the little school-teacher a county lady!  And
+she had never seen her mother so wildly, overpoweringly happy with joy.
+That made her, too, feel that something grand and glorious had happened.
+
+'What are we going to do?' she asked, as the vehemence of Mrs.
+Egremont's emotion began to work itself off.
+
+'Home!  He takes us to his home!  _His_ home!' repeated her mother, in
+a trance of joy, as the yearnings of her widowed heart now were
+fulfilled.
+
+'Oh, but Aunt Ursel!'
+
+'Poor Aunt Ursel!  Oh, Nuttie, Nuttie, I had almost forgotten!  How
+could I?' and there was a shower of tears of compunction.  'But he said
+he owed everything to her!  She will come with us!  Or if she doesn't
+live with us, we will make her live close by in a dear little cottage.
+Where is she?  When did she go?  I never saw her go.'
+
+The sound of the front door was heard, for the visitor had been watched
+away and Miss Headworth was returning to her own house to be there
+received with another fervent gush of happiness, much more trying to
+her, poor thing, than to Nuttie.
+
+There was evensong imminent, and the most needful act at the moment was
+to compose the harmonium-player sufficiently for her to take her part.
+Miss Headworth was really glad of the necessity, since it put off the
+discussion, and made a reason for silencing Nuttie until all should be
+more recovered from the first agitation.  Alice Egremont herself was
+glad to carry her gratitude and thankfulness to the Throne of Grace,
+and in her voluntary, and all her psalms, there was an exulting strain
+that no one had thought the instrument capable of producing, and that
+went to the heart of more than one of her hearers.  No one who knew her
+could doubt that hers was simply innocent exultation in the recovery of
+him whom she so entirely loved and confided in.  But there could not
+but be terrible doubts whether he were worthy of that trust, and what
+the new page in her life would be.
+
+Miss Headworth had said they would not talk till after church, but
+there was no deferring the matter then.  She was prepared, however,
+when her niece came up to her in a tender deprecating manner, saying,
+'Aunt Ursel, dear Aunt Ursel, it does seem very ungrateful, but--'
+
+'He is going to take you away?  Yes, I saw that.  And it ought to be,
+my dear.  You know where?'
+
+'Yes; to London first, to be fitted out, and then to his own home. To
+Bridgefield Egremont.  I shall have to see Mr. Egremont,' and her voice
+sank with shame.  'But Mark will be good to me, and why should I care
+when I have him.'
+
+'It is quite right. I am glad it should be so,' firmly said the old
+lady.
+
+'And yet to leave you so suddenly.'
+
+'That can't be helped.'
+
+'And it will only be for a little while,' she added, 'till you can make
+arrangements to come to us.  My dear husband says he owes you
+everything.  So you must be with us, or close to us.'
+
+'My dear, it's very dear and good of you to think of it, but I must be
+independent.'  She put it in those words, unwilling again to speak
+unguardedly before Nuttie.
+
+'Oh, dear auntie, indeed you must!  Think what you are to us, and what
+you have done for us.  We can't go away to be happy and prosperous and
+leave you behind.  Can we, Nuttie?  Come and help me to get her to
+promise.  Do--do dearest auntie,' and she began the coaxing and
+caressing natural to her, but Nuttie did not join in it, and Miss
+Headworth shook her head and said gravely--
+
+'Don't, Alice.  It is of no use.  I tell you once for all that my mind
+is made up.'
+
+Alice, knowing by long experience that, when her aunt spoke in that
+tone, persuasion was useless, desisted, but looked at her in
+consternation, with eyes swimming in tears.  Nuttie understood her a
+little better, and felt the prickings of distrust again.
+
+'But, aunt, dear aunt, how can we leave you?  What will you do with all
+the boarders,' went on Mrs. Egremont.
+
+'I shall see my way, my dear.  Do not think about that.  It is a great
+thing to see you and this child receive justice.'
+
+'And only think, after all the hard things that have been said of him,
+that we should meet first at church!  He would not wait and send
+letters and messages by Mark.  You see he came down himself the first
+moment.  I always knew he would.  Only I am so sorry for him, that he
+should have lost all those sweet years when Nuttie was a tiny child.
+She must do all she can to make up to him.'
+
+'Oh dear!' broke out Nuttie.  'It is so strange!  It will be all so
+strange!'
+
+'It will be a very new life,' said her aunt, rather didactically; 'but
+you must do your best to be a good daughter, and to fill your new
+position, and I have no doubt you will enjoy it.'
+
+'If I could but take all with me!' said Nuttie.  'Oh dear! whatever
+will you do, Aunt Ursel?  Oh mother, the choir!  Who will play the
+harmonium? and who will lead the girls? and whatever will Mr. Spyers
+do? and who will take my class?  Mother, couldn't we stay a little
+longer to set things going here?'
+
+'It is nice of you to have thought of it, my dear,' said Mrs. Egremont,
+'but your father would not like to stay on here.'
+
+'But mightn't I stay, just a few days, mother, to wish everybody
+good-bye?  Mr. Dutton, and Miss Mary, and Gerard, and all the girls?'
+
+There was some consolation in this plan, and the three women rested on
+it that night, Mrs. Egremont recovering composure enough to write three
+or four needful notes, explaining her sudden departure.  The aunt could
+not talk of a future she so much dreaded for her nieces, losing in it
+the thought of her own loneliness; Alice kept back her own loving,
+tender, undoubting joy with a curious sense that it was hard and
+ungrateful towards the aunt; but it was impossible to think of that,
+and Nuttie was in many moods.
+
+Eager anticipation of the new unseen world beyond, exultation in
+finding herself somebody, sympathy with her mother's happiness, all had
+their share, but they made her all the wilder, because they were far
+from unmixed.  The instinctive dislike of Mr. Egremont's countenance,
+and doubt of his plausible story, which had vanished before his
+presence, and her mother's faith, returned upon her from time to time,
+caught perhaps from her aunt's tone and looks.  Then her aunt had been
+like a mother to her--her own mother much more like a sister, and the
+quitting her was a wrench not compensated for as in Mrs. Egremont's
+case by a more absorbing affection.  Moreover, Nuttie felt sure that
+poor Gerard Godfrey would break his heart.  As the mother and daughter
+for the last time lay down together in the room that had been theirs
+through the seventeen years of the girl's life, Alice fell asleep with
+a look of exquisite peace and content on her face, feeling her long
+term of trial crowned by unlooked-for joy, while Ursula, though
+respecting her slumbers too much to move, lay with wide-open eyes, now
+speculating on the strange future, now grieving over those she
+left--Aunt Ursel, Gerard, Mary, and all such; the schemes from which
+she was snatched, and then again consoling herself with the hope that,
+since she was going to be rich, she could at once give all that was
+wanted--the white altar cloth, the brass pitcher--nay, perhaps finish
+the church and build the school!  For had not some one said something
+about her position?  Oh yes, she had not thought of it before, but,
+since she was the elder brother's daughter, she must be the heiress!
+There was no doubt a grand beautiful story before her; she would
+withstand all sorts of fascinations, wicked baronets and earls
+innumerable, and come back and take Gerard by the hand, and say, 'Pride
+was quelled and love was free.'  Not that Gerard had ever uttered a
+word tending in that direction since he had been seven years old, but
+that would make it all the prettier; they would both be silently
+constant, till the time came, perhaps when she was of age.  Mother
+would like it, though _that_ father would certainly be horrid.  And how
+nice it would be to give Gerard everything, and they would go all over
+the Continent, and see pictures, and buy them, and see all the
+cathedrals and all the mountains.  But perhaps, since Mark Egremont had
+really been so generous in hunting up the cousin who was displacing
+him, she was bound in duty to marry him; perhaps he reckoned on her
+doing so.  She would be generous in her turn, give up all the wealth to
+him, and return to do and be everything to Micklethwayte.  How they
+would admire and bless her.  And oh! she was going to London
+to-morrow--London, which she so much wished to see--Westminster Abbey,
+British Museum, All Saints, National Gallery, no end of new dresses.
+
+Half-waking, half-dreaming, she spent the night which seemed long
+enough, and the light hours of the summer morning seemed still longer,
+before she could call it a reasonable time for getting up. Her
+splashings  awoke her mother, who lay smiling for a few moments,
+realising and giving thanks for her great joy, then bestirred herself
+with the recollection of all that had to be done on this busy morning
+before any summons from her husband could arrive.
+
+Combining packing and dressing, like the essentially unmethodical
+little woman she was, Mrs. Egremont still had all her beautiful silky
+brown hair about her shoulders when the bell of St. Ambrose's was heard
+giving its thin tinkling summons to matins at half-past seven. She was
+disappointed; she meant to have gone for this last time, but there was
+no help for it, and Nuttie set off by herself.
+
+Gerard Godfrey was at his own door.  He was not one of the regular
+attendants at the short service, being of that modern species that
+holds itself superior to 'Cranmer's prayers,' but on this morning he
+hastened up to her with outstretched hand.
+
+'And you are going away!' he said.
+
+'I hope to get leave to stay a few days after mother,' she said.
+
+'To prolong the torment?' he said.
+
+'To wish everybody good-bye.  It is a great piece of my life that is
+come to an end, and I can't bear to break it off so short.'
+
+'And if you feel so, who are going to wealth and pleasure, what must it
+be to those who are left behind?'
+
+'Oh!' said Nuttie, 'some one will be raised up.  That's what they
+always say.'
+
+'I shall go into a brotherhood,' observed Gerard desperately.
+
+'Oh, don't,' began Nuttie, much gratified, but at that moment Miss
+Nugent came out at her door, and Mr. Spyers, who was some way in
+advance, looked round and waited for them to come up.  He held out his
+hands to her and said, 'Well, Nuttie, my child, you are going to begin
+a new life.'
+
+'Oh dear!  I wish I could have both!' cried Nuttie, not very relevantly
+as far as the words went.
+
+'Scheiden und weiden thut weh!' quoted Mary.
+
+'If his place was only Monks Horton.  What will Aunt Ursel do?'
+
+'I think perhaps she may be induced to join us,' said Mary.  'We mean
+to do our best to persuade her.'
+
+'And there's the choir!  And my class, and the harmonium,' went on
+Nuttie, while Gerard walked on disconsolately.
+
+'Micklethwayte has existed without you, Nuttie,' said Mr. Spyers,
+taking her on with him alone.  'Perhaps it will be able to do so again.
+My dear, you had better look on.  There will be plenty for you to learn
+and to do where you are going, and you will be sure to find much to
+enjoy, and also something to bear.  I should like to remind you that
+the best means of going on well in this new world will be to keep self
+down and to have the strong desire that only love can give to be
+submissive, and to do what is right both to God and your father and
+mother.  May I give you a text to take with you? "Children, obey your
+parents in the Lord, for this is right."'
+
+They were at the door and there was no time for an answer, but Nuttie,
+as she took her place, was partly touched and partly fretted at the
+admonition.
+
+The question as to her remaining a day or two after her mother was soon
+disposed of.  Mrs. Egremont sent a pretty little note to make the
+request, but the elegant valet who appeared at ten o'clock brought a
+verbal message that his master wished Mrs. and Miss Egremont to be
+ready by two o'clock to join him in calling on Lady Kirkaldy at Monks
+Horton, and that if their luggage was ready by four o'clock, he
+(Gregorio) would take charge of it, as they were all to go up to town
+by the 4.40 train.
+
+'Did he have my note?' faltered Alice, stimulated by the imploring
+glances of aunt and daughter, but anticipating the answer.
+
+'Yes, madame, but he wishes that Miss Egremont should accompany you
+immediately.'
+
+'Of course,' was Alice's comment, 'now that he has found his child, he
+cannot bear to part with her.'
+
+And all through the farewells that almost rent the gentle Alice's heart
+in two, she was haunted by the terror that she or her daughter should
+have red eyes to vex her husband.  As to Mr. Dutton, he had only come
+in with Gerard in a great hurry just after breakfast, said there was
+much to do to-day at the office, as they were going to take stock, and
+they should neither of them have time to come home to luncheon.  He
+shook the hands of mother and daughter heartily, promised to 'look
+after' Miss Headworth, and bore off in his train young Gerard, looking
+the picture of woe, and muttering 'I believe he has got it up on
+purpose;' while mother and daughter thought it very odd, and rather
+unkind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+NEW PLUMES.
+
+  'And ye sall walk in silk attire,
+  And siller hae to spare.'--Old Ballad.
+
+
+The very best open fly and pair of horses, being the equipage most like
+a private carriage possessed by the Royal Hotel, came to the door with
+Mr. Egremont seated in it, at a few minutes after two o'clock, and
+found Alice in her only black silk, with a rose in her bonnet, and a
+tie to match on her neck, hastily procured as signs of her wifehood.
+
+She had swallowed her tears, and Nuttie was not a crying person, but
+was perfectly scarlet on her usually brown cheeks.  Her father muttered
+some civility about back seats, but it was plain that it was only in
+words, and she never thought of anything but looking back, with her
+last wave to her aunt and the two maids, one crying at the gate, the
+other at the door.
+
+'There,' said Mr. Egremont, as they drove away, 'that is over!'
+
+'My dear aunt,' said his wife.  'Who can express her goodness to me?'
+
+'Cela va sans dire,' was the reply.  'But these are connections that
+happily Ursula is young enough to forget and leave behind.'
+
+'I shall never forget!' began Nuttie, but she saw her father composing
+himself in his corner without paying the slightest heed to what she was
+saying, and she encountered a warning and alarmed glance from her
+mother, so she was forced to content herself with uttering silent vows
+of perpetual recollection as she passed each well-known object,--the
+unfinished church, with Mr. Spyers at the door talking to old Bellman;
+the Town Hall, whose concerts, lectures, and S. P. G. meetings had been
+her chief gaiety and excitement; the School of Art, where Lady
+Kirkaldy's appearance now seemed to her to have been like that of a
+bird of omen; past the shops in the High Street, with a little
+exultation at the thought of past desires which they had excited.  Long
+could she have rattled away, her hopes contradicting her regrets, and
+her regrets qualifying her anticipations, but she saw that her mother
+was nervous about every word and gesture, and fairly looked dismayed
+when she exclaimed, 'Oh, mother, there's Etta Smith; how surprised she
+will be!' bowing and smiling with all her might.
+
+There was a look of bare toleration on Mr. Egremont's face, as if he
+endured because it would soon be over, as Nuttie bowed several times,
+and his wife, though less quick to catch people's eyes, sometimes also
+made her recognition.  When the streets were past and Nuttie had aimed
+her last nods at the nursery parties out walking on the road, she
+became aware that those cold, lack-lustre, and yet sharply critical
+eyes of her father were scanning her all over.
+
+'She has been educated?' he presently said to his wife.
+
+'Oh yes,' was the eager answer.  'She is in the highest form at the
+High School, and has to go up for the Senior Local Examination.  Miss
+Belper makes sure that she will get a first class.'
+
+Mr. Egremont gave a little wave of the hand, as dismissing something
+superfluous, and said, 'I hope she has some accomplishments.'
+
+'She has done very fairly in French and German--'
+
+'And Latin,' put in Ursula.
+
+'And she has had several prizes at the School of Art.'
+
+'And music?  That's the only thing of any value in society,' he said
+impatiently, and Mrs. Egremont said more timidly, 'She has learnt music
+regularly.'
+
+'But I don't care about it,' broke in Nuttie.  'I haven't mother's ear
+nor her voice.  I learnt the science in case I should have to teach,
+and they make me practise.  I don't mind classical music, but I can't
+stand rubbish, and I think it is waste of time.'
+
+Mr. Egremont looked fairly amused, as at the outspoken folly of an
+enfant terrible, but he only said, either to his wife or to himself, 'A
+little polish, and then she may be fairly presentable.'
+
+'We have taken great pains with her,' answered the gentle mother,
+evidently taking this as a great compliment, while the daughter was
+tingling with indignation.  She, bred up by mother, and aunt, and Mary
+Nugent, to be barely presentable.  Was not their society at
+Micklethwayte equal in good manners to any, and superior, far superior,
+in goodness and intelligence to these stupid fashionable people, who
+undervalued all her real useful acquirements, and cared for nothing but
+trumpery music.
+
+The carriage entered the park, and Nuttie saw lake and woods from a
+fresh point of view.  The owners were both at home, and Nuttie found
+herself walking behind her parents into a cheerful apartment, half
+library, half morning-room.  Mrs. Egremont was by far the most shy and
+shrinking of the party, but it was an occasion that showed her
+husband's complete tact and savoir favre.  He knew perfectly well that
+the Kirkaldys knew all about it, and he therefore took the initiative.
+'You are surprised to see us,' he said, as he gave his hand, 'but we
+could not leave the country without coming to thank Lady Kirkaldy for
+her kindness in assisting in following up the clue to Mrs. Egremont's
+residence.'
+
+'I am very happy,' said Lady Kirkaldy, while all were being seated.
+
+'I think it was here that my nephew Mark first met one whom, child as
+he was, he could not but remember.'
+
+'I don't think you met him here,' said Lady Kirkaldy to Mrs. Egremont;
+'but he heard the name and was struck by it.'
+
+'Dear Mark!' was the response.  'He was so kind.'
+
+'He is a dear good boy,' chimed in my lady.
+
+'Yes,' said her lord, 'an excellent good fellow with plenty of brains.'
+
+'As he well knows,' said Mr. Egremont.  'Oh yes; I quite agree with all
+you say of him!  One ought to be thankful for the possession of a rare
+specimen.'
+
+It was in the tone in which Falstaff discussed that sober boy, Lord
+John of Lancaster.  Lord Kirkaldy asked if the visitors were going to
+remain long in the neighbourhood.
+
+'We are due in London to-night,' replied Mr. Egremont.  'We shall spend
+a day or two there, and then go home.  Alice,' he added, though his
+wife had never heard him call her so before, 'Lady Kirkaldy knows your
+inexperience.  Perhaps she would be good enough to give you some
+addresses that might be useful.'
+
+'I shall be delighted,' said the lady, cordially looking at the
+blushing Mrs. Egremont.
+
+'Dressmaker, and all the rest of it,' said Mr. Egremont.  'You know
+better than she does what she will require, and a little advice will be
+invaluable.  Above all, if you could tell her how to pick up a maid.'
+
+Lady Kirkaldy proposed to take the mother and daughter up to her
+dressing-room, where she kept her book of addresses to London
+tradesmen; and Mr. Egremont only begged that they would remember the
+4.40 train.  Then Lord Kirkaldy was left to entertain him, while the
+ladies went up the broad staircase to the pleasant room, which had a
+mingled look of refinement and usefulness which struck Nuttie at once.
+Lady Kirkaldy, as soon as the door was shut, took her visitor by the
+hand, kissed her forehead, and said, 'You must let me tell you how glad
+I am.'
+
+The crystal veil at once spread over Alice's eyes.
+
+'Oh, thank you. Lady Kirkaldy!  I am _so_ happy, and yet I am so
+afraid.  Please tell me what we shall _do_ so that we may not vex him,
+so high bred and fastidious as he is?'
+
+'Be yourself!  That's all, my dear,' said Lady Kirkaldy tenderly.
+'Don't be afraid.  You are quite incapable of doing anything that could
+distress the most fastidious taste.'
+
+It was perfectly true of the mother, perhaps less so of the daughter;
+but Lady Kirkaldy only thought of her as a mere girl, who could easily
+be modelled by her surroundings.  The kind hostess applied herself to
+giving the addresses of the people she thought likely to be most useful
+in the complete outfit which she saw would be necessary, explaining to
+which establishments she applied with confidence if she needed to
+complete her wardrobe in haste, feeling certain that nothing would be
+sent her that she disliked, and giving leave to use her name.  She soon
+saw that the mother was a little dazed, while Ursula's eyes grew
+rounder at the unlimited vista of fine clothes, and she assented, and
+asked questions as to the details.  As to a maid, Lady Kirkaldy would
+write to a person who would call on Mrs. Egremont at the hotel in
+London, and who might be what was wanted; and in conclusion, Lady
+Kirkaldy, with some diffidence, begged to be written to--'if--if,' she
+said, 'there happened to be any difficulty about which you might not
+like to consult Mrs. William Egremont.'  Nuttie hardly knew whether to
+be grateful or not, for she did not believe in any standard above that
+of Micklethwayte, and she was almost angry at her mother's grateful
+answer--'Oh, thank you!  I should be so grateful!  I am so afraid of
+annoying him by what he may think small, ignorant, country-town ways!
+You will understand--'
+
+Lady Kirkaldy did understand, and she dreaded what might be before the
+sweet little yielding woman, not from want of breeding so much as from
+the long-indulged selfishness of her husband; but she encouraged her as
+much as possible, and promised all possible counsel, bringing her
+downstairs again just in time.
+
+'Pretty little soul!' said Lord Kirkaldy, as the fly clattered away. 'I
+wonder whether Mark has done her a kindness!'
+
+'It is just what she is, a pretty, nay, a beautiful soul, full of
+tenderness and forgiveness and affection and humility, only I doubt
+whether there is any force or resolution to hold her own.  You smile!
+Well, perhaps the less of that she has the better she may get on with
+him.  Did he say anything about her?'
+
+'No; I think he wants to ignore that they have not spent the last
+twenty years together.'
+
+'That may be the best way for all parties.  Do you think he will behave
+well to her?'
+
+'No man could well do otherwise to such a sweet little thing,' said
+Lord Kirkaldy; 'especially as she will be his most obedient slave, and
+will make herself necessary to him.  It is much better luck than he
+deserves; but I pity her when she comes to make her way with yon
+ladies!'
+
+'I wish I was there!  I know she will let herself be trodden on!
+However, there's Mark to stand up for her, and William Egremont will do
+whatever he thinks right and just.  I wish I knew how his wife will
+take it!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+BRIDGEFIELD EGREMONT.
+
+  'Let us see these handsome houses
+  Where the wealthy nobles dwell.'--TENNYSON.
+
+
+'Mother, mother!' cried two young people, bursting open the door of the
+pretty dining-room of Bridgefield Rectory, where the grown-up part of
+the family were lingering over a late breakfast.
+
+'Gently, gently, children,' said the dignified lady at the head of the
+table.  'Don't disturb papa.'
+
+'But we really have something to say, mother!' said the elder girl,
+'and Fraulein said you ought to know.  Uncle Alwyn is come home, and
+Mrs. Egremont.  And please, are we to call her Aunt Egremont, or Aunt
+Alwyn, or what?'
+
+The desired sensation was produced.  Canon Egremont put down his
+newspaper.  The two elder sisters looked from one to the other in
+unmitigated astonishment.  Mark briefly made answer to the final
+question, 'Aunt Alice,' and Mrs. Egremont said gravely, 'How did you
+hear this, Rosalind?  You know I always forbid you to gossip.'
+
+'We didn't gossip, mother.  We went up to the gardens to get some
+mulberries for our half-holiday feast; and Ronaldson came out and told
+us we must ask leave first, for the ladies were come.  The Squire came
+home at nine o'clock last night, and Mrs. Egremont and all, and only
+sent a telegram two hours before to have the rooms got ready.'
+
+'Has Uncle Alwyn gone and got himself married?' exclaimed one of the
+young ladies, in utter amazement.
+
+'Not just now, Blanche,' said her father.  'It is an old story now.
+Your uncle married this lady, who had been governess to May and Mark,
+many years ago, and from--circumstances in which she was not at all to
+blame, he lost sight of her while he was abroad with old General
+Egremont.  Mark met her about a fortnight ago, and this has led to your
+uncle's going in quest of her, though he has certainly been more sudden
+in his proceedings than I expected.'
+
+The mother here succeeded in sending Rosalind and Adela, with their
+wondering eyes, off the scene, and she would much have liked to send
+her two stepdaughters after them, but one-and-twenty and eighteen could
+not so readily be ordered off as twelve and ten; and Mark, who had been
+prohibited from uttering a word to his sisters, was eagerly examining
+Margaret whether she remembered their Edda; but she had been only three
+years old at the time of the adventures in the Isle of Wight, and
+remembered nothing distinctly but the aspect of one of the sailors in
+the yacht.
+
+'Well,' said Mrs. Egremont, 'this has come very suddenly upon us.  It
+would have been more for her own dignity if she had held out a little
+before coming so easily to terms, after the way in which she has been
+treated.'
+
+'When you see her, mother, you will understand,' said Mark.
+
+'Shall we have to be intimate with her?' asked May.
+
+'I desire that she should be treated as a relation,' said the Canon
+decidedly.  'There is nothing against her character,' and, as his wife
+was about to interrupt,--'nothing but an indiscretion to which she was
+almost driven many years ago.  She was cruelly treated, and I for one
+am heartily sorry for having let myself be guided by others.'
+
+Mrs. William Egremont felt somewhat complacent, for she knew he meant
+Lady de Lyonnais, and there certainly had been no love lost between her
+and her step-children's grandmother; but she was a sensible woman, and
+forbore to speak, though there was a mental reservation that intimacy
+would a good deal depend upon circumstances.  Blanche cried out that it
+was a perfect romance, and May gravely said, 'But is she a lady?'
+
+'A perfect lady,' said Mark.  'Aunt Margaret says so.'
+
+'One knows what a perfect lady means,' returned May.
+
+'Come, May,' said Mrs. Egremont, 'do not let us begin with a prejudice.
+By all accounts the poor thing has conducted herself with perfect
+respectability all this time.  What did you tell me, Mark? She has been
+living with an aunt, keeping a school at Micklethwayte.'
+
+'Not quite,' said Mark.  'She has been acting as a daily governess. She
+seemed to be on friendly terms with the clerical folk.  I came across
+the name at a school feast, or something of the kind, which came off in
+the Kirkaldys' park.'
+
+'Oh, then, I know exactly the sort of person!' returned May, pursing up
+her lips.
+
+Mark laughed and said, 'I wonder whether it is too soon to go up and
+see them.  I wonder what my uncle thinks of his daughter.'
+
+'What!  You don't mean to say there is a daughter?' cried May.
+
+'Even so.  And exactly like you too, Miss May.'
+
+'Then you are cut out, Mark!'
+
+'You are cut out, I think, May.  You'll have to give her all your Miss
+Egremont cards.'
+
+'No,' said the young lady; 'mother made me have my Christian name
+printed.  She said all but the daughters of the head of the family
+ought to have it so.  I'm glad of it.'
+
+'How old is she?' asked Blanche.
+
+'About a year younger than you.'
+
+'I think it is very interesting,' said Blanche.  'How wonderful it must
+all be to her!  I will go up with you, Mark, as soon as I can get
+ready.'
+
+'You had better wait till later in the day, Blanche,' said the mother.
+She knew the meeting was inevitable, but she preferred having it under
+her own eye, if she could not reconnoitre.
+
+She was a just and sensible woman, who felt reparation due to the
+newly-discovered sister-in-law, and that harmony, or at least the
+appearance of it, must be preserved; but she was also exclusive and
+fastidious by nature, and did not look forward to the needful
+intercourse with much satisfaction either on her own account or that of
+her family.
+
+She told Mark to say that she should come to see Mrs. Egremont after
+luncheon, since he was determined to go at once, and moreover to drag
+his father with him.  Canon Egremont was a good and upright man,
+according to his lights, which were rather those of a well-beneficed
+clergyman of the first than of the last half of the century,
+intensified perhaps that the passive voice was the strongest in him.
+All the country knew that Canon Egremont could be relied on to give a
+prudent, scholarly judgment, and to be kind and liberal, when once
+induced to stir mind or body--but how to do that was the problem.  He
+had not been a young man at the time of his first marriage, and was
+only a few years' junior to his brother, though he had the fresh,
+wholesome look of a man who kept regular hours and lived much in the
+air.
+
+Alice knew him at once, and thought eighteen years had made little
+change, as, at Nuttie's call to her, she looked from the window and saw
+the handsome, dignified, gray-haired, close-shaven rosy face, and the
+clerical garb unchanged in favour of long coats and high waistcoats.
+
+The mother and daughter were exploring the house together.  Mr.
+Egremont had made it known that he preferred having his breakfast
+alone, and not being disturbed in the forenoon.  So the two ladies had
+breakfasted together at nine, the earliest hour at which they could
+prevail on the household to give them a meal.  Indeed Nuttie had slept
+till nearly that time, for between excitement and noise, her London
+slumbers had been broken; and her endeavour to keep Micklethwayte hours
+had resulted in a long, weary, hungry time in the sitting-room of the
+hotel, with nothing to do, when the gaze from the window palled on her,
+but to write to her aunt and Mary Nugent.  The rest of the day had been
+spent in driving about in a brougham with her mother shopping, and this
+she could not but enjoy exceedingly, more than did the timid Mrs.
+Egremont, who could not but feel herself weighted with responsibility;
+and never having had to spend at the utmost more than ten pounds at a
+time, felt bewildered at the cheques put into her hands, and then was
+alarmed to find them melting away faster than she expected.
+
+There was a very late dinner, after which Mr. Egremont, on the first
+day, made his wife play bezique with him.  She enjoyed it, as a tender
+reminiscence of the yachting days; but Nuttie found herself de trop,
+and was reduced to the book she had contrived to purchase on her
+travels.  The second night Mr. Egremont had picked up two friends, not
+yet gone out of town, whose talk was of horses and of yachts, quite
+incomprehensible to the ladies.  They were very attentive to Mrs.
+Egremont, whom they evidently admired, one so visibly as to call up a
+blush; but they disregarded the daughter as a schoolgirl.  Happily they
+appeared no more after the dinner; but Nuttie's first exclamation of
+astonished disgust was silenced at once by her mother with unusual
+determination, 'You must not speak so of your father's friends.'
+
+'Not when--'
+
+'Not at all,' interrupted Mrs. Egremont.
+
+The only sense of promotion to greatness that Ursula had yet enjoyed
+was in these fine clothes, and the maid whom Lady Kirkaldy had
+recommended, a grave and severe-looking person, of whom both stood
+somewhat in awe.  The arrival at Bridgefield had been too late for
+anything to be taken in but a general impression of space and
+dreariness, and the inevitable dinner of many courses, after which
+Nuttie was so tired out that her mother sent her to bed.
+
+Since the waking she had made some acquaintance with the house. There
+was no show of domestics, no curtseying housekeeper to parade the new
+mistress over the house; Mr. Egremont had told his wife that she must
+fill up the establishment as she pleased, but that there was an
+admirable cook downstairs, and he would not have her interfered
+with--she suited his tastes as no one else did, and she must be left to
+deal with the provisions and her own underlings.  There was a stable
+establishment, and a footman had been hired in town, but there was
+besides only one untidy-looking housemaid, who began by giving warning;
+and Alice and Nuttie had roamed about without meeting any one from the
+big wainscotted dining-room with faded crimson curtains and family
+portraits, the older grimy, the younger chalky, to the two
+drawing-rooms, whose gilding and pale blue damask had been preserved by
+pinafores of brown holland; the library, which looked and smelt as if
+Mr. Egremont was in the habit of sitting there, and a big
+billiard-room, all opening into a shivery-feeling hall, with Scagliola
+columns and a few dirty statues between them; then upstairs to a
+possible morning-room, looking out over a garden lawn, where mowing was
+going on in haste, and suites of dreary shut-up fusty bedrooms.
+Nuttie, who had notions of choosing her own bower, could not make up
+her mind which looked the least inviting.  It did not seem as if girls
+could ever have laughed together, or children clattered up and down the
+stairs.  Mrs. Egremont begged her to keep possession for the present at
+least of the chamber where the grim housemaid had chosen to put her,
+and which had the advantage of being aired.
+
+The two windows looked out over the park, and thence it was that while
+Morris, the maid, was unpacking and putting away the new purchases, and
+Nuttie was standing, scarcely realising that such pretty hats and
+bonnets could be her very own, when her mother beheld the Canon and
+Mark advancing up the drive.  It was with a great start that she called
+Ursula to come down directly with her, as no one would know where to
+find them, hastily washing the hands that had picked up a sense of
+dustiness during the exploration, and taking a comprehensive glance in
+the cheval glass, which showed her some one she felt entirely
+unfamiliar to her in a dainty summer costume of pale gray silk picked
+out with a mysterious shade of pink.  Ursula too thought Miss
+Egremont's outer woman more like a Chelsea shepherdess than Nuttie's
+true self, as she tripped along in her buckled shoes and the sea green
+stockings that had been sent home with her skirt.  With crimson cheeks
+and a throbbing heart, Alice was only just at the foot of the stairs
+when the newcomers had made their way in, and the kind Canon, ignoring
+all that was past, held out his hands saying, 'Well, my dear, I am glad
+to see you here,' kissing Mrs. Egremont on each cheek.  'And so this is
+your daughter.  How do you do, my dear--Ursula?  Isn't that your name?'
+And Ursula had again to submit to a kiss, much more savoury and kindly
+than her father's, though very stubbly.  And oh! her uncle's dress was
+like that of no one she had ever seen except the rector of the old
+church, the object of unlimited contempt to the adherents of St.
+Ambrose's.
+
+As to Mark, he only kissed his aunt, and shook hands with her, while
+his father ran on with an unusual loquacity that was a proof of
+nervousness in him.
+
+'Mrs. Egremont--Jane, I mean--will be here after luncheon.  She thought
+you would like to get settled in first.  How is Alwyn?  Is he down yet?'
+
+'I will see,' in a trembling voice.
+
+'Oh no, never mind, Alwyn hates to be disturbed till he has made
+himself up in the morning.  My call is on you, you know.  Where are you
+sitting?'
+
+'I don't quite know.  In the drawing-room, I suppose.'
+
+The Canon, knowing the house much better than she did, opened a door
+into a third drawing-room she had not yet seen, a pretty little room,
+fitted up with fluted silk, like a tent, somewhat faded but not much
+the worse for that, and opening into a conservatory, which seemed to
+have little in it but some veteran orange trees.  Nuttie, however,
+exclaimed with pleasure at the nicest room she had seen, and Mark began
+unfastening the glass door that led into it.  Meantime Alice, with
+burning cheeks and liquid eyes, nerved her voice to say, 'Oh, sir--Mr.
+Egremont--please forgive me!  I know now how wrong I was.'
+
+'Nonsense, my dear.  Bygones are bygones.  You were far more sinned
+against than sinning, and have much to forgive me.  There, my dear, we
+will say no more about it, nor think of it either.  I am only too
+thankful that poor Alwyn should have some one to look after him.'
+
+Alice, who had dreaded nothing more than the meeting with her former
+master, was infinitely relieved and grateful for this kindness.  She
+had ejaculated, 'Oh, you are so good!' in the midst, and now at the
+mention of her husband, she exclaimed, 'Oh! do you think he is ill? I
+can't help being afraid he is, but he will not tell me, and does not
+like to be asked.'
+
+'Poor fellow, he has damaged his health a good deal,' was the answer.
+'He had a sharp attack in the spring, but he has pretty well got over
+it, and Raikes told me there was no reason for uneasiness, provided he
+would be careful; and that will be a much easier matter now.  I should
+not wonder if we saw him with quite a renewed youth.'
+
+So the Canon and Mrs. Egremont were getting on pretty well together,
+but there was much more stiffness and less cordiality between the two
+cousins, although Mark got the window open into the conservatory, and
+showed Nuttie the way into the garden, advising her to ask Ronaldson,
+the gardener, to fill the conservatory with flowers.  The pavilion, as
+this little room was called, always seemed to have more capacities for
+being lived in than any other room in the house.  It had been fitted up
+when such things were the fashion for the shortlived bride of 'our
+great uncle.'
+
+'The colour must have been awful then,' said Mark, looking up at it,
+'enough to set one's teeth on edge; but it has faded into something
+quite orthodox--much better than could be manufactured for you.'
+
+Mark had evidently some ideas of art, and was besides inclined to do
+the honours to the stranger; but Nuttie was not going to encourage him
+or anybody else to make up to her, while she had that look of Gerard
+Godfrey's in her mind's eye.  So she made small answer, and he felt
+rebuffed, but supposed her shy, and wondered when he could go back to
+her mother, who was so much more attractive.
+
+Presently his father went off to storm the den of the master of the
+house, and there was a pleasant quarter of an hour, during which the
+three went out through the conservatory, and Mark showed the
+ins-and-outs of the garden, found out Ronaldson, and congratulated him
+on having some one at last to appreciate his flowers, begging him to
+make the conservatory beautiful.  And Mrs. Egremont's smile was so
+effective that the Scot forthwith took out his knife and presented her
+with the most precious of the roses within his reach.
+
+Moreover Mark told the names and ages of all his sisters, whole and
+half.  He was the only son, except a little fellow in the nursery. And
+he exhorted his aunt not to be afraid of his step-mother, who was a
+most excellent person, he declared, but who never liked to see any one
+afraid of her.
+
+There was something a little alarming in this, but on the whole the
+visit was very pleasant and encouraging to Mrs. Egremont; and she began
+rejoicing over the kindness as soon as the Canon had summoned his son,
+and they had gone away together.
+
+'I am sure you must be delighted with your uncle and cousin, my dear,'
+she said.
+
+'He's not a bit my notion of a priest,' returned Nuttie.  'And I don't
+believe he has any daily prayers!'
+
+'He is old-fashioned, my dear.'
+
+'One of the stodgey old clergymen in books,' observed Nuttie.  'I
+didn't think there were any of that sort left.'
+
+'Oh, my dear, pray don't take fancies into your head!  He is a very,
+very good man, and has been most kind to me, far more than I deserve,
+and he is your uncle, Nuttie.  I do so hope you will get on well with
+your cousins.'
+
+Here a gong, a perfectly unknown sound to Nuttie, made itself heard,
+and rather astonished her by the concluding roar.  The two ladies came
+out into the hall as Mr. Egremont was crossing it.  He made an
+inclination of the head, and uttered a sort of good morning to his
+daughter, but she was perfectly content to have no closer salutation.
+Having a healthy noonday appetite, her chief wish was at the moment
+that those beautiful little cutlets, arranged in a crown form, were not
+so very tiny; or that, with two men-servants looking on, it were
+possible to attain to a second help, but she had already learnt that
+Gregorio would not hear her, and that any attempt to obtain more food
+frightened her mother.
+
+'So his reverence has been to see you,' observed Mr. Egremont.
+'William, if you like it better.'
+
+'Oh yes, and he was kindness itself!'
+
+'And how did Master Mark look at finding I could dispense with his
+assistance?'
+
+'I think he is very glad.'
+
+Mr. Egremont laughed.  'You are a simple woman, Edda!  The pose of
+virtuous hero was to have been full compensation for all that it might
+cost him!  And no doubt he looks for the reward of virtue likewise.'
+
+Wherewith he looked full at Ursula, who, to her extreme vexation, felt
+herself blushing up to the ears.  She fidgeted on her chair, and began
+a most untrue 'I'm sure--' for, indeed, the poor girl was sure of
+nothing, but that her father's manner was most uncomfortable to her.
+His laugh choked whatever she might have said, which perhaps was well,
+and her mother's cheeks glowed as much as hers did.
+
+'Did the Canoness--Jane, I mean--come up?' Mr. Egremont went on.
+
+'Mrs. Egremont?  No; she sent word that she is coming after luncheon.'
+
+'Hm!  Then I shall ride out and leave you to her majesty.  Now look
+you, Alice, you are to be very careful with William's wife.  She is a
+Condamine, you know, and thinks no end of herself, and your position
+among the women-folk of the county depends more on how she takes you up
+than anything else.  But that doesn't mean that you are to let her give
+herself airs and domineer over you.  Remember you are the elder
+brother's wife--Mrs. Egremont of Bridgefield Egremont--and she is
+nothing but a parson's wife, and I won't have her meddling in my house.
+Only don't you be absurd and offend her, for she can do more for or
+against you in society than any one else--more's the pity!'
+
+'Oh! won't you stay and help me receive her?' exclaimed the poor lady,
+utterly confused by these contrary directions.
+
+'Not I!  I can't abide the woman! nor she me!'  He added, after a
+moment, 'You will do better without me.'
+
+So he went out for his ride, and Ursula asked, 'Oh, mother! what will
+you do?'
+
+'The best I can, my dear.  They are good people, and are sure to be
+kinder than I deserve.'
+
+Nuttie was learning that her mother would never so much as hear, far
+less answer, a remark on her husband.  It was beginning to make a sore
+in the young heart that a barrier was thus rising, where there once had
+been as perfect oneness and confidence as could exist between two
+natures so dissimilar, though hitherto the unlikeness had never made
+itself felt.
+
+Mrs. Egremont turned the conversation to the establishing themselves in
+the pavilion, whither she proceeded to import some fancy-work that she
+had bought in London, and sent Nuttie to Ronaldson, who was arranging
+calceolarias, begonias, and geraniums in the conservatory, to beg for
+some cut-flowers for a great dusty-looking vase in the centre of the
+table.
+
+These were being arranged when Mrs. William Egremont and Miss Blanche
+Egremont were ushered in, and there were the regular kindred embraces,
+after which Alice and Nuttie were aware of a very handsome,
+dignified-looking lady, well though simply dressed in what was
+evidently her home costume, with a large shady hat and feather, her
+whole air curiously fitting the imposing nickname of the Canoness.
+Blanche was a slight, delicate-looking, rather pretty girl in a
+lawn-tennis dress.  The visitor took the part of treating the newcomers
+as well-established relations.
+
+'We would not inundate you all at once,' she said, 'but the children
+are all very eager to see their cousin.  I wish you would come down to
+the Rectory with me.  My ponies are at the door.  I would drive you,
+and Ursula might walk with Blanche.'  And, as Alice hesitated for a
+moment, considering how this might agree with the complicated
+instructions that she had received, she added, 'Never mind Alwyn.  I
+saw him going off just before I came up, and he told William he was
+going to look at some horses at Hale's, so he is disposed of for a good
+many hours.'
+
+Alice decided that her husband would probably wish her to comply, and
+she rejoiced to turn her daughter in among the cousins, so hats,
+gloves, and parasols were fetched, and the two mothers drove away with
+the two sleek little toy ponies.  By which it may be perceived that
+Mrs. William Egremont's first impressions were favourable.
+
+'It is the shortest way through the gardens,' said Blanche.  'Have you
+been through them yet?'
+
+'Mark walked about with us a little.'
+
+'You'll improve them ever so much.  There are great capabilities. Look,
+you could have four tennis courts on this one lawn.  We wanted to have
+a garden-party up here last year, and father said we might, but mother
+thought Uncle Alwyn might think it a liberty; but now you'll have some
+delicious ones?  Of course you play lawn-tennis?'
+
+'I have seen it a very few times,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Oh, we must teach you!  Fancy living without lawn-tennis!' said
+Blanche.  'I always wonder what people did without it.  Only'--with an
+effort at antiquarianism--'I believe they had croquet.'
+
+'Aunt Ursula says there weren't garden-parties before croquet came in.'
+
+'How dreadful, Ursula!  Your name's Ursula, isn't it?  Haven't you some
+jolly little name to go by?'
+
+'Nuttie.'
+
+'Nuttie!  That's scrumptious!  I'll call you Nuttie, and you may call
+me Pussycat.'
+
+'That's not so nice as Blanche.'
+
+'Mother won't have me called so when strangers are there, but you
+aren't a stranger, you know.  You must tell me all about yourself, and
+how you came never to learn tennis!'
+
+'I had something else to do,' said Nuttie, with dignity.
+
+'Oh, you were in the schoolroom!  I forgot.  Poor little Nuts!'
+
+'At school,' said Ursula.
+
+'Ah, I remember!  But you're out now, aren't you?  I've been out since
+this spring.  Mother won't let us come out till we are eighteen, isn't
+it horrid?  And we were so worked there!  I can tell you a finishing
+governess is an awful institution!  Poor little Rosie and Adey will be
+in for one by and by.  At present they've only got a jolly little
+Fraulein that they can do anything they please with.'
+
+'Oh, I wonder if she would tell me of some German books!'
+
+'You don't mean that you want to read German!' and Blanche stood still,
+and looked at her cousin in astonishment.
+
+'Why, what else is the use of learning it?'
+
+'Oh, I don't know.  Every one does.  If one went abroad or to court,
+you know,' said Blanche vaguely; but Ursula had now a fresh subject of
+interest; for, on emerging from the shrubbery, they came in sight of a
+picturesque but not very architectural church, which had the smallest
+proportion of wall and the largest of roof, and a pretty oriel-windowed
+schoolhouse covered with clematis.  Nuttie rushed into inquiries about
+services and schools, and was aghast at hearing of mere Sundays and
+saints' days.
+
+'Oh no! father isn't a bit Ritualistic.  I wish he was, it would be so
+much prettier; and then he always advertises for curates of moderate
+views, and they are so stupid.  You never saw such a stick as we have
+got now, Mr. Edwards; and his wife isn't a lady, I'm sure.'
+
+Then as to schools, it was an absolute amazement to Nuttie to find that
+the same plans were in force as had prevailed when her uncle had come
+to the living and built that pretty house--nay, were kept up at his
+sole expense, because he liked old-fashioned simplicity, and did not
+choose to be worried with Government inspection.
+
+'And,' said Blanche, 'every one says our girls work ever so much
+better, and make nicer servants than those that are crammed with all
+sorts of nonsense not fit for them.'
+
+As to the Sunday school.  Mother and the curate take care of that. I'm
+sure, if you like it, you can have my class, for I always have a
+headache there, and very often I can't go.  Only May pegs away at it,
+and she won't let me have the boys, who are the only jolly ones,
+because she says I spoil them.  But you must be my friend--mind,
+Nuttie, not May's, for we are nearer the same age.  When is your
+birthday?  You must put it down in my book!'
+
+Nuttie, who had tolerable experience of making acquaintance with new
+girls, was divided between a sense of Blanche's emptiness, and the
+warmth excited by her friendliness, as well as of astonishment at all
+she heard and saw.
+
+Crossing the straggling, meandering village street, the cousins entered
+the grounds of the Rectory, an irregular but well-kept building of the
+soft stone of the country, all the garden front of it a deep verandah
+that was kept open in summer, but closed with glass frames in the
+winter--flower-beds lying before it, and beyond a lawn where the young
+folk were playing at the inevitable lawn-tennis.
+
+Margaret was not so pretty as Blanche, but had a more sensible face,
+and her welcome to Ursula was civil but reserved.  Rosalind and Adela
+were bright little things, in quite a different style from their
+half-sisters, much lighter in complexion and promising to be handsomer
+women.  They looked full of eagerness and curiosity at the new cousin,
+whom Blanche set down on a bank, and proceeded to instruct in the
+mysteries of the all-important game by comments and criticisms on the
+players.
+
+As soon as Mark and Adela had come out conquerors, Ursula was called on
+to take her first lesson.  May resigned her racket, saying she had
+something to do, and walked off the field, and carrying off with her
+Adela, who, as Blanche said, 'had a spine,' and was ordered to lie down
+for an hour every afternoon.  The cheerfulness with which she went
+spoke well for the training of the family.
+
+Nuttie was light-footed and dexterous handed, and accustomed to active
+amusements, so that, under the tuition of her cousins, she became a
+promising pupil, and thawed rapidly, even towards Mark.
+
+She was in the midst of her game when the two mothers came out, for the
+drive had been extended all round the park, under pretext of showing it
+to its new mistress, but really to give the Canoness an opportunity of
+judging of her in a tete-a-tete.  Yet that sensible woman had asked no
+alarming questions on the past, still less had offered any advice that
+could seem like interference.  She had only named localities, mentioned
+neighbours, and made little communications about the ways of the place
+such as might elicit remarks; and, as Alice's voice betrayed less and
+less constraint, she ventured on speaking of their daughters, so as to
+draw forth some account of how Ursula might have been educated.
+
+And of this, Alice was ready and eager to talk, telling how clever and
+how industrious Nuttie had always been, and how great an advantage Miss
+Nugent's kindness was, and how she was hoping to go up for the
+Cambridge examination; then, detecting some doubt in her companion's
+manner, she said, 'It would be a great disappointment to her not to do
+so now.  Do you think she had better not?'
+
+'I don't think she will find time to go on with the preparation! And,
+to tell the truth, I don't think we are quite ripe for such things in
+this county.  We are rather backward, and Ursula, coming in fresh upon
+us, might find it a disadvantage to be thought much cleverer than other
+people.'
+
+'Ah!  I was not quite sure whether her father would like it.'
+
+'I do not think he would.  I am sure that if my little Rose were to
+take it into her head, I should have hard work to get her father's
+consent, though no doubt the world will have progressed by the time she
+is old enough.'
+
+'That settles it,' said Alice.  'Thank you, Mrs. Egremont.  I own,' she
+added presently, 'that I do somewhat regret that it cannot be, for I
+thought that a motive for keeping up her studies would be helpful to my
+child;--I do not mean for the sake of the studies, but of the--the
+balance in all this change and novelty.'
+
+'You are quite right, I have felt it myself,' said her sister-in-law.
+'Perhaps something could be done by essay societies.  May belongs to
+one, and if Ursula is an intellectual girl, perhaps you could keep her
+up to some regular employment in the morning.  I succeeded in doing so
+when May came out, but I can accomplish nothing regular but music with
+Blanche; and an hour's steady practice a day is better than nothing.'
+
+The drive was on the whole a success, and so was the tea-drinking in
+the verandah, where Aunt Alice and little five-years old Basil became
+fast friends and mutual admirers; the Canon strolled out and was
+installed in the big, cushioned basket-chair that crackled under his
+weight; Blanche recounted Nuttie's successes, and her own tennis
+engagements for the week; Mark lay on a rug and teased her, and her
+dachshund; Nuttie listened to the family chatter as if it were a play,
+and May dispensed the cups, and looked grave and severe.
+
+'Well?' said the Canon anxiously, when Mark, Blanche, and little Basil
+had insisted on escorting the guests home, and he and his wife were for
+a few minutes tete-a-tete.
+
+'It might have been much worse,' said the lady.  'She is a good little
+innocent thing, and has more good sense than I expected. Governessy,
+that's all, but she will shake out of that.'
+
+'Of course she will.  It's the best thing imaginable for Alwyn!'
+
+His wife kept back the words, 'A hundred times too good for Alwyn!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+LAWN-TENNIS.
+
+  'Madam, the guests are come, supper served up,
+  My young lady asked for!'--Romeo and Juliet.
+
+
+A garden-party, Mrs. William Egremont decided, would be the best mode
+of testifying her approbation of her sister-in-law, and introducing the
+newcomers to the neighbourhood.  So the invitations were sent forth for
+an early day of the coming week.
+
+From how many points of view was Mrs. William Egremont's garden-party
+regarded, and how different!  There was Basil, to whom it meant wearing
+his velvet suit and eating as many ices as mother would allow.  To
+Blanche, it was an occasion for triumph on the tennis ground for
+herself, and for hopes for her pupil; and Ursula herself looked forward
+to it and practised for it like a knight for his first encounter in the
+lists, her sole care being to distinguish herself with her racket.  To
+her mother, it was an ordeal, where she trusted not to be a
+mortification to her husband and his family; while to the hostess, it
+was a not unwelcome occasion of exercising honest diplomacy and tact,
+not without a sense of magnanimity.  To May, it was a bore to be
+endured with dutiful philosophy; to her good-natured father an occasion
+for hospitality, where he trusted that his brother would appear, and
+appear to advantage, and was ready even to bribe him thereto with that
+wonderful claret that Alwyn had always envied, and declared to be
+wasted on a parson.  And Mark, perhaps he viewed the occasion with
+different eyes from any one else.  At any rate, even the denizens of
+Bridgefield mustered there with as many minds as Scott ascribes to the
+combatants of Bannockburn, and there were probably as many other
+circles of feeling more or less intersecting one another among the more
+distant guests, most of them, however, with the same feeling of
+curiosity as to what this newly-discovered wife and daughter of Alwyn
+Egremont might be like.
+
+Externally, in her rich black silk, trimmed with point lace, and her
+little straw-coloured bonnet with its tuft of feathery grass and blue
+cornflower, she was so charming that her daughter danced round her,
+crying, 'O mammy, mammy, if they could but see you at home'--then, at a
+look: 'Well then--Aunt Ursel, and Miss Mary, and Mr. Dutton!'
+
+Nuttie was very much pleased with her own pretty tennis dress; but she
+had no personal vanity for herself, only for her mother.  The knowledge
+that she was no beauty was no grievance to her youthful spirits; but
+when her father surveyed them in the hall, she looked for his verdict
+for her mother as if their relations were reversed.
+
+'Ha!  Well, you certainly are a pretty creature, Edda,' he said
+graciously.  'You'll pass muster!  You want nothing but style.  And,
+hang it! you'll do just as well without it, if the Canoness will only
+do you justice.  Faces like that weren't given for nothing.'
+
+She blushed incarnadine and accepted one of his kisses with a pleasure,
+at which Nuttie wondered, her motherly affection prompting her to
+murmur in his ear--
+
+'And Ursula?'
+
+'She'll not cut you out; but she is Egremont enough to do very fairly.
+Going already?'
+
+'If you would come with us,' she said wistfully, to the horror of
+Nuttie, who was burning to be at the beginning of all the matches.
+
+'I? oh no!  I promised old Will to look in, but that won't be till late
+in the day, or I shall have to go handing all the dowagers into the
+dining-room to tea.'
+
+'Then I think we had better go on.  They asked us to come early, so as
+to see people arrive and know who they are.'
+
+_They_ was a useful pronoun to Alice, who felt it a liberty to call her
+grand-looking sister-in-law, Jane--was too well-bred to term her Mrs.
+William.
+
+The mother and daughter crossed the gardens, Nuttie chattering all the
+way about the tennis tactics she had picked up from Blanche, while her
+mother answered her somewhat mechanically, wondering, as her eye fell
+on the square squat gray church tower, what had become of the earnest
+devotion to church work and intellectual pursuits that used to
+characterise the girl.  True, always both mother and daughter had
+hitherto kept up their church-going, and even their Sunday-school
+habits, nor had any hindrance come in their way, Mr. Egremont
+apparently acquiescing in what he never shared.  But these things
+seemed, in Ursula's mind, to have sunk out of the proportion they held
+at Bridgefield, no longer to be the spirit of a life, but mere Sunday
+duties and occupations.
+
+Was this wicked world getting a hold of the poor child?  Which was
+duty? which was the world?  This was the thought that perplexed Alice,
+too simple as yet to perceive that Ursula's former absorption had been
+in the interests that surrounded her and her companions, exactly as
+they were at present, and that the real being had yet to work itself
+out.
+
+For herself, Alice did not think at all.  She was rejoicing in her
+restored husband, and his evident affection.  Her duty towards him was
+in her eyes plain.  She saw, of course, that he had no religion, but
+she accepted the fact like that of bad weather; she loved him, and she
+loved her daughter; she said her prayers with all her heart for them,
+she hoped, and she did her best, without trying to go below the surface.
+
+There was the Rectory gate wide open.  There was Basil rushing up to
+greet his dear Aunt Alice, there were all the windows and doors of the
+Rectory open, and the nearer slopes covered with chairs and seats of
+all dimensions, some under trees, some umbelliferous, and glowing
+Afghan rugs, or spotted skins spread for those who preferred the
+ground.  There was Blanche flitting about wild with excitement, and
+pouncing on Nuttie to admire her outfit, and reiterate instructions;
+there were the two younger girls altering the position of chairs
+according to their mother's directions; there were actually two
+guests--not very alarming ones, only the curate and his wife, both
+rather gaunt, bony people.  He was button-holing the Canon, and she was
+trying to do the same by the Canoness about some parish casualty. The
+Canon hoped to escape in the welcome to his sister-in-law and niece,
+but he was immediately secured again, while his wife found it requisite
+to hurry off else where, leaving Mrs. Edwards to tell her story to Mrs.
+Egremont.  In point of fact, Alice really liked the good lady, was
+quite at ease with her, and felt parish concerns a natural element, so
+that she gave full heed and attention to the cruelty of Mrs. Parkins'
+depriving Betsy Butter (with an old father and mother to support) of
+her family washing, on the ground of a missing pocket handkerchief, the
+which Mrs. Edwards believed to have been abstracted by the favourite
+pickle of Miss Blanche's class, if only a confession could be elicited
+from him when undefended by his furious mother.  Mrs. Egremont was
+listening with actual interest and sympathy to the history of Betsy
+Butter's struggles, and was inquiring the way to her cottage, when she
+was called off to be introduced to the arrivals who were beginning to
+flood the lawn.  She presently saw May, who had just come down, walking
+up and down with Mrs. Edwards, evidently hearing the story of the
+handkerchief.  She thought it had been Nuttie for a moment.  There was
+a general resemblance between the cousins that made them be mistaken
+for one another several times in the course of the day, since their
+dresses, though not alike, were of the same make and style.
+
+Thus it was that as Nuttie was sitting on the grass in earnest
+contemplation of Blanche's play, a hand was familiarly laid on her
+shoulder, and a voice said,  'I haven't seen that horrid girl yet!'
+
+After so many introductions, Nuttie had little idea whom she knew, or
+whom she did not know.  She looked up and saw a small person in light
+blue, with the delicate features, transparent skin, and blue eyes that
+accompany yellow hair, with an indescribable glitter of mirth and
+joyousness about the whole creature, as if she were part and parcel of
+the sunbeam in which she stood.
+
+'What horrid girl?' said Nuttie.
+
+'The interloper, the newly-discovered savage, come to upset--Ah!'--with
+a little shriek--'It isn't May!  I beg your pardon.'
+
+'I'm May's cousin,' said Nuttie, 'Ursula Egremont.'
+
+'Oh, oh!' and therewith the fact burst on both girls at once.  They
+stood still a moment in dismay, then the stranger went into a fit of
+laughter.  'Oh, I beg your pardon!  I can't help it!  It is so funny!'
+
+Nuttie was almost infected, though somewhat hurt.  'Who said I was
+horrid?' she asked.
+
+'Nobody!  Nobody but me--Annaple Ruthven--and they'll all tell you, May
+and all, that I'm always putting my foot in it.  And I never meant that
+you were horrid--you yourself--you know--only--'
+
+'Only nobody wanted us here,' said Nuttie; 'but we could not help it.'
+
+'Of course not.  It was shocking, just my way.  Please forgive me!' and
+she looked most pleading.  Nuttie held out her hand with something
+about 'No one could mind;' and therewith Annaple cried, 'Oh, if you
+don't mind, we can have our laugh out!' and the rippling laughter did
+set Nuttie off at once.  The peal was not over when May herself was
+upon them demanding what was the joke.
+
+'Oh, there she is!  The real May!  Why,' said Annaple, kissing her,
+'only think here I've been and gone and thought this was you, and
+inquired about--What was it?--the awful monster--the chimera dire--that
+Mark had routed up--'
+
+'No; you didn't say that,' said Nuttie, half provoked.
+
+'Never mind what I said.  Don't repeat it.  I only wish myself and
+every one else to forget it.  Now it is swept to the winds by a good
+wholesome giggling.  But what business have you two to be so
+inconveniently alike?  You are as bad as the twin Leslies!'
+
+'There's an old foremother on the staircase in white satin who left her
+looks to us both,' said May.
+
+'You'll have to wear badges,' said Annaple.  'You know the Leslies were
+so troublesome that one had to be shipped off to the East Indies and
+the other to the West.'
+
+'They married, that's all,' said May, seeing Nuttie looking mystified;
+and at that moment, Blanche's side coming out victorious, Nuttie
+descended into the arena to congratulate and be asked to form part of
+the next set.
+
+'Well, that was a scrape!' said Annaple; 'but she wasn't bad about it!
+I must do something to make up for it somehow--get Janet to invite her,
+but really Janet is in such a state of mind that I am mildness itself
+compared with her.  She would not have come, only John was curious, and
+declared he should go whether we did or not.'
+
+'Ah!' said May, 'I saw him, like the rest of mankind, at madame's feet.'
+
+'Oh! is she of that sort?'
+
+'No,' said May, 'not at all.  Mother and father too both think she is
+good to the backbone; but she is very pretty, with just the inane soft
+sweetness that men rave about--innocent really.  All accounts of her
+are excellent, and she has nice parish ways, and will be as helpful as
+Uncle Alwyn will let her.'
+
+'But she couldn't always have been nice?'
+
+'Well, I verily believe it was all Uncle Alwyn's and grandmamma's
+fault.  I know Mark thinks so.'
+
+'When the women of a family acquit a woman it goes for something,' said
+Annaple.  'That's not original, my dear, I heard old Lady Grosmede say
+so to Janet when she was deliberating over the invitation, "For a good
+deal more than Mr. Mark's, at any rate.'"
+
+'Mark is very fond of her--the mother, I mean.  He says when he was a
+little fellow her loss was worse to him than even our mother's.'
+
+'Do you remember the catastrophe?'
+
+'Not a bit.  Only when she is petting Basil it strikes me that I have
+heard the tones before.  I only remember the time of misery under the
+crosspatches grandmamma got for us.'
+
+'Well, it was a splendid cutting of his own throat in Mark,' said
+Annaple, 'so it ought to turn out well.'
+
+'I don't know how it is to turn out for Mark,' answered May.  'Oh, here
+he comes!'
+
+'Will you come into this set, Annaple?' he asked.  'They want another
+couple,' and, as she accepted,  'How do you get on with May's double?'
+
+'I pity May for having such a double.'
+
+'Don't encourage her by misplaced pity.'
+
+'It's abominable altogether!  I want to fly at somebody!'
+
+'Exhaust your feelings on your racket, and reflect that you see a man
+released from bondage.'
+
+'Is that philosophy or high-faluting?' she said in a teasing tone as
+the game began.
+
+The Ruthvens had very blue blood in their veins, but as there were nine
+of the present generation, they possessed little beyond their long
+pedigree; even the head of the family, Lord Ronnisglen, being forced to
+live as a soldier, leaving his castle to grouse shooters. His seven
+brothers had fared mostly in distant lands as they could, and his
+mother had found a home, together with her youngest child, at Lescombe,
+where her eldest was the wife of Sir John Delmar.  Lady Ronnisglen was
+an invalid, confined to the house, and Lady Delmar had daughters fast
+treading on the heels of Annabella, so christened, but always called
+Annaple after the old Scottish queens, her ancestors. She had been May
+Egremont's chief friend ever since her importation at twelve years old,
+and the intimacy had been promoted by her mother and sister.  Indeed,
+the neighbourhood had looked on with some amusement at the competition
+ascribed to Lady Delmar and to the wealthy parvenu, Mrs. West, for the
+heir-presumptive of Bridgefield Egremont.
+
+Annaple's lightness and dexterity rendered her the best of the lady
+tennis-players, and the less practised Ursula found herself defeated in
+the match, in spite of a partner whose play was superior to Mark's, and
+with whom she shyly walked off to eat ices.
+
+'I see,' said Annaple, 'it is a country-town edition of May.  I shan't
+blunder between them again.'
+
+'She will polish,' said Mark, 'but she is not equal to her mother.'
+
+'Whom I have not seen yet.  Ah, there's Mr. Egremont!  Why, he looks
+quite renovated!'
+
+'Well he may be!'
+
+'But Mark, not to hurt your feelings, he must have behaved atrociously.'
+
+'I'm not going to deny it,' said Mark.
+
+'I always did think he looked like it,' said Annaple.
+
+'When have you seen him before?'
+
+'Only once, but it was my admirable sagacity, you understand?  I always
+see all the villains in books just on his model.  Oh, but who's that?
+How very pretty!  You don't mean it is she!  Well, she might be the
+heroine of anything!'
+
+'Isn't she lovely?'
+
+'And has she been keeping school like Patience on a monument all these
+years?  It doesn't seem to have much damaged her damask cheek!'
+
+'It was only daily governessing.  She looks much better than when I
+first saw her; and as to the damask--why, that's deepened by the
+introduction to old Lady Grosmede that is impending.'
+
+'She is being walked up to the old Spanish duck with the red rag round
+her leg to receive her fiat.  What a thing it is to be a bearded
+Dowager, and rule one's neighbourhood!'
+
+'I think she approves.  She has made room for her by her side.  Is she
+going to catechise her?'
+
+Annaple made an absurd sound of mingled pity and disgust.
+
+'Not that she--my aunt, I mean--need be afraid.  The shame is all on
+the other side.'
+
+'And I think Lady Grosmede has too much sense to think the worse of her
+for having worked for herself,' added Annaple.  'If it was not for
+mother I should long to begin!'
+
+'You?  It's a longing well known to me!--but you!'
+
+'Exactly!  As the Irishman felt blue moulded for want of a bating, so
+do I feel fagged out for want of an honest day's work.'
+
+'If one only knew what to turn to,' said Mark so wearily that Annaple
+exclaimed,
+
+'We seem to be in the frozen-out state of mind, and might walk up and
+down singing "I've got no work to do,"'--to which she gave the well
+known intonation.
+
+'Too true,' said he, joining in the hum.
+
+'But I thought you were by way of reading law.'
+
+'One must see more than only "by way of" in these days to do any good.'
+
+At that moment Basil ran up with a message that Lady Delmar was ready
+to go home.
+
+They walked slowly up the terrace and Mark paused as they came near
+Mrs. Egremont to say, 'Aunt Alice, here is Miss Ruthven, May's great
+friend.'
+
+Annaple met a pleasant smile, and they shook hands, exchanging an
+observation or two, while a little way off Lady Grosmede was nodding
+her strong old face at Lady Delmar, and saying, 'Tell your mother I'll
+soon come and see her, my dear.  That's a nice little innocent body,
+lady-like, and thoroughly presentable.  Alwyn Egremont might have done
+worse.'
+
+'The only wonder is he did not!' returned Lady Delmar.  'They make the
+best of it here.'
+
+'Very good taste of them.  But, now I've seen her, I don't believe
+there's anything behind.  Very hard upon the poor young man, though it
+was all his doing, his mother says.  I congratulate you that it had not
+gone any farther in that quarter.'
+
+'Oh, dear no!  Never dreamt of it.  She is May's friend, that's all.'
+
+Nevertheless Lady Delmar made a second descent in person to hurry
+Annaple away.
+
+'Isn't it disgusting?' said May, catching her stepmother's smile.
+
+'You will see a good deal more of the same kind,' said the Canoness; 'I
+am afraid more mortification is in store for Mark than he guesses. I
+wish that girl were more like her mother.'
+
+'Mamma! a girl brought up among umbrella-makers!  Just fancy!  Why, she
+has just nothing in her!'
+
+'Don't set Mark against her, May; he might do worse.'
+
+'Her head is a mere tennis ball,' said May, drawing her own higher than
+ever, 'and no one would know her from a shop girl.'
+
+'She is young enough,' said the Canoness.  'Don't class me with Lady
+Delmar, May--I only say--if--and that I don't think you realise the
+change Mark will feel.'
+
+'Better so than sell himself,' muttered May.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+OUT OF WORK.
+
+  'I'm seeking the fruit that's nae growing.'--Ballad.
+
+
+Society recognised the newcomers.  Lady Grosmede's card appeared the
+next day, and was followed by showers of others, and everybody asked
+everybody 'Have you seen Mrs. Egremont?'
+
+It was well for Alice's happiness even at home that she was a success.
+When Alwyn Egremont had been lashed by his nephew's indignant integrity
+into tardy recognition of the wife of his youth, it had been as if he
+had been forced to pick up a flower which he had thrown away.  He had
+considerable doubts whether it would answer. First, he reconnoitred,
+intending, if he found a homely or faded being, to pension her off; but
+this had been prevented by her undeniable beauty and grace, bringing up
+a rush of such tender associations as he was capable of.  Yet even
+then, her position depended on the impression she might make on those
+about him, on her own power of self-assertion, and on her contributing
+to his comfort or pleasure.
+
+Of self-assertion Alice had none, only a gentle dignity in her
+simplicity, and she was so absolutely devoted to him that he found his
+house far more pleasant and agreeable for her presence and unfailing
+attention, though still his estimation of her was influenced more than
+he owned to himself by that of the world in general, and the Rectory in
+particular.
+
+And the Rectory did its part well.  The Canon was not only charmed with
+the gentle lady, but felt an atonement due to her; and his wife,
+without ever breathing into any ears, save his, the mysterious
+adjective 'governessy,' praised her right and left, confiding to all
+inquirers the romance of the burnt yacht, the lost bride, and the happy
+meeting under Lady Kirkaldy's auspices, with the perfect respectability
+of the intermediate career, while such was the universal esteem for,
+and trust in herself and the Canon, that she was fully believed; and
+people only whispered that probably Alwyn Egremont had been excused for
+the desertion more than he deserved.
+
+The subject of all this gossip troubled herself about it infinitely
+less than did the good Canoness.  In effect she did not know enough of
+the world to think about it at all.  Her cares were of a different
+order, chiefly caused by tenderness of conscience, and solicitude to
+keep the peace between the two beings whom she best loved.
+
+Two things were in her favour in this latter respect, one that they saw
+very little of each other, since Mr. Egremont seldom emerged from his
+own rooms till after luncheon; and the other that Ursula's brains ran
+to little but lawn-tennis for the ensuing weeks.  To hold a champion's
+place at the tournaments, neck and neck with her cousin Blanche, and
+defeat Miss Ruthven, and that veteran player, Miss Basset, was her
+foremost ambition, and the two cousins would have practised morning,
+noon, and night if their mothers would have let them.  There need have
+been no fear of Ursula's rebellion about the Cambridge honours, she
+never seemed even to think of them, and would have had no time in the
+more important competition of rackets. Indeed, it was almost treated as
+a hardship that the pair were forbidden to rush together before twelve
+o'clock, and that Ursula's mother insisted on rational home occupation
+until that time, setting the example herself by letter-writing,
+needlework, and sharing in the music which was a penance to the girl,
+only enforced by that strong sense of protecting affection which
+forbade rebellion.  But Alice could hope that their performances were
+pleasant to her husband in the evening, if only to sleep by, and so she
+persisted in preparing for them.
+
+Nuttie's rage for tennis, and apparent forgetfulness of her old life
+and aspirations, might be disappointing, but it conduced to make her
+mother's task easier than if she had been her original, critical, and
+protesting self.  In the new and brilliant surroundings she troubled
+herself much less than could have been expected at the failure of her
+father, his house, nay, and of the parish itself, in coming up to the
+St. Ambrose standard.  How much was owing to mere novelty and
+intoxication, how much to a yet unanalysed disappointment, how much to
+May's having thrown her upon the more frivolous Blanche, could not be
+guessed.  The effect was unsatisfactory to her mother, but a certain
+relief, for Nuttie's aid would have been only mischievous in the
+household difficulties that weighed on the anxious conscience. Good
+servants would not stay at Bridgefield Hall for unexplained causes,
+which their mistress believed to be connected with Gregorio, or with
+the treasure of a cook-housekeeper over whom she was forbidden to
+exercise any authority, and who therefore entirely neglected all meals
+which the master did not share with the ladies. Fortunately, Mr.
+Egremont came in one day at their luncheon and found nothing there but
+semi-raw beef, upon which there was an explosion; and being by this
+time convinced that his wife both would and could minister to his
+comfort, her dominion was established in the female department, though,
+as long as Gregorio continued paramount with his master, and the
+stables remained in their former state, it was impossible to bring
+matters up to the decorous standard of the Rectory, and if ever his
+mistress gave an order he did not approve, Gregorio overruled it as her
+ignorance.  In fact, he treated both the ladies with a contemptuous
+sort of civility.  Meantime Mr. Egremont was generally caressing and
+admiring in his ways towards his wife, with only occasional bursts of
+temper when anything annoyed him.  He was proud of her, gave her a
+liberal allowance, and only refused to be troubled; and she was really
+happy in his affection, for which she felt a gratitude only too humble
+in the eyes of her daughter.
+
+They had parties.  Blanche's ambition of tennis courts all over the
+lawn was fulfilled, and sundry dinners, which were crosses to Alice,
+who had neither faculty nor training for a leader and hostess, suffered
+much from the menu, more from the pairing of her guests, more again in
+catching her chief lady's eye after, and most of all from her husband's
+scowls and subsequent growls and their consequence, for Ursula broke
+out, 'It is not fair to blame my mother.  How should she have all the
+savoir-faire, or what you may call it, of Aunt Jane, when she has had
+no practice?'
+
+'Perhaps, Mrs. Egremont,' he retorted with extreme suavity, 'you will
+also attend to your daughter's manners.'  Otherwise he took little
+notice of Ursula, viewing her perhaps, as did the neighbourhood, as a
+poor imitation of May, without her style, or it may be with a sense
+that her tongue might become inconvenient if not repressed.  When he
+began to collect sporting guests of his own calibre in the shooting
+season, the Canoness quietly advised her sister-in-law to regard them
+as gentlemen's parties, and send Ursula down to spend the evening with
+her cousins; and to this no objection was made.  Mr. Egremont wanted
+his beautiful wife at the head of his table, and his guests never
+comported themselves unsuitably before her; but nobody wanted the
+unformed girl, and she and Blanche were always happy together.
+
+The chief restraint was when Mark was at home, and that was not always.
+He made sundry visits and expeditions, and was altogether in an
+uncomfortable condition of reaction and perplexity as to his future.
+He was a good and conscientious fellow, and had never been actually
+idle, but had taken education and life with the easiness of the
+prospective heir to a large property; and though he had acquitted
+himself creditably, it was with no view of making his powers
+marketable.  Though he had been entered at the Temple, it was chiefly
+in order to occupy himself respectably, and to have a nominal
+profession, so as not to be wholly dependent on his uncle; and all that
+he had acquired was the conviction that it would be half a lifetime, if
+not a whole one, before the law would afford him a maintenance.
+
+His father wished him to take Holy Orders with a view to the reversion
+of the Rectory, but Mark's estimate of clerical duty and vocation was
+just such as to make him shrink from them.  He was three-and-twenty, an
+awkward age for all those examinations that stand as lions in the face
+of youth intended for almost any sort of service, and seldom or never
+to be gagged by interest.  For one indeed, he went up and failed, and
+in such a manner as to convince him that cramming had more to do than
+general culture with success.
+
+He had a certain consciousness that most people thought another way
+open to him, most decidedly his gentle aunt, and perhaps even his
+parents.  The matter came prominently before him one day at luncheon,
+when, some parochial affairs being on hand and Mr. Egremont out for the
+day, Alice, whose free forenoons enabled her to take a share in church
+and parish affairs, was there, as well as the curate and his wife.
+
+These good people were in great commotion about a wedding about to take
+place between a young farmer and his delicate first cousin, the only
+survivor of a consumptive family.
+
+'"Proputty, proputty,"' quoted the Canon.  'James Johnson is what they
+call a warm man.'
+
+'It is a sin and a shame,' said Mrs. Edwards.  'What can they expect?
+George Johnson looks strong enough now, but they tell me his brother
+undoubtedly died of decline, though they called it inflammation; but
+there was tubercular disease.'
+
+'I am afraid it is strong in the family,' said the Canoness, 'they all
+have those clear complexions; but I do believe George is heartily in
+love with poor little Emily.'
+
+'First cousins ought to be in the table of degrees,' said Mr. Edwards.
+
+'It is always a question whether the multiplying of prohibitions
+without absolute necessity is expedient,' said the Canon.
+
+He spoke quite dispassionately, but the excellent couple were not
+remarkable for tact.  Mrs. Edwards gave her husband such a glance of
+warning and consternation as violently inclined May to laugh, and he
+obediently and hesitatingly began, 'Oh yes, sir, I beg your pardon. Of
+course there may be instances,' thereby bringing an intense glow of
+carnation into Alice's cheeks, while the Canon, ready for the occasion,
+replied, 'And George Johnson considers himself one of them. He will
+repair the old moat house, I suppose.'
+
+And his wife, though she would rather have beaten Mrs. Edwards,
+demanded how many blankets would be wanted that winter.
+
+The effect of this little episode was that Mark announced to his father
+that evening his strong desire to emigrate, an intention which the
+Canon combated with all his might.  He was apparently a hale and hearty
+man, but he had had one or two attacks of illness that made him doubt
+whether he would be long-lived; and not only could he not bear to have
+his eldest son out of reach, but he dreaded leaving his family to such
+a head as his brother.  Mark scarcely thought the reasons valid,
+considering the rapidity of communication with Canada, but it was not
+possible to withstand the entreaties of a father with tears in his
+eyes; and though he could not bring himself to consent to preparing to
+be his father's curate, he promised to do nothing that would remove him
+to another quarter of the world, and in two or three days more, started
+for Monks Horton to see what advice his uncle and aunt there could give
+him; indeed, Lord Kirkaldy's influence was reckoned on by his family
+almost as a sure card in the diplomatic line.
+
+The Kirkaldys were very fond of Mark, and had an odd feeling of being
+accountable for the discovery which had changed his prospects.  They
+would have done anything for him that they could, but all Lord
+Kirkaldy's interest was at the foreign office, or with his
+fellow-diplomates, and here he soon found an insuperable bar.  Mark's
+education had stood still from the time of Miss Headworth's flight till
+his father's second marriage, his energies having been solely devoted
+to struggles with the grim varieties of governess purveyed by his
+grandmother, and he had thus missed all chance of foundation of foreign
+languages, and when once at school, he had shared in the average
+English boy's contempt and aversion for the French masters who
+outscreamed a whole class.
+
+In consequence, Lord Kirkaldy, an accurate and elegant scholar in
+European tongues, besides speaking them with the cosmopolitan ease of
+an ambassador's son, was horrified, not only at Mark's pronunciation,
+but at his attempts at letter-writing and translation, made with all
+the good will in the world, but fit for nothing but to furnish the good
+stories which the kind uncle refrained from telling any one but his
+wife.  Unluckily, too, a Piedmontese family, some of them not strong in
+their English, were on a visit at Monks Horton, and the dialect in
+which the old marquis and Mark tried at times to interchange ideas
+about pheasants was something fearful.  And as in the course of a week
+Mark showed no signs of improvement in vernacular French or Italian,
+Lord Kirkaldy's conscience would let him give no other advice than that
+his nephew should stick to English law living still on the allowance
+his father gave him, and hoping for one of the chance appointments open
+to an English barrister of good family and fair ability.
+
+Of course Mark had gone at once to carry tidings of 'Aunt Alice,' as he
+scrupulously called her, to old Miss Headworth, whom his aunt had
+continued to visit at intervals.  That good lady had given up her
+boarders, having realised enough to provide for her own old age, and
+she had joined forces with the Nugents, Mary being very thankful to
+have her companionship for Mrs. Nugent, who was growing too blind and
+feeble to be satisfactorily left alone all day.
+
+Mark delighted the old ladies by his visits and accounts of their
+darling's success and popularity, which he could paint so brightly that
+they could not help exulting, even though there might be secret
+misgivings as to the endurance of these palmy days.  He was a great
+hero in their eyes, and they had too good taste to oppress him with
+their admiration, so that he really was more at ease in their little
+drawing-room than anywhere at Monks Horton, whither the Italians could
+penetrate.  The marchesino spoke English very well, but that was all
+the worse for Mark, since it gave such a sense of inferiority.  He was
+an intelligent man too, bent on being acquainted with English
+industries of all kinds; and thus it was that a party was organised to
+see the umbrella factory.  It was conducted by Mr. Dutton, with whom
+Lord Kirkaldy, between charities and public business, had become
+acquainted.
+
+To Mark's secret shame, this manufacturer spoke French perfectly, and
+even got into such a lively conversation with the old marquis about
+Cavour, that Lord Kirkaldy begged him to come to dinner and continue
+it.  They were all surprised, not only by the details of the
+manufacture and the multitude of artizans, male and female, whom it
+employed, but by the number of warehouse-clerks whom they found at
+work, and who, it appeared, were in correspondence with agencies and
+depots in London and all the principal towns in the kingdom.  Gerard
+Godfrey was there,--casting looks askance at the young Egremont, whom
+he regarded as a kind of robber.
+
+The marchesino asked from what class these young men were taken, and
+Mr. Dutton made reply that most of them were sons of professional men.
+If they could obtain a small capital and take shares in the business
+they were encouraged to do so, and rose to the headship of the
+agencies, obtaining a fair income.
+
+'And you don't exact an examination,' said Mark.
+
+'Except in handwriting and book-keeping,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Poor Mark, you look for your bugbear everywhere!' sighed his aunt.
+
+They went over the Institute, coffee-rooms, eating-rooms, and
+lodging-houses, by which the umbrella firm strove to keep their hands
+respectable and contented, and were highly pleased with all, most
+especially with Mr. Dutton, who, though his name did not come
+prominently forward, had been the prime mover and contriver of all
+these things, and might have been a wealthier man if he had not
+undertaken expenses which he could not charge upon the company.
+
+Gerard Godfrey came in to Mrs. Nugent's that evening in the lowest
+spirits.  He had a sister married to a curate in the same county with
+Bridgefield, and she had sent him a local paper which 'understood that
+a marriage was arranged between Mark de Lyonnais Egremont, Esquire, and
+Ursula, daughter of Alwyn Piercefield Egremont, Esquire, of Bridgefield
+Egremont,' and he could not help coming to display it to Miss Headworth
+in all its impertinence and prematurity.
+
+'Indeed he said nothing to me about it,' said Miss Headworth, 'and I
+think he would if it had been true.'
+
+'No doubt he intends it, and is trying to recommend himself through
+you,' said Gerard.
+
+'I should not think he needed that,' returned Aunt Ursel, 'though I
+should be very glad, I am sure.  He is an excellent young man, and it
+is quite the obvious thing.'
+
+'People don't always do the obvious thing,' put in Mary Nugent.
+
+'Certainly it didn't look like it,' said Miss Headworth,' when he told
+us about the great annual Hunt Ball at Redcastle that Nuttie and his
+sister Blanche are to come out at; he said he did not intend to go home
+for it if he could help it.'
+
+'Struggling against fate,' said Miss Nugent.
+
+'The puppy!' burst out Gerard.
+
+Having ascertained the particulars of this same Hunt Ball, Gerard
+became possessed with a vehement desire to visit his sister, and so
+earnestly solicited a few days' leave of absence that it was granted to
+him.  'Poor boy, he may settle down when he has ascertained what an ass
+he is,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Ah!' said Mary.  'I thought he was very bad when I saw he had not
+changed the green markers for St. Luke's Day.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+DETRIMENTALS.
+
+  'That tongue of yours at times wags more than charity allows;
+   And if you're strong, be merciful, great woman of three cows.'
+                                                     --J. O. MANGAN.
+
+
+Nine miles was a severe distance through country lanes in November to
+go to a ball; but the Redcastle Hunt Ball was the ball of the year,
+uniting all the county magnates; and young ladies were hardly reckoned
+as 'come out' till they had appeared there.  Mrs. Egremont's position
+would hardly be established till she had been presented to the
+notabilities who lived beyond calling intercourse; and her husband
+prepared himself to be victimised with an amount of grumbling that was
+intended to impress her with the magnitude of the sacrifice, but which
+only made her offer to forego the gaiety, and be told that she would
+never have any common sense.
+
+So their carriage led the way, and was followed by the Rectory
+waggonette containing the ladies and Mark, who had been decisively
+summoned home, since his stepmother disliked public balls without a
+gentleman in attendance, and his father was not to be detached from his
+fireside.
+
+And in a group near the door, got up as elaborately as his powers could
+accomplish, stood Gerard Godfrey.  He knew nobody there except a family
+in his sister's parish, who had good-naturedly given him a seat in
+their fly, and having fulfilled his duty by asking the daughter to
+dance, he had nothing to disturb him in watching for the cynosure whose
+attraction had led him into these unknown regions, and, as he
+remembered with a qualm, on the eve of St. Britius. However, with such
+a purpose, one might surely grant oneself a dispensation from the vigil
+of a black letter saint.
+
+There at length he beheld the entrance.  There was the ogre himself,
+high bred, almost handsome, as long as he was not too closely
+scrutinised, and on his arm the well-known figure, metamorphosed by
+delicately-tinted satin sheen and pearls, and still more by the gentle
+blushing gladness on the fair cheeks and the soft eyes that used to
+droop.  Then followed a stately form in mulberry moire and point lace,
+leaning on Gerard's more especial abhorrence,--'that puppy,' who had
+been the author of all the mischief; and behind them three girls, one
+in black, the other two in white, and, what was provoking, he really
+could not decide which was Ursula.  The carefully-dressed hair and
+stylish evening dress and equipments had altogether transformed the
+little homely schoolgirl, so that, though he was sure that she was not
+the fair-haired damsel with pale blue flowers, he did not know how to
+decide between the white and daisies and the black and grasses.
+Indeed, he thought the two whites most likely to be sisters, and all
+the more when the black lace halted to exchange greetings with some
+one, and her face put on an expression so familiar to him, that he
+started forward and tried to catch her eye; but in vain, and he
+suffered agonies of doubt whether she had been perverted by greatness.
+
+It was some comfort that, when presently a rush of waiters floated by,
+she was not with her cousin; but to provoke him still more, as the
+daisies neared him, he beheld for a moment in the whirl the queer
+smile, half-frightened, half-exultant, which he had seen on Nuttie's
+face when swinging sky-high!
+
+When the pause came and people walked about, the black lady stood
+talking so near him that he ventured at last on a step forward and an
+eager 'Miss Egremont,' but, as she turned, he found himself obliged to
+say, 'I beg your pardon.'
+
+'Did you mean my cousin.  We often get mistaken for each other,' said
+May civilly.
+
+He brightened.  'I beg your pardon,' he said, 'I knew her at
+Micklethwayte.  I am here--quite by accident.  Mrs. Elmore was so good
+as to bring me.'
+
+May was rather entertained.  'There's my cousin,' she said, 'Lord
+Philip Molyneux is asking her to dance,' and she left him most
+unnecessarily infuriated with Lord Philip Molyneux.
+
+A steward introduced him to a dull-looking girl, but fortune favoured
+him, for this time he did catch the real Nuttie's eye, and all herself,
+as soon as the dance was over, she came up with outstretched hands, 'Oh
+Gerard! to think of your being here!  Come to mother!'
+
+And, beautiful and radiant, Mrs. Egremont was greeting him, and there
+were ten minutes of delicious exchange of news.  But 'pleasures are as
+poppies fled,' Nuttie had no dance to spare, her card was full, and she
+had not learnt fashionable effrontery enough to play tricks with
+engagements, and just then Mr. Egremont descended on them--'I wish to
+introduce you to the Duchess,' he said to his wife; and on the way he
+demanded--'Who is that young cub?'
+
+'Gerard Godfrey--an old neighbour.'
+
+'I thought I had seen him racketing about there with Ursula.  I'll not
+have those umbrella fellows coming about!'
+
+'Does he really make umbrellas, Nuttie?' asked Blanche, catching her
+hand.
+
+'No such thing!' said Nuttie hotly, 'he is in the office.  His father
+was a surgeon; his sisters married clergymen!'
+
+'And he came here to meet you,' said Annaple Ruthven.  'Poor fellow,
+what a shame it is!  Can't you give him one turn!
+
+'Oh dear!  I'm engaged all through!  To Mark this time.'
+
+'Give him one of the extras!  Throw Mark over to me!  No,' as she
+looked at the faces of the two girls, 'I suppose that wouldn't do, but
+I'm free this time--I'm not the fashion.  Introduce me; I'll do my best
+as consolation.'
+
+Nuttie had just performed the feat, with great shyness, when Mark
+appeared, having been sent in quest of his cousin, when her father
+perceived that she had hung back.
+
+Poor Gerard led off Miss Ruthven the more gloomily, and could not help
+sighing out, 'I suppose that is an engagement!'
+
+'Oh! you believe that impertinent gossip in the paper,' returned
+Annaple.  'I wonder they don't contradict it; but perhaps they treat it
+with magnificent scorn.'
+
+'No doubt they know that it is only premature.'
+
+'If _they_ means the elders, I daresay they wish it, but we aren't in
+France or Italy.'
+
+'Then you don't think, Miss Ruthven, that it will come off?'
+
+'I don't see the slightest present prospect,' said Annaple, unable to
+resist the kindly impulse of giving immediate pleasure, though she knew
+the prospect might be even slighter for her partner.
+
+However, he 'footed it' all the more lightly and joyously for the
+assurance, and the good-natured maiden afterwards made him conduct her
+to the tea-room, whither Mark and Nuttie were also tending, and there
+all four contrived to get mixed up together; and Nuttie had time to
+hear of Monsieur's new accomplishment of going home for Mr. Dutton's
+luncheon and bringing it in a basket to the office, before fate again
+descended; Mr. Egremont, who had been at the far end of the room among
+some congeners, who preferred stronger refreshment, suddenly heard her
+laugh, stepped up, and, with a look of thunder towards her, observed in
+a low voice, 'Mark, you will oblige me by taking your cousin back to
+her mother.'
+
+'The gray tyrant father,' murmured Annaple in sympathy.  'That being
+the case, I may as well go back in that direction also.'
+
+This resulted in finding Lady Delmar and the two Mrs. Egremonts
+together, comparing notes about the two different roads to Redcastle
+from their several homes.
+
+Lady Delmar was declaring that her coachman was the most obstinate man
+in existence, and that her husband believed in him to any extent.
+
+'Which way did you come?' she asked.
+
+'By Bankside Lane,' said the Canoness.
+
+'Over Bluepost Bridge!  There, Janet,' said Annaple.
+
+'So much the worse.  I know we shall come to grief over Bluepost
+Bridge, and now there will be treble weight to break it down.  I dreamt
+it, I tell you, and there's second sight in the family.'
+
+'Yes, but you should tell what you did dream, Janet,' said her sister.
+'She thought Robinson, the coachman, was waltzing with her over it, and
+they went into a hole and stuck fast, while the red-flag traction
+engineman prodded her with an umbrella till she was all over blood.
+Now, if it had been anything rational, I should have thought something
+of her second sight!  I tell her 'twas suggested by--
+
+         "London Bridge is broken down,
+          Dance o'er my lady Lee!"'
+
+
+'Well, I am quite certain those traction-engines will break it some
+time or other,' said Lady Delmar.  'I am always trying to get John to
+bring it before the magistrates, but he only laughs at me, and nothing
+will induce Robinson to go the other way, because they have just been
+mending the road on Lescombe Hill!  Annaple, my dear, I can't allow you
+another waltz; Mark must excuse you--I am going.  It is half-past two,
+and the carriage was ordered at two!  Robinson will be in a worse
+temper than ever if we keep him waiting.'
+
+She bore her sister off to the cloak-room, and there, nearly an hour
+later, the Egremonts found them still waiting the pleasure of the
+implacable Robinson; but what was that in consideration of having kept
+her sister from such a detrimental as poor Mark had become?  So
+muttered Mr. Egremont, in the satisfaction of having himself, with
+gentlemanly severity, intimated the insuperable gulf between Miss
+Egremont of Bridgefield and the Man of Umbrellas.
+
+Moreover, his sister-in-law took care that he should hear that the
+Duchess of Redcastle had pronounced his wife sweetly pretty and
+lady-like, and talked of inviting them for a visit of a few nights.
+
+'A bore,' observed he ungratefully, ''tis as dull as ditchwater.' But,
+in truth, though the Canon's family, when in residence, were intimate
+with the ducal family, Alwyn Egremont had never been at the castle
+since the days of his earliest youth, and he was not quite prepared to
+owe his toleration there to his wife's charms, or the Canoness's
+patronage of her.
+
+And innocent Alice only knew that everybody had been very kind to her,
+and it was only a pity that her husband did not like her to notice poor
+Gerard Godfrey.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+GOING AGEE.
+
+  'Gin ye were a brig as auld as me.'--BURNS.
+
+
+'What's the matter?' exclaimed Mrs. Egremont, waking from a
+doze,--'that bridge?'
+
+'Bridge!  Don't be such a fool!  We aren't near it yet.'
+
+The servant, his face looking blurred through the window, came to
+explain that the delay was caused by an agricultural engine, which had
+chosen this unlucky night, or morning, to travel from one farm to
+another.  There was a long delay, while the monster could be heard
+coughing frightfully before it could be backed with its spiky companion
+into a field so as to let the carriages pass by; and meantime Mr.
+Egremont was betrayed into uttering ejaculations which made poor Nuttie
+round her eyes in the dark as she sat by his feet on the back seat, and
+Alice try to bury her ears in her hood in the corner.
+
+On they went at last, for about a mile, and then came another sudden
+stop--another fierce growl from Mr. Egremont, another apparition of the
+servant at the window, saying, in his alert deferential manner, 'Sir,
+the bridge have broke under a carriage in front.  Lady Delmar's, sir.
+The horse is plunging terrible.'
+
+The door was torn open, and all three, regardless of ball costumes,
+precipitated themselves out.
+
+The moon was up, and they saw the Rectory carriage safe on the road
+before them, but on the bridge beyond was a struggling mass, dimly
+illuminated by a single carriage lamp. Mr. Egremont and the groom
+hurried forward where Mark and the Rectory coachman were already
+rendering what help they could.  May standing at the horses' heads, and
+her mother trying to wrap everybody up, since stay in their carriages
+they could not.  Transferring the horses to Nuttie, the two sisters
+hurried on towards the scene of action, but Blanche's white satin boots
+did not carry her far, and she turned on meeting her uncle.  He spoke
+with a briskness and alacrity that made him like another man in this
+emergency, as he assured the anxious ladies that their friends were
+safe, but that they could not be extricated till the carriage was
+lifted from the hole into which it had sunk amid bricks, stones, and
+broken timbers.  He sent his own coachman to assist, as being the
+stronger man, and, mounting the box, turned and drove off in quest of
+further help, at a wayside cottage, or from the attendants on the
+engine, whose weight had probably done the mischief, and prepared the
+trap for the next comer.
+
+As May came near, her brother made her available by putting the lamp
+into her hand, bidding her hold it so as to light those who were
+endeavouring to release the horse, which had cleared the portion of the
+bridge before the break-down under the brougham, and now lay on the
+road, its struggles quelled by a servant at its head.  Nearly the whole
+of the hind wheels and most of the door had disappeared on one side,
+and, though more was visible on the other, it was impossible to open
+the door, as a mass of rubbish lay on it.  Annaple was on this side,
+and her voice was heard calling to May in fits of the laughter which is
+perhaps near akin to screams--
+
+         '"London bridge is broken down,
+           Dance o'er my lady Lee!"
+
+
+Janet will go in for second-sight ever after.  Yes, she's all right,
+except a scratch from the glass, and that I'm sitting on her more or
+less.  How are they getting on?'  'The horse is all but out.  Not hurt,
+they think.  Here's another man come to help--a gentleman--my dear, it
+is your partner, Nuttie's umbrella man.'  'Oh, making it
+complete--hopes, Janet--I'm sorry, but I can't help squashing you! I
+can't help subsiding on you!  What is it now?' as the lamp-light
+vanished.
+
+'They are looking for something to make levers of,' returned May;
+'these wooden rails are too rotten.'
+
+'Can't they get us through the window?' sighed a muffled voice.
+
+'Not unless we could be elongated, like the Hope of the Katzekopfs.'
+
+'We shall manage now,' cried Mark; 'we have found some iron bars to the
+hatch down there.  But you must prepare for a shock or two before you
+can be set free.'
+
+The two gentlemen and three servants strove and struggled, hoisted and
+pushed, to the tune of suppressed sounds, half of sobs, half of
+laughter, till at last the carriage was heaved up sufficiently to be
+dragged backwards beyond the hole; but even then it would not stand,
+for the wheels on the undermost side were crushed, neither could either
+door be readily opened, one being smashed in, and the other jammed
+fast.  Annaple, however, still tried to keep up her own spirits and her
+sister's, observing that she now knew how to sympathise with Johnnie's
+tin soldiers in their box turned upside down.
+
+Two sturdy labourers here made their appearance, having been roused in
+the cottage and brought back by Mr. Egremont, and at last one door was
+forced open by main force, and the ladies emerged, Annaple, helping her
+sister, beginning some droll thanks, but pausing as she perceived that
+Lady Delmar's dress was covered with blood.
+
+'My dear Janet.  This is worse than I guessed.  Why did you not speak?'
+
+'It is not much,' said the poor lady, rather faintly.  'My neck--'
+
+The elder ladies came about her, and seated her on cushions, where, by
+the light of May's lamp, Alice, who had been to an ambulance class at
+Micklethwayte, detected the extent of the cut, extracted a fragment of
+glass, and staunched the bleeding with handkerchiefs and strips of the
+girls' tulle skirts, but she advised her patient to be driven at once
+to a surgeon to secure that no morsel of glass remained.  Mr. Egremont,
+gratified to see his wife come to the front, undertook to drive her
+back to Redcastle.  Indeed, they must return thither to cross by the
+higher bridge.  'You will go with me,' entreated Lady Delmar, holding
+Alice's hand; and the one hastily consigning Nuttie to her aunt's care,
+the other giving injunctions not to alarm her mother to Annaple, who
+had declared her intention of walking home, the two ladies went off
+under Mr. Egremont's escort.
+
+Just then it was discovered that the Delmar coachman, Robinson, had all
+this time been lying insensible, not dead, for he moaned, but
+apparently with a broken leg, if nothing worse.  Indeed, the men had
+known it all along, but, until the ladies had been rescued, nothing had
+been possible but to put his cushion under his head and his rug over
+him.  The ladies were much shocked, and Mrs. William Egremont decided
+that he must be laid at the bottom of the waggonette, and that she
+would take him straight to the hospital.
+
+They were only a mile and a half from Lescombe, and it was pronounced
+safe to cross on foot by the remains of the bridge, so that Annaple,
+who had a pair of fur boots, had already decided on going home on foot.
+The other girls wanted to accompany her, and, as May and Nuttie both
+had overshoes, they were permitted to do so, and desired to go to bed,
+and wait to be picked up by the waggonette, which must return to
+Bridgefield by the Lescombe road.  Blanche, having a delicate throat,
+was sentenced to go with her stepmother.  Mark undertook to ride the
+horse through the river, and escort the three girls, and Gerard Godfrey
+also joined them.  The place where he was staying lay a couple of miles
+beyond Lescombe, and when Mrs. Elmore's fly had been met and turned
+back by Mr. Egremont, he had jumped off to render assistance, and had
+done so effectively enough to win Mark's gratitude.
+
+It was by this time about half-past five, as was ascertained by the
+light of the waning moon, the carriage-lamp having burnt out.  It was a
+fine frosty morning, and the moon was still powerful enough to reveal
+the droll figures of the girls.  May had a fur cloak, with the hood
+tied over her head by Mrs. Egremont's lace shawl; Nuttie had a huge
+white cloud over her head, and a light blue opera cloak; Annaple had
+'rowed herself in a plaidie' like the Scotch girl she was, and her eyes
+flashed out merrily from its dark folds.  They all disdained the
+gentlemen's self-denying offers of their ulsters, and only Nuttie
+consented to have the carriage-rug added to her trappings, and
+ingeniously tied on cloak-fashion with her sash by Gerard.  He and Mark
+piloted the three ladies over the narrow border of the hole, which
+looked a very black open gulf.  Annaple had thanked the men, and bidden
+them come to Lescombe the next day to be paid for their assistance.
+Then they all stood to watch Mark ride through the river, at the
+shallowest place, indicated both by her and the labourers.  It was
+perfectly fordable, so Annaple's were mock heroics when she quoted--
+
+         'Never heavier man and horse
+          Stemmed a midnight torrent's force.'
+
+
+And Nuttie responded in a few seconds--
+
+         'Yet through good heart and our Ladye's grace
+          Full soon he gained the landing place.'
+
+
+They were both in high spirits, admiring each other's droll appearance,
+and speculating on the ghosts they might appear to any one who chanced
+to look out of window.  Annaple walked at the horse's head, calling him
+poor old Robin Hood, and caressing him, while Gerard and Nuttie kept
+together.
+
+May began to repent of her determination to walk; Lescombe seemed very
+far off, and she had an instinct that she was an awkward fifth wheel.
+Either because Robin Hood walked too fast for her weary limbs, or
+because she felt it a greater duty to chaperon Nuttie than Annaple, she
+fell back on the couple in the rear, and was rather surprised at the
+tenor of their conversation.
+
+This 'umbrella man' was telling of his vicar's delight in the beautiful
+chalice veil that had been sent by Mrs. Egremont, and Nuttie was
+communicating, as a secret she ought not to tell, that mother was
+working a set of stoles, and hoped to have the white ones ready by the
+dedication anniversary; also that there was a box being filled for the
+St. Ambrose Christmas tree.  They were trying to get something nice for
+each of the choir boys and of the old women; and therewith, to May's
+surprise, this youth, whom she regarded as a sort of shopman, fell into
+full narration of all the events of a highly-worked parish,--all about
+the choral festival, and the guilds, and the choir, and the temperance
+work.  A great deal of it was a strange language to May, but she
+half-disapproved of it, as entirely unlike the 'soberness' of
+Bridgefield ways, and like the Redcastle vicar, whom her father
+commonly called 'that madman.'  Still, she had a practical soul for
+parish work, and could appreciate the earnestness that manifested
+itself, and the exertions made for people of the classes whom she had
+always supposed too bad or else too well off to come under clerical
+supervision.  And her aunt and cousin and this young man all evidently
+had their hearts in it!  For Nuttie--though her new world had put the
+old one apparently aside--had plunged into all the old interests, and
+asked questions eagerly, and listened to their answers, as if
+Micklethwayte news was water to the thirsty. The two were too happy to
+meet, and, it must be confessed, had not quite manners enough, to feel
+it needful to include in their conversation the weary figure that
+plodded along at a little distance from them, hardly attending to the
+details of their chatter, yet deriving new notions from it of the
+former life of Ursula and her mother, matters which she had hitherto
+thought beneath her attention, except so far as to be thankful that
+they had emerged from it so presentable.  That it was a more actively
+religious, and perhaps a more intellectual one than her own, she had
+thought impossible, where everything must be second-rate.  And yet,
+when her attention had wandered from an account of Mr. Dutton's
+dealings with a refractory choir boy bent on going to the races, she
+found a discussion going on about some past lectures upon astronomy,
+and Nuttie vehemently regretting the not attending two courses promised
+for the coming winter upon electricity and on Italian art, and
+mournfully observing, 'We never go to anything sensible here.'
+
+May at first thought, 'Impertinent little thing,' and felt affronted,
+but then owned to herself that it was all too true.  Otherwise there
+was hardly anything said about the contrast with Nuttie's present life;
+Gerard knew already that the church atmosphere was very different, and
+with the rector's daughter within earshot, he could not utter his
+commiseration, nor Nuttie her regrets.
+
+Once there was a general start, and the whole five came together at the
+sight of a spectrally black apparition, with a huge tufted head on
+high, bearing down over a low hedge upon them.  Nobody screamed except
+Nuttie, but everybody started, though the next moment it was plain that
+they were only chimney-sweepers on their way.
+
+'Retribution for our desire to act ghosts!' said Annaple, when the
+sable forms had been warned of the broken bridge.  'Poor May, you are
+awfully tired!  Shouldn't you like a lift in their cart?'
+
+'Or I could put you up on Robin Hood,' said Mark.
+
+'Thank you, I don't think I could stick on.  Is it much farther?'
+
+'Only up the hill and across the park,' said Annaple, still cheerily.
+
+'Take my arm, old woman,' said Mark, and then there was a pause, before
+Annaple said in an odd voice, 'You may tell her, Mark.'
+
+'Oh, Annaple!  Mark! is it so?' cried May joyously, but under her
+breath; and with a glance to see how near the other couple were.
+
+'Yes,' said Annaple between crying and laughing.  'Poor Janet, she'll
+think we have taken a frightfully mean advantage of her, but I am sure
+I never dreamt of such a thing; and the queer thing is, that Mark says
+she put it into his head!'
+
+'No, no,' said Mark; 'you know better than that--'
+
+'Why, you told me you only found it out when she began to trample on
+the fallen--'
+
+'I told you I had only understood my own heart.'
+
+'And I said very much the same--she made me so angry you see.'
+
+'I can't but admire your motives!' said May, exceedingly rejoiced all
+the time, and ready to have embraced them both, if it had not been for
+the spectators behind.  'In fact, it was opposition you both wanted.  I
+wonder how long you would have gone on not finding it out, if all had
+been smooth?'
+
+'The worst of it is,' said Annaple, 'that I'm afraid it is a very bad
+thing for Mark.'
+
+'Not a bit of it,' retorted he.  'It is the only thing that could have
+put life into my work, or made me care to find any!  And find it I will
+now!  Must we let the whole world in to know before I have found it,
+Annaple?'
+
+'I could not but tell my mother,' said Annaple.  'It would come out in
+spite of me, even if I wished to keep it back.'
+
+'Oh yes!  Lady Ronnisglen is a different thing,' said Mark.  'Just as
+May here is--'
+
+'And she will say nothing, I know, till we are ready--my dear old
+minnie,' said Annaple.  'Only, Mark, do pray have something definite to
+hinder Janet with if there are any symptoms of hawking her commodity
+about.'
+
+'I _will_,' said Mark.  'If we could only emigrate!'
+
+'Ah, if we could!' said Annaple.  'Ronald is doing so well in New
+Zealand, but I don't think my mother could spare me.  She could not
+come out, and she must be with me, wherever I am.  You know--don't
+you--that I am seven years younger than Alick.  I was a regular
+surprise, and the old nurse at Ronnisglen said 'Depend upon it, my
+Leddy, she is given to be the comfort of your old age.'  And I have
+always made up my mind never to leave her.  I don't think she would get
+on with Janet or any of them without me, so you'll have to take her
+too, Mark.'
+
+'With all my heart,' he answered.  'And, indeed, I have promised my
+father not to emigrate.  I must, and will, find work at hand, and wake
+a home for you both!'
+
+'But you will tell papa at once?' said May.  'It will hurt him if you
+do not.'
+
+'You are right, May; I knew it when Annaple spoke of her mother, but
+there is no need that it should go further.'
+
+The intelligence had lightened the way a good deal, and they were at
+the lodge gates by this time.  Gerard began rather ruefully to take
+leave; but Annaple, in large-hearted happiness and gratitude, begged
+him to come and rest at the house, and wait for daylight, and this he
+was only too glad to do, especially as May's secession had made the
+conversation a little more personal.
+
+Nuttie was in a certain way realising for the first time what her
+mother's loyalty had checked her in expressing, even if the tumult of
+novelties had given her full time to dwell on it.
+
+'Everybody outside is kind,' she said to Gerard; 'they are nice in a
+way, and good, but oh! they are centuries behind in church matters and
+feeling, just like the old rector.'
+
+'I gathered that; I am very sorry for you.  Is there no one fit to be a
+guide?'
+
+'I don't know,' said Nuttie.  'I didn't think--I must, somehow, before
+Lent.'
+
+'There is Advent close at hand,' he said gravely.  'If you could only
+be at our mission services, we hope to get Father Smith!'
+
+'Oh, if only I could!  But mother never likes to talk about those kind
+of things.  She says our duty is to my father.'
+
+'Not the foremost.'
+
+'No, she would not say that.  But oh, Gerard! if he should be making
+her worldly!'
+
+'It must be your work to hinder it,' he said, looking at her
+affectionately.
+
+'Oh, Gerard! but I'm afraid I'm getting so myself.  I have thought a
+great deal about lawn-tennis, and dress, and this ball,' said Nuttie.
+'Somehow it has never quite felt real, but as if I were out on a visit.'
+
+'You are in it, but not of it,' said Gerard admiringly.
+
+'No, I'm not so good as that!  I like it all--almost all.  I thought I
+liked it better till you came and brought a real true breath of
+Micklethwayte.  Oh! if I could only see Monsieur's dear curly head and
+bright eyes!'
+
+This had been the tenor of the talk, and these were the actual last
+words before the whole five--just in the first streaks of
+dawn--coalesced before the front door, to be admitted by a sleepy
+servant; Mark tied up the horse for a moment, while Annaple sent the
+man to waken Sir John Delmar, and say there had been a slight accident,
+but no one was much hurt; and, as they all entered the warm,
+dimly-lighted hall, they were keenly sensible that they had been
+dancing or walking all night.
+
+Rest in the chairs which stood round the big hearth and smouldering
+wood-fire was so extremely comfortable, as they all dropped down, that
+nobody moved or spoke, or knew how long it was before there was a voice
+on the stairs--'Eh? what's this, Annaple?  An accident? Where's Janet?'
+and a tall burly figure, candle in hand, in a dressing-gown and
+slippers, was added to the group.
+
+'Janet will be at home presently, I hope,' said Annaple, 'but she got a
+cut with some broken glass, and we sent her round by Dr. Raymond's to
+get it set to rights.  Oh, John! we came to grief on Bluepost Bridge
+after all, and I'm afraid Robinson has got his leg broken!'
+
+Sir John was a good-natured heavy man, whose clever wife thought for
+him in all that did not regard horses, dogs, and game.  He looked
+perfectly astounded, and required to have all told him over again
+before he could fully take it in.  Then he uttered a suppressed
+malediction on engines, insisted that all his impromptu guests should
+immediately eat, drink, and sleep, and declared his intention of going
+off at once to Redcastle to see about his wife.
+
+The two gentlemen were committed to the charge of the butler, and
+Annaple took Nuttie and May to her sister's dressing-room, where she
+knew she should find fire and tea, and though they protested that it
+was not worth while, she made them undress and lie down in a room
+prepared for them in the meantime.  It was a state chamber, with a big
+bed, far away from the entrance, shuttered and curtained up, and with
+double doors, excluding all noise.  The two cousins lay down, Nuttie
+dead asleep almost before her head touched the pillow, while May was
+aching all over, declaring herself far too much tired and excited to
+sleep; and, besides that it was not worth while, for she should be
+called for in a very short time.  And she remained conscious of a great
+dread of being roused, so that when she heard her cousin moving about
+the room, she insisted that they had scarcely lain down, whereupon
+Nuttie laughed, declared that she had heard a great clock strike twelve
+before she moved, and showed daylight coming in through the shutters.
+
+'We can't lie here any longer, I suppose,' said May, sitting up
+wearily; 'and yet what can we put on?  It makes one shiver to think of
+going down to luncheon in a ball dress!'
+
+'Besides, mine is all torn to pieces to make bandages,' said Nuttie. 'I
+must put on the underskirt and my cloak again.'
+
+'Or Annaple might lend us something.  I must get out somehow to know
+how poor Lady Delmar is, and what has become of everybody.  Ring,
+Ursula, please, and lie down till somebody comes.'
+
+The bell was answered by a maid, who told them that my lady had been
+brought home by Mr. and Mrs. Egremont about an hour after their
+arrival.  She was as well as could be expected, and there was no cause
+for anxiety.  Mr. and Mrs. Egremont had then gone on to Bridgefield,
+leaving word that Mrs. William Egremont and Miss Blanche were sleeping
+at Redcastle, having sent home for their own dresses and the young
+ladies', and would call for the rest of their party on the way.
+Indeed, a box for the Miss Egremonts had been deposited by the Canon
+from the pony-carriage an hour ago, and was already in the
+dressing-room; but Miss Ruthven would not have them disturbed.  Miss
+Ruthven,--oh yes, she was up, she had not been in bed at all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+A CASTLE OF UMBRELLAS.
+
+
+No, Annaple Ruthven could not have slept, even if she had had time. Her
+first care had been to receive her sister, who had been met at the
+entrance of Redcastle by her husband.  There had been profuse offers of
+hospitality to Mr. and Mrs. Egremont, the latter of whom looked tired
+out, and offers of sending messengers to Bridgefield; but Mr. Egremont
+would not hear of them, and every one suspected that he would not incur
+the chance of rising without Gregorio and all his appliances.
+
+By the time they were disposed of, and Lady Delmar safe in bed, it was
+time to repair to her mother's room, so as to prevent her from being
+alarmed.  Lady Ronnisglen was English born.  She was not by any means
+the typical dowager.  Her invalid condition was chiefly owing to an
+accident, which had rendered her almost incapable of walking, and she
+was also extremely susceptible of cold, and therefore hardly ever went
+out; but there was so much youth and life about her at sixty-three that
+she and Annaple often seemed like companion sisters, and her shrewd,
+keen, managing eldest-born like their mother.
+
+Annaple lay down beside her on her bed in the morning twilight, and
+gave her the history of the accident in playful terms indeed. Annaple
+could never help that, but there was something in her voice that made
+Lady Ronnisglen say, when satisfied about Janet's hurt, 'You've more to
+say, Nannie dear.'
+
+'Yes, minnie mine, I walked home with Mark Egremont.'
+
+'And--?'
+
+'Yes, minnie.  He is going to work and make a home--a real, true,
+homely home for you and me.'
+
+'My child, my child, you have not hung the old woman about the poor
+boy's neck!'
+
+'As if I would have had him if he did not love her, and make a mother
+of her!'
+
+'But what is he going to do, Nan?  This is a very different thing
+from--'
+
+'Very different from Janet's notions!' and they both laughed, the
+mother adding to the mirth by saying--
+
+'Poor Janet, congratulating herself that no harm had been done, and
+that you had never taken to one another!'
+
+'Did she really now?'
+
+'Oh yes, only yesterday, and I bade her not crow too soon, for I
+thought I saw symptoms--'
+
+'You dear darling minnie!  Think of that!  Before we either of us knew
+it, and when he is worth ever so much than he was before!  Not but that
+I am enraged when people say he has acted nobly, just as if there had
+been anything else for him to do!'
+
+'I own that I am glad he has proved himself.  I was afraid he would be
+dragged in the way of his uncle.  Don't be furious, Nannie.  Not at all
+into evil, but into loitering; and I should like to know what are his
+prospects now.'
+
+'Well, mother, I don't think he has any.  But he means to have.  And
+not a word is to be said to anybody except you and his father and May
+till he has looked over the top of the wall, and seen his way.  We need
+not bring Janet down on us till then.'
+
+'I must see him, my dear.  Let me see him before he goes away.  He
+always has been a very dear lad, a thoroughly excellent right-minded
+fellow.  Only I must know what he means to do, and whether there is any
+reasonable chance of employment or fixed purpose.'
+
+Lady Ronnisglen's maid here arrived with her matutinal cup of tea; and
+Annaple, beginning to perceive that she was very stiff, went off in
+hopes that her morning toilette would deceive her hardworked little
+frame into believing it had had a proper night's rest.
+
+She was quite ready to appear at the breakfast table, though her eldest
+niece, a long-haired, long-limbed girl, considerably the bigger of the
+two, was only too happy to preside over the cups.  All the four young
+people were in the greatest state of excitement, welcoming, as the
+heroes of the night, Mark and Mr. Godfrey, and clamouring to be allowed
+to walk down after breakfast with their father and the gentlemen to see
+the scene of the catastrophe and the remains of the carriage and the
+bridge.
+
+Sir John made a courteous reference to the governess, but there was a
+general sense that the cat was away, and presently there was a rush
+upstairs to prepare for the walk.  Annaple had time in the course of
+all the bustle, while the colour came back to her cheeks for a moment,
+to tell Mark that her mother had been all that was good, and wanted to
+see him.
+
+He must manage to stay till after eleven o'clock; she could not be
+ready before.  Then he might come to her sitting-room, which, as well
+as her bedroom, was on the ground floor.
+
+Mark had to work off his anxiety by an inspection of the scene of the
+disaster and a circumstantial explanation of the details to the young
+Delmars, who crowded round him and Mr. Godfrey, half awed, half
+delighted, and indeed the youngest--a considerable tomboy--had nearly
+given the latter the opportunity of becoming a double hero by tumbling
+through the broken rail, but he caught her in time, and she only
+incurred from Sir John such a scolding as a great fright will produce
+from the easiest of fathers.
+
+Afterwards Mark put Gerard on the way to his brother-in-law's living,
+asking him on the road so many questions about the umbrella business
+that the youth was not quite sure how to take it, and doubted whether
+the young swell supposed that he could talk of nothing else; but his
+petulance was mitigated when he was asked, 'Supposing a person wished
+to enter the business, to whom should he apply?'
+
+'Do you know any one who wishes for anything of the kind?' he asked.
+'Are you making inquiries for any one?' and on a hesitating
+affirmation, 'Because I know there is an opening for a man with capital
+just at present.  Dutton won't advertise--'tis so risky; and he wants
+some knowledge of a person's antecedents, and whether he is likely to
+go into it in a liberal, gentlemanly spirit, with good principles, you
+see, such as would not upset all we are doing for the hands.'
+
+'What amount of capital do you mean?'
+
+'Oh, from five hundred to a thousand!  Or more would not come amiss. If
+I only had it!  What it would be to conduct an affair like that on true
+principles!  But luck is against me every way.'
+
+Mark was at the sitting-room door as the four quarters began to strike
+in preparation for eleven, but Lady Ronnisglen had been in her chair
+for nearly half-an-hour, having been rapid and nervous enough to hurry
+even the imperturbable maid, whom Annaple thought incapable of being
+hastened.  She was a little slight woman, with delicate features and
+pale complexion, such as time deals with gently, and her once yellow
+hair now softened with silver was turned back in bands beneath the
+simple net cap that suited her so well.  There was a soft yet sparkling
+look about her as she held out her hands and exclaimed, 'Ah, Master
+Mark, what mischief have you been doing?'
+
+Mark came and knelt on one knee beside her and said: 'Will you let me
+work for you both, Lady Ronnisglen?  I will do my best to find some.'
+
+'Ah! that is the point, my dear boy.  I should have asked and wished
+for definite work, if you had come to me before that discovery of
+yours; and now it is a mere matter of necessity.'
+
+'Yes,' said Mark; then, with some hesitation, he added: 'Lady
+Ronnisglen, do you care whether I take to what people call a
+gentleman's profession?  I could, of course, go on till I am called to
+the bar, and then wait for something to turn up; but that would be
+waiting indeed!  Then in other directions I've taken things easy, you
+see, till I'm too old for examinations.  I failed in the only one that
+was still open to me.  Lord Kirkaldy tried me for foreign office work,
+and was appalled at my blunders.  I'm not fit for a parson.'
+
+'I should have thought you were.'
+
+'Not I,' said Mark.  'I'm not up to the mark there.  I couldn't say
+honestly that I was called to it.  I wish I could, for it would be the
+easiest way out of it; but I looked at the service, and I can't.
+There--that's a nice confession to come to you with!  I can't think how
+I can have been so impudent.'
+
+'Mark, you are a dear good lad.  I respect and honour you ever so much
+more than before all this showed what stuff was in you!  But the
+question is, What's to be done?  My child is verily the "penniless lass
+with a high pedigree," for she has not a poor thousand to call her own.'
+
+'And I have no right to anything in my father's lifetime, though I have
+no doubt he would give me up my share of my mother's portion--about
+£3000.  Now this is what has occurred to me: In the place where I found
+my uncle's wife--Micklethwayte, close to Monks Horton--there's a great
+umbrella factory, with agencies everywhere.  There are superior people
+belonging to it.  I've seen some of them, and I've been talking to the
+young fellow who helped us last night, who is in the office.  I find
+that to go into the thing with such capital as I might hope for, would
+bring in a much larger and speedier return than I could hope for any
+other way, if only my belongings would set aside their feelings.  And
+you see there are the Kirkaldys close by to secure her good society.'
+
+Lady Ronnisglen put out her transparent-looking, black-mittened hand,
+and gave a little dainty pat to his arm.  'I like to see a man in
+earnest,' said she.  Her little Skye terrier was seized with jealousy
+at her gesture, and came nuzzling in between with his black nose. 'Mull
+objects!' she said, smiling; but then, with a graver look, 'And so will
+your father.'
+
+'At first,' said Mark; 'but I think he will give way when he has had
+time to look at the matter, and sees how good you are.  That will make
+all the difference.'
+
+So Annaple, who had been banished for a little while, was allowed to
+return, and mother, daughter, and lover built themselves a little
+castle of umbrellas, and bestowed a little arch commiseration on poor
+Lady Delmar; who, it was agreed, need know nothing until something
+definite was arranged, since Annaple was clearly accountable to no one
+except her mother.  She would certainly think the latter part of her
+dream only too well realised, and consider that an unfair advantage had
+been taken of her seclusion in her own room.  In spite of all loyal
+efforts to the contrary, Mark, if he had been in a frame of mind to
+draw conclusions, would have perceived that the prospect of escaping
+from the beneficent rule of Lescombe was by no means unpleasant to Lady
+Ronnisglen.  The books that lay within her reach would hardly have
+found a welcome anywhere else in the house.  Sir John was not
+brilliant, and his wife had turned her native wits to the practical
+rather than the intellectual line, and had quite enough to think of in
+keeping up the dignities of Lescombe with a large family amid
+agricultural difficulties.
+
+Annaple remembered at last that she ought to go and look after her
+guests, assisted therein by the pleasure of giving May a hearty kiss
+and light squeeze, with a murmur that 'all was right.'
+
+She brought them downstairs just as the gong was sounding, and the rush
+of girls descending from the schoolroom, and Lady Ronnisglen being
+wheeled across the hall in her chair.  Nuttie, who had expected to see
+a gray, passive, silent old lady like Mrs. Nugent, was quite amazed at
+the bright, lively face and voice that greeted the son-in-law and
+grandchildren, May and herself, congratulating these two on having been
+so well employed all the morning, and observing that she was afraid her
+Nannie could not give so good an account of herself.
+
+'Well,' said Sir John, 'I am sure she looks as if she found plodding
+along the lanes as wholesome as sleeping in her bed!  Nan Apple-cheeks,
+eh?'
+
+Whereupon Annaple's cheeks glowed all the more into resemblance of the
+baby-name which she had long ceased to deserve; but May could see the
+darkness under her eyes, betraying that it was only excitement that
+drove away fatigue.
+
+Sir John had not gone far in his circumstantial description of the
+injuries to his unfortunate carriage when the Canon arrived, with his
+wife and Blanche.  Mark would have given worlds in his impatience to
+have matters settled between the two parents then and there; but Lady
+Ronnisglen had already warned him that this would not be possible, and
+assured him that it would be much wiser to prepare his father
+beforehand.
+
+Then he fixed his hopes on a solitary drive with his father back in the
+pony carriage, but he found himself told off to take that home, and had
+to content himself with May as a companion.  Nor was his sister's mode
+of receiving the umbrella plan reassuring.  She had smiled too often
+with her stepmother over Nuttie's having been brought up among
+umbrellas to be ready to accept the same lot for her brother and her
+friend, and she was quite sure that her father would never consent.
+'An Egremont an umbrella-maker! how horrible!  Just fancy seeing
+Dutton, Egremont and Co. on the handle of one's umbrella!'
+
+'Well, you need not patronise us,' said Mark.
+
+'But is it possible that Lady Ronnisglen did not object?' said May.
+
+'She seemed to think it preferable to driving pigs in the Texas, like
+her son Malcolm.'
+
+'Yes, but then that _was_ the Texas.'
+
+'Oh May, May, I did not think you were such a goose!'
+
+'I should have thought the folly was in not being patient.  Stick to
+your profession, and something must come in time.'
+
+'Ay, and how many men do you think are sticking to it in that hope? No,
+May, 'tis not real patience to wear out the best years of my life and
+hers in idleness, waiting for something not beneath an Egremont to do!'
+
+'But is there nothing to do better than that?'
+
+'Find it for me, May.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+INFRA DIG.
+
+  'Till every penny which she told,
+  Creative Fancy turned to gold.'--B. LLOYD.
+
+
+The Blueposts Bridge had produced a good deal of effect.  Ursula
+Egremont in special seemed to herself to have been awakened from a
+strange dream, and to have resumed her real nature and affections. She
+felt as if she would give all her partners at the ball for one shake of
+Monsieur's fringed paws; her heart yearned after Aunt Ursel and Miss
+Mary; she longed after the chants of the choir; and when she thought of
+the effort poor Gerard Godfrey had made to see her, she felt him a
+hero, and herself a recreant heroine, who had well-nigh been betrayed
+into frivolity and desertion of him, and she registered secret
+resolutions of constancy.
+
+She burned to pour out to her mother all the Micklethwayte tidings, and
+all her longings to be there; but when the Rectory party set her down
+at the door, the footman, with a look of grave importance, announced
+that Mr. Egremont was very unwell.  'Mr. Gregory thinks he has taken a
+chill from the effect of exposure, sir, and Dr. Hamilton has been sent
+for.'
+
+The Canon and his wife both got out on this intelligence, and Mrs.
+Egremont was summoned to see them.  She came, looking more frightened
+than they thought the occasion demanded, for she was appalled by the
+severe pain in the head and eyes; but they comforted her by assuring
+her that her husband had suffered in the same manner in the spring, and
+she saw how well he had recovered; and then telling Nuttie to bring
+word what the doctor's report was, and then spend the evening at the
+Rectory, they departed, while poor Nuttie only had one kiss, one
+inquiry whether she were rested, before her mother fled back to the
+patient.
+
+Nor did she see her again till after the doctor's visit, and then it
+was only to desire her to tell her uncle that the attack was pronounced
+to be a return of the illness of last spring, and that it would be
+expedient to go abroad for the winter.
+
+Go abroad!  It had always been a vision of delight to Nuttie, and she
+could not be greatly concerned at the occasion of it; but she did not
+find the Rectory in a condition to converse and sympathise.  Blanche
+was lying down with a bad headache.  The Edwardses and a whole party of
+semi-genteel parish visitors had come in to inquire about the accident,
+and had to be entertained with afternoon tea; and May, though helping
+her stepmother to do her devoir towards them, seemed more preoccupied
+than ever.
+
+As indeed she was, for she knew that Mark was putting his fate to the
+touch with his father in the study.
+
+The Canon heard the proposal with utter consternation and dismay at the
+perverseness of the two young people, who might have been engaged any
+time these two years with the full approbation of their families, and
+now chose the very moment when every one was rejoicing at their freedom.
+
+'When a young man has got into a pickle,' he said, 'the first thing is
+to want to be married!'
+
+'Exactly so, sir, to give him a motive for getting out of the pickle.'
+
+'Umbrellas!  I should like to hear what your grandfather would have
+said!'
+
+'These are not my grandfather's days, sir.'
+
+'No indeed!  There was nothing to do but to give a hint to old Lord de
+Lyonnais, and he could get you put into any berth you chose. Interest
+was interest in those days!  I don't see why Kirkaldy can't do the
+same.'
+
+'Not unless I had foreign languages at my tongue's end.'
+
+Whereat the Canon groaned, and Mark had to work again through all the
+difficulties in the way of the more liberal professions; and the upshot
+was that his father agreed to drive over to Lescombe the next day and
+see Lady Ronnisglen.  He certainly had always implicitly trusted his
+son's veracity, but he evidently thought that there must have been much
+warping of the imagination to make the young man believe the old
+Scottish peeress to have consented to her daughter's marrying into an
+umbrella factory.
+
+Nuttie was surprised and gratified that both Mark and May put her
+through an examination on the habits of Micklethwayte and the position
+of Mr. Godfrey, which she thought was entirely due to the favourable
+impression Gerard had produced, and she felt proportionably proud of
+him when Mark pronounced him a very nice gentlemanly young fellow.  She
+could not think why her uncle, with more testiness than she had ever
+seen in that good-natured dignitary, ordered May not to stand
+chattering there, but to give them some music.
+
+The Canon drove to Lescombe the next day under pretext of inquiring
+after Lady Delmar, and then almost forgot to do so, after he had
+ascertained that she was a prisoner to her dressing-room, and that Sir
+John was out shooting.  The result of his interview filled him with
+astonishment.  Lady Ronnisglen having had a large proportion of sons to
+put out in life on very small means had learnt not to be fastidious,
+and held that the gentleman might ennoble the vocation instead of the
+vocation debasing the gentleman.  Moreover, in her secret soul she felt
+that her daughter Janet's manoeuvres were far more truly degrading than
+any form of honest labour; and it was very sore to her to have no power
+of preventing them, ridicule, protest, or discouragement being all
+alike treated as the dear mother's old-world unpractical romance.  It
+galled her likewise that she could perceive the determination that
+Annaple Ruthven should be disposed of before Muriel Delmar came on the
+scene; and the retiring to ever so small a home of their own had been
+discussed between mother and daughter, and only put aside because of
+the pain it would give their honest-hearted host and their hostess, who
+really loved them.
+
+Thus she did her best to persuade her old friend that there were few
+openings for a man of his son's age, and that if the Micklethwayte
+business were all that Mark imagined, it was not beneath the attention
+even of a well-born gentleman in these modern days, and would involve
+less delay than any other plan, except emigration, which was equally
+dreaded by each parent.  Delay there must be, not only in order to
+ascertain the facts respecting the firm, but to prove whether Mark had
+any aptitude for the business before involving any capital in it.
+However, every other alternative would involve much longer and more
+doubtful waiting.  And altogether the Canon felt that if a person of
+Lady Ronnisglen's rank did not object, he had scarcely a right to do
+so.  However, both alike reserved consent until full inquiry should
+have been made.
+
+The Canon wrote to Lord Kirkaldy, and in the meantime wanted to gather
+what information he could from his sister-in-law; but he found her
+absolutely engrossed as her husband's nurse, and scarcely permitted to
+snatch a meal outside the darkened room.  He groaned and grumbled at
+his brother's selfishness, and declared that her health would be
+damaged, while his shrewder lady declared that nothing would be so good
+for her as to let Alwyn find her indispensable to his comfort, even
+beyond Gregorio.
+
+This absorption of her mother fell hard on Ursula, especially when the
+first two days' alarm was over, and her mother was still kept an entire
+prisoner, as companion rather than nurse.  As before, the rheumatic
+attack fastened upon the head and eyes, causing lengthened suffering,
+and teaching Mr. Egremont that he had never had so gentle, so skilful,
+so loving, or altogether so pleasant a slave as his wife, the only
+person except Gregorio whom, in his irritable state, he would tolerate
+about him.
+
+His brother could not be entirely kept out, but was never made welcome,
+more especially when he took upon himself to remonstrate on Alice's
+being deprived of air, exercise, and rest.  He got no thanks; Mr.
+Egremont snarled, and Alice protested that she was never tired, and
+needed nothing.  The Rectory party were, excepting the schoolroom
+girls, engaged to make visits from home before going into residence at
+Redcastle, and were to begin with Monks Horton.  They offered to escort
+Ursula to see her great aunt at Micklethwayte--Oh joy of joys!--but
+when the Canon made the proposition in his brother's room, Mr. Egremont
+cut it short with 'I'm not going to have her running after those
+umbrella-mongers.'
+
+The Canon's heart sank within him at the tone, and he was really very
+sorry for his niece, who was likely to have a fortnight or three weeks
+of comparative solitude before her father was ready to set out on the
+journey.
+
+'Can't she help you, in reading to her father--or anything?' he asked
+Alice, who had come out with him into the anteroom to express her warm
+thanks for the kind proposal.
+
+She shook her head.  'He would not like it, nor I, for her.'
+
+'I should think not!' exclaimed the Canon, as his eye fell on the title
+of a yellow French book on the table.  'I have heard of this! Does he
+make you read such as this to him, Alice?'
+
+'Nothing else seems to amuse him,' she said.  'Do you, think I ought
+not?  I don't understand much of that kind of modern French, but Nuttie
+knows it better.'
+
+'Not _that kind_, I hope,' said the Canon hastily.  No, no, my dear,'
+as he saw her colour mantling, 'small blame to you.  You have only to
+do the best you can with him, poor fellow!  Then we'll take anything
+for you.  We've said nothing to Nuttie, Jane said I had better ask you
+first.'
+
+'Oh, that was kind!  I am glad she is spared the disappointment.'
+
+Not that she was.  For when she learnt her cousins' destination, she
+entreated to go with them, and had to be told that the proposal had
+been made and refused.
+
+There is no denying that she behaved very ill.  It was the first real
+sharp collision of wills.  She had differed from, and disapproved of,
+her father all along, but what had been required of her had generally
+been pleasant to one side at least of her nature; but here she was
+condemned to the dulness of the lonely outsider to a sick room, when
+her whole soul was leaping back to the delights of her dear old home at
+Micklethwayte.
+
+She made her mother's brief meal with her such a misery of protests and
+insistences on pleadings with her father that poor Alice was fain to
+rejoice when the servants' presence silenced her, and fairly fled from
+her when the last dish was carried out.
+
+When they met again Nuttie demanded, 'Have you spoken to my father?'
+
+'I told you, my dear, it would be of no use?'
+
+'You promised.'
+
+'No, Nuttie, I did not.'
+
+'I'm sure I understood you to say you would if you could.'
+
+'It was your hopes, my dear child.  He is quite determined.'
+
+'And you leave him so.  Mother, I can't understand your submitting to
+show such cruel ingratitude!'
+
+Nuttie was very angry, though she was shocked at the burning colour and
+hot tears that she beheld as, half choked, her mother said: 'Oh, my
+dear, my dear, do not speak so!  You know--you know it is not in my
+heart, but my first duty, and yours too, is to your father.'
+
+'Whatever he tells us?' demanded Nuttie, still hot and angry.
+
+'I did not say that,' returned her mother gently, 'but you know,
+Nuttie, Aunt Ursel herself would say that it is our duty to abide by
+his decision here.'
+
+'But you could speak to him,' still argued Nuttie, 'what's the use of
+his being so fond of you if he won't do anything you want?'
+
+'Hush! hush, Nuttie! you know that is not a right way of speaking.  I
+cannot worry him now he is ill.  You don't know what that dreadful pain
+is!'
+
+Happily Nuttie did refrain from saying, 'No doubt it makes him very
+cross;' but she muttered, 'And so we are to be cut off for ever from
+Aunt Ursel, and Miss Mary, and--and--every thing good--and nice--and
+catholic?'
+
+'I hope not, indeed, I hope not.  Only he wants us to get the good
+society manners and tone--like your cousins, you know.  You are young
+enough for it, and a real Egremont, you know Nuttie, and when you have
+learnt it, he will trust you there,' said the mother, making a very
+mild version of his speech about the umbrella-mongers.
+
+'Yes, he wants to make me worldly, so that I should not care, but that
+he never shall do, whatever you may let him do to you.'
+
+His bell rang sharply, and away hurried Alice, leaving her daughter
+with a miserably sore and impatient heart, and the consciousness of
+having harshly wounded the mother whom she had meant to protect.  And
+there was no hugging and kissing to make up for it possible.  They
+would not meet till dinner-time, and Nuttie's mood of stormy repentance
+had cooled before that time into longing to be more tender than usual
+towards her mother, but how was that possible during the awful
+household ceremony of many courses, with three solemn men-servants
+ministering to them?
+
+And poor Alice jumped up at the end, and ran away as if afraid of fresh
+objurgations, so that all Nuttie could do was to rush headlong after
+her, catch her on the landing, kiss her face all over, and exclaim,
+'Oh, mother, mother, I was dreadfully cross!'
+
+'There, there!  I knew you would be sorry, dear, dear child, I know it
+is very hard, but let me go.  He wants me!'
+
+And a very forlorn and deplorable person was left behind, feeling as if
+her father, after carrying her away from everything else that she
+loved, had ended by robbing her of her mother.
+
+She stood on the handsome staircase, and contrasted it with the little
+cosy entrance at her aunt's.  She felt how she hated all these fine
+surroundings, and how very good and unworldly she was for so doing.
+Only, was it good to have been so violent towards her mother?
+
+The Rectory folks were dining out, so she could only have recourse to
+Mudie's box to try to drive dull care away.
+
+A few days more and they were gone.  Though Mr. Egremont was gradually
+mending, he still required his wife to be in constant attendance.  In
+point of fact Alice could not, and in her loyalty would not, tell her
+dignified brother-in-law, far less her daughter, of the hint that the
+doctor had given her, namely, that her husband was lapsing into the
+constant use of opiates, founded at first on the needs of his malady,
+but growing into a perilous habit, which accounted for his shutting
+himself up all the forenoon.
+
+While under medical treatment it was possible to allowance him, and
+keep him under orders, but Dr. Hamilton warned her not to allow the
+quantity to be exceeded or the drugs to be resorted to after his
+recovery, speaking seriously of the consequences of indulgence.  He
+spoke as a duty, but as he looked at the gentle, timid woman, he saw
+little hope of her doing any good!
+
+Poor Alice was appalled.  All she could do was to betake herself to
+'the little weapon called All-Prayer,' and therewith to use all
+vigilance and all her arts of coaxing and cheering away weariness and
+languor, beguiling sleeplessness, soothing pain by any other means. She
+had just enough success to prevent her from utterly despairing, and to
+keep her always on the strain, and at her own cost, for Mr. Egremont
+was far more irritable when he was without the narcotic, and the
+serenity it produced was an absolute relief.  She soon found too that
+Gregorio was a contrary power.  Once, when he had suggested the dose,
+and she had replied by citing the physician's commands, Mr. Egremont
+had muttered an imprecation on doctors, and she had caught a horrible
+grin of hatred on the man's face, which seemed to her almost
+diabolical.  She had prevailed then, but the next time her absence was
+at all prolonged, she found that the opiate had been taken, and her
+dread of quitting her post increased, though she did not by any means
+always succeed.  Sometimes she was good-humouredly set aside, sometimes
+roughly told to mind her own business; but she could not relinquish the
+struggle, and whenever she did succeed in preventing the indulgence she
+felt a hopefulness that--in spite of himself and Gregorio, she might
+yet save him.
+
+Another hint she had from both the Canon and his wife.  When they asked
+what place was chosen, Mr. Egremont said he had made Alice write to
+inquire of the houses to be had at various resorts--Mentone, Nice,
+Cannes, and the like.  She was struck by the ardour with which they
+both began to praise Nice, Genoa, Sorrento, any place in preference to
+Mentone, which her husband seemed to know and like the best.
+
+And when she went downstairs with them the Canon held her hand a
+moment, and said, 'Anywhere but Mentone, my dear.'
+
+She looked bewildered for a moment, and the Canoness added, 'Look in
+the guide-books.'
+
+Then she remembered Monte Carlo, and for a moment it was to her as
+shocking a warning as if she had been bidden to keep her husband out of
+the temptation of thieving.
+
+She resolved, however, to do her best, feeling immediately that again
+it was a pull of her influence against Gregorio's.  Fortune favoured
+her so far that the villa favoured by Mr. Egremont was not to be had,
+only the side of the bay he disliked, and that a pleasant villa offered
+at Nice.
+
+Should she close with it?  Well--was there great haste?  Gregorio knew
+a good many people at Mentone, and could ascertain in his own way if
+they could get the right side of the bay by going to the hotel and
+waiting.  Alice, however, pressed the matter--represented the danger of
+falling between two stools, pleaded personal preference, and whereas
+Mr. Egremont was too lazy for resistance to any persuasion, she
+obtained permission to engage the Nice villa.  The next day Gregorio
+announced that he had heard that the proprietor of Villa Francaleone at
+Mentone was giving up hopes of his usual tenants, and an offer might
+secure it.
+
+'Villa Eugenie at Nice is taken,' said Alice, and she received one of
+those deadly black looks, which were always like a stab.
+
+Of all this Nuttie knew nothing.  She was a good deal thrown with the
+schoolroom party and with the curate's wife for companionship.  Now
+Mrs. Edwards did not approve of even the canonical Egremonts, having an
+ideal far beyond the ritual of Bridgefield; and she was delighted to
+find how entirely Miss Egremont sympathised with her.
+
+Nuttie described St. Ambrose's as a paradise of church observances and
+parish management, everything becoming embellished and all shortcomings
+forgotten in the loving mists of distance.  The harmonium was never out
+of tune; the choir-boys were only just naughty enough to show how
+wisely Mr. Spyers dealt with them; the surplices, one would think,
+never needed washing; Mr. Dutton and Gerard Godfrey were paragons of
+lay helpers, and district visitors never were troublesome.  Mrs.
+Edwards listened with open ears, and together they bewailed the
+impracticability of moving the Canon to raising Bridgefield to anything
+approaching to such a standard; while Nuttie absolutely cultivated her
+home sickness.
+
+According to promise Blanche wrote to her from Monks Horton, and told
+her thus much--'We have been all over your umbrella place.  It was very
+curious.  Then we called upon Miss Headworth, who was quite well, and
+was pleased to hear of you.'
+
+Blanche was famous for never putting into a letter what her
+correspondent wanted to hear, but her stepmother wrote a much longer
+and more interesting letter to Mrs. Egremont.
+
+'You will be glad to hear that we found your aunt quite well.  I
+suppose it is not in the nature of things that you should not be
+missed; but I should think your place as well supplied as could be
+hoped by that very handsome and superior Miss Nugent, with whom she
+lives.  I had a good deal of conversation with both; for you will be
+surprised to hear that the Canon has consented to Mark's making the
+experiment of working for a year in Greenleaf and Dutton's office, with
+a view to entering the firm in future.  I was very anxious to
+understand from such true ladies what the position would be socially. I
+longed to talk it over with you beforehand; but Alwyn could never spare
+you, and it was not a subject to be broached without ample time for
+discussion.  We felt that though the Kirkaldys could tell us much, it
+was only from the outside, whereas Miss Headworth could speak from
+within.  The decision is of course a blow to his father, and will be
+still more so to the De Lyonnais family, but they have never done
+anything to entitle them to have a voice in the matter, and the
+Kirkaldys agree with us that, though not a path of distinction, it is
+one of honourable prosperity; and with this, if Mark is content, we
+have no right to object, since his mind is set on present happiness
+rather than ambition.'
+
+It was a letter gratifying to Alice in its confidential tone, as well
+as in the evident approval of those surroundings which she loved so
+well.  She read it to her husband, as she was desired to give him a
+message that the Canon had not written out of consideration for his
+eyes.  He laughed the laugh that always jarred on her.  'So Master Mark
+has got his nose to the grindstone, has he?' was his first exclamation,
+and, after some cogitation, 'The fellow wants to be married, depend on
+it!'
+
+'Do you think so?' returned Alice wistfully.
+
+'Think!  Why, you may see it in Jane's letter!  I wonder who it is! The
+little yellow Ruthven girl, most likely!  The boy is fool enough for
+anything!  I thought he would have mended his fortunes with Ursula, but
+he's too proud to stomach that, I suppose!'
+
+'I did wish that!' said Alice.  'It would have set everything straight,
+and it would have been so nice for her.'
+
+'You should have cut out your daughter after your own pattern,' he
+answered; 'not let her be such a raw insignificant little spitfire.
+'Tis a pity.  I don't want the estate to go out of the name, though I
+won't leave it to an interfering prig like Mark unless he chooses to
+take my daughter with it!'
+
+The latter part of this amiable speech was muttered and scarcely heard
+or attended to by Alice in her struggle to conceal the grief she felt
+at the uncompromising opinion of her child.  Nuttie might outgrow being
+raw, but there seemed less rather than more prospect of a better
+understanding with her father.  About a week later Mark made his
+appearance, timing it happily when his uncle was making his toilette,
+so that his aunt was taking a turn on the sunny terrace with Nuttie
+when the young man came hurrying up the garden.
+
+'Mark!  What?  Are you come home?'
+
+'Not the others.  They are at Mr. Condamine's, I came last night--by
+way of Lescombe.  Edda, dear, it is all right!  Oh, I forgot you did
+not know!  There was no seeing you before we went away.  Ah! by the by,
+how is my uncle?'
+
+'Much better, except that using his eyes brings on the pain.  'What is
+it, Mark?  Ah! I can guess,' she said, aided no doubt by that
+conjecture of her husband's.
+
+'Yes, yes, yes!' he answered, with a rapidity quite unlike himself.
+'Why, Nuttie, how mystified you look!'
+
+'I'm sure I don't wonder at any one being glad to live at dear old
+Micklethwayte,' said Nuttie slowly.  'But, somehow, I didn't think it
+of you, Mark.'
+
+'My dear, that's not all!' said her mother.
+
+'Oh!' cried Nuttie, with a prolonged intonation.  'Is it?--Oh, Mark!
+did you _do it_ that night when you led the horse home?'
+
+'Even so, Nuttie!  And, Aunt Alice, Lady Ronnisglen is the best and
+bravest of old ladies, and the wisest.  Nobody objects but Lady Delmar,
+and she declares she shall not consider it an engagement till
+Ronnisglen has been written to in Nepaul, as if he had anything to do
+with it; but that matters the less, since they all insist on our
+waiting till I've had a year's trial at the office!  I suppose they
+could not be expected to do otherwise, but it is a pity, for I'm afraid
+Lady Delmar will lead Annaple and her mother a life of it.'
+
+'Dear Mark, I am delighted that it is all going so well.'
+
+'I knew you would be!  I told them I must tell _you_, though it is not
+to go any farther.'
+
+So that hope of Mark's restoration to the inheritance faded from Alice,
+and yet she could not be concerned for him.  She had never seen him in
+such good spirits, for the sense of failure and disappointment had
+always been upon him; and the definite prospect of occupation, gilded
+by his hopes of Annaple, seemed to make a new man of him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+AN OLD FRIEND.
+
+  'My heart untravelled still returns to thee.'--GOLDSMITH.
+
+
+To go abroad!  Such had been the fairy castle of Nuttie's life.  She
+had dreamed of Swiss mountains, Italian pictures, Rheinland castles, a
+perpetual panorama of delight, and here she was in one of the great
+hotels of Paris, as little likely to see the lions of that city as she
+had been to see those of London.
+
+The party were halting for two days there because the dentist, on whom
+Mr. Egremont's fine show of teeth depended, practised there; but Nuttie
+spent great part of the day alone in the sitting-room, and her hand-bag
+and her mother's, with all their books and little comforts, had been
+lost in the agony of landing.  Her mother's attendance was required all
+the morning, or what was worse, she expected that it would be, and
+though Nuttie's persistence dragged out the staid, silent English maid,
+who had never been abroad before, to walk in the Tuilleries gardens,
+which they could see from their windows, both felt half-scared the
+whole time.  Nuttie was quite unused to finding her own way
+unprotected, and Martin was frightened, cross, and miserable about the
+bags, which, she averred, had been left by Gregorio's fault.  She so
+hated Gregorio that only a sort of adoration which she entertained for
+Mrs. Egremont  would have induced her to come tete-a-tete with him, and
+perhaps he was visiting his disappointment about Mentone on her.  In
+the afternoon nothing was achieved but a drive in the Bois de Boulogne,
+when it was at once made evident that Mr. Egremont would tolerate no
+questions nor exclamations.
+
+His mouth was in no condition for eating in public, and he therefore
+decreed that his wife and daughter should dine at the table d'hote,
+while he was served alone by Gregorio.  This was a great boon to
+Nuttie, and to her mother it recalled bridal days long past at Dieppe;
+but what was their astonishment when on entering the room they beheld
+the familiar face of Mr. Dutton!  It was possible for him to place
+himself between them, and there is no describing the sense of rest and
+protection his presence imparted to them, more especially to Nuttie.
+
+He had come over, as he did from time to time, on business connected
+with the materials he used, and he was beguiled into telling them of
+his views of Mark, whom he had put in the way of learning the
+preliminaries needful to an accountant.  He had a deep distrust of the
+business capacities and perseverance of young gentlemen of family,
+especially with a countess-aunt in the neighbourhood, and quoted Lord
+Eldon's saying that to make a good lawyer of one, it was needful for
+him to have spent both his own and his wife's fortune to begin with,
+but he allowed that young Mr. Egremont was a very favourable specimen,
+and was resolutely applying himself to his work, and that he himself
+felt it due to him to give all the assistance possible.
+
+Miss Headworth, he could not deny, had aged, but far less than Mrs.
+Nugent in the past year, and it really was a great comfort to Miss Mary
+to have the old ladies together.  He told too how the mission, now
+lately over, had stirred the Micklethwayte folk into strong excitement,
+and how good works had been undertaken, evil habits renounced,
+reconciliations effected, religious services frequented. Would it last?
+Nobody, he said, had taken it up so zealously as Gerard Godfrey, who
+seemed as if he would fain throw everything up, and spend his whole
+life in some direct service as a home missionary or something of the
+kind.  'He is a good fellow,' said Mr. Dutton, 'and it is quite
+genuine, but I made him wait at least a year, that he may be sure that
+this is not only a passing impulse.'
+
+Nuttie thought that she knew what was the impulse that had actuated
+him, and felt a pleasant elation and self-consciousness even while she
+repressed a sigh of pity for herself and for him.  Altogether the dip
+into the Micklethwayte world was delightful, but when Mr. Dutton began
+to ask Nuttie what she had seen, she burst out with, 'Nothing--nothing
+but just a walk and a drive in the Bois de Boulogne;' and her mother
+explained that 'in Mr. Egremont's state of health,' etc.
+
+'I wonder,' asked Mr. Dutton, 'if I might be allowed--'
+
+Nuttie's eyes sparkled with ecstasy.
+
+It ended in her mother, who had been wondering how Mr. Egremont could
+be amused all the long evening, arranging that Mr. Dutton should come
+in an hour's time to call on him, on the chance of being admitted, and
+that then the offer might be made when she had prepared him for it,
+advising Nuttie to wait in her own room.  She was beginning to learn
+how to steer between her husband and her daughter, and she did not
+guess that her old friend was sacrificing one of the best French plays
+for the chance.
+
+It turned out well; Mr. Egremont was conscious of a want of variety. He
+demanded whether it was the young fellow, and being satisfied on that
+part, observed in almost a good-humoured tone, 'So, we are in for
+umbrellas, we may as well go in for the whole firm!' caused the lights
+to be lowered under pretext of his eyes--to conceal the lack of
+teeth--did not absolutely refuse to let Nuttie take advantage of the
+escort, and when Mr. Dutton did come to the anteroom of the apartment,
+he was received with full courtesy, though Gregorio looked unutterable
+contempt.  Mr. Dutton was a man who could talk, and had seen a good
+deal of the world at different times.  Mr. Egremont could appreciate
+intelligent conversation, so that they got on wonderfully well
+together, over subjects that would have been a mere weariness to Nuttie
+but for the exceeding satisfaction of hearing a Micklethwayte voice.
+At last Mr. Dutton said something about offering his escort to the
+ladies, or to Miss Egremont, who used, he said in a paternal way, to be
+a little playfellow of his; Mr. Egremont really smiled, and said, 'Ay,
+ay, the child is young enough to run after sights. Well, thank you, if
+you are so good as to take the trouble, they will be very grateful to
+you, or if her mother cannot go with her, there's the maid.'
+
+Nuttie thought she had never known him so amiable, and hardly durst
+believe her good fortune would not turn the wheel before morning. And
+it so far did that her mother found, or thought she found, that it
+would not do to be out of call, and sent the silent Martin in her
+stead.  But Mr. Dutton had set telegraphs to work and recovered the
+bags, which Gregorio had professed to give up in despair.
+
+A wonderful amount of lionising was contrived by Mr. Dutton, who had
+lived a few years at Paris in early youth, and had made himself
+acquainted alike with what was most worth seeing, and the best ways and
+means of seeing it, so that as little time as possible was wasted on
+the unimportant.  It was one of the white days of Nuttie's life,
+wanting nothing but her mother's participation in the sight of the St.
+Michael of the Louvre, of the Sainte Chapelle, of the vistas in Notre
+Dame, and of poor Marie Antoinette's cell,--all that they had longed to
+see together.
+
+She had meant to tell Mr. Dutton that it was all her father's
+selfishness, but somehow she could not say so, there was something
+about him that hindered all unbefitting outbreaks of vexation.
+
+And thus, when she mentioned her disappointment at not being allowed to
+go to Micklethwayte with her uncle, he answered, 'You could not of
+course be spared with your father so unwell.'
+
+'Oh, he never let me come near him!  I wasn't of the slightest use to
+him!'
+
+'Mrs. Egremont would have missed you.'
+
+'Really he never gave her time.  He perfectly devours her, body and
+soul.  Oh dear, no!  'Twas for no good I was kept there, but just pride
+and ingratitude, though mother tried to call it being afraid for my
+manners and my style.'
+
+'In which, if you lapse into such talk, you fully justify the
+precaution.  I was just thinking what a young lady you had grown into,'
+he answered in a tone of banter, under which, however, she felt a
+rebuke; and while directing her attention to the Pantheon, he took care
+to get within hearing again of Martin.
+
+And in looking at these things, he carried her so far below the
+surface.  St. Michael was not so much Raffaelle's triumph of art as the
+eternal victory over sin; the Sainte Chapelle, spite of all its modern
+unsanctified gaudiness, was redolent of St. Louis; and the cell of the
+slaughtered queen was as a martyr's shrine, trod with reverence.  There
+were associations with every turn, and Nuttie might have spent years at
+Paris with another companion without imbibing so many impressions as on
+this December day, when she came home so full of happy chatter that the
+guests at the table d'hote glanced with amusement at the eager girl as
+much as with admiration at the beautiful mother.  Mr. Dutton had been
+invited to come and take coffee and spend the evening with them again,
+but Mr. Egremont's affairs with the dentist had been  completed, and he
+had picked up, or, more strictly speaking, Gregorio had hunted up for
+him, a couple of French acquaintances, who appeared before long and
+engrossed him entirely.
+
+Mr. Dutton sat between the two ladies on a stiff dark-green sofa on the
+opposite side of the room, and under cover of the eager,
+half-shrieking, gesticulating talk of the Frenchmen they had a quiet
+low-toned conversation, like old times, Alice said.  'More than old
+times,' Nuttie added, and perhaps the others both agreed with her.
+
+When the two Englishwomen started at some of the loud French tones,
+almost imagining they were full of rage and fury, their friend smiled
+and said that such had been his first notion on coming abroad.
+
+'You have been a great deal abroad?' Mrs. Egremont asked; 'you seem
+quite at home in Paris.'
+
+'Oh, mamma, he showed me where the school was that he went to, and the
+house where he lived!  Up such an immense way!'
+
+Mr. Dutton was drawn on to tell more of his former life than ever had
+been known to them.  His father, a wine merchant, had died a bankrupt
+when he was ten years old, and a relation, engaged in the same business
+at Paris, had offered to give him a few years of foreign schooling, and
+then make him useful in the business.
+
+His excellent mother had come with him, and they had lived together on
+very small means, high up in a many-storied lodging-house, while he
+daily attended the Lycie.  His reminiscences were very happy of those
+days of cheerful contrivance, of her eager desire to make the tiny
+appartement a home to her boy, of their pleasant Sundays and holidays,
+and the life that in this manner was peculiarly guarded by her
+influence, and the sense of being all she had upon earth.  He had
+scarcely ever spoken of her before, and he dwelt on her now with a
+tenderness that showed how she had been the guiding spirit of his life.
+
+At fifteen he was taken into the office at Marseilles, and she went
+thither with him, but the climate did not agree with her; she drooped,
+and, moreover, he discovered that the business was not conducted in the
+honourable manner he had supposed.  After a few months of weighing his
+obligations to his kinsman against these instincts, the question was
+solved by his cousin's retiring.  He resolved to take his mother back
+to England at any loss, and falling in with one of the partners of the
+umbrella firm in quest of French silk, he was engaged as foreign
+correspondent, and brought his mother to Micklethwayte, but not in time
+to restore her health, and he had been left alone in the world just as
+he came of age, when a small legacy came to him from his cousin, too
+late for her to profit by it. It had been invested in the business, and
+he had thus gradually risen to his present position.  Mrs. Egremont was
+amazed to hear that his mother had only been dead so short a time
+before she had herself come to Micklethwayte; and fairly apologised for
+the surprise she could not help betraying at finding how youthful he
+had then been, and Nuttie exclaimed, in her original unguarded fashion:
+
+'Why, Mr. Dutton, I always thought you were an old bachelor!'
+
+'Nuttie, my dear!' said her mother in a note of warning, but Mr. Dutton
+laughed and said:
+
+'Not so far wrong!  They tell me I never was a young man.'
+
+'You had always to be everything to your mother,' said Mrs. Egremont
+softly.
+
+'Yes,' he said, 'and a very blessed thing it was for me.'
+
+'Ah! you don't regret now all that you must have always been giving up
+for her,' returned Alice.
+
+'No, indeed.  Only that I did not give up more.'
+
+'That is always the way.'
+
+'It is indeed.  One little knows the whips that a little self-will
+prepares.'
+
+Nuttie thought he said it for her admonition, and observed, 'But she
+was good,' only, however, in a mumble, that the other two thought it
+inexpedient to notice, though it made both hearts ache for her, even
+Alice's--with an additional pang of self-reproach that she herself was
+not good enough to help her daughter better.
+
+Neither of them guessed at the effect that a glimpse of the lovely
+young seeming widow had had on the already grave self-restrained young
+man in the home lately made lonely, how she had been his secret object
+for years, and how, when her history was revealed to him, he had still
+hoped on for a certainty which had come at last as so fatal a shock and
+overthrow to all his dreams.
+
+A life of self-restraint and self-conquest had rendered it safe for him
+to thoroughly enjoy the brief intercourse, which had come about by the
+accident of his having come to dine at the Hotel de Louvre, to meet a
+friend who had failed him.
+
+These were two completely happy hours to all the three, and when they
+said 'good-night' there was a sense of soothing and invigoration on
+Alice's mind; and on Nuttie's that patience and dutifulness were the
+best modes of doing justice to her Micklethwayte training, although he
+had scarcely said a word of direct rebuke or counsel.
+
+While Mr. Dutton sped home to tell Miss Headworth that Mrs. Egremont
+looked lovelier than ever, and was--yes she was--more of an angel, that
+her husband had been very pleasant, much better than he expected, and,
+indeed, might come to anything good under such influence; and as to
+little Nuttie--she was developing fast, and had a brave constant heart,
+altogether at Micklethwayte.  But that servant who was acting as
+courier was an insolent scoundrel, who was evidently cheating them to
+the last degree.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+A FRIEND IN NEED.
+
+  'True courage often is in frightened eyes.'--
+                                 Thoughts and Verses.
+
+
+All the preliminaries of the sojourn at Nice had been settled in
+correspondence, and the Egremont family had nothing to do, after
+arriving at the station, but to drive up to Villa Eugenie, whose
+flower-wreathed balconies were like a vision of beauty.  Servants had
+been hired through agencies known to Mr. Egremont, and Gregorio looked
+very black at his mistress keeping the reins in her hand, and tried to
+make her feel herself inefficient.
+
+It was not an eventful or very interesting part of Ursula's life. She
+was almost wild with the novelty and beauty of the South at first, but
+except for what she could thus see, there was little variety.  The
+mould of the day was as much as possible after the Bridgefield fashion,
+except that there were no cousins at the Rectory, no parish interests,
+very little society, as far as the ladies were concerned.  Mr. Egremont
+had old acquaintance and associates with whom he spent afternoons and
+evenings, after his own fashion, but they were not people to whom he
+wished to introduce his wife and daughter.
+
+And the superior English habitues of Nice, the families who formed the
+regular society, knew Mr. Egremont's reputation sufficiently to feel by
+no means disposed to be cordial to the fair wife and grown-up daughter
+whom he so unexpectedly produced on the scene.  It had been different
+at home, where he had county standing, and the Canon and Canoness
+answered for the newcomers; but here, where all sorts of strange people
+came to the surface, the respectable felt it needful to be very
+cautious, and though of course one or two ladies had been asked to call
+through the intervention of Lady Kirkaldy or of Mrs. William Egremont,
+and had been assured on their authority that it was 'all right,' their
+attentions were clogged by doubt, and by reluctance to involve their
+mankind in intimacy with the head of the family.  Thus very little of
+the proverbial gaiety of Nice offered itself to Nuttie and her mother,
+and, except by a clerical family who knew Mr. Spyers, they were kept at
+a distance, which Mr. Egremont perceived and resented by permitting no
+advances.  The climate suited him so well that, to his wife's great
+relief, he seemed to have dropped his inclination for sedatives; but
+his eyes would not bear much, and she felt bound to be always on the
+alert, able to amuse him and hinder his feeling it dull.  Gregorio
+highly disapproved of the house and servants, and was always giving
+hints that Mentone would agree far better with his master; but every
+day that Mr. Egremont seemed sufficiently amused at Nice was so much
+gain, and she had this in her favour, that he was always indolent and
+hard to move. Moreover, between his master's levee and late dinner
+Gregorio was hardly ever to be found.  No doubt he knew the way to
+Monte Carlo well enough, and perhaps preferred that the family should
+be farther off, for he soon ceased to show himself discontented with
+their present abode.  Once when his absence was inconvenient, Mr.
+Egremont abused him roundly as a good-for-nothing gambler, but when
+Alice hoped that he might be called to a reckoning, the wrath had
+subsided with the immediate vexation, and as usual she was told 'All
+those fellows were alike.'
+
+The foreign servants were not to be induced to give the early-rising
+ladies more than a roll and cup of coffee, and Nuttie felt ravenous
+till she learned to lay in a stock of biscuits, and, with Martin's
+connivance, made tea on her own account, and sustained her mother for
+the morning's walk before the summons to Mr. Egremont.
+
+He always wanted his wife much earlier in the day, during his hours of
+deshabille, and letting her write his letters and read the papers to
+him.  She was pleased with this advance, but it gave Nuttie a great
+deal more solitude, which was sometimes judiciously spent, but it was
+very hard not to be desultory in spite of learning lessons in French,
+Italian, and drawing.
+
+Later in the day came the drive or the visit to the public gardens when
+the band was playing, but this became less frequent as Mr. Egremont
+observed the cold civility shown to his wife, and as he likewise grew
+stronger and made more engagements of his own.  Then Nuttie had happy
+afternoons of driving, donkey-riding, or walking with her mother,
+sketching, botanising, admiring, and laying up stores for the long
+descriptive letters that delighted the party in St. Ambrose's Road,
+drinking in all the charm of the scenery, and entering into it
+intelligently.  They spent a good many evenings alone together
+likewise, and it could not but give Alice a pang to see the gladness
+her daughter did not repress when this was the case, even though to
+herself it meant relaxation of the perpetual vigilance she had to exert
+when the father and daughter were together to avert collisions.  They
+were certainly not coming nearer to one another, though Nuttie was
+behaving very well and submissively on the whole, and seldom showing
+symptoms of rebellion.  This went on through the early part of their
+stay, but latterly there was a growing sense upon the girl that she and
+her mother were avoided by some young ladies to whom they had been
+introduced, and whom they saw regularly at the daily services at St.
+Michael's Church.  They were pleasant-looking girls, with whom Nuttie
+longed to fraternise, and she was mortified at never being allowed to
+get beyond a few frigidly civil words in the street, more especially
+when she came upon sketching parties and picnics in which she was never
+included.
+
+It was all very well for her mother to answer her murmurs and
+wonderings with 'You know people are very exclusive, my dear.' Nuttie
+began to guess that her father and her name were the real reason, and
+her eyes were further opened later in the spring when Mr. Egremont, who
+had recovered unusual health and vigour, took his ladies to Mentone to
+spend a day or two in the newer beauties there. Alice had her
+misgivings, but the visit was avowedly to show the place to her, and
+she could not reasonably object.  He was in unusual good humour, and
+even tolerated their ecstasies at the scenery and the flowers, dined at
+the table d'hote and found acquaintance, enjoyed himself, and in the
+forenoon, while Nuttie was out wondering and admiring, and going as far
+as she could drag Martin, he expressed to his wife that she would be
+astonished at the gardens and the music of Monte Carlo.
+
+There, however, Alice made a stand.  'Thank you, it is very kind, but
+if you please, I should not like to take Ursula to Monte Carlo, or to
+go there myself,' she said in an apologetic tone.
+
+He laughed.  'What! you are afraid of making the little one a confirmed
+gambler?'
+
+'You know I am not, but--'
+
+'You think the little prig will be contaminated, eh?'
+
+'Well, I think it will be happier for her if she never sees
+anything--of the kind.'
+
+'You little foolish Edda, as if her eyes or ears need see anything but
+flowers and music and good company.'
+
+'I know that, but I had so much rather not.  It was a sweet face and
+caressing voice that implored, and he still was good humoured.
+
+'Well, well, I don't want to drag you, old lady, against your will,
+though I fancy you would be rather surprised at the real aspect of the
+abode of iniquity your fancy depicts.'
+
+'Oh, thank you, thank you so much!'
+
+'What an absurd little woman it is!  I wonder if you would thank me as
+heartily supposing I cleared a round thousand and gave you--say a
+diamond necklace?'
+
+'I am sure I should not!'
+
+'No, I don't believe you would.  That restless little conscience of
+yours would be up on end.  After all, I don't know that you are the
+worse for it, when it looks so prettily out of your brown eyes.  I
+wonder what you expect to see?  The ruined gamester shooting himself on
+every path, eh?'
+
+'No, no; I don't suppose I should see anything horrid or even
+disagreeable.  I know it is all very beautiful; but then every person
+who goes for the innocent pleasures' sake only helps to keep up the
+whole thing--evil and all.'
+
+'And what would the old women of all sorts here and at Nice do without
+such a choice temple of scandal to whet their teeth upon? Well, I
+suppose you and your precious daughter can take care of yourselves.
+There are the gardens, or you can tell Gregorio to order you a
+carriage.'
+
+'Then you are going?'
+
+'Yes, I promised Grafton.  Don't be afraid, Mistress Edda, I'm not
+going to stake Bridgefield and reduce you to beggary.  I'm an old hand,
+and was a cool one in my worst days, and whatever I get I'll hand over
+to appease you.'
+
+That was all she could obtain, and she secretly hoped there would be no
+winnings to perplex her.  Thankful that she had not made him angry by
+the resistance for which she had prepared herself with secret prayer
+ever since the Mentone scheme had been proposed, she placed herself at
+Nuttie's disposition for the rest of the day.
+
+They had a charming donkey-ride, and, still unsatiated with beauty,
+Ursula made her mother come out again to wonder at the trees in the
+public gardens.  Rather tired, they were sitting on a shaded bench,
+when a voice close to them exclaimed, 'It is; yes, it must be; 'tis the
+voice--yes, and the face prettier than ever.  Little Alice--ah! you
+don't know me.  Time has been kinder to you than to me.'
+
+'Oh!  I know you now!  I beg your pardon,' cried Alice, recognising in
+the thin nutcracker parchment visage and shabbily-dressed figure the
+remnant of the brilliant aquiline countenance and gay attire of
+eighteen years ago.  'Mrs. Houghton!  I am so glad to have met you, you
+were so kind to me.  And here she is.'
+
+'What! is this the child?  Bless me, what a proof how time goes! Young
+lady, you'll excuse my not knowing you.  You were a very inconvenient
+personage not quite born when I last met your mother. What a likeness!
+I could have known her for Alwyn Egremont's daughter anywhere!'
+
+'Yes, they all say she is a thorough Egremont.'
+
+'Then it is all right.  I saw Alwyn Egremont, Esquire, and family among
+the arrivals at Nice, but I hardly durst expect that it was you.  It
+seemed too good to be true, though I took care the knot should be tied
+faster than my gentleman suspected.'
+
+'Oh, please!' cried Alice deprecatingly, at first not apprehending the
+force of the words, having never known the gulf from which Mrs.
+Houghton had saved her, and that lady, seeing that the girl was
+listening with all her ears, thought of little pitchers and restrained
+her reminiscences, asking with real warm interest, 'And how was it?
+How did you meet him again?'
+
+'He came and found me out,' said Alice, with satisfaction in her voice.
+
+'Indeed!  Not at Dieppe; for he was en garcon when I nearly came across
+him ten years ago at Florence.'
+
+'Oh no!  He inquired at Dieppe, but they had lost the address my aunt
+left.'
+
+'Indeed!  I should not have thought it of old Madame Leroux, she seemed
+so thoroughly interested in la pauvre petite.  What did you do?  Your
+aunt wrote to me when your troubles were safely over, and she thought
+him lost in the poor Ninon, that she meant to settle in a place with an
+awfully long Yorkshire name.'
+
+'Micklethwayte; yes, we lived there, and got on very well.  We had
+boarders, and I had some dear little pupils; but last year Mark
+Egremont--you remember dear little Mark--was in the neighbourhood, and
+hearing my name, he told his uncle, who had been seeking us ever since.
+And he came, Mr. Egremont, and took us home, and oh, the family have
+been so kind!'
+
+'What?  The parson, and that awful old she-lion of a grandmother, whose
+very name scared you out of your wits?'
+
+'She is dead, and so is dear good Lady Adelaide.  Canon Egremont is
+kindness itself.  It was all the old lady's doing, and he knew nothing
+about it.  He was gone to Madeira with Lady Adelaide and got none of
+our letters, and he never knew that his brother was married to me.'
+
+'Trust Alwyn for that,' Mrs. Houghton muttered.  'Well, all's well that
+ends well, and I hope he feels due gratitude to me for doing him a good
+turn against his will.  I tried to get at him at Florence to find out
+what he had done with you, but unluckily I was ill, and had to send
+through poor Houghton, and he mismanaged it of course, though I
+actually wrote down that barbarous address, Mickle something, on a
+card.  I believe he only got as far as the man instead of the master.'
+
+'Ah!  I wanted to ask for Captain Houghton,' said Alice, glad to lead
+the conversation away from revelations of which she had an instinctive
+dread.
+
+'Gone, my dear! two years ago.  Poor fellow! it was low fever, but
+quite as much want of luck, I shall always believe,' she said.
+
+'Oh, I am sorry!  He was so kind to me!' said Alice, squeezing her
+hand, and looking up with sweet tender commiseration.
+
+'There, there, don't, you pretty creature!' said Mrs. Houghton, putting
+her hand across her eyes.  'I declare, you've almost made me cry--which
+I've not done--well, hardly, since I parted with you at Dieppe,
+thinking you a sweet little flower plucked and thrown away to die,
+though I had done my best to bind it to him.  What care I took not to
+let Houghton disabuse him about Jersey marriages!'
+
+There is a difference between hearing and hearkening, and Alice
+Egremont's loving and unsuspecting heart was so entirely closed against
+evil thoughts of her husband, and so fully occupied with her old
+friend's condition, that she never took in the signification of all
+this, while Nuttie, being essentially of a far more shrewd and less
+confiding nature, and already imbued with extreme distrust of her
+father, was taking in all these revelations with an open-eyed, silent
+horror of conviction that her old impressions of the likeness to
+Marmion or Theseus had been perfectly correct.  It was all under her
+hat, however, and the elder ladies never thought of her, Alice bringing
+back the conversation to Mrs. Houghton herself.  'Oh, my dear, I drag
+on as I can.  I've got a fragment of our old income, and when that's
+run too low, I go up to Monte Carlo--I always had the lucky hand, you
+know, and 'tis only restitution after all!  I'm sick of it all though,
+and sometimes think I'll take my good sister Anne's offers and go home.'
+
+'Oh do, do!' cried Alice.
+
+'But,' went on the poor woman, 'humble pie goes against me, and think
+what an amount would be before me--heigh ho!--after nearly
+five-and-twenty years; yes, five-and-twenty years it is--since
+Houghton, poor fellow, told me I was too bright and winsome for a
+little country lawyer's house in a poky street.  What would they think
+of me now?' and she laughed with a sound that was painful to hear.
+'Well, Sycorax had done one good deed, and when I look at you, queening
+it there, I feel that so have I.'
+
+'You were very good to me, I know; but oh, if you would go home to your
+sister!'
+
+'My dear, you little know what you ask!  Anne!  Why, she is the prime
+district lady, or whatever you call it, of Dockforth.  Think what it
+would be to her to have this battered old vaurien thrown on her hands,
+to be the stock subject for all the righteous tongues. Besides,' as she
+coughed, 'the English climate would make an end of me outright.  I'm in
+a bad way enough here, where I can sit among the lemon trees half the
+days in the winter, but the English fireside in a stuffy parlour--' and
+she shuddered.
+
+That shiver reminded all that it was getting late, too late for Mrs.
+Houghton to be out of doors, and near the time when Mr. Egremont was to
+meet his ladies at the hotel.  Alice begged for Mrs. Houghton's
+address, and it was given with a short ironical laugh at her promise to
+call again if possible.  'Ay, if possible,' the poor woman repeated.
+'I understand!  No, no,' as Alice was about to kiss her. 'I won't have
+it done.'
+
+'There's no one in sight.'
+
+'As if that made a difference!  Alice, child, you are as innocent as
+the little dove that flew aboard the Ninon.  How have you done it? Get
+along with you!  No kisses to such as me!  I don't know whether it
+breaks my heart, or binds it up to look at the face of you. Anyway, I
+can't bear it.'
+
+She hurried away, and made some steps from them.  A terrible paroxysm
+of coughing came on, and Mrs. Egremont hurried towards her, but she
+waved back all help, shook her head, and insisted on going home. Alice
+kept her in sight, till she dived into a small side street.
+
+'Mother,' said Nuttie.  Then there was a pause.  'Mother, did you know
+all this?'
+
+'Don't talk of it, Nuttie.  It is not a thing to be talked about to any
+one or by any one.  I wish you had not been there.'
+
+'But, mother, this once!  Did you know?'
+
+'I knew that I knew not what I did when I went on board that yacht, but
+that God's kind providence was over me in a way that I little deserved.
+That is all I care to know, and, Ursula, I will have not another word
+about it.  No, I will not hear it.'
+
+'I was only going to ask whether you would tell my father.'
+
+'Certainly; but not before you.'
+
+The tone of decision was unwonted, and Nuttie knew she must abide by
+it, but the last shreds of filial respect towards Mr. Egremont were
+torn away by what Mrs. Houghton had implied, and the girl dashed up and
+down her bedroom muttering to herself, 'Oh, why have I such a father?
+And she, she will not see it, she is wilfully blind!  Why not break
+with him and go home to dear Aunt Ursel and Gerard and Mr. Dutton at
+once, instead of this horrid, horrid grandeur?  Oh, if I could fling
+all these fine things in his face, and have done with him for ever.
+Some day I will, when I am of age, and Gerard has won his way.'
+
+Meantime Alice, in some trepidation, but with resolution at the bottom,
+had told her husband of the meeting with Mrs. Houghton, of her
+widowhood, sickness, and poverty.
+
+He did not like the intelligence of their meeting, and hoped no one had
+seen it; then, when reassured on this score, he hummed a little and
+exclaimed, 'Poor old Flossy Houghton!  I don't wonder!  They went the
+pace!  Well, what do you want?  Twenty pounds for her!  Why, 'twill all
+be at Monte Carlo in three days' time.'
+
+'It is very good of you, but I want more than that.  She is so ill and
+wretched, you know.'
+
+'I can't have you visiting her, if that's what you mean.  Why, after
+all the pains I've been at to get you on your proper level at home,
+here's my Lady Louisa and all her crew, in their confounded insolence,
+fighting shy of you, and you can't give them a better colour for it
+than by running after a woman like that--divorced to begin with, and
+known at every gambling table in Europe.'
+
+'I know that, Alwyn, dear Alwyn' (it was very seldom that she called
+him so, and she put her clasped hands on his shoulder); 'but I am sure
+she is dying, and she was so good to me, I can't bear doing nothing for
+her.'
+
+'Well, there's twenty--fifty, if you like.'
+
+'Thank you, thank you, but you know I never meant to visit
+her--like--like society; only to go sometimes privately and--'
+
+'And how about your daughter?'
+
+'I would not take her on any account.  What I want to do is this. Mrs.
+Houghton spoke of her sister, a kind good woman in England, who would
+take her home, and love her, if only she could bring herself to go.
+Now, I think I could persuade her to write, or let me write to the
+sister--and if only the two were together again!  It is very dreadful
+to think of her dying alone, in the way she is going on!'
+
+'What, little saint, you want to try your hand on her?  I should say
+she was too tough an old sinner for you.'
+
+'Oh, Alwyn! her heart was very near, though she tried to keep it back.
+I do not want to--to do what you mean--only to get her to let her
+sister come.  I'm sure that would do the rest.'
+
+'If any sister does more than you, you little witch,' he said.
+
+Alice pressed him no more then, but a day or two later, when she knew
+he had an engagement, she arranged to dispose of Nuttie with the
+clergyman's wife, and then begged permission to go by train to Mentone,
+and come back in the evening.  He did not like it--no more did she--for
+she was perfectly unaccustomed to travelling alone, but there was a
+deep sense of sacred duty upon her, only strengthened by her
+unwillingness to realise how much she owed to Mrs. Houghton.
+
+She telegraphed that she was coming, and found her friend more touched
+than she chose to allow at the fact of her visit, declaring that she
+must have wonderful power over Alwyn Egremont, if she knew how to use
+it; indeed, the whole tone was of what Alice felt flattery, intended to
+turn away anything more serious.  Poor woman, she was as careful of
+doing no injury to her young friend's reputation as Mr. Egremont could
+have desired.  Alice had come resolved that she should have one good
+meal, but she would not hear of eating anywhere in public where either
+could be recognised, and the food was brought to a private room in the
+hotel.  To her lodgings she still would not take Alice, nor would she
+give her sister's address.  Except for a genuine shower of tears when
+Alice insisted on kissing her there seemed no ground gained.
+
+But Alice went again on her husband's next visit to Mentone.  He was,
+to a certain degree, interested in her endeavours, and really wished
+the poor woman to be under the charge of her relations, instead of
+dying a miserable lonely death among strangers.
+
+This time Alice had to seek her friend in the dreary quatrieme of the
+tall house with the dirty stone stairs. It was a doleful empty room,
+where, with a mannish-looking dressing-gown and a torn lace scarf tied
+hood-fashion over her scanty hair, Mrs. Houghton sat over a pan of
+charcoal oppressive to Alice's English lungs.
+
+'Come again!' she cried.  'Well, I really shall begin to think that
+angels and ministers of grace exist off the stage!  You pretty thing!
+Let me look at you.  Where did you get that delicious little bonnet?'
+
+'Why, it is perfectly plain!'
+
+'So it is!  'Tis only the face that is in it.  Now if some folks put
+this on--sister Anne, for example, what dowdies they would be.  Poor
+old Anne, you must know she had a turn for finery, only she never knew
+how to gratify it.  To see the contortions of her crinolines was the
+delight of all the grammar school.  It was a regular comedy for them to
+see her get into our pew edgeways, and once unconsciously she carried
+off a gentleman's hat on her train.'
+
+So she went on talking, coughing at intervals, and generally using a
+half-mocking tone, as if defying the tenderness that awoke in spite of
+her, but always of her original home, and especially of her sister.
+Alice ventured to ask whether they often heard from one another.
+
+'Good soul, she always writes at Christmas and on my birthday.  I know
+as well as possible that I shall find a letter poste restante wherever
+she heard of me last, and that she hasn't done--I'm ashamed to say for
+how long--really, I think not since I let her know that I couldn't
+stand Ivy Lodge, Dockforth, at any price, when she wrote to Monaco on
+seeing poor Houghton's death in the paper.'
+
+There was a good deal of rambling talk of this kind, to which Alice
+listened tenderly and compassionately, making no attempt at persuasion,
+only doing what was possible for the poor lady's comfort. She had
+procured on her way some fruit and jelly, and some good English tea, at
+which Mrs. Houghton laughed, saying, 'Time was, I called it cat-lap!
+Somehow it will seem the elixir of life now, redolent, even milkless,
+of the days when we were young.'
+
+Then she revealed something of her long, suffering, almost ghastly
+nights, and Alice gently told how her old friend, Mrs. Nugent, suffered
+from sleeplessness, and kept a store of soothing psalms and hymns in
+her memory.  There was a little laugh.  'That's for you good folk.  I
+haven't such a thing about me!  Come, Par exemple!' and Alice repeated
+the first thing she could remember, the verse beginning 'God, who
+madest earth and heaven.'
+
+'That's one of your charms, is it?  Well, it would not be too much for
+me if my poor old memory would hold it.  Say it again.'
+
+Alice generally had about her a tiny prayer-book with 'Hymns, Ancient
+and Modern,' attached.  It had been a gift from Mary Nugent, and she
+was fond of it, but the opportunity was not to be lost, and she took it
+out, saying she would bring a larger one and reclaim it.  And, as she
+was finally taking leave, she said with a throbbing heart, 'Do you know
+that you have betrayed your sister's address?  I shall write to her
+now.'
+
+'If you do--!' cried Mrs. Houghton, in a tone like threatening
+deprecation, but with a little of her strange banter in it besides.
+Alice's mind had been made up to do the thing, and she had not felt it
+honest not to give due warning of her intentions.  Even now she was not
+certain of the lady's surname, but she trusted to her husband's
+knowledge of Mrs. Houghton's previous history; and not in vain.  Mr.
+Egremont amused himself with a little ridicule at his wife's quixotry,
+and demanded whether Flossy Houghton was a promising convert; but
+confessed himself very glad that the poor thing should be off their
+hands, declaring that it was quite time her own people looked after
+her, and happily he recollected her maiden name.  So the letter was
+written, after numerous attempts at expressing it suitably, explaining
+Mrs. Houghton's illness and the yearnings she was too proud and ashamed
+to express to her sister, and was answered at once by a few short words
+of earnest gratitude, and an assurance that Miss Reade was preparing to
+start at once.  Could Mrs. Egremont meet her and prepare her sister?
+
+To Alice's disappointment this could not be.  Mr. Egremont had invited
+some friends to the villa, and would not spare her.  She could only
+send a note, assuring Miss Reade that she believed that preparation
+would do more harm than good, and she waited and watched anxiously.  A
+card came by the post in Mrs. Houghton's scrawled writing.  'Naughty
+little wretch!' was all it said, but thence she gathered hope.
+
+The spring was advancing, and Mr. Egremont was in haste to be gone, but
+Alice obtained one more run to Mentone, and once more climbed up the
+dark and dirty stairs to the room, where the well-known voice answered
+her tap, 'Come in!  Ah, there she is, the wicked little angel!'
+
+A substantial little roly-poly business-like little woman hurried
+forward with tearful eyes and outstretched hands.  'Oh, Mrs. Egremont!
+can I ever thank you enough?'
+
+'You can't, Anne, so don't try.  It will be a relief to all parties,'
+interposed Mrs. Houghton.  'Sentiment is not permitted here.'
+
+Nevertheless she hugged Alice almost convulsively.  She was sitting in
+a comfortable arm-chair, one about which Mrs. Egremont knew something,
+and the whole aspect of the room had changed indescribably for the
+better, as much indeed as Mrs. Houghton's own personal array, which had
+no longer the desolate neglected look of old.
+
+A little stool was close to her chair, as if the two sisters could not
+bear to be far apart, and the look of love and content in their eyes as
+they turned to one another was perfect joy to Alice.  She had no longer
+any doubt that Anne Reade, who had found the wanderer yet a great way
+off, would yet bring her back to the home, spiritually if not outwardly.
+
+Mrs. Houghton spoke, of better rooms when the winter visitors had fled,
+Anne spoke of her being able to return to Dockforth.  Whether that
+would ever be seemed entirely doubtful to Alice's eyes, especially as
+the patient's inclination was evidently otherwise. There was nothing to
+be done but to leave the sisters together, obtaining Miss Reade's ready
+promise to write, and putting into her hands a sum of money which could
+be sincerely called 'only a debt of gratitude from my husband and me,'
+and which would smooth the way either to remaining or returning to
+England.
+
+Nor was there any return.  Ere many weeks had passed Mrs. Egremont
+heard from Miss Reade how a fresh cold had made it impossible to move,
+and summer heat had brought on low fever, which had destroyed the
+feeble strength, but not till 'childhood's star' had again arisen, and
+a deeply and truly repentant woman had passed away, saved, as it
+seemed, through that one effort on behalf of the young girl whose
+innocence she had protected.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE VORTEX.
+
+  'With one black shadow at her feet.'--TENNYSON.
+
+
+The rebuffs that society had bestowed on his wife and daughter at Nice
+had rendered Mr. Egremont the more determined on producing them in
+London and establishing their position.  He secured a furnished house
+in Westburnia before leaving Nice, and, travelling leisurely home
+without visiting Bridgefield, he took possession the second week in May.
+
+There had not been much correspondence with the Rectory, and on the
+first forenoon, as Mrs. Egremont and Nuttie were trying to enliven the
+drawing-room with the flowers sent up to meet them, they were surprised
+by the entrance of Blanche, full of kisses and welcomes.
+
+'Oh! didn't you know?  I'm with the Kirkaldys just round the corner.
+Aunt Margaret has undertaken to do the part of a noble aunt by me.'
+
+'Then you are here for the season?  And May?'
+
+'May wouldn't come, except just for a week to see the pictures, and lay
+in a stock of talk.  She's grown more parochial than ever, and we
+believe it is all Hugh Condamine.  Oh! I forgot you were gone before we
+came home last autumn.  He is mamma's nephew, you know, and was
+ordained last year to the curacy of the next parish to his father's
+place.  If the Edwardses only would take themselves off, we would have
+him at home, and then we should have flowers on the altar, and all
+sorts of jolly things.  Papa would stand ever so much more from him
+than from the old Edwardses.'
+
+'But is he engaged to May, then?'
+
+'Well, no, not exactly.  I believe he does not think it right till he
+has done preparing for priest's orders.  He's ever so strict, you know,
+and he hasn't got much either; but he means it.  Lucy, his sister, you
+know, told me all about it, and that altogether the elders had settled
+it was better for both that he should attend to his preparation, and
+May should not bind herself, though they really understand one another,
+and so she won't come to London.'
+
+'Oh, that's very good of her!' cried Nuttie; 'but why won't they let
+them settle their minds and be engaged?'
+
+'People are always tiresome,' said Blanche; 'and I do believe the
+living is at the bottom of it, at least Lucy thought so.  I mean
+everybody wants to wait--all the old ones, I mean--not Hugh or May, of
+course--to know whether Mark will stick to the umbrellas, or turn back
+and be a clergyman, because, then, of course, he would have the living;
+and if he doesn't, they want to be certain whether Uncle Alwyn, or you,
+Nuttie, would promise it to Hugh if he married May!'
+
+'Me!' exclaimed Nuttie.
+
+'My dear, I don't like to hear you talk of such things,' said Mrs.
+Egremont gently.
+
+'Oh yes, I know--it's all very dreadful.  I was only telling you what
+is in the old people's heads, and what would settle it, and make it all
+right with them.'
+
+'And how is Mark?  Is Miss Ruthven in London?' asked Mrs. Egremont,
+glad to turn away the conversation from the contingencies of which
+Blanche spoke with the hardness of youth, as yet not realising sorrow.
+
+'I daresay you know nearly as much of Mark as we do, now the Kirkaldys
+are up here.  All his letters go to Lescombe.  Oh no, Annaple is not in
+London.  The Delmars can't afford it, you know, though I believe my
+lady would have made a stretch if Annaple hadn't been bespoke--but now
+she reserves herself for Muriel.'
+
+Alice looked with some discomfort at the soft fair-haired creature who
+was uttering all this worldly jargon in a tone that would have been
+flippant if it had not been so childish.  She asked if Lord. Ronnisglen
+had written.
+
+'Oh yes, long ago.  Lady Delmar had tried to make him nasty about it,
+but he wouldn't be, so that's all right; and Mark seems to get on very
+well, though it must be horridly dull for him now the Kirkaldys are
+away, and he can't spend all his Sundays at Monks Horton.'
+
+'He will get more into the spirit of the place,' said Nuttie, whereat
+Blanche shrugged her shoulders a little, and exclaimed:
+
+'You've got out of it at any rate, Nuttie!'
+
+'I hope not!'
+
+'Well, then, the look of it!  I never saw any one so improved!  Isn't
+she, Aunt Alice?  She's grown, I declare!  Yes'--measuring herself
+against her cousin--'I was a leetle bit taller when you came, and now
+you've got above me! and what a duck of a way of doing your hair! You
+must show me!  I must tell May there's no fear of your being taken for
+one another now; Aunt Margaret will be quite surprised.'
+
+It was true that Ursula had developed a good deal during the last year,
+and, under the experienced hands of Martin, had lost her schoolgirl
+air, and turned into a young lady capable of becoming the Paris outfit
+which her father had enjoined.  Without positive beauty, she was a
+pleasing, intelligent, animated girl, with the reputation of being an
+heiress, with a romance in the background, and there was nothing to
+prevent her from being a success.  The family connections, with Lady
+Kirkaldy to set the example, had determined on giving full support to
+Mrs. Egremont, and, as of course every one liked to look at so lovely a
+face, the way of both was smoothed in a manner that delighted her
+husband when they encountered any of those who had looked coldly on her
+at Nice.
+
+He would have had her presented, but her own reluctance and the united
+counsels of Lady Kirkaldy and the Canoness prevailed on him to drop the
+idea; and then there was a fight with Ursula, who declared that she
+would not go to court if her mother did not; but she was overruled at
+last by that mother's tears at her defiance; and let herself be
+presented, together with Blanche, by Lady Kirkaldy.
+
+To Ursula it was altogether a strange time, full of the same kind of
+reckless swing and sense of intoxication that had possessed her at
+Bridgefield.  Not that there was an excessive amount of actual gaiety.
+Hot rooms and late hours were soon found not to agree with Mrs.
+Egremont.  She looked faded and languid after evening parties; and, as
+her husband really cared more to have her ready to wait upon him and
+amuse him than for anything else, he did not insist on her going out
+more than might be needful to establish her position, or when it suited
+him to show her off.  The other purposes were quite as well served by
+letting Ursula go out with Lady Kirkaldy, who was warmly interested in
+mother and daughter, glad of a companion for Blanche, and still more
+glad of a companion for herself.  For she was not slow to discover that
+exhibitions, which were merely fashionable gapeseed to her niece, were
+to Nuttie real delights, viewed intelligently, and eliciting comments
+and questions that Lady Kirkaldy and even her husband enjoyed in their
+fresh interest, but which were unendurable weariness to Blanche, unless
+she had some one to chatter with.  Lectures and lessons, which the aunt
+hoped to render palatable by their being shared by the two cousins,
+only served to show the difference between a trained and eager, and an
+untrained and idle, nature.  With the foreign society to be met at Lord
+Kirkaldy's, Blanche was less at a loss than her brother, and could get
+on by the help of nods and becks and wreathed smiles; but Nuttie, fresh
+from her winter abroad, could really talk, and was often in request as
+a useful person to help in entertaining.  She thus saw some of the
+choicest society in London, and, in addition, had as much of the
+youthful gaiety as Lady Kirkaldy thought wholesome for the two girls.
+Also there were those ecclesiastical delights and privileges which had
+been heard of at Micklethwayte, and were within reach, greatly enjoyed
+by Mrs. Egremont whenever she could share them, though her daughter
+chafed at her treating all except the chief service on Sunday as more
+indulgence than duty.
+
+Nuttie was strong, with that spring of energy which unbroken health and
+a quiet life lays up, and, in her own phrase, she went in for
+everything, from early services to late balls, thinking all right
+because it was seldom that her day did not begin with matins or
+Celebration, and because she was not taken to more than two balls a
+week, and conversed at times with superior people, or looked at those
+with world-famed names.  Possibly the whirl was greater than if it had
+been mere gaiety, for then the brain would not have participated in it.
+Church functions, with the scurry to go at all, or to obtain a seat,
+fine music, grand sermons, religious meetings, entertainments for the
+poor, lectures, lessons, exhibitions, rides, drives, kettle-drums,
+garden-parties, concerts, theatres, operas, balls, chattering,
+laughing, discussing, reading up current subjects, enjoying attention,
+excitement as to what should be done and how,--one thing drove out
+another in perpetual succession, and the one thing she never did or
+could do was to sit still and think!  Rest was simply dreamless sleep,
+generally under the spell of a strong will to wake at the appointed
+hour for church.  The short intervals of being alone with her mother
+were spent in pouring out histories of her doings, which were received
+with a sympathy that doubled their pleasure, excepting when Nuttie
+thought proper to grumble and scold at her mother's not coming to some
+Church festival at an hour when she thought Mr. Egremont might want her.
+
+Of him Nuttie saw very little.  He did not want her, and cared little
+what she did, as long as she was under the wing of Lady Kirkaldy, whose
+patronage was a triumphant refutation of all doubts.  He went his own
+way, and had his own club, his own associates, and, with his wife
+always at his beck and call, troubled himself very little about
+anything else.
+
+Alice spent a good deal of time alone, chiefly in waiting his pleasure;
+but she had her own quiet occupations, her books, her needlework, her
+housekeeping, and letter-writing, and was peacefully happy as long as
+she did not displease Nuttie.  There were no collisions between father
+and daughter, and the household arrangements satisfied that fastidious
+taste.  She was proud of Ursula's successes, but very thankful not to
+be dragged out to share them, though she was much less shy, and more
+able on occasion to take her place.
+
+One pain she had.  Good old Mrs. Nugent was rapidly decaying, and she
+shared with all her loving heart in the grief this was to Mary and to
+Miss Headworth, and longed to help them in their nursing.  She would
+not grieve Nuttie by dwelling constantly on the bad accounts, and the
+girl hardly attended to them in the tumult of occupations; and so at
+last, when the final tidings came in the second week in July, they were
+an absolute shock to Nuttie, and affected her as the first grief
+sometimes does.  Mrs. Nugent was really the first person of her own
+intimate knowledge who had died, and in the excited state in which she
+was, the idea of the contrast between her own occupations and Mary's
+was so dreadful to her that she wept most bitterly, with the sobs of
+childhood, such as she really did not know how to restrain.
+
+It was an unfortunate day, for it was one of the few on which Mr.
+Egremont wanted to take out his ladies.  There was to be a great
+garden-party at Richmond, given by one of his former set, who had
+lately whitewashed himself by marrying a very fast and fashionable
+lady.  Nuttie had heard strong opinions on the subject at Lord
+Kirkaldy's; but her father was quite elated at being in a position to
+countenance his old friends.  Alice, in the midst of her sorrow,
+recollected this with consternation.
+
+'My dear, my dear, hush!  You must stop yourself!  Remember we have to
+go out.'
+
+'Go--out,' cried Nuttie, her sobs arrested by very horror.  'You
+wouldn't go--!'
+
+'I am afraid your father would be very much vexed--'
+
+'Let him!  It is a horrid wicked place to go to at all; and now--when
+dear, dear old Mrs. Nugent is lying there--and--'
+
+The crying grew violent again, and in the midst in walked Mr. Egremont
+with an astonished 'What is all this?'
+
+'We have lost one of our dear kind old friends at Micklethwayte,' said
+Alice, going towards him; 'dear old Mrs. Nugent,' and she lifted up her
+tear-stained face, which he caressed a little and said, 'Poor old
+body;' but then, at a sob, 'Can't you stop Ursula from making such a
+row and disfiguring herself?  You must pick up your looks, Edda, for I
+mean you to make a sensation at Jerningham's.'
+
+'Oh, Alwyn, if you could let us stay at home!  Mrs. Nugent was so good
+to us, and it does seem unkind--' The tears were in her eyes again.
+
+'Nonsense!' he said impatiently.  'I promised Jerningham, and it is
+absurd to have you shutting yourself up for every old woman at
+Micklethwayte.'
+
+Thereupon Ursula wiped away her tears, and stood up wrathful before
+him.  'I am not going,' she said.
+
+'Oh, indeed!' he returned in a tone that made her still more angry.
+'Hein'! a French ejaculation which he had the habit of uttering in a
+most exasperating manner.
+
+'No,' she said.  'It is scarcely a place to which we even ought to be
+asked to go, and certainly not when--'
+
+'Do you hear that, Mrs. Egremont?' he asked.
+
+'Oh, Nuttie, Nuttie, dear!' she implored; 'don't.'
+
+'No, mother,' said Nuttie, with flashing eyes; 'if you care so little
+for your best friends as to let yourself be dragged out among all sorts
+of gay, wicked people when your dear friend is lying dead, I'm sure I
+shan't go with you.'
+
+Her father laughed a little.  'A pretty figure you are, to make a
+favour of accompanying us!'
+
+'Oh, go away, go away, Nuttie,' entreated her mother.  'You don't know
+what you are saying.'
+
+'I do know,' said Nuttie, exasperated perhaps by the contrast in the
+mirror opposite between her own swelled, disfigured face, and the soft
+tender one of her mother with the liquid eyes.  'I know how much you
+care for the dear friends who took care of us when we were forsaken!'
+
+And with this shaft she marched out of the room, while her father again
+laughed, and said, 'Have they been training her for the tragic stage?
+Never mind, Edda, the little vixen will come to her senses upstairs,
+and be begging to go.'
+
+'I don't think she will,' said Alice sadly; 'she is not that sort of
+stuff, and she was very fond of Mrs. Nugent.  Oh, Alwyn! if you could
+let us off.'
+
+'Not after that explosion, certainly,' he said.  'Besides, I promised
+Jerningham, and such an excuse would never hold water.  She is not even
+a relation.'
+
+'No, but she was very good to me.'
+
+'The more reason why you should not stay at home and be hipped. Never
+mind that silly girl.  She will be all right by and by.'
+
+On the contrary, she did not come down to luncheon, and when, about an
+hour later, Alice, after writing a few tender loving words to the
+mourners, went up to her daughter's room, it was to find a limp and
+deplorable figure lying across the bed, and to be greeted with a fresh
+outburst of sobs and inarticulate exclamations.
+
+'Oh, Nuttie, dear, this will not do!  It is not right.  Dear good Mrs.
+Nugent herself would tell you that this is not the way any one so good
+and so suffering should be grieved for.  Think--'
+
+'Oh, I know all that!' cried Nuttie, impatiently; 'but she--she was the
+dearest--and nobody cares for her but me.  Not even you--'
+
+Again Alice tried to debate the point, and urge on her the duties of
+moderation, self-control, and obedience, but the poor gentle mother was
+at a great disadvantage.
+
+In the first place, she respected and almost envied her daughter's
+resistance, and really did not know whether it was timidity or
+principle that made it her instinct to act otherwise; in the next,
+Ursula could always talk her down; and, in the third, she was, and
+greatly she reproached herself for that same, in great dread of setting
+herself off into tears that might become hysterical if she once gave
+way to them.  And what would be her husband's feelings if she too
+collapsed and became unpresentable.
+
+So, having once convinced herself that even if Nuttie had been a
+consenting party, no amount of cold water and eau-de-cologne would
+bring those bloodshot eyes, swollen lids, and mottled cheeks to be fit
+to be seen, she fled as fast as possible from the gasps of barbed
+reproaches which put her own composure in peril, and dressed with the
+heaviest of hearts, coupled with the utmost solicitude to look her
+best.  If she had not thought it absolutely wrong, she would even have
+followed Martin's suggestion, and put on a soupcon of rouge; but by the
+time she was summoned to the carriage the feverishness of her effort at
+self-control had done the work, and her husband had paid her the
+compliment of observing that she looked pretty enough for two.
+
+Nuttie heard them drive off, with a burst of fresh misery of
+indignation against her mother--now as a slave and a victim--now as
+forgetting her old home.  It was chiefly in mutterings; she had pretty
+well used up her tears, for, unconsciously perhaps, she had worked them
+up as a defensive weapon against being carried to the party; and now
+that the danger was over, her head throbbed, her eyes burnt, and her
+throat ached too much for her to wish to cry any more. She had not felt
+physically like this, since the day, seven years ago, when she and
+Mildred Sharpe had been found suspiciously toying with the key of the
+arithmetic, and had been debarred from trying for the prize.  Then she
+felt debased and guilty; now she felt, or ought to feel, like a heroine
+maintaining the right.
+
+She got up and set herself to rights as well as she could.  Martin, who
+had been allowed to know that she had lost an old friend, petted and
+pitied her, and brought her a substantial meal with her tea, after
+which she set out to evensong at the church at the end of the square,
+well veiled under a shady hat, and with a conviction that something
+ought to happen.
+
+Nothing did, however, happen; she met no one whom she knew, the psalms
+were not particularly appropriate, and her attention wandered away to
+the scene at home.  She did not come back, as she was sure she ought to
+have done, soothed, exhilarated, and refreshed, but rather in a rasped
+state of mind, and a conscience making a vehement struggle to believe
+itself in the right--a matter in which she thoroughly succeeded.
+
+She wrote a long letter to Mary Nugent, and shed some softer tears over
+it, then she built a few castles on her future escape from the power of
+her father; and then she picked up Reata, and became absorbed in it,
+regretting only the weakness of her eyes, and the darkening of the
+summer evening.
+
+She was still reading when the others came home.  Her mother kissed
+her, but looked so languid and tired-out that Nuttie was shocked, and
+Martin declared that she ought not to go down to dinner.
+
+A tete-a-tete dinner between father and daughter was too dreadful to
+Alice's imagination to be permitted, so she dressed and went down,
+looking like a ghost.  Mr. Egremont scowled at Nuttie, Nuttie scowled
+at him, each considering it the fault of the other, and when at last it
+was over, Alice gave up the struggle, and went off to bed, leaving a
+contrite message that her headache would be better to-morrow.
+
+'All your accursed folly and obstinacy,' observed Mr. Egremont, when
+Nuttie, with a tone of monition gave him the message.
+
+'I should call it the consequence of being dragged out with a sore
+heart,' returned Nuttie--a little speech she had prepared ever since
+she had seen how knocked up her mother was.
+
+'Then I should recommend keeping your ideas to yourself,' he answered,
+looking at her in his annihilating manner.
+
+She was put down. She thought afterwards of a hundred things that she
+could have said to him, but she was crushed for the present, and when
+he went out she could only betake herself to Reata, and forget all
+about it as much as she could.
+
+When she went upstairs, at the end of the third volume, Martin was on
+the watch, and would not let her go into the room.
+
+'I have been at hand, ma'am, without her guessing it, and I am happy to
+say her tears has had a free course when she was in bed.  Yes, ma'am,
+suppressed grief is always dangerous.'
+
+Mrs. Egremont was still prostrate with fatigue and headache the next
+day, and Nuttie had all the quiet luxuriating in reminiscences she
+desired.  Her father was vexed and angry, and kept out of the way, but
+it must be confessed that Nuttie's spirits had so much risen by the
+afternoon that it was a sore concession to consistency when she found
+herself not expected at Blanche's last little afternoon dance at Lady
+Kirkaldy's!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+WOLF.
+
+  'If I cannot once or twice in a quarter bear out a knave against
+  an honest man, I have but very little credit with your Worship.'
+                                               --II. King Henry IV.
+
+
+Another cause besides Ursula's recalcitrance and her mother's ailment
+contributed to disturb Mr. Egremont, and bring him home.  His agent, by
+name Bulfinch, a solicitor at Redcastle, came to him with irrefragable
+proofs of gross peculation on the part of the bailiff who managed the
+home farm which supplied the house and stables, and showed him that it
+was necessary to make a thorough investigation and change of system.
+
+In point of fact, Mr. Egremont greatly preferred being moderately
+cheated to exerting himself to investigate, but this was going beyond
+moderation, and the explosion had been too public to be passed over. So
+he came home and sat by, while his wife and Mr. Bulfinch did the work
+for him, and made it evident to him that the frauds had been of long
+standing, and carried on with the connivance of the coachman, of
+Gregorio,--who had before Mrs. Egremont's arrival acted as house
+steward,--and of the former cook.  Indeed, it was the housekeeper whom
+Mrs. Egremont had left in charge, whose refusal to connive had brought
+about the discovery.
+
+Gregorio's share in all was sufficiently evident, and Alice's heart
+leapt with hope.  Her husband would be wholly her own if his evil
+genius were once departed, but Mr. Egremont would not see it.  He had
+no objection to sacrifice the coachman and all his underlings, with the
+bailiff and his entire family, and felt none of the pity that Alice had
+for the pretty, silly, half-educated daughters; but as to the
+valet--Pooh! pooh! the poor fellow had been out of the way all this
+time--whatever he had done had been in the dark, ages long ago, before
+Bridgefield knew its mistress; he was a foreigner, and that was enough
+to prevent him from forgathering with the English.  It was all their
+English prejudice.
+
+'I can show you facts and figures, sir,' said Mr. Bulfinch.
+
+'I daresay, a year or more old.  Why, I was an unprotected carcase
+then--a mere prey--the fellow only did after his kind.'
+
+Alice held her tongue then, but made an effort in private.  'Indeed, I
+don't think you know; I am afraid Gregorio is not altered.  I found him
+out in his charges about the wine, and the servants' wages at Nice,
+only you wouldn't listen.'
+
+'His little perquisites, my dear child!  Come, nonsense, these foreign
+fellows don't pretend to have the morals you ascribe to the native
+flunkey--generally without foundation either--they are much of a
+muchness as to that; but your Frenchman or Italian does it more neatly,
+and is a dozen times better servant than the other is.'
+
+'But--'
+
+'Oh, ay!  I know you don't like him.  But he knows his manners to you,
+I hope?' said Mr. Egremont, with a suddenness that made her wish she
+could truthfully say he did not.
+
+'Yes, he always is--is respectful, but somehow I see it is under
+protest.'
+
+Mr. Egremont laughed.  'Rivals--yes, I see; why, you don't consider the
+sore trial of having a full-grown mistress turned in upon him! Look
+here, you keep the keys already, but the new fellow at the farm and all
+the rest of them shall account to you for everything--Gregorio and all.
+Won't that satisfy you?'
+
+''Tis not only the money, but I think Gregorio is a bad--not a
+good--man.'
+
+'Ho, ho! she wants to advertise for a pious footman and coachman! eh?
+No, I thank you, my dear Edda, I agree with--who was it who said,
+"Volez moi, mais sans m'ennuyer."'
+
+The Rectory likewise had hoped for Gregorio's dismissal, and there were
+grave looks when Alice had to confess that nothing would move her
+husband against him.  The Canon even lashed himself up to say, 'I tell
+you how it is, Alwyn, you'll never do any good with your household,
+while you keep that fellow.'
+
+'I am not aware what description of good you expect me to do with it,
+Will,' coolly answered the elder brother in a disconcerting tone.
+
+Poor Alice, on her side, thought of the Little Master, and then
+wondered if it was uncharitable to do so.  For she knew it had become
+war to the knife with Gregorio!  Whether his master told him, or
+whether it were his own evil conscience, or the wonderful intuition of
+servants, he certainly knew of the pressure for his dismissal, and he
+visited it on her as much as he durst.
+
+Outwardly deferential, he could thwart and annoy her in a hundred ways,
+from making love to the housemaids to making evil suggestions to his
+master, yet never giving her any overt cause of complaint.  He could
+worry and sting her under the politest exterior, and he knew very well
+that the most effectual form of annoyance was the persuading his master
+that any discomfort or lassitude was to be removed by some form of
+narcotic.  This would have the further advantage of stupefying Mr.
+Egremont, and making him more ready to lapse under the old influence;
+while the duration and strength of the new one was already a surprise
+to Gregorio.
+
+But there was no doubt that Mrs. Egremont had profited by her year of
+training.  She looked tired, and less youthful and pretty, but she had
+gained in grace and importance as well as in style, and was much more
+really the mistress of Bridgefield.  Her shyness had passed away, and
+she knew now to take her place in society, though still she was
+somewhat silent.  And her husband depended upon her entirely for all
+his correspondence, for much of his occupation and amusement, and even
+for the regulation of his affairs.  In the household, Gregorio was
+little more than his personal attendant, and she had the general
+management, even of the other men-servants.  The Canoness might well
+say it had turned out better than she expected.
+
+And Nuttie had become more womanly, and had acquired the indefinable
+polish given by a London season.  She had learnt the art of
+conversation, and could make herself agreeable to her uncle, or to any
+one else who came in her way.  Even May allowed that she had something
+in her, and cultivated her more than before; but, on the other hand,
+even the Rectory could perceive that there was now an absolute
+alienation between her and her father, and what might before have been
+fear had become dislike.  If she had to refer to him, especially if her
+plans for herself or her mother were crossed, there was always a tone
+of bitterness or of sarcasm about her; and her greater boldness and
+freedom of speech would occasionally manifest itself towards him.  This
+was not indeed often, since not only did his cool contempt make her
+come off the worst in the encounters, but the extreme distress they
+gave to her mother made her refrain whenever her temper, or what she
+thought her conscience, would let her; but still there was always a
+danger which kept poor Alice on thorns whenever there was a possible
+difference of schemes or opinions.
+
+Mrs. William Egremont was seriously considering of representing to
+Ursula that her conduct was bad taste, bad policy, and, moreover, was
+doing her mother's spirits and health serious harm; but it was a
+delicate matter in which to meddle, and the good lady could not make up
+her mind how far to surrender her brother-in-law's character and allow
+a partial justification to Ursula.  She was a cautious woman, and
+waited and watched her opportunities.
+
+In the beginning of October Mr. and Mrs. Egremont were invited to a
+great shooting party at Sir James Jerningham's.  The invitation did not
+include Ursula.  Perhaps she had never dawned on their hostess's
+imagination; perhaps it was that Lady Jerningham was well known to
+dislike girls, or any one who might absorb young men's attention. At
+any rate the omission was a cause of thankfulness to the party
+concerned, and she did not neglect to worry her mother by a protest
+against keeping such company as would be met at Waldicotes.
+
+Alice smiled a little faintly and said, 'I don't think it hurts me, my
+dear; I don't understand half of what they talk about, and they are
+always kind to me.'
+
+'I don't think you ought to go among them or countenance them.'
+
+'My dear child,'--and the colour rose--'I don't feel as if I had a
+right to set myself above any one.'
+
+'Mother!'
+
+'People might have said just the same of me.'
+
+'And whose fault was that?' muttered Nuttie under her breath, but Mrs.
+Egremont would not hear.  She only pleaded, as perhaps mother ought not
+to have done with child.
+
+'You know, Nuttie, it is not for my own pleasure, but your father's
+eyesight makes him dislike to go anywhere without me now; and I really
+should be uneasy about him.'
+
+'Yes; he is all you care for,' said Nuttie.  'You sacrifice everything
+you used to think essential, just to his will and pleasure.'
+
+'Oh, Nuttie, I hope not; I don't think I do!'
+
+'If I thought it was doing him any good I should not so much mind,'
+went on the girl; 'but he is just the same, and I am always thinking of
+"As the husband is, the wife is--"'
+
+'Hush! hush!  You have no right to think in that way of your father. I
+will not hear it.  I have let you say too much already, Nuttie.' Then
+after a pause she added, gently and wistfully, 'You have been better
+taught, and are clearer headed than ever I was, my Nuttie, and it is
+quite right that you should hate what seems evil to you.  I can only go
+on trying to do what seems my duty from day to day.  I know,' she added
+with rising tears, 'that the sin and folly of my younger days worked a
+difficult position for us both; but we can only act according to our
+lights, and pray God to direct us; and please--please bear with me, my
+dear one, if the same course does not always seem right to us both.'
+
+Nuttie had never heard her say anything so fully showing that she
+realised these difficulties, and, greatly touched, she asked pardon,
+kissed and caressed her mother.  There was a calm over them for the
+next few days, and Nuttie actually refrained from bitter comments when
+her mother was not allowed to go to evensong on Sunday, on the plea of
+her being tired, but, as the girl believed, in order that she might
+read the newspapers aloud.
+
+She knew that her silence was appreciated by the way her mother kissed
+her and called her a dear, good, considerate girl.
+
+On Monday Mr. and Mrs. Egremont went away at what was a strangely early
+hour for the former, Nuttie spending her days at the Rectory.
+
+On the Tuesday Blanche went with her little sister and the governess on
+a shopping expedition to Redcastle, and in relating her adventures on
+her return, she said, 'Oh, by the bye, I met Annaple in Park's shop!'
+
+'Full of Micklethwayte news, I suppose,' said May.
+
+'Yes, of course.  Did you know, Nuttie, that your aunt was ill?'
+
+'No, indeed, I did not.  What was the matter?'
+
+'Bronchitis, I believe--brown titus, as Betty Butter calls it.'
+
+'Bronchitis!  Oh dear! oh dear!  Are you quite sure, Blanche?'
+
+'Oh yes!  I am quite certain Annaple said Mark told her that Miss
+Headworth was laid up with bronchitis.'
+
+'And nobody has written to us all this week!' sighed Nuttie.
+
+'I should think that a sign there could not be much in it,' observed
+May; 'it may be only a bad cold.'
+
+'But Aunt Ursel had bronchitis four years ago, and was very ill
+indeed,' persisted Nuttie.  'I'm sure it is bronchitis, and that she
+won't let Miss Mary write to us.'
+
+She was in much distress about it, though May privately told her that
+she ought to know Blanche's way better than to trust implicitly to any
+of her reports; and her aunt said much the same thing in more general
+terms, even proposing that if she did not hear the next morning she
+should go over to Lescombe to ascertain what Mark had really said.
+
+This pacified her a little, but on her way home the alarm grew upon
+her, and, moreover, she recollected the opposition that she believed
+that her father was certain to make to either her mother or herself
+going to nurse her aunt.  It flashed upon her that if she were to
+hasten to Micklethwayte on this alarm before there could be a
+prohibition, it would be no disobedience, and perfectly justifiable,
+not to say noble.  Her parents were to return on Thursday evening, and
+she made up her mind that, unless she were fully reassured as to Miss
+Headworth's state, she would go off at once to Micklethwayte before any
+one could gainsay her.  She had plenty of money, and she consulted the
+time-table in the hall before going upstairs.  It only concerned the
+nearest line, but she calculated that if she caught the express, she
+should reach her destination in time to write to her mother at
+Waldicotes, and prevent needless shocks.  Her eagerness for the plan
+grew upon her, so that it seemed like liberation; she could hardly
+sleep for thinking of it, and certainly was not as much disappointed as
+she believed herself when the post came in--a blank.
+
+Martin was away with her mistress, so Nuttie explained matters to the
+upper housemaid, who was very sympathetic, carried down her orders for
+the carriage, procured for her both breakfast and provision for the
+journey, and packed her clothes.  Ursula would fain have been off
+before the Rectory was aware, but the two little girls came up with a
+message about the plans for the day, just as she was beginning an
+explanatory note, and she entrusted to them the information that she
+was so uneasy about Miss Headworth that she had decided on going to see
+for herself.
+
+So in dashed Adela and Rosalind to their mother's room full of
+excitement with the news that Cousin Nuttie was gone off by the train,
+because her aunt was very ill indeed.
+
+'Gone, Adela? are you sure?  Really gone?'
+
+'Oh yes, mamma!  The dogcart was coming round, and she said she wanted
+to catch the 10.05 train, and was very sorry she had not time to write
+a note to you.'
+
+'Was there a letter?  What had she heard?'
+
+'Oh, only that her aunt was so very ill!  She did not tell us--did she,
+Rosie?'
+
+'There was something about being in time to write to Aunt Alice,'
+suggested Adela.
+
+'I am very sorry about this.  I am afraid it will be a great shock to
+Alice,' observed the mother, as she imparted the news at her husband's
+dressing-room door.
+
+'Young girls are so precipitate!' said the Canon.
+
+'Your brother won't like it at all,' the lady continued.
+
+'Not he.  But after all, it is just as well that he was not asked. They
+do owe that poor old lady a good deal, and Alwyn's not the man to see
+it.  I'm not sorry the girl took the matter into her own hands, though
+I couldn't have advised it.'
+
+'Except that it will all fall on Alice.'
+
+'He is very fond of Alice.  She has done more with him than I ever
+thought possible.  Kept him respectable this whole year, and really it
+grows on him.  He makes ever so much more of her now than when he first
+brought her home--and no wonder.  No, no; he won't fall foul of her.'
+
+'Perhaps not; but it is just as bad, or worse, for her if he falls foul
+of her daughter.  Besides, she is very much attached to her aunt.  I
+wish I knew what the account was, or whether she knows anything about
+it.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+URSULA'S RECEPTION.
+
+  'Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.'--SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+It was at half-past seven o'clock that Ursula Egremont's cab stopped at
+St. Ambrose's Road.  She had missed the express train, and had to come
+on by a stopping one.  But here at last she was, with eyes even by
+gaslight full of loving recognition, a hand full of her cab-fare, a
+heart full of throbbing hope and fear, a voice full of anxiety, as she
+inquired of the astonished servant, 'Louisa, Louisa, how is Aunt
+Ursel!' and, without awaiting the reply, she opened the adjoining door.
+There sat, with their evening meal on the table, not only Mary Nugent,
+but Miss Headworth herself.
+
+Nuttie rushed at her, and there was an incoherency of exclamations, the
+first thing that made itself clear to the senses of the traveller
+being, 'Ill, my dear?  No such thing!  Only I had a bad cold, and Mary
+here is only too careful of me.'
+
+'But Mark said you had bronchitis.'
+
+'What could have put that into his head?  He did not write it, surely?'
+
+'He wrote it to Annaple Ruthven, and she told Blanche.'
+
+'Oh!' and Mary Nugent's tone was rather nettling.
+
+'And then it was such a terrible time since we had heard anything,'
+added Nuttie, on the defensive.
+
+'Did not your mother get my letter?' said Miss Headworth.  'I wrote to
+her at--what's the name of that place?  I hope I addressed it right.'
+
+'Oh, but I was not there.  I didn't go with them.'
+
+'Ah, yes, I remember.  Then did not she send you?'
+
+'No, I came off this morning.  I heard this yesterday evening, and I
+determined that nothing should stop me if there was no news by the
+post.'
+
+'Dear child!  But will your father not be displeased?' said Miss
+Headworth.
+
+'He hasn't any right to object,' cried Nuttie, with flashing eyes and a
+look that made Miss Nugent anxious; but at the moment there could be
+little thought save of welcome to the warm-hearted girl.  Louisa was
+already brewing fresh tea, and extemporising additions to the meal, and
+Nuttie was explaining how she hoped to have arrived a couple of hours
+sooner.
+
+'By the bye, I meant to have written to mother for her to have it
+to-morrow before leaving Waldicotes.  Is there time?'
+
+No, the pillar at hand was cleared at seven, and the regular
+post-office could not be reached in time; so they satisfied themselves
+with the knowledge that Mrs. Egremont must have had Aunt Ursel's
+cheerful letter, and Mary recommended telegraphing to the Canon the
+first thing in the morning.  Then they gave themselves up to enjoyment.
+
+'At any rate, I'm here,' said Nuttie, 'and I'll make the most of it.'
+
+And her handsome furs were laid aside, and her boots taken off, and she
+resigned herself to absolute ease and luxury, while Mary poured out the
+tea, and her aunt heaped her plate with eggs and rashers 'such as one
+doesn't get anywhere else,' said Nuttie, declaring herself quite
+voracious, while her aunt fondly admired her growth and improvement,
+and she inquired into the cold, not quite gone yet; and there were
+speculations over what Mark could have got into his head. Mary
+remembered having met him coming to call, and having told him that she
+had persuaded Miss Headworth to keep her bed because her colds were apt
+to be severe, and it was agreed to lay the exaggeration at the door of
+the lovers and Blanche.  Miss Headworth laughed, and said she ought to
+be flattered that an old woman's sore throat should be thought worthy
+of mention by a fine young gentleman like Mr. Mark.  'A very good young
+man he is,' she added.  'You would never have thought how kind he is in
+coming in here to tell me everything he hears about your dear mother,
+Nuttie.'
+
+'He makes himself very useful while Mr. Dutton is away,' added Mary,
+'taking his young men's class and all.'
+
+'Oh! is Mr. Dutton away?'
+
+'Yes; he has had to be in London a great deal of late.  I am afraid he
+may have to live there altogether.'
+
+'What a grievous pity!'
+
+'He won't be anywhere without doing good,' said Miss Headworth, 'but I
+sometimes wish we had his cool good sense here.'
+
+'And how is Mr. Spyers,' asked Nuttie.  She felt shy of asking for
+Gerard Godfrey, or perhaps she thought she ought to be shy of his name,
+and kept hoping that it would come in naturally.
+
+'Mr. Spyers is very well.  Very busy of course, and very much delighted
+with your mother's gifts to the church.  All her own work, isn't it,
+Nuttie?'
+
+'Yes; every bit.  She does lots of embroidery and work of all kinds
+when she is waiting for _him_ or sitting with him, and luckily it has
+never occurred to him to ask what it is for.'
+
+The two ladies knew well what was meant by him, but they would not
+pursue the subject, and proceeded to put Nuttie au courant with St.
+Ambrose affairs--how last year's mission had produced apparently an
+immense effect in the town, and how the improvement had been ebbing
+ever since, but had left various individual gains, and stirred up more
+than one good person who had hitherto thought it enough to save one's
+own soul and let other people alone; how Mr. Spyers was endeavouring to
+bind people together in a guild; how a violent gust of temperance
+orators had come down upon the place, and altogether fascinated and
+carried away Gerard Godfrey.
+
+There was his name at last, and Nuttie was rather gratified to feel
+herself blushing as she asked, 'Ah! poor Gerard--how is he?'
+
+'As good and sincere as ever,' said Miss Nugent, 'but not much wiser.
+He is so excitable and vehement.'
+
+'Yes,' said Miss Headworth.  'I don't understand the kind of thing. In
+my time a steady young clerk used to be contented after hours with
+playing at cricket in the summer, or learning the flute in the
+winter--and a great nuisance it was sometimes, but now Gerard must get
+himself made a sort of half clergyman.'
+
+'A reader,' suggested Mary.
+
+'Minor orders.  Oh, how delightful!' cried Nuttie.
+
+'People, don't half understand it,' added Miss Headworth.  'Mrs.
+Jeffreys will have it that he is no better than a Jesuit, and really I
+did not know what to say, for he talked, to me by the hour about his
+being an external brother to something.'
+
+'Not to the Jesuits, certainly,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Yes, I told her that; but she thinks all monks are Jesuits, you know,
+and that all brothers are monks; and he does wear his cassock--his
+choir cassock, I mean--when he has his service in the iron room at the
+sandpits.  And now he has taken up temperance, and flies about giving
+the pledge, and wanting one to wear bits of blue ribbon.  I told him I
+never did take, and never had taken, more than a little hot wine and
+water when I had a cold, and I couldn't see what good it would do to
+George Jenkins and the poor fellows at the Spread Eagle if I took ever
+so many vows.'
+
+'There's a regular blue-ribbon fever set in,' said Miss Nugent. 'Gerard
+told me I was supporting the cause of intemperance yesterday because I
+was so wicked as to carry the rest of your bottle of port, Miss
+Headworth, to poor Anne Crake.'
+
+'Well! he is a dear boy, and youth wouldn't be youth if it were not
+sometimes rather foolish,' said Miss Headworth, 'and it is better it
+should be for good than evil.'
+
+'Eager in a cause and not for selfishness,' said Mary.  'Poor Gerard, I
+wonder where he will be safely landed!'
+
+So did Nuttie, who had a secret flattering faith in being the cause of
+all the poor young fellow's aberrations, and was conscious of having
+begun the second volume of her life's novel.  She went to bed in the
+elated frame of mind proper to a heroine.  There was a shade over all
+in the absence of dear old Mrs. Nugent, and in Mary's deep mourning,
+but there is more tenderness than poignancy in sorrow for shocks of
+corn gathered in full season, and all was cheerful about her.
+
+She had quite a triumph the next day, as old friends dropped in for the
+chance of seeing her.  The least agreeable encounter was that with
+Mark, who came in on his way to the office, having just received by the
+second post a letter from his father inquiring into Miss Headworth's
+state.  He met Nuttie in the vestibule, with her hat on, and in a great
+hurry, as she wanted to walk with Mary to the School of Art, Gerard
+Godfrey accompanying them as far as the office; and she did not at all
+like the being called to account, and asked what could have possessed
+her to take alarm.
+
+'Why, you wrote yourself!'
+
+'I!'
+
+'To Annaple Ruthven.'
+
+'What am I supposed to have written?'
+
+'That Aunt Ursel was very ill with bronchitis.'
+
+'I'll be bound that Miss Ruthven said no such thing.  You don't pretend
+that you heard it from herself?'
+
+'No; but Blanche did.'
+
+'Blanche!  Oh, that accounts for it!  Though I should have thought you
+knew Blanche by this time.'
+
+'But what did you say?'
+
+'I believe I said I couldn't get a knitting pattern Miss Headworth was
+to send Lady Ronnisglen because she was in bed with a cold.  What you
+and Blanche could contrive to make of a simple thing like that--'
+
+'And Annaple!'
+
+'Well,' but checking himself with a smile, 'we will not fight about
+that.  I only hope it has not brought you into an awkward scrape,
+Nuttie.'
+
+'I can't help that,' she answered with her head rather high.
+
+'You have written and explained?' he said anxiously.
+
+'To my mother, of course.'
+
+'If I were you,' he said, lowering his voice, 'I should write or send a
+special message to your father.'
+
+'I can't see why.  It was a mistake.'
+
+'Yours was a strong measure, and he won't like it.  Be advised, Nuttie.
+Recollect your mother.  The best way would be to go home at once.  I
+could get a day to take you--if you would start this afternoon.'
+
+'Thank you; I'm not going back till I hear,' she said proudly.
+
+Time being up, Mark took his leave hastily, and as he shut the door,
+Nuttie uttered half aloud the words she had scarcely repressed, 'No, I
+thank you, Mr. Mark, I am not going back like a dog in a string.'
+
+'What, was that what he expected of you?' said Gerard Godfrey, whom she
+had not intended to hear her, but who had come out of the sitting-room
+on the sounds of departure.
+
+'He said he would take me home if I could go at once.'
+
+'Wouldn't he have liked it!' exclaimed Gerard.
+
+'It might be the best way,' said Miss Nugent, who had followed young
+Godfrey.
+
+'Now, Miss Mary,' cried Nuttie, 'as if I could shorten my holiday now
+that I have it.'
+
+'And I don't see what business he had to call you to account,' said
+Gerard.  'A stuck-up fellow.'
+
+'Of course all the Egremonts are set against my being here,' said
+Nuttie.
+
+'I thought the Canon offered to bring you last year,' said Mary gently.
+
+'Oh, that was only to Monks Horton!  It would have been simply
+tantalising.'
+
+'Lady Kirkaldy is an excellent person,' said Miss Nugent.
+
+'Is she at home now?' asked Ursula.
+
+'Coming next week, they tell me,' said Gerard.
+
+'He--your cousin--will always be loafing up there now, giving up all
+that he had undertaken, I suppose.'
+
+'Not very likely,' said Mary quietly.
+
+It is a mere Scottish anti-church influence,' said Gerard, turning
+round at the swing-door of his office.  'Why else will Egremont not
+take the pledge?'
+
+Wherewith he disappeared, blue ribbon and all, while Mary smiled,
+though she was vexed; and Nuttie observed, 'Poor Gerard; but I can't
+see why he should be jealous of Mark _now_.'
+
+Mary did not choose to understand what Nuttie implied in her
+simplicity, and made answer, 'He is rather blue ribbon mad.  Besides, I
+am afraid the fact of being a "swell" does not conduce to your cousin's
+popularity among the clerks.'
+
+'Surely he does not give himself airs,' said Ursula, her family
+feelings awaking.
+
+'No; but I fancy he is rather reserved.'
+
+'What's this about giving up what he has undertaken?  What is it?'
+
+'When Mr. Dutton went to London, he asked Mark to take his Sunday
+afternoons with the big lads.  He thought they wanted some one with
+more resources and variety than there is in poor Gerard, who didn't at
+all like being passed over.'
+
+'I never should have thought it of Mark.  He never dreamt of teaching
+anybody at home.'
+
+'Very likely not, but there is an atmosphere at St. Ambrose's.'
+
+'And oh, how glad I am to be in it!  I wonder how long they will let me
+stay!  The dear little mother will try to get me a Sunday here, if she
+dares.  Indeed, I can't hear before Saturday, and then there would
+hardly be time to get home!  Oh, that's jolly!  I'll go to the nursery
+gardens, and get _such_ flowers for the vases!'
+
+Saturday brought Nuttie a letter, but not from her mother--
+
+
+'My Dear Ursula--I write because we are anxious to keep your mother as
+quiet as possible.  It was a serious shock to her to find that you had
+left home, and she naturally supposed that Miss Headworth was in great
+danger.  Your father was greatly displeased, and she has been much
+overcome, and very unwell, but we hope by keeping her perfectly quiet
+that worse consequences may be prevented.  Your father desires you to
+remain where you are for the present, as he will not have her disturbed
+again.  Your mother sends her love both to you and to your aunt, and
+desires me to say that she will write in a day or two, and that she
+thinks you had better not come back till she is better and your
+father's vexation has diminished.
+
+'I wish you had informed us of your intentions, as then we could have
+ascertained the grounds of the report that terrified you so
+strangely.--I remain your affectionate aunt,
+
+                                         JANE M. EGREMONT.'
+
+
+'Poor mother! he has been sneering at us all in his dreadful cynical
+way, and knocked her up into one of her awful headaches,' said Nuttie,
+who felt extremely angered by the grave tone of rebuke in the letter,
+and tossed it over to her aunt without absolutely reading it all.  Miss
+Headworth was a good deal distressed, and anxious to know what Mrs.
+William Egremont meant; but Nuttie positively declared, 'Oh, it is her
+headaches!  You know she always had them more or less, and they have
+grown a great deal worse since she has taken to sitting in that horrid,
+stuffy, perfumy, cigar-ry room, and doesn't take half exercise enough.'
+
+And when Miss Headworth showed herself much concerned about the state
+of things, Nuttie coaxed her, and declared that she should fancy
+herself unwelcome, and have to go and beg a lodging somewhere instead
+of enjoying her reprieve.  And Aunt Ursel was far less impervious to
+coaxing than she used to be when she was the responsible head of a
+boarding house.  She did most thoroughly enjoy the affection of her
+great niece, and could not persuade herself to be angry with her,
+especially when the girl looked up smiling and said, 'If the worst came
+to the worst and he did disinherit me, the thing would only right
+itself.  I always meant to give it back to Mark.'
+
+No great aunt in the world could fail to admire the generous spirit of
+the girl who came back from the great world of luxury, so loving and
+happy in her humble surroundings.  The only sighs were for poor Alice,
+in the hands of a man of whom Miss Headworth knew so much evil.  If she
+were not wretched and a victim--and Nuttie did not think her such--she
+must surely be getting spoilt and worldly.  Her daughter implied fears
+of this kind, yet who could read her letters and think so?
+
+Nuttie was fortunately too much in awe of the Canoness to write all the
+pertnesses that tingled at her fingers' ends, and she sent a proper and
+fairly meek letter, intimating, however, that she was only too happy to
+remain at Micklethwayte.
+
+It was two or three days more before she heard again.
+
+
+'My Own Dear Child--They have let me write at last, and I can say how
+much I like to think of your nestling up to dear Aunt Ursel, and how
+glad I am to find that she was well enough to enjoy you. It is almost
+like being there to hear of you, and the only thing that grieves me is
+that your father was very much vexed at your setting off in that sudden
+way, and at my being so foolish about it.  His eyes have been very bad,
+and he missed me sadly while I was laid up.  We are neither of us very
+strong, and we think--if Aunt Ursel and Mary can keep you for a little
+longer--it will be better for you to stay on with them, as it might be
+as dreary for you as it was last winter, especially as the Rectory folk
+will soon be going into residence.  I will write to them about it and
+persuade them to take something for your board, so as to make it easy
+for them.  And then you can have a fire in your room; you must not
+leave it off now you are used to it.  My dear, I wish you would write a
+little apology to your father.  I ought not to conceal that he is
+really very angry, and I think it would be well if you expressed some
+regret, or if you cannot truthfully do that, asked his pardon for your
+impetuosity; for you know he cannot be expected to realise all that
+dear Aunt Ursel is to us.  You cannot think how kind your Aunt Jane has
+been to me; I did not think she could have been so tender.  This is the
+first letter I ever had to write to you, my own dear child.  I miss you
+every moment, but after all it is better you should be away till your
+father has overlooked this hurried expedition of yours.  I am sure he
+would if you wrote him a real nice letter, telling how you were really
+frightened, and that it was not a mere excuse.  Pray do, and then you
+can come back to your loving little mother.
+
+                                'A. E.'
+
+
+'As if I would or could,' quoth Nuttie to herself.  'Apologise to him
+indeed, for loving the aunt who toiled for us when he deserted us. Poor
+little mother, she can't really expect it of me.  Indeed, I don't think
+she quite knows what she wants, or whether she likes me to be here or
+at Bridgefield!  My belief is that he bullies her less when I am out of
+the way, because she just gives way to him, and does not assert any
+principle.  I've tried to back her up, and it is of no use, and I am
+sure I don't want such a winter as the last.  So I am much better here;
+and as to begging pardon, when I have done nothing wrong, I am sure I
+won't, to please anybody.  I shall tell her that she ought to know me
+better than to expect it!'
+
+But Nuttie did not show the letter either to Aunt Ursel or Mary Nugent;
+nor did she see that in which Alice had satisfied them that it might be
+better that her daughter should pay them a long visit, while Mr.
+Egremont's health required constant attendance, and the Canon's family
+were at Redcastle.  And as her husband was always open-handed, she
+could make Ursula's stay with them advantageous to their slender means,
+without hurting their feelings.
+
+She told them as much as she could, but there was more that no living
+creature might know, namely, the advantage that Gregorio had gained
+over that battlefield, his master, during her days of illness.  The
+first cold weather had brought on pain, and anger and anxiety, nervous
+excitement and sleeplessness, which the valet had taken upon him to
+calm with a narcotic under a new name that at first deceived her till
+she traced its effects, and inquired of Dr. Hammond about it.
+Unwillingly, on her account, he enlightened her, and showed her that,
+though the last year's care had done much to loosen the bonds of the
+subtle and alluring habit, yet that any resumption of it tended to
+plunge its victim into the fatal condition of the confirmed
+opium-eater, giving her every hope at the same time that this
+propensity might be entirely shaken off, and that the improvement in
+Mr. Egremont's health and habits which had set in might be confirmed,
+and raise him above the inclination.
+
+Could she have been rid of Gregorio, she would have felt almost sure of
+victory; but as it was, she believed the man absolutely meant to baffle
+her, partly out of a spiteful rivalry, partly because his master's
+torpid indolence could be used to his own advantage.  She was
+absolutely certain that his sneering tone of remark made her husband
+doubly disinclined to let any religious book be near, or to permit her
+to draw him to any Sunday observance.
+
+The battle must be fought out alone.  The gentle woman could have no
+earthly helper in the struggle.  The Canon and Mark, the only persons
+who could have given her the slightest aid, were both at a distance,
+even if her loyal heart could have brooked confession to them, and she
+only hoped that Nuttie would never know of it.  Only aid from above
+could be with her in the daily, hourly effort of cheerfulness,
+patience, and all the resources of feminine affection, to avert the
+temptation; and she well knew that the presence of the ardent,
+unsubdued, opinionative girl would, alas! only double the difficulties.
+So she acquiesced, at least for the present, in Nuttie's grand
+achievement of having broken away from all the wealth and luxury of
+Bridgefield to return to her simple home and good old aunt.  Mark was a
+good deal vexed, but Nuttie did not care about that, attributing this
+displeasure to Egremont clanship; Mary Nugent was doubtful and anxious,
+and thought it her duty to reconcile herself to her father; but Miss
+Headworth, who, be it remembered, had reason to have the worst
+impressions of Mr. Egremont, rejoiced in her young niece having escaped
+from him for the time, and only sighed over the impossibility of
+Alice's doing the same.  And when Nuttie described, as she constantly
+did, the various pleasures she had enjoyed during the past year, the
+good old lady secretly viewed her as a noble Christian heroine for
+resigning all this in favour of the quiet little home at Micklethwayte,
+though reticent before her, and discussed her excellence whenever she
+was alone with Mary.
+
+Nor would Miss Nugent vex her with contradictions or hints that what
+Nuttie was giving up at present might be a dull house, with her mother
+engrossed by an irritable semi-invalid, and the few gaieties to be
+enjoyed by the help of the Canon's family at Redcastle.  She did ask
+the girl whether Mrs. Egremont, being avowedly not quite well, might
+not need her assistance; but Nuttie vehemently disavowed being of any
+possible use to her father; he never let her read to him! oh no! he
+called her music schoolgirly, a mere infliction; he never spoke to her
+if he could help it, and then it was always with a sort of sneer; she
+believed he could not bear the sight of her, and was ashamed of it, as
+well he might be!  For Mrs. Houghton's disclosures had rankled ever
+since within her, and had been confirmed by her aunt.
+
+'But that is very sad,' said Mary.  'I am so sorry for you.  Ought you
+not to try hard to conquer his distaste?'
+
+'I--why, he cares for nothing good!'
+
+'Nay,' smiling.  'Not for your mother?'
+
+'Oh!  She's pretty, you know; besides, she makes herself a regular
+slave to him, and truckles to him in everything, as I could never do.'
+
+'Perhaps she is overcoming evil with good.'
+
+'I am afraid it is more like being overcome of evil.  No, no, dear Miss
+Mary, don't be shocked.  The dear little mother never would be anything
+but good in her own sweet self, but it is her nature not to stand up
+for anything, you know.  She seems to me just like a Christian woman
+that has been obliged to marry some Paynim knight. And it perfectly
+provokes me to see her quite gratified at his notice, and ready to
+sacrifice anything to him, now I know how he treated her.  If I had
+been in her place, I wouldn't have gone back to him; no, not if he had
+been ready to crown me after I was dead, like Ines de Castro.'
+
+'I don't know that you would have had much choice in that case.'
+
+'My very ghost would have rebelled,' said Nuttie, laughing a little.
+
+And Mary could believe that Mrs. Egremont, with all her love for her
+daughter, might find it a relief not to have to keep the peace between
+the father and child.  'Yet,' she said to herself, 'if Mr. Dutton were
+here, he would have taken her back the first day.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+DISENCHANTMENT.
+
+  'He promised to buy me a bunch of blue ribbons.'
+
+
+St. Ambrose's road was perfectly delightful as long as there was any
+expectation of a speedy recall.  Every day was precious; every meeting
+with an old face was joyful; each interchange of words with Mr. Spyers
+or Gerard Godfrey was hailed as a boon; nothing was regretted but the
+absence of Monsieur and his master, and that the favourite choir boy's
+voice was cracked.
+
+But when there was reason to think that success had been complete, when
+Miss Headworth had been persuaded by Mary that it was wiser on all
+accounts not to mortify Alice by refusing the two guineas a week
+offered for Miss Egremont's expenses; when a couple of boxes of clothes
+and books had arrived, and Ursula found herself settled at
+Micklethwayte till after Christmas, she began first to admit to herself
+that somehow the place was not all that it had once been to her.
+
+Her mother was absent, that was one thing.  Mrs. Nugent was gone, that
+was another.  There was no Monsieur or Mr. Dutton to keep her in awe of
+his precision, even while she laughed at it.  There were no boarders to
+patronise and play with, and her education at the High School was over.
+If she saw a half-clothed child, it was not half so interesting to buy
+an ulster in the next shop, as it was to turn over the family rag-bag,
+knit, sew, and contrive!  Somehow things had a weariness in them, and
+the little excitements did not seem to be the exquisite delights they
+used to be.  After having seen Patience at the Princess's it was not
+easy to avoid criticising a provincial Lady Jane, and it was the like
+with other things of more importance.  Even the ritual of St. Ambrose's
+Church no longer struck her as the ne plus ultra of beauty, and only
+incited her to describe London churches.
+
+She resumed her Sunday-school classes, and though she talked at first
+of their raciness and freedom, she soon longed after the cleanliness,
+respectfulness, and docility of the despised little Bridgefordites, and
+uttered bitter things of Micklethwayte turbulence, declaring--perhaps
+not without truth--that the children had grown much worse in her
+absence.
+
+And as Mr. Godfrey had been superintendent during the latter half of
+the time, this was a cruel stroke.  He wanted to make her reverse her
+opinions.  And they never met without 'Now, Ursula, don't you remember
+Jem Burton putting on Miss Pope's spectacles, and grinning at all the
+class.'
+
+'Yes; and how Mr. Dutton brought him up to beg her pardon.  Now, was
+any notice taken when that horrid boy--I don't know his name--turned
+the hymn they were saying to her into "Tommy, make room for your
+uncle"?'
+
+'Oh, Albert Cox!  It is no use doing anything to him, he would go off
+at once to the Primitives.'
+
+'Let him!'
+
+'I cannot make him a schismatic.'
+
+'I wonder what he is now!'
+
+'Besides, Miss Pope perfectly provokes impertinence.'
+
+'Then I wouldn't give her work she can't do.'
+
+Such an argument as this might be very well at the moment of
+provocation, but it became tedious when recurred to at every meeting.
+Nuttie began to wonder when Monks Horton would be inhabited again, and
+how much notice Lady Kirkaldy would take of her, and she was a good
+deal disappointed when Mark told her that Lord Kirkaldy had been begged
+to undertake a diplomatic mission which would keep them abroad all the
+winter.
+
+There was a certain weariness and want of interest.  It was not exactly
+that there was nothing intellectual going on.  There were the lectures,
+but they were on chemistry, for which Nuttie cared little. There were
+good solid books, and lively ones too, but they seemed passe to one who
+had heard them discussed in town.  Mary and Miss Headworth read and
+talked them over, and perhaps their opinions were quite as wise, and
+Miss Nugent's conversation was equal to that of any of Nuttie's London
+friends, but it was only woman's talk after all--the brilliancy and
+piquancy, the touch and go, she had enjoyed in Lady Kirkaldy's
+drawing-room was lacking.
+
+Mr. Spyers was too much immersed in parish matters to read anything
+secular, and neither he nor Gerard Godfrey seemed ever to talk of
+anything but parish matters.  There was not the slightest interest in
+anything beyond.  Foreign politics, European celebrities,--things in
+which Nuttie had learnt to take warm interest when with the Kirkaldys,
+were nothing to them.  Even Mary wondered at her endeavours to see the
+day's paper, and she never obtained either information or sympathy
+unless she came across Mark.  It seemed to her that Gerard cared less
+for the peace or war of an empire than for a tipsy cobbler taking the
+pledge.  The monotony and narrowness of the world where she had once
+been so happy fretted and wearied her, though she was ashamed of
+herself all the time, and far too proud to allow that she was tired of
+it all.  Aunt Ursel at her best had always been a little dry and grave,
+an authority over the two nieces; and though softened, she was not
+expansive, did not invite confidences, and home was not home without
+the playfellow-mother.
+
+And most especially was she daily tired of Gerard Godfrey!  Had he
+always talked of nothing but 'the colours,' chants, E. C. U., classes,
+and teetotalism?  Whatever she began it always came back to one or
+other of these subjects, and when she impatiently declared that she was
+perfectly sick of hearing of the Use of Sarum, he looked at her as
+guilty of a profanity.
+
+Perhaps it was true that he was narrower than he had been.  He was a
+good, honest, religiously-minded lad, but with no great depth or grasp
+of intellect; Ursula Egremont had been his companion first and then his
+romance, and the atmosphere of the community in which he lived had been
+studious and intelligent.  His expedition to Redcastle had convinced
+him that the young lady lived in a different world, entirely beyond his
+reach, and in the reaction of his hopelessness, he had thrown himself
+into the excitement of the mission, and it had worked on him a zealous
+purpose to dedicate himself totally to a religious life, giving up all
+worldly aims, and employing the small capital he could call his own in
+preparing for the ministry.  Mr. Dutton had insisted that he should
+test his own steadfastness and resolution by another year's work in his
+present situation before he took any steps.
+
+He had submitted, but still viewed himself as dedicated, and so far as
+business hours permitted, gave his services like a clerical pupil to
+St. Ambrose's with the greatest energy, and perhaps somewhat less
+judgment than if Mr. Dutton had been at hand.  Being without natural
+taste for intellectual pursuits, unless drawn into them by his
+surroundings, he had dropped them entirely, and read nothing but the
+ephemeral controversial literature of his party, and not much of that,
+for he was teaching, preaching, exhorting, throughout his spare time;
+while the vicar was in too great need of help to insist on deepening
+the source from which his zealous assistant drew.  As Miss Nugent
+observed, teetotalism was to him what dissipation was to other young
+men.
+
+On this vehemence of purpose descended suddenly Ursula Egremont once
+more; and the human heart could not but be quickened with the idea, not
+entirely unfounded, that it was to him that she had flown back, and
+that her exile proved that she cared for him more than for all the
+delights she had enjoyed as heiress of Bridgefield.  The good youth was
+conscientious to the back-bone, and extremely perplexed between his
+self-dedication and the rights that their implied understanding might
+give to her.  Was she to be the crowning blessing of his life, to be
+saved partly through his affection from worldly trials and temptations,
+and bestowing on him a brilliant lot in which boundless good could be
+effected?  Or was she a syren luring him to abandon his higher and
+better purposes?
+
+The first few days of her stay, the former belief made him feel like
+treading on air, or like the hero of many a magazine story; but as time
+went on this flattering supposition began to fail him, when Nuttie
+showed her weariness of the subjects which, in his exclusiveness, he
+deemed the only ones worthy of a Christian, or rather of a Catholic.
+Both of them had outgrown the lively, aimless chatter and little jests
+that had succeeded the games of childhood, and the growth had been in
+different directions, so that Ursula felt herself untrue to her old
+romance when she became weary of his favourite topics, disappointed by
+his want of sympathy and comprehension, fretted by his petty
+disapprovals, and annoyed by his evident distaste for Mark, to whom she
+turned as to one of her proper world.
+
+At last, after many tossings, Gerard fixed upon a test.  If she endured
+it she would be the veritable maiden of his imagination, and they would
+stand by one another, come what would; if not, he would believe that
+the past had been fancy, not love, or love that had not withstood the
+attractions of fashionable life.  A great temperance meeting was coming
+on, and Gerard, eager at once to fill the room, and to present a goodly
+roll of recruits, watched anxiously for his moment, and came on Nuttie
+with his hands full of bills in huge letters, and his pockets of badges.
+
+'Excellent speakers,' he cried.  'We shall have the hall crowded.
+You'll come, Ursula?'
+
+'I don't know what Miss Mary will do.  I don't think she means it.'
+
+'Oh, if you insist, if we both insist, she will.  Look at the paper--we
+are to have some splendid experiences.'
+
+Nuttie made a face.  'I've heard all about those,' she said.  'That
+man,' pointing to one of the names, 'regularly rants about it; he is
+like a madman.'
+
+'He does go rather far, but it is quite necessary, as you will hear.
+Oh, Nuttie, if you would only be one of us!  I've brought a card!  If
+you would!'
+
+'Why, what's the use, Gerard!  I don't like wine, I never do drink it,
+except a little claret-cup sometimes when I can't get water.'
+
+'Then it would cost you nothing.'
+
+'Yes, it would.  It would make me ridiculous.'
+
+'You used not to heed the sneers of the world.'
+
+'Not for anything worth doing--but this is not.'
+
+'It is the greatest cause of the day!' he cried, in an eager exalted
+manner, which somewhat inclined her to laugh.  'Do away with alcohol
+and you would do away with crime!'
+
+'Thank you for the compliment, Gerard; I never found that the
+infinitesimal drop of alcohol that I suppose there is in a tumbler of
+claret-cup disposed me to commit crimes.'
+
+'Why won't you understand me, Ursula!  Can't you give up that for the
+sake of saving others!'
+
+'I wonder whom it would save.'
+
+'Example saves!  If you put on this'--taking out the badge--'how many
+should you not lead at your home?'
+
+'Just nobody!  Mother and I should have a bad time of it, that's all.'
+
+'And if you endured, what would not your testimony effect in the
+household and village?'
+
+'Nothing!  I have nothing to do with the men-servants, and as to the
+village, it is very sober.  There's only one public house, and that is
+kept by Uncle William's old butler, and is as orderly as can be.'
+
+'Ah! that's the way you all deceive yourselves.  Moderate drinkers are
+ten times more mischievous than regular drunkards.'
+
+'Thank you, Gerard!  And outrageous abstainers are more mischievous
+than either of them, because they make the whole thing so utterly
+foolish and absurd.'  She was really angry now, and so was Gerard.
+
+'Is that your ultimatum?' he asked, in a voice that he strove to render
+calm.
+
+'Certainly; I'm not going to take the pledge.'
+
+Having quarrelled in childhood, made quarrelling now easier, and Gerard
+answered bitterly:
+
+'Very well, I hope you will have no cause to repent it.'
+
+''Tis not the way to make me repent it, to see how it seems to affect
+some people's common sense.  It is just as if all your brains had run
+to water!' said Nuttie, laughing a little; but Gerard was desperately
+serious, and coloured vehemently.
+
+'Very well, Miss Egremont, I understand.  I have had my answer,' he
+said, gathering up his papers and marching out of the room.
+
+She stood still, offended, and not in the least inclined to run after
+him and take back her words.  He, poor fellow, stumbled down the steps,
+and held by the garden rail to collect his senses and compose himself.
+
+'What's the matter, Gerard, are you ill or giddy?' asked Miss Nugent,
+coming up in the winter twilight.
+
+'No, oh no!  Only the dream of my life is over,' he answered, scarce
+knowing what he said.
+
+'You haven't--' cried Mary aghast.
+
+'Oh no,' he said, understanding the blank, 'only she won't take the
+pledge!'
+
+'I don't see how she could or ought,' responded Mary.  'Is that all?'
+
+'I had made it the test,' muttered poor Gerard.  'It is right!  It is
+all over now.  I shall know how to go on my way.  It is best so--I know
+it is--only I did not know whether anything was due to her.'  It was
+almost a sob.
+
+'Dear old Gerard,' said Mary, 'I see you meant to do right.  It is well
+your mind should be settled.  I think you'll find comfort in your good
+work.'
+
+He wrung her hand, and she went in, half amused, for she was fully
+aware of the one-sidedness of the mania for temperance under which he
+acted, yet honouring his high, pure motives, and rejoicing that he had
+found this indirect mode of gauging Nuttie's feelings towards him--that
+is, if he was right about them, and there was no revulsion.
+
+Far from it.  Nuttie was still angry.  'Gerard had been so ridiculous,'
+she said, 'teasing her to take the pledge, and quite incapable of
+understanding her reasons.  I can't think why Gerard has grown so
+stupid.'
+
+'Enthusiasms carry people away,' returned Mary.
+
+'If Mr. Dutton had only stayed, he would have kept Gerard like
+himself,' said Nuttie.
+
+But there was no relenting.  The two young people avoided each other;
+and perhaps Nuttie was secretly relieved that the romance she had
+outgrown no longer entangled her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+A FAILURE.
+
+  'Would I had loved her more!'--Mrs. Hemans.
+
+
+'On the 14th of January, at Bridgefield Egremont, the wife of Alwyn
+Piercefield Egremont, Esquire, a son and heir.'
+
+Ursula had been prepared for this event for about a fortnight by a long
+tender letter from her mother, mourning over the not meeting at
+Christmas, and the long separation, but saying that she had wished to
+spare the long anxiety, and that it had been a trying time which she
+felt herself able to cope with better alone, than even with her dear
+Nuttie, knowing her to be happy and safe with Aunt Ursel.  Now, if all
+went well, they would have a happy meeting, and begin on a new score.
+'If the will of God should be otherwise,' added Alice, 'I am sure I
+need not entreat my Nuttie to do and be all that she can to her father.
+My child, you do not know how sorely he needs such love and tendance
+and prayer as you can give him.  I know you have thought I have set you
+aside--if not better things, for his sake.  Indeed I could not help
+it.'  Then there was something tear-stained and blotted out, and it
+ended with, 'He is beginning to miss your step and voice about the
+house.  I believe he will really be glad to see you, when the bright
+spring days come, and I can kiss my own Nuttie again.'
+
+Nuttie was very much delighted, but a little hurt that her aunt and
+Mary should have been in the secret, and pledged to say nothing to her
+till her mother should write.  She found, moreover, that Miss Headworth
+was extremely anxious and not altogether reassured by Mrs. William
+Egremont's letter of announcement, which filled Nuttie with delight.
+How happy the little mother must be to have a baby in her arms again,
+and though she herself did not profess to have a strong turn for infant
+humanity, it was the greatest possible relief to be no longer an
+heiress, excepting that the renunciation in favour of Mark was no
+longer practicable.
+
+The residence at Redcastle was not over, but the Canoness had come to
+nurse her sister-in-law, and kept up the correspondence.  The son and
+heir was reported to be a perfect specimen, and his father was greatly
+elated and delighted, but the letters showed anxiety about the mother,
+who did not get on as she ought, and seemed to have no power of rally
+about her.  At length came a letter that seemed to burn itself into
+Nuttie's brain--
+
+
+'My Dear Ursula--Your mother is longing to see you.  You had better
+come home directly.  Your aunt saved her before.  Tell her if she will
+come, she shall have my deepest gratitude.  I shall send to meet the
+5.11 train.--Your affectionate father,
+
+                                       A. P. EGREMONT.'
+
+
+Mrs. William Egremont wrote at more length.  Symptoms had set in which
+filled the doctors and nurses with double anxiety.  Advice had been
+sent for from London, and Mr. Egremont was in an uncontrollable state
+of distress.  She had undertaken to summon Ursula home, and to beg Miss
+Headworth to undertake the journey.  She evidently did not know that
+her brother-in-law had written himself, and before they could start a
+telegram terrified them, but proved to contain no fresh tidings, only a
+renewed summons.
+
+Miss Headworth forgot all her resolutions about Mr. Egremont's
+hospitality--her Alice was her only thought, and all the remedies that
+had been found efficacious at Dieppe.  The good lady had a certain
+confidence in her own nursing and experience of Alice, which buoyed her
+up with hope, while Ursula seemed absolutely stunned.  She had never
+thought of such a frightful loss or grief, and her mental senses were
+almost paralysed, so that she went through the journey in a kind of
+surface trance, observing all around her much as usual, looking out for
+the luggage and for the servant who had come to meet them with the
+report 'No change.'  She did the honours of the carriage, and covered
+Miss Headworth with the fur rug.  They wanted it, for they were
+shivering with anxiety.
+
+Canon Egremont came out to the front hall to meet them, and put his
+arms round Nuttie tenderly, saying, 'My poor dear child!' then as he
+saw he had frightened them, 'No, no!  She is alive--conscious they say,
+only so very weak.'  Then with something of his usual urbane grace, he
+held out his hand, 'Miss Headworth, it is very good in you to come.
+You have a great deal to forgive.'
+
+He took them into the tent-room, where tea was standing, interrupting
+himself in the account he was giving to bid Nuttie let her aunt have
+some.  It was plain from his manner that he had given up hope, and in
+another minute in hurried his brother, looking terribly haggard and
+with bloodshot eyes, giving his hand to each, with, 'That's right, Miss
+Headworth, thank you.  Come, let me know what you think of her!'
+
+'Does she know they are come?' said the Canon.  'No?  Then, Alwyn, let
+them have some tea, and take off their things.  I can tell you, the
+nurses will never let them in just off a journey.'
+
+Miss Headworth seconded this, and Mr. Egremont submitted, allowing that
+she had not asked for Nuttie since the morning, and then had smiled and
+squeezed his hand when he said she was coming with her aunt; but he
+walked up and down in direful restlessness, his whole mind apparently
+bent on extracting from Miss Headworth that she had been as ill or
+worse at Dieppe.
+
+Alas! when Mrs. William Egremont came down to fetch Nuttie; there was
+no question that matters were much worse.  The sweet face was perfectly
+white and wasted, and the heavy lids of the dark eyes scarcely lifted
+themselves, but the lips moved into a smile, and the hand closed on
+that of the girl, who stood by her as one frozen into numbness.  There
+was the same recognition when her aunt was brought to her side, the
+poor old lady commanding herself with difficulty, as the loving glance
+quivered over the face.
+
+Time passed on, and she still held Nuttie's hand.  Once, when a little
+revived by some stimulant at her lips, she made an effort and said,
+'Stay with him!  Take care of him!  _Love_ him!  And your little
+brother, my Nuttie!  Promise!'
+
+'I promise,' the girl answered, scarce knowing what she said.
+
+And the eyes closed with an air of peace and rest.
+
+Again when Miss Headworth was doing something to ease her position she
+said, 'Thank you,' and then more vigorously, 'Thank you, dear aunt, for
+all you have been to us.'
+
+There was little more.  She asked Nuttie for 'her hymn,' the evening
+hymn with which mother and daughter used nightly to go to sleep, and
+which, in her strange dreamy way, the girl managed to say.
+
+Then a little murmur and sign passed between the elder ladies, and Mrs.
+William Egremont fetched her husband.  As he opened his book to find
+the commendatory prayer, thinking her past all outward consciousness,
+and grieved by the look of suffering, her eyes again unclosed and her
+lips said, 'Failed.'
+
+'Don't think of that!  God can make failures success.'
+
+There was a half smile, a look of peace.  '_He_ makes up,' she said;
+and those were the last audible words before it was over, and the
+tender spirit was released from its strife, some time later, they only
+knew when by the failure of the clasp on her husband's hand.
+
+Old Miss Headworth did not understand the meaning of that sad word till
+the next forenoon.  Then,--as she sat in the darkened tent-room, crying
+over her letters,--while the stunned and bewildered Nuttie was, under
+her Aunt Jane's direction, attending to the needful arrangements, Canon
+Egremont wandered in upon her in the overflow of confidence of a man
+with a full heart, wanting to talk it all out, communicating the more,
+because she was a discreet woman, and asked no questions.  He had tried
+to see his brother, but Gregorio had not admitted him.  He was aware
+now of the whole state of things.  Dr. Hammond had told him, when first
+beginning to be alarmed for his patient, that the principal cause for
+anxiety was the exhaustion caused by the long strain on her spirits and
+strength consequent on her efforts to wean her husband from his fatal
+propensity.  There had been other 'complications,' as the doctor called
+them, and more immediate causes of danger, but both he and his
+colleague, summoned from London, believed that she would have
+surmounted them if she had had more strength to rally.  But her nurses
+dated the decided turn for the worse from the day when she had gazed up
+into Mr. Egremont's face, and detected the look in his eyes that she
+had learnt too well to understand.
+
+She would fain have lived, and, according to her obedient nature, had
+submitted to all the silence and stillness enforced on her; but she had
+told Dr. Hammond that she must see her brother-in-law before she was
+too far gone.  And the doctor, knowing all, took care it should be
+brought about.
+
+And then she had spoken of her failure in the effort of these years.
+'If I had begun better,' she said, 'it might not have been so with him.'
+
+'My dear, indeed you have nothing to blame yourself for.  You were
+grievously sinned against by us all.  Alwyn was no saint when he drew
+you into it--and you, you have been his good angel, doing all and more
+too,' said the Canon, almost breaking down.
+
+'I tried--but if I had been a better woman--And to leave him to that
+man!'
+
+'Child, child, victories sometimes come this way!' he cried, scarce
+knowing how it was put into his mouth, but glad to see the light in her
+eye.
+
+'Thanks,' she replied.  'No, I ought not to have said that.  I leave
+him to God, and my poor Nuttie.  I want you to tell her, if I can't,
+what she must try to do.  If I had but brought them together more! But
+I tried for the best.'
+
+Then she begged for her last communion, saying, 'I do pray for that
+poor Gregorio.  Isn't that forgiving him?'  And the attempt to exchange
+forgiveness with the Canon for their mutual behaviour at the time of
+her marriage overcame them both so much that they had to leave it not
+half uttered.  Indeed, in speaking of the scene, William Egremont was
+utterly overwhelmed.
+
+'And that's the woman that I treated as a mere outcast!' he cried,
+walking about the little room.  'Oh God, forgive me!  I shall never
+forgive myself.'
+
+Poor Miss Headworth!  In past days she had longed for any amount of
+retribution on Alice's hard-hearted employers, but it was a very
+different thing to witness such grief and self reproach.  He had in
+truth much more developed ideas of duty, both as man and priest, than
+when he had passively left a disagreeable subject to his mother-in-law,
+as lying within a woman's province; and his good heart was suffering
+acutely for the injustice and injury in which he had shared towards one
+now invested with an almost saintly halo.
+
+In the gush of feeling he had certainly revealed more to Miss
+Headworth, than his wife, or even he himself, in his cooler moments,
+would have thought prudent, and he ended by binding her to secrecy; and
+saying that he should only tell his niece what was necessary for her to
+know.
+
+Nuttie was going about, dry-eyed and numbed, glad of any passing
+occupation that would prevent the aching sense of desolation at her
+heart from gaining force to overwhelm her; courting employment, and
+shunning pity and condolence, but she could not escape when her uncle
+took her hand, made her sit down by him, with 'I want to speak to you,
+my dear;' and told her briefly and tenderly what her mother's effort
+had been, and of the message and task she had bequeathed. The poor
+girl's heart fainted within her.
+
+'Oh! but, Uncle William, how can I?  How can I ever?  Mother could do
+things I never could!  He _did_ care for her!  He does not care for me!'
+
+'You must teach him to do so, Nuttie.'
+
+'Oh!' she said, with a hopeless sound.
+
+The Canon did think it very hopeless in his heart, but he persevered,
+as in duty bound.  'I told your dear mother that perhaps you would
+succeed where she thought she had failed, though indeed she had done
+much.  It made her happy.  So, my dear child, you are bound to do your
+best.'
+
+'Yes;' then, after a pause--'But mother could coax him and manage him.
+Mother was with him day and night; she could always get at him. What
+can I do?'
+
+'I think you will find that he depends upon you more,' said the Canon,
+'and it may be made easier to you, if you only set your will to it.'
+
+'If I ought, I'll try,' said poor Nuttie, more humbly perhaps than she
+had ever spoken before, but in utter dejection, and her uncle answered
+her like a child.
+
+'There, that's a good girl.  Nobody can do more.'
+
+For the Canon had one hope.  He had not thought it becoming to speak to
+her of the counter influence, but he could not help thinking it
+possible that if he and his son, backed by doctor and lawyer, made a
+long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether, they might induce his
+brother to part with Gregorio, and this would render Ursula's task far
+less impossible.
+
+He was confirmed in this hope by finding that Mark's arrival was not
+unwelcome to Mr. Egremont, who seemed to have forgotten the
+unpleasantness with which he had regarded the engagement, and only
+remembered that his nephew had been Alice's champion, resuming old
+customs of dependence, making him act as amanuensis, and arraigning the
+destiny that had restored so lovely and charming a creature only to
+snatch her away, leaving nothing but a headstrong girl and a helpless
+baby.
+
+That poor little fellow was all that could be desired at his age, but
+Nuttie felt her beautiful mother almost insulted when the elder ladies
+talked of the wonderful resemblance that the Canoness declared to have
+been quite startling in the earlier hours of his life.  For the
+convenience of one of the sponsors, he was to be christened in the
+afternoon following the funeral, the others being--by his mother's
+special entreaty--his sister and Mark.  Egremont customs were against
+the ladies going to the funeral, so that Nuttie was kept at home, much
+against her will; but after the luncheon she escaped, leaving word with
+her aunts that she was going to walk down to church alone, and they
+were sorry enough for her to let her have her own way, especially as
+her father, having been to the funeral, had shut himself up and left
+all the rest to them.
+
+The Egremont family had a sort of enclosure or pen with iron rails
+round it close to the church wall, where they rested under flat slabs.
+The gate in this was open now, and the new-made grave was one mass of
+white flowers,--wreaths and crosses, snowdrops, hyacinths, camellias,
+and the like,--and at the feet was a flowerpot with growing plants of
+the white hyacinth called in France 'lys de la Vierge.'  These, before
+they became frequent in England, had been grown in Mr. Dutton's
+greenhouse, and having been favourites with Mrs. Egremont, it had come
+to be his custom every spring to bring her the earliest plants that
+bloomed.  Nuttie knew them well, the careful tying up, the neat
+arrangement of moss over the earth, the peculiar trimness of the whole;
+and as she looked, the remembrance of the happy times of old, the sick
+longing for all that was gone, did what nothing had hitherto
+effected--brought an overwhelming gush of tears.
+
+There was no checking them now that they had come.  She fled into
+church on the first sounds of arrival and hid herself in the friendly
+shelter of the great family pew; but she had to come out and take her
+place, though she could hardly utter a word, and it was all that she
+could do to keep from sobbing aloud; she could not hand the babe, and
+the Canon had to take on trust the name 'Alwyn Headworth,' for he could
+not hear the words that were on her trembling lips.
+
+It was soon over; and while the baby and his attendants, with Miss
+Headworth, were being packed into the carriage, and her uncle and aunt
+bowing off the grand god-father, she clutched her cousin's arm, and
+said, 'Mark; where's Mr. Dutton?'
+
+'I--I didn't know he was coming, but now you ask, I believe I saw him
+this morning.'
+
+'I know he is here.'
+
+'Do you want to see him?' said Mark kindly.
+
+'Oh, if I might!'
+
+Then, with a sudden impulse, she looked back into the church, and
+recognised a black figure and slightly bald head bowed down in one of
+the seats.  She pointed him out.  'No doubt he is waiting for us all to
+be gone,' said Mark in a low voice.  'You go into the Rectory, Nuttie;
+there's a fire in the study, and I'll bring him to you there. I'll get
+him to stay the night if I can.'
+
+'Oh, thank you!' and it was a really fervent answer.
+
+Mark waited, and when Mr. Dutton rose, was quite shocked at his
+paleness and the worn look on his face, as of one who had struggled
+hard for resignation and calm.  He started, almost as if a blow had
+been struck him, as Mark uttered his name in the porch, no doubt having
+never meant to be perceived nor to have to speak to any one; but in one
+moment his features had recovered their usual expression of courteous
+readiness.  He bowed his head when Mark told him that Ursula wanted to
+shake hands with him, and came towards the Rectory, but he entirely
+declined the invitation to sleep there, declaring that he must return
+to London that night.
+
+Mark opened the study door, and then went away to secure that the man
+whom he had learnt to esteem very highly should at least have some
+refreshment before he left the house.
+
+Those few steps had given Mr. Dutton time to turn from a mourner to a
+consoler, and when Nuttie came towards him with her hand outstretched,
+and 'Oh, Mr. Dutton, Mr. Dutton!' he took it in both his, and with a
+calm broken voice said, 'God has been very good to us in letting us
+know one like her.'
+
+'But oh! what can we do without her?'
+
+'Ah, Nuttie! that always comes before us.  But I saw your work and your
+comfort just now.'
+
+'Poor little boy!  I shall get to care about him, I know, but as yet I
+can only feel how much rather I would have _her_.'
+
+'No doubt, but it is _her_ work that is left you.'
+
+'Her work?  Yes!  But oh, Mr. Dutton, you don't know how dreadful it
+is!'
+
+He did not know what she meant.  Whether it was simply the burthen on
+any suddenly motherless girl, or any special evil on her father's part,
+but he was soon enlightened, for there was something in this old friend
+that drew out her confidence beyond all others, even when he repressed
+her, and she could not help telling him in a few murmured furtive words
+such as she knew she ought not to utter, and he felt it almost treason
+to hear.  'Opiates! she was always trying to keep my father from them!
+It was too much for her!  My uncle says I must try to do it, and I
+can't.'
+
+'Poor child!' said Mr. Dutton kindly, though cut to the heart at the
+revelation of sweet Alice's trial; 'at least you can strive, and there
+is always a blessing on resolution.'
+
+'Oh, if you knew! and he doesn't like me.  I don't think I've ever been
+nice to him, and that vexed her!  I haven't got her ways.'
+
+'No,' said Mr. Dutton, 'but you will learn others.  Look here, Nuttie.
+You used to be always craving for grand and noble tasks, the more
+difficult the better.  I think you have got one now, more severe than
+ever could have been thought of--and very noble.  What are those lines
+about the task "bequeathed from bleeding sire to son"?  Isn't it like
+that?  You are bound to go on with her work, and the more helpless you
+feel, and the more you throw yourself on God, the more God will help
+you.  He takes the will for the deed, if only you have will enough;
+and, Nuttie, you can pray that you may be able to love and honour him.'
+
+Teacups were brought in, followed by Mark, and interrupted them; and,
+after a short interval, they parted at the park gate, and Ursula walked
+home with Mark, waked from her dull numb trance, with a crushed feeling
+as if she had been bruised all over, and yet with a purpose within her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+FARMS OR UMBRELLAS.
+
+  'He tokin into his handis
+   His londis and his lode.'--CHAUCER.
+
+
+'Mark!  Mark!'  A little figure stood on the gravel road leading
+through Lescombe Park, and lifted up an eager face, as Mark jumped down
+from his horse.  'I made sure you would come over.'
+
+'Yes, but I could not get away earlier.  And I have so much to say to
+you and your mother, Annaple; there's a great proposition to be
+considered.'
+
+'Oh dear! and here is John bearing down upon us.  Never mind.  We'll
+get into the mither's room and be cosy!'
+
+'Well, Mark,' said Sir John's hearty voice, 'I thought you would be
+here.  Come to luncheon?  That's right!  And how is poor Egremont? I
+thought he looked awful at the funeral.'
+
+'He is fairly well, thank you; but it was a terrible shock.'
+
+'I should think so.  To find such a pretty sweet creature just to lose
+her again.  Child likely to live, eh?'
+
+'Oh yes, he is a fine fellow, and has never had anything amiss with
+him.'
+
+'Poor little chap!  Doesn't know what he has lost!  Well, Nannie,' as
+they neared the house, 'do you want a tete-a-tete or to take him in to
+your mother?  Here, I'll take the horse.'
+
+'Come to her at once,' said Annaple; 'she wants to hear all, and
+besides she is expecting me.'
+
+Mark was welcomed by Lady Ronnisglen with inquiries for all concerned,
+and especially for that 'poor girl.  I do pity a young thing who has to
+take a woman's place too soon,' she said.  'It takes too much out of
+her!'
+
+'I should think Ursula had plenty of spirit,' said Annaple.
+
+'I don't know whether spirit is what is wanted,' said Mark.  'Her
+mother prevailed more without it than I am afraid she is likely to do
+with it.'
+
+'Complements answer better than parallels sometimes, but not always,'
+said Lady Ronnisglen.
+
+'Which are we?' asked Annaple demurely.
+
+'Not parallels certainly, for then we should never meet,' responded
+Mark.  'But here is the proposal.  My father and all the rest of us
+have been doing our best to get my uncle to smooth Ursula's way by
+getting rid of that valet of his.'
+
+'The man with the Mephistopheles face?'
+
+'Exactly.  He is a consummate scoundrel, as we all know, and so does my
+uncle himself, but he has been about him these twelve or fourteen
+years, and has got a sort of hold on him--that--that-- It is no use to
+talk of it, but it did not make that dear aunt of mine have an easier
+life.  In fact I should not be a bit surprised if he had been a
+hindrance in the hunting her up.  Well, the fellow thought proper to
+upset some arrangements my mother had made, and then was more insolent
+than I should have thought even he could have been towards her.  I
+suppose he had got into the habit with poor Aunt Alice.  That made a
+fulcrum, and my father went at my uncle with a will.  I never saw my
+father so roused in my life.  I don't mean by the behaviour to his
+wife, but at what he knew of the fellow, and all the harm he had done
+and is doing.  And actually my uncle gave in at last, and consented to
+tell Gregorio to look out for another situation, if he has not
+feathered his nest too well to need one, as I believe he has.'
+
+'Oh, that will make it much easier for Ursula!' cried Annaple.
+
+'If he goes,' put in her mother.
+
+'I think he will.  I really had no notion how much these two years have
+improved my uncle!  To be sure, it would be hard to live with such a
+woman as that without being the better for it!  But he really seems to
+have acquired a certain notion of duty!'
+
+They did not smile at the simple way in which Mark spoke of this vast
+advance, and Lady Ronnisglen said, 'I hope so, for the sake of his
+daughter and that poor little boy.'
+
+'I think that has something to do with it,' said Mark.  'He feels a
+responsibility, and still more, I think he was struck by having a
+creature with him to whom evil was like physical pain.'
+
+'It will work,' said Lady Ronnisglen.
+
+'Then,' went on Mark, 'he took us all by surprise by making me this
+proposal--to take the management of the estate, and become a kind of
+private secretary to him.  You know he gets rheumatism on the optic
+nerve, and is almost blind at times.  He would give me £300 a year, and
+do up the house at the home farm, rent free.  What do you say to that,
+Annaple?'
+
+There was a silence, then Annaple said: 'Give up the umbrellas!  Oh!
+What do you think, Mark?'
+
+'My father wishes it,' said Mark.  'He would, as he had promised to do,
+make over to me my share of my own mother's fortune, and that would, I
+have been reckoning, bring us to just what we had thought of starting
+upon this spring at Micklethwayte.'
+
+'The same now,' said Lady Ronnisglen, after some reckoning, 'but what
+does it lead to?'
+
+'Well--nothing, I am afraid,' said Mark; 'as you know, this is all I
+have to reckon upon.  The younger children will have hardly anything
+from their mother, so that my father's means must chiefly go to them.'
+
+'And this agency is entirely dependent on your satisfying Mr. Egremont?'
+
+'True, but that's a thing only too easily done.  However, as you say,
+this agency has no future, and if that came to an end, I should only
+have to look out for another or take to farming.'
+
+'And ask poor John if that is a good speculation nowadays!' said
+Annaple.
+
+'Fortunes are and have been made on the umbrellas,' said Mark.
+'Greenleaf has a place almost equal to Monks Horton, and Dutton, though
+he makes no show, has realised a considerable amount.'
+
+'Oh yes, let us stick to the umbrellas!' cried Annaple; 'you've made
+the plunge, so it does not signify now, and we should be so much more
+independent out of the way of everybody.'
+
+'You would lose in society,' said Mark, 'excepting, of course, as to
+the Monks Horton people; but they are often away.'
+
+'Begging your pardon, Mark, is there much to lose in this same
+neighbourhood?' laughed Annaple, 'now May will go.'
+
+'It is not so much a question of liking,' added her mother, 'as of what
+is for the best, and where you may wish to be--say ten years hence.'
+
+Looked at in this way, there could be no question but that the umbrella
+company promised to make Mark a richer man in ten years' time than did
+the agency at Bridgefield Egremont.  He had a salary from the office
+already, and if he purchased shares in the partnership with the portion
+his father would resign to him, his income would already equal what he
+would have at Bridgefield, and there was every prospect of its
+increase, both as he became more valuable, and as the business
+continued to prosper.  If the descent in life had been a grievance to
+the ladies, the agency would have been an infinite boon, but having
+swallowed so much, as Annaple said, they might as well do it in
+earnest, and to some purpose.  Perhaps, too, it might be detected that
+under the circumstances Annaple would prefer the living in a small way
+out of reach of her sister's visible compassion.
+
+So the matter was settled, but there was an undercurrent in Mark's mind
+on which he had not entered, namely, that his presence at home might
+make all the difference in that reformation in his uncle's habits which
+Alice had inaugurated, and left in the hands of others. With him at
+hand, there was much more chance of Gregorio's being dispensed with,
+Ursula's authority maintained, little Alwyn well brought up, and the
+estate, tenants, and household properly cared for, and then he smiled
+at his notion of supposing himself of so much importance.  Had he only
+had himself to consider, Mark would have thought his duty plain; but
+when he found Miss Ruthven and her mother so entirely averse, he did
+not deem it right to sacrifice them to the doubtful good of his uncle,
+nor indeed to put the question before them as so much a matter of
+conscience that they should feel bound to consider it in that light.
+He did indeed say, 'Well, that settles it,' in a tone that led Annaple
+to exclaim: 'I do believe you want to drop the umbrellas!'
+
+'No,' he answered, 'it is not that, but my father wished it, and
+thought it would be good for my uncle.'
+
+'No doubt,' said Annaple, 'but he has got a daughter, also a son, and a
+brother, and agents are plentiful, so I can't see why all the family
+should dance attendance on him.'
+
+Lady Ronnisglen, much misdoubting Mr. Egremont's style of society, and
+dreading that Mark might be dragged into it, added her word, feeling on
+her side that it was desirable and just to hinder the family from
+sacrificing Mark's occupation and worldly interest to a capricious old
+roue, who might very possibly throw him over when it would be almost
+impossible to find anything else to do.  Moreover, both she and Annaple
+believed that the real wish was to rescue the name of Egremont from
+association with umbrellas, and they held themselves bound to combat
+what they despised and thought a piece of worldly folly.
+
+So Mark rode home, more glad that the decision was actually made than
+at the course it had taken.  His father was disappointed, but could not
+but allow that it was the more prudent arrangement; and Mr. Egremont
+showed all the annoyance of a man whose good offer has been rejected.
+
+''Tis that little giggling Scotch girl!' he said.  'Well, we are quit
+of her, anyway.  'Tis a pity that Mark entangled himself with her, and
+a mother-in-law into the bargain!  I was a fool to expect to get any
+good out of him!'
+
+This was said to his daughter, with whom he was left alone; for Miss
+Headworth could not bear to accept his hospitality a moment longer than
+needful, and besides had been so much shaken in nerves as to suspect
+that an illness was coming on, and hurried home to be nursed by Mary
+Nugent.  Canon Egremont was obliged to go back to Redcastle to finish
+his residence, and his wife, who had been absent nearly a month from
+her family, thought it really wisest to let the father and daughter be
+thrown upon one another at once, so that Ursula might have the benefit
+of her father's softened mood.
+
+There could be no doubt that he was softened, and that he had derived
+some improvement from the year and a half that his wife had been with
+him.  It might not have lifted him up a step, but it had arrested him
+in his downward course.  Selfish and indolent he was as ever, but there
+had been a restraint on his amusements, and a withdrawal from his worst
+associates, such as the state of his health might continue, above all
+if Gregorio could be dispensed with.  The man himself had become aware
+of the combination against him, and, though reckoning on his master's
+inertness and dependence upon him, knew that a fresh offence might
+complete his overthrow, and therefore took care to be on his good
+behaviour.
+
+Thus Nuttie's task might be somewhat smoothed; but the poor girl felt
+unspeakably desolate as she ate her breakfast all alone with a dull
+post-bag, and still more so when, having seen the housekeeper, who,
+happily for her, was a good and capable woman, and very sorry for her,
+she had to bethink herself what to do in that dreary sitting-room
+during the hour when she had always been most sure of her
+sister-mother's dear company.  How often she had grumbled at being
+called on to practise duets for her father's evening lullaby!  She
+supposed she ought to get something up, and she proceeded to turn over
+and arrange the music with a sort of sick loathing for whatever was
+connected with those days of impatient murmurs, which she would so
+gladly have recalled.  Everything had fallen into disorder, as Blanche
+and May had left it the last time they had played there; and the
+overlooking it, and putting aside the pieces which she could never use
+alone, occupied her till Gregorio, very meek and polite, came with a
+message that Mr. Egremont would be glad if she would come to his room.
+In some dread, some distaste, and yet some pity and some honest
+resolution, she made her way thither.
+
+There he sat, in dressing-gown, smoking-cap, and blue spectacles, with
+the glittering February sunshine carefully excluded.  He looked worse
+and more haggard than when she had seen him at dinner in the evening,
+made up for company, and her compassion increased, especially as he not
+only held out his hand, but seemed to expect her to kiss him, a thing
+she had never done since their first recognition.  It was not pleasant
+in itself, but it betokened full forgiveness, and indeed he had never
+spoken to her in his sneering, exasperating voice since her mournful
+return home.
+
+'Have you seen the boy?' he asked.
+
+'Yes; they are walking him up and down under the south wall,' said
+Nuttie, thankful that she had peeped under the many wraps as he was
+carried across the hall.
+
+'Here!  I want you to read this letter to me.  A man ought to be
+indicted for writing such a hand!'
+
+It was really distinct penmanship, though minute; but, as Nuttie found,
+her father did not like to avow how little available were his eyes.  He
+could write better than he could read, but he kept her over his
+correspondence for the rest of the morning, answering some of the
+letters of condolence for him in her own name, writing those of
+business, and folding and addressing what he himself contrived to
+write.  Her native quickness stood her in good stead, and, being rather
+nervous, she took great pains, and seldom stumbled; indeed, she only
+once incurred an exclamation of impatience at her stupidity or slowness.
+
+She guessed rightly that this forbearance was owing to tender
+persuasions of her mother, and did not guess that a certain fear of
+herself was mingled with other motives.  Her father had grown used to
+woman's ministrations; he needed them for his precious little heir, and
+he knew his daughter moreover for a severe judge, and did not want to
+alienate her and lose her services; so they got on fairly well
+together, and she shared his luncheon, during which a message came up
+about the carriage; and as there had been an application for some
+nursery needment, and moreover black-edged envelopes had run short,
+there was just purpose enough for a drive to the little town.
+
+Then Nuttie read her father to sleep with the newspaper; rushed round
+the garden in the twilight to stretch her young limbs; tried to read a
+little, dressed, dined with her father; finished what he had missed in
+the paper, then offered him music, and was told 'if she pleased,' and
+as she played she mused whether this was to be her life.  It looked
+very dull and desolate, and what was the good of it all?  But there
+were her mother's words, 'Love him!'  How fulfil them?  She could pity
+him now, but oh! how could she love one from whom her whole nature
+recoiled, when she thought of her mother's ruined life? Mr. Dutton too
+had held her new duties up to her as capable of being ennobled.  Noble!
+To read aloud a sporting paper she did not want to understand, to be
+ready to play at cards or billiards, to take that dawdling drive day by
+day, to devote herself to the selfish exactions of burnt-out
+dissipation.  Was this noble?  Her mother had done all this, and never
+even felt it a cross, because of her great love.  It must be Nuttie's
+cross if it was her duty; but could the love and honour possibly come
+though she tried to pray in faith?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE GIGGLING SCOTCH GIRL.
+
+  'For every Lamp that trembled here,
+  And faded in the night,
+  Behold a Star serene and clear
+  Smiles on me from the height.'--B. M.
+
+
+Nuttie was not mistaken in supposing that this first day would be a
+fair sample of her life, though, of course, after the first weeks of
+mourning there were variations; and the return of the Rectory party
+made a good deal of brightening, and relieved her from the necessity of
+finding companionship and conversation for her father on more than half
+her afternoons and evenings.
+
+He required her, however, almost every forenoon, and depended on her
+increasingly, so that all her arrangements had to be made with
+reference to him.  It was bondage, but not as galling in the fact as
+she would have expected if it had been predicted to her a few months
+previously.  In the first place, Mr. Egremont never demanded of her
+what was actually against her conscience, except occasionally giving up
+a Sunday evensong to read the paper to him, and that only when he was
+more unwell than usual.  He was, after all, an English gentleman, and
+did not ask his young daughter to read to him the books which her
+mother had loathed.  Moreover, Gregorio was on his good behaviour,
+perfectly aware that there was a family combination against him, and
+having even received a sort of warning from his master, but by no means
+intending to take it, and therefore abstaining from any kind of offence
+that could furnish a fresh handle against him; and thus for the
+present, Dr. Hammond's regimen was well observed, and Mr. Egremont was
+his better self in consequence, for, under his wife's guardianship, the
+perilous habit had sufficiently lost strength to prevent temper and
+spirits from manifestly suffering from abstinence.
+
+The first time Nuttie found herself obliged to make any very real
+sacrifice to her father's will was on the occasion of Mark's marriage
+at Easter.  Things had arranged themselves very conveniently for him at
+Micklethwayte, though it seemed to Nuttie that she only heard of
+affairs there in a sort of distant dream, while such events were taking
+place as once would have been to her the greatest possible revolutions.
+
+Aunt Ursel reached home safely, but her expectations of illness were
+realised.  She took to her bed on arriving, and though she rose from
+it, there was reason to think she had had a slight stroke, for her
+activity of mind and body were greatly decayed, and she was wholly
+dependent on Mary Nugent for care and comfort.  Mary, remembering the
+consequences of the former alarm, made the best of the old lady's
+condition; and Nuttie, ashamed of having once cried 'wolf,' did not
+realise the true state of the case, nor indeed could she or would she
+have been spared to go to Micklethwayte.
+
+The next news told that Gerard Godfrey, at the end of the year required
+by Mr. Dutton, had resigned his situation, and at the close of his
+quarter's notice was going to prepare for Holy Orders under the
+training of a clergyman who would employ him in his parish, and assist
+him in reading up to the requirements for admission to a theological
+college.  Poor dear old Gerard!  It gave Nuttie a sort of pang of
+self-reproach to own how good and devoted he was, and yet so narrow and
+stupid that she could never have been happy with him.  Was he too good,
+or was he too dull for her?  Had she forsaken him for the world's sake,
+or was it a sound instinct that had extinguished her fancy for him?  No
+one could tell, least of all the parties concerned.  He might be far
+above her in spiritual matters, but he was below her in intellectual
+ones, and though they would always feel for one another that peculiar
+tenderness left by the possibilities of a first love, no doubt the
+quarrel over the blue ribbon had been no real misfortune to either.
+
+The next tidings were still more surprising.  Mr. Dutton was leaving
+the firm.  Though his father had died insolvent, and he had had to
+struggle for himself in early life, he was connected with wealthy
+people, and change and death among these had brought him a fair share
+of riches.  An uncle who had emigrated to Australia at the time of the
+great break up had died without other heirs, leaving him what was the
+more welcome to him that Micklethwayte could never be to him what it
+had been in its golden age.  He had realised enough to enable him to be
+bountiful, and his parting gift to St Ambrose's would complete the
+church; but he himself was winding up the partnership, and withdrawing
+his means from Greenleaf and Co. in order to go out to Australia to
+decide what to do with his new possessions.
+
+Mark Egremont purchased a number of the shares, though, to gratify the
+family, the shelter of the Greenleaf veiled his name under the 'Co.,'
+and another, already in the firm, possessed of a business-like
+appellation, gave designation to the firm as Greenleaf, Goodenough, and
+Co.
+
+Mr. Dutton's well-kept house, with the little conservatory and the
+magnolia, was judged sufficient for present needs, and the lease was
+taken off his hands, so that all was in order for the marriage of Mark
+and Annaple immediately after Easter.
+
+Lady Delmar had resigned herself to the inevitable, and the wedding was
+to take place at Lescombe.  Nuttie, whose chief relaxation was in
+hearing all the pros and cons from May and Blanche, was asked to be one
+of the bridesmaids by Annaple, who had come over to the Rectory in a
+droll inscrutable state of mischief, declaring that she had exasperated
+Janet to the verge of insanity by declaring that she should have little
+umbrellas like those in the Persian inscriptions on her cards, and that
+Mark was to present all the bridesmaids with neat parasols.  If
+crinolines had not been gone out they could have all been dressed
+appropriately.  Now they must wear them closely furled.  All this
+banter was hardly liked by May and Blanche, whose little sisters were
+laughed at again for needing the assurance that they were really to
+wear white and rowan leaves and berries--the Ronnisglen badge.  Nuttie,
+who had drawn much nearer to May, refrained from relating this part of
+the story at home, but was much disappointed when, on telling her
+father of the request, she was answered at once:
+
+'Hein!  The 24th?  You'll be in London, and a very good thing too.'
+
+'Are we to go so soon?'
+
+'Yes.  Didn't I tell you to take that house in Berkshire Road from the
+20th?'
+
+'I did not think we were to start so soon.  Is there any particular
+reason?'
+
+'Yes.  That Scotch girl ought to have known better than to ask you in
+your deep mourning.  I thought women made a great point of such things.'
+
+'Aunt Jane did not seem to think it wrong,' said Nuttie, for she really
+wished much for consent.  Not only had she grown fond both of Mark and
+Annaple, but she had never been a bridesmaid, and she knew that not
+only the Kirkaldys but Mr. Dutton had been invited; she had even
+ventured on offering to lodge some of the overflowing guests of the
+Rectory.
+
+'Their heads are all turned by that poverty-stricken Scotch peerage,'
+returned Mr. Egremont; 'or the Canoness should have more sense of
+respect.'
+
+Nuttie's wishes were so strong that she made one more attempt, 'I need
+not be a bridesmaid.  They would not mind if I wore my black.'
+
+'I should, then!' said her father curtly.  'If they don't understand
+the proprieties of life, I do.  I won't have you have anything to do
+with it.  If you are so set upon gaiety, you'll have enough of weddings
+at fitter times!'
+
+It was the old sneering tone.  Nuttie felt partly confounded, partly
+indignant, and terribly disappointed.  She did care for the sight of
+the wedding--her youthful spirits had rallied enough for that, but far
+more now she grieved at missing the sight of Mr. Dutton, when he was
+going away, she knew not where, and might perhaps come on purpose to
+see her; and it also made her sore and grieved at being accused of
+disregard to her mother.  She was silenced, however, and presently her
+father observed, in the same unpleasant tone, 'Well, if you've digested
+your disappointment, perhaps you'll condescend to write to the agent,
+that I expect the house to be ready on the 21st.'
+
+Nuttie got through her morning's work she hardly knew how, though her
+father was dry and fault-finding all the time.  Her eyes were so full
+of tears when she was released that she hardly saw where she was going,
+and nearly ran against her aunt, who had just walked into the hall.
+Mrs. Egremont was too prudent a woman to let her burst out there with
+her grievance, but made her come into the tent-room before she
+exclaimed, 'He is going to take me away to London; he won't let me go
+to the wedding.'
+
+'I am sorry for your disappointment,' said her aunt quietly, 'but I am
+old-fashioned enough to be glad that such strong respect and feeling
+should be shown for your dear mother.  I wish Annaple had spoken to me
+before asking you, and I would have felt the way.'
+
+'I'm sure it is not want of feeling,' said Nuttie, as her tears broke
+forth.
+
+'I did not say it was,' returned her aunt, 'but different generations
+have different notions of the mode of showing it; and the present
+certainly errs on the side of neglect of such tokens of mourning.  If I
+did not think that Annaple and her mother are really uncomfortable at
+Lescombe, I should have told Mark that it was better taste to wait till
+the summer.'
+
+'If I might only have stayed at home--even if I did not go to the
+wedding,' sighed Nuttie, who had only half listened to the Canoness's
+wisdom.
+
+'Since you do not go, it is much better that you should be out of the
+way,' said Mrs. Egremont.  'Is your father ready to see me?'
+
+So Nuttie had to submit, though she pouted to herself, feeling
+grievously misjudged, first as if she had been wanting in regard to the
+memory of her mother, who had been so fond of Mark, and so rejoiced in
+his happiness; and then that her vexation was treated as mere love of
+gaiety, whereas it really was disappointment at not seeing Mr. Dutton,
+that good, grave, precise old friend, who could not be named in the
+same breath with vanity.  Moreover, she could not help suspecting that
+respect to her mother was after all only a cloak to resentment against
+Mark and his marriage.
+
+However, she bethought herself that her mother had often been
+disappointed and had borne it cheerfully, and after having done what
+Aunt Ursel would have called 'grizzling' in her room for an hour, she
+wrote her note to Miss Ruthven and endeavoured to be as usual, feeling
+keenly that there was no mother now to perceive and gratefully commend
+one of her only too rare efforts for good humour. On other grounds she
+was very sorry to leave Bridgefield.  May had, in her trouble, thawed
+to her, and they were becoming really affectionate and intimate
+companions, by force of propinquity and relationship, as well as of the
+views that May had imbibed from Hugh Condamine.  Moreover Nuttie felt
+her aunt's watch over the baby a great assistance to her own ignorance.
+
+However the Canoness had resigned to the poor little heir the perfect
+and trustworthy nurse, whom Basil had outgrown, and who consented to
+the transfer on condition of having her nursery establishment entirely
+apart from the rest of the household.  Her reasons were known though
+unspoken, namely, that the rejection of one or two valets highly
+recommended had made it plain that there had been no dislodgment of
+Gregorio.  The strong silent objection to him of all good female
+servants was one of the points that told much against him.  Martin and
+the housekeeper just endured him, and stayed on for the present chiefly
+because their dear lady had actually begged them not to desert her
+daughter if they could help it, at least not at first.
+
+Nuttie bound over her cousins to give her a full account of the
+wedding, and both of them wrote to her.  Blanche's letter recorded
+sundry scattered particulars,--as to how well the rowan-trimmed tulle
+dresses looked--how every one was packed into the carriages for the
+long drive--how there had been a triumphal arch erected over the
+Bluepost Bridge itself, and Annaple nearly choked with laughing at the
+appropriateness--how, to her delight, a shower began, and the
+procession out of the church actually cried out for umbrellas--how
+papa, when performing the ceremony, could not recollect that the
+bride's proper name was Annabella, and would dictate it as Anna-Maria,
+Sir John correcting him each time sotto voce--how Basil and little
+Hilda Delmar walked together and 'looked like a couple of ducks,'
+which, it was to be hoped, was to be taken metaphorically--how
+dreadfully hard the ice on the wedding-cake was, so that when Annaple
+tried to cut it the knife slipped and a little white dove flew away and
+hit May, which everyone said was a grand omen that she would be the
+next bride, while of course Annaple was perfectly helpless with mirth.
+Every one said it was the merriest wedding ever seen, for the bride's
+only tears were those of laughter.  What Nuttie really cared for most
+came just at the end, and not much of that. 'Your Mr. Dutton is just
+gone.  He got on famously with Hugh Condamine, and I forgot to tell you
+that he has given Mark such a jolly present, a lovely silver
+coffee-pot, just the one thing they wanted, and Lady Delmar said he
+didn't look near so like a tradesman as she expected.  I see May is
+writing too, but I don't know what you will get out of her, as Hugh
+Condamine came for the day.'
+
+Nuttie, however, had more hopes from May.  Her letter certainly was
+fuller of interest, if shorter.
+
+
+'My Dear Nuttie--Blanche has no doubt told you all the externals.  I
+suppose there never was a brighter wedding, for as Annaple keeps her
+mother with her, there was no real rending asunder of ties.  Indeed I
+almost wish her excitement did not always show itself in laughing, for
+it prevents people from understanding how much there is in her.
+
+
+(Plainly Hugh Condamine had been rather scandalised by the 'giggling
+Scotch girl.')
+
+
+'Dear old Lady Ronnisglen was delightful.  If there were any tears,
+they were hers, and Lady Delmar was very cordial and affectionate. Of
+course Hugh and Mr. Dutton missed much that one would have liked in a
+wedding.  I drove back with them afterwards, and it was very
+interesting to listen to their conversation about church matters. Hugh
+is very much struck with your friend; he had heard a good deal about
+Micklethwayte before, and says that such a lay worker is perfectly
+invaluable.  It is a great pity that he is not going on in the firm, it
+would make it so much nicer for Mark, but he says he has duties towards
+his new property.  I think he was sorry not to find you at home, but he
+plainly never thought it possible you should be at the wedding.  I
+don't know whether I ought to tell you this, but I think you ought to
+know it.  There is a lovely new wreath of Eucharis lilies and
+maiden-hair at dear Aunt Alice's grave, close against the rails at the
+feet, and Hugh told me that he looked out of his window very early
+yesterday morning and saw Mr. Dutton standing there, leaning on the
+rail, with his bare head bowed between his hands.  You can't think how
+it impressed Hugh.  He said he felt reverent towards him all through
+that day, and he was quite angry with Rosalind and Adela for jesting
+because, when the shower began as we were coming out of church, Mr.
+Dutton rushed up with an umbrella, being the only person there who had
+one, I believe.  Hugh says you may be proud of such a friend.  I wish
+you could have seen Hugh.--Your affectionate cousin,
+
+                                             'MARGARET EGREMONT.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THREE YEARS LATER.
+
+  'There's something rotten in the State.'--Hamlet.
+
+
+On an east-windy afternoon in March Mary Nugent emerged from the School
+of Art, her well-worn portfolio under her arm, thinking how many
+successive generations of boys and girls she had drilled through
+'free-hand,' 'perspective,' and even 'life' with an unvarying average
+of failure and very moderate success, and how little talent or
+originality had come to the front, though all might be the better for
+knowing how to use eyes and fingers.
+
+On the whole her interest as well as her diligence did not flag; but a
+sense of weariness and monotony would sometimes come after a recurrence
+of well-known blunders of her pupils, and she missed the sense of going
+home to refreshment and enjoyment which had once invigorated her.  St.
+Ambrose's Road had had its golden age, but the brightness had been
+dimmed ever since that festival at Monks Horton. One after another of
+the happy old society had dropped away.  The vicar had received
+promotion, and she only remained of the former intimates, excepting old
+Miss Headworth, who was no longer a companion, but whom affection
+forbade her to desert in feeble old age.  Had her thoughts of the old
+times conjured up a figure belonging to them?  There was the
+well-brushed hat, the natty silk umbrella, the perfect fit of garments,
+the precise turn-out, nay, the curly lion-shaven poodle, with all his
+fringes, leaping on her in recognition, and there was that slightly
+French flourish of the hat, before--with a bounding heart--she met the
+hand in an English grasp.
+
+'Miss Nugent!'
+
+'Mr. Dutton!'
+
+'I thought I should meet you here!'
+
+'When did you come?'
+
+'Half an hour ago.  I came down with George Greenleaf, left my things
+at the Royal Hotel, and came on to look for you.'
+
+'You will come and spend the evening with us?'
+
+'If you are so good as to ask me.  How is Miss Headworth?'
+
+'Very feeble, very deaf; but she will be delighted to see you.  There
+is no fear of her not remembering you, though she was quite lost when
+Mrs. Egremont came in yesterday.'
+
+'Mrs. Egremont!' he repeated with a little start.
+
+'Mrs. Mark.  Ah! we have got used to the name--the Honourable Mrs.
+Egremont, as the community insist on calling her.  What a sunny
+creature she is!'
+
+'And Miss Egremont, what do you hear of her?'
+
+'She writes long letters, poor child.  I hope she is fairly happy. Are
+you come home for good, or is this only a visit?'
+
+'I have no intention of returning.  I have been winding up my good
+cousin's affairs at Melbourne.'
+
+Mary's heart bounded again with a sense of joy, comfort, and
+protection; but she did not long keep Mr. Dutton to herself, for every
+third person they met gladly greeted him, and they were long in getting
+to St. Ambrose's Road, now dominated by a tall and beautiful spire,
+according to the original design.  They turned and looked in at the
+pillared aisles, stained glass, and handsome reredos.
+
+'Very different from our struggling days,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Yes,' said Mary, with half a sigh.  'There's the new vicar,' as he
+passed with a civil nod.  'He has three curates, and a house of
+Sisters, and works the parish excellently.'
+
+'You don't speak as if you were intimate.'
+
+'No.  His womankind are rather grand--quite out of our beat; and in
+parish work I am only an estimable excrescence.  It is very well that I
+am not wanted, for Miss Headworth requires a good deal of attention,
+and it is only the old Adam that regrets the days of importance.  Ah,
+do you see?'
+
+They were passing Mr. Dutton's old home.  On the tiny strip of lawn in
+front was a slender black figure, with yellow hair, under a tiny black
+hat, dragging about a wooden horse whereon was mounted a sturdy boy of
+two, also yellow-locked and in deep mourning under his Holland blouse.
+
+'Billy-boy is riding to meet his daddy!' was merrily called out both by
+mother and son before they perceived the stranger.
+
+'Mr. Dutton,' said Mary.
+
+Annaple bowed, but did not put out her hand, and such a flush was on
+her face that Miss Nugent said, 'I am sure that is too much for you!'
+
+'Oh no--' she began; but 'Allow me,' said Mr. Dutton, and before she
+could refuse he was galloping round and round the little lawn, the boy
+screaming with delight as Monsieur raced with them.
+
+'So he is come!' she said in a low doubtful voice to Mary.
+
+'Yes.  He has met Mr. Greenleaf in London.  I always think he has the
+contrary to the evil eye.  Whatever he takes in hand rights itself.'
+
+'I'll hope so.  Oh, thank you!  Billy-boy, say thank you!  What a ride
+you have had!'
+
+'Why are they in such deep mourning?' asked Mr. Dutton, after they had
+parted.
+
+'Oh, did you not know? for good old Lady Ronnisglen.  She had a bad
+fall about two years ago, and never left her bed again; and this last
+autumn she sank away.'
+
+'They have had a great deal of trouble, then.  I saw the death of Canon
+Egremont in the Times soon after I went out to Australia.'
+
+'Yes; he had heart disease, and died quite suddenly.  The living is
+given to Mr. Condamine, who married the eldest daughter, and the widow
+is gone to live under the shadow of Redcastle Cathedral.'
+
+Therewith Miss Nugent opened her own door, and Miss Headworth was soon
+made aware of the visitor.  She was greatly changed, and had the
+indescribable stony look that tells of paralysis; and though she knew
+Mr. Dutton, and was delighted to see him, his presence made her expect
+to see Alice and Nuttie come in, though she soon recollected herself
+and shed a few helpless tears.  Then--in another mood--she began to
+display with pride and pleasure the photographs of 'Alice's dear little
+boy.'  She had a whole series of them, from the long-clothed babe on
+his sister's knee to the bright little fellow holding a drum--a very
+beautiful child, with a striking resemblance to his mother, quite
+startling to Mr. Dutton, especially in the last, which was coloured,
+and showed the likeness of eyes and expression.
+
+'Nuttie always sends me one whenever he is taken,' said the old lady.
+'Dear Nuttie!  It is very good for her.  She is quite a little mother
+to him.'
+
+'I was sure it would be so,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Yes,' said Mary, 'he is the great interest and delight of her life.
+Her letters are full of his little sayings and doings.'
+
+'Is she at home now?'
+
+'No; at Brighton.  Her father seems to have taken a dislike to
+Bridgefield since his brother's death, and only goes there for a short
+time in the shooting season.  He has taken a lease of a house in
+London, and spends most of the year there.'
+
+'Ah!' as she showed him the address, 'that is near the old house where
+I used to stay with my grand-aunt.  We thought it altogether in the
+country then, but it is quite absorbed now, and I have dazzling offers
+from building companies for the few acres of ground around it. Have you
+seen her?'
+
+'Oh no; I believe she is quite necessary to her father.  I only hear of
+her through Lady Kirkaldy, who has been very kind to her, but, I am
+sorry to say, is now gone with her Lord to the East.  She says she
+thinks that responsibility has been very good for Nuttie; she is
+gentler and less impetuous, and a good deal softened by her affection
+for the child.'
+
+'She was certain to develop.  I only dreaded what society her father
+might surround her with.'
+
+'Lady Kirkaldy says that all has turned out better than could have been
+expected.  You see, as she says, Mr. Egremont has been used to good
+women in his own family, and would not like to see her in a slangy fast
+set.  All her own gaieties have been under Lady Kirkaldy's wing, or
+that of Mrs. William Egremont's relations, and only in a quiet moderate
+way.  Her father gets his own old set about him, and they have not been
+very choice, but they are mostly elderly men, and gentlemen, and know
+how to behave themselves to her. Indeed, her cousin Blanche, who was
+here in the winter, gave us to understand that Ursula knows how to take
+care of herself, and gets laughed at as rather an old maidish model of
+propriety, if you can believe it of your little Nuttie.'
+
+'I could quite believe in her on the defensive, unprotected as she is.'
+
+'What did that young lady--Miss Blanche--tell us about that gentleman,
+Mary?' asked Miss Headworth, hearing and uttering what Miss Nugent
+hoped had passed unnoticed.
+
+'Oh, I think that was all gossip!' returned Mary, 'and so I am sure did
+the Mark Egremonts.  She said there was one of Mr. Egremont's friends,
+Mr. Clarence Fane, I think she called him, rather younger than the
+others, who, she was pleased to say, seemed smitten with Nuttie, but I
+have heard nothing more about it, and Mrs. Mark scouted the idea,' she
+added in haste, as she saw his expression vary in spite of himself.
+
+'Do you see much of your neighbours?'
+
+'We are both too busy to see much of one another, but we have our
+little talks over the wall.  What a buoyant creature she is.  It seems
+as if playfulness was really a sustaining power in her, helping her to
+get diversion out of much that others might stumble at.  You know
+perhaps that when she arrived the work-people had got up a beautiful
+parasol for her, white, with a deep fringe and spray of rowan.  Little
+Susie Gunner presented her with it, and she was very gracious and nice
+about it.  But then what must Mr. Goodenough do but dub it the
+Annabella sunshade, and blazon it, considerably vulgarised, in all the
+railway stations, and magazines.'
+
+'I know!  I had the misfortune to see it in the station at Melbourne;
+and my mind misgave me from that hour.'
+
+'Her husband was prepared to be very angry, but she fairly laughed him
+out of it, made all sorts of fun out of the affair, declared it her
+only opening to fame, and turned it into a regular joke; so that indeed
+the Greenleafs, who were vexed at the matter, and tried to apologise,
+were quite perplexed in their turn, and not at all sure that the whole
+concern was not being turned into ridicule.'
+
+'I wonder it did not make him cut the connection,' said Mr. Dutton,
+muttering 'I only wish it had.'
+
+'Mrs. Greenleaf is very funny about her, 'added Mary, 'proud of the
+Honourable Mrs. Egremont, as they insist on calling her, yet not quite
+pleased that she should be the junior partner's wife; and decidedly
+resenting her hardly going into society at all, though I really don't
+see how she could; for first there was the Canon's death, and then just
+after the boy was born came Lady Ronnisglen's accident, and for the
+next year and a half there was constant attendance on her.  They fitted
+up a room on the ground floor for her, the one opening into your
+drawing-room, and there they used to sit with her.  I used to hear them
+reading to her and singing to her, and they were always as merry as
+possible, till last autumn, when something brought on erysipelas, and
+she was gone almost before they took alarm.  The good little daughter
+was beaten down then, really ill for a week; but if you can understand
+me, the shock seemed to tell on her chiefly bodily, and though she was
+half broken-hearted when her husband in a great fright brought me up to
+see her, and say whether her sister should be sent for, she still made
+fun of him, and described the impossible advice they would bring on
+themselves.  I had to take care of her while he went away to the
+funeral in Scotland, and then I learnt indeed to like her and see how
+much there is in her besides laughter.'
+
+'Did the old lady leave them anything?'
+
+'I believe she had nothing to leave.  Her jointure was not much, but I
+am sure they miss that, for Mrs. Egremont has parted with her nurse,
+and has only a little girl in her stead, driving out the perambulator
+often herself, to the great scandal of the Greenleafs, though she would
+have one believe it is all for want of occupation.'
+
+'Do you think they have taken any alarm?'
+
+'There's no judging from her joyous surface, but I have thought him
+looking more careworn and anxious than I liked.  Mr. Dutton, don't
+answer if I ought not to ask, but is it true that things are going
+wrong?  I know you have been seeing Mr. Greenleaf, so perhaps you are
+in his confidence and cannot speak.'
+
+'Tell me, what is known or suspected?'
+
+'Just this, that Mr. Goodenough has been the ruin of the concern.  He
+has been quite different ever since his voyage to America.  You were
+gone, old Mr. Greenleaf has been past attending to business ever since
+he had that attack, and George Greenleaf has been playing the country
+squire at Horton Bishop, and not looking after the office work, and Mr.
+Egremont was inexperienced.  One could see, of course, that the whole
+character of the business was changed--much more advertising, much more
+cheap and flashy work--to be even with the times, it was said, but the
+old superior hands were in despair at the materials supplied to them,
+and the scamped work expected.  You should have heard old Thorpe
+mourning for you, and moralising over the wickedness of this world.
+His wife told me she really thought he would go melancholy mad if he
+did not leave the factory, and he has done so.  They have saved enough
+to set up a nice little shop at Monks Horton.'
+
+'I must go and see them!  Good old Thorpe!  I ought never to have put
+those poor young things into the firm when I ceased to have any control
+over it.  I shall never forgive myself--'
+
+'Nothing could seem safer then!  No one could have guessed that young
+Mr. Greenleaf would be so careless without his father to keep him up to
+the mark, nor that Mr. Goodenough should alter so much.  Is it very
+bad?  Is there worse behind?  Speculation, I suppose--'
+
+'Of course.  I do not see to the bottom of it yet; poor George seemed
+to reckon on me for an advance, but I am afraid this is more than a
+mere temporary depression, such as may be tided over, and that all that
+can be looked to is trying to save honourable names by an utter break
+up, which may rid them of that--that--no, I won't call him a scoundrel.
+I thought highly of him once, and no doubt he never realised what he
+was doing.'
+
+Before the evening was far advanced Mark Egremont knocked at the door,
+and courteously asked whether Mr. Dutton could be spared to him for a
+little while.  Mary Nugent replied that she was just going to help Miss
+Headworth to bed, and that the parlour was at their service for a
+private interview, but Mark answered, 'My wife is anxious to hear.  She
+knows all that I do, and is quite prepared to hear whatever Mr. Dutton
+may not object to saying before her.'
+
+So they bade good-night to Mary, and went on together to the next
+house, Mr. Dutton saying 'You have much to forgive me, Mr. Egremont; I
+feel as if I had deserted the ship just as I had induced you to embark
+in it.'
+
+'You did not guess how ill it would be steered without you,' returned
+Mark, with a sigh.  'Do not fear to speak out before my wife, even if
+we are sinking.  She will hear it bravely, and smile to the last.'
+
+The room which Mr. Dutton entered was not like the cabin of a sinking
+ship, nor, as in his own time, like the well-ordered apartment of a
+bachelor of taste.  Indeed, the house was a great puzzle to Monsieur,
+who entered by invitation, knowing his way perfectly, thinking himself
+at home after all his travels, and then missing his own particular mat,
+and sniffing round at the furniture.  It was of the modified aesthetic
+date, but arranged more with a view to comfort than anything else, and
+by the light of the shaded lamp and bright fire was pre-eminently
+home-like, with the three chairs placed round the hearth, and
+bright-haired Annaple rising up from the lowest with her knitting to
+greet Mr. Dutton, and find a comfortable lair for Monsieur.
+
+'Miss Nugent says that you set everything right that you do but look
+at, Mr. Dutton,' she said; 'so we are prepared to receive you as a good
+genius to help us out of our tangle.'
+
+Mr. Dutton was afraid that the tangle was far past unwinding, and of
+course the details, so far as yet known, were discussed.  There was, in
+truth, nothing for which Mark could be blamed.  He had diligently
+attended to his office-work, which was mere routine, and, conscious of
+his own inexperience, and trusting to the senior partners, he had only
+become anxious at the end of the year, when he perceived Goodenough's
+avoidance of a settlement of accounts, and detected shuffling.  He had
+not understood enough of the previous business to be aware of the
+deterioration of the manner of dealing with it, though he did think it
+scarcely what he expected.  If he had erred, it was in acting too much
+as a wheel in the machinery, keeping his thoughts and heart in his own
+happy little home, and not throwing himself into the spirit of the
+business, or the ways of those concerned in it, so that he had been in
+no degree a controlling power.  He had allowed his quality of gentleman
+to keep him an outsider, instead of using it to raise the general level
+of the transactions, so that the whole had gone down in the hands of
+the unscrupulous Goodenough.
+
+Annaple listened and knitted quietly while the affairs were explained
+on either hand.  Mark had had one serious talk with George Greenleaf,
+and both had had a stormy scene with Goodenough.  Then Mr. Dutton had
+telegraphed his arrival, and Greenleaf had met him in London, with
+hopes, bred of long and implicit trust, that his sagacity and perhaps
+his wealth would carry the old house through the crisis.
+
+But Mr. Dutton, though reserving his judgment till the books should
+have been thoroughly examined and the liabilities completely
+understood, was evidently inclined to believe that things had gone too
+far, and that the names of Greenleaf and Egremont could only be
+preserved from actual dishonour by going into liquidation, dissolving
+partnership, and thus getting quit of Goodenough.
+
+Mark listened resignedly, Annaple with an intelligence that made Mr.
+Dutton think her the more clearheaded of the two, though still she
+could not refrain from her little jokes.  'I'm sure I should not mind
+how liquid we became if we could only run off clear of Goodenough,' she
+said.
+
+'You know what it means?' said her husband.
+
+'Oh yes, I know what it means.  It is the fine word for being sold up.
+Well, Mark, never mind, we are young and strong, and it will not be a
+bit the worse for the Billy-boy in the end to begin at the bottom of
+everything.'
+
+'I hope--may I ask--is everything embarked in the poor old firm?' said
+Mr. Dutton with some hesitation.
+
+'All that is mine,' said Mark, with his elbow on the table and his chin
+on his hand.
+
+'But I've got a hundred a year, charged on poor old Ronnisglen's
+estate,' said Annaple.  'All the others gave theirs up when they
+married, and I wanted to do so, but my dear mother would not let me;
+she said I had better try how I got on first.  Think of that, Mark, a
+hundred a year!  Why, old Gunner or Thorpe would think themselves
+rolling in riches if they only heard that they had a hundred a year!'
+
+'You won't find it go far!'
+
+'Yes, I shall, for I shall make you live on porridge, with now and then
+a sheep's head for a treat!  Besides, there will be something to do.
+It will be working up again, you know.  But seriously, Mr. Dutton, I
+have some things here of my dear mother's that really belong to
+Ronnisglen, and I was only keeping till he comes home. Should not they
+be got out of the way?'
+
+'My dear, we are not come to that yet!  I hope it may be averted!'
+cried Mark.
+
+But Mr. Dutton agreed with the young wife that it would be much better
+to send these things away before their going could excite suspicion.
+There was only a tiny silver saucepan, valued as a gift of 'Queen'
+Clementina to an ancestress, also a silver teapot and some old point,
+and some not very valuable jewellery, all well able to go into a small
+box, which Mr. Dutton undertook to deposit with Lord Ronnisglen's
+bankers.  He was struck with the scrupulous veracity with which Annaple
+decided between what had become her own property and the heirlooms,
+though what she claimed might probably be sacrificed to the creditors.
+
+Mark could hardly endure to see what made the crisis so terribly real.
+'That I should have brought you to this!' he said to his wife, when
+their visitor had at length bidden them good-night.
+
+'If we begin at that work,' said Annaple, 'it was I who brought you! I
+have often thought since it was rather selfish not to have consented to
+your helping poor Ursula with her heavy handful of a father!  It was
+all money grubbing and grabbing, you see, and if we had thought more of
+our neighbour than ourselves we might have been luxuriating at the Home
+Farm, or even if your uncle had quarrelled with you, he would not have
+devoured your substance.  I have thought so often, ever since I began
+to see this coming.'
+
+'My dear child, you don't mean that you have seen this coming!'
+
+'My prophetic soul!  Why, Mark, you have as good as inferred it over
+and over again.  I've felt like scratching that Badenough whenever I
+met him in the street.  I must indulge myself by calling him so for
+once in strict privacy.'
+
+'You have guessed it all the time, while I only thought how unconscious
+you were.'
+
+'Not to say stupid, considering all you told me.  Besides, what would
+have been the use of howling and moaning and being dismal before the
+time?  For my part, I could clap my hands even now at getting rid of
+Goodenough, and his jaunty, gracious air!  Come, Mark, it won't be so
+bad after all, you'll see.'
+
+'Nothing can be "so bad," while you are what you are, my Nan.'
+
+'That's right.  While we have each other and the Billy-boy, nothing
+matters much.  There's plenty of work in us both, and that good man
+will find it for us; or if he doesn't, we'll get a yellow van, and knit
+stockings, and sell them round the country.  How jolly that would be!
+Imagine Janet's face.  There, that's right,' as her mimicry evoked a
+smile, 'I should be ashamed to be unhappy about this, when our good
+name is saved, and when there is a blessing on the poor,' she added in
+a lower voice, tenderly kissing her husband's weary brow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+THE BOY OF EGREMONT.
+
+  'And the boy that walked beside me,
+  He could not understand
+  Why, closer in mine, ah, closer,
+  I press'd his warm soft hand.'--LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+The agony of a firm like Greenleaf, Goodenough, and Co. could not be a
+rapid thing, and Mr. Dutton lived between London and Micklethwayte for
+several weeks, having much to endure on all sides.  The senior partners
+thought it an almost malicious and decidedly ungrateful thing in him
+not to throw in his means, or at any rate, offer his guarantee to tide
+them over their difficulties.  Goodenough's tergiversations and
+concealments needed a practised hand and acute head to unravel them,
+and often deceived Mr. Greenleaf himself; and when, for a time, he was
+convinced that the whole state was so rotten that a crash was
+inevitable, his wife's lamentations and complaints of Mr. Dutton would
+undo the whole, and it was as if he were doing them an injury that the
+pair accepted the comfortable prospect he was able to offer them in
+Australia.
+
+He would have made the like proposal to the Egremonts, but found that
+Mark held himself bound by his promise to his father not to emigrate,
+and thought of some kind of office-work.  Before trying to procure this
+for him, however, Mr. Dutton intended to see his uncle, and try whether
+the agency, once rejected, could still be obtained for him. Learning
+from Miss Nugent that the Egremonts were in town, he went up thither
+with the purpose of asking for an interview.
+
+There was a new church in the immediate neighbourhood of his house in a
+state of growth and development congenial to the St. Ambrose trained
+mind, and here Mr. Dutton, after old Micklethwayte custom, was
+attending the early matins, when, in the alternate verses of the psalm,
+he heard a fresh young voice that seemed to renew those days gone by,
+and looking across the central aisle his eyes met a pair of dark ones
+which gave a sudden glitter of gladness at the encounter. That was all
+he saw or cared to see.  He did not take in the finished completeness
+of the very plain dark dress and hat, nor the womanly air of the little
+figure, until they clasped hands in the porch, and in the old tones
+Nuttie exclaimed:  'I've been hoping you would come to London.  How is
+Monsieur?'
+
+'In high health, thank you, the darling of the steamer both going and
+coming.  I hope your charges are well?'
+
+'My father is tolerable, just as usual, and my little Alwyn is getting
+more delicious every day.  He will be so delighted to see Monsieur.  I
+have told him so many stories about him!'
+
+'Do you think I may call on Mr. Egremont?'
+
+'Oh do!  He is ready to be called on between two and three, and we
+always have Wynnie downstairs then, so that you will see him too. And
+you have been at Micklethwayte.  I am afraid you found a great change
+in Aunt Ursel.'
+
+'Yes; but she is very peaceful and happy.'
+
+'And I have to leave her altogether to dear excellent Miss Nugent. It
+seems very, very wrong, but I cannot help it!  And how about Mark and
+Annaple?'
+
+'I think she is the bravest woman I ever met.'
+
+'Then things are really going badly with the dear old firm?'
+
+'I am hoping to talk to Mr. Egremont about it.'
+
+'Ah!'
+
+Nuttie paused.  Towards Mr. Dutton she always had a stronger impulse of
+confidence than towards any one else she had ever met; but she felt
+that he might think it unbecoming to say that she had perceived a
+certain dislike on her father's part towards Mark ever since the
+rejection of the agency and the marriage, which perhaps was regarded as
+a rejection of herself.  He had a habit of dependence on Mark, which
+resulted in personal liking, when in actual contact, but in absence the
+distaste and offence always revived, fostered, no doubt, by Gregorio;
+and Canon Egremont's death had broken the link which had brought them
+together.  However, for his brother's sake, and for the sake of the
+name, the head of the family might be willing to do something.  It was
+one of Nuttie's difficulties that she never could calculate on the way
+her father would take any matter.  Whether for better or for worse, he
+always seemed to decide in diametrical opposition to her expectation.
+And, as she was certainly less impetuous and more dutiful, she parted
+with Mr. Dutton at her own door without any such hint.
+
+These three years had been discipline such as the tenderest, wisest
+hand could not have given her, though it had been insensible.  She had
+been obliged to attend to her father and watch over her little brother,
+and though neither task had seemed congenial to her disposition, the
+honest endeavour to do them rightly had produced the affection born of
+solicitude towards her father, and the strong warm tenderness of the
+true mother-sister towards little Alwyn.
+
+Ursula Egremont was one of those natures to which responsibility is the
+best training.  If she had had any one to guard or restrain her, she
+might have gone to the utmost limits before she yielded to the curb.
+As it was, she had to take care of herself, to bear and forbear with
+her father, to walk warily with her household, and to be very guarded
+with the society into which she was thrown from time to time.  It was
+no sudden change, but one brought about by experience. An outbreak of
+impatience or temper towards her father was sure to be followed by his
+galling sneer, or by some mortification to her desires; any act of
+mismanagement towards the servants brought its own punishment; and if
+she was tempted by girlish spirits to relax the quiet, stiff courtesy
+which she observed towards her father's guests, there followed jests,
+or semi-patronage, or a tone of conversation that offended her, and
+made her repent it.  Happily, Mr. Egremont did not wish her to be
+otherwise.  One day, when she had been betrayed into rattling and
+giggling, he spoke to her afterwards with a cutting irony which
+bitterly angered her at the moment, and which she never forgot.  Each
+irksome duty, each privation, each disappointment, each recurrence of
+the sweeping sense of desolation and loneliness had had one effect--it
+had sent her to her knees.  She had no one else to go to.  She turned
+to her Father in heaven. Sometimes, indeed, it was in murmuring and
+complaint at her lot, but still it was to Him and Him alone, and
+repentance sooner or later came to aid her, while refreshments sprang
+up around her--little successes, small achievements, pleasant hours,
+tokens that her father was pleased or satisfied, and above all, the
+growing charms of little Alwyn.
+
+The special grievance, Gregorio's influence, had scarcely dwelt on her
+at first as it had done on her mother.  The man had been very cautious
+for some time, knowing that his continuance in his situation was in the
+utmost jeopardy, and Mr. Egremont had, in the freshness of his grief
+for his wife, abstained from relapsing into the habits from which she
+had weaned him.  When, however, the Canon was dead, and his son at a
+distance, Gregorio began to feel more secure, and in the restless
+sorrow of his master over the blow that had taken away an only brother,
+he administered soothing drugs under another name, so that Ursula, in
+her inexperience, did not detect what was going on, and still fancied
+that the habit had been renounced.  All she did know was that it was
+entirely useless for her to attempt to exert any authority over the
+valet, and that the only way to escape insolently polite disobedience
+was to let him alone.  Moreover, plans to which her father had agreed,
+when broached by her, had often been overthrown after his valet had
+been with him.  It was a life full of care and disappointment, yet
+there was a certain spring of trust that kept Ursula's youth from being
+dimmed, and enabled her to get a fair share of happiness out of it,
+though she was very sorry not to be more at Bridgefield, where she
+could have worked with all her heart with May Condamine.  Moreover,
+Lady Kirkaldy's absence from London was a great loss to her, for there
+was no one who was so kind or so available in taking her into society;
+and Nuttie, though mistress of her father's house, was not yet
+twenty-two, and strongly felt that she must keep within careful bounds,
+and not attempt to be her own chaperon.
+
+But the very sight of her old friend, and the knowledge that he was in
+the neighbourhood, filled her heart with gladness, and seemed like a
+compensation for everything.  Mr. Egremont was in a gracious mood, and
+readily consented to see Mr. Dutton--the friend who had been so
+pleasant and helpful at Paris--and Nuttie gave her private instructions
+to the footman to insure his admittance.
+
+His card was brought in just as the father and daughter were finishing
+luncheon, and he was received in Mr. Egremont's sitting-room, where the
+first civilities had hardly passed before the door was opened, and in
+trotted the golden-haired boy, so beautiful a child that it would have
+been impossible not to look at him with delight, even for those to whom
+his dark eyes and sweet smile did not recall those that had once been
+so dear.
+
+Mr. Egremont's voice took a fresh tone: 'Ah! here he comes, the old
+fellow'--and he held out his hands; but the boy was intent on his own
+purpose.
+
+'Where's black doggie?' he asked in a silver-bell of a little voice,
+but lisping a good deal; 'Wyn got penny for him.'
+
+'Wynnie must be a good boy.  Kiss papa first, and Mr. Dutton,'
+remonstrated the sister; and Alwyn obeyed so far as to submit to his
+father's embrace, and then raising those velvety eyes to the visitor's
+face, he repeated: 'Where black doggie?  Wyn want to see him buy bun.'
+
+'There! your fame has preceded you,' said Mr. Egremont, 'or rather your
+dog's.'
+
+'You shall see him,' said Mr. Dutton, taking the pretty boy almost
+reverently on his knee, 'but he is at home now.  I could not leave him
+out on the street, and I did not know if I might bring him in.'
+
+'Oh, Mr. Dutton! as if Monsieur would not be welcome,' cried the Nuttie
+of old times.  'I only wish I had stipulated for him, dear old fellow.'
+
+'Wyn want to see him,' reiterated the child.
+
+'May I take him to see the performance?' said Mr. Dutton.  'I live only
+at the corner of Berkshire Road, and there's a dairy just opposite
+where Monsieur has been allowed to keep up his accomplishment.'
+
+Alwyn's legs, arms, and voice, were all excitement and entreaty; and
+Mr. Egremont himself proposed that they should all come and witness the
+feat; so Nuttie, in great glee, climbed the stairs with her little
+brother to get ready; and when she came down again, found the gentlemen
+deep, not in Mark Egremont's umbrellas, but in the gas and smoke
+grievances which had arisen since the lease of the house had been
+taken, and in which sympathy might be expected from a fellow-inhabitant
+of the district.  Little Alwyn was, however, plainly the lord of the
+ascendant, and unused to see anything else attended to in his presence.
+He took possession of Mr. Dutton's hand, and his tongue went fast, nor
+did his father or sister seem to desire any better music.  They reached
+an old-walled garden, with lilac and laburnum and horse-chestnut
+blossoming above, and showing a mass of greenery through the iron
+railing that surmounted, the low wall on the street side, where Mr.
+Dutton halted and took out his key.
+
+'Is this yours?' exclaimed Nuttie, 'I have so often wondered whose it
+could be.'
+
+'Yes, it was a country-house when I was of the age of this little man,
+though you might not think it.'
+
+'The increase of London had not been on that side,' said Mr. Egremont.
+'This must be a very valuable property!'
+
+And Nuttie perceived that such an inheritance made Mr. Dutton much more
+in his eyes than an ex-umbrella-monger; but no sooner was the tall iron
+gate opened than Monsieur, beautifully shaved, with all his curly tufts
+in perfection, came bounding to meet his master, and Alwyn had his arms
+round the neck in a moment.  Monsieur had in his time been introduced
+to too many children not to understand the situation, and respond
+politely; and he also recognised Ursula, and gave unmistakable proofs
+of being glad to see her.
+
+Then the halfpenny was presented to him.  He wagged his queer tail,
+smiled with his intelligent brown eyes, took it between his teeth, and
+trotted across the street in the most business-like way, the others
+following, but detaining the boy from keeping too close. They found the
+creature sitting upright, tapping the floor with his tail, the centre
+of rapturous admiration to all the customers already in the dairy shop.
+He received his bun, and demurely dropping on his front legs, walked
+back with it to his master, and crossed the road with it uneaten,
+rather to Alwyn's disappointment, but Mr. Dutton said he would probably
+dispose of it in some hiding-place in the garden until his evening
+appetite came on.  It was well he was a dog of moderation, for there
+was great temptation to repeat the entertainment more than was
+wholesome for him.
+
+'There, Wynnie,' said Nuttie in a voice of monition, 'Monsieur doesn't
+eat all his goodies at once, he keeps them for bedtime.'
+
+It might be perceived that the over-supply of sweets was a matter of
+anxiety to the elder sister.  To the nurse, who waited in readiness,
+Alwyn was consigned for his walk, while his father and sister accepted
+Mr. Dutton's invitation to look round his domain.  It would have been
+small in the country, but it was extensive for the locality, and there
+was a perfect order and trimness about the shaven lawn, the little
+fountain in the midst, the flower-beds gay with pansies,
+forget-me-nots, and other early beauties, and the freshly-rolled gravel
+paths, that made Nuttie exclaim: 'Ah! I should have known this for
+yours anywhere.'
+
+'I have not had much to do to it,' he said.  'My old aunts had it well
+kept up, even when they could only see it from their windows. Their old
+gardener still lives in the cottage behind the tool-house, though he is
+too infirm for anything but being wheeled about in the sun in their
+Bath-chair.'
+
+'You keep a large amount lying idle by retaining it as it is,' said Mr.
+Egremont.
+
+'True, but it is well to preserve an oasis here and there.'
+
+Nuttie knew well that it was not for himself alone, and as they entered
+the little conservatory, and her eye fell on the row of white
+hyacinths, the very scent carried her back to the old times, and her
+eyes grew moist while Mr. Dutton was cutting a bouquet for her in
+accordance with well-known tastes.
+
+'I shall put them in my room.  It will feel like home,' she said, and
+then she saw that she had said what her father did not like; for he was
+always sensitive as to any reference to her early life.
+
+Mr. Dutton, however, took this opportunity of saying that he had been
+backwards and forwards to Micklethwayte several times this spring.
+
+'I hope you are well out of the concern there,' said Mr. Egremont.
+
+'Thank you, sir; I have no share in it at present.'
+
+'So much the better!'
+
+'But I am very anxious about my friends.'
+
+'Ah!'  But Mr. Egremont's attention was drawn off at the entrance of
+the house by a new-fashioned stove of which Mr. Dutton did the honours,
+conducting father and daughter into the drawing-room, where obvious
+traces of the old ladies remained, and thence into his own
+sitting-room, smelling pleasantly of Russia leather, and recalling that
+into which Nuttie had been wont, before her schooldays, to climb by the
+window, and become entranced by the illustrations of a wonderful old
+edition of Telemaque, picked up at Paris.
+
+Mr. Dutton made them sit and rest, for this had been a good deal of
+exercise for Mr. Egremont; coffee was brought in, having been ordered
+on their arrival, and therewith Mr. Dutton entered on an exposition of
+the affairs of Greenleaf and Goodenough, which was listened to with a
+good deal of interest, though Nuttie could not quite detect whether it
+were altogether friendly interests in Mark's misfortunes, or if there
+were not a certain triumph in the young man having run into trouble by
+rejecting his offer.
+
+Mr. Dutton explained that his present object was to induce the friends
+of the family to prevent annoyance by preserving the furniture and
+personals at a valuation; and Mr. Egremont readily agreed to contribute
+to doing this, though he said the sisters and stepmother were well able
+also to do their share.
+
+'And then to give the young people a fresh start,' added Mr. Dutton.
+
+'There are some men who are always wanting fresh starts,' said Mr.
+Egremont, 'just as there are some vessels that are always unlucky. And
+if you observe, it is just those men who are in the greatest haste to
+hang an expensive wife and family round their necks.'
+
+'I don't think poor Annaple can be accused of being expensive, papa,'
+said Nuttie.  'Only think, when Wynnie has two nurses always after him,
+her Willie has only the fraction of a little maid, who does all sorts
+of work besides.'
+
+'Yes, I never saw more resolute and cheerful exertion than Mrs. Mark
+Egremont's,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'She owes him something,' said Mr. Egremont, 'for she has been the ruin
+of him.'
+
+'Of his worldly prospects in one sense,' said Mr. Dutton quietly; while
+Nuttie felt how much better and wiser an answer it was than the
+indignant denial that trembled on her tongue.  'There can be no doubt
+that they made a grievous mistake in their choice, and I unfortunately
+was concerned in leading them into it; but no one can see how they meet
+their troubles without great respect and admiration, and I am
+especially bound to seek for some new opening for them.  I have little
+doubt that some office work might be found for him in London, but they
+are essentially country people, and it would be much better for them if
+he could have some agency.  I suppose the situation you offered him
+before, sir, is filled up?'
+
+'Not really,' cried Nuttie.  'We have only a very common sort of
+uneducated bailiff, who would be much better with some one over him.
+You said so, papa.'
+
+'Did he request you to apply to me?' said Mr. Egremont sharply, looking
+at Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Neither he nor she has the least idea of my intention; I only thought,
+sir, you might be willing to consider how best to assist a nephew, who
+has certainly not been wanting either in industry or economy, and who
+bears your name.'
+
+'Well, I will think it over,' said Mr. Egremont, rising to take leave.
+
+The carriage had been bidden to await them at the door for their daily
+drive, and as Mr. Egremont leant back with the furs disposed over him
+he observed: 'That's a man who knows how to take care of himself.  I
+wonder where he gets his coffee, I've not drunk any like it since I was
+at Nice.'  And Nuttie, though well knowing that Mr. Dutton's love of
+perfection was not self-indulgence, was content to accept this as high
+approbation, and a good augury for Mark and Annaple.  Indeed, with Mr.
+Dutton settled near, and with the prospect of a daily walk from church
+with him, she felt such a complete content and trust as she had not
+known since she had been uprooted from Micklethwayte.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+A BRAVE HEART.
+
+  'One furnace many times the good and bad may hold,
+  Yet what consumes the chaff will only cleanse the gold.'
+                                     Archbishop TRENCH.
+
+
+Never was there a truer verse than that which tells us that in seeking
+duty we find pleasure by the way, and in seeking pleasure we meet pain.
+It might be varied to apply to our anticipations of enjoyment or the
+reverse.  Ursula had embraced her lot as a necessity, and found it
+enlivened by a good many sunshiny hours; and when she looked upon Mr.
+Dutton's neighbourhood as a continual source of delight and
+satisfaction, she found that it gave rise to a continual course of
+small disappointments.
+
+In the first place, he did not walk home from church with her every
+morning.  She looked for him in vain, even when she knew he was in
+town.  He only appeared there on Sundays, and at intervals when he had
+some especial reason for speaking to her.  At first she thought he must
+have grown lazy or out of health to have thus dropped his old
+Micklethwayte habits, but after a time she discovered by accident that
+he frequented another church, open at a still earlier hour and a little
+farther off, and she was forced to come to the conclusion that he acted
+out of his characteristic precise scrupulosity, which would not
+consider it as correct for her to walk home every day with him. She
+chafed, and derided 'the dear old man' a little in her own mind, then
+ended with a sigh.  Was there any one who cared so much about what was
+proper for her?  And, after all, was he really older than Mr. Clarence
+Fane, whom everybody in her father's set called Clarence, or even
+Clare, and treated as the boy of the party, so that she had taken it as
+quite natural that he should be paired off with her.  It was quite a
+discovery!
+
+There was another and more serious disappointment.  Mr. Egremont had
+not seemed disinclined to consider the giving the agency to Mark, and
+Nuttie had begun to think with great satisfaction of May Condamine's
+delight in welcoming him, and of the good influence that would be
+brought to bear on the dependents, when suddenly there came a coolness.
+She could trace the moment, and was sure that it was, when Gregorio
+became aware of what was intended.  He had reason to dread Mark as an
+enemy, and was likely to wish to keep him at a distance; and it had
+been Ursula's great hope that an absolute promise might have been given
+before he heard of the plan; but Mr. Egremont was always slow to make
+up his mind, except when driven by a sudden impulse, and had never
+actually said that the post should be offered to his nephew.  Nuttie
+only detected the turn of the tide by the want of cordiality, the hums
+and haws, and by and by the resumption of the unkind ironical tone when
+Mark and Annaple were mentioned; and at last, when she had been reading
+to him a letter from Mrs. William Egremont full of anxiety for the
+young people, and yet of trust in his kindness to them, he exclaimed,
+'You've not been writing to her about this absurd proposal?'
+
+'I have not mentioned any proposal at all.  What do you mean?'
+
+'Why, this ridiculous idea about the agency.  As if I was going to put
+my affairs into the hands of a man who has made such a mull of his own.'
+
+'But that was not Mark's fault, papa.  He was junior, you know, and had
+no power over that Goodenough.'
+
+'He ought, then!  Never sail with an unlucky captain.  No, no, Mark's
+honourable lady would not let him take the agency when he might have
+had it, and I am not going to let them live upon me now that they have
+nothing of their own.'
+
+'Oh, papa, but you almost promised!'
+
+'Almost!' he repeated with his ironical tone; 'that's a word capable of
+a good deal of stretching.  This is what you and that umbrella fellow
+have made out of my not giving him a direct refusal on the spot.  He
+may meddle with Mark's affairs if he chooses, but not with mine.'
+
+Nuttie had learnt a certain amount of wisdom, and knew that to argue a
+point only made her father more determined, so she merely answered,
+'Very well;' adding in a meek voice, 'Their furniture, poor things!'
+
+'Oh ay.  Their umbrella friend is making a collection for them.  Yes, I
+believe I said I would contribute.'
+
+Hot blood surged up within Nuttie at the contemptuous tone, and she bit
+her lip to keep down the answer, for she knew Mr. Dutton intended to
+call the next afternoon for her father's ultimatum before going down to
+Micklethwayte, where the crisis was fast approaching, and she had so
+much faith in his powers that she dreaded to forestall him by an
+imprudent word.  Alas, Gregorio must have been on his guard, for,
+though Nuttie was sure she heard her friend's ring at the usual time,
+no entrance followed.  She went up to put on her habit to ride with her
+father, and when she came down Mr. Egremont held out a card with the
+name 'Philip Dutton,' and the pencilled request below to be allowed to
+see Mr. Egremont later in the day.
+
+'He has been denied!' exclaimed she in consternation.
+
+'Hein!  Before we go out, sit down and write a note for me.'  And he
+dictated--
+
+     'Dear Sir--I will not trouble you to call again this
+      afternoon, as I have decided on reflection that there
+      is no employment on my estate suited to my nephew,
+      Mark Egremont.
+
+     'As I understand that you are raising a family
+      subscription for rescuing his furniture from the
+      creditors, I enclose a cheque for £50 for the purpose.
+
+                                           --I remain--'
+
+
+'Yours--what--papa?--' asked Ursula, with a trembling voice, full of
+tears.
+
+'Yours, etc., of course.  Quite intimate enough for an
+ex-umbrella-monger. Here, give it to me, and I'll sign it while you
+fill up the cheque for me.'
+
+That such should be the first letter that Nuttie ever addressed to Mr.
+Dutton, since the round-hand one in 'which Miss Ursula wished Mr. Duton
+to have the onner of a tee with me on my birthday, and I am your
+affected little Nuttie'!
+
+She hoped to explain and lament the next morning, after church.  He
+would surely come to talk it over with her; but he only returned a
+civil note with his receipt, and she did not see him again before his
+departure.  She was greatly vexed; she had wanted so much to tell him
+how it was, and then came an inward consciousness that she would
+probably have told him a great deal too much.
+
+Was it that tiresome prudence of his again that would think for her and
+prevent impulsive and indignant disclosures?  It made her bring down
+her foot sharply on the pavement with vexation as she suspected that he
+thought her so foolish, and then again her heart warmed with the
+perception of self-denying care for her.  She trusted to that same
+prudence for no delusive hopes having been given to Mark and his wife.
+
+She did so justly.  Mr. Dutton had thought the matter far too uncertain
+to be set before them.  The Canoness's vague hopes had been the fruit
+of a hint imprudently dropped by Nuttie herself in a letter to Blanche.
+She had said more to Miss Nugent, but Mary was a nonconductor.  Mr.
+Dutton's heart sank as he looked at the houses, and he had some
+thoughts of going to her first for intelligence, but Annaple had spied
+him, and ran out to the gate to welcome him.
+
+'Oh, Mr. Dutton, I'm so glad!  Mark will be delighted.'
+
+'Is he at home?'
+
+'Oh no, at the office, wading through seas of papers with Mr.
+Greenleaf, but he will come home to eat in a quarter of an hour.  So
+come in;' then, as her boy's merry voice and a gruffer one were heard,
+'That's the bailiff.  He is Willie's devoted slave.'
+
+'I hoped to have been in time to have saved you that.'
+
+'Well, I'm convinced that among the much maligned races are bailiffs. I
+wonder what I could get by an article on prejudice against classes! I
+was thinking how much beer I should have to lay in for this one, and
+behold he is a teetotaller, and besides that amateur nurse-maid,
+parlour-maid, kitchen-maid, etc. etc.--'
+
+'What bailiff could withstand Mrs. Egremont?  Perhaps you have tamed
+him?'
+
+'Not I.  The cook did that.  Indeed I believe there's a nice little
+idyll going on in the kitchen, and besides he wore the blue ribbon, and
+was already a devoted follower of young Mr. Godfrey!'
+
+'However, if the valuation is ready, I hope you may be relieved from
+him, if you won't be too much concerned at the parting!'
+
+'Mrs. Egremont told us that our people are very good to us,' said
+Annaple, 'and don't mean to send us out with nothing but a pack at our
+backs.  It is very kind in them and in you, Mr. Dutton, to take the
+trouble of it!  No, I'll not worry you with thanks.  The great point
+is, hope for something for Mark to do.  That will keep up his spirits
+best!  Poor Mr. Greenleaf is so melancholy that it is all I can do to
+keep him up to the mark.'
+
+'I have been making inquiries, and I have three possible openings, but
+I hardly like to lay them before you.'
+
+'Oh, we are not particular about gentility!  It is work we want, and if
+it was anything where I could help that would be all the better! I'm
+sure I only wonder there are so many as three.  I think it is
+somebody's doing.  Ah! there's Mark,' and she flew out to meet him.
+'Mark!' she said, on the little path, 'here's the good genius, with
+three chances in his pocket.  Keep him to luncheon.  I've got plenty.
+Poor old man, how hot you look!  Go and cool in the drawing-room, while
+I wash my son's face.'
+
+And she disappeared into the back regions, while Mark, the smile she
+had called up vanishing from his face, came into the drawing-room, and
+held out a cordial, thankful hand to his friend, whose chief
+intelligence was soon communicated.  'Yes,' said Mark, when he heard
+the amount entrusted by the family to Mr. Dutton, 'that will save all
+my wife's poor little household gods.  Not that I should call them so,
+for I am sure she does not worship them.  I don't know what would
+become of me if she were like poor Mrs. Greenleaf, who went into
+hysterics when the bailiff arrived, and has kept her room ever since. I
+sometimes feel as if nothing could hurt us while Annaple remains what
+she is.'
+
+Mr. Dutton did not wonder that he said so, when she came in leading her
+little son, with his sunny hair newly brushed and shining, and carrying
+a little bouquet for the guest of one La Marque rosebud and three
+lilies of the valley.
+
+'Take it to Mr. Dutton, Billy-boy; I think he knows how the flowers
+came into the garden.  You shall have daddy's button-hole to take to
+him next.  There, Mark, it is a pansy of most smiling countenance, such
+as should beam on you through your accounts.  I declare, there's that
+paragon of a Mr. Jones helping Bessy to bring in dinner!  Isn't it very
+kind to provide a man-servant for us?'
+
+It might be rattle, and it might be inconsequent, but it was much
+pleasanter than hysterics.  Billy-boy was small enough to require a
+good deal of attention at dinner, especially as he was more disposed to
+open big blue eyes at the stranger, than to make use of his spoon, and
+Annaple seemed chiefly engrossed with him, though a quick keen word at
+the right moment showed that she was aware of all that was going on, as
+Mark and Mr. Dutton discussed the present situation and future measures.
+
+It was quite true that a man concerned in a failure was in great danger
+of being left out of the race for employment, and Mr. Dutton did not
+think it needful to mention the force of the arguments he was using to
+back his recommendation of Mark Egremont.  The possibilities he had
+heard of were a clerkship at a shipping agent's, another at a warehouse
+in their own line, and a desk at an insurance office.  This sounded
+best, but had the smallest salary to begin with, and locality had to be
+taken into account.  Mr. Dutton's plan was, that as soon as Mark was no
+longer necessary for what Annaple was pleased to call the fall of the
+sere and withered leaf, the pair should come to stay with him, so that
+Mark could see his possible employers, and Annaple consider of the
+situations.  They accepted this gratefully, Mark only proposing that
+she should go either to his stepmother or her own relations to avoid
+the final crisis.
+
+'As if I would!' she exclaimed.  'What sort of a little recreant goose
+do you take me for?'
+
+'I take you for a gallant little woman, ready to stand in the breach,'
+said Mark.
+
+'Ah, don't flatter yourself!  There is a thing I have not got courage
+to face--without necessity, and that's Janet's triumphant pity.  Mr.
+Dutton lives rather too near your uncle, but he is a man, and he can't
+be so bad.'
+
+This of course did not pass till Mr. Dutton had gone in to greet the
+ladies next door, to promise to tell them of their child at length when
+the business hours of the day should be over.
+
+Shall it be told?  There was something in his tone--perfectly
+indefinable, with which he spoke of 'Miss Egremont,' that was like the
+old wistfully reverential voice in which he used to mention 'Mrs.
+Egremont.'  It smote Mary Nugent's quiet heart with a pang.  Was it
+that the alteration from the old kindly fatherliness of regard to
+'little Nuttie' revealed that any dim undefined hope of Mary's own must
+be extinguished for ever; or was it that she grieved that he should
+again be wasting his heart upon the impracticable?
+
+A little of both, perhaps, but Mary was as ready as ever to sympathise,
+and to rejoice in hearing that the impetuous child had grown into the
+forbearing dutiful woman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+A FRESH START.
+
+
+'Did you say that Mark and his wife were come to Springfield House?'
+
+'They come the day after to-morrow,' answered Ursula.  'Mark could not
+finish up the business sooner.'
+
+'Well, I suppose we must have them to dinner for once.  He has made a
+fool of himself, but I won't have the Canoness complaining that I take
+no notice of him; and it is easier done while he is there than when he
+has got into some hole in the City--that is if he ever gets anything to
+do.'
+
+'Mr. Dutton has several situations in view for him.'
+
+'In view.  That's a large order.  Or does it mean living on Dutton and
+doing something nominal?  I should think Dutton too old and sharp a
+hand for that, though he is quartering them on himself.'
+
+'I believe there is nothing Mr. Dutton would like better, if he thought
+it right for them, but I am quite sure Mark and Annaple would not
+consent.'
+
+'Ha, ha!' and Mr. Egremont laughed.  'Their nose is not brought to the
+grindstone yet!  Say Saturday, then, Ursula.'
+
+'Am I to ask Mr. Dutton?'
+
+'Of course; I'm not going to have a tete-a-tete with Master Mark.'
+
+So Ursula had the satisfaction of writing a more agreeable note to Mr.
+Dutton than her last, and her invitation was accepted, but to her
+vexation Mr. Egremont further guarded himself from anything
+confidential by verbally asking Mr. Clarence Fane on that very day, and
+as that gentleman was a baronet's son, she knew she should fall to his
+lot at dinner, and though she was glad when this was the case at their
+ordinary parties, it was a misfortune on the present occasion.  She had
+not seen Annaple since her marriage, except at the family gathering on
+the Canon's death, when she was very much absorbed by the requirements
+of the stricken household; and Nuttie expected to see her in the same
+subdued condition.  All Mr. Dutton had said or Mary Nugent had written
+about her courage and cheerfulness had given the impression of
+'patience smiling at grief,' and in a very compassionate mood she
+started for a forenoon call at Springfield House; but, early as it was,
+nobody was at home, unless it might be the little boy, whose voice she
+thought she heard while waiting at the gate.
+
+She was out driving with her father afterwards in the long summer
+evening, and only found Mark's card on returning just in time to dress.
+It was a bright glaring day, and she was sitting by the window, rather
+inattentively listening to Mr. Fane's criticism of a new performance at
+one of the theatres, when she heard the bell, and there entered the
+slight, bright creature who might still have been taken for a mere
+girl.  The refined though pronounced features, the transparent
+complexion, crispy yellow hair and merry eyes, were as sunbeam-like as
+at the Rectory garden-party almost five years ago, and the black dress
+only marked the contrast, and made the slenderness of the figure more
+evident.
+
+Mark looked older, and wrung his cousin's hand with a pressure of
+gratitude and feeling, but Annaple's was a light little gay kiss, and
+there was an entire unconsciousness about her of the role of poor
+relation.  She made an easy little acknowledgment of the introduction
+of Mr. Fane, and, as Mr. Egremont appeared the next moment, exchanged
+greetings with him in a lively ordinary fashion.
+
+This was just what he liked.  He only wanted to forget what was
+unpleasant, and, giggling Scotch girl as she was, he was relieved to
+find that she could not only show well-bred interest in the surface
+matters of the time, but put in bright flashes of eagerness and
+originality, well seconded by Mr. Dutton.  Mr. Fane was always a
+professor of small talk, and Nuttie had learnt to use the current
+change of society, so that though Mark was somewhat silent, the dinner
+was exceedingly pleasant and lively; and, as Mr. Fane remarked
+afterwards, he had been asked to enliven a doleful feast to ruined
+kindred, he could only say he wished prosperity always made people so
+agreeable.
+
+'This is all high spirit and self-respect,' thought Nuttie.  'Annaple
+is talking as I am, from the teeth outwards.  I shall have it out with
+her when we go upstairs!  At any rate my father is pleased with her!'
+
+Nuttie made the signal to move as soon as she could, and as they went
+upstairs, put her arm round the slim waist and gave a sympathetic
+pressure, but the voice that addressed her had still the cheery ring
+that she fancied had been only assumed.
+
+'I'm sorry I missed you, but we set out early and made a day of it; and
+oh! we've been into such funny places as I never dreamt of!  You didn't
+see my boy?'
+
+'No.  I thought I heard him.  I must see him to-morrow.'
+
+'And I must see yours.  May it not be a pleasure to-night?  I've no
+doubt you go and gloat over him at night.'
+
+'Well, I do generally run up after dinner; but after your day, I can't
+think of dragging you up all these stairs.'
+
+'Oh, that's nothing!  Only you see it is jollier to have my Billy-boy
+in the next room.'
+
+They were mounting all the time, and were received in the day nursery
+by the old Rectory nurse, much increased in dignity, but inclined to be
+pathetic as she inquired after 'Mr. Mark,' while Annaple, like a little
+insensible being, answered with provoking complacency as to his perfect
+health, and begged Mrs. Poole to bring Master Alwyn to play in the
+garden at Springfield with her Willie.  In fact there was a general
+invitation already to Alwyn to play there, but his attendants so much
+preferred the society of their congeners in the parks that they did not
+avail themselves of it nearly as often as Ursula wished.
+
+Little Alwyn asleep was, of course, a beautiful sight, with a precious
+old headless rabbit pressed tight to his cheek; Annaple's face grew
+tender as she looked at the motherless creature; and she admired him to
+any extent except saying that he excelled her own. Being more than a
+year the elder, there could be no rivalry as to accomplishments; but as
+soon as they were out of the nursery hush, Annaple laughed her way down
+again with tales of Billy-boy's wonder at his first experiences of
+travelling.  They sat down among the plants in the balcony, as far from
+the lamps as possible, and talked themselves into intimacy over
+Micklethwayte.  There are two Eden homes in people's lives, one that of
+later childhood, the other the first of wedded happiness, and St.
+Ambrose Road had the same halo to both of these; for both had been
+uprooted from it against their will; the chief difference being that
+Ursula could cast longing, lingering looks behind, while Annaple held
+herself resolutely steeled against sentiment, and would only turn it
+off by something absurd.  Nothing was absolutely settled yet; Mark had
+been presenting himself at offices, and she had been seeing rooms and
+lodgings.
+
+'The insurance office sounds the best, and would be the least shock to
+our belongings,' said Annaple; 'but it seems to lead to nothing. He
+would not get on unless we had capital to invest, and even if we had
+any, you wouldn't catch us doing that again!'
+
+'Does Mr. Dutton advise that?'
+
+'No, he only thought we should like it better; but we are quite past
+caring for people's feelings in the matter.  They couldn't pity us
+worse than they do.  I incline to Stubbs and Co.  One of them was once
+in the Greenleaf office, and has a regard for anything from thence;
+besides Mark would have something to do besides desk work. He would
+have to judge of samples, and see to the taking in and storing of
+goods.  He does know something about that, and I'm sure it would agree
+with him better than an unmitigated high stool, with his nose to a
+desk.'
+
+'I should like it better.'
+
+'That's right!  Now I have got some one to say so.  Besides, rising is
+possible, if one gets very useful.  I mean to be Mrs. Alderman, if not
+my Lady Mayoress, before we have done.  Then they have a great big
+almost deserted set of rooms over the warehouse, where we might live
+and look after the place.'
+
+'Oh! but should you like that?'
+
+'Mr. Dutton wants us to live out in some of the suburban places, where
+it seems there is a perfect population of clerks' families in
+semi-detached houses.  He says we should save Mark's railway fare,
+rent, and all in doctors' bills.  But people, children and all, do live
+and thrive in the City; and I think Mark's health will be better looked
+after if I am there to give him his midday bite and sup, and brush him
+up, than if he is left to cater for himself; and as to exercise for the
+Billy-boy, 'tis not so far to the Thames Embankment. The only things
+that stagger me are the blacks!  I don't know whether life is long
+enough to be after the blacks all day long, but perhaps I shall get
+used to them!'
+
+'Well, I think that would be worse.'
+
+'Perhaps it would; and at any rate, if the blacks do beat me, we could
+move.  Think, no rent, nor rates, nor taxes--that is an inducement to
+swallow--no--to contend with, any number of blackamoors, isn't it? even
+if they settle on the tip of Billy-boy's nose.'
+
+'I could come to see you better there than out in a suburb,' said
+Nuttie.  'But what do these rooms look out upon?'
+
+'On one side into their own court, on the other into Wulstan Street--a
+quiet place on the whole--all walls and warehouses; and there's an
+excellent parish church, Mr. Underwood's; so I think we might do worse.'
+
+Nuttie was very sorry that the gentlemen came up, and Mr. Fane wandered
+out and began asking whether they were going to the rose show.  Somehow
+on that evening she became conscious that Annaple looked at her and Mr.
+Fane rather curiously; and when they met again the next day, and having
+grown intimate over the introduction of the two little boys, were
+driving out together, there were questions about whether she saw much
+of him.
+
+'Oh, I don't know!  He is the nicest, on the whole, of papa's friends;
+he can talk of something besides'--Nuttie paused over her
+'besides,'--'horseyness, and all that sort of thing--he is not so like
+an old satyr as some of them are; and so he is a resource.'
+
+'I see.  And you meet him elsewhere, don't you, in general society?'
+
+'I don't go out much now that Lady Kirkaldy is not in town; but he
+always seems to turn up everywhere that one goes.'
+
+'Ursula, I'm very glad of that tone of yours.  I was afraid--'
+
+'Afraid of what?' cried Nuttie in a defiant tone.
+
+'That you liked him, and he is not really nice, Nuttie.  Mark knows all
+about him; and so did I when I lived with the Delmars.'
+
+Nuttie laughed rather bitterly.  'Thank you, Annaple.  As if I could
+care for that man--or he for me, for that matter!  I know but too
+well,' she added gravely, 'that nobody nice is ever intimate at home.'
+
+'I beg your pardon.  I would not have worried you about it, only I
+think you must take care, Nuttie, for Blanche mentioned it to us last
+winter.'
+
+'Blanche is an arrant gossip!  If she saw a grandfather and great
+grandmother gossiping she would say they were going to be married.'
+
+'Yes, as Mark says, one always swallows Blanche with a qualification.'
+
+'You may be quite sure, Annaple, that nothing like that will ever be
+true about me!  Why, what would ever become of my poor little Wyn if I
+was so horrid as to want to go and marry?'
+
+She said it with an ineffable tone of contempt, just like the original
+Nuttie, who seemed to be recalled by association with Annaple.
+
+That sojourn of Mark and his wife at Springfield House was a bright
+spot in that summer.  If it had been only that Annaple's presence gave
+the free entree to such an island of old Micklethwayte, it would have
+been a great pleasure to her; but there was besides the happiness of
+confidence and unrestraint in their society, a restful enjoyment only
+to be appreciated by living the guarded life of constraint that was
+hers.  She was so seldom thrown among people whom she could admire and
+look up to.  Annaple told her husband of Nuttie's vehement repudiation
+of any intention of marriage.  'I am sure she meant it,' she observed,
+'it was only a little too strong. I wonder if that poor youth who came
+to her first ball, and helped to pick us out of the hole in Bluepost
+Bridge, had anything to do with it.'
+
+Annaple had an opportunity of judging.  Mr. Dutton would not have
+brought about a meeting which might be painful and unsettling to both;
+but one afternoon, when Nuttie was 'off duty' with her father, and had
+come in to share Annaple's five o'clock tea, Gerard Godfrey, looking
+the curate from head to foot, made his appearance, having come up from
+the far east, about some call on Mr. Dutton's purse.
+
+The two shook hands with pleased surprise, and a little heightening of
+colour, but that was all.  Nuttie had been out to luncheon, and was
+dressed 'like a mere fashionable young lady' in his eyes; and when,
+after the classes and clubs and schools of his district had been
+discussed, he asked, 'And I suppose you are taking part in everything
+here?'
+
+'No, that I can't!'
+
+'Indeed!  I know Porlock, the second curate here very well, and he
+tells me that his vicar has a wonderful faculty of finding appropriate
+work for every one.  Of course you know him?'
+
+'No, I don't;' said Nuttie.
+
+'Miss Egremont has her appropriate work,' said Mr. Dutton, and the
+deacon felt himself pushed into his old position at Micklethwayte. He
+knew the clergy of the district very well, and how persistently either
+Mr. Egremont, or perhaps Gregorio, prevented their gaining admittance
+at his house; and he guessed, but did not know, that Nuttie could not
+have got into personal intercourse with them without flat disobedience.
+
+Annaple threw herself into the breach, and talked of St. Wulstan's; and
+the encounter ended, leaving the sense of having drifted entirely away
+from one another, and being perfectly heart whole, though on the one
+hand Ursula's feeling was of respect and honour; and Gerard's had a
+considerable element of pity and disapprobation.
+
+'No!' said Annaple when they were gone, 'he will not cry like the
+kloarek in the Breton ballad who wetted three great missals through
+with his tears at his first mass.  He is very good, I am sure, but he
+is a bit of a prig!'
+
+'It is very hard to youth to be good without priggishness,' said Mr.
+Dutton.  'Self-assertion is necessary, and it may easily be carried too
+far.'
+
+'Buttresses are useful, but they are not beauties,' rejoined Annaple.
+
+The warehouse arrangement was finally adopted, and after the three
+weeks necessary for the cleaning and fitting of their floor, and the
+bringing in of their furniture, Mark and Annaple began what she termed
+'Life among the Blacks.'
+
+Nuttie had great designs of constantly seeing Annaple, sending her
+supplies from the gardens and preserves at Bridgefield, taking her out
+for drives, and cultivating a friendship between Alwyn and Willie, who
+had taken to each other very kindly on the whole.  They could not
+exactly understand each other's language, and had great fights from
+time to time over toys, for though there was a year between them they
+were nearly equal in strength; but they cared for each other's company
+more than for anything else, were always asking to go to one another,
+and roared when the time of parting came; at least Alwyn did so
+unreservedly, for Nuttie had begun to perceive with compunction that
+Billy-boy was much the most under control, and could try to be good at
+his mother's word, without other bribe than her kiss and smile.  Ah!
+but he had a mother!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+NUTTIE'S PROSPECTS.
+
+  'Three hundred pounds and possibilities.'--Merry Wives of Windsor.
+
+
+Again Nuttie's plans were doomed to be frustrated.  It did not prove to
+be half so easy to befriend Mr. and Mrs. Mark Egremont as she expected,
+at the distance of half London apart, and with no special turn for
+being patronised on their side.
+
+Her father took a fancy for almost daily drives with her in the park,
+because then he could have Alwyn with him; and the little fellow's
+chatter had become his chief amusement.  Or if she had the carriage to
+herself, there was sure to be something needful to be done which made
+it impossible to go into the city to take up and set down Mrs. Mark
+Egremont; and to leave her to make her way home would be no kindness.
+So Nuttie only accomplished a visit once before going out of town, and
+that was by her own exertions--by underground railway and cab.  Then
+she found all going prosperously; the blacks not half so obnoxious as
+had been expected (of course not, thought Nuttie, in the middle of the
+summer); the look-out over the yard very amusing to Billy-boy; and the
+large old-fashioned pannelled rooms, so cool and airy that Annaple was
+quite delighted with them, and contemned the idea of needing a holiday.
+She had made them very pretty and pleasant with her Micklethwayte
+furniture, whose only fault was being on too small a scale for these
+larger spaces, but that had been remedied by piecing, and making what
+had been used for two serve for one.
+
+The kitchen was on the same floor, close at hand, which was well, for
+Annaple did a good deal there, having only one young maid for the
+rougher work.  She had taken lessons in the School of Cookery, and
+practised a good deal even at Micklethwayte, and she was proud of her
+skill and economy.  Mark came in for his mid-day refreshment, and
+looked greatly brightened, as if the worst had come and was by no means
+so bad as he expected.  All the time he had been at Mr. Dutton's he had
+been depressed and anxious, but now, with his boy on his knee, he was
+merrier than Nuttie had ever known him.  As to exercise, there were
+delightful evening walks, sometimes early marketings in the long summer
+mornings before business began--and altogether it seemed, as Nuttie
+told her father afterwards, as if she had had a glimpse into a little
+City Arcadia.
+
+'Hein!' said he, 'how long will it last?'
+
+And Nuttie was carried away to Cowes, where he had been persuaded to
+recur to his old favourite sport of yachting.  She would have rather
+liked this if Clarence Fane had not been there too, and continually
+haunting them.  She had been distrustful of him ever since Annaple's
+warning, and it became a continual worry to the motherless girl to
+decide whether his civil attentions really meant anything, or whether
+she were only foolish and ridiculous in not accepting them as freely
+and simply as before.
+
+Of one thing she became sure, namely, that Gregorio was doing whatever
+in him lay to bring them together.
+
+In this seaside temporary abode, great part of the London establishment
+was left behind, and Gregorio condescended to act the part of butler,
+with only a single man-servant under him, and thus he had much more
+opportunity of regulating the admission of visitors than at home; and
+he certainly often turned Mr. Fane in upon her, when she had intended
+that gentleman to be excluded, and contrived to turn a deaf or
+uncomprehending ear when she desired that there should be no admission
+of visitors unless her father was absolutely ready for them; and also
+there were times when he must have suggested an invitation to dinner,
+or a joining in a sail.  No doubt Gregorio would have been delighted to
+see her married, and to be thus free from any counter influence over
+his master; but as she said to herself, 'Catch me!  Even if I cared a
+rush for the man, I could not do it.  I don't do my poor father much
+good, but as to leaving poor little Alwyn in his clutches--I must be
+perfectly demented with love even to think of it.'
+
+There was a desire on the valet's part to coax and court little Alwyn
+of which she felt somewhat jealous.  The boy was naturally the pet of
+every one in the household, but he was much less out of Gregorio's
+reach in the present confined quarters, and she could not bear to see
+him lifted up in the valet's arms, allowed to play with his watch, held
+to look at distant sails on board the yacht, or even fed with sweet
+biscuits or chocolate creams.
+
+The Rectory nursery had gone on a strict regimen and nurse was as angry
+as Nuttie herself; but there was no preventing it, for his father was
+not above cupboard love, and never resisted the entreaties that were
+always excited by the sight of dainties, only laughing when Nuttie
+remonstrated, or even saying, 'Never mind sister, Wynnie, she's got
+Mrs. Teachem's cap on,' and making the child laugh by pretending to
+smuggle in papers of sweets by stealth, apart from the severe eyes of
+sister or nurse.
+
+That cut Nuttie to the heart.  To speak of the evils for which
+self-indulgence was a preparation would only make her father sneer at
+her for a second Hannah More.  It was a language he did not understand;
+and as to the physical unwholesomeness, he simply did not choose to
+believe it.  She almost wished Alwyn would for once be sick enough to
+frighten him, but that never happened, nor would he accept nurse's
+statement of the boy being out of order.
+
+Poor little Alwyn, he was less and less of an unmixed joy to her as he
+was growing out of the bounds of babyhood, and her notions of
+discipline were thwarted by her father's unbounded indulgence.  To her
+the child was a living soul, to be trained for a responsible position
+here and for the eternal world beyond; to her father he was a
+delightful plaything, never to be vexed, whose very tempers were
+amusing, especially when they teased the serious elder sister.
+
+'Oh father! do you ever think what it will come to?' Nuttie could not
+help saying one day when Mr. Egremont had prevented her from carrying
+him off in disgrace to the nursery for tying the rolls up in dinner
+napkins to enact Punch and Judy, in spite of his own endeavours to
+prevent the consequent desolation of the preparations.
+
+Mr. Egremont shrugged his shoulders, and only observed, 'An excuse for
+a little home tyranny, eh?  No, no, Wyn; we don't want tame little
+muffs here.'
+
+Nuttie was obliged to run out of the room and--it must be
+confessed--dance and stamp out her agony of indignation and misery that
+her father should be bent on ruining his child, for she could not
+understand that all this was simply the instinctive self-indulgence of
+a drugged brain and dulled conscience.
+
+She did, however, get a little support and help during a brief stay in
+the shooting season at Bridgefield.  The Canoness was visiting the
+Condamines at the Rectory, and very soon understood all the state of
+things, more perhaps from her former nurse than from Ursula.  She was
+witness to one of those trying scenes, when Nuttie had been forbidding
+the misuse of a beautiful elaborate book of nursery rhymes, where Alwyn
+thought proper to 'kill' with repeated stabs the old woman of the shoe,
+when preparing to beat her progeny.
+
+Just as she was getting the dagger paper-knife out of his little hand,
+and was diverting the pout on his swelling lip, his father became aware
+of the contest, and immediately the half conquered boy appealed to him.
+'Sister naughty.  Won't let Wynnie kill cross ugly old woman, beating
+poor little children.'
+
+'A fellow feeling! eh, sister?  Kill her away, boy, tear her out! Yes,
+give her to sister, and tell her that's the way to serve sour females!
+I declare, Ursula, she has got something of your expression.'
+
+'Oh Wynnie, Wynnie!' said Nuttie, as he trotted up to her, 'is sister
+cross and ugly?' and she opened her arms to him.
+
+'Sister, Wyn's own sister,' said the child affectionately, letting
+himself be kissed as he saw her grieved.  'She shan't be ugly old
+woman--ugly old woman go in fire.'
+
+So perilously near the flame did he run to burn the old woman that Mr.
+Egremont shouted to her that in spite of all that humbug, she was
+perfectly careless of the child, although if she had withheld him she
+would probably have been blamed for thwarting him.
+
+'Are you quite fair towards Ursula?' the aunt ventured to say when the
+girl had gone to dress for walking down with her to the Rectory. 'It is
+hard on her, and not good for the boy to upset her authority.'
+
+'Eh?  Why, the girl is just a governess manquee, imbued with the spirit
+of all those old women who bred her up.  A nice life the poor child
+would have of it, but for me.'
+
+'I am sure she is devotedly attached to him.'
+
+'Hein!  So she thinks; but trust human nature for loving to wreak
+discipline on the child who has cut her out.'
+
+'That is scarcely just, Alwyn.  She was greatly relieved to be cut out.'
+
+Mr. Egremont laughed at this, and his sister-in-law indignantly added
+with all the authority of a successful parent, 'Anyway, nothing is so
+bad for a child as collision between the authorities in a family.
+Ursula is doing her best to act as a mother to that child, and it will
+be very injurious to him to interfere with her influences.'
+
+'She's a good girl enough--gives very little trouble,' he allowed, 'but
+I'm not going to have the boy sat upon.'
+
+As he spoke the words, Nuttie returned, and as soon as she was out of
+the house and out of hearing she exclaimed, 'Oh, Aunt Jane, you see how
+it is!  How am I to prevent my boy from being utterly ruined?'
+
+'I have been speaking to your father,' said Mrs. Egremont, 'but he does
+not seem to understand.  Men don't.  A child's faults and fancies seem
+such trifles to them that they can't see the harm of indulging them,
+and, besides, they expect to be amused.'
+
+'And is that poor dear little fellow to grow up spoilt?' said Nuttie,
+her eyes hot with unshed tears.
+
+'I hope not, Ursula.  I have great confidence in your influence, for I
+see you are a sensible girl.'  This was astonishing praise from the
+Canoness.  'But you will throw away your chances if you keep up a
+continual opposition to what your father allows.  It will be much less
+hurtful if Alwyn does get too much indulgence, and does a little
+unnecessary mischief, than for him to learn to think you the enemy of
+his pleasures, always wanting to check and punish him.  Oh yes,' as
+Nuttie was going to answer, 'I know it is for his real good, but how is
+that baby to understand that?  Indeed, my dear, I know how it is; I
+have gone through the same sort of thing with Basil.'
+
+'Oh, it could never have been so bad!'
+
+'No, of course not; but I have had to allow what I did not like for the
+child rather than let him see the shadow of difference of opinion
+between us, and I don't think it has done him any harm.  The great
+point is that you should keep that poor little fellow's affection and
+respect, and make him unwilling to vex you.'
+
+'That he is, dear little man.  He is sorry when he sees sister grieved.
+He is always distressed if anything is hurt or pained.  He is really
+tender-hearted.'
+
+'Yes, but boys are boys.  That feeling will fail you if you work it too
+hard, and especially if you show vexation at his pleasures.  Keep that
+for real evils, like falsehood or cruelty.'
+
+'Not for disobedience?'
+
+'The evil of disobedience depends much more upon the authority of an
+order than on the child itself.  If he disobeys you under his father's
+licence, you cannot make much of it.  You have him a good deal to
+yourself?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Then make use of that time to strengthen his principles and sense of
+right and wrong, as well as to secure his affections.  My dear, I never
+saw a girl in a more difficult position than yours, but I see you are
+doing your utmost; only I am afraid the love of sedatives is the same.'
+
+'Oh aunt, I did think he had given it up!'
+
+'You are inexperienced, my dear.  I see it in his eyes.  Well, I'm
+afraid there is no stopping that.'
+
+'Mother--' and Nuttie's voice was choked.
+
+'She did her best, but you have not the same opportunities.  It can't
+be helped with a man of that age.  Mark might have done something, but
+he is out of the question now, poor fellow!'
+
+'Indeed, Aunt Jane, I think Mark and Annaple are some of the happiest
+people I ever saw.  I only wish my poor Alwyn were as forward as their
+Billy, but I'm not even allowed to teach him his letters, because once
+he cried over them.'
+
+'I wish they had anything to fall back upon,' said Mrs. Egremont
+anxiously.  'They are so unwilling to let any one know of their
+difficulties that I feel as if I never knew in what straits they may
+be.  You will be sure to let me know, Ursula, if there is anything that
+I can do for them.'
+
+That conversation was a great comfort and help to Nuttie, who was
+pleased to find herself treated as a real friend by her aunt, and
+perceived the wisdom of her advice.  But the watching over the Mark
+Egremonts was a very difficult matter to accomplish, for when she went
+back to London she was warned that Billy had the whooping cough,
+rendering them unapproachable all the winter, so that she could only
+hear of them through Mr. Dutton, whom she continued to see occasionally
+whenever there was anything to communicate.  Mr. Egremont rather liked
+him, and on meeting him in the street, would ask him casually in to
+dinner, or to make up a rubber, or play piquet, for he excelled in
+these arts, and still more in chess, and an evening with Mr. Dutton was
+quite a red-letter time with Nuttie. It gave her an indefinable sense
+of safety and protection; but it was not always to be had, for her
+friend had many engagements, being one of the active lay church
+workers, and devoting two regular evenings in each week to Gerard
+Godfrey's eastern district, where he kept all the accounts, had a model
+court and evening class, besides hospitably resting tired clergymen and
+their wives in his pleasant quiet house.
+
+In the spring Mr. Egremont was laid up with the worst rheumatic attack
+he had yet had, in consequence of yielding to the imperious will of his
+son, who had insisted on standing in a bleak corner to see the Life
+Guards pass by.  On this occasion Nuttie did not prove herself the
+heaven-born nurse that the true heroine ought to be, but was extremely
+frightened, and altogether dependent on Gregorio, who knew all about
+the symptoms, and when to send for the doctor and a garde-malade.
+Gregorio always talked French to Nuttie when he felt himself in the
+ascendant, as he certainly was at present; but he became much less
+gracious when he heard that Mrs. William Egremont might be expected,
+declaring that madame would only excite his master, and that her
+presence was quite unnecessary.  Her coming had been volunteered, but
+it was a great boon to Ursula, who was thus helped out in many
+perplexities, although Mrs. Egremont was a great deal at her
+step-son's, and neither lady was of much avail in the sick-room, during
+the stress of the illness.  It was never actually dangerous, but there
+was great suffering and much excitement, and for four or five days the
+distress and anxiety were considerable.  After this passed off Ursula
+was surprised to find her company preferred to that of her aunt.  She
+was a better souffre-douleur, was less of a restraint, and was besides
+his regular reader and amanuensis, so that as the force of the attack
+abated, he kept her a good deal in his room during the latter part of
+the day, imparting scraps of intelligence, skimming the papers for him,
+and reading his letters.
+
+There was a lease to be signed, and, as soon as might be, Mr. Bulfinch,
+the Redcastle solicitor, brought it up, and had to be entertained at
+luncheon.  While he was waiting in the drawing-room for Mr. Egremont to
+be made ready for him, he looked with deep interest on the little heir,
+whom Ursula presently led off to the other end of the room to the hoard
+of downstair toys; and an elaborate camp was under construction, when
+by the fireside, the Canoness inquired in a low confidential tone, 'May
+I ask whether you came about a will?'
+
+'No, Mrs. Egremont.  I wish I were.  It is only about the lease of
+Spinneycotes farm.'
+
+'Then there is none?'
+
+'None that I am aware of.  None has ever been drawn up by us. Indeed, I
+was wishing that some influence could be brought to bear which might
+show the expedience of making some arrangement.  Any melancholy event
+is, I trust, far distant, but contingencies should be provided for.'
+
+'Exactly so.  He is recovering now, but these attacks always leave
+effects on the heart, and at his age, with his habits, no one knows
+what may happen.  Of course it would not make much difference to the
+boy.'
+
+'No, the Court of Chancery would appoint the most suitable natural
+guardians.'
+
+'But,' said Mrs. Egremont, 'I am afraid that the personal property when
+divided would not be much of a provision for her.'
+
+'You are right.  The investments are unfortunately and
+disproportionately small.'
+
+'She ought either to have them all, or there should be a charge on the
+estate,' said the Canoness decisively.  'If possible, he must be made
+to move.'
+
+'Oh, don't!' cried Nuttie, jumping up from the floor.  'He mustn't be
+upset on any account.'
+
+'My dear, I had no notion that you heard us!' exclaimed her aunt.  'I
+thought Alwyn was making too much noise with his soldiers.'
+
+'I beg your pardon,' said Nuttie, 'perhaps I should have spoken sooner,
+but indeed he must not be worried and disturbed,' she added, somewhat
+fiercely.
+
+'Don't be afraid, my dear,' said her aunt.  'Mr. Bulfinch knows that
+your father is in no condition to have such matters brought before him.'
+
+'Certainly,' said the old lawyer politely;' and we will trust that Miss
+Egremont's prospects may soon come forward on a more auspicious
+occasion.'
+
+Nuttie could have beaten him, but she was obliged to content herself
+with such a sweeping charge of her Zulus among Alwyn's Englishmen, that
+their general shrieked out in indignation against such a variation of
+the accustomed programme of all their games.
+
+Nuttie thought she had defended her patient sufficiently, but she found
+she had been mistaken, for when her aunt had left them, some days
+later, her father began, 'We are well quit of her.  Those troublesome
+dictatorial women always get worse when they are left widows--taking
+upon them to say what their dear husbands would have said, forsooth.'
+
+'Aunt Jane was very kind to me,' said Ursula, not in the least knowing
+what he was thinking of.
+
+'To you.  Ay, I should think so, taking upon her to lecture me about
+securing a provision for you.'
+
+'Oh!  I hoped--'
+
+'What?' he broke in.  'You knew of it!  You set her on, I suppose.'
+
+'Oh! no, no, father.  She and Mr. Bulfinch began about it, not meaning
+me to hear--about a will, I mean--and I told them I wasn't going to
+have you worried, and I thought I had stopped it altogether.'
+
+'Stop a woman bent on her duty?  Hein!  But you are a good girl, and
+shall come to no loss when we have to make your marriage settlement.'
+
+'You won't have to do that, father!'
+
+'Hein!  What do you keep that poor fellow Clarence Fane dangling in
+attendance on you for?'
+
+'I don't!  I'm sure I don't want him.  I would do anything to keep him
+at a distance!'
+
+'How now!  I thought your Grace condescended to him more than to any
+one else.'
+
+'I don't dislike him unless he has _that_ in his head; but as to
+marrying him!  Oh--h--h,' such a note of horror that elicited a little
+laugh.
+
+'So hot against him, are we?  Who is it then?  Not the umbrella fellow?'
+
+'Father! how can you?' she cried, with a burning flush of indignation.
+He--why--he!  He has always been a sort of uncle, ever since I was a
+little girl.'
+
+'Oh yes, adopted uncles are very devout when young ladies rush out to
+morning prayers at unearthly hours--'
+
+'Father!' with her voice trembling, 'I assure you he doesn't--I mean he
+always goes to St. Michael's, unless he has anything particular to say
+to me.'
+
+'Oh yes, I understand,' and Mr. Egremont indulged in a hearty laugh,
+which almost drove poor Nuttie beside herself.
+
+'Indeed--indeed,' she stammered, in her confusion and suppressed wrath;
+'it is nothing of that sort.  He is a regular old bachelor--he always
+was.'
+
+'At what age do men become old bachelors?  For he seems to me about the
+age of poor Clarry, whom you seem to view as a bugbear.'
+
+'I wish you would not think of such things, father; I have not the
+slightest intention of leaving you and dear little Wynnie!  Nothing
+should tempt me!'
+
+'Nothing?  Hein!  Then you may as well be on your guard, Miss Egremont,
+or we shall have pleadings that you have encouraged them--church and
+world--or both, maybe.  You pious folk take your little diversions and
+flirtations just like your poor sisters whom you shake your heads at,
+never guessing how Gregorio and I have looked out at you and your
+adopted uncle parading the street.'
+
+'I wish Gregorio would mind his own business, and not put such things
+in your head!' burst out Nuttie.
+
+At which Mr. Egremont laughed longer and louder than ever.
+
+Poor Nuttie!  It was terrible discomfiture, not only for the moment,
+but a notion had been planted in her mind that seemed cruel, almost
+profane, and yet which would not be dismissed, and made her heart leap
+with strange bounds at the wild thought, 'Could it be true?' then sink
+again with shame at her own presumptuous folly in entertaining such a
+thought for a moment.
+
+Yet whenever she actually encountered Mr. Dutton her habitual comfort
+and reliance on him revived, and dispelled all the embarrassment which
+at other times she expected to feel in his presence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+SPES NON FRACTA.
+
+
+Summer had quite set in before Mr. Egremont was able to go out for a
+drive, and then he was ordered to Buxton.
+
+Nuttie only once saw her cousins before leaving town, for their little
+boy fulfilled the nursery superstition by whooping till May; and all
+intercourse was prohibited, till he had ceased for a whole week to
+utter a suspicious sound.  Mr. Dutton had insisted on the family
+spending a fortnight at Springfield House for change of air, and it was
+there that Nuttie was permitted to see them, though the children were
+still forbidden to meet.
+
+Annaple looked very thin, but rattled as merrily as ever.  'No one
+could guess,' she said, 'what a delight it was not to know what one was
+to have for dinner?'
+
+'To do more than know, I am afraid,' said Ursula.
+
+'Well, next to the delight of knowing nothing at all about it--and even
+that is only good for a holiday--is the delight of seeing a pudding
+come out smooth and comfortable and unbroken from its basin. "Something
+attempted, something done," you know.  It is quite as good a work of
+art as a water-coloured drawing.'
+
+'Only not quite so permanent.'
+
+'No; it is only one's first pudding that one wants to embalm in a glass
+case for being so good as not to leave its better part behind in the
+basin, or to collapse as soon as it is in the dish.'
+
+'Which my puddings always did in the happy days of old, but then I was
+always hunted ignominiously out of the kitchen and told I wasted good
+food,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Yes, and waste is fearful when Mark and Billy have to eat it all the
+same, like the poor cows with spoilt hay.  I wonder whether your old
+experiences recall the joy of finding trustworthy eggs within your
+price.'
+
+'Ah, I was not housekeeper.  I only remember being in disgrace for
+grumbling when there was no pudding, because the hens would not lay.'
+
+'Though I heard a woman declaring the other day that there ought to be
+a machine for them.  Oh, the scenes that I encounter when I am
+marketing!  If I only could describe them for Punch!  I walked home
+once with our porter's wife, carrying two most brilliant sticks of
+rhubarb, all carmine stalk and gamboge leaf, and expressing a very
+natural opinion that the rhubarb tree must be very showy to look at,
+and curious to know in what kind of fruit the medicine grew.'
+
+'Oh, Annaple! do you go yourself in that way?'
+
+'Mark used to go with me, but, poor old fellow, he has ruinous ideas
+about prices and quantities, and besides, now he is so hard worked-up
+and down all day--he wants a little more of his bed in the morning.'
+
+'And what do you want?'
+
+'I never was a sleepy creature, and I get back in time to dress the
+boy.  I generally find him at high-jinks on his father's bed.  It uses
+up a little superfluous energy before the dressing.'
+
+'But surely you have a servant now?'
+
+'I've come to the conclusion that a workman's wife charing is a better
+institution.  No. 1, a pet of Miss Nugent's, was a nice creature, but
+the London air did for her at once.  No. 2, also from Micklethwayte,
+instantly set up a young man, highly respectable, and ready to marry on
+the spot, as they did, though their united ages don't amount to
+thirty-nine.  No. 3 was a Cockney, and couldn't stay because the
+look-out was so dull; and No. 4 gossiped with her kind when I thought
+her safe in the Temple Gardens with Billy, whereby he caught the
+whooping-cough, and as she also took the liberty of wearing my fur
+cloak, and was not particular as to accuracy, we parted on short
+notice; and I got this woman to come in every day to scrub, help make
+the bed, etc.  It is much less trouble, and the only fault I have to
+find with her is an absolute incapability of discerning blacks.  I
+believe she thinks I have a monomania against them.'
+
+Still Annaple insisted that she did not work half so hard as her
+nieces, Muriel and Janet, in their London season, and that her economy
+was not nearly so trying and difficult as that which Lady Delmar had
+been practising for years in order to afford them a summer there; nor
+was her anxiety to make both ends meet by any means equal to her
+sister's in keeping up appearances, and avoiding detrimentals. The two
+sisters met occasionally, but Lady Delmar was so compassionate and
+patronising that Annaple's spirit recoiled in off-hand levity and
+rattle, and neither regretted the occupation that prevented them from
+seeing much of one another.
+
+
+A year passed by, chiefly spent by Mr. Egremont in the pursuit of
+comparative health, at Buxton, Bagneres, and Biarritz, during which his
+daughter could do little but attend to him and to little Alwyn. The boy
+had been enough left to her and nurse during his father's acute illness
+to have become more amenable.  He was an affectionate child,
+inheriting, with his mother's face, her sweetness and docility of
+nature, and he was old enough to be a good deal impressed with the fact
+that he had made poor papa so ill by teasing him to stand in the cold.
+Mr. Egremont was not at rest without a sight of the child every day, if
+only for a moment, and the helplessness and suffering had awed the
+little fellow a good deal.  It was touching to see him pause when
+galloping about the house when he went past the sick-room, and hush his
+merry voice of his own accord.
+
+And in the journeys, when his father's invalided state would have made
+a fractious or wilful child a serious inconvenience, his good temper
+and contentment were invaluable.  He would sit for hours on his
+sister's lap, listening to whispered oft-told tales, or playing at
+impromptu quiet games; he could go to sleep anywhere, and the wonderful
+discoveries he made at each new place were the amusement of all his
+auditors.  Sister was always his playfellow and companion whenever she
+could be spared from her father, and she had an ever-increasing
+influence over him which she did her best to raise into principle.
+
+Perhaps she never had a happier moment than when she heard how he had
+put his hands behind him and steadily refused when Gregorio had offered
+to regale him at a stall of bonbons forming only a thin crust to
+liqueurs, which unfortunately he had already been taught to like.
+
+'But I told him sister said I mustn't have them,' said Alwyn.  'And
+then he made a face and said something in French about you.  I know
+'twas you, for he said "soeur."  What was it?'
+
+'Never mind, Wynnie dear. We had much better never know.  You were
+sister's own dear steadfast boy, and you shall kiss mother's picture.'
+
+Nuttie had a beautiful coloured photograph of her mother, finished like
+a miniature, which had been taken at Nice, in the time of Alice
+Egremont's most complete and matured beauty.  She had taught Alwyn to
+kiss and greet it every evening before his prayers, and such a kiss was
+his reward when he had shown any special act of goodness, for which, as
+she told him, 'mother would have been pleased with her little son.'
+
+Such another boon was his one Sunday evening at Biarritz, when she
+found that while she was shut up at dinner with her father he had
+voluntarily gone to church with nurse instead of playing on the beach
+with some other English children.  'It was all very long and tiresome,'
+he said, when asked if he liked it.
+
+'Then why did you go, old man?  There was no need to drag you there,'
+said his father.
+
+'She didn't drag me,' said the boy; 'I walked.'
+
+'You need not have walked then, Master Dignity.'
+
+'Poor nursie couldn't go without me,' said Alwyn, 'and sister says
+there's a blessing on those that go.'
+
+'A blessing? eh! and what idea does that little head entertain of a
+blessing?' said Mr. Egremont.
+
+Alwyn lifted his soft brown eyes reverently and said, 'It is something
+good,' speaking, as he always did, in a baby lisp inimitable here.
+
+'Well?'
+
+'And it comes from God.'
+
+'Well, what is it?  Can you see it?'
+
+'No'--he looked in perplexity towards Nuttie, who was in agony all the
+time, lest there should be a scoff that might remain in the child's
+mind.
+
+'Never mind sister.  Can you feel it?'
+
+'Yes;' and the little face lighted with such a reality that the
+incipient mockery turned into wonder on the next question.
+
+'And how does it feel?'
+
+'Oh, so nice!  It makes Wynnie glad here,' and he spread his hands over
+his breast; and gave a little caper like a kid for very gladness.
+
+'There!' said Mr. Egremont, leaning back fairly conquered.  'Any one
+might envy Wynnie!  Goodnight, my boy, blessing and all.  I wonder if
+one felt like that when one was a little shaver,' he pursued, as Alwyn
+went off to his bed.
+
+'I think I did sometimes,' said Nuttie, 'but I never was half as good
+as Wynnie!'
+
+'What?' exclaimed her father.  'You! bred up among the saints.'
+
+'Ah! but I hadn't the same nature.  I never was like--_her_.'
+
+'Well--'tis very pretty now, and I don't know how we could stand a
+young Turk, but you mustn't make a girl of him.'
+
+'There's no fear of that,' said Nuttie.  'He is full of spirit.  That
+old bathing woman calls him "un vrai petit diable d'Anglais," he is so
+venturous.'
+
+Which delighted Mr. Egremont as much as the concession that the boy's
+faith was 'pretty' delighted Ursula.  Indeed, he went a little further,
+for when she came back from her few minutes at Alwyn's bedside he
+proceeded to tell her of the absolute neglect in which his mother, a
+belle of the Almacks days, had left her nursery.  It was the first time
+he had ever hinted at a shadow of perception that anything in his own
+life had been amiss, and Ursula could not but feel a dreamy, hopeful
+wonder whether her sweet little Alwyn could be the destined means of
+doing that in which her mother had failed.  It was at least enough to
+quicken those prayers which had been more dutiful than trustful.
+
+And then her hope sank again when she realised that her father's days
+were spent between the lull of opiate, followed by a certain serenity,
+then in a period of irritability, each being more or less prolonged,
+according to health, weather, or entertainment, and closed again by the
+sedatives in various forms.  It relieved her indeed, but she felt it a
+wickedness to be glad of the calm, and she was aware that the habit was
+making inroads on her father's powers.  Between that and his defect of
+eyesight, he was often much confused, especially about money matters,
+and was more and more dependent.
+
+Would that it had been only upon her, but she was constantly certain
+that Gregorio was taking advantage of his master's helplessness, and
+keeping it up by all means in his power.  Yet what could be done? For
+the valet was absolutely necessary to his comfort, and yet she
+sometimes thought her father half in dread of him, and afraid to
+expostulate about personal neglects, which became more frequent.
+Things, that would have enraged him from others, were only grumbled and
+fretted over, when Gregorio caused him real inconvenience by absence or
+forgetfulness, and made very insufficient apology.  It seemed like a
+bondage; Nuttie thought of her mother's efforts, and blamed herself in
+vain.
+
+It was during this journey that she heard of good Miss Headworth's
+death.  The old lady's mind had long failed, and the actual present
+loss to Nuttie was not great; but it seemed to close a long account of
+gratitude such as she had not thoroughly felt or understood before; and
+the link with Micklethwayte was severed.
+
+For Mark and Annaple prevailed on Mrs. Egremont to install Miss Nugent
+as governess to Rosalind and Adela.  In that capacity Nuttie hoped to
+see a good deal of her; but of course was again disappointed, for her
+father would not hear of returning to Bridgefield.  It was draughty,
+and dull, and desolate, and nothing suited him but London.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+BLACKS IN THE ASCENDANT.
+
+  'Man's work ends with set of sun,
+  Woman's work is never done.'--Proverb.
+
+
+It was far on in May when Ursula found herself again in the
+sitting-room over the warehouse.  Somehow it had not the dainty
+well-cared-for air of erst.  The pretty table ornaments were out of
+sight; the glass over the clock was dim, the hands had stopped; some of
+Annaple's foes, the blacks, had effected a lodgment on the Parian
+figures; the chintzes showed wear and wash, almost grime; the carpet's
+pattern was worn; a basket full of socks was on the sofa; and on the
+table a dress, once belonging to Annaple's trousseau, was laid out,
+converted into its component parts.  The wails of a baby could be heard
+in the distance, and the first person to appear was Master William,
+sturdy and happy in spite of wofully darned knees to his stockings.
+
+'Mother's coming, if baby will stop crying,' he said, 'and lie in her
+cradle.'
+
+'Your little sister!  What's her name?'
+
+'Jane Christian,' said the boy, with a much more distinct enunciation
+than Alwyn, though a year older, had yet acquired.  'She does cry so!
+She won't let mother make my new knickies out of her blue gown!'
+
+Thoughts of the suits that Alwyn was discarding came across Nuttie.
+Could they be offered without offence?  She asked, however, 'Do you
+remember Alwyn--my Wynnie?'
+
+'Wynnie gave me my horse,' cried the boy, unstabling a steed which had
+seen hard service since the presentation.  'Where's Wynnie?'
+
+'He is at home.  You must come and see him,' said Nuttie, who had not
+been allowed to bring him till secure of a clean bill of health. 'But
+see, just outside the door, there's something for Billy.'
+
+She had made her servant bring up the parcels to the passage outside,
+and Billy was soon hugging a magnificent box of soldiers, wherewith he
+pranced off to show them to his mother, leaving the doors open, so that
+Ursula could more decidedly hear the baby's voice, not a healthy
+child's lusty cry, but a poor little feeble wail, interspersed with
+attempts at consolation.  'Come, won't she go to Emily?  Oh, Billy-boy,
+how splendid!  I hope you thanked Cousin Ursula.  Baby Jenny, now can't
+you let any one speak but yourself?  Oh! shall I never teach you that
+"Balow, my babe," is not "bellow, my babe."  That's better!  Now can't
+you let Emily have you, while I go to Cousin Nuttie?'
+
+'Let me come!  Mayn't I?' exclaimed Ursula, invading the room that
+served as kitchen, where Annaple was trying to hush off the child and
+make her over to a little twelve years old maid, who stood in waiting,
+helping Willie meantime to unpack his soldiers, with smothered
+exclamations of delight.
+
+'Oh, Nuttie, how good of you!  Please to excuse the accompaniment.
+There never was such a young lady for self-assertion to make up for
+there being so little of her.'
+
+And Annaple, very thin and tired looking, held up the child, fearfully
+small and pinched for four months old, to be kissed by Nuttie.
+
+'Does she always go on like this?'
+
+''Cept when she is asleep,' said Willie.
+
+'Poor wee lassie,' said Annaple; 'there's great excuse for her, for the
+food has not yet been invented that suits her ladyship.'
+
+'You must come and consult nurse.'
+
+'And how are you all?  I'm glad you are at hand, Nuttie!  Is Mr.
+Egremont better?'
+
+'As well as ever he is--lame and altogether an invalid,--but he has not
+had such bad attacks of pain lately.'
+
+'And his eyes?'
+
+'About the same.  He can write, and tell one card from another, but he
+can't read--or rather it hurts him to do so, and he can't bear a strong
+light.  But, Annaple, how are you?  That child is wearing you to a
+shadow.'
+
+'Oh! I'm quite well--perfectly.  There, I think she is gone off at
+last.  You had better walk her about a little, Emily; she will break
+out again if we try to put her in the cradle.'
+
+And having handed over the child with only a very low murmur, Annaple
+left her combined kitchen and nursery.  She flew at the flowers Nuttie
+had brought like a thirsty person, crying, as she buried her face in
+them, 'Now for beauty!  Now Mark will be refreshed!  Ah! here's a
+pretty pickle for a reception room.'
+
+'Oh, don't put it away!  I could help you; I do so like that kind of
+work.  It is so like old times.'
+
+'It must be put away, thank you, for Mark will be coming in.  And the
+saying about the public washing of garments is specially true of one's
+own husband.  Ways and means are worrying to the masculine mind.'
+
+'I thought it was too early for Mark?'
+
+'He has an appointment to keep at Charing Cross or thereabouts, so I
+made him promise to come in in time to "put a bit in his head," as our
+Irish charwoman says.'
+
+'Then I can take him.  I have the carriage, and I must be at home by
+half-past twelve.  I wish you would come too, Annaple.  There's plenty
+of room.  You could show the baby to nurse, and the boys could have a
+good game.  I would send you back in the evening.  Mark could come on
+after his business is done.'
+
+'Thank you, Nuttie, I can't to-day--for a whole heap of domestic
+reasons; but, if you can get Mark to come, do, it would be so good for
+him.'
+
+'How is Mark?'
+
+'He is well, quite well,' said Annaple; 'and so good and patient. But
+you see, it does take it out of a man when that doleful little noise
+won't stop all night!  We are both acquiring a form of somnambulism,
+but when there's real out-of-door business to be done, it is not like
+proper sleep.'
+
+'Or when there's woman's indoor business, I am afraid,' said Nuttie,
+much concerned at the extreme thinness of Annaple's face and hands, and
+the weary look of her large eyes.
+
+'Oh, one makes that up at odd times!' she answered brightly.  'One
+thing is, this work suits Mark, he feels that he can do it, and he gets
+on well with the men.  They asked him to join in their club, and he was
+so much pleased.  He gets up subjects for them, and I am so glad he has
+such a pleasure and interest to keep him from missing the society he
+was used to.'
+
+'It must be very good for them too.  Mr. Dutton said he really thought
+Mark had kept them from going in for a strike.'
+
+'Besides the glory of the thing,' said Annaple drawing herself up, 'Mr.
+Dobbs thought so too, and raised us ten pounds; which made us able to
+import that little Bridgefield lassie to hold baby--when--when Miss
+Jenny will let her.  He has some law copying to do besides, but I don't
+like that; it burns the candle at both ends, and he does get bad
+headaches sometimes, and goes on all the same.'
+
+'You must both come and see my Wyn.'
+
+'Ah! I had never asked after him.  I suppose he is as pretty as ever,'
+said Annaple, who secretly thought his beauty too girlish compared with
+her sturdy Billy.
+
+'Prettier, I think, as he gets more expression.  We can't persuade
+ourselves to cut his hair, and it looks so lovely on his sailor suit.
+And he is so good.  I could not have believed a child could be so quiet
+and considerate on a journey.  You should have seen him standing by my
+father's knee in the railway carriage, and amusing him with all that
+was to be seen, and stopping at the least hint that he was chattering
+too much.'
+
+'Billy is wonderfully helpful.  Ah--' and Annaple's eyes lighted up as
+the step that had music in't came up the stair; and as Mark came in,
+Nuttie thought him grown older, his hair thinner, his shoulders
+rounded, and his office coat shabby, but she saw something in his
+countenance there had never been before.  Ever since she had known him
+he had worn a certain air of depression, or perhaps more truly of
+failure and perplexity, which kept before her conscious mind the
+Desdichado on Ivanhoe's shield, even when he was a gentleman at ease at
+the luxurious Rectory; but there was now not only the settled air of a
+man who had found his vocation, but something of the self-respect and
+eagerness of one who was doing it well, and feeling himself valued.
+
+'Is baby--' he began.  'Oh, Nuttie!  Are you there?  Mr. Dutton told me
+you were coming.  How is my uncle?'  And the voice was much brisker
+than in the days of lawn-tennis.
+
+'Father, father, look!' cried the boy.
+
+'Why, Billy-boy, you are set up!  Zouaves and chasseurs!  I see where
+they came from.'
+
+During the mixture of greetings and inquiries, admiration of the
+flowers, and the exhibition of Billy's treasures, Annaple glided away,
+and presently placed before him a tray, daintily benapkinned and set
+forth with a little cup of soup.
+
+'Baby is really asleep, and Emily as proud as a Hielandman,' she said.
+'Now eat this, without more ado, for that good Nuttie is going to set
+you down at Charing Cross.'
+
+'This is the way we spoil our husbands, Nuttie,' said Mark. 'Refections
+served up at every turn.'
+
+'Only bones!  The immortal pot au feu,' said Annaple.  'And you are to
+go on after you have interviewed your man of steel, and have tea with
+Nuttie, and pay your respects to your uncle, like a dutiful nephew.'
+
+'No, that I can't, Nannie; I promised Dobbs to go and see a man for
+him, and I must come back as soon as I can after that.'
+
+He looked--as to figure and air--much more like his old self when he
+had changed his coat.  They fed him, almost against his will, with a
+few of the forced strawberries Nuttie had brought.  Billy pressed on
+him wonders from a Paris bonbon box, and Annaple fastened a rose and a
+pink in his button-hole, and came down to the street door with her boy
+to see him off.
+
+'What do you think of her?' was Mark's first inquiry.
+
+'Think!  As Mr. Dutton said long ago, never was braver lady!'
+
+'Never was there a truer word!  I meant as to her health?  As to
+courage, spirits, and temper, there is no question; I never saw them
+fail; but are they not almost too much for the frame?' he asked
+anxiously.
+
+It echoed Nuttie's fear, but she tried to frame a cheerful answer. 'She
+is very thin, but she seems well.'
+
+'She never complains, but I am sure her strength is not what it was.
+She cannot walk out as she did at first.  Indeed, she gets no real rest
+day nor night, and there's no relieving her!'
+
+'She says you don't get much rest either.'
+
+'More than my share,' said Mark.  'The poor little thing never sleeps
+except in someone's arms, and if awake, is not content for a moment
+except in her mother's.'
+
+'And that has been going on four months?'
+
+'Three.  Ever since we brought her back from Redcastle.  I have nearly
+determined to move into some suburb when I get a rise at Michaelmas,
+unless she improves.'
+
+'Nurse might suggest something.'
+
+'Or at any rate tell us what to think.  We showed her to a doctor, and
+all he could propose was some kind of food, which was no more
+successful than the rest.  Did you look at her, Nuttie?  She is a
+pretty little thing when she is quiet, but she dwindles away--at least
+so it seems to me, though Annaple will not see it, and--and if we are
+not permitted to keep the little one, I dread what the effect may be on
+her.'
+
+Nuttie said something about bravery and goodness, thinking in her heart
+that, if the blow fell, it would be better for all than the perpetual
+suffering of the poor little sickly being.
+
+'Ah! you don't know what her affections are,' said Mark.  'You did not
+see her when she lost her mother, and there had been no strain on her
+powers then.  However, I've no business to croak.  Many a child gets
+over troubles of this kind, and, as Annaple says, little Jenny will be
+all the more to us for what we go through with her.'
+
+The carriage stopped, and Nuttie asked him if it would delay him too
+long if she executed a commission about her father's glasses.  He had
+plenty of time, but she was delayed longer than she expected, and on
+her return was surprised to find that he had dropped asleep.
+
+'Ah! that's what comes of a moment's quiet;' he said, smiling.
+
+'Fine quiet in the roar of Ludgate Hill!'
+
+'To a Cockney 'tis as the mill to the miller!  I like the full stir and
+tide,' he added, looking out upon it.  'I never knew what life was
+before!'
+
+'I should have thought you never knew what hardness and hard work were.'
+
+'That's just it,' he answered, smiling.  'The swing of it is
+exhilaration--very different from being a cumberer of the ground.'
+
+'Oh, Mark, all the privations and anxiety!'
+
+'The privation! that's nothing.  Indeed I am afraid--yes, I am ashamed
+to say--it falls more on my dear wife than myself, but if we can only
+wear through a year or two we shall get a further rise, and my poor
+Annaple may get out of this drudgery.  Please God, she and the little
+one can stand it for a time, and I think she has a spring within her
+that will;' then, as he saw tears in his cousin's eyes, he added,
+'Don't be unhappy about it, Nuttie; I have had it in my mind ever so
+long to tell you that the finding you at Micklethwayte was the best
+thing that ever happened to me!'
+
+Yes, so far as character went, Ursula could believe that it had been
+so.  He was twice the man he would have been without the incentive to
+work, and the constant exercise of patience and cheerfulness; but her
+heart was heavy with apprehension that the weight of the trial might be
+too heavy.  To her eyes the baby's life seemed extremely doubtful, and
+Annaple looked so fragile that the increase of her burthens, any
+saddening of the heart, might destroy her elasticity, and crush her
+outright; while even Mark seemed to her to be toiling so close within
+the limits of his powers that a straw might break the camel's back!
+
+She longed to talk to Mr. Dutton about them, but she found herself
+doomed to a day that perhaps Annaple would have thought more trying
+than her harrowed life.  She was a little later than she had intended,
+and her father had been waiting impatiently to have a note read to him,
+so he growled at her impatience to run after 'that Scotch girl.'  And
+the note happened to be of an irritating nature; moreover, the cutlets
+at luncheon were said to be akin to indiarubber, and there was the
+wrong flavour in the sauce.  Ursula let that cook do what she pleased
+without remonstrance.
+
+Even Alwyn did not afford as much satisfaction as usual, for the boy
+was in high spirits and wanted to blow a little trumpet, which was more
+than his father could stand.  He was very good when this was silenced,
+but he then began to rush round the room daring his sister to catch the
+wild colt as he went by.  This had likewise to be stopped, with the
+murmur that Ursula spoilt the child.
+
+She tried to compose matters by turning out the old toys in the
+ottoman, but Alwyn had outgrown most of them, and did not care for any
+except a certain wooden donkey, minus one ear and a leg, which went by
+the name of Sambo, and had absorbed a good deal of his affection.  He
+had with difficulty been consoled for Sambo being left behind, and now
+turned over everything with considerable clatter in search of him.
+Alas!  Sambo could nowhere be found in the room, and Alwyn dashed off
+to inquire of all the household after him.  His father meanwhile
+growled at the child's noise, and went on trying the glasses Nuttie had
+brought, and pronouncing each pair in turn useless, vowing that it was
+no use to send her anywhere.
+
+Upon this, back came Alwyn, terribly distressed and indignant, for he
+had extracted from the housemaid left in charge, who was as cross as
+she was trustworthy, 'What! that old broken thing, Master Egremont? I
+threw it on the fire!  I'd never have thought a young gentleman of your
+age would have cared for such rubbish as that.'
+
+'You are a wicked cruel woman,' returned Alwyn, with flashing eyes; 'I
+shall tell papa and sister of you.'
+
+And in he flew, sobbing with grief and wrath for the dear Sambo,
+feeling as if it had been a live donkey burnt to death, and hiding his
+face on his sister's breast for consolation.
+
+'Come, come, Wyn,' said his father, who did not brook interruption;
+'here's half a sovereign to go and buy a new donkey.'
+
+'It won't be Sambo,' said Alwyn ruefully.
+
+'But you should thank papa,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Thank you, papa,' he said, with quivering lip, 'but I don't want a new
+one.  Oh Sambo, Sambo! burnt!' and he climbed on Nuttie's lap, hid his
+face against her and cried, but her comfortings were broken off by,
+'How can you encourage the child in being so foolish?  Have done, Wyn;
+don't be such a baby!  Go out with nurse and buy what you like, but I
+can't have crying here.'
+
+He tried to stop in sheer amazement, but the ground swell of sob could
+not be controlled.  Nuttie was going to lead him away, and console him
+with more imaginative sympathy than could be expected from the maids,
+but her father sharply called her back.  He wanted her himself, and
+indeed there was no question which was the worse spoilt child.  He
+might idolise Alwyn, but not so as to clash with his own comforts.  The
+glasses being unsuccessful, Nuttie proposed to drive back to Ludgate
+Hill for him to choose for himself, but he would not hear of going into
+the heat of the City, and growled at her for thinking of such a thing.
+
+They took an aimless drive instead in the park, and Nuttie was nearly
+baked while the carriage was stopped for her father to have a long talk
+over the prospects of the Derby day with one of his most unpleasant
+associates, who stood leaning over the door on the shady side of the
+carriage, no one recking how little protection she derived from her
+small fringed parasol.
+
+She came home tired out, and thankful that her father went to rest in
+his own room.  She climbed to the nursery, thinking to share Alwyn's
+tea and comfort him, but she found only nurse there.  Nurse had a bad
+foot, and dreaded hot pavement, so she had sent Master Alwyn out with
+her subordinate, a country girl, to play in Mr. Dutton's garden till it
+should be cool enough to go and make his purchase, and a message had
+since arrived that he was going to drink tea there, and Mr. Dutton
+would take him out.
+
+His sister envied him the green shades, and had just done her best to
+cool the back drawing-room and rest herself with a book, when Mr. Fane
+was announced.  He talked pleasantly enough, and lingered and lingered,
+no doubt intending to be asked to dinner, but she was equally
+determined to do no such thing.  She had heard enough of races for one
+day, she thought, and at last he took his leave, only just before she
+dressed for dinner.
+
+'I thought Fane was here,' said Mr. Egremont as he came in; no doubt
+told by Gregorio.
+
+'He has been, but he is gone.'
+
+'You didn't ask him to stay and dine?'
+
+'I did not know you wished it.'
+
+'You might have known that I should have liked to see him.  I suppose
+you think your sweet self society enough for any man?'
+
+'I am sorry--'
+
+'I'm sick of hearing you are sorry!  I believe there's nothing you like
+so well as doing an ungracious thing to a friend of mine.'
+
+Nuttie had learnt to hold her tongue on such occasions.
+
+Dinner was nearly over, and her father had been grumbling again at
+having no one to take a hand at cards with him, when the door opened a
+little way, and Alwyn's pretty glowing face looked in.  He was come to
+say good-night rather later than usual, and he ran up to his sister
+with a little bouquet of yellow banksia and forget-me-nots. 'Mithter
+Button'--so Alwyn called him--'sent you this.  He said you would like
+it, 'cause it came from one that grew at Mittletwait.  And oh, look,
+look!'
+
+He was hugging a little ship, which he proudly exhibited, while his
+father's brow had darkened at the message.  'Did you buy that?' asked
+his sister.
+
+'Yes, Mr. Button went with me, and we sailed it.  We sailed it by the
+fountain in Mr. Button's garden, And we made a storm!'
+
+He danced about with glee, and Mr. Egremont observed, 'A dear purchase
+for ten shillings.  Did it cost all that, Wyn?'
+
+'They gived me a big silver half-crown, and I gived that to a little
+boy what came to speak to Mr. Button, and had his toes through his
+boots, and he was so glad.'
+
+'Your money is not for beggars, Wyn.'
+
+'The little boy was not a beggar, papa.  He came with a newspaper to
+Mr. Button, and he is so good to his poor sick mother,' said Alwyn.
+'See, see, sister!' turning the prow of his small vessel towards her,
+and showing a word on it in pencil which he required her to spell out.
+It was Ursula.
+
+'Oh Wynnie!' she said, duly flattered, 'did Mr. Dutton do that?'
+
+'He held my hand, and I did!' cried Alwyn, triumphantly, 'and he will
+paint it on Saturday.  Then it will dry all Sunday, and not come off,
+so it will be the Ursula for ever and always.'
+
+Here nurse claimed her charge; and when the goodnights were over, and a
+murmur recommenced, Nuttie suggested that if Mr. Dutton was at home
+perhaps he would come in and make up the game, but she encountered the
+old humour.  'I'll tell you what, Ursula, I'll not have that umbrella
+fellow encouraged about the house, and if that child is to be made the
+medium of communication, I'll put a stop to it.'
+
+The words were spoken just as Gregorio had entered the room with a
+handkerchief of his master's.  Nuttie, colouring deeply at the insult,
+met his triumphant eyes, bit her lips, and deigned no word of reply.
+
+An undefined but very slight odour, that told her of opium smoke,
+pervaded the stairs that night.  It was the only refuge from
+fretfulness; but her heart ached for her father, herself, and most of
+all for her little brother.  And was she to be cut off from her only
+counsellor?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+THE LOST HEIR.
+
+  'Seemed to the boy some comrade gay
+  Led him forth to the woods to play.'--SCOTT.
+
+
+Though it was the Derby day, Mr. Egremont's racing days were over, and
+he only took his daughter with him in quest of the spectacles he
+wanted.  When they came back, Nuttie mounted to the nursery, but no
+little brother met her on the stairs, and she found nurse in deep
+displeasure with her subordinate.
+
+'I sent him out with Ellen to play in the garden at Springfield, and
+swim his ship, where he couldn't come to no harm,' said nurse; 'being
+that my foot is that bad I can't walk the length of the street; and
+what does the girl do but lets that there Gregorio take the dear child
+and go--goodness knows where--without her.'
+
+'I'm sure, ma'am,' said the girl crying, 'I would never have done it,
+but Mr. Gregory said as how 'twas his papa's wish.'
+
+'What was?' said Nuttie.
+
+'That he shouldn't never go and play at Mr. Dutton's again,' said Ellen.
+
+'I told her she was to take her orders off me, and no one else,'
+returned nurse, 'except, of course, you, Miss Egremont, as has the
+right.'
+
+'Quite so; you should have told Mr. Gregorio so, Ellen.'
+
+'I did, ma'am, but he said those was Mr. Egremont's orders; and he
+said,' cried the girl, unable to withstand the pleasure of repeating
+something disagreeable, 'that Mr. Egremont wouldn't have no messengers
+between you and a low tradesman fellow, as made umbrellas, and wanted
+to insinuate himself in here.'
+
+'That's quite enough, Ellen; I don't want to hear any impertinences.
+Perhaps you did not understand his foreign accent.  Did he say where he
+was going?'
+
+'I think he said he'd take him to the Serpentine to sail his ship,'
+said Ellen, disposed to carry on asseverations of the correctness of
+her report, but nurse ordered her off the scene, and proceeded, as a
+confidential servant, 'The girl had no call to repeat it; but there's
+not a doubt of it he did say something of the sort.  There's not one of
+us but knows he is dead against Mr. Dutton, because he tried to get
+master to get to sleep without that nasty opium smoke of his.'
+
+There was bitter feud between nurse and valet, and Nuttie could have
+exchanged with her many a lament, but she contented herself with
+saying, 'I wish he would let Master Alwyn alone.  It is high time they
+should come in.'
+
+'The child will be tired to death, and all dirt!  His nice new sailor
+suit too!  Going grubbing about at the Serpentine with no one knows
+who, as isn't fit for a young gentleman,' moaned nurse.
+
+This, however, was the worst fear she entertained, and it was with a
+certain malicious satisfaction that she heard her master's bell for
+Gregorio.
+
+Nuttie descended to explain, and whereas the need was not very urgent,
+and she looked distressed and angered at the valet, her father received
+her complaint with, 'Well, the boy is getting too big to be tied for
+ever to a nursery-maid.  It will do him good to go about with a man.'
+
+But as dressing-time came on, and still neither Gregorio nor Alwyn
+appeared, Mr. Egremont became impatient, and declared that the valet
+had no business to keep the child out so long; indeed, he would sooner
+have taken alarm but for Nuttie's manifest agony of anxiety, starting
+and rushing to listen at every ring at the bell or sound of wheels near
+at hand.  At last, at eight o'clock, there was a peal of the servants'
+bell, and the footman who answered it turned round to the anxious
+crowd: 'Mr. Gregory!  He just asked if the child was come home, and
+went off like lightning.'
+
+'The villain!  He's lost him!' shrieked nurse, with a wild scream. 'Run
+after him, James!  Catch him up!' suggested the butler at the same
+moment.  'Make him tell where he saw him last!'
+
+James was not a genius, but the hall boy, an alert young fellow, had
+already dashed down the steps in pursuit, and came up with the valet so
+as to delay him till the other servants stood round, and Gregorio
+turned back with them, pale, breathless, evidently terribly dismayed
+and unwilling to face his master, who stood at the top of the steps,
+white with alarm and wrath.
+
+'Sir,' cried Gregorio, with a stammering of mixed languages, 'I have
+been searching everywhere!  I was going to give notice to the police.
+Je ferai tout!  Je le trouverai.'
+
+'Where did you lose him?' demanded Mr. Egremont in a hoarse voice, such
+as Nuttie had never heard.
+
+'In the Park, near the bridge over the Serpentine.  I was speaking for
+a few moments to a friend.  Bah!  Il etait parti.  Mais je le
+trouverai.  Parker, he seeks too.  Fear not, sir, I shall find him.'
+
+'Find him, you scoundrel, or never dare to see me again!  I've borne
+with your insolences long, and now you've brought them to a height. Go,
+I say, find my boy!' exclaimed Mr. Egremont, with a fierce oath and
+passionate gesture, and Gregorio vanished again.
+
+'Bring the carriage--no, call a cab;' commanded Mr. Egremont, snatching
+up his hat.  'Who is this Parker?'
+
+The servants hesitated, but the butler said he believed the man to be a
+friend of Gregorio's employed at one of the clubs.  Nuttie meanwhile
+begging her father not to go without her, flew upstairs to put on her
+hat, and coming down at full speed found that Mr. Dutton, passing by
+and seeing the open door and the terrified servants on the steps, had
+turned in to ask what was the matter, and was hearing in no measured
+terms from Mr. Egremont how the child had been taken away from his
+nurse and lost in the Park while that scamp Gregorio was chattering to
+some good-for-nothing friend.
+
+To Nuttie's great relief, Mr. Dutton offered to go with the father to
+assist in the search, and the coachman, far too anxious and excited to
+let his master go without him in a cab, contrived to bring up the
+carriage.  Some of the servants were ordered off to the various police
+offices.  Poor nurse, who was nearly distracted, started in a hansom on
+her own account, persuaded that she should see and recognise traces of
+her darling at the scene of his loss, and she almost raced the
+carriage, which was bound for the same spot.
+
+Sluggish natures like Mr. Egremont's can sometimes be roused to great
+violence, and then pour forth the long pent-up accumulations kept back
+by indolence and indifference.  His only occupation during the rapid
+drive was to vituperate his valet, the curse of his life, he said.  To
+hear him talk, it would have seemed as if Gregorio had been the tyrant
+who had kept him in bondage all these years, fully aware of his
+falsehood, peculation, and other rascality, but as unable to break the
+yoke as if he had been in truth the slave of anything but his own evil
+habit and helpless acquiescence.
+
+Would it last if Gregorio made his appearance at that instant with
+Alwyn in his hand?  Or even, as Mr. Dutton confidently predicted, a
+policeman might bring the boy home, before many hours were passed. The
+chief doubt here was that Alwyn's defective pronunciation, which had
+been rather foolishly encouraged, might make it difficult to understand
+his mode  of saying his own name, or even that of the street, if he
+knew it perfectly; but the year he had been absent from London had
+prevented him from acquiring the curious ready local instinct of the
+true town child, and he had been so much guarded and watched that he
+was likely to be utterly at a loss when left alone; and Nuttie was
+wretched at the thought of his terror and loneliness, even while Mr.
+Dutton told her of speedy recoveries of lost children through kind
+people or the police.
+
+They found all the officials of the Park already aware and on the
+alert, and quite certain of the impossibility of nurse's prime dread
+that the boy had fallen into the water unseen by any one and been
+drowned.  She was even ready to look into every bush, in case he had
+been frightened and hidden himself; and nothing would satisfy her but
+to stay making these researches, when her master had decided on
+endeavouring to find 'Parker' at the club, and to ascertain from him
+particulars of time and place.
+
+He was found there.  The dinner-hour had brought him back, he being a
+man in authority there, very well dressed and deferential, declaring
+himself immensely distressed at the occurrence, and at having accosted
+Gregorio and attracted his attention.  It was about four o'clock, he
+thought, and he described the exact spot where the little boy had been
+sailing his vessel fastened to a string.  They might have been talking
+twenty minutes or half an hour when Gregorio missed his charge, and
+since that time both had been doing all in their power to find him,
+until half-past seven, when he had to return to his club, and Gregorio
+went to see whether the child had been taken home.
+
+By this time Mr. Egremont looked so utterly exhausted, that Mr. Dutton
+availed himself of the hope that the boy might be found safe at home to
+take him back; but alas! nothing had been heard there.
+
+The poor man was in a restless, unmanageable state of excitement,
+almost as terrifying to his daughter as the distress that occasioned
+it.  He swallowed a tumblerful of claret, but would not eat nor go to
+bed; and indeed, Gregorio alone having had the personal charge of him,
+latterly sleeping in his dressing-room, none of the other servants knew
+what to do for him.  Mr. Dutton agreed with her that it would be better
+to send for his doctor, as probably he ought to have a sedative, and
+neither would take the responsibility of giving it; while he himself
+declared he neither would nor could rest till he had his boy again.
+
+The doctor was dining out, and they had two terrible hours; while Mr.
+Egremont paced to the windows; threw himself on the sofa; denounced
+Gregorio; or, for a change, all the system of police which had made no
+discovery; and Ursula for letting the boy be so helpless.  Mr. Dutton
+sometimes diverted his attention for a few minutes, and hoped he would
+doze, but the least sound brought him to his feet again, and the only
+congenial occupation was the composition of a description of poor
+little Alwyn's person and dress, which set Nuttie crying so
+uncontrollably, that she had to run out of the room.
+
+Dr. Brownlow came at last, and was very kind and helpful, taking the
+command, and insisting that Mr. Egremont should go to bed, and take the
+dose which he mixed.  Broadbent, the butler, was to take Gregorio's
+place, but he was a ponderous man, without much tact, and unused to the
+valet's office.  'I might just as well have a rhinoceros about me,'
+said Mr. Egremont, in a fit of irritation; and it ended, Nuttie hardly
+knew how, in Mr. Dutton's going upstairs to smooth matters.  He came
+down after a time and said: 'I am not satisfied to leave him alone or
+to Broadbent; I have his consent to my sleeping in the dressing-room.
+I am just going home to fetch my things.  Let me find you gone when I
+come back.  You will hear no more to-night.  Even if he is found, they
+will keep him till morning.'
+
+'It is of no use; I can't sleep.'
+
+'Even if you don't, the mere restful position will make you fitter for
+the morrow.  Will you promise me to undress and really go to bed?'
+
+'Oh yes! if you say I must,' said Nuttie drearily; following an
+instinct of obedience.
+
+'And remember,' he said, 'though I do not say it will be so, this may
+be deliverance from bondage.'
+
+'But what a terrible deliverance!'
+
+'Bonds are not burst without something terrible.  No; don't be
+frightened.  Remember there is safekeeping for that sweet little
+fellow, wherever he may be.'
+
+'Oh, Mr. Dutton, if I could pray for him; but the turmoil seems to have
+driven away all such things!  My boy, my boy, where is he now? Who has
+heard him say his little prayers?'
+
+'His Heavenly Father has; of that we may be secure.  You will feel it
+in the quiet of your own room.  Good-night.'
+
+'And I shall know you are praying, better than I can,' murmured Nuttie,
+as she returned his good-night, and crept up to her chamber.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+FETTERS RENT.
+
+  'The gods are just, and of our pleasant sins
+  Make whips to scourge us.'--King Lear.
+
+
+There was no real sleep for Ursula that short summer night.  She saw
+the early dawn, listened to the distant roll of market-carts, and
+wondered when it would be reasonable to be afoot, and ready to hear, if
+aught there was to hear.  At any hour after seven, surely the finders
+would have mercy and bring the welcome news.  And just before seven she
+fell asleep, deeply, soundly, and never woke till past eight, but that
+was just enough to revive the power of hope, and give the sense of a
+new day.  But there was nothing to hear--no news.  She found Mr. Dutton
+in the dining-room.  He had had to administer another draught to her
+father, and had left him in a sleep which would probably last for some
+time.  If she would go and sit in the outer room, after her breakfast,
+he would go out to obtain intelligence.
+
+'You must have some breakfast,' she said, ringing the bell, and
+wistfully looking over the blinds; then exclaiming: 'Oh, there's Mark!
+Has he heard anything?' and out she darted, opening the door before he
+rang.  'Mark! have you found him?'
+
+'Yes,' he said gravely, looking utterly amazed as she clasped her
+hands, and seemed ready to fling herself on his neck with joy.  'I came
+because it will be a great shock to my uncle.'
+
+'Then it is so!  Nurse was right,' said Nuttie, turning deadly pale,
+and standing as if before a firing platoon.  'Tell me, Mark, where did
+they find him?'
+
+'At the Faringdon Station.  I was sent for to identify him.'
+
+'Stay,' said Mr. Dutton, as there was a wild horrified look in Nuttie's
+eyes.  'Do you mean little Alwyn?'
+
+'Little Alwyn!  No, certainly not.  What of him?'
+
+'Gregorio managed to lose him in the park yesterday,' put in Mr. Dutton.
+
+'That accounts for it, then,' said Mark.  'No, it was Gregorio himself,
+poor man.  He was knocked down by the engine, and killed on the spot,
+just by the station, at eleven o'clock last night.  Our name was found
+on him, and I was sent for early this morning.  There was no doubt
+about it, so I came on here at once to let my uncle know, little
+thinking--'
+
+'Oh, it is dreadful!' cried Nuttie, sinking into a chair.  'Do you
+remember, my father told him never to see his face again unless he
+found Alwyn?'
+
+Broadbent came in at the moment with the coffee-pot, and stood
+suspended, as he was told what had happened, Mark adding the detail:
+'He was crossing the line in front of the engine.'
+
+'Yes, sir,' said the butler.  'It is an awful dispensation.  No doubt
+he knew it was all up with him.  You may not be aware, sir, of the
+subject of his conversation in the park.  Mr. Parker had just seen a
+telegram of the result of the Derby, and he had heavy bets on Lady
+Edina.  I am afraid, sir, there can be no doubt that he found a
+voluntary grave.'
+
+'We will not talk of that.  We cannot judge,' said Mark, shuddering. 'I
+said I would send some one from here to arrange what was to be done
+after the inquest.'
+
+Broadbent immediately undertook to go, if his master did not require
+him, and this was thought advisable, as his services were certainly not
+acceptable to Mr. Egremont.  Mark had thought himself likely to be
+detained and had provided for his absence, and the awe-stricken trio
+were consulting together over the breakfast-table, eating mechanically,
+from the very exhaustion of agitation, when the door opened, and Mr.
+Egremont in his dressing-gown was among them, exclaiming: 'You are
+keeping it from me.'  He had been wakened by the whispers and rushes of
+the excited maids, had rung his bell in vain, dressed himself as best
+he could after so many years of dependence, and stumbled downstairs,
+where, as with his daughter, it was something like a relief to know
+that hope was not extinguished in Alwyn's case.  But Mr. Egremont was
+in a very trembling, broken condition, and much overcome by his valet's
+end after so many years of intimate association.  Certainly, if either
+of the others had so parted with the man, it would have been a horror
+in the recollection, but he did not seem to dwell on it; and, indeed,
+attention was distracted by every sound at the door, since each might
+bring news of the missing child.
+
+One of these tantalising rings proved to be a policeman with poor
+Gregorio's keys, and a demand for an investigation into any papers he
+might have left which would show his state of mind.  Mr. Egremont was
+very much annoyed, declaring that he would have no stranger meddle with
+them, and that he saw no use in such prying.  What difference could it
+make to any living creature?  However, when he found there was no help
+for it, he said he must do it himself. Nuttie offered to help, but was
+sharply, strongly refused.  Mark alone might and should help.
+
+Then Mr. Dutton volunteered to go and explain matters to Mr. Dobbs, so
+as to get freedom for Mark for at least the remainder of the day. He
+would call at the police offices and see what was doing in the search,
+put forward the advertisements, and obtain that the Serpentine should
+be dragged, for he saw that only that measure would remove one great
+terror from these anxious hearts.
+
+'And,' he said to Mark, 'with your permission, I will bring back Mrs.
+Egremont and the children if they will do me the honour to become my
+guests.  She will be a comfort to Miss Egremont, and then you will be
+at hand in the evening.'
+
+Mark could only be thankful, and presently addressed himself to the
+investigation, which his uncle insisted should be made in his own
+presence, though the opiate kept him for the most part dozing in an
+arm-chair, only rousing up now and then by some noise at the front
+door, or putting queries, the replies to which startled him more and
+more, as he grew more wakeful and Mark proceeded.
+
+All, except a few unimportant bills and a betting-book, was locked into
+a dressing-case that had once belonged to Mr. Egremont, and had tricks
+of secret drawers that only he could explain.  It was full of papers,
+and they were a strange revelation that Mr. Egremont might well wish to
+withhold from his daughter.  They went very far back, and of course did
+not come out in order of chronology, nor would Mark have understood
+them but for exclamations and comments here and there from his uncle.
+
+Everything seemed to be there,--the old passport and certificate to
+Gregorio Savelli, when he left his Savoyard home to be a waiter at a
+hotel; a few letters in Italian, probably from his parents, which Mark
+could not read, but which soon ceased; the counter-signed character
+with which he had entered General Egremont's service; and then came a
+note or two signed A. P. E., which Mr. Egremont regarded with great
+annoyance, though they only consisted of such phrases as 'Back on
+Wednesday.  Find an excuse,' or in French, 'Envoyez moi la petite
+boite!'  'Que la porte soit ouverte apres minuit.'
+
+'That was the way,' groaned Mr. Egremont.  'The scoundrel! he kept all
+those to be able to show me up to the General if he chose!  I was a
+young man then, Mark, not the straitlaced lad you've always been. And
+the General!  A bad old dog he was, went far beyond what I ever did,
+but for all that he had no notion of any one going any way but his own,
+and wanted to rein me in as tight as if he had been an epitome of all
+the virtues.  And Gregorio seemed a good-natured young fellow then, and
+made things easy for me, though no doubt he meant to have me in his
+hands, in case I tried to shake him off.'
+
+Another discovery affected him far more.  It was of a letter in Alice's
+handwriting, addressed to Captain Egremont, in the yacht Ninon--poste
+restante, Madeira.  He had never seen it, never known of its existence;
+Gregorio had gone to inquire for the letters, and had suppressed it.
+Mr. Egremont had wondered how he had become aware of the marriage.  His
+knowledge had from that time been used as a means of enforcing the need
+of a good understanding with the heir.  Mr. Egremont was much moved by
+the sight of the letter, and its date, from Dieppe, about six months
+after he had left his young wife there. He made Mark give it to him
+unread, handled it tenderly, struggled to read the delicate pointed
+writing to himself, but soon deferred the attempt, observing, 'There,
+there, I can't stand it now!  But you see, Mark,' he added after an
+interval, 'I was not altogether the heartless brute you thought me.'
+
+Mark, as he told his wife afterwards, could not help thinking of the
+old preamble to indictments, 'By the temptation of the devil.'
+
+And by and by, out of a pocket-book bearing the date of the General's
+death, came a copy of the certificate of the baptism of Ursula Alice,
+daughter of Alwyn Piercefield and Alice Egremont, together with that
+address which Miss Headworth had left at Dieppe to gratify Alice's
+forlorn idea of a possible rescue, and which Gregorio had asseverated
+to be non-existent.
+
+Doubtless he infinitely preferred his master's wandering bachelor life
+to the resumption of marriage ties, and thus he had contrived to keep
+Mr. Egremont from meeting the Houghtons at Florence.  At the same time
+the uncertainty as to Alice's fate had prevented any other marriage.
+Gregorio had taken care that, if Mr. Egremont had been villain enough
+to make such an attempt, he should know that his secret could be
+brought to light.
+
+Compared with all this wickedness, the proofs of fraud and dishonesty
+were entirely unimportant.  Gambling had evidently been a passion with
+the valet, and peculation had followed, and Mark could have traced out
+the full tide before the reinstatement of Mrs. Egremont in her home,
+the gradual ebb during her reign, the diminished restraint under her
+daughter.  The other servants had formerly been implicated, but, except
+a young groom and footman, Mark thought the present set quite free from
+the taint, and was glad to acquit Broadbent.  But the last telegrams
+and the betting-book in the unhappy man's pocket confirmed Parker's
+evidence that of late he had staked almost madly, and had risked sums
+far beyond any means he could raise upon the horse which had failed.
+The bailiff at Bridgefield had, it had long been guessed, played into
+his hands, but to what an extent Mark only now discovered.
+
+The result was that what he had learnt in the Park had so astounded him
+that his inattention to the child had not been wonderful.  He had--as
+Parker testified--sought the little fellow vehemently, and had he been
+successful, he might yet have made some effort, trusting to his
+master's toleration; but the loss and reproach had made him an
+absolutely desperate man.  Was it blind flight or self-destruction?
+That he had money about him, having cashed a cheque of his master's,
+favoured the first idea, and no one would too curiously inquire whether
+Mr. Egremont was aware of the amount.
+
+It was only too true that, as he had said, Gregorio Savelli had been
+the curse of his life, having become one of the whips left by pleasant
+vices, and the breaking of the yoke had been not only at a terrible
+price, but, to a man in his half-blind and invalid condition, the
+actual loss of the person on whom he had depended was a privation.  Dr.
+Brownlow, however, knew of a good man-servant just set at liberty by
+the death of an invalid master, and promised to send him on trial.
+
+It was a day of agitations and disappointments, a sample of many that
+were to follow.  There was not a sound of a bell that did not make
+anxious hearts throb.  And oh! how many were spent on vain reports, on
+mere calls of sympathy by acquaintance whom the father and sister could
+not see, and on notes of inquiry or condolence that Nuttie had to
+answer.
+
+Annaple came and was a great help and support to her.  Poor nurse,
+oblivious of her bad foot, or perhaps, willing to wreak vengeance on it
+as the cause of all the mischief, had insisted on continuing her search
+in the morning under all the thorns and rhododendrons where she thought
+the dear lamb might have hidden and cried himself to sleep, and at last
+had been brought home in a cab quite worn out and despairing.  But the
+screaming baby proved to be a much better comforter to her than any
+amount of reasonable argument.  To soothe it, to understand what ailed
+it, to find suitable food for it, was an occupation which made the
+suspense less intolerable.  The very handling of an infant would have
+been congenial; and a sickly crying one was only too interesting.
+Willie was too near her darling's age to be a welcome sight, but he was
+already a prime pet with the servants at Springfield; and Annaple,
+secure that her children were in safe and experienced hands, and
+overflowing with motherly sympathy for the grievous loss, was ready to
+devote herself to Nuttie, whether by talk, by letter writing, or by
+seeing inquiring friends.  She did not expect to be of any use to Mr.
+Egremont, who had always held aloof from and disliked 'the giggling
+Scotch girl,' but who came drearily wandering at an unexpected time
+into the room where she was sitting with his daughter, and presently
+was involved in their conversation.  Whether it was the absence of the
+poor familiar, or that Annaple was no longer a giggling girl, but a
+brave, cheerful wife and mother, it was certain that he found the same
+comfort and support in her presence as did Nuttie.  When fits of
+restless misery and despair pressed hardest upon him, it was soon
+perceived that Annaple's cheerful tact enabled her to deal with him as
+no one else could do.  There was the restraint of courtesy towards her,
+such as had worn out towards his daughter, and besides her sanguine
+optimist spirit never became so depressed as did poor Nuttie's.  Mark
+went by day to his work, but came back to dine at his uncle's, hear the
+reports, and do what he could for him; and meantime Annaple spent the
+chief part of the day in aiding Nuttie and Mr. Egremont, while her baby
+really showed signs of improvement in nurse's keeping.  And so the days
+went on, while every endeavour was made to trace the child, but with no
+result but bitter disappointment.  Twice, strayed children, younger
+than Alwyn--one even a girl--were brought as the lost boy, and the
+advertisements bore fruit in more than one harassing and heartless
+correspondence with wretches who professed to be ready to restore the
+child, on promises of absolute secrecy, and sums of money sent
+beforehand, with all sorts of precautions against interference from the
+police.
+
+The first of these created great excitement, and the pursuit was
+committed to Mr. Dutton.  When it proved abortive, Mr. Egremont's
+disappointment and anger were great, and he could not be persuaded that
+all was not the fault of Mr. Dutton's suspicion and precaution in
+holding back the money, nor could any one persuade him that it was mere
+imposture.  When another ill-written enigmatical letter arrived, he
+insisted that it was from the same quarter, and made Broadbent conduct
+the negotiations, with the result that after considerable sums had been
+paid in circuitous fashions, the butler was directed to a railway arch
+where the child would be deposited, and where he found a drab-coloured
+brat of whom he disposed at the nearest police station, after which he
+came home savagely disgusted.
+
+Nuttie was not much less so at what she felt as a slight to Mr. Dutton
+as well as at the failure.  'When you are doing so much for us.  We
+deserve that you should do nothing more,' she said with tears shining
+in her eyes.
+
+'Do not talk in that way,' he answered.  'You know my feeling for the
+dear little fellow himself, and--'
+
+'Oh yes,' interrupted Nuttie, 'I do trust to that!  Nobody--not the
+most indifferent person, but must long to save him.  Yes, I know it was
+doing you a wicked injustice to fancy that you could take offence in
+that way at a father in such trouble.  Please forgive me, Mr. Dutton.'
+
+'As if I had anything to forgive.  As if there were anything on earth
+that could come before the endeavour to recover him,' said Mr. Dutton,
+too much moved for his usual precision of speech.
+
+'Yes; he is _her_ child,' said Nuttie, with a trembling tearful smile.
+
+'_Her_ child!  Yes, and even if he were not, he is _your_ brother,'
+said Mr. Dutton; then hastily gathering himself up, as if he had said
+too much, he rose to take leave, adding as their hands clasped,
+'Remember, as long as I live, you may count upon me.'
+
+'Oh, I know, I know!  There's nobody like you, but I don't know what I
+say in this awful suspense.  If I had only seen him lying white and
+cold and peaceful, it would have been far better than to think of him
+pining and miserable among wicked people, who would try to bring him up
+like themselves.  Mother's own little boy!'
+
+'It will not be allowed, it will not be allowed,' cried Mr. Dutton.
+'God's Providence is still over him.'
+
+'And there are prayers, I know--at our church and Mr. Godfrey's-and all
+ours, but oh! it takes a great deal of faith to lean on them.  I wonder
+if you would, Annaple, if it were Willy?'
+
+'We will not ask Mrs. Egremont,' said Mr. Dutton, as Annaple made a
+gesture of something like doubt.
+
+'It is almost as bad,' said she, coming up and putting her arm round
+Nuttie.  'But indeed, Mr. Dutton, she does trust, only it is very, very
+sore, for her,--as it is for us all.'
+
+'You are her great comfort,' said Mr. Dutton, as he shook hands with
+her.
+
+'He could hardly help thanking me,' said Annaple to her husband
+afterwards.  'Mr. Egremont may well call him an adopted uncle.  I
+should say he was a good deal more, poor man.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+THE HULL OF THE URSULA.
+
+
+Ten days had passed, and Mark and Annaple were thinking that they ought
+to return to ordinary life, and leave the bereaved ones to endeavour to
+construct their life afresh under the dreadful wearing uncertainty of
+their darling's fate.  Still they were detained by urgent entreaties
+from father and daughter, who both dreaded their departure as
+additional desolation, and as closing the door of hope. And certainly,
+even this rest was good for Annaple; and her baby, for whom nurse had
+discovered a better system, had really not cried more for a whole day
+than 'befitted a rational child,' said the mother, as she walked back
+to Springfield with her husband in the summer night, after dinner, on
+the day that Broadbent's negotiations had failed.
+
+'Nurse will break her heart at parting with her,' said Mark.  'I wish
+we could afford to have her.'
+
+'Afford, indeed!  Her wages are about a quarter of your salary, sir!
+And after all, 'tis not the nurse that guards the child, as we have
+seen only too plainly.'
+
+'Do you think he is alive, Nan?'
+
+'I begin to think not.  He is not so young but that he could make
+himself known, and those advertisements are so widely spread.  I am
+sure poor Nuttie would be more at rest if she could give up hope.'
+
+'I did not tell you before, Nan, but Dutton was going to-day to look at
+a poor little unclaimed child's body that had been found in the Thames.
+He knew him better than I, so he went.'
+
+'He would have come if--' said Annaple.
+
+'Assuredly.  He meant to fetch nurse if he had any doubt, but
+afterwards he was going to his court about his rents.  He always does
+that on Saturday evenings.'
+
+Mr. Dutton himself opened his door to the pair.
+
+'Well,' said Mark.
+
+'Certainly not.  The poor child was evidently much younger, and had red
+hair.  But look here,' and he held out a battered something, black with
+a white stripe.  Mark understood nothing, but Annaple exclaimed, 'Is it
+his ship?'
+
+'Yes, I could swear to it, for see,' and he pointed to some grimed,
+almost effaced, but still legible capitals, which, however, scarcely
+any one but himself could have read as "Ursula."  'I guided his hand to
+make those the evening before he was lost,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Dear little man!  And where did you find it?'
+
+'Where I never thought of doing so!  On the bed of a little crippled
+boy in the next court to mine.  He is rather a friend of mine, and I
+turned in to take him some strawberries.  I found him hugging this.'
+
+'How did he get it?'
+
+'Our "Liz" brought it to him.  Our "Liz" is a very wild specimen, who
+has spent her life in eluding the school board officer till she is too
+old for his clutches; but she has a soft spot in her heart for her
+little brother, and I believe another for Gerard Godfrey.  We must be
+very cautious, and not excite any alarm, or we shall be baffled
+altogether.  I am not sure that I did quite prudently in giving little
+Alf a fresh boat in exchange for this; but I could not help bringing it
+home.'
+
+'You did not see the girl?'
+
+'No.  Those girls wander long and late on these hot nights, and I do
+not think I could have got anything out of her.  I have been to Gerard
+Godfrey, and the next step must be left to him.'
+
+'The next question is whether you will tell those poor things at No.
+5,' said Mark.
+
+Mr. Dutton hesitated.  'I should have no doubt of giving Miss Egremont
+the comfort of knowing that there was a possible clue, but if her
+father insisted on setting on the police, there would be very little
+more hope of success.  I am afraid it will be more prudent to wait till
+we know what Godfrey says.  He hopes to see the girl to-morrow evening
+at his mission class, but of course she is a very uncertain attendant
+there.  No, I cannot trust myself.'
+
+Annaple was forced to brook withholding the hope from the fainting
+hearts all the ensuing Sunday, which was a specially trying day, as
+Nuttie pined for her dear little companion with the pictures, stories,
+and hymns that he had always enjoyed, and made pretty childish remarks
+about, such as she began to treasure as memorable.
+
+As soon as he could, early on Monday morning, Mr. Dutton repaired to
+Gerard Godfrey's lodgings, and found that the young clergyman had
+succeeded in seeing the girl, and had examined her so as not to put the
+wild creature on her guard, and make her use the weapons of falsehood
+towards one who had never been looked on as an ally of the police.  It
+appeared that she had brought home the ship, or rather its hull, from
+one of the lowest of lodging houses, where she had employment as
+something between charwoman and errand girl.  She had found it on what
+passed for a bed in its present condition, one morning, when going to
+make the extremely slight arrangements that the terrible lair, which
+served as a common bedroom, underwent, and had secreted it as a prize
+for her little brother.
+
+At first she had been stolid, and affected utter ignorance as to how it
+got there, but Mr. Godfrey had entreated her as a friend to try to
+discover; and had with all his heart made a pathetic description of the
+girl (he durst not say lady) who had always been a mother to her little
+brother, and now had lost him, and was in terrible uncertainty as to
+his fate.  That came home to Lizzie's feelings, and she let out what
+she had seen or picked up in the way of gossip,--that the ship had been
+left behind by its owner, whether boy or girl Liz was uncertain, for it
+had long fair hair, wore a petticoat, and had been dosed with gin and
+something else when carried away.  They said it had made noise enough
+when brought there by Funny Frank and Julia. They were performing folk,
+who had come in after the Derby day to have a spree, and to pick up
+another kid to do fairies and such like, because the last they had had
+hurt his back and had to be left in the workhouse.  Yes, she had heard
+tell that they had got the child from Mother Bet, of whom Gerard had a
+vague idea as one of the horrible hags, who not only beg themselves,
+but provide outfits for beggars, including infants, to excite
+compassion.  Either she or one of her crew had picked up the child and
+disposed of his clothes; and then finding him too old and intelligent
+to be safely used for begging purposes, she had sold or hired him out
+to these acrobatic performers, who had gone off into that vague and
+unknown region, the country.  Liz had no notion what was their real
+name, nor where they would go, only that they attended races and fairs;
+and as soon as the actual pleasure of communicating information was
+over, she was seized with a panic, implored Mr. Godfrey to make no use
+of her information, and explained that the people of the house were
+quite capable of killing her, if they suspected her of betraying any of
+their transactions.  It was impossible to bring any authorities to bear
+on the quest; and Mr. Dutton held it wisest only to write a note
+telling Mr. Egremont that he had obtained evidence that the child was
+living, and that he was going in pursuit, but thought it safer to say
+no more at present.  He gave the note to Mark at his office.  'I cannot
+trust myself to see your cousin,' he said.  'I might be tempted to say
+more than was consistent with Godfrey's honour towards his informant.'
+
+'I think you are right,' said Mark.  'You had better leave me with only
+indefinite knowledge, for I shall be hard pressed.  Do you not go home
+first?'
+
+'Yes, I go to pack up a few things and fetch Monsieur.  A run in the
+country will do him good, and he may be a valuable auxiliary.  I shall
+find no one at Springfield at this hour.'
+
+'What is your plan?'
+
+'I shall venture so far as to apply to the police for the names of the
+usual attendants at races and fairs, and for some idea of their
+ordinary rounds.  I have no doubt that these are known at the chief
+offices.  For the rest, I must use my eyes.  But tell your cousin that,
+with God's blessing, I hope to bring him back to her.'
+
+'He will,' said Ursula, when Mark gave her the message, and from that
+moment she was calmer.  She did not fret Mark with questions even as
+much as Annaple did, she tried to prevent her father from raging at the
+scant information, and she even endeavoured to employ herself with some
+of her ordinary occupations, though all the time she kept up the
+ceaseless watch.  'Mr. Dutton would not have said that without good
+hope,' she averred, 'and I trust to him.'
+
+Yet when four, five, six, eight, days had passed with no tidings, the
+heart sickness grew almost more than she could bear, though she still
+answered with spirit when her father again took to abusing the
+umbrella-fellow for choosing to keep all in his own hands.
+
+Even Annaple could not help saying to her husband that a precise, prim,
+old bachelor was the very last person for a hunt in slums and the like.
+The very sight of him would put the people on their guard. 'And think
+of his fine words,' she added.  'I wish I could go!  If I started with
+a shawl over my head, yoked to a barrel-organ, I should have a far
+better chance than he will.  I declare, Mark, if he does not succeed
+we'll do it.  We'll hire an organ, whereon you shall play.  Ah! you
+shake your head.  A musical education is not required, and I know I
+shall do something desperate soon, if that dear little boy is not
+found.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+NUTTIE'S KNIGHT.
+
+  'The night came on and the bairnies grat,
+  Their minnie aneath the mools heard that.'
+
+
+'LYNDHURST, 4th July.--Philip Dutton to Miss Egremont.  Found.
+Waterloo, 6.15.'
+
+
+'I knew he would,' said Nuttie, with a strange quietness, but as she
+tried to read it to her father her voice choked, and she had to hand it
+to Annaple.  But for the first time in her life she went up and
+voluntarily kissed her father's forehead.  And perhaps it was for the
+first time in his life that the exclamation broke from him, 'Thank God!'
+
+Perhaps it was well that the telegram had not come earlier in the day,
+for Mr. Egremont was very restless, showing himself much shaken in
+nerves and spirits before the time for driving to the station, which he
+greatly antedated.  Nuttie could hardly keep him in the carriage, and
+indeed had to persuade him to return thither, when he had once sprung
+out on the arrival of a wrong train.
+
+And after all, when the train did come, his blue spectacles were
+directed to the row of doors at the other end, and Nuttie was anxiously
+trying to save him from being jostled, when a voice said 'Here!' and
+close beside them stood Mr. Dutton, with a little boy by his side who
+looked up in her face and said 'Sister!'  It was said in a dreamy,
+almost puzzled way, not with the ecstatic joy Nuttie had figured to
+herself; and there was something passive in the mode of his hearing his
+father's 'My boy, my boy!'  Instinctively all turned to the harbour of
+the carriage; Mr. Dutton lifted Alwyn in, and as Nuttie received him, a
+pang shot across her, as she felt how light, how bony the little frame
+had become in these three weeks.
+
+'Come in!  Come back with us!  Tell us all!' said Mr. Egremont, as Mr.
+Dutton was about to help him in.
+
+'My dog,' said Mr. Dutton, while Alwyn looked up from nestling in
+Nuttie's lap to say, 'Mithter Button come!  And Mothu!'
+
+'We have room for him,' said Mr. Egremont graciously.  'Here, poor
+fellow.'
+
+'He has the right,' said Mr. Dutton, 'for he was the real finder.'
+
+And Monsieur, curly and shiny, occupied with great dignity the back
+seat beside his master, while Alwyn, in a silent but dreamy content, as
+if he only half understood where he was, rested against his sister's
+bosom with his hands in his father's.
+
+'Come, old chap,' said his father cheerily, 'tell us all about it.'
+
+But Alwyn only shuddered a little, raised his eyelids slightly, and
+gave a tiny faint smile.
+
+'I think he is very much tired,' said Mr. Dutton.  'There was a good
+deal to be done to make him presentable this morning.  You must forgive
+me for sacrificing his curls, there was nothing else to be done with
+them.'
+
+'Ah!' and Nuttie looked again.  The boy was in a new, rather coarse,
+ready-made, sailor suit that hung loosely upon his little limbs, his
+hair was short, and he was very pale, the delicate rosy flush quite
+gone, and with it the round outline of the soft cheek; and there were
+purple marks under the languid eyes.  She bent down and kissed him,
+saying, 'Was Mr. Button nurse to you, Wynnie?'
+
+He smiled again and murmured, 'Mr. Button made me boy again.'
+
+After a question and answer or two as to main facts of place and time
+of the discovery, Mr. Dutton told his story.  'I did not effect much
+with my inquiries after the circuses.  All I heard of were of too
+superior an order for kidnapping practices.  However, I thought the
+only way would be to haunt fairs and races, and look at their
+camp-followers.  At a place in Hertfordshire I saw a performance
+advertised with several children as fairies, so I went to see it.  I
+was soon satisfied that Alwyn was not there; but it struck me that I
+had known the face of the prime hero, a fine handsome supple fellow,
+who was called in the programme Herr Adalbert Steinfuggen, or some such
+name.  Well, it seemed that he knew me, for as I struggled out after a
+considerable interval, I heard myself accosted, "Mr. Dutton! Sir,
+surely I have the honour of speaking to Mr. Dutton of Micklethwayte?"
+I assure you he was the very pink of politeness.  Do you remember, Miss
+Egremont, Abel Stone?'
+
+'Oh, Abel Stone!  He was a choir boy at Micklethwayte, I remember! He
+was very handsome, and had a splendid voice; but he was a real monkey
+for mischief, and nobody could manage him but mother.  She was always
+pleading that he should not be turned out, and at last he ran away.'
+
+'Yes; he went off with a circus, and there he found his vocation, rose
+and throve, married the prima-donna, and is part owner.  He seems very
+respectable, and was so friendly and affectionate that I ventured to
+consult him; when, on hearing whom I was seeking, he became warmly
+interested, and gave me just the information I wanted. He said he had
+little doubt that Funny Frank was a clown called Brag, with whom he had
+had words some years back for misusing the children. He said he did not
+hold with harshness to the little ones in teaching them to do the
+feats, which certainly were wonderful.  If they were frightened, they
+were nervous and met with accidents; but make much of them, and they
+thought it all fun, and took a pride and pleasure in their
+performances.  However this Brag, though a clever fellow, could not be
+hindered from bullying, and at last he went off with a girl of the
+troupe and set up on their own account.  Stone, or whatever he pleases
+to call himself, had met them several times, but he spoke of them with
+great contempt as "low," and they did not frequent the same places as
+he does.  However, he referred to one of his men, and found that they
+had been at Epsom on the Derby day, and moreover, that there was a
+report of them having lately narrowly escaped being in a scrape about a
+child who had been injured.  There was no scruple as to advising me
+where to look for them, or as to the best means of detection.  Stone
+was very indignant, and made me understand that all his young people
+were either to the manner born, or willingly hired out by their
+parents.  I saw them in private life, and they looked happy and
+well-fed, but that was no guarantee for Funny Frank.  Well, I followed
+him up without success, trying each place Stone had set down for me,
+till I came last night to Lyndhurst, a very pretty place in the New
+Forest, where there is to be a fair to-morrow, beginning this
+afternoon.  Stone advised me to look about before the affair opened,
+while unpacking and arranging was going on. Well, after all, it was
+very simple.  I strolled out with my dog round the field where the vans
+and booths were getting into order. There was what I thought a little
+girl in a faded red petticoat sitting on the steps at the bottom of a
+yellow van with her head on her hands.'
+
+'That was me,' said Alwyn, lighting up.  'And Mothu came and kissed
+Fan!'
+
+'Yes,' said Mr. Dutton; 'I verily believe we might have missed one
+another, but Monsieur ran up to him and, as I was actually whistling
+him off, I heard a little voice say, "Mothu!  Mothu!" and saw they
+were--well, embracing one another, and then came "Mithter Button,
+Mithter Button, oh, take me home!'"
+
+Eager caressing hands were held out to Monsieur, who jumped off the
+seat to receive the pats and laudations lavished on his curly round
+pate, and had to be reduced to order before Mr. Dutton could answer the
+question whether he had any further difficulty or danger.
+
+'I took him up in my arms, and a handsome truculent-looking woman burst
+out on me, demanding what I was about with her child.  To which I
+answered that she knew very well he was no such thing.  Her man came
+swaggering up, declaring impudently that I had better be off--but I
+believe he saw that the people who came round would not take his part,
+for he gave in much more easily than I expected.  I explained as loud
+as I could that this was a gentleman's son who had been stolen from his
+nurse in the Park.  The man began to protest that they had found him
+deserted, and taken him with them out of charity, requesting to be paid
+for his keep.  So I thought it better to give them a sovereign at once,
+so as to have no further trouble, and get him away as fast as I could.
+The woman came after me, making further demands, but the sight of a
+policeman in the distance turned her back.  I went up to him and
+explained.  I found he knew all about the loss and the reward, and
+looked regretfully at my prize.  We went back to the hotel, where I set
+Alwyn to rights as well as I could, sent out for some clothes, such as
+the place would produce, and which at least, as he says, made a boy of
+him again.  I'm afraid the process was rather trying from such
+unaccustomed hands, though he was very good, and he has been asleep
+almost all the way home, and, his senses all as in a dream bound up.'
+
+The heaviness--whether weariness or content, still continued.  Alwyn
+seemed to find it too much trouble to talk, and only gave little
+smiles, more like his mother than himself.  He clung quite desperately
+to his sister when Mark offered to lift him from the carriage, but
+nurse was close behind, and it was good to see the little arms
+stretched out, and the head laid on her shoulder, the hand put up to
+stroke her cheek, and the lips whispering 'Wyn's own nursie.'  The
+jubilant greeting and triumphant procession with which he was borne
+upstairs seemed almost to oppress him.  He appeared almost as if he was
+afraid of wakening from a happy dream, and his lively merriment seemed
+all gone; there were only beams of recognition and gladness at 'Wyn's
+own nursery, Wyn's own pretty cup,' touching it as if to make sure that
+it was real, and pleased to see the twisted crusts, his special treat.
+
+But he could not eat much of them, and soon laid his head down, as one
+weary, with the exhaustion of content; and nurse, who had allowed that
+Mr. Dutton had, considering all things, done much for the outward
+restoration of the daintiness of her recovered child, was impatient to
+give him the hot bath and night's rest that was to bring back the
+bright joyous Alwyn.  So Nuttie only lingered for those evening prayers
+she had yearned after so sorely.  When she held his mother's picture to
+him to be kissed, he raised his eyes to her and said: 'Will she come to
+me at night now?'
+
+'Who, my darling?'
+
+'She, mother dear.'
+
+'Here's her picture, dear boy.'
+
+'Not only the picture--she came out of it, when I cried, up on the
+nasty-smelling bundle in the van all in the dark.'
+
+'She came?'
+
+'Yes, she came, and made it so nice, and hushed me.  I wasn't afraid to
+go to by-by when she came.  And she sang.  Sister, can't you sing like
+that?'
+
+'Not here, I'm afraid, dear, dear boy,' she whispered, holding him so
+tight that he gave a little cry of 'It hurts.'  Then came the prayers,
+not a word forgotten, and the little voice joined in her murmured
+thanksgiving for bringing him home.
+
+She was much moved and awe-stricken at these words of her little
+brother; but she had to dress in haste for dinner, listening the while
+to her maid's rejoinings and vituperations of the wretches who had
+maltreated the child.
+
+When she came down she found no one in the drawing-room but Mr. Dutton,
+whom her father had asked to the happiest meal that had perhaps ever
+been eaten in that house.
+
+She went towards him with winged steps in her white dress: 'Oh! Mr.
+Dutton, we have not said half enough to you, but we never, never can.'
+
+He gave a curious, trembling half smile, as she held out her hands to
+him, and said: 'The joy is great in itself,' speaking in a very low
+voice.
+
+'Oh! I am so glad that you did it,' cried Ursula.  'It would not have
+been half so sweet to owe it to any one else.'
+
+'Miss Egremont, do you know what you are saying?' he exclaimed.
+
+'Don't call me Miss Egremont!  You never used to.  Why should you?'
+
+'I have not dared--' he began.
+
+'Dared!  Don't you know you always were our own Mr. Dutton--best,
+wisest friend of all, and now more than ever.'
+
+'Stay,' he said, 'I cannot allow you in your fervour to say such things
+to me, unaware of the strength of feeling you are stirring within me.'
+
+'You! you!  Mr. Dutton!' cried Nuttie, with a moment's recoil.  'You
+don't mean that you care for _me_.'
+
+'I know it is preposterous--' he began.
+
+'Preposterous!  Yes, that you should care one bit for silly, foolish,
+naughty, self-willed me.  Oh, Mr. Dutton, you can't mean it!'
+
+'Indeed, I would have kept silence, and not disturbed you with my
+presumption, if--'
+
+'Hush!' she cried.  'Why, it makes me so glad and so proud, I don't
+know what to do.  I didn't think anybody was good enough for
+you--unless it was dear, dear mother--and that it should be me.'
+
+'It is true,' he said gravely, 'my younger days were spent in a vain
+dream of that angel, then when all that was ended, I thought such
+things were not for me; but the old feeling has wakened, it seems to me
+in greater force than ever, though I meant to have kept it in control--'
+
+'Oh, I am glad you didn't!  It seems as if the world swam round with
+wonder and happiness,' and she held his hand as if to steady herself,
+starting however as Annaple opened the door saying, 'We've been sending
+telegrams with the good news.'
+
+Then an arch light came into her bright eyes, but the others were
+behind her, and she said no more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+FOUND AND TAKEN.
+
+  'The angels of the gateway
+    Bent softly to the child,
+  And stretched glad hands to take him
+    To the kingdom undefiled.'--B. M.
+
+
+'Come up and see him,' said Nuttie, as the dining-room door was shut.
+'I must feast my eyes on him.'
+
+Annaple replied by throwing an arm round her and looking into her eyes,
+kissing her on each cheek, and then, as they reached the landing in the
+summer twilight, waltzing round and round that narrow space with her.
+
+'You ridiculous person!' said Nuttie.  'Do you mean that you saw!'
+
+'Of course I did; I've seen ever so long--'
+
+'Nonsense!  That's impossible--'
+
+'Impossible to owls and bats perhaps, but to nothing else not to see
+that there was one sole and single hero in the world to you, and that
+to him there was one single being in the world; and that being the
+case---'
+
+'But, Annaple, you can't guess what he has always been to me.'
+
+'Oh! don't I know?--a sort of Archbishop of Canterbury and George
+Heriot rolled into one.  So much the more reason, my dear, I don't know
+when I've been so glad in my life than that your good times should be
+coming.'
+
+'They are come in knowing this!  It is only too wonderful,' said
+Nuttie, as they stood together among the plants in the little
+conservatory on the way upstairs.  'I always thought it insulting to
+him when they teased me about him.'
+
+'They did, did they?'
+
+'My father, incited by poor Gregorio.  Oh, Annaple! don't let any one
+guess till we know how my father will take it.  What is it, Ellen?' as
+the nursery-maid appeared on the stairs.
+
+'If you please, ma'am, Mrs. Poole would be glad if you are coming up to
+the nursery.'
+
+They both hastened up and nurse came out to meet them in the day
+nursery, making a sign to Ellen to take her place by the cot, and
+withholding the two ladies.  She made them come as far off as possible,
+and then said that she was not at all satisfied about Master Alwyn.
+There had been the same drowsiness and disinclination to speak, and
+when she had undressed and washed him, he had seemed tender all over,
+and cried out and moaned as if her touch hurt him, especially on one
+side where, she felt convinced, there was some injury; but when she
+asked about it his eyes grew frightened and bewildered, and he only
+cried in a feeble sort of way, as if sobs gave him pain.
+
+She had soothed him, and he had gone into his own bed with the same
+gentle languid gladness, but had presently begun moaning, and imploring
+in his sleep, wakening with screams and entreaties, 'Oh, I'll do it!
+I'll try!' and she thought him very feverish.  Would it not be better
+that a doctor should see him?
+
+Nurse was always an alarmist, and Nuttie could not help thinking that
+to wake the child to see a stranger to-night would only add to his
+terror and distress, while Annaple declared her entire belief that
+though no doubt the poor little fellow had been cruelly knocked about
+and bruised, a night's rest would probably restore his bright self, and
+make all that was past only like a bad dream.  There was no judging
+to-night, and sleep was wonderful reparation to those little beings.
+
+Then however the moans and murmurs began again, and now the awakening
+cry.  They started forward, and as Nuttie came to the cot-side the
+child threw himself into her bosom with, 'Sister!  Sister!  It is
+sister!' but his eyes grew round with terror at sight of Annaple, and
+clinging tightly to Nuttie he gasped, 'Send her away! don't let her
+touch me!  Fan's not here!'
+
+To tell him she was Cousin Annaple, Billy's mamma, had no effect; he
+did not seem able to understand, and she could only retire--nurse being
+thus convinced that to let him see another stranger to-night would only
+do further harm.  Nuttie and nurse succeeded in reassuring him that he
+was safe at home and with them, and in hushing him off into what they
+hoped would be a quiet wholesome sleep in spite of the hot sultry
+night, on which Annaple laid a good deal of the blame of his
+restlessness and feverishness.
+
+Nuttie only came down for a short time before the visitors went away;
+and then she wrote a note to Dr. Brownlow, which Mark promised to leave
+as he went to the city in the morning, Mr. Egremont, in his present
+relief, pooh-poohing all fears, and backing up Annaple's belief in the
+powers of 'tired nature's soft restorer'; but Mr. Dutton looked grave
+and said that he had remarked the extreme tenderness, but had hoped
+that much was due to his own inexperience in handling little children.
+The parting clasp of the hand had a world of meaning in it, and Nuttie
+openly said that she hoped to tell him after matins at St. Michael's
+how the boy was.  But she could not be there.  When she went upstairs
+at night the half-delirious terrors had returned, and there was another
+difficult soothing and comforting before the child slept again.  Nurse
+fancied the unwonted presence might disturb him, and insisted on her
+going to her own room.
+
+When she returned in the morning it was to find that since daylight he
+had been more quietly asleep; but there was a worn sunken look about
+his face, and she could not be satisfied to leave him alone while the
+nurses stirred about and breakfasted.
+
+He awoke smiling and happy; he looked about and said gladly, 'Wyn at
+home!  Wyn's own nursery,' but he did not want to get up; 'Wyn so
+tired,' he said, speaking of himself in the baby form that he had for
+several months discarded, but he said his pretty 'thank you,' and took
+delight in breakfasting in his cot, though still in a subdued way, and
+showing great reluctance to move or be touched.
+
+Nuttie was sent for to report of him to his father, who would not hear
+for a moment of anxiety, declaring that the boy would be quite well if
+they let him alone, he only wanted rest, and insisting on following out
+his intention of seeing a police superintendent to demand whether the
+kidnapping rascals could not be prosecuted.
+
+Neither by Nuttie nor nurse could much be extracted from the poor
+little fellow himself about his adventures.  He could not bear to think
+of them, and there was a mist of confusion over his mind, partly from
+weakness, partly, they also thought, from the drugged spirits with
+which he had been more than once dosed.  He dimly remembered missing
+Gregorio in the park, and that he had tried to find his way home alone,
+but some one, a big boy, he thought, had said he would show him the
+way, took hold of his hand, dragged him, he knew not where, into
+dreadful dirt and stench, and apparently had silenced him with a blow
+before stripping him.  But it was all very indistinct, he could not
+tell how Mother Bet got hold of him, and the being dressed in the rags
+of a girl had somehow loosed his hold of his own identity.  He did not
+seem at all certain that the poor little dirty petticoated thing who
+had wakened in a horrible cellar, or in a dark jolting van who had been
+dubbed Fan, who had been forced by the stick to dance and twist and
+compelled to drink burning, choking stuff, was the same with Alwyn in
+his sailor suit or in his white cot.
+
+It was Dr. Brownlow who at once detected that there had been much of
+this dosing, and drew forth the fact.  It had probably been done
+whenever it was expedient that he should be hidden, or unable to make
+any appeal to outsiders.  Alwyn was quite himself by day, and showed no
+unreasonable fear or shyness, but he begged not to be touched, and
+though he tried to be good and manly, could not keep from cries and
+screams when the doctor examined him.
+
+Then it came out.  'It's where he kicked me.'
+
+'Who?'
+
+'That man--master, she said I must call him.  He kicked poor little Fan
+with his great heavy big boots--'cause Fan would say Wyn's prayers.'
+
+'Who was Fan?' asked the puzzled doctor.
+
+'Himself,' whispered Nuttie.  'Alas! himself!'
+
+'Wyn was Fan,' said Alwyn.  'Fan's gone now!'
+
+'And did the man kick poor little Fan,' repeated the doctor--'here?'
+
+'Oh don't--don't!  It hurts so.  Master said he would have none of
+that, and he kicked with his big boot.  Oh!  Fan couldn't dance one bit
+after that.'
+
+He could not tell how long ago this had been.  He seemed to have lost
+all reckoning of days, and probably felt as if ages had past in Funny
+Frank's van, but Dr. Brownlow thought the injury could not be above two
+or three days old, and probably it accounted for there having been no
+more obstructions put in the way of removing the child, since he had
+ceased to be of use, and the discovery of the injury might have brought
+the perpetrator into trouble.  Indeed, as it was, Mr. Egremont caused
+the police to be written to, demanding the arrest of the man and woman
+Brag, but they had already decamped, and were never traced, which was
+decidedly a relief to those who dreaded all that a prosecution would
+have involved.
+
+And Dr. Brownlow became very grave over the injury.  He said it was a
+surgical case, and he should like to have another opinion, enjoining
+that the child should be kept in bed, and as quiet as possible, till he
+could bring his friend in the afternoon, which was no difficult matter,
+for Alwyn seemed to have no desire for anything but rest and the sight
+of his friends and his treasures, which were laid beside him to be
+gently handled and stroked but not played with.  Mothu and Mithter
+Button were among the friends he craved for, but he showed no desire to
+see Billy-boy, and it was thought best to keep that young gentleman's
+rampant strength at a distance.
+
+The chief difficulty was with his father, who declared they were all
+croaking, and that the boy would be as well as ever to-morrow.  He went
+and sat by the cot, and talked merrily of the pony that Alwyn was to
+ride, and the yachting they would have in the summer; and the little
+fellow smiled and was pleased, but went to sleep in the midst. Then Mr.
+Egremont went out, taking Annaple with him, because Nuttie would not go
+till the doctors' visit was over, though he declared that they were
+certain not to come till long after her return from the drive.  He
+actually went to the dealer's, and had pony after pony paraded before
+the carriage, choosing a charming toy Shetland at last, subject to its
+behaviour with the coachman's little boy, while Annaple hopefully
+agreed with him that Alwyn would be on its back in another week.
+
+He still maintained his opinion, outwardly at least, when he was met on
+his return by Nuttie with a pale, almost thunderstruck face.  Dr.
+Brownlow had called her from trying to soothe away the fright and
+suffering of the examination, to break to her that both he and his
+colleague thought very seriously of the injury and its consequences,
+and deemed it very doubtful whether the poor little fellow could be
+pulled through.
+
+Mr. Egremont was again angry, declared that she had misunderstood, and
+made the worst of it; that Dr. Brownlow was a conceited young ass; that
+his friend played into his hands; with other amenities of the same
+kind, to which she listened with mingled irritation and pity for his
+unreasonableness, and even at the sympathy which he found in Annaple's
+hopeful nature.
+
+The young mother never dreaded nor expected what she could not bear to
+think possible, such as the death-warrant of that beautiful child,
+while Nuttie's nature always expected the worst, and indeed had read
+the doom in the doctor's eyes and voice rather than in his words.  So
+Annaple backed Mr. Egremont up when he made his daughter write to
+desire Dr. Brownlow to call in the first advice in London; and among
+them they made so sure that this would be effective that they actually
+raised Nuttie's hopes so as to buoy her through the feverish early
+hours of the night when the pain was aggravated, the terrors returned,
+the boy was tormented by his duality with Fan, and the past miseries
+were acted over again.  Even nurse and sister did not suffice, and
+Mithter Button had to be fetched by Mark before he could feel quite
+secure that he was Alwyn and not Fan.  Indeed, in these light-headed
+moments, a better notion was gained of what he must have endured than
+in the day-time, when all seemed put aside or forgotten. After a time
+he became capable of being soothed by hymns, though still asking why
+his sister could not sing like that vision of his mother which had
+comforted him in his previous miseries, and craving for her return.
+Then at last he fell quietly asleep, and Nuttie was left with a few
+sustaining words and a pressure from Mr. Dutton's hand.
+
+Alas! the new consultation could only ratify the first opinion.  The
+injury need not have been necessarily fatal, though dangerous to any
+young child, and here it had been aggravated by previous ill-treatment,
+and by the doses of spirits that had been forced down, besides which,
+Alwyn was naturally delicate, and--though the doctors would not say so
+to father or sister--there were hereditary predispositions that gave
+him the less chance of battling through.
+
+Yet Mr. Egremont concluded his purchase of the pony, and insisted that
+Alwyn should be carried to the window to see it; and Alwyn's smile was
+almost enough to break Nuttie's heart, but his head drooped on nurse's
+shoulder, he hardly lifted his heavy eyelids, and begged for 'by-by'
+again.  Even Annaple burst into tears at the sight, ran out of the room
+with her sobs, and never augured recovery again, though still she
+strove to cheer and while away the poor father's piteous hours by
+making the most of every sign that the child was happy and not
+suffering much.
+
+That he would be viewed as a 'pale placid martyr' was his sister's
+chief comfort.  His replies as to the manner of the hurt, as well as
+his light-headed wanderings, had made it more and more evident that the
+man Brag's brutality had been excited by his persisting in kneeling
+down to say his prayers aloud--the only way he knew how to say them.
+Indeed there was a recurring anxiety night and morning to kneel, which
+had to be reasoned away, even when he was too weak to make the attempt,
+and was only appeased by 'Sister' kneeling by his side, holding his
+hands, and repeating the little prayers with him. It was of his own
+accord that he added: 'And forgive those people, and make them good.'
+Annaple burst into tears again and almost scolded when she heard of it.
+'Oh dear! oh dear! now I know he won't get well!  I'm glad Billy isn't
+so horribly good!  Nuttie, Nuttie, don't!  You know I don't mean it.
+Only I just can't bear it.  He is the sweetest little fellow in the
+world!  And oh! the cruelty of it.'
+
+'Yes,' said Nuttie in her dreary calmness; 'he is too sweet and lovely
+and beautiful and good to be anywhere but safe with mother.'
+
+For it was more apparent that they could not keep him.  It did not last
+long; there were a couple of piteous days of restless pain and
+distress, and then came the more fatal lull and absence of suffering, a
+drowsiness in which the little fellow sank gradually away, lying with a
+strange calm beauty on his face, and smiling feebly when he now and
+then lifted his eyes to rest them on sister or nurse.  His father could
+not bear the sight.  It filled him more with angry compassion than with
+the tender reverence and hushed awe with which Ursula watched her
+darling slipping as it were from her hold.  So Mr. Egremont wandered
+wretchedly about the lower rooms, while Mark and Annaple tried their
+best for him through the long summer evening, darkening into night.  By
+and by Alwyn lifted his hand, turned his head, opened his lips, and
+whispered, 'Hark, sister, she is singing.' The look of exceeding joy
+beamed more and more over the pinched little face.  'She's come again,'
+he said; and once more, 'Come to take Wyn to the dear Lord.'  After
+that there were very few more long breaths before little Alwyn
+Egremont's spirit was gone to that unseen world, and only the fair
+little frame left with that wondrous look of delighted recognition on
+the face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+THE UMBRELLA MAN.
+
+
+Little Alwyn was laid to rest beside his mother in a beautiful summer
+noontide.  His father was not in a state to attend the funeral, and was
+left under the care of Annaple, his own choice among those who offered
+to stay and minister to him.  It was his own wish that his daughter
+should be to the last with her little brother.  He had even said to her
+that she had been a good sister, and his boy had been very fond of her,
+and he would not keep her away on any account.
+
+And, with a man's preference for a young and kindly woman, he chose
+Annaple to be with him rather than Mr. Dutton, remembering likewise
+that but for him the boy would have died in some workhouse, unknown and
+unclaimed, or among the wretches who had caused his death.  So Nuttie
+had the comfort of Mr. Dutton's going down with her, as well as Mark,
+and poor broken-down nurse, but not a word referring to the confession
+of that happy evening had passed between them during the mournful
+fortnight which had since elapsed.
+
+May Condamine and her husband had made all as fair and consoling as
+they could.  There were white-robed children to bear the boy from the
+churchyard gate, choristers sang hymns, the grave was lined with moss
+and daisies, and white roses decked the little coffin and the mound.
+There was as much of welcome and even of triumph as befitted the
+innocent child, whose death had in it the element of testimony to the
+truth.  And Nuttie felt it, or would feel it by and by, when her spirit
+felt less as if some precious thing had been torn up by the roots--to
+be safe and waiting for her elsewhere, indeed, but that did not solace
+the yearning longing for the merry loving child; nor the aching pity
+for the crushed blighted creature whom she had watched suffering and
+dying.  It was far beyond her power as yet to acquiesce in her aunt's
+consolation that it was happier for the child himself, than if he was
+to grow up to temptation from without, and with an unsound
+constitution, with dangerous hereditary proclivities.  She could
+believe it in faith, nay, she had already experienced the difficulties
+her father had thrown in her way of dealing with him, she tried to be
+resigned, but the good sense of the Canoness was too much for her.
+
+It was a day of more haste than suited the ideal of such a time, for
+Mr. Egremont could not be left for a night; so there was only time for
+a luncheon, with little jerks of talk, and then for an hour spent in
+short private interviews.  Mrs. Egremont obtained from poor Nurse Poole
+all the details, and, moreover, her opinion of Mr. Mark's baby, in
+whom, it having been born under her auspices, she took a special
+interest.
+
+Nuttie meantime was pacing the shady walk with her dear old friend Miss
+Nugent, feeling it strange that her heart did not leap up at the bare
+presence of one she loved so much, yet conscious of the soothing of her
+sympathy.  And Mary, watching her all through, had been struck with the
+increased sweetness and nobleness her countenance had acquired during
+these years of discipline.  More of her mother's expression had come
+than could have been thought possible in features of such a different
+mould, formed for so much more strength and energy.  They had not met
+since Nuttie had been summoned home to her mother's deathbed, and their
+time was chiefly spent on reminiscences alike of the old sorrow and the
+new; but, when the time for parting was nearly come, Mary said
+affectionately, 'And you, my dear?'
+
+'Oh, I am all right,' said Nuttie, and her eyes shone with a light Mary
+did not at the moment understand; 'you need not be anxious for me
+_now_.'
+
+'I suppose that unhappy valet's death makes your task easier,' said
+Mary.
+
+'I think it will,' said Nuttie.  'Poor man!  He was--I can't help
+saying it--the evil genius of the house.  Dear mother knew it,
+struggled against him, and broke down in the struggle.  It seems so
+strange that what she could not do has been done in such a manner, and
+at such a price!  I wonder whether she knew it when she welcomed her
+boy!'
+
+'Her influence will aid you still,' said Mary, 'and you have Mr. Dutton
+to help you too.  I was so glad to find he was so near you.'
+
+'Oh, Mr. Dutton!' exclaimed Ursula, in a strange tone that sent a
+thrill through Mary, though she knew not why; but at that moment they
+were interrupted, very inopportunely, by Mr. Bulfinch, who could not go
+away without asking Miss Egremont whether she thought her father could
+see him on business if he came up to town the next day.  She thought
+that such an interview would rouse her father and do him good, advising
+him to call on the chance.
+
+Mark's tete-a-tete had been with his sister May, to whom he had much to
+tell of his wife and her gallant patience and energy, and how curious
+it was that now the incubus that had weighed on his uncle's household
+was removed, the prejudice had melted away, and he had grown so fond of
+her that, next to Ursula, she was his best comforter.
+
+'I hope that will lead to more,' said May.
+
+'I don't see how,' said Mark.  The more we rely only on a blessing on
+our own exertions the better.'
+
+'Even when Annaple works within an inch of her life?'
+
+'Now that she is on a right tack about the baby, that will be easier.
+Yes, May, I do feel sometimes that I have brought her down to drudgery
+and narrowness and want of variety such as was never meant for her, but
+she will never let me think so.  She says that it is living in
+realities, and that it makes her happier than toiling after society, or
+rather after the world, and I do believe it is true!  I'm sure it is
+with me.'
+
+'But such work as yours, Mark.'
+
+'Nonsense, May; I enjoy it.  I did not when I was in the Greenleaf
+firm, with an undeveloped sense that Goodenough was not to be trusted,
+and we were drifting to the bad, yet too green to understand or hinder
+it; but this I thoroughly like.  What does one want but honest
+effective work, with some power of dealing with and helping those good
+fellows, the hands, to see the right and help themselves?'
+
+May sighed.  'And yet, now that poor child is gone, I feel all the more
+how hard it is that you should be put out of the rights of your name.'
+
+'I never had any rights.  It was the bane of my life to be supposed to
+have them.  Nothing but this could have made a man of me.'
+
+'And don't you have regrets for your boy?'
+
+'I don't think I have--provided we can give him an education--such as I
+failed to make proper use of, or Annaple might be luxuriating at Pera
+at this moment.'
+
+'Well!' said May, pausing as she looked up the vista of trees at the
+great house; 'I can't bear it to go out of the old name.'
+
+'Names may be taken!'
+
+'You don't mean that there's any chance of--Oh! not that horrid Mr.
+Fane?'
+
+'Certainly not.'
+
+'Oh!' as a trim black figure appeared walking down the open space.
+'That man!'
+
+'I am not authorised to tell any one so, May.'
+
+'Yes, I understand.  The wretch, he is taking stock of the place
+already!'
+
+'For shame.  May, no one has deserved so well of them.'
+
+'I don't care, he got you into that horrid concern.'
+
+'And got me out of it, and found my work for me.  I tell you, May, it
+is the best thing that could possibly happen to your parish, or the
+estate, or my poor uncle either!  And you will soon come to a better
+mind.'
+
+'Never, while he is to get into your place!  Turn back before he comes
+within hailing distance.'
+
+Before Mark could do anything towards bringing his sister to a better
+mind he was seized on by his stepmother to propound a scheme she had
+hatched, namely that, as a mutual benefit, Nurse Poole should be
+allowed the consolation of bringing her chief comforter, his little
+daughter, down with her on the visit Mrs. Egremont had invited her to
+pay at Redcastle.  He was very grateful, though doubtful whether
+Annaple would accept the offer, for she was missing her children's
+company, though they were only at Springfield House, and she had been
+with them part of every day.  And, sad as this month had been, it had
+been such a rest from sheer physical toil that she had gained almost as
+much by it as the little one.
+
+There was a general assembly and coffee-drinking in the verandah,--Mr.
+Condamine, Blanche, and her two young sisters were all there,--and May
+had to be duly civil to Mr. Dutton, though he came back with some
+water-lilies that he had fished out of the lake for Nuttie, and she
+thought it taking possession.  Then the Londoners set forth for the
+station, and there Mark, having perhaps had a hint from his wife, saw
+Nuttie and Mr. Dutton safely bestowed by Broadbent in an empty
+carriage, and then discovered a desire to smoke, and left them to
+themselves.
+
+They had not been alone together for more than a second since the
+evening of Alwyn's return, and there was a great shyness between them,
+which lasted till the first station was past without any irruption of
+newcomers.  Nothing had been said but a few comments on the
+arrangements and the attendants, but probably both were trying to begin
+to speak, and at last it was Ursula who crossed over so that her face
+could not be seen, and said in an odd tone--
+
+'Mr. Dutton--'
+
+'Yes,' and he turned, instantly on the alert.
+
+'Did you mean it--what I thought you meant that evening?'
+
+'Can you doubt it?' he said earnestly.  'But even then I was surprised
+into the avowal, and I would have held it back if possible, if I had
+guessed what was going to happen.'
+
+'Ah! but then I should not have had that drop of comfort through it
+all,' and she laid hold of his hand, which returned the pressure
+strongly, but he sedulously guarded both words and tone as he said:
+
+'Listen, Ursula, before you speak again.  How dear you must always be
+to me, I cannot tell you, but when I then spoke, it was with the sense
+that on every account, I should meet with strong opposition from your
+father and family.  And now your position is altered, so that the
+unsuitability is doubled.  I am not a young man, remember, and my
+thoughts must be for you above all, I want you to consider whether, in
+the present state of affairs, you would not do better to look on what
+then passed as unsaid, or only as the ebullition of gratitude towards
+your old friend.  Let me go abroad, and give you full opportunity
+for--for some fresh beginning likely to be fitter for you--'
+
+'Mr. Dutton, how can you say such horrid things?  As if a dukedom would
+make any difference.'
+
+'Yes,' he said, turning towards her.  'If it is only the old-friend
+feeling, then it is better dropped, but if your heart is in it, child,
+then we go on, come what may.  It is due to you.'
+
+She raised her face towards him now, and he gave a grave kiss to her
+forehead.  She drew a long breath, and said after a little pause, 'And
+now I have something to say.  One does think of such things even in
+these sad times, and you can help me.  I am so glad it is you, because
+I know you will, and be rejoiced to do so.  You know when Mark found us
+out first, dear mother and I always felt that it was a great pity he
+should not have the estate he had been brought up to expect.  I believe
+dear mother thought it would have been the right thing for me to marry
+him, but I always did mean to give it back to him, even when I didn't
+like him.  Well, then, you know it all seemed settled otherwise, but
+now, it is so lucky you spoke to me while that dear little fellow was
+with us, because now you will help me to persuade my father that it is
+the only satisfactory thing to do to let it go in the male line to Mark
+and his Willy.'
+
+'I see!  I see!' said Mr. Dutton eagerly.  'It would be an infinite
+relief if it could be carried out.'
+
+'I believe my father would like it,' said Nuttie.  'He cares for the
+name; and now no one prevents it; he is fond of Mark, and still more of
+Annaple!  And you!  Oh, Mr. Dutton, if he will only take it in the
+right way, I think you will make me able to do what it grieved dear
+mother never to have brought about for my poor father.'
+
+'My whole self is yours to aid you,' he said.  'You know of course that
+I could not ask you to detach yourself from one to whom you are so
+necessary.  If he will permit us, we will watch over him together as
+doing her work.'
+
+'Thank you,' was all Nuttie's lips could utter, though her hand said
+much more.
+
+And before they reached London they had arranged something of a plan of
+action for propitiating Mr. Egremont, and bringing the future prospects
+to be available so as to save Annaple from being worked to death in the
+meantime.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+ANNAPLE'S AMBITION FALLEN.
+
+
+'Well, how did you get on, Annaple?'
+
+'Oh! very well, poor old man, on the whole, though it made one pity him
+doubly that he chose to make as if he forgot everything, and you were
+all gone on a picnic, taking me out for a long drive in the
+afternoon--where we were least likely to meet any one--that I will say
+for him.'
+
+'Forgetting is not the best for him.'
+
+'As if he could forget!  But he was very nice and friendly, and put on
+his best, most courteous self.  I think he looks on me rather as a
+protector from the solemn Mr. Edsall.'
+
+'Surely Edsall treats him well.  He was excellently recommended.  You
+know I saw his master's daughter.'
+
+'Oh! only _too_ well.  He takes the management of him as if he were
+three years old, or a lunatic.  He simply _will_ not be offended any
+more than if he had to do with a baby.'
+
+'What should offend him?'
+
+'That Mr. Egremont greatly resents being allowed nothing but by what
+Edsall calls medical sanction.  He is too blind, you know, to venture
+to pour out anything for himself, and besides, Edsall has all the drugs
+under lock and key, and is coolness itself about any amount of
+objurgations, such as I fancy go on sometimes.'
+
+'Do you think he will stand it?'
+
+'Who?  Your uncle?  Yes, I think he will.  This man really makes him
+more comfortable than poor Gregorio did.'
+
+'Yes; Nuttie said she was sure that there was neglect, if not bullying
+latterly.  But he must miss Gregorio terribly.  They had been together
+for at least five-and-twenty or thirty years, and had plenty of gossip
+together.'
+
+'Whereas the present paternal despotism and appalling dignity and
+gravity will keep him more dependent on his right congeners.'
+
+'If they are of the right sort, that's all.'
+
+'He has been making me read him a whole heap of letters; indeed, as you
+know, I have been doing that all along, when he could not get Nuttie.
+There were some from Mr. Bulfinch.  Do you know that bailiff of his
+must be next door to a swindler?'
+
+'Bulfinch is coming up to see him to-morrow.'
+
+'And, Mark, do you know, he has been putting out feelers as if to
+discover whether we would do--what he asked us to do five years ago.'
+
+'Would you?'
+
+'If it were not for the children, and--and sometimes the extreme pinch,
+I should say it was more like _life_ to work yourself up as a City
+man,' said Annaple.  'If you were the Squire, with all his
+opportunities, it would be a different thing, but there's no outlet
+there, and I have often admired the wisdom of the Apocryphal saying,
+"Make not thyself an underling to a foolish man."'
+
+'Well, it is lucky you think so, Nannie, for though Dutton is certainly
+not a foolish man, he will not want an underling.  And what do you say
+to my mother's proposal of having poor Poole to stay at Redcastle, and
+borrowing baby to comfort her till she goes out again.
+
+'I hate it,' said Annaple energetically.  'It is very horrid, but it is
+awfully good of the Canoness; and I suppose we shall have to let it
+come to pass, and miss all that most charming time of babyhood which is
+coming.  But most likely it will quite set the little woman up, and be
+a real kindness to poor Poole.'
+
+'If we could only keep her for good.'
+
+'Yes, and then our children would not be half so much our own.  I do
+want to be away with them in our own quarters.  I wonder when Nuttie
+can spare us, but I should like to see her through the great crisis
+with her father.'
+
+That crisis was to involve more than Annaple in the least expected.
+Nuttie found that the momentous confession could not possibly take
+place before the interview with Mr. Bulfinch, at which her presence was
+needed to help her father with his papers.  The principal concern was
+to show the full enormity of the bailiff, and decide upon the steps to
+be taken, the solicitor being anxious for a prosecution, while a
+certain tenderness for poor Gregorio's memory, or perhaps for the
+exposure of his own carelessness, made Mr. Egremont reluctant. There
+was also a proposal, brought forward with much diffidence from Mr.
+Condamine's mother, to rent Bridgefield House, but on this, as well as
+respecting a successor to the bailiff, Mr. Egremont was to give his
+answer the next day, when Mr. Bulfinch would call again.
+
+Nuttie was thankful for the business that had filled up the hour after
+luncheon, when Alwyn used to play in the drawing-room and delight his
+father; but she was feeling desperate to have the crisis over, and
+resolved to speak when she went out driving with him.  It was he,
+however, who began.  'I sounded Mark's wife yesterday, Ursula.  She is
+a nice little thing enough, and a good wife in her way.'
+
+'A very good wife.'
+
+'Except when she persuaded him to turn up his nose at the agency. D'ye
+think he would take it now, since he has tasted the sweets of his
+umbrella business?' then, as Nuttie paused, taken by surprise; 'Five
+hundred a year and the Home Farm would be better than, what is it, a
+hundred and fifty and a floor over a warehouse!  I don't like to see
+old Will's son wearing himself out there, and the lad is a good honest
+lad, with business habits, who would do justice to you after I am gone.'
+
+'Father,' said Nuttie, trembling with the effort, 'I want you to do
+something better than that.  I want you to let Mark take the agency
+with a view to himself--not me.  Let him be as he would have been if he
+had never hunted us up at Micklethwayte, and put me in his place.'
+
+'Eh!' said Mr. Egremont.  'It is not entailed--worse luck; if it had
+been, I should not have been bound to dance attendance at the heels of
+such an old sinner as the General.'
+
+'No, but it ought to go to the heir male, and keep in the old name.
+Think--there have been Egremonts at Bridgefield for four hundred years!'
+
+'Very pretty talk, but how will it be with you, Miss.  We shall have
+Fane, and I don't know how many more, coming after the scent of
+Bridgefield now,' he said with a heavy sigh, ending with a bitter 'Hang
+them all!'
+
+'And welcome,' said Nuttie, answering the thought rather than the
+words.  'Father, I wanted to tell you--'
+
+'You don't mean that any one has been after you at such a time as
+this!' he cried.
+
+'It was before--I mean it was the evening when we were all so glad,
+before we began to be afraid.'
+
+'The umbrella man!  By Jove!'
+
+'And now,' went on Nuttie, in spite of the explosion, 'he would hardly
+have ventured to go on with it but for this--I mean,' as her father
+gave a little laugh of his unpleasant sort, 'he said it would be the
+greatest possible relief, and make it all right for the property to go
+to the heir male.'
+
+'Hein!  You think so, do you?  See how it will be when I come to talk
+to him!  A shrewd fellow like that who got out of the Micklethwayte
+concern just in time.  Catch him giving up a place like that, though he
+may humbug you.'
+
+'Then you will see him, father?'
+
+'If you turn him in on me, I can't help it.  Bless me! umbrellas
+everywhere!  And here you mean to turn me over to the mercies of that
+solemn idiot, Edsall.  I should have been better off with poor
+Gregorio.'
+
+'No, father; Mr. Dutton would not take me from you.  We would both try
+all we could to make you comfortable.'
+
+'Convert the old reprobate?  Is that his dodge?'
+
+'Don't, father,' for the sneering tone returned.
+
+'Come now,' he added in a much more fatherly manner, for her voice had
+struck him.  'You don't mean that a well-looking girl like you, who
+could have her pick of all the swells in town, can really be smitten
+with a priggish old retired umbrella-monger like that.  Why, he might
+be your father.'
+
+'He has been getting younger ever since I knew him,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Well.  He plays as good a game of whist as any man in England,'
+muttered Mr. Egremont, leaving his daughter in actual doubt whether he
+meant this as a recommendation, or as expressing a distrust of him, as
+one likely to play his cards to the best advantage.  She had to remain
+in doubt, for they overtook Clarence Fane, who came and spoke to them
+in a very friendly and solicitous manner, and showed himself willing to
+accept a lift in the carriage.  Mr. Egremont, willing to escape from
+perplexities as well as to endeavour to drive away if possible the
+oppression of his grief, invited him in, and he had some gossip to
+impart, which at first seemed to amuse the hearer after this time of
+seclusion, but the sick and sore heart soon wearied of it, and long
+before the drive was over, Mr. Egremont was as much bored as his
+daughter had been from the first.
+
+When Mr. Fane got out, he paused a moment to hold Ursula's hand in a
+tender manner, while he told her that he had not ventured to intrude
+(he had left a card of inquiry every day), but that if ever he could be
+of the least use in amusing Mr. Egremont, he was at her service, and
+would give up any engagement.
+
+'Hein! my fine fellow!  No doubt you would!' said Mr. Egremont, when
+his daughter had uttered her cold thanks, and they had driven on.  'I
+see your little game, but it is soon to begin it.  We may as well let
+them know that she is booked before the running begins.'
+
+It was a remarkable intimation of his acceptance of her engagement, but
+Ursula was contented to take it as such, and be thankful.
+
+Mr. Dutton had his interview as soon as Mr. Egremont had rested after
+his drive, and the result was satisfactory.
+
+No doubt much was due to the Egremont indolence and want of energy,
+which always preferred to let things take their course.  And now that
+Gregorio was no longer present to amuse, and take all trouble off his
+hands, Mr. Egremont could hardly have borne to part with his daughter;
+and, despite of umbrellas and religion, was not sorry to have a
+perfectly trustworthy son-in-law in the house, able to play at cards
+with him, manage his household, and obviate all trouble about suitors
+for the heiress.  Moreover, his better feelings were stirred by
+gratitude on his poor little son's account, and he knew very well that
+a more brilliant match for his daughter would not have secured for his
+old age the care and attention he could rely upon here.  He was obliged
+likewise to believe in the disinterestedness, which disclaimed all
+desire for the estate, as involving cares and duties for which there
+had been no training; and he was actually glad to keep the property in
+the direct line.  The old liking for Mark, and sense of the hardship of
+his exclusion, revived, strengthened now by regard for Annaple;
+together with the present relief from care obtained by making him
+manager of the estate.
+
+When once brought to a point, Mr. Egremont was always sudden and
+impetuous, chiefly for the sake of having it over and being unmolested
+and at rest again.  So that very evening, while Nuttie only ventured on
+sharing with Annaple the glad tidings that Mr. Dutton was accepted, and
+in his marvellous goodness, undertook to make his home with her father.
+Mark was almost stunned by the news, confirmed to him by Mr. Dutton as
+well as his uncle, that he was to be acknowledged as heir of
+Bridgefield Egremont, and in the meantime manage the estate with an
+income suitable to an oldest son.
+
+Presently he came upstairs by himself, and beckoned to Nuttie, rather
+to the alarm of his wife.
+
+'Ursula,' he said, and took both her hands, 'I cannot have you do this
+for me.'
+
+'Can't you, Mark?  You can't prevent it, you see.  And don't you know
+it is the beginning of all my happiness?'
+
+'But indeed, I cannot feel it right.  It is a strained sense of
+justice.  Come and tell her so, Nannie.'
+
+'What?' said Annaple coming forward.
+
+They both paused a moment, then Nuttie said, 'Only that the estate
+ought to go in the male line.'
+
+'Oh, is that all?' said Annaple, 'I was afraid Mr. Egremont had a fit!'
+
+'Ah!  Don't you see what it means,' said Mark.  'They want it to be as
+if there were an entail--to begin treating me as an eldest son at once.
+It is Ursula's doing, putting herself out of the succession.'
+
+'I always hated being an heiress,' said Nuttie.
+
+'It would be more dreadful than ever now.  Annaple, do be sensible!
+Don't you see it is the only right thing to do?'
+
+'Billy!' was the one word Annaple said.
+
+'Yes, Billy and Jenny and all,' said Nuttie, 'before you've all died of
+your horrid place--Oh! you haven't heard that part of it.  Of course
+Mark will have to go down to Bridgefield and look after the place, and
+live like a gentleman.'
+
+'Eight hundred a year,' murmured Mark, 'and the house at the Home Farm.'
+
+'Oh! dear,' gasped Annaple, 'I wanted you to be Lord Mayor, and now
+you'll only be a stupid old country squire.  No, no, Nuttie,
+it's--it's--it's the sort of thing that one only laughs at because
+otherwise one would have to do the other thing!'
+
+And she gripped Nuttie tight round the waist, and laid her head on her
+shoulder, shaking with a few little sobs, which might be one thing or
+the other.
+
+'It will save her youth, perhaps her life,' whispered Mark, lifting
+Nuttie's hand to his lips for a moment, and then vanishing, while
+Annaple recovered enough to say, 'I'm tougher than that, sir.  But
+little Jenny!  Oh, Nuttie, I believe it has come in time.  I've known
+all along that one straw more might break the camel's back.  We've been
+very happy, but I am glad it is over before Mark got worn down before
+his time.  Grinding is very wholesome, but one may have too much; and I
+haven't Mark's scruples, Nuttie dear, for I do think the place is more
+in his line than yours or Mr. Dutton's.'
+
+'Yes,' said Ursula, 'you see he was always happy there, and I never
+was.'
+
+The next thing was for Mr. Dutton and Ursula to keep Mr. Egremont up to
+the point of making his long deferred will; nor did they find this so
+difficult as they expected, for having once made up his mind, he wished
+to have the matter concluded, and he gave his instructions to Bulfinch
+the next day.  Of course Mark had to give full notice to his employers;
+but the allowance was to begin at once, so that Annaple only went back
+to the warehouse to pack up, since she was to occupy No. 5, while Mr.
+Egremont and his daughter were going under Mr. Dutton's escort to the
+baths in Dauphine, an entirely new resort, free from the associations
+he dreaded, for he could not yet bear the sight of little Willy--the
+rival 'boy of Egremont.'  But the will was safely signed before he
+went, to the great relief of Nuttie, who, according to the experience
+of fiction, could hardly believe his life safe till what she called
+justice had been done.
+
+After all Mr. Egremont became so dependent on Mr. Dutton, during this
+journey, that he did not like the separation at its close, and pressed
+on the marriage even sooner than either of the lovers felt quite
+reverent towards the recent sorrow.  He insisted on Bulfinch having the
+settlements ready for them on their return, and only let them wait long
+enough to keep their residence, before there was a very quiet wedding
+in their parish church, with the cousins for bridesmaids.  Then Mark
+and Annaple took care of Mr. Egremont for the fortnight while Mr.
+Dutton showed his wife his old haunts in France, returning to
+Springfield House, where there was plenty of room for Mr. Egremont to
+make his home with them.
+
+Said Annaple to Miss Nugent, 'I never saw Nuttie so youthful and
+bright.  She is more like a girl than I ever saw her since the first.'
+
+'Yes,' said Mary, 'she has some one to rest on now.'
+
+Mr. Egremont lived between three and four years, more contented and
+peaceful than he had ever been, though frequently suffering, and
+sometimes giving way to temper and impatience.  But Mr. Dutton
+understood how to manage on these occasions, and without giving up his
+own extensive usefulness, could give him such care, attention, and
+amusement as beguiled his discomforts, and made his daughter's task an
+easier one.
+
+How far the sluggish enfeebled nature was capable of a touch of better
+things, or whether his low spirits were repentance, no one could judge.
+At any rate sneers had ended, and when he was laid beside his wife and
+boy at Bridgefield, Ursula stood by the grave with a far more tender
+and hopeful feeling than she could have thought possible when he had
+rent her away from her old home. She looked up at her husband and said,
+'Is not her work done?'
+
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Nuttie's Father, by Charlotte M. Yonge
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Nuttie's Father, by Charlotte M. Yonge
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+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
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+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Nuttie's Father
+
+Author: Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+Posting Date: June 12, 2009 [EBook #4053]
+Release Date: May, 2003
+First Posted: October 21, 2001
+Last Updated: November 10, 2001
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NUTTIE'S FATHER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sandra Laythorpe.  HTML version by Al Haines.
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<H1 ALIGN="center">
+Nuttie's Father
+</H1>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+by
+</H3>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+Charlotte M. Yonge
+</H2>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CONTENTS
+</H2>
+
+<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%">
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">&nbsp;</TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap01">ST. AMBROSE'S CHOIR.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap02">MONKS HORTON.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap03">HEIR HUNTING.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap04">A NAME.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap05">SUSPENSE.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap06">THE WATER-SOLDIER.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap07">THAT MAN.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap08">THE FATHER.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap09">NEW PLUMES.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap10">BRIDGEFIELD EGREMONT.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap11">LAWN-TENNIS.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap12">OUT OF WORK.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap13">DETRIMENTALS.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap14">GOING AGEE.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap15">A CASTLE OF UMBRELLAS.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap16">INFRA DIG.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap17">AN OLD FRIEND.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap18">A FRIEND IN NEED.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIX.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap19">THE VORTEX.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XX.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap20">WOLF.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap21">URSULA'S RECEPTION.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap22">DISENCHANTMENT.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap23">A FAILURE.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap24">FARMS OR UMBRELLAS.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap25">THE GIGGLING SCOTCH GIRL.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap26">THREE YEARS LATER.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap27">THE BOY OF EGREMONT.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap28">A BRAVE HEART.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIX.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap29">A FRESH START.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXX.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap30">NUTTIE'S PROSPECTS.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap31">SPES NON FRACTA.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap32">BLACKS IN THE ASCENDANT.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap33">THE LOST HEIR.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXIV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap34">FETTERS RENT.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap35">THE HULL OF THE URSULA.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXVI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap36">NUTTIE'S KNIGHT.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXVII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap37">FOUND AND TAKEN.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXVIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap38">THE UMBRELLA MAN.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXIX.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap39">ANNAPLE'S AMBITION FALLEN.</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+</TABLE>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap01"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER I.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+ST. AMBROSE'S CHOIR.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'For be it known<BR>
+  That their saint's honour is their own.'&mdash;SCOTT.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+The town of Micklethwayte was rising and thriving.  There were
+salubrious springs which an enterprising doctor had lately brought into
+notice.  The firm of Greenleaf and Dutton manufactured umbrellas in
+large quantities, from the stout weather-proof family roof down to the
+daintiest fringed toy of a parasol.  There were a Guild Hall and a
+handsome Corn Market.  There was a Modern School for the boys, and a
+High School for the girls, and a School of Art, and a School of
+Cookery, and National Schools, and a British School, and a Board
+School, also churches of every height, chapels of every denomination,
+and iron mission rooms budding out in hopes to be replaced by churches.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Like one of the animals which zoologists call radiated, the town was
+constantly stretching out fresh arms along country roads, all living
+and working, and gradually absorbing the open spaces between.  One of
+these arms was known as St. Ambrose's Road, in right of the church, an
+incomplete structure in yellow brick, consisting of a handsome chancel,
+the stump of a tower, and one aisle just weather-tight and usable, but,
+by its very aspect, begging for the completion of the beautiful design
+that was suspended above the alms-box.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was the evening of a summer day which had been very hot.  The choir
+practice was just over, and the boys came out trooping and chattering;
+very small ones they were; for as soon as they began to sing tolerably
+they were sure to try to get into the choir of the old church, which
+had a foundation that fed, clothed, taught, and finally apprenticed
+them.  So, though the little fellows were clad in surplices and
+cassocks, and sat in the chancel for correctness sake, there was a
+space round the harmonium reserved for the more trustworthy band of
+girls and young women who came forth next, followed by four or five
+mechanics.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Behind came the nucleus of the choir&mdash;a slim, fair-haired youth of
+twenty; a neat, precise, well-trimmed man, closely shaven, with
+stooping shoulders, at least fifteen years older, with a black poodle
+at his heels, as well shorn as his master, newly risen from lying
+outside the church door; a gentle, somewhat drooping lady in black, not
+yet middle-aged and very pretty; a small eager, unformed, black-eyed
+girl, who could hardly keep back her words for the outside of the
+church door; a tall self-possessed handsome woman, with a fine
+classical cast of features; and lastly, a brown-faced, wiry hardworking
+clergyman, without an atom of superfluous flesh, but with an air of
+great energy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh! vicar, where are we to go?' was the question so eager to break
+forth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not to the Crystal Palace, Nuttie.  The funds won't bear it.  Mr.
+Dutton says we must spend as little as possible on locomotion.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I'm sure I don't care for the Crystal Palace.  A trumpery tinsel
+place, all shams.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Hush, hush, my dear, not so loud,' said the quiet lady; but Nuttie
+only wriggled her shoulders, though her voice was a trifle lowered. 'If
+it were the British Museum now, or Westminster Abbey.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Or the Alps,' chimed in a quieter voice, 'or the Ufizzi.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Now, Mr. Dutton, that's not what I want.  Our people aren't ready for
+that, but what they have let it be real.  Miss Mary, don't you see what
+I mean?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Rather better than Miss Egremont herself,' said Mr. Dutton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well,' said the vicar, interposing in the wordy war, 'Mrs. Greenleaf's
+children have scarlatina, so we can't go to Horton Bishop.  The choice
+seems to be between South Beach and Monks Horton.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That's no harm,' cried Nuttie; 'Mrs. Greenleaf is so patronising!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And both that and South Beach are so stale,' said the youth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'As if the dear sea could ever be stale,' cried the young girl.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I thought Monks Horton was forbidden ground,' said Miss Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'So it was with the last regime', said the vicar; 'but now the new
+people are come I expect great things from them.  I hear they are very
+friendly.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I expect nothing from them,' said Nuttie so sententiously that all her
+hearers laughed and asked 'her exquisite reason,' as Mr. Dutton put it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Lady Kirkaldy and a whole lot of them came into the School of Art.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And didn't appreciate "Head of Antinous by Miss Ursula Egremont,"' was
+the cry that interrupted her, but she went on with dignity
+unruffled&mdash;'Anything so foolish and inane as their whole talk and all
+their observations I never heard.  "I don't like this style," one of
+them said.  "Such ugly useless things!  I never see anything pretty and
+neatly finished such as we used to do."'  The girl gave it in a tone of
+mimicry of the nonchalant voice, adding, with fresh imitation, "'And
+another did not approve of drawing from the life&mdash;models might be such
+strange people."'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My ears were not equally open to their profanities,' said Miss Mary.
+'I confess that I was struck by the good breeding and courtesy of the
+leader of the party, who, I think, was Lady Kirkaldy herself.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I saw!  I thought she was patronising you, and my blood boiled!' cried
+Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Will boiling blood endure a picnic in the park of so much ignorance,
+folly, and patronage?' asked Mr. Dutton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, indeed, Mr. Dutton, Nuttie never said that,' exclaimed gentle Mrs.
+Egremont.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Whether it is fully worth the doing is the question,' said the vicar.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Grass and shade do not despise,' said Miss Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'There surely must be some ecclesiastical remains,' said the young man.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And there is a river,' added the vicar.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I shall get a stickleback for my aquarium,' cried Nuttie.  'We shall
+make some discoveries for the Scientific Society.  I shall note down
+every individual creature I see!  I say! you are sure it is not a sham
+waterfall or Temple of Tivoli?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It would please the choir boys and G. F. S. girls quite as much, if
+not more, in that case,' said Miss Mary; 'but you need not expect that,
+Nuttie.  Landscape-gardening is gone by.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Even with the county people?' said Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'By at least half a century,' said Mr. Dutton, 'with all deference to
+this young lady's experience.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It was out of their own mouths,' cried the girl defiantly.  'That's
+all I know about county people, and so I hope it will be.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Come in, my dear, you are talking very fast,' interposed Mrs.
+Egremont, with some pain in the soft sweet voice, which, if it had been
+a little stronger, would have been the best in the choir.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+These houses in St. Ambrose's Road were semi-detached.  The pair which
+the party had reached had their entrances at the angles, with a narrow
+gravel path leading by a tiny grass plat to each.  One, which was
+covered with a rich pall of purple clematis, was the home of Mrs.
+Egremont, her aunt, and Nuttie; the other, adorned with a Gloire de
+Dijon rose in second bloom, was the abode of Mary Nugent, with her
+mother, the widow of a naval captain.  Farther on, with adjoining
+gardens, was another couple of houses, in one of which lived Mr.
+Dutton; in the other lodged the youth, Gerard Godfrey, together with
+the partner of the principal medical man.  The opposite neighbours were
+a master of the Modern School and a scholar.  Indeed, the saying of the
+vicar, the Rev. Francis Spyers, was, and St. Ambrose's Road was proud
+of it, that it was a professional place.  Every one had something to do
+either with schools or umbrellas, scarcely excepting the doctor and the
+solicitor, for the former attended the pupils and the latter supplied
+them.  Mr. Dutton was a partner in the umbrella factory, and lived, as
+the younger folk said, as the old bachelor of the Road.  Had he not a
+housekeeper, a poodle, and a cat; and was not his house, with lovely
+sill boxes full of flowers in the windows, the neatest of the neat; and
+did not the tiny conservatory over his dining-room window always
+produce the flowers most needed for the altar vases, and likewise
+bouquets for the tables of favoured ladies. Why, the very daisies never
+durst lift their heads on his little lawn, which even bore a French
+looking-glass globe in the centre. Miss Nugent, or Miss Mary as every
+one still called her, as her elder sister's marriage was recent, was
+assistant teacher at the School of Art, and gave private drawing
+lessons, so as to supplement the pension on which her mother lived.
+They also received girls as boarders attending the High School.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So did Miss Headworth, who had all her life been one of those people
+who seem condemned to toil to make up for the errors or disasters of
+others.  First she helped to educate a brother, and soon he had died to
+leave an orphan daughter to be bred up at her cost.  The girl had
+married from her first situation; but had almost immediately lost her
+husband at sea, and on this her aunt had settled at Micklethwayte to
+make a home for her and her child, at first taking pupils, but when the
+High School was set up, changing these into boarders; while Mrs.
+Egremont went as daily governess to the children of a family of
+somewhat higher pretensions.  Little Ursula, or Nuttie, as she was
+called, according to the local contraction, was like the child of all
+the party, and after climbing up through the High School to the last
+form, hoped, after passing the Cambridge examination, to become a
+teacher there in another year.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap02"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER II.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+MONKS HORTON.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'And we will all the pleasures prove,<BR>
+  By shallow rivers, by whose falls<BR>
+  Melodious birds sing madrigals.'&mdash;Old Ballad.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+It was holiday-time, and liberties were taken such as were not
+permissible, when they might have afforded a bad precedent to the
+boarders.  Therefore, when two afternoons later Mary Nugent, returning
+from district visiting, came out into her garden behind the house, she
+was not scandalised to see a pair of little black feet under a holland
+skirt resting on a laurel branch, and going a few steps more she beheld
+a big shady hat, and a pair of little hands busy with a pencil and a
+blank book; as Ursula sat on the low wall between the gardens, shaded
+by the laburnum which facilitated the ascent on her own side.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh Miss Mary!  Delicious!  Come up here!  You don't know how charming
+this is.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She moved aside so as to leave the ascent&mdash;by an inverted flower-pot
+and a laurel branch&mdash;open to her friend, thus knocking down one of the
+pile of books which she had taken to the top of the wall.  Miss Nugent
+picked it up, 'Marie Stuart!  Is this your way of studying her?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Now, you know 'tis holiday time, and volunteer work; besides, she was
+waiting for you, and I could not help doing this.'  She held out a
+hand, which was scarcely needed, and Mary sprang lightly to share her
+perch upon the wall.  'Look here!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Am I to guess the subject as in the game of historic outlines,' said
+Miss Nugent, as the book was laid on her lap.  'It looks like a
+modern&mdash;no, a mediaeval&mdash;edition of Marcus Curtius about to leap into
+the capital opening for a young man, only with his dogs instead of his
+horse.  That hound seems very rationally to object.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Now don't!  Guess in earnest.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'A compliment to your name.  The Boy of Egremont, poor fellow, just
+about to bound across the strid.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Exactly!  I always feel sure that my father must have done something
+like this.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Was it so heroic?' said Miss Mary. 'You know it was for the hundredth
+time, and he had no reason to expect any special danger.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, but his mother was waiting, and he had to go.  Now, I'll tell you
+how it must have been with my father.  You know he sailed away in a
+yacht before I was born, and poor mother never saw him again; but I
+know what happened.  There was a ship on fire like the Birkenhead, and
+the little yacht went near to pick up the people, and my father called
+out, like Sir Humphrey Gilbert&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+          "Do not fear, Heaven is as near<BR>
+           By water as by land."<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+And the little yacht was so close when the great ship blew up that it
+got sucked down in the whirlpool, and rescuers and all died a noble
+death together!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Has your mother been telling you?' asked Miss Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh no! she never mentions him.  She does not know.  No one does; but I
+am quite sure he died nobly, with no one to tell the tale, only the
+angels to look on, and that makes it all the finer.  Or just suppose he
+was on a desert island all the time, and came back again to find us!  I
+sometimes think he is.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What?  When you are <I>quite sure</I> of the other theory?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I mean I am quite sure while I am thinking about it, or reading
+Robinson Crusoe, or the Swiss Family.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Miss Mary, has no one ever told you anything about my father?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No one.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'They never tell me.  Mother cries, and aunt Ursula puts on her
+"there's-an-end-of-it look."  Do you think there is anything they are
+waiting to tell me till I am older?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If there were, I am sure you had better not try to find it out
+beforehand.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You don't think I would do anything of <I>that sort?</I>  But I thought you
+might know.  Do you remember their first settling here?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Scarcely.  I was a very small child then.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Nugent had a few vague recollections which she did not think it
+expedient to mention.  A dim remembrance rose before her of mysterious
+whisperings about that beautiful young widow, and that it had been said
+that the rector of the Old Church had declared himself to know the
+ladies well, and had heartily recommended them.  She thought it wiser
+only to speak of having been one of their first scholars, telling of
+the awe Miss Headworth inspired; but the pleasure it was to bring a
+lesson to pretty Mrs. Egremont, who always rewarded a good one with a
+kiss, 'and she was so nice to kiss&mdash;yes, and is.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Aunt Ursel and mother both were governesses,' continued the girl, 'and
+yet they don't want me to go out.  They had rather I was a teacher at
+the High School.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'They don't want to trust their Little Bear out in the world.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I think it is more than that,' said the girl.  'I can't help thinking
+that he&mdash;my father&mdash;must have been some one rather grand, with such a
+beautiful name as Alwyn Piercefield Egremont.  Yes; I know it was that,
+for I saw my baptismal certificate when I stood for the scholarship; it
+was Dieppe,&mdash;Ursula Alice, daughter of Alwyn Piercefield and Alice
+Elizabeth Egremont, May 15, 1860.  James Everett&mdash;I think he was the
+chaplain at Dieppe.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary Nugent thought it the wisest way to laugh and say: 'You, of all
+people in the world, to want to make out a connection with the
+aristocracy!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'True love is different,' said Ursula.  'He must have been cast off by
+his family for her sake, and have chosen poverty&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+     "To make the croon a pund, my Alwyn gaed to sea,<BR>
+      And the croon and the pund, they were baith for me."'<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Miss Mary did not think a yacht a likely place for the conversion of a
+croon into a pound, and the utter silence of mother and aunt did not
+seem to her satisfactory; but she feared either to damp the youthful
+enthusiasm for the lost father, or to foster curiosity that might lead
+to some painful discovery, so she took refuge in an inarticulate sound.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I think Mr. Dutton knows,' proceeded Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You don't mean to ask him?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Catch me!  I know how he would look at me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Slang!  A forfeit!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, it's holiday time, and the boarders can't hear.  There's Mr.
+Dutton's door!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This might in one way be a relief to Miss Nugent, but she did not like
+being caught upon the wall, and therefore made a rapid descent, though
+not without a moment's entanglement of skirt, which delayed her long
+enough to show where she had been, as Mr. Dutton was at the same moment
+advancing to his own wall on the opposite side of the Nugent garden.
+Perhaps he would have pretended to see nothing but for Nuttie's cry of
+glee.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You wicked elf,' said Miss Mary, 'to inveigle people into
+predicaments, and then go shouting ho! ho! ho! like Robin Goodfellow
+himself.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You should have kept your elevation and dignity like me,' retorted
+Ursula; 'and then you would have had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Dutton
+climbing his wall and coming to our feet.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mischievous elves deserve no good news,' said Mr. Dutton, who was by
+no means so venerable that the crossing the wall was any effort or
+compromise of dignity, and who had by this time joined Mary on her
+grass plat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, what is it!  Are we to go to Monks Horton?' cried Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Here is a gracious permission from Lord Kirkaldy, the only
+stipulations being that no vestiges of the meal, such as sandwich
+papers or gooseberry skins, be left on the grass; and that nobody does
+any mischief,' he added in an awful tone of personality.  'So if I see
+anybody rooting up holly trees I shall be bound to interfere.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Now, Mr. Dutton, it was only a baby holly in a chink.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Only a holly tree!  Just like the giant's daughter when she only
+carried off waggon, peasant, oxen, and all in her pinafore.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It is not longer than my finger now!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well, remember, mischief either wanton or scientific is forbidden. You
+are to set an example to the choir-boys.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Scientific mischief is a fatal thing to rare plants,' said Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If I'm not to touch anything, I may as well stay at home,' pouted
+Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You may gather as many buttercups and daisies as the sweet child
+pleases,' said Mr. Dutton; whereupon she threatened to throw her books
+at his head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Nugent asked how they were to go, and Mr. Dutton explained that
+there was only a quarter of a mile's walk from the station; that return
+tickets would be furnished at a tariff of fourpence a head; and that
+there would be trains at 1.15 and 7.30.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'How hungry the children will be.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'They will eat all the way.  That's the worst of this sort of outing.
+They eat to live and live to eat.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'At least they don't eat at church,' said Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not since the peppermint day, when Mr. Spyers suspended Dickie Drake,'
+put in Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And the Spa Terrace Church people said it was incense.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No.  Nuttie!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Indeed they did.  Louisa Barnet attacked us about it at school, and I
+said I wished it had been.  Only they mustn't eat peppermint in the
+train, for it makes mother quite ill.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Do you mean that Mrs. Egremont will come?' exclaimed Mr. Dutton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh yes, she shall.  It is not too far, and it will be very good for
+her.  I shall make her.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'There's young England's filial duty!' said Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Why, I know what is good for her, and she always does as "I wish."'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Beneficent despotism!' said Mr. Dutton.  'May I ask if Miss Headworth
+is an equally obedient subject.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh! Aunt Ursel is very seldom tiresome.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nuttie! Nuttie! my dear,' and a head with the snows of more than half
+a century appeared on the other side of the wall, under a cap and
+parasol.  'I am sorry to interrupt you, but it is cool enough for your
+mother to go into the town, and I wish you to go with her.'
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap03"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER III.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+HEIR HUNTING.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'And she put on her gown of green,<BR>
+  And left her mother at sixteen,<BR>
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;     To marry Peter Bell!'&mdash;WORDSWORTH.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+In the shrubberies of Monks Horton were walking a lady somewhat past
+middle age, but full of activity and vigour, with one of those bright
+faces that never grow old, and with her a young man, a few years over
+twenty, with a grave and almost careworn countenance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+More and more confidential waxed the conversation, for the lady was
+making fresh acquaintance with a nephew seldom seen since he had been
+her pet and darling as almost a baby, and he was experiencing the
+inexpressible charm of tone and manner that recalled the young mother
+he had lost in early boyhood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Then your mind is made up,' she said; 'you are quite right to decide
+on having a profession; but how does your father take it?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He is quite convinced that to repeat my uncle's life, dangling on as
+heir, would be the most fatal mistake.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Assuredly, and all the legal knowledge you acquire is so much in
+favour of your usefulness as the squire.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If I ever am the squire, of which I have my doubts.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You expect Mr. Egremont to marry?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not a future marriage, but one in the past.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'A private marriage!  Do you suspect it?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I don't suspect it&mdash;I know it.  I have been hoping to talk the matter
+over with you.  Do you remember our first governess, Miss Headworth?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My dear Mark, did I not lose at Pera the charms of your infancy?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Then neither my mother nor my grandmother ever wrote to you about her?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I do remember that it struck me that immunity from governesses was a
+compensation for the lack of daughters.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Can you tell me no details,' said Mark anxiously.  'Have you no
+letters?  It was about the time when Blanche was born, when we were
+living at Raxley.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I am sorry to say that our roving life prevented my keeping old
+letters.  I have often regretted it.  Let me see, there was one who
+boxed May's ears.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That was long after.  I think it was that woman's barbarity that made
+my father marry again, and a very good thing that was.  It was wretched
+before.  Miss Headworth was in my own mother's time.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I begin to remember something happening that your mother seemed unable
+to write about, and your grandmother said that she had been greatly
+upset by "that miserable affair," but I was never exactly told what it
+had been.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Miss Headworth came when I was four or five years old.  Edda, as we
+used to call her in May's language, was the first person who gave me a
+sense of beauty.  She had dark eyes and a lovely complexion.  I
+remember in after times being silenced for saying, "not so pretty as my
+Edda."  I was extremely fond of her, enough to have my small jealousy
+excited when my uncle joined us in our walks, and monopolised her,
+turning May and me over to play with his dog!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But, Mark, Mr. Egremont is some years older than your father.  He
+could not have been a young man at that time.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'So much the worse.  Most likely he seemed to her quite paternal. The
+next thing I recollect was our being in the Isle of Wight, we two
+children, with Miss Headworth and the German nurse, and our being told
+of our new sister.  Uncle Alwyn and his yacht were there, and we went
+on board once or twice.  Then matters became confused with me, I
+recollect a confusion, papa and grandmamma suddenly arriving, everybody
+seeming to us to have become very cross, our dear Miss Headworth
+nowhere to be found, our attendants being changed, and our being
+forbidden to speak of her again.  I certainly never thought of the
+matter till a month ago.  You know my uncle's eyes have been much
+affected by his illness, and he has made a good deal of use of me. He
+has got a valet, a fellow of no particular country, more Savoyard than
+anything else, I fancy.  He is a legacy, like other evils, from the old
+General, and seems a sort of necessity to my uncle's existence.
+Gregorio they call him.  He was plainly used to absolute government,
+and viewed the coming down amongst us as an assertion of liberty much
+against his will.  We could see that he was awfully jealous of my
+father and me, and would do anything to keep us out; but providentially
+he can't write English decently, though he can speak any language you
+please.  Well, the man and I came into collision about a scamp of a
+groom who was doing intolerable mischief in the village, and whom they
+put it on me to get discharged.  On that occasion Mr. Gregorio grew
+insolent, and intimated to me that I need not make so sure of the
+succession.  He knew that which might make the Chanoine and me change
+our note.  Well, my father is always for avoiding rows; he said it was
+an unmeaning threat, it was of no use to complain of Gregorio, and we
+must digest his insolence.  But just after, Uncle Alwyn sent me to hunt
+up a paper that was missing, and in searching a writing-case I came
+upon an unmistakable marriage certificate between Alwyn Piercefield
+Egremont and Alice Headworth, and then the dim recollections I told you
+of began to return.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What did you do?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I thought I had better consult my father, expecting to hear that she
+was dead, and that no further notice need be taken of the matter. But
+he was greatly disturbed to hear of the certificate, and would hardly
+believe me.  He said that some friend of my grandmother had written her
+word of goings on at Freshwater between his brother and the young
+governess, and that they went off at once to put a stop to it, but
+found us left with the German maid, who declared that Miss Headworth
+had gone off with Mr. Egremont in the yacht.  No more was heard of my
+uncle for six weeks, and when he came back there was a great row with
+the old General, but he absolutely denied being married.  I am afraid
+that was all the old sinner wished, and they went off together in the
+yacht to the West Indies, where it was burnt; but they, as you know,
+never came to England again, going straight off to the Mediterranean,
+having their headquarters at Sorrento, and cruising about till the
+General's death ten years ago.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, I once met them at Florence, and thought them two weary pitiable
+men.  One looked at the General as a curious relic of the old buck of
+the Regency days, and compassionated his nephew for having had his life
+spoilt by dangling after the old man.  It was a warning indeed, and I
+am glad you have profited by it, Mark.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He came back, after the old man died, to club life in London, and
+seldom has been near the old place; indeed, it has been let till
+recently, and he wants to let it again, but it is altogether too
+dilapidated for that without repairs.  So he came down to see about it,
+and was taken ill there.  But to return to what my father told me. He
+was shocked to hear of the certificate, for he had implicitly believed
+his brother's denial of the marriage, and he said Miss Headworth was so
+childish and simple that she might easily have been taken in by a sham
+ceremony.  He said that he now saw he had done very wrong in letting
+his mother-in-law take all the letters about "that unhappy business"
+off his hands without looking at them, but he was much engrossed by my
+mother's illness, and, as he said, it never occurred to him as a duty
+to trace out what became of the poor thing, and see that she was
+provided for safely.  You know Mrs. Egremont says laissez faire is our
+family failing, and that our first thought is how <I>not</I> to do it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, utter repudiation of such cases was the line taken by the last
+generation; and I am afraid my mother would be very severe.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Another thing that actuated my father was the fear of getting his
+brother into trouble with General Egremont, as he himself would have
+been the one to profit by it.  So I do not wonder so much at his
+letting the whole drop without inquiry, and never even looking at the
+letters, which there certainly were.  I could not get him to begin upon
+it with my uncle, but Mrs. Egremont was strongly on my side in thinking
+that such a thing ought to be looked into, and as I had found the paper
+it would be best that I should speak.  Besides that there was no
+enduring that Gregorio should be pretending to hold us in terror by
+such hints.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well, and has there been a wife and family in a cottage all this time?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Aunt Margaret, he has never seen or heard of her since he left her at
+Dieppe!  Would you believe it, he thinks himself a victim?  He never
+meant more than to amuse himself with the pretty little governess; and
+he took on board a Mr. and Mrs. Houghton to do propriety, shady sort of
+people I imagine, but that she did not know.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I have heard of them,' said Lady Kirkaldy, significantly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'She must have been a kind friend to the poor girl,' said Mark.  'On
+some report that Lady de Lyonnais was coming down on her, wrathful and
+terrible, the poor foolish girl let herself be persuaded to be carried
+off in the yacht, but there Mrs. Houghton watched over her like a
+dragon.  She made them put in at some little place in Jersey, put in
+the banns, all unknown to my uncle, and got them married. Each was
+trying to outwit the other, while Miss Headworth herself was quite
+innocent and unconscious, and, I don't know whether to call it an
+excuse for Uncle Alwyn or not, but to this hour he is not sure whether
+it was a legal marriage, and my father believes it was not, looking on
+it as a youthful indiscretion.  He put her in lodgings at Dieppe, under
+Mrs. Houghton's protection, while he returned home on a peremptory
+summons from the General.  He found the old man in such a state of body
+and mind as he tries to persuade me was an excuse for denying the whole
+thing, and from that time he represents himself as bound hand and foot
+by the General's tyranny.  He meant to have kept the secret, given her
+an allowance, and run over from time to time to see her, but he only
+could get there once before the voyage to the West Indies.  The whole
+affair was, as he said, complicated by his debts, those debts that the
+estate has never paid off.  The General probably distrusted him, for he
+curtailed his allowance, and scarcely let him out of sight; and he&mdash;he
+submitted for the sake of his prospects, and thinking the old man much
+nearer his end than he proved to be.  I declare as I listened, it came
+near to hearing him say he had sold his soul to Satan!  From the day he
+sailed in the Ninon he has never written, never attempted any
+communication with the woman whose life he had wrecked, except one
+inquiry at Dieppe, and that was through Gregorio.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What! the valet?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yes.  I believe I seemed surprised at such a medium being employed, for
+Uncle Alwyn explained that the man had got hold of the secret
+somehow&mdash;servants always know everything&mdash;and being a foreigner he was
+likely to be able to trace her out.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I daresay he profited by the knowledge to keep Alwyn in bondage during
+the old man's lifetime.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I have no doubt of it, and he expected to play the same game with me.
+The fellow reminds me, whenever I look at him, of a sort of incarnate
+familiar demon.  When I asked my uncle whether he could guess what had
+become of her, he held up his hands with a hideous French grimace.  I
+could have taken him by the throat.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nay, one must pity him.  The morals of George IV.'s set had been
+handed on to him by the General,' said Lady Kirkaldy, rejoicing in the
+genuine indignation of the young face, free from all taint of vice, if
+somewhat rigid.  'And what now?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He assured me that he could make all secure to my father and me, as if
+that were the important point; but finally he perceived that we had no
+right to stand still without endeavouring to discover whether there be
+a nearer heir, and my father made him consent to my making the search,
+grinning at its Quixotism all the time.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Have you done anything?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes.  I have been to Jersey, seen the register&mdash;July 20, 1859&mdash;and an
+old French-speaking clerk, who perfectly recollected the party coming
+from the yacht, and spoke of her as tres belle.  I have also
+ascertained that there is no doubt of the validity of the marriage.
+Then, deeply mistrusting Master Gregorio, I went on to Dieppe, where I
+entirely failed to find any one who knew or remembered anything about
+them&mdash;there is such a shifting population of English visitors and
+residents, and it was so long ago.  I elicited from my uncle that she
+had an aunt, he thought, of the same name as herself; but my father
+cannot remember who recommended her, or anything that can be a clue.
+Has any one looked over my grandmother's letters?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I think not.  My brother spoke of keeping them till I came to London.
+That might give a chance, or the Houghtons might know about her.  I
+think my husband could get them hunted up.  They are sure to be at some
+continental resort.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What's that?' as a sound of singing was heard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'"Auld Langsyne."  The natives are picnicking in the ravine below
+there.  They used to be rigidly excluded, but we can't stand that; and
+this is the first experiment of admitting them on condition that they
+don't make themselves obnoxious.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Which they can't help.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'We have yet to see if this is worse than an Austrian or Italian
+festival.  See, we can look down from behind this yew tree.  It really
+is a pretty sight from this distance.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'There's the cleric heading his little boys and their cricket, and
+there are the tuneful party in the fern on the opposite side.  They
+have rather good voices, unless they gain by distance.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And there's a girl botanising by the river.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Sentimentalising over forget-me-nots, more likely.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My dear Mark, for a specimen of young England, you are greatly
+behindhand in perception of progress!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah! you are used to foreigners, Aunt Margaret.  You have never
+fathomed English vulgarity.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It would serve you right to send you to carry the invitation to go
+round the gardens and houses.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Do you mean it, aunt?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mean it?  Don't you see your uncle advancing down the
+road&mdash;there&mdash;accosting the clergyman&mdash;what's his name&mdash;either Towers or
+Spires&mdash;something ecclesiastical I know.  We only waited to reconnoitre
+and see whether the numbers were unmanageable.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And yet he does not want to sit for Micklethwayte?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'So you think no one can be neighbourly except for electioneering! O
+Mark, I must take you in hand.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Meantime the host is collecting.  I abscond.  Which is the least showy
+part of the establishment?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I recommend the coal cellar&mdash;'and, as he went off&mdash;'poor boy, he is a
+dear good fellow, but how little he knows how to be laughed at!'
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap04"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER IV.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+A NAME.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'Sigh no more lady, lady sigh no more,<BR>
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;  Men were deceivers ever,<BR>
+  One foot on sea and one on land&mdash;<BR>
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;  To one thing constant never.'&mdash;Old Ballad.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+'So you have ventured out again,' said Lady Kirkaldy, as her nephew
+strolled up to her afternoon tea-table under a great cedar tree:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'The coast being clear, and only distant shouts being heard in the
+ravine&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+          '"Like an army defeated<BR>
+            The choir retreated;<BR>
+            And now doth fare well<BR>
+            In the valley's soft swell,"'<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+said the aunt.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'At least you have survived; or is this the reaction,' said the nephew,
+putting on a languid air.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'There were some very nice people among them, on whom the pictures were
+by no means thrown away.  What would you say, Mark, if I told you that
+I strongly suspect that I have seen your lost aunt?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nonsense!' cried Mark, as emphatically as disrespectfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I am not joking in the least,' said Lady Kirkaldy, looking up at him.
+'I heard the name of Egremont, and made out that it belonged to a very
+lady-like pretty-looking woman in gray and white; she seemed to be
+trying to check and tame a bright girl of eighteen or so, who was in a
+perfect state of rapture over the Vandykes.  I managed to ask the
+clergyman who the lady was, and he told me she was a Mrs. Egremont, who
+lives with her aunt, a Miss Headworth, who boards girls for the High
+School; very worthy people, he added.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Headworth?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But if it were, she would have known your name.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Hardly.  The title had not come in those days; and if she heard of us
+at all it would be as Kerrs.  I ventured further to put out a feeler by
+asking whether he knew what her husband had been, and he said he
+believed he had been lost at sea, but he, Mr. Spyers I mean, had only
+been at Micklethwayte three or four years, and had merely known her as
+a widow.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I suppose it is worth following up,' said Mark, rather reluctantly. 'I
+wish I had seen her.  I think I should know Miss Headworth again, and
+she would hardly know me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You see what comes of absconding.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'After all, it was best,' said Mark.  'Supposing her to be the real
+woman, which I don't expect, it might have been awkward if she had
+heard my name!  How can we ascertain the history of this person without
+committing ourselves?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lord Kirkaldy, an able man, who had been for many years a diplomatist,
+here joined the party, and the whole story was laid before him.  He was
+new to Micklethwayte, having succeeded a somewhat distant kinsman, and
+did not know enough of the place to be able to fix on any one to whom
+to apply for information; but the result of the consultation was that
+Lady Kirkaldy should go alone to call on Miss Headworth, and explain
+that she was come to inquire about a young lady of the same name, who
+had once been governess to the children of her sister, Lady Adelaide
+Egremont.  Mark was rather a study to his uncle and aunt all the
+evening.  He was as upright and honourable as the day, and not only
+acted on high principle, but had a tender feeling to the beautiful
+playfellow governess, no doubt enhanced by painful experiences of
+successors chosen for their utter dissimilarity to her.  Still it was
+evidently rather flat to find himself probably so near the tangible
+goal of his romantic search; and the existence of a first cousin had
+been startling to him, though his distaste was more to the taking her
+from second-rate folk in a country town than to the overthrow of his
+own heirship.  At least so he manifestly and honestly believed, and
+knowing it to be one of those faiths that make themselves facts, the
+Kirkaldys did not disturb him in it, nor commiserate him for a loss
+which they thought the best thing possible for him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Headworth was accustomed to receive visitors anent boarders, so
+when Lady Kirkaldy's card was brought to her, the first impression was
+that some such arrangement was to be made.  She was sitting in her
+pretty little drawing-room alone, for Nuttie and her mother had gone
+out for a walk with Miss Nugent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The room, opening on the garden, and cool with blinds, had a certain
+homely grace about the faded furniture.  The drawings on the walls were
+good, the work quaint and tasteful.  There was a grand vase of
+foxgloves before the empty grate, and some Marshal Nial roses in a
+glass on the table.  The old lady herself&mdash;with alert black eyes and a
+sweet expression&mdash;rose from her chair in the window to receive her
+guest.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lady Kirkaldy felt reassured as to the refinement of the surroundings,
+and liked the gentle but self-possessed tones of the old lady.  She
+noticed the foxgloves.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes,' said Miss Headworth, 'they are the fruits of yesterday's
+expedition.  My two children, as I call them, brought them home in
+triumph.  I cannot tell you what pleasure Lord Kirkaldy's kindness gave
+them&mdash;and many more.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I am glad,' said the lady, while she said to herself, 'now for it,'
+and sat forward.  'It struck me,' she said, 'on hearing your name that
+you might be related to&mdash;to a young lady who lived a good while ago in
+the family of my sister, Lady Adelaide Egremont.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A strange look came into Miss Headworth's eyes, her lips trembled, she
+clutched tightly the arm of her chair, but then cast a puzzled glance
+at her visitor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Perhaps if you heard of me then,' said the latter, 'it was as Lady
+Margaret Kerr.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes,' said Miss Headworth, then pausing, she collected herself and
+said in an anxious voice,  'Do I understand that your ladyship is come
+to inquire for my niece, being aware of the circumstances.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I only became aware of them yesterday,' said Lady Kirkaldy.  'I was in
+Turkey at the time, and no particulars were given to me; but my nephew,
+Mark Egremont, your niece's old pupil, came to consult us, having just
+discovered among his uncle's papers evidence of the marriage, of which
+of course he had been ignorant.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Then,' exclaimed Miss Headworth, holding her hands tightly clasped,
+'Shall I really see justice done at last to my poor child?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It is young Mark's most earnest wish and his father&mdash;'Lady Kirkaldy
+hesitated for a word, and Miss Headworth put in:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'His father!  Why would he never even acknowledge either Alice's
+letters or mine?  We wrote several times both to him and Lady Adelaide,
+and never received any reply, except one short one, desiring he might
+not be troubled on such a subject.  It was cruel! Alice said it was not
+in his writing.  She had done very wrong, and the family might well be
+offended, but a poor child like her, just eighteen, might have been
+treated with some pity.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My sister was in declining health.  He was very much engrossed.  He
+left the matter to&mdash;to others,' said Lady Kirkaldy.  'He is very sorry
+now that he acquiesced in what was then thought right.  He did not then
+know that there had been a marriage.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I should have thought in that case a clergyman would have been bound
+to show the more compassion.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lady Kirkaldy knew that the cruel silence had been chiefly the work of
+the stem Puritan pitilessness of her mother, so she passed this over,
+saying, 'We are all very anxious to atone, as far as possible, for what
+is past, but we know little or nothing, only what my nephew Mark has
+been able to gather.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Little Mark!  Alice always talked of him with great affection.  How
+pleased she will be to hear of his remembering her.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Would you object to telling me what you know of this history?' said
+Lady Kirkaldy.  'I am afraid it is very painful to you, but I think we
+should understand it clearly.  Please speak to me as a friend, as woman
+to woman.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Your ladyship is very kind,' said the poor old lady.  'I have only
+mentioned the subject once since we came to settle here, seventeen
+years ago, but such things one cannot forget.  If you will excuse me, I
+have some dates that will assist my accuracy.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She hurried away, and came back in a few moments, having evidently
+dried some tears, perhaps of thankfulness, but she paused as if
+reluctant to begin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I think your niece had no nearer relation than yourself,' said Lady
+Kirkaldy, anxious to set her off and at ease.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh no, or she never would have been so treated.  She was an orphan. My
+poor brother was a curate.  He married&mdash;as young men will&mdash;on
+insufficient means, his strength gave way, and he died of diphtheria
+when this poor child was only two years old.  Indeed, two little ones
+died at the same time, and the mother married again and went to
+Shanghai.  She did not long live there, poor thing, and little Alice
+was sent home to me.  I thought I did my best for her by keeping her at
+a good school.  I have often wished that I had given up my situation,
+and become an assistant there, so as to have her more under my own
+eyes; but I fancied it important to receive a salary out of which I
+could save.  I am wearying your ladyship, but I can't but dwell on the
+excuses for my poor child.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Indeed I wish to hear all the details,' was the sincere and gentle
+answer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I had her with me generally in the holidays, and I confess I was
+absolutely alarmed to see how pretty the child was growing, knowing how
+great a disadvantage it often is.  She was always a good girl, not
+naturally so studious as could be wished, but docile, merry, gentle, a
+favourite with every one, and peculiarly innocent and childish.  I
+wished her to remain a few years longer as teacher, but it so happened
+that Lady Adelaide Egremont, coming to consult the head of the
+establishment about a nursery-governess, saw Alice, and was so much
+struck with her sweet face, which was all sunshine then, as to insist
+on engaging her.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah! my dear sister, I remember her enthusiastic letter about her
+pretty governess, and her boy's affection for her, an affection that
+has lasted&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It seemed so safe.  A clergyman's family in the country, and so kind a
+lady at the head, that, though Alice had been educated for a superior
+governess, it appeared the best beginning she could have. And she was
+very happy, and met with great kindness.  Only, unfortunately, Lady
+Adelaide was delicate, and for many weeks entirely confined to the
+sofa.  Mr. Egremont's elder brother was much there.  He seemed to my
+poor inexperienced child quite elderly, and his attentions like those
+of&mdash;of an old uncle&mdash;she told me afterwards&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He must really have been over forty&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No doubt my poor Alice was unguarded.  We know what a merry, happy,
+childish girl may be, but I never heard that her conduct was even
+censured while she remained at Baxley, though I find that Captain
+Egremont used to join them in their walks, under pretext of playing
+with the children.  Then she was sent to Freshwater with the two eldest
+children during Lady Adelaide's confinement, and there, most
+unjustifiably, Captain Egremont continually visited them from his
+yacht, and offered to take them out in it.  Alice knew she ought not to
+go without a married lady on board, and he brought a Mr. and Mrs.
+Houghton to call, who were very kind and caressing to her and the
+children, so that she thought all was right.  Oh! Lady Kirkaldy, I
+don't mean to defend her, I daresay she was very giddy and silly, she
+reproaches herself, poor dear, but I do say that a wicked advantage was
+taken of her innocence and ignorance.  She says that she had begun to
+grow a little uneasy at the way people looked when Captain Egremont
+joined them on the beach; and the nurse, a German, said something that
+she could not understand.  On the 1st of July&mdash;yes&mdash;but I have the date
+here&mdash;came a telegram to the hotel to have rooms for Lady de Lyonnais
+and Mr. Egremont ready by the evening.  The whole place knew it, and
+some meddling person burst on Alice with the news, roughly and coarsely
+given, that they were coming to call her to account for her goings on.
+Captain Egremont found her crying in the utmost terror, and&mdash;she really
+hardly knew what he said to her&mdash;she thinks he offered to shelter her
+on board the Ninon, from Lady de Lyonnais' first wrath while he and
+Mrs. Houghton explained matters; but she cannot tell, for she lost her
+senses with fright, only knew that he was kind and sweet to her in her
+distress, and thought only of escaping.  Well, I don't excuse her.  Of
+course it was the most terrible and fatal thing she could have done,
+and&mdash;' The good old lady was quite overcome, and Lady Kirkaldy had
+tears in her eyes as she said,
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It was frightful folly&mdash;but she was guarded.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, her innocence was guarded, thank God,' said Miss Headworth
+fervently.  'You see she did know that Mr. and Mrs. Houghton were on
+board, and Mrs. Houghton was a truly kind protector who deserved her
+confidence, though, poor lady, she admitted to me that her own conduct
+had not been-strictly correct.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'How long was it before you heard of her?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'There was a dreadful letter from Mr. Egremont enclosing what was due
+of her salary, and then I heard no more for seven months.  I went to
+the Isle of Wight and made all inquiries, but the nurse and children
+had gone away immediately, and I could obtain no trace of them.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Then she&mdash;your niece, never wrote.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'She was afraid, poor dear.  She had never been at her ease with me.
+Her mother had taught her to think me strict and harsh, and she had
+never opened to me in those days.  Besides, he had forbidden her.  At
+last, however, in January, came a letter from this Mrs. Houghton,
+telling me that my Alice was very unwell at Dieppe, that nothing had
+been heard of her husband, Captain Egremont, to whom she had been
+married on the 20th of July at St. Philippe, in Jersey, and that she
+herself was obliged to leave the place almost immediately; but she
+would, if possible, wait till my arrival, as Mrs. Egremont was not in a
+condition to be left alone.  My dear friends, with whom I was then
+living, were as kind as possible, and set me free to go.  I was there
+in three days, and truly the dear, beautiful, merry girl I had parted
+with only a year before was a sad piteous sight.  Mrs. Houghton seemed
+broken-hearted at leaving her, thinking there was little chance of her
+living; but Mr. Houghton, who, I am afraid, was a professed gambler,
+had got into some scrape, and was gone to Paris, where she had to
+follow him.  She told me all about it, and how, when Captain Egremont
+fancied that a marriage in the Channel Islands was one he could play
+fast and loose with, she had taken care that the formalities should be
+such as to make all secure.  Foolish and wrong as poor Alice had been,
+she had awakened all the best side of that poor woman's nature, and no
+mother could have been more careful and tender.  She gave me the
+certificate&mdash;here it is&mdash;and assured me that it would hold good.  I
+have shown it to a lawyer, and he said the same; but when I sent a copy
+to Mr. Egremont, my letter was returned unopened.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Captain Egremont had denied the marriage, and they believed him,' said
+Lady Kirkaldy.  'It is hard to believe that he could be so heartless,
+but he was in bondage to the old General Egremont, and dreaded losing
+his inheritance.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'So he told them in his one visit to Dieppe.  He said he must keep his
+marriage secret, but promised an allowance, on condition that Alice
+would live quietly at Dieppe, and not communicate with any one of her
+own family or his.  He had left £100 with her, but that was nearly
+gone, and she had never heard from him.  It had preyed on her, and she
+was so ill that I never expected, any more than Mrs. Houghton, to see
+her recover.  I stayed there with her; she could not be moved, even if
+she would have consented, when she was continually expecting him; but
+at last&mdash;four days after her little girl was born&mdash;came the news of the
+Ninon having been burnt, with all on board, three months before.  Do
+you know, strange to say, though I had feared so much to tell her, she
+began to revive from that time.  The suspense and watching were over.
+She saw that he had not deserted her, and believed that he had loved
+her to the last.  She cried a great deal, but it was in a peaceful,
+natural way.  I wrote then, as I had already written, to Lady Adelaide
+and to Mr. Egremont, but was not answered.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I can account for that,' said Lady Kirkaldy.  'My sister had been
+ordered to Madeira in the autumn, and there they remained till her
+death in May.  All the letters were sent to my mother, and she did not
+think fit to forward, or open, any bearing on the subject.  In the
+meantime Mr. Egremont was presented to the family living, and on his
+return moved to Bridgefield Egremont.  And you came here?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Of course I could not part with my poor Alice again.  Mr. and Mrs.
+Fordyce, whose daughter I had long ago educated, had always kept up a
+correspondence with me, and, knowing all the story, proposed to me to
+come here.  He was then rector of the old church, and by their help and
+recommendation, with such capital as I had, we were able to begin a
+little school; and though that has had to give way to the High School,
+what with boarders, and with Alice's employment as daily governess, we
+have, I am thankful to say, gone on very well and comfortably, and my
+dear child has recovered her cheerfulness, though she can never be
+quite what&mdash;I think she was meant to be,' said the old lady, with a sad
+smile, 'though perhaps she is something better.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Do you think she was absolutely convinced of his death?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Do you mean that he is alive?' exclaimed Miss Headworth in dismay.
+'Oh! he is a wickeder man than even I supposed, to have forsaken her
+all these years.  Is my poor child in his power?  Must her peace, now
+she has attained it, be disturbed?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'There is a great deal to take into consideration,' said Lady Kirkaldy.
+'I had better tell you how this visit of mine came about, and explain
+some matters about the Egremont family.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She then told how Captain Egremont, after a brief service in the Life
+Guards, had been made to retire, that the old General, whose heir he
+was, might keep him in attendance on him.  Already self-indulgent and
+extravagant, the idleness of the life he led with the worn-out old roue
+had deadened his better feelings, and habituated him to dissipation,
+while his debts, his expensive habits, and his dread of losing the
+inheritance, had bound him over to the General.  Both had been saved
+from the fire in the Ninon, whence they were picked up by a Chilian
+vessel, and they had been long in communicating with home. The General
+hated England, and was in broken health.  He had spent the remaining
+years of his life at various continental resorts, where he could enjoy
+a warm climate, combined with facilities for high play.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When at length, he died, Captain Egremont had continued the life to
+which he had become accustomed, and had of late manifested an
+expectation that his nephew Mark should play the same part by him as he
+had done by the General, but the youth, bred in a very different tone,
+would on no account thus surrender himself to an evil bondage. Indeed
+he felt all the severity of youthful virtue, and had little toleration
+for his uncle's ways of thinking; though, when the old man had come
+home ill, dejected, and half blind, he had allowed himself to be made
+useful on business matters.  And thus he had discovered the marriage,
+and had taken up the cause with the ardour stimulated by a chivalrous
+feeling for the beautiful vision of his childhood, whose sudden
+disappearance had ended his brightest days.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I suppose it is right and generous of the young man,' said Miss
+Headworth.  'But since the&mdash;the man is alive, I wish my poor Alice
+could have been left at peace!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You forget that her daughter has rights which must be taken into
+consideration.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Little Nuttie!  Dear child!  I should so far like her to be provided
+for, so far as that she need not go out in the world to earn her own
+livelihood.  But no! better be as we are than accept anything from that
+man!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I quite understand and respect your feeling, Miss Headworth,' returned
+the lady; 'but may I return to my question whether you think your niece
+has any doubt of her husband being dead.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Headworth considered.  'Since you ask me, I think she has kept the
+possibility of the life before her.  We have never mentioned the
+subject, and, as I said, the belief in his death ended a great suspense
+and sense of wounded affection.  She began soon and vigorously to turn
+her attention to the support of her child, and has found a fair measure
+of happiness; but at the same time she has shrunk from all notice and
+society, more than would be natural in so very young a widow and so
+attractive, more than I should have expected from her original
+character.  And once, when she did apprehend symptoms of admiration,
+she insisted that I should tell the history, enough, as she said, to
+make it plain that it was impossible.  There was one night too, when
+she had scarlatina, and was a little lightheaded, only four years ago,
+when she talked a good deal about his coming back; but that might have
+been only the old impression on her brain, of that long watching at
+Dieppe.  He&mdash;Captain Egremont, does not yet know where she is?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, certainly not.  But I fear he must.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I suppose he ought,' sighed Miss Headworth; 'but in the meantime, till
+we know what line he takes, surely she need not be unsettled by the
+knowledge of his existence.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'By no means.  You had better act as you think best about that.  But
+you will not object to my nephew, her old pupil, Mark, coming to see
+her?  I will make him promise not to enter upon the subject.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Headworth had only time to make a sign of reluctant acquiescence
+when the door opened and mother and daughter came in.  Nuttie first,
+eager as usual and open-mouthed, unaware that any one was there, for
+Lady Kirkaldy, wishing to avoid talk and observation, had left her
+carriage at the livery stables, and walked to St. Ambrose Road.  The
+girl, whom in a moment she classed as small, dark, and oddly like May
+Egremont, stopped short at sight of a stranger; the mother would have
+retreated but for Miss Headworth's nervous call 'Alice, my dear, here
+is Lady Kirkaldy.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Very lovely was Lady Kirkaldy's impression as she saw a slender figure
+in a dark gray linen dress, and a face of refined, though not
+intellectual, beauty and sweetness, under a large straw hat with a good
+deal of white gauziness about it, and the curtsey was full of natural
+grace.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You do not know me,' said Lady Kirkaldy, taking her hand, 'but I am
+aunt to some former pupils of yours, one of whom, Mark Egremont, is
+very anxious to come and see you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mark!  My dear little Mark,' and her face lighted up.  'How very kind
+of him.  But he is not little Mark now.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He is not a very big Mark either.  Most of the Egremonts are small. I
+see your daughter takes after them,' said Lady Kirkaldy, shaking hands
+with Ursula, who looked at her in unmitigated amazement.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Alice faltered something about Lady Adelaide.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My dear sister fell into a decline, and died while the three children
+were still babies.  Poor things, I believe they had a sad time till
+their father married a Miss Condamine, who has been an excellent
+stepmother to them.  I have been to see them, but Mark was not then at
+home, so he has come to me at Monks Horton.  When will he find you at
+home?  Or may I bring him in at once.  He was to meet me at
+Micklethwayte.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I should like very much to see him,' was the answer.  And Miss
+Headworth was obliged to say something about her ladyship taking a cup
+of tea.  Lady Kirkaldy, knowing that Mark was on the watch, set off in
+search of him, and found him, as she expected, pacing the pavement in
+front of the church.  There was no great distance in which to utter her
+explanations and cautions, warning him of her promise that the
+intelligence of the husband's being alive was to be withheld for a
+fitter time, but he promised dutifully, and his aunt then took him in
+with her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The recognition of her claims was a less stunning shock to Alice
+Egremont than to her aunt.  Shielded by her illness, as well as by her
+simplicity and ignorance, she had never been aware of her aunt's
+attempted correspondence with the Egremonts, nor of their deafness to
+appeals made on her behalf.  Far less had it ever occurred to her that
+the validity of her marriage could be denied, and the heinous error of
+her elopement seemed to her quite sufficient to account for her having
+been so entirely cast off by the family.  The idea that as wife or
+widow she had any claims on them, or that Ursula might have rights
+above those of Mark, had not come into her mind, which, indeed, at the
+moment was chiefly occupied by the doubt whether the milk was come in,
+and by ordering in the best teacups, presented by the boarders.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Thus she was in the passage when Mark entered, and his exclamation
+instantly was 'Oh, Edda, dear old Edda!  You aren't a bit altered!' and
+he put his head under her hat and kissed her, adding, as she seemed
+rather startled, 'You are my aunt, you know; and where's my cousin?
+You are Ursula?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He advanced upon Nuttie, took her by the hand and kissed her forehead
+before she was aware, but she flashed at him with her black eyes, and
+looked stiff and defiant.  She had no notion of kisses to herself,
+still less to her pretty mother whom she protected with a half proud,
+half jealous fondness.  How could the man presume to call her by that
+foolish name?  However, that single effusion had exhausted Mark's
+powers of cordiality, or else Nuttie's stiffness froze him.  They were
+all embarrassed, and had reason to be grateful to Lady Kirkaldy's
+practised powers as a diplomate's wife.  She made the most of Mrs.
+Egremont's shy spasmodic inquiries, and Mark's jerks of information,
+such as that they were all living at Bridgefield Egremont, now, that
+his sister May was very like his new cousin, that Blanche was come out
+and was very like his mother, etc. etc.  Every one was more at ease
+when Lady Kirkaldy carried the conversation off to yesterday's
+entertainment, hoping no one had been overtired, and the like.  Mrs.
+Egremont lighted up a little and began telling some of the expressions
+of delight she had heard, and in the midst, Nuttie, waking from her
+trance of stiff displeasure, came plump in with 'Oh! and there's a
+water-soldier, a real Stratiotes aculeatus in your lake.  May we get
+it?  Mr. Dutton didn't think we ought, but it would be such a prize!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ursula means a rare water-plant,' said Mrs. Egremont gently, seeing
+that Lady Kirkaldy had no notion of the treasure she possessed.  'She
+and some of her friends are very eager botanists.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I am sure you may,' said the lady, amused.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Thank you!  Then, O mother!  Miss Mary and I will go.  And we'll wait
+till after office hours, and then Gerard Godfrey can come and fish it
+out for us!  Oh, thank you.  He wants the pattern of the Abbot's cross
+for an illumination, and he can get some ferns for the church.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Soon after this ebullition, Lady Kirkaldy carried off her nephew, and
+his first utterance outside the door was 'A woman like that will be the
+salvation of my uncle.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Firstly, if you can bring them together,' said his aunt; 'and
+secondly, if there is stuff enough in that pretty creature.'
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap05"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER V.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+SUSPENSE.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'Where shall the traitor rest<BR>
+  He, the deceiver?'&mdash;SCOTT.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Poor Miss Headworth's peace of mind was utterly destroyed.  That the
+niece whom she had nursed back to life and happiness, and brought to
+love her as a mother, should be at the mercy of a man whom she looked
+on as a heartless profligate, was dreadful to her beyond measure. And
+it involved Ursula's young life likewise?  Could it be a duty, after
+these eighteen years, to return to him?  What legal rights had he to
+enforce the resumption of the wife he had deserted.  'I will consult
+Mr. Dutton,' said the old lady to herself; 'Mr. Dutton is the only
+person who knows the particulars.  He will give me the best advice.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And while Miss Headworth, over her evening toilette, was coming to this
+resolution in one bedroom, Nuttie, in another, was standing aghast at
+her mother's agitation, and receiving a confession which filled her
+with astonishment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I can't think why that gentleman should go and be so affectionate all
+on a sudden, 'quoth Nuttie;' if he is my cousin, and so fond of you,
+why couldn't he have come to see us before?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, Nuttie, dear, you don't understand why it is so good of him!  My
+dear, now this has come, I must tell you&mdash;you must hear&mdash;the sad thing
+your mother did.  Yes, my dear, I was their governess&mdash;and&mdash;and I did
+not&mdash;In short, my dear, I eloped.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You, mother!  Oh what fun!' cried the girl in the utter extremity of
+wonder.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nuttie!' exclaimed Mrs. Egremont, in a tone of horror and
+indignation&mdash;nay, of apprehension.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'O mother&mdash;I didn't mean that!  But I can't get to believe it.  You,
+little mother mine, you that are so timid and bashful and quiet. That
+you&mdash;you should have done such a thing.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nuttie, my dear, can't you understand that such a thing would make me
+quiet?  I am always feeling when I see people, or they bring their
+daughters here.  "If they only knew&mdash;"'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, no, no!  They would still see you were the sweetest dear.  But
+tell me all about it.  How very much in love you must have been!' said
+Nuttie, a magnificent vision of a young sailor with curly hair and open
+throat rising before her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I think I was more frightened than in love,' faintly said Mrs.
+Egremont.  'At least I didn't know it was love, I thought he was only
+kind to me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But you liked it?' said Ursula magisterially.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I liked it, oh, I liked it!  It gave me a feeling such as nothing else
+ever did, but I never thought of its being love, he was so much older.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Older!' exclaimed Nuttie, much taken aback.  'Oh! as old as Mr.
+Dutton?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mr. Dutton is thirty-six, I think.  Yes, he was older than that.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mother, how could you?'  For to be older than Mr. Dutton seemed to the
+youthful fancy to be near decrepitude; but she added, 'I suppose he was
+very noble, and had done great things.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He was the grandest gentleman I ever saw, and had such, a manner,'
+said the mother, passing over the latter suggestion.  'Anyway, I never
+thought what it all meant&mdash;all alone with the children as I was&mdash;till I
+found people looking at me, and laughing at me, and then I heard Lady
+de Lyonnais and Mr. Egremont were coming down, very angry, to send me
+away.  I ought, I know it now, to have waited, for they would have
+written to my aunt.  But I was horribly frightened, and I couldn't bear
+to think of never seeing him again, and he came and comforted me, and
+said he would take me to Mrs. Houghton, the kind lady who was staying
+in the Ninon, and they would make it all square for me&mdash;and then&mdash;oh!
+it was very sweet&mdash;but I never knew that we were sailing away to Jersey
+to be married!  I knew it was very dreadful without any one's leave,
+but it was so noble of him to take the poor little governess and defend
+her, and it wasn't as if my mother had been alive.  I didn't know Aunt
+Ursel then as I did afterwards.  And Mrs. Houghton said there was
+nothing else to be done.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'O don't leave off, mother.  Do tell me.  How long did you have him?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Six weeks then&mdash;and afterwards one fortnight at Dieppe.  He was not
+free.  He had an old uncle, General Egremont, who was sick and
+hot-tempered, and he was obliged to keep everything secret from him,
+and therefore from everybody else.  And so I was to live at Dieppe,
+while he went out to take care of his uncle, and you know&mdash;you know&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, I know, dear mother.  But I am sure he was saving somebody else,
+and it was a noble death!  And I know how Aunt Ursel came to Dieppe,
+and how I&mdash;your own little Frenchwoman&mdash;came to take care of you.  And
+haven't we been jolly without any of these fine relations that never
+looked after you all this time?  Besides, you know he is very likely to
+be on a lonely coral island, and will come home yet. I often think he
+is.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My dear child, I have been happier than I deserved,' said Alice
+Egremont, drying her eyes.  'But oh! Nuttie, I hope you will be a wiser
+woman than your mother.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Come, don't go on in that way!  Why, I've such advantages!  I've Miss
+Mary, and Aunt Ursel, and Mr. Spyers, and Mr. Dutton, and you, you poor
+little thing, had nobody!  One good thing is, we shall get the
+water-soldier.  Mr. Dutton needn't come, for he's like a cat, and won't
+soil his boots, but Gerard is dying to get another look at the old
+ruin.  He can't make up his mind about the cross on one of the
+stone-coffin lids, so he'll be delighted to come, and he'll get it out
+of the pond for us.  I wonder when we can go.  To-night is choir
+practice, and to-morrow is cutting-out day.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Headworth was not sorry that the small sociabilities of the
+friends did not leave her alone with her niece all that evening, or the
+next day, when there was a grand cutting-out for the working party,&mdash;an
+operation always performed in the holidays.  Miss Headworth had of late
+years been excused from it, and it gave her the opportunity she wanted
+of a consultation with Mr. Dutton.  He was her prime adviser in
+everything, from her investments (such as they were) to the
+eccentricities of her timepieces; and as the cuckoo-clock had that
+night cuckooed all the hours round in succession, no one thought it
+wonderful that she should send a twisted note entreating him to call as
+early as he could in the afternoon.  Of course Nuttie's chatter had
+proclaimed the extraordinary visitors, and it needed not the old lady's
+dash under "on an anxious affair" to bring him to her little
+drawing-room as soon as he could quit his desk.  Perhaps he hastened
+his work with a hope in his heart which he durst not express, but the
+agitation on the usually placid face forbade him to entertain it for an
+instant, and he only said, 'So our expedition has led to unforeseen
+consequences, Miss Headworth.'  And then she answered under her breath,
+as if afraid of being overheard: 'Mr. Dutton, my poor child does not
+know it yet, but the man is alive!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Dutton compressed his lips.  It was the greater shock, for he had
+actually made inquiries at the Yacht Club, but the officials there
+either had not been made aware of the reappearance of the two
+Egremonts, or they did not think it worth while to look beyond the
+record which declared that all hands had perished, and the connection
+of the uncle and nephew with the Yacht Club had not been renewed.
+Presently he said, 'Then hers was a right instinct.  There is reason to
+be thankful.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Headworth was too full of her own anxieties to heed his causes for
+thankfulness.  She told what she had heard from Lady Kirkaldy and from
+Mark Egremont, and asked counsel whether it could be Alice's duty to
+return to the man who had deserted her, or even to accept anything from
+him.  There was an impetuous and indignant spirit at the bottom of the
+old lady's heart, in spite of the subdued life she had led for so many
+years, and she hardly brooked the measured considerate manner in which
+her adviser declared that all depended on circumstances, and the manner
+in which Captain Egremont made the first move.  At present no one was
+acting but young Mark, and, as Mr. Dutton observed, it was not a matter
+in which a man was very likely to submit to a nephew's dictation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was certainly no need for Mrs. Egremont to <I>force</I> her presence
+on him.  But Mr. Dutton did think that for her own sake and her child's
+there ought to be full recognition of their rights, and that this
+should be proved by their maintenance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I imagine that Ursula may probably be a considerable heiress, and her
+lights must not be sacrificed.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Poor little girl!  Will it be for her happiness?  I doubt it greatly!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Of that I suppose we have no right to judge,' said Mr. Dutton,
+somewhat tremulously. 'Justice is what we have to look to, and to allow
+Nuttie to be passed over would be permitting a slur to be cast on her
+and her mother.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I see that,' said Miss Headworth, with an effort.  'I suppose I am
+after all a selfish, faithless old woman, and it is not in my hands
+after all.  But I must prepare my poor Alice for what may be coming.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If any terms are offered to her, she had better put the matter into a
+lawyer's hands.  Dobson would be a safe man to deal with.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Headworth was amazed that he&mdash;who had helped her in many a little
+question bordering on law&mdash;should not proffer his aid now in this
+greatest stress.  He was a resolute, self-controlled man, and she never
+guessed at the feeling that made him judge himself to be no fitting
+champion for Alice Egremont against her husband.  Ever since, ten years
+ago, he had learnt that his beautiful neighbour did not regard herself
+so certainly a widow as to venture to open her heart to any other love,
+he had lived patiently on, content to serve her as a trustworthy
+friend, and never betraying the secret hope so long cherished and now
+entirely crushed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was relieved to escape from the interview, and the poor old lady
+remained a little more certain as to her duty perhaps, but with a
+certainty that only made her more unhappy, and she was so restless and
+nervous that, in the middle of the evening's reading of Archbishop
+Trench's Lectures on History, Alice suddenly broke off in the very
+middle of a sentence and exclaimed, 'Aunt Ursel! you are keeping
+something from me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Headworth made a faint attempt by saying something about
+presently, and glancing with her eyes to indicate that it was to be
+reserved till after Nuttie's bedtime, but the young lady comprehended
+the signs and exclaimed, 'Never mind me, Aunt Ursel,&mdash;I know all about
+mother; she told me last night.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It is!' broke in Mrs. Egremont, who had been watching her aunt's face.
+'You have heard of <I>him</I>.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, my father!  You really have!' cried Nuttie.  'Then he really was
+on the desert island all this time; I was quite sure of it.  How
+delightful!'  She jumped up and looked at the door, as if she expected
+to see him appear that instant, clad in skins like Robinson Crusoe, but
+her aunt's nervous agitation found vent in a sharp reproof: 'Nuttie,
+hold your tongue, and don't be such a foolish child, or I shall send
+you out of the room this instant!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But aunt?' gasped Alice, unable to bear the suspense.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, my poor dear child.  Captain Egremont with the General got off
+with some of the crew in a boat when the Ninon was burnt.  He spent a
+good many years abroad with the old man, but he has now inherited the
+family place, and is living there.'  Miss Headworth felt as if she had
+fired a cannon and looked to see the effect.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah, if we could have stayed at Dieppe!' said Mrs. Egremont.  'But we
+did write back to say where we could be heard of.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That was of no use.  Mark found no traces of us when he went thither.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Did he send Mark?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No.  My dear Alice, I must not conceal from you that this is all Mr.
+Mark Egremont's doing.  He seems to have been helping his uncle with
+his papers when he came on the evidence of your marriage, and,
+remembering you as he does, he forced the confession of it from the
+captain, and of his own accord set forth to discover what had become of
+you and to see justice done to you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Dear little Mark!' said she; 'he always was such an affectionate
+little boy.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And now, my dear, you must consider how you will receive any advances
+on his part.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, Aunt Ursel, don't!  I can't talk now.  Please let me go to bed.
+Nuttie, dear, you need not come yet.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The desire for solitude, in which to realise what she had heard, was
+overpowering, and she fled away in the summer twilight, leaving Nuttie
+with wide open eyes, looking after her vanished hero and desert island.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My poor Alice!' sighed the old lady.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Aunt Ursel!' exclaimed Nuttie, 'was&mdash;I mean&mdash;is my father a good or a
+bad man?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My dear, should a daughter ask such a question?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Aunt Ursel, I can't help it.  I think I ought to know all about it,'
+said Nuttie gravely, putting away her childishness and sitting down by
+her aunt.  'I did not think so much of it when mother told me they
+eloped, because, though I know it was very wrong, people do do odd
+things sometimes when they are very much in love (she said it in a
+superior patronising tone that would have amused Miss Headworth very
+much at any other time); and it has not spoilt mother for being the
+dearest, sweetest, best thing in the world, and, besides, they had
+neither of them any fathers or mothers to disobey.  But, then, when I
+found he was so old, and that he kept it a secret, and must have told
+stories only for the sake of money (uttered with extreme contempt), I
+didn't like it.  And if he left her as Theseus left Ariadne, or Sir
+Lancelot left Elaine, I&mdash;I don't think it is nice.  Do you think he
+only pretended to be lost in the Ninon to get rid of her, or that he
+could not find her?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'The Ninon was really reported lost with all on board,' said Miss
+Headworth.  'That was ascertained.  He was saved by a Chilian ship, and
+seems to have been a good while making his way back to Europe.  I had
+taken care that our address should be known at Dieppe, but it is quite
+possible that he may not have applied to the right people, or that they
+may not have preserved my letter, so that we cannot feel sore that he
+was to blame.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If he had been worth anything at all, he would have moved heaven and
+earth to find her!' cried Nuttie; 'and you said yourself it was all
+<I>that</I> Mark's doing!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He seems to be a very upright and generous young man, that Mr. Mark
+Egremont,' said Miss Headworth, a whole romance as to Nuttie's future
+destiny sweeping across her mind in an instant, with a mental
+dispensation to first cousins in such a case.  'I think you will find
+him a staunch champion even against his own interests.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Perceptions came across Nuttie.  'Oh, then I am a sort of lost heiress,
+like people in a story!  I see!  But, Aunt Ursel, what do you think
+will happen?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My dear child, I cannot guess in the least.  Perhaps the Egremont
+property will not concern you, and only go to male heirs.  That would
+be the best thing, since in any case you must be sufficiently provided
+for.  Your father must do that.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But about mother?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'A proper provision must be insisted on for her,' said Miss Headworth.
+'It is no use, however, to speculate on the future.  We cannot guess
+how Mr. Mark Egremont's communication will be received, or whether any
+wish will be expressed for your mother's rejoining your father.  In
+such a case the terms must be distinctly understood, and I have full
+trust both in Mr. Mark and in Lady Kirkaldy as her champions to see
+that justice is done to you both.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I'm sure he doesn't deserve that mother should go to him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nor do I expect that he will wish it, or that it would be proper; but
+he is bound to give her a handsome maintenance, and I think most
+probably you will be asked to stay with your uncle and cousins,' said
+Miss Headworth, figuring to herself a kind of Newstead Abbey or some
+such scene of constant orgies at Bridgefield Egremont.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I shall accept nothing from the family that does not include mother,'
+said Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Dear child, I foresee many trials, but you must be her protector.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That I will,' said Nuttie; and in the gallant purpose she went to bed,
+to find her mother either asleep or feigning slumber with tears on her
+cheek.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap06"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VI.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE WATER-SOLDIER.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'Presumptuous maid, with looks intent,<BR>
+  Again she stretched, again she bent,<BR>
+  Nor knew the gulf between.'&mdash;GRAY.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+It all seemed like a dream to Ursula, perhaps likewise to her mother,
+when they rose to the routine of daily life with the ordinary interests
+of the day before them.  There was a latent unwillingness in Mrs.
+Egremont's mind to discuss the subject with either aunt or daughter;
+and when the post brought no letter, Ursula, after a moment's sense of
+flatness, was relieved, and returned to her eager desire to hurry after
+the water-soldier.  It was feasible that very afternoon.  Mary Nugent
+came in with the intelligence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And can Gerard come? or we shall only look at it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, Gerard can come, and so will Mr. Dutton,' said Mary, who,
+standing about half-way between Mrs. Egremont and her daughter, did not
+think herself quite a sufficient chaperon.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He will look on like a hen at her ducklings,' said Nuttie.  'It is
+cruel to take him, poor man!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Meantime, Nuttie, do you like an hour of "Marie Stuart?"'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, thank you!'  But she whispered, 'Aunt Ursel, may I tell her?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ask your mother, my dear.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Leave was given, half reluctantly, and with a prohibition against
+mentioning the subject to any one else, but both mother and aunt had
+confidence in Mary Nugent's wisdom and discretion, so the two friends
+sat on the wall together, and Ursula poured out her heart.  Poor little
+girl! she was greatly discomfited at the vanishing of her noble vision
+of the heroic self-devoted father, and ready on the other hand to
+believe him a villain, like Bertram Risingham, or 'the Pirate,' being
+possessed by this idea on account of his West Indian voyages.  At any
+rate, she was determined not to be accepted or acknowledged without her
+mother, and was already rehearsing magnanimous letters of refusal.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Mary listened and wondered, feeling sometimes as if this were as
+much a romance as the little yacht going down with the burning ship;
+and then came back the recollection that there was a real fact that
+Nuttie had a father, and that it was entirely uncertain what part he
+might take, or what the girl might be called on to do.  Considering
+anxiously these bearings of the question, she scarcely heard what she
+was required to assent to, in one of Nuttie's eager, 'Don't you think
+so?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My dear Nuttie,' she said, rousing herself, 'what I do think is that
+it will all probably turn out exactly contrariwise to our imaginations,
+so I believe it would be wisest to build up as few fancies as possible,
+but only to pray that you may have a right judgment in all things, and
+have strength to do what is right, whatever you may see that to be.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And of course that will be to stick by mother.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'There can be little doubt of that, but the how?  No, dear, do not let
+us devise all sorts of <I>hows</I> when we have nothing to go upon. That
+would be of no use, and only perplex you when the time comes. It would
+be much better to "do the nexte thinge," and read our "Marie Stuart."'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie pouted a little, but submitted, though she now and then broke
+into a translation with 'You know mother will never stand up for
+herself,' or 'They think I shall be asked to stay with the Egremonts,
+but I must work up for the exam.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However, the school habit of concentrating her attention prevailed, and
+the study quieted Nuttie's excitement.  The expedition took place as
+arranged.  There was a train which stopped so that the party could go
+down by it, and the distance was not too great for walking back.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Dutton met them on the platform, well armed with his neat silk
+umbrella, and his black poodle, Monsieur, trotting solemnly after him.
+Gerard Godfrey bore materials for an exact transcript of the Abbot's
+monumental cross, his head being full of church architecture, while
+Nuttie carried a long green tin case, or vasculum as she chose to call
+it, with her three vowels, U A E, and the stars of the Little Bear
+conspicuously painted on it in white.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You did not venture on that the other day,' said Mr. Dutton.  'How
+much of the park do you mean to carry away in it?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Let me take it,' said Gerard politely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, thank you.  You'd leave it behind, while you were pottering over
+the mouldings.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You are much more likely to leave it behind yourself.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What&mdash;with my soldier, my Stratiotes, in it?  I think I see myself.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Give it to me,' said Gerard.  'Of course I can't see you carrying a
+great thing like that.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Can't you, indeed?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Gently, gently, my dear,' said Miss Mary, as the young people seemed
+very near a skirmish, and the train was sweeping up.  Then there was
+another small scuffle, for Nuttie had set her heart on the third class;
+but Mr. Dutton had taken second-class tickets, and was about to hand
+them into a carriage whence there had just emerged a very supercilious
+black-moustached valet, who was pulling out a leather-covered
+dressing-case, while Gerard was consoling Nuttie by telling her that
+Monsieur never deigned to go third class.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It is a smoking carriage,' said Miss Nugent, on the step.  'Pah! how
+it smells,' as she jumped back.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Beautiful backy&mdash;a perfect nosegay,' said Gerard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Trust that fellow for having the best.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'His master's, no doubt,' suggested Mr. Dutton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You'd better go in it, to enjoy his reversion,' said Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And where's my escort, then?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, I'm sure we don't want you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nuttie, my dear,' expostulated Miss Nugent, dragging her into the next
+carriage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You may enjoy the fragrance still,' said Nuttie when seated.  'Do you
+see&mdash;there's the man's master; he has stood him up against that post,
+with his cigar, to wait while he gets out the luggage.  I daresay you
+can get a whiff if you lean out far enough.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I say! that figure is a study!' said Gerard.  'What is it that he is
+so like?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh! I know,' said Nuttie.  'It is Lord Frederick Verisopht, and the
+bad gentlefolks in the pictures to the old numbers of Dickens that you
+have got, Miss Mary.  Now, isn't he?  Look! only Lord Frederick wasn't
+fat.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie was in a state of excitement that made her peculiarly
+unmanageable, and Miss Nugent was very grateful to Mr. Dutton for his
+sharp though general admonition against staring, while, under pretext
+of disposing of the umbrella and the vasculum, he stood up, so as to
+block the window till they were starting.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was no one else to observe them but a demure old lady, and in ten
+minutes' time they were in open space, where high spirits might work
+themselves off, though the battle over the botanical case was ended by
+Miss Nugent, who strongly held that ladies should carry their own extra
+encumbrances, and slung it with a scarf over Nuttie's shoulders in a
+knowing knapsack fashion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The two young people had known one another all their lives, for Gerard
+was the son of a medical man who had lived next door to Miss Headworth
+when the children were young.  The father was dead, and the family had
+left the place, but this son had remained at school, and afterwards had
+been put into the office at the umbrella factory under charge of Mr.
+Dutton, whose godson he was, and who treated him as a nephew.  He was a
+good-hearted, steady young fellow, with his whole interest in
+ecclesiastical details, wearing a tie in accordance with 'the colours,'
+and absorbed in church music and decorations, while his recreations
+were almost all in accordance therewith.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was plenty of merriment, as he drew and measured at the very
+scanty ruins, which were little more than a few fragments of wall,
+overgrown luxuriantly with ivy and clematis, but enclosing some fine
+old coffin-lids with floriated crosses, interesting to those who cared
+for architecture and church history, as Mr. Dutton tried to make the
+children do, so that their ecclesiastical feelings might be less
+narrow, and stand on a surer foundation than present interest, a
+slightly aggressive feeling of contempt for all the other town
+churches, and a pleasing sense of being persecuted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They fought over the floriations and mouldings with great zest, and
+each maintained a date with youthful vigour&mdash;both being, as Mr. Dutton
+by and by showed them, long before the foundation.  The pond had been
+left to the last with a view to the wellbeing of the water-soldier on
+the return.  Here the difficulties of the capture were great, for the
+nearest plant flourished too far from the bank to be reached with
+comfort, and besides, the sharp-pointed leaves to which it owes its
+name were not to be approached with casual grasps.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh Monsieur, I wish you were a Beau,' sighed Nuttie.  'Why, are you
+too stupid to go and get it?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It is a proof of his superior intelligence,' said Mr. Dutton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But really it is too ridiculous&mdash;too provoking&mdash;to have come all this
+way and not get it,' cried the tantalised Nuttie.  'Oh, Gerard, are you
+taking off your boots and stockings?  You duck!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Just what I wish I was,' said the youth, rolling up his trousers.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But even the paddling in did not answer.  Mr. Dutton called out
+anxiously, 'Take care, Gerard, the bottom may be soft,' and came down
+to the very verge just in time to hold out his hand, and prevent an
+utterly disastrous fall, for Gerard, in spite of his bare feet, sank at
+once into mud, and on the first attempt to take a step forward, found
+his foot slipping away from under him, and would in another instant
+have tumbled backwards into the slush and weeds.  He scrambled back,
+his hat falling off into the reeds, and splashing Mr. Dutton all over,
+while Monsieur began to bark 'with astonishment at seeing his master in
+such a plight,' declared the ladies, who stood convulsed with cruel
+laughter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Isn't it dreadful?' exclaimed Ursula.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well!  It might have been worse,' gravely said Mr. Dutton, wiping off
+the more obnoxious of his splashes with his pocket handkerchief.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh I didn't mean you, but the water-soldier,' said Nuttie.  'To have
+come five miles for it in vain!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I don't know what to suggest,' added Gerard.  'Even if the ladies were
+to retire&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, no,' interposed Mr. Dutton, ''tis no swimming ground, and I forbid
+the expedient.  You would only be entangled in the weeds.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Behold!' exclaimed Mary, who had been prowling about the banks, and
+now held up in triumph one of the poles with a bill-hook at the end
+used for cutting weed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Bravo, Miss Nugent!' cried Gerard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Female wit has circumvented the water-soldier,' said Mr. Dutton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Don't cry out too soon,' returned Mary; 'the soldier may float off and
+escape you yet.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However, the capture was safely accomplished, without even a dip under
+water to destroy the beauty of the white flowers.  With these, and a
+few waterlilies secured by Gerard for the morrow's altar vases, the
+party set out on their homeward walk, through plantations of whispering
+firs, the low sun tingeing the trunks with ruddy light; across heathery
+commons, where crimson heath abounded, and the delicate blush-coloured
+wax-belled species was a prize; by cornfields in ear hanging out their
+dainty stamens; along hedges full of exquisite plumes of feathering or
+nodding grass, of which Nuttie made bouquets and botanical studies, and
+Gerard stored for harvest decorations.  They ran and danced on together
+with Monsieur at their heels, while the elders watched them with some
+sadness and anxiety. Free-masonry had soon made both Mary and Mr.
+Dutton aware of each other's initiation, and they had discussed the
+matter in all its bearings, agreed that the man was a scoundrel, and
+the woman an angel, even if she had once been weak, and that she ought
+to be very resolute with him if he came to terms.  And then they looked
+after their young companions, and Mr. Dutton said, 'Poor children, what
+is before them?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It is well they are both so young,' answered Mary.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap07"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VII.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THAT MAN.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'It is the last time&mdash;'tis the last!'&mdash;SCOTT.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Sundays were the ever-recurring centres of work and interests to the
+little circle in St. Ambrose's Road.  To them the church services and
+the various classes and schools were the great objects and excitements
+of the week.  A certain measure of hopeful effort and varying success
+is what gives zest to life, and the purer and higher the aim, and the
+more unmixed the motives, the greater the happiness achieved by the
+'something attempted, something done.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Setting apart actual spiritual devotion, the altar vases, purchased by
+a contribution of careful savings, and adorned with the Monks Horton
+lilies, backed by ferns from the same quarter; the surplices made by
+the ladies themselves, the chants they had practised, the hymns they
+had taught, could not but be much more interesting to them than if they
+had been mere lookers on.  Every cross on the markers, every flower on
+the altar cloth was the work of one or other of them; everything in the
+church was an achievement, and choir boys, school children, Bible
+classes, every member of the regular congregation, had some special
+interest; nay, every irregular member or visitor might be a convert in
+time&mdash;if not a present sympathiser, and at the very least might swell
+the offertory that was destined to so many needs of the struggling
+district.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Thus it was with some curiosity mingled with self-reproach that Nuttie,
+while singing her Benedictus among the tuneful shop-girls, to whom she
+was bound to set an example, became aware of yesterday's first-class
+traveller lounging, as far as the rows of chairs would permit, in the
+aisle, and, as she thought, staring hard at her mother.  It was well
+that Mrs. Egremont's invariable custom was never to lift her eyes from
+her book or her harmonium, or she surely must have been disconcerted,
+her daughter thought, by the eyes that must have found her out, under
+her little black net bonnet and veil, as the most beautiful woman in
+church,&mdash;as she certainly was,&mdash;even that fine good-for-nothing
+gentleman thinking so.  Nuttie would add his glances to the glories of
+her lovely mother!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And she did so, with triumph in her tone of reprobation, as she trotted
+off, after the early dinner, to her share of Sunday-school work as
+usual under Miss Nugent's wing.  It began with a children's service,
+and then ensued, in rooms at the factory, lent by Mr. Dutton, the
+teaching that was to supply the omissions of the Board School; the
+establishment of a voluntary one being the next ambition of St.
+Ambrose's.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Coming home from their labours, in the fervent discussion of their
+scholars, and exchanging remarks and greetings with the other teachers
+of various calibres, the friends reached their own road, and there, to
+their amazement, beheld Miss Headworth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, it really is!' cried Nuttie.  'We can't be too late?  No&mdash;there's
+no bell!  Aunt Ursel!  What has brought you out?  What's the matter?
+Where's mother?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'In the house.  My dear,' catching hold of her, and speaking
+breathlessly, 'I came out to prepare you.  He is come&mdash;your father&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Where?' cried Nuttie, rather wildly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He is in the drawing-room with your mother.  I said I would send you.'
+Poor Miss Headworth gasped with agitation.  'Oh! where's Mr.
+Dutton&mdash;not that anything can be done&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Is it <I>that man</I>?' asked Nuttie, and getting no answer, 'I know it is!
+Oh Aunt Ursel, how could you leave her with him?  I must go and protect
+her.  Gerard&mdash;come.  No, go and fetch Mr. Dutton.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Hush! hush, Nuttie,' cried her aunt, grasping her.  'You know nothing
+about it.  Wait here till I can tell you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Come in here, dear Miss Headworth,' said Mary, gently drawing her arm
+into hers, for the poor old lady could hardly stand for trembling, and
+bidding Gerard open the door of her own house with the latch-key.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She took them into the dining-room, so as not to disturb her mother,
+sent Gerard off after Mr. Dutton in the very uttermost astonishment and
+bewilderment, and set Miss Headworth down in an easy-chair, where she
+recovered herself, under Mary's soothing care, enough to tell her story
+in spite of Nuttie's exclamations.  'Wait! wait, Nuttie!  You mustn't
+burst in on them so!  No, you need not be afraid.  Don't be a silly
+child!  He won't hurt her!  Oh no!  They are quite delighted to meet.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Delighted to meet?' said Nuttie, as if transfixed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes,' said her aunt.  'Oh yes, I always knew the poor child cared for
+him and tried to believe in him all along.  He only had to say the
+word.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I wouldn't,' cried the girl, her eyes flashing.  'Why didn't you ask
+him how he could desert her and leave her?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My dear! how can one come between husband and wife?  Oh, my poor
+Alice!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'How was it, how did they meet, dear Miss Headworth?' asked Mary,
+administering the wine she had been pouring out.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You hadn't been gone half an hour, Alice was reading to me, and I was
+just dozing, when in came Louisa.  "A gentleman to see Mrs. Egremont,"
+she said, and there he was just behind.  We rose up&mdash;she did not know
+him at once, but he just said "Edda, my little Edda, sweeter than ever,
+I knew you at once," or something of that sort, and she gave one little
+cry of "I knew you would come," and sprang right into his arms.
+I&mdash;well, I meant to make him understand how he had treated her, but
+just as I began "Sir"&mdash;he came at me with his hand outstretched&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You didn't take it, aunt, I hope?' cried Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My dear, when you see him, you will know how impossible it is.  He
+<I>has</I> that high-bred manner it is as if he were conferring a favour.
+"Miss Headworth, I conclude," said he, "a lady to whom I owe more than
+I can express."  Just as if I had done it for his sake.'  Miss Nugent
+felt this open expression dangerous on account of the daughter, and she
+looked her consternation at Mr. Dutton, who had quietly entered,
+ruthlessly shutting Gerard Godfrey out with only such a word of
+explanation as could be given on the way.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Then he comes with&mdash;with favourable intentions,' said Mary, putting as
+much admonition as she could into her voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh! no doubt of that,' said Miss Headworth, drawing herself together.
+'He spoke of the long separation,&mdash;said he had never been able to find
+her, till the strange chance of his nephew stumbling on her at Abbots
+Norton.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That is&mdash;possib&mdash;probably true,' said Mr. Dutton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It can't be,' broke in Nuttie.  'He never troubled himself about it
+till his nephew found the papers.  You said so, Aunt Ursel!  He is a
+dreadful traitor of a man, just like Marmion, or Theseus, or Lancelot,
+and now he is telling lies about it!  Don't look at me. Aunt Ursel,
+they are lies, and I <I>will</I> say it, and he took in poor dear mother
+once, and now he is taking her in again, and I can't bear that he
+should be my father!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was so entirely true, yet so shocking to hear from her mouth, that
+all three stood aghast, as she stood with heaving chest, crimson
+cheeks, and big tears in her eyes.  Miss Headworth only muttered, 'Oh,
+my poor child, you mustn't!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Dutton prevented another passionate outburst by his tone of grave,
+gentle authority.  'Listen a moment, Ursula,' he said.  'It is
+unhappily true that this man has acted in an unjustifiable way towards
+your mother and yourself.  But there are, no doubt, many more excuses
+for him than you know of, and as I found a few years ago that the
+people at Dieppe had lost the address that had been left with them, he
+must have found no traces of your mother there.  You cannot understand
+the difficulties that may have been in his way.  And there is no use,
+quite the contrary, in making the worst of him.  He has found your
+mother out, and it seems that he claims her affectionately, and she
+forgives and welcomes him&mdash;out of the sweet tenderness of her heart.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'She may&mdash;but I can't,' murmured Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That is not a fit thing for a daughter, nor a Christian, to say,' Mr.
+Dutton sternly said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+''Tis not for myself&mdash;'tis for her,&mdash;'objected Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That's nonsense; a mere excuse,' he returned.  'You have nothing at
+all to forgive, since he did not know you were in existence.  And as to
+your mother, whom you say you put first, what greater grief or pain can
+you give her than by showing enmity and resentment against her husband,
+when she, the really injured person, loves and forgives?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He's a bad man.  If she goes back to him, I know he will make her
+unhappy&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You don't know any such thing, but you do know that your opposition
+will make her unhappy.  Remember, there's no choice in the matter. He
+has legal rights over you both, and since he shows himself ready (as I
+understand from Miss Headworth that he is) to give her and you your
+proper position, you have nothing to do but to be thankful.  I think
+myself that it is a great subject of thankfulness that your mother can
+return so freely without any bitterness.  It is the blessing of such as
+she&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie stood pouting, but more thoughtful and less violent, as she
+said, 'How can I be thankful?  I don't want position or anything.  I
+only want him to let my&mdash;my own mother, and aunt, and me alone.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Child, you are talking of what you do not understand.  You must not
+waste any more time in argument.  Your mother has sent for you, and it
+is your duty to go and let her introduce you to your father.  I have
+little doubt that you will find him very unlike all your imagination
+represents him, but let that be as it may, the fifth Commandment does
+not say, "Honour only thy good father," but, "Honour thy father."  Come
+now, put on your gloves&mdash;get her hat right, if you please, Miss Mary.
+There&mdash;now, come along, be a reasonable creature, and a good girl, and
+do not give unnecessary pain and vexation to your mother.'  He gave her
+his arm, and led her away.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well done, Mr. Dutton!' exclaimed Miss Nugent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Poor Mr. Dutton!'  All Aunt Ursel's discretion could not suppress that
+sigh, but Mary prudently let it pass unnoticed, only honouring in her
+heart the unselfishness and self-restraint of the man whose long,
+patient, unspoken hopes had just received a death-blow.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, Mary!  I never thought it would have been like this!' cried the
+poor old lady.  'I ought not to have spoken as I did before the child,
+but I was so taken by surprise!  Alice turned to him just as if he had
+been the most faithful, loving husband in the world.  She is believing
+every word he says.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It is very happy for her that she can,' pleaded Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'So it is, yes, but&mdash;when one knows what he is, and what she is!  Oh,
+Mr. Dutton, is the poor child gone in?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, I saw her safe into the room.  She was very near running off up
+the stairs,' said Mr. Dutton.  'But I daresay she is fascinated by this
+time.  That sort of man has great power over women.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nuttie is hardly a woman yet,' said Miss Nugent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, but there must be a strong reaction, when she sees something
+unlike her compound of Marmion and Theseus.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I suppose there is no question but that they must go with him!' said
+Miss Headworth wistfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Assuredly.  You say he&mdash;this Egremont&mdash;was affectionate,' said Mr.
+Dutton quietly, but Mary saw his fingers white with his tight clenching
+of the bar of the chair.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh yes, warmly affectionate, delighted to find her prettier than ever,
+poor dear; I suppose he meant it.  Heaven forgive me, if I am judging
+him too hardly, but I verily believe he went to church to reconnoitre,
+and see whether she pleased his fancy&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And do you understand,' added Mr. Dutton, 'that he is prepared to do
+her full justice, and introduce her to his family and friends as his
+wife, on equal terms?  Otherwise, even if she were unwilling to stand
+up for herself, it would be the duty of her friends to make some
+stipulations.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I am pretty sure that he does,' said the aunt; 'I did not stay long
+when I saw that I was not wanted, but I heard him say something about
+his having a home for her now, and her cutting out the Redcastle
+ladies.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Besides, there is the nephew, Mr. Mark Egremont,' said Mary.  'He will
+take care of her.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes,' said Mr. Dutton.  'It appears to be all right.  At any rate,
+there can be no grounds for interference on our part.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Dutton took his leave with these words, wringing Miss Headworth's
+hand in mute sympathy, and she, poor old lady, when he was gone, fairly
+collapsed into bitter weeping over the uncertain future of those whom
+she had loved as her own children, and who now must leave her desolate.
+Mary did her best with comfort and sympathy, and presently took her to
+share her griefs and fears with gentle old Mrs. Nugent.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap08"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VIII.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE FATHER.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'I do think this lady<BR>
+  To be my child.'&mdash;King Lear.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie, in her fresh holland Sunday dress, worked in crewels with wild
+strawberries by her mother's hands, and with a white-trimmed straw hat,
+was almost shoved into the little drawing-room by Mr. Dutton, though he
+was himself invisible.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her eyes were in such a daze of tears that she hardly saw more at first
+than that some one was there with her mother on the sofa.  'Ah, there
+she is!' she heard her mother cry, and both rose.  Her mother's arm was
+round her waist, her hand was put into another, Mrs. Egremont's voice,
+tremulous with exceeding delight, said, 'Our child, our Ursula, our
+Nuttie!  Oh, this is what I have longed for all these years!  Oh,
+thanks, thanks!' and her hands left her daughter to be clasped and
+uplifted for a moment in fervent thanksgiving, while Nuttie's hand was
+held, and a strange hairy kiss, redolent of tobacco-smoking, was on her
+forehead&mdash;a masculine one, such as she had never known, except her
+cousin Mark's, since the old rector died, and she had grown too big for
+Mr. Dutton's embraces.  It was more strange than delightful, and yet
+she felt the polish of the tone that said, 'We make acquaintance
+somewhat late, Ursula, but better late than never.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She looked up at this new father, and understood instantly what she had
+heard of his being a grand gentleman.  There was a high-bred look about
+him, an entire ease and perfect manner that made everything he did or
+said seem like gracious condescension, and took away the power of
+questioning it at the moment.  He was not above the middle size, and
+was becoming unwieldy; but there was something imposing and even
+graceful in his deportment, and his bald narrow forehead looked
+aristocratic, set off between side tufts of white hair, white whiskers,
+and moustaches waxed into sharp points, Victor Emmanuel fashion, and a
+round white curly beard.  His eyes were dark, and looked dull, with
+yellow unwholesome corners, and his skin was not of a pleasant colour,
+but still, with all Nuttie's intentions of regarding him with horror,
+she was subdued, partly by the grand breeding and air of distinction,
+and partly by the current of sympathy from her mother's look of perfect
+happiness and exultation. She could not help feeling it a favour,
+almost an undeserved favour, that so great a personage should say, 'A
+complete Egremont, I see. She has altogether the family face.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I am so glad you think so,' returned her mother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'On the whole it is well, but she might have done better to resemble
+you, Edda,' he said caressingly; 'but perhaps that would have been too
+much for the Earlsforth natives.  William's girls will have enough to
+endure without a double eclipse!' and he laughed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I&mdash;I don't want&mdash;' faltered the mother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You don't want, no, but you can't help it,' he said, evidently with a
+proud delight in her beauty.  'Now that I have seen the child,' he
+added, 'I will make my way back to the hotel.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Will you&mdash;won't you stay to tea or dinner?' said his wife, beginning
+with an imploring tone which hesitated as she reviewed possible chops
+and her aunt's dismay.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Thank you, I have ordered dinner at the hotel,' he answered, 'and
+Gregorio is waiting for me with a cab.  No doubt you will wish to make
+arrangements with Madame&mdash;the old lady&mdash;and I will not trouble her
+further to-night.  I will send down Gregorio to-morrow morning, to tell
+you what I arrange.  An afternoon train, probably, as we shall go no
+farther than London.  You say Lady Kirkaldy called on you.  We might
+return her visit before starting, but I will let you know when I have
+looked at the trains.  My compliments to Miss Headworth.  Good evening,
+sweetest.'  He held his wife in a fond embrace, kissing her brow and
+cheeks and letting her cling to him, then added, 'Good evening, little
+one,' with a good-natured careless gesture with which Nuttie was quite
+content, for she had a certain loathing of the caresses that so charmed
+her mother.  And yet the command to make ready had been given with such
+easy authority that the idea of resisting it had never even entered her
+mind, though she stood still while her mother went out to the door with
+him and watched him to the last.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Coming back, she threw her arms round her daughter, kissed her again
+and again, and, with showers of the glad tears long repressed, cried,
+'Oh, my Nuttie, my child, what joy!  How shall I be thankful enough!
+Your father, your dear father!  Now it is all right.'  Little sentences
+of ecstasy such as these, interspersed with caresses, all in the
+incoherence of overpowering delight, full of an absolute faith that the
+lost husband had loved her and been pining for her all these years, but
+that he had been unable to trace her, and was as happy as she was in
+the reunion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The girl was somewhat bewildered, but she was carried along by this
+flood of exceeding joy and gladness.  The Marmion and Theseus images
+had been dispelled by the reality, and, with Mr. Dutton's sharp reproof
+fresh upon her, she felt herself to have been doing a great injustice
+to her father; believed all that her mother did, and found herself the
+object of a romantic recognition&mdash;if not the beggar girl become a
+princess, at any rate, the little school-teacher a county lady!  And
+she had never seen her mother so wildly, overpoweringly happy with joy.
+That made her, too, feel that something grand and glorious had happened.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What are we going to do?' she asked, as the vehemence of Mrs.
+Egremont's emotion began to work itself off.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Home!  He takes us to his home!  <I>His</I> home!' repeated her mother, in
+a trance of joy, as the yearnings of her widowed heart now were
+fulfilled.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, but Aunt Ursel!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Poor Aunt Ursel!  Oh, Nuttie, Nuttie, I had almost forgotten!  How
+could I?' and there was a shower of tears of compunction.  'But he said
+he owed everything to her!  She will come with us!  Or if she doesn't
+live with us, we will make her live close by in a dear little cottage.
+Where is she?  When did she go?  I never saw her go.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The sound of the front door was heard, for the visitor had been watched
+away and Miss Headworth was returning to her own house to be there
+received with another fervent gush of happiness, much more trying to
+her, poor thing, than to Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was evensong imminent, and the most needful act at the moment was
+to compose the harmonium-player sufficiently for her to take her part.
+Miss Headworth was really glad of the necessity, since it put off the
+discussion, and made a reason for silencing Nuttie until all should be
+more recovered from the first agitation.  Alice Egremont herself was
+glad to carry her gratitude and thankfulness to the Throne of Grace,
+and in her voluntary, and all her psalms, there was an exulting strain
+that no one had thought the instrument capable of producing, and that
+went to the heart of more than one of her hearers.  No one who knew her
+could doubt that hers was simply innocent exultation in the recovery of
+him whom she so entirely loved and confided in.  But there could not
+but be terrible doubts whether he were worthy of that trust, and what
+the new page in her life would be.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Headworth had said they would not talk till after church, but
+there was no deferring the matter then.  She was prepared, however,
+when her niece came up to her in a tender deprecating manner, saying,
+'Aunt Ursel, dear Aunt Ursel, it does seem very ungrateful, but&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He is going to take you away?  Yes, I saw that.  And it ought to be,
+my dear.  You know where?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes; to London first, to be fitted out, and then to his own home. To
+Bridgefield Egremont.  I shall have to see Mr. Egremont,' and her voice
+sank with shame.  'But Mark will be good to me, and why should I care
+when I have him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It is quite right. I am glad it should be so,' firmly said the old
+lady.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And yet to leave you so suddenly.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That can't be helped.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And it will only be for a little while,' she added, 'till you can make
+arrangements to come to us.  My dear husband says he owes you
+everything.  So you must be with us, or close to us.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My dear, it's very dear and good of you to think of it, but I must be
+independent.'  She put it in those words, unwilling again to speak
+unguardedly before Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, dear auntie, indeed you must!  Think what you are to us, and what
+you have done for us.  We can't go away to be happy and prosperous and
+leave you behind.  Can we, Nuttie?  Come and help me to get her to
+promise.  Do&mdash;do dearest auntie,' and she began the coaxing and
+caressing natural to her, but Nuttie did not join in it, and Miss
+Headworth shook her head and said gravely&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Don't, Alice.  It is of no use.  I tell you once for all that my mind
+is made up.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Alice, knowing by long experience that, when her aunt spoke in that
+tone, persuasion was useless, desisted, but looked at her in
+consternation, with eyes swimming in tears.  Nuttie understood her a
+little better, and felt the prickings of distrust again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But, aunt, dear aunt, how can we leave you?  What will you do with all
+the boarders,' went on Mrs. Egremont.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I shall see my way, my dear.  Do not think about that.  It is a great
+thing to see you and this child receive justice.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And only think, after all the hard things that have been said of him,
+that we should meet first at church!  He would not wait and send
+letters and messages by Mark.  You see he came down himself the first
+moment.  I always knew he would.  Only I am so sorry for him, that he
+should have lost all those sweet years when Nuttie was a tiny child.
+She must do all she can to make up to him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh dear!' broke out Nuttie.  'It is so strange!  It will be all so
+strange!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It will be a very new life,' said her aunt, rather didactically; 'but
+you must do your best to be a good daughter, and to fill your new
+position, and I have no doubt you will enjoy it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If I could but take all with me!' said Nuttie.  'Oh dear! whatever
+will you do, Aunt Ursel?  Oh mother, the choir!  Who will play the
+harmonium? and who will lead the girls? and whatever will Mr. Spyers
+do? and who will take my class?  Mother, couldn't we stay a little
+longer to set things going here?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It is nice of you to have thought of it, my dear,' said Mrs. Egremont,
+'but your father would not like to stay on here.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But mightn't I stay, just a few days, mother, to wish everybody
+good-bye?  Mr. Dutton, and Miss Mary, and Gerard, and all the girls?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was some consolation in this plan, and the three women rested on
+it that night, Mrs. Egremont recovering composure enough to write three
+or four needful notes, explaining her sudden departure.  The aunt could
+not talk of a future she so much dreaded for her nieces, losing in it
+the thought of her own loneliness; Alice kept back her own loving,
+tender, undoubting joy with a curious sense that it was hard and
+ungrateful towards the aunt; but it was impossible to think of that,
+and Nuttie was in many moods.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Eager anticipation of the new unseen world beyond, exultation in
+finding herself somebody, sympathy with her mother's happiness, all had
+their share, but they made her all the wilder, because they were far
+from unmixed.  The instinctive dislike of Mr. Egremont's countenance,
+and doubt of his plausible story, which had vanished before his
+presence, and her mother's faith, returned upon her from time to time,
+caught perhaps from her aunt's tone and looks.  Then her aunt had been
+like a mother to her&mdash;her own mother much more like a sister, and the
+quitting her was a wrench not compensated for as in Mrs. Egremont's
+case by a more absorbing affection.  Moreover, Nuttie felt sure that
+poor Gerard Godfrey would break his heart.  As the mother and daughter
+for the last time lay down together in the room that had been theirs
+through the seventeen years of the girl's life, Alice fell asleep with
+a look of exquisite peace and content on her face, feeling her long
+term of trial crowned by unlooked-for joy, while Ursula, though
+respecting her slumbers too much to move, lay with wide-open eyes, now
+speculating on the strange future, now grieving over those she
+left&mdash;Aunt Ursel, Gerard, Mary, and all such; the schemes from which
+she was snatched, and then again consoling herself with the hope that,
+since she was going to be rich, she could at once give all that was
+wanted&mdash;the white altar cloth, the brass pitcher&mdash;nay, perhaps finish
+the church and build the school!  For had not some one said something
+about her position?  Oh yes, she had not thought of it before, but,
+since she was the elder brother's daughter, she must be the heiress!
+There was no doubt a grand beautiful story before her; she would
+withstand all sorts of fascinations, wicked baronets and earls
+innumerable, and come back and take Gerard by the hand, and say, 'Pride
+was quelled and love was free.'  Not that Gerard had ever uttered a
+word tending in that direction since he had been seven years old, but
+that would make it all the prettier; they would both be silently
+constant, till the time came, perhaps when she was of age.  Mother
+would like it, though <I>that</I> father would certainly be horrid.  And how
+nice it would be to give Gerard everything, and they would go all over
+the Continent, and see pictures, and buy them, and see all the
+cathedrals and all the mountains.  But perhaps, since Mark Egremont had
+really been so generous in hunting up the cousin who was displacing
+him, she was bound in duty to marry him; perhaps he reckoned on her
+doing so.  She would be generous in her turn, give up all the wealth to
+him, and return to do and be everything to Micklethwayte.  How they
+would admire and bless her.  And oh! she was going to London
+to-morrow&mdash;London, which she so much wished to see&mdash;Westminster Abbey,
+British Museum, All Saints, National Gallery, no end of new dresses.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Half-waking, half-dreaming, she spent the night which seemed long
+enough, and the light hours of the summer morning seemed still longer,
+before she could call it a reasonable time for getting up. Her
+splashings  awoke her mother, who lay smiling for a few moments,
+realising and giving thanks for her great joy, then bestirred herself
+with the recollection of all that had to be done on this busy morning
+before any summons from her husband could arrive.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Combining packing and dressing, like the essentially unmethodical
+little woman she was, Mrs. Egremont still had all her beautiful silky
+brown hair about her shoulders when the bell of St. Ambrose's was heard
+giving its thin tinkling summons to matins at half-past seven. She was
+disappointed; she meant to have gone for this last time, but there was
+no help for it, and Nuttie set off by herself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Gerard Godfrey was at his own door.  He was not one of the regular
+attendants at the short service, being of that modern species that
+holds itself superior to 'Cranmer's prayers,' but on this morning he
+hastened up to her with outstretched hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And you are going away!' he said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I hope to get leave to stay a few days after mother,' she said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'To prolong the torment?' he said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'To wish everybody good-bye.  It is a great piece of my life that is
+come to an end, and I can't bear to break it off so short.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And if you feel so, who are going to wealth and pleasure, what must it
+be to those who are left behind?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh!' said Nuttie, 'some one will be raised up.  That's what they
+always say.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I shall go into a brotherhood,' observed Gerard desperately.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, don't,' began Nuttie, much gratified, but at that moment Miss
+Nugent came out at her door, and Mr. Spyers, who was some way in
+advance, looked round and waited for them to come up.  He held out his
+hands to her and said, 'Well, Nuttie, my child, you are going to begin
+a new life.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh dear!  I wish I could have both!' cried Nuttie, not very relevantly
+as far as the words went.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Scheiden und weiden thut weh!' quoted Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If his place was only Monks Horton.  What will Aunt Ursel do?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I think perhaps she may be induced to join us,' said Mary.  'We mean
+to do our best to persuade her.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And there's the choir!  And my class, and the harmonium,' went on
+Nuttie, while Gerard walked on disconsolately.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Micklethwayte has existed without you, Nuttie,' said Mr. Spyers,
+taking her on with him alone.  'Perhaps it will be able to do so again.
+My dear, you had better look on.  There will be plenty for you to learn
+and to do where you are going, and you will be sure to find much to
+enjoy, and also something to bear.  I should like to remind you that
+the best means of going on well in this new world will be to keep self
+down and to have the strong desire that only love can give to be
+submissive, and to do what is right both to God and your father and
+mother.  May I give you a text to take with you? "Children, obey your
+parents in the Lord, for this is right."'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They were at the door and there was no time for an answer, but Nuttie,
+as she took her place, was partly touched and partly fretted at the
+admonition.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The question as to her remaining a day or two after her mother was soon
+disposed of.  Mrs. Egremont sent a pretty little note to make the
+request, but the elegant valet who appeared at ten o'clock brought a
+verbal message that his master wished Mrs. and Miss Egremont to be
+ready by two o'clock to join him in calling on Lady Kirkaldy at Monks
+Horton, and that if their luggage was ready by four o'clock, he
+(Gregorio) would take charge of it, as they were all to go up to town
+by the 4.40 train.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Did he have my note?' faltered Alice, stimulated by the imploring
+glances of aunt and daughter, but anticipating the answer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, madame, but he wishes that Miss Egremont should accompany you
+immediately.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Of course,' was Alice's comment, 'now that he has found his child, he
+cannot bear to part with her.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And all through the farewells that almost rent the gentle Alice's heart
+in two, she was haunted by the terror that she or her daughter should
+have red eyes to vex her husband.  As to Mr. Dutton, he had only come
+in with Gerard in a great hurry just after breakfast, said there was
+much to do to-day at the office, as they were going to take stock, and
+they should neither of them have time to come home to luncheon.  He
+shook the hands of mother and daughter heartily, promised to 'look
+after' Miss Headworth, and bore off in his train young Gerard, looking
+the picture of woe, and muttering 'I believe he has got it up on
+purpose;' while mother and daughter thought it very odd, and rather
+unkind.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap09"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER IX.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+NEW PLUMES.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'And ye sall walk in silk attire,<BR>
+  And siller hae to spare.'&mdash;Old Ballad.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+The very best open fly and pair of horses, being the equipage most like
+a private carriage possessed by the Royal Hotel, came to the door with
+Mr. Egremont seated in it, at a few minutes after two o'clock, and
+found Alice in her only black silk, with a rose in her bonnet, and a
+tie to match on her neck, hastily procured as signs of her wifehood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had swallowed her tears, and Nuttie was not a crying person, but
+was perfectly scarlet on her usually brown cheeks.  Her father muttered
+some civility about back seats, but it was plain that it was only in
+words, and she never thought of anything but looking back, with her
+last wave to her aunt and the two maids, one crying at the gate, the
+other at the door.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'There,' said Mr. Egremont, as they drove away, 'that is over!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My dear aunt,' said his wife.  'Who can express her goodness to me?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Cela va sans dire,' was the reply.  'But these are connections that
+happily Ursula is young enough to forget and leave behind.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I shall never forget!' began Nuttie, but she saw her father composing
+himself in his corner without paying the slightest heed to what she was
+saying, and she encountered a warning and alarmed glance from her
+mother, so she was forced to content herself with uttering silent vows
+of perpetual recollection as she passed each well-known object,&mdash;the
+unfinished church, with Mr. Spyers at the door talking to old Bellman;
+the Town Hall, whose concerts, lectures, and S. P. G. meetings had been
+her chief gaiety and excitement; the School of Art, where Lady
+Kirkaldy's appearance now seemed to her to have been like that of a
+bird of omen; past the shops in the High Street, with a little
+exultation at the thought of past desires which they had excited.  Long
+could she have rattled away, her hopes contradicting her regrets, and
+her regrets qualifying her anticipations, but she saw that her mother
+was nervous about every word and gesture, and fairly looked dismayed
+when she exclaimed, 'Oh, mother, there's Etta Smith; how surprised she
+will be!' bowing and smiling with all her might.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a look of bare toleration on Mr. Egremont's face, as if he
+endured because it would soon be over, as Nuttie bowed several times,
+and his wife, though less quick to catch people's eyes, sometimes also
+made her recognition.  When the streets were past and Nuttie had aimed
+her last nods at the nursery parties out walking on the road, she
+became aware that those cold, lack-lustre, and yet sharply critical
+eyes of her father were scanning her all over.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'She has been educated?' he presently said to his wife.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh yes,' was the eager answer.  'She is in the highest form at the
+High School, and has to go up for the Senior Local Examination.  Miss
+Belper makes sure that she will get a first class.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Egremont gave a little wave of the hand, as dismissing something
+superfluous, and said, 'I hope she has some accomplishments.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'She has done very fairly in French and German&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And Latin,' put in Ursula.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And she has had several prizes at the School of Art.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And music?  That's the only thing of any value in society,' he said
+impatiently, and Mrs. Egremont said more timidly, 'She has learnt music
+regularly.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But I don't care about it,' broke in Nuttie.  'I haven't mother's ear
+nor her voice.  I learnt the science in case I should have to teach,
+and they make me practise.  I don't mind classical music, but I can't
+stand rubbish, and I think it is waste of time.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Egremont looked fairly amused, as at the outspoken folly of an
+enfant terrible, but he only said, either to his wife or to himself, 'A
+little polish, and then she may be fairly presentable.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'We have taken great pains with her,' answered the gentle mother,
+evidently taking this as a great compliment, while the daughter was
+tingling with indignation.  She, bred up by mother, and aunt, and Mary
+Nugent, to be barely presentable.  Was not their society at
+Micklethwayte equal in good manners to any, and superior, far superior,
+in goodness and intelligence to these stupid fashionable people, who
+undervalued all her real useful acquirements, and cared for nothing but
+trumpery music.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The carriage entered the park, and Nuttie saw lake and woods from a
+fresh point of view.  The owners were both at home, and Nuttie found
+herself walking behind her parents into a cheerful apartment, half
+library, half morning-room.  Mrs. Egremont was by far the most shy and
+shrinking of the party, but it was an occasion that showed her
+husband's complete tact and savoir favre.  He knew perfectly well that
+the Kirkaldys knew all about it, and he therefore took the initiative.
+'You are surprised to see us,' he said, as he gave his hand, 'but we
+could not leave the country without coming to thank Lady Kirkaldy for
+her kindness in assisting in following up the clue to Mrs. Egremont's
+residence.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I am very happy,' said Lady Kirkaldy, while all were being seated.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I think it was here that my nephew Mark first met one whom, child as
+he was, he could not but remember.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I don't think you met him here,' said Lady Kirkaldy to Mrs. Egremont;
+'but he heard the name and was struck by it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Dear Mark!' was the response.  'He was so kind.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He is a dear good boy,' chimed in my lady.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes,' said her lord, 'an excellent good fellow with plenty of brains.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'As he well knows,' said Mr. Egremont.  'Oh yes; I quite agree with all
+you say of him!  One ought to be thankful for the possession of a rare
+specimen.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was in the tone in which Falstaff discussed that sober boy, Lord
+John of Lancaster.  Lord Kirkaldy asked if the visitors were going to
+remain long in the neighbourhood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'We are due in London to-night,' replied Mr. Egremont.  'We shall spend
+a day or two there, and then go home.  Alice,' he added, though his
+wife had never heard him call her so before, 'Lady Kirkaldy knows your
+inexperience.  Perhaps she would be good enough to give you some
+addresses that might be useful.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I shall be delighted,' said the lady, cordially looking at the
+blushing Mrs. Egremont.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Dressmaker, and all the rest of it,' said Mr. Egremont.  'You know
+better than she does what she will require, and a little advice will be
+invaluable.  Above all, if you could tell her how to pick up a maid.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lady Kirkaldy proposed to take the mother and daughter up to her
+dressing-room, where she kept her book of addresses to London
+tradesmen; and Mr. Egremont only begged that they would remember the
+4.40 train.  Then Lord Kirkaldy was left to entertain him, while the
+ladies went up the broad staircase to the pleasant room, which had a
+mingled look of refinement and usefulness which struck Nuttie at once.
+Lady Kirkaldy, as soon as the door was shut, took her visitor by the
+hand, kissed her forehead, and said, 'You must let me tell you how glad
+I am.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The crystal veil at once spread over Alice's eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, thank you. Lady Kirkaldy!  I am <I>so</I> happy, and yet I am so
+afraid.  Please tell me what we shall <I>do</I> so that we may not vex him,
+so high bred and fastidious as he is?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Be yourself!  That's all, my dear,' said Lady Kirkaldy tenderly.
+'Don't be afraid.  You are quite incapable of doing anything that could
+distress the most fastidious taste.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was perfectly true of the mother, perhaps less so of the daughter;
+but Lady Kirkaldy only thought of her as a mere girl, who could easily
+be modelled by her surroundings.  The kind hostess applied herself to
+giving the addresses of the people she thought likely to be most useful
+in the complete outfit which she saw would be necessary, explaining to
+which establishments she applied with confidence if she needed to
+complete her wardrobe in haste, feeling certain that nothing would be
+sent her that she disliked, and giving leave to use her name.  She soon
+saw that the mother was a little dazed, while Ursula's eyes grew
+rounder at the unlimited vista of fine clothes, and she assented, and
+asked questions as to the details.  As to a maid, Lady Kirkaldy would
+write to a person who would call on Mrs. Egremont at the hotel in
+London, and who might be what was wanted; and in conclusion, Lady
+Kirkaldy, with some diffidence, begged to be written to&mdash;'if&mdash;if,' she
+said, 'there happened to be any difficulty about which you might not
+like to consult Mrs. William Egremont.'  Nuttie hardly knew whether to
+be grateful or not, for she did not believe in any standard above that
+of Micklethwayte, and she was almost angry at her mother's grateful
+answer&mdash;'Oh, thank you!  I should be so grateful!  I am so afraid of
+annoying him by what he may think small, ignorant, country-town ways!
+You will understand&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lady Kirkaldy did understand, and she dreaded what might be before the
+sweet little yielding woman, not from want of breeding so much as from
+the long-indulged selfishness of her husband; but she encouraged her as
+much as possible, and promised all possible counsel, bringing her
+downstairs again just in time.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Pretty little soul!' said Lord Kirkaldy, as the fly clattered away. 'I
+wonder whether Mark has done her a kindness!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It is just what she is, a pretty, nay, a beautiful soul, full of
+tenderness and forgiveness and affection and humility, only I doubt
+whether there is any force or resolution to hold her own.  You smile!
+Well, perhaps the less of that she has the better she may get on with
+him.  Did he say anything about her?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No; I think he wants to ignore that they have not spent the last
+twenty years together.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That may be the best way for all parties.  Do you think he will behave
+well to her?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No man could well do otherwise to such a sweet little thing,' said
+Lord Kirkaldy; 'especially as she will be his most obedient slave, and
+will make herself necessary to him.  It is much better luck than he
+deserves; but I pity her when she comes to make her way with yon
+ladies!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I wish I was there!  I know she will let herself be trodden on!
+However, there's Mark to stand up for her, and William Egremont will do
+whatever he thinks right and just.  I wish I knew how his wife will
+take it!'
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap10"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER X.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+BRIDGEFIELD EGREMONT.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'Let us see these handsome houses<BR>
+  Where the wealthy nobles dwell.'&mdash;TENNYSON.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+'Mother, mother!' cried two young people, bursting open the door of the
+pretty dining-room of Bridgefield Rectory, where the grown-up part of
+the family were lingering over a late breakfast.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Gently, gently, children,' said the dignified lady at the head of the
+table.  'Don't disturb papa.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But we really have something to say, mother!' said the elder girl,
+'and Fraulein said you ought to know.  Uncle Alwyn is come home, and
+Mrs. Egremont.  And please, are we to call her Aunt Egremont, or Aunt
+Alwyn, or what?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The desired sensation was produced.  Canon Egremont put down his
+newspaper.  The two elder sisters looked from one to the other in
+unmitigated astonishment.  Mark briefly made answer to the final
+question, 'Aunt Alice,' and Mrs. Egremont said gravely, 'How did you
+hear this, Rosalind?  You know I always forbid you to gossip.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'We didn't gossip, mother.  We went up to the gardens to get some
+mulberries for our half-holiday feast; and Ronaldson came out and told
+us we must ask leave first, for the ladies were come.  The Squire came
+home at nine o'clock last night, and Mrs. Egremont and all, and only
+sent a telegram two hours before to have the rooms got ready.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Has Uncle Alwyn gone and got himself married?' exclaimed one of the
+young ladies, in utter amazement.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not just now, Blanche,' said her father.  'It is an old story now.
+Your uncle married this lady, who had been governess to May and Mark,
+many years ago, and from&mdash;circumstances in which she was not at all to
+blame, he lost sight of her while he was abroad with old General
+Egremont.  Mark met her about a fortnight ago, and this has led to your
+uncle's going in quest of her, though he has certainly been more sudden
+in his proceedings than I expected.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The mother here succeeded in sending Rosalind and Adela, with their
+wondering eyes, off the scene, and she would much have liked to send
+her two stepdaughters after them, but one-and-twenty and eighteen could
+not so readily be ordered off as twelve and ten; and Mark, who had been
+prohibited from uttering a word to his sisters, was eagerly examining
+Margaret whether she remembered their Edda; but she had been only three
+years old at the time of the adventures in the Isle of Wight, and
+remembered nothing distinctly but the aspect of one of the sailors in
+the yacht.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well,' said Mrs. Egremont, 'this has come very suddenly upon us.  It
+would have been more for her own dignity if she had held out a little
+before coming so easily to terms, after the way in which she has been
+treated.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'When you see her, mother, you will understand,' said Mark.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Shall we have to be intimate with her?' asked May.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I desire that she should be treated as a relation,' said the Canon
+decidedly.  'There is nothing against her character,' and, as his wife
+was about to interrupt,&mdash;'nothing but an indiscretion to which she was
+almost driven many years ago.  She was cruelly treated, and I for one
+am heartily sorry for having let myself be guided by others.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. William Egremont felt somewhat complacent, for she knew he meant
+Lady de Lyonnais, and there certainly had been no love lost between her
+and her step-children's grandmother; but she was a sensible woman, and
+forbore to speak, though there was a mental reservation that intimacy
+would a good deal depend upon circumstances.  Blanche cried out that it
+was a perfect romance, and May gravely said, 'But is she a lady?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'A perfect lady,' said Mark.  'Aunt Margaret says so.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'One knows what a perfect lady means,' returned May.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Come, May,' said Mrs. Egremont, 'do not let us begin with a prejudice.
+By all accounts the poor thing has conducted herself with perfect
+respectability all this time.  What did you tell me, Mark? She has been
+living with an aunt, keeping a school at Micklethwayte.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not quite,' said Mark.  'She has been acting as a daily governess. She
+seemed to be on friendly terms with the clerical folk.  I came across
+the name at a school feast, or something of the kind, which came off in
+the Kirkaldys' park.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, then, I know exactly the sort of person!' returned May, pursing up
+her lips.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mark laughed and said, 'I wonder whether it is too soon to go up and
+see them.  I wonder what my uncle thinks of his daughter.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What!  You don't mean to say there is a daughter?' cried May.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Even so.  And exactly like you too, Miss May.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Then you are cut out, Mark!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You are cut out, I think, May.  You'll have to give her all your Miss
+Egremont cards.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No,' said the young lady; 'mother made me have my Christian name
+printed.  She said all but the daughters of the head of the family
+ought to have it so.  I'm glad of it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'How old is she?' asked Blanche.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'About a year younger than you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I think it is very interesting,' said Blanche.  'How wonderful it must
+all be to her!  I will go up with you, Mark, as soon as I can get
+ready.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You had better wait till later in the day, Blanche,' said the mother.
+She knew the meeting was inevitable, but she preferred having it under
+her own eye, if she could not reconnoitre.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was a just and sensible woman, who felt reparation due to the
+newly-discovered sister-in-law, and that harmony, or at least the
+appearance of it, must be preserved; but she was also exclusive and
+fastidious by nature, and did not look forward to the needful
+intercourse with much satisfaction either on her own account or that of
+her family.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She told Mark to say that she should come to see Mrs. Egremont after
+luncheon, since he was determined to go at once, and moreover to drag
+his father with him.  Canon Egremont was a good and upright man,
+according to his lights, which were rather those of a well-beneficed
+clergyman of the first than of the last half of the century,
+intensified perhaps that the passive voice was the strongest in him.
+All the country knew that Canon Egremont could be relied on to give a
+prudent, scholarly judgment, and to be kind and liberal, when once
+induced to stir mind or body&mdash;but how to do that was the problem.  He
+had not been a young man at the time of his first marriage, and was
+only a few years' junior to his brother, though he had the fresh,
+wholesome look of a man who kept regular hours and lived much in the
+air.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Alice knew him at once, and thought eighteen years had made little
+change, as, at Nuttie's call to her, she looked from the window and saw
+the handsome, dignified, gray-haired, close-shaven rosy face, and the
+clerical garb unchanged in favour of long coats and high waistcoats.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The mother and daughter were exploring the house together.  Mr.
+Egremont had made it known that he preferred having his breakfast
+alone, and not being disturbed in the forenoon.  So the two ladies had
+breakfasted together at nine, the earliest hour at which they could
+prevail on the household to give them a meal.  Indeed Nuttie had slept
+till nearly that time, for between excitement and noise, her London
+slumbers had been broken; and her endeavour to keep Micklethwayte hours
+had resulted in a long, weary, hungry time in the sitting-room of the
+hotel, with nothing to do, when the gaze from the window palled on her,
+but to write to her aunt and Mary Nugent.  The rest of the day had been
+spent in driving about in a brougham with her mother shopping, and this
+she could not but enjoy exceedingly, more than did the timid Mrs.
+Egremont, who could not but feel herself weighted with responsibility;
+and never having had to spend at the utmost more than ten pounds at a
+time, felt bewildered at the cheques put into her hands, and then was
+alarmed to find them melting away faster than she expected.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a very late dinner, after which Mr. Egremont, on the first
+day, made his wife play bezique with him.  She enjoyed it, as a tender
+reminiscence of the yachting days; but Nuttie found herself de trop,
+and was reduced to the book she had contrived to purchase on her
+travels.  The second night Mr. Egremont had picked up two friends, not
+yet gone out of town, whose talk was of horses and of yachts, quite
+incomprehensible to the ladies.  They were very attentive to Mrs.
+Egremont, whom they evidently admired, one so visibly as to call up a
+blush; but they disregarded the daughter as a schoolgirl.  Happily they
+appeared no more after the dinner; but Nuttie's first exclamation of
+astonished disgust was silenced at once by her mother with unusual
+determination, 'You must not speak so of your father's friends.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not when&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not at all,' interrupted Mrs. Egremont.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The only sense of promotion to greatness that Ursula had yet enjoyed
+was in these fine clothes, and the maid whom Lady Kirkaldy had
+recommended, a grave and severe-looking person, of whom both stood
+somewhat in awe.  The arrival at Bridgefield had been too late for
+anything to be taken in but a general impression of space and
+dreariness, and the inevitable dinner of many courses, after which
+Nuttie was so tired out that her mother sent her to bed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Since the waking she had made some acquaintance with the house. There
+was no show of domestics, no curtseying housekeeper to parade the new
+mistress over the house; Mr. Egremont had told his wife that she must
+fill up the establishment as she pleased, but that there was an
+admirable cook downstairs, and he would not have her interfered
+with&mdash;she suited his tastes as no one else did, and she must be left to
+deal with the provisions and her own underlings.  There was a stable
+establishment, and a footman had been hired in town, but there was
+besides only one untidy-looking housemaid, who began by giving warning;
+and Alice and Nuttie had roamed about without meeting any one from the
+big wainscotted dining-room with faded crimson curtains and family
+portraits, the older grimy, the younger chalky, to the two
+drawing-rooms, whose gilding and pale blue damask had been preserved by
+pinafores of brown holland; the library, which looked and smelt as if
+Mr. Egremont was in the habit of sitting there, and a big
+billiard-room, all opening into a shivery-feeling hall, with Scagliola
+columns and a few dirty statues between them; then upstairs to a
+possible morning-room, looking out over a garden lawn, where mowing was
+going on in haste, and suites of dreary shut-up fusty bedrooms.
+Nuttie, who had notions of choosing her own bower, could not make up
+her mind which looked the least inviting.  It did not seem as if girls
+could ever have laughed together, or children clattered up and down the
+stairs.  Mrs. Egremont begged her to keep possession for the present at
+least of the chamber where the grim housemaid had chosen to put her,
+and which had the advantage of being aired.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The two windows looked out over the park, and thence it was that while
+Morris, the maid, was unpacking and putting away the new purchases, and
+Nuttie was standing, scarcely realising that such pretty hats and
+bonnets could be her very own, when her mother beheld the Canon and
+Mark advancing up the drive.  It was with a great start that she called
+Ursula to come down directly with her, as no one would know where to
+find them, hastily washing the hands that had picked up a sense of
+dustiness during the exploration, and taking a comprehensive glance in
+the cheval glass, which showed her some one she felt entirely
+unfamiliar to her in a dainty summer costume of pale gray silk picked
+out with a mysterious shade of pink.  Ursula too thought Miss
+Egremont's outer woman more like a Chelsea shepherdess than Nuttie's
+true self, as she tripped along in her buckled shoes and the sea green
+stockings that had been sent home with her skirt.  With crimson cheeks
+and a throbbing heart, Alice was only just at the foot of the stairs
+when the newcomers had made their way in, and the kind Canon, ignoring
+all that was past, held out his hands saying, 'Well, my dear, I am glad
+to see you here,' kissing Mrs. Egremont on each cheek.  'And so this is
+your daughter.  How do you do, my dear&mdash;Ursula?  Isn't that your name?'
+And Ursula had again to submit to a kiss, much more savoury and kindly
+than her father's, though very stubbly.  And oh! her uncle's dress was
+like that of no one she had ever seen except the rector of the old
+church, the object of unlimited contempt to the adherents of St.
+Ambrose's.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As to Mark, he only kissed his aunt, and shook hands with her, while
+his father ran on with an unusual loquacity that was a proof of
+nervousness in him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mrs. Egremont&mdash;Jane, I mean&mdash;will be here after luncheon.  She thought
+you would like to get settled in first.  How is Alwyn?  Is he down yet?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I will see,' in a trembling voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh no, never mind, Alwyn hates to be disturbed till he has made
+himself up in the morning.  My call is on you, you know.  Where are you
+sitting?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I don't quite know.  In the drawing-room, I suppose.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Canon, knowing the house much better than she did, opened a door
+into a third drawing-room she had not yet seen, a pretty little room,
+fitted up with fluted silk, like a tent, somewhat faded but not much
+the worse for that, and opening into a conservatory, which seemed to
+have little in it but some veteran orange trees.  Nuttie, however,
+exclaimed with pleasure at the nicest room she had seen, and Mark began
+unfastening the glass door that led into it.  Meantime Alice, with
+burning cheeks and liquid eyes, nerved her voice to say, 'Oh, sir&mdash;Mr.
+Egremont&mdash;please forgive me!  I know now how wrong I was.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nonsense, my dear.  Bygones are bygones.  You were far more sinned
+against than sinning, and have much to forgive me.  There, my dear, we
+will say no more about it, nor think of it either.  I am only too
+thankful that poor Alwyn should have some one to look after him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Alice, who had dreaded nothing more than the meeting with her former
+master, was infinitely relieved and grateful for this kindness.  She
+had ejaculated, 'Oh, you are so good!' in the midst, and now at the
+mention of her husband, she exclaimed, 'Oh! do you think he is ill? I
+can't help being afraid he is, but he will not tell me, and does not
+like to be asked.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Poor fellow, he has damaged his health a good deal,' was the answer.
+'He had a sharp attack in the spring, but he has pretty well got over
+it, and Raikes told me there was no reason for uneasiness, provided he
+would be careful; and that will be a much easier matter now.  I should
+not wonder if we saw him with quite a renewed youth.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So the Canon and Mrs. Egremont were getting on pretty well together,
+but there was much more stiffness and less cordiality between the two
+cousins, although Mark got the window open into the conservatory, and
+showed Nuttie the way into the garden, advising her to ask Ronaldson,
+the gardener, to fill the conservatory with flowers.  The pavilion, as
+this little room was called, always seemed to have more capacities for
+being lived in than any other room in the house.  It had been fitted up
+when such things were the fashion for the shortlived bride of 'our
+great uncle.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'The colour must have been awful then,' said Mark, looking up at it,
+'enough to set one's teeth on edge; but it has faded into something
+quite orthodox&mdash;much better than could be manufactured for you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mark had evidently some ideas of art, and was besides inclined to do
+the honours to the stranger; but Nuttie was not going to encourage him
+or anybody else to make up to her, while she had that look of Gerard
+Godfrey's in her mind's eye.  So she made small answer, and he felt
+rebuffed, but supposed her shy, and wondered when he could go back to
+her mother, who was so much more attractive.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Presently his father went off to storm the den of the master of the
+house, and there was a pleasant quarter of an hour, during which the
+three went out through the conservatory, and Mark showed the
+ins-and-outs of the garden, found out Ronaldson, and congratulated him
+on having some one at last to appreciate his flowers, begging him to
+make the conservatory beautiful.  And Mrs. Egremont's smile was so
+effective that the Scot forthwith took out his knife and presented her
+with the most precious of the roses within his reach.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Moreover Mark told the names and ages of all his sisters, whole and
+half.  He was the only son, except a little fellow in the nursery. And
+he exhorted his aunt not to be afraid of his step-mother, who was a
+most excellent person, he declared, but who never liked to see any one
+afraid of her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was something a little alarming in this, but on the whole the
+visit was very pleasant and encouraging to Mrs. Egremont; and she began
+rejoicing over the kindness as soon as the Canon had summoned his son,
+and they had gone away together.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I am sure you must be delighted with your uncle and cousin, my dear,'
+she said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He's not a bit my notion of a priest,' returned Nuttie.  'And I don't
+believe he has any daily prayers!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He is old-fashioned, my dear.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'One of the stodgey old clergymen in books,' observed Nuttie.  'I
+didn't think there were any of that sort left.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, my dear, pray don't take fancies into your head!  He is a very,
+very good man, and has been most kind to me, far more than I deserve,
+and he is your uncle, Nuttie.  I do so hope you will get on well with
+your cousins.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Here a gong, a perfectly unknown sound to Nuttie, made itself heard,
+and rather astonished her by the concluding roar.  The two ladies came
+out into the hall as Mr. Egremont was crossing it.  He made an
+inclination of the head, and uttered a sort of good morning to his
+daughter, but she was perfectly content to have no closer salutation.
+Having a healthy noonday appetite, her chief wish was at the moment
+that those beautiful little cutlets, arranged in a crown form, were not
+so very tiny; or that, with two men-servants looking on, it were
+possible to attain to a second help, but she had already learnt that
+Gregorio would not hear her, and that any attempt to obtain more food
+frightened her mother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'So his reverence has been to see you,' observed Mr. Egremont.
+'William, if you like it better.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh yes, and he was kindness itself!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And how did Master Mark look at finding I could dispense with his
+assistance?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I think he is very glad.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Egremont laughed.  'You are a simple woman, Edda!  The pose of
+virtuous hero was to have been full compensation for all that it might
+cost him!  And no doubt he looks for the reward of virtue likewise.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wherewith he looked full at Ursula, who, to her extreme vexation, felt
+herself blushing up to the ears.  She fidgeted on her chair, and began
+a most untrue 'I'm sure&mdash;' for, indeed, the poor girl was sure of
+nothing, but that her father's manner was most uncomfortable to her.
+His laugh choked whatever she might have said, which perhaps was well,
+and her mother's cheeks glowed as much as hers did.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Did the Canoness&mdash;Jane, I mean&mdash;come up?' Mr. Egremont went on.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mrs. Egremont?  No; she sent word that she is coming after luncheon.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Hm!  Then I shall ride out and leave you to her majesty.  Now look
+you, Alice, you are to be very careful with William's wife.  She is a
+Condamine, you know, and thinks no end of herself, and your position
+among the women-folk of the county depends more on how she takes you up
+than anything else.  But that doesn't mean that you are to let her give
+herself airs and domineer over you.  Remember you are the elder
+brother's wife&mdash;Mrs. Egremont of Bridgefield Egremont&mdash;and she is
+nothing but a parson's wife, and I won't have her meddling in my house.
+Only don't you be absurd and offend her, for she can do more for or
+against you in society than any one else&mdash;more's the pity!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh! won't you stay and help me receive her?' exclaimed the poor lady,
+utterly confused by these contrary directions.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not I!  I can't abide the woman! nor she me!'  He added, after a
+moment, 'You will do better without me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So he went out for his ride, and Ursula asked, 'Oh, mother! what will
+you do?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'The best I can, my dear.  They are good people, and are sure to be
+kinder than I deserve.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie was learning that her mother would never so much as hear, far
+less answer, a remark on her husband.  It was beginning to make a sore
+in the young heart that a barrier was thus rising, where there once had
+been as perfect oneness and confidence as could exist between two
+natures so dissimilar, though hitherto the unlikeness had never made
+itself felt.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Egremont turned the conversation to the establishing themselves in
+the pavilion, whither she proceeded to import some fancy-work that she
+had bought in London, and sent Nuttie to Ronaldson, who was arranging
+calceolarias, begonias, and geraniums in the conservatory, to beg for
+some cut-flowers for a great dusty-looking vase in the centre of the
+table.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+These were being arranged when Mrs. William Egremont and Miss Blanche
+Egremont were ushered in, and there were the regular kindred embraces,
+after which Alice and Nuttie were aware of a very handsome,
+dignified-looking lady, well though simply dressed in what was
+evidently her home costume, with a large shady hat and feather, her
+whole air curiously fitting the imposing nickname of the Canoness.
+Blanche was a slight, delicate-looking, rather pretty girl in a
+lawn-tennis dress.  The visitor took the part of treating the newcomers
+as well-established relations.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'We would not inundate you all at once,' she said, 'but the children
+are all very eager to see their cousin.  I wish you would come down to
+the Rectory with me.  My ponies are at the door.  I would drive you,
+and Ursula might walk with Blanche.'  And, as Alice hesitated for a
+moment, considering how this might agree with the complicated
+instructions that she had received, she added, 'Never mind Alwyn.  I
+saw him going off just before I came up, and he told William he was
+going to look at some horses at Hale's, so he is disposed of for a good
+many hours.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Alice decided that her husband would probably wish her to comply, and
+she rejoiced to turn her daughter in among the cousins, so hats,
+gloves, and parasols were fetched, and the two mothers drove away with
+the two sleek little toy ponies.  By which it may be perceived that
+Mrs. William Egremont's first impressions were favourable.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It is the shortest way through the gardens,' said Blanche.  'Have you
+been through them yet?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mark walked about with us a little.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You'll improve them ever so much.  There are great capabilities. Look,
+you could have four tennis courts on this one lawn.  We wanted to have
+a garden-party up here last year, and father said we might, but mother
+thought Uncle Alwyn might think it a liberty; but now you'll have some
+delicious ones?  Of course you play lawn-tennis?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I have seen it a very few times,' said Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, we must teach you!  Fancy living without lawn-tennis!' said
+Blanche.  'I always wonder what people did without it.  Only'&mdash;with an
+effort at antiquarianism&mdash;'I believe they had croquet.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Aunt Ursula says there weren't garden-parties before croquet came in.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'How dreadful, Ursula!  Your name's Ursula, isn't it?  Haven't you some
+jolly little name to go by?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nuttie.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nuttie!  That's scrumptious!  I'll call you Nuttie, and you may call
+me Pussycat.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That's not so nice as Blanche.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mother won't have me called so when strangers are there, but you
+aren't a stranger, you know.  You must tell me all about yourself, and
+how you came never to learn tennis!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I had something else to do,' said Nuttie, with dignity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, you were in the schoolroom!  I forgot.  Poor little Nuts!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'At school,' said Ursula.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah, I remember!  But you're out now, aren't you?  I've been out since
+this spring.  Mother won't let us come out till we are eighteen, isn't
+it horrid?  And we were so worked there!  I can tell you a finishing
+governess is an awful institution!  Poor little Rosie and Adey will be
+in for one by and by.  At present they've only got a jolly little
+Fraulein that they can do anything they please with.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, I wonder if she would tell me of some German books!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You don't mean that you want to read German!' and Blanche stood still,
+and looked at her cousin in astonishment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Why, what else is the use of learning it?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, I don't know.  Every one does.  If one went abroad or to court,
+you know,' said Blanche vaguely; but Ursula had now a fresh subject of
+interest; for, on emerging from the shrubbery, they came in sight of a
+picturesque but not very architectural church, which had the smallest
+proportion of wall and the largest of roof, and a pretty oriel-windowed
+schoolhouse covered with clematis.  Nuttie rushed into inquiries about
+services and schools, and was aghast at hearing of mere Sundays and
+saints' days.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh no! father isn't a bit Ritualistic.  I wish he was, it would be so
+much prettier; and then he always advertises for curates of moderate
+views, and they are so stupid.  You never saw such a stick as we have
+got now, Mr. Edwards; and his wife isn't a lady, I'm sure.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then as to schools, it was an absolute amazement to Nuttie to find that
+the same plans were in force as had prevailed when her uncle had come
+to the living and built that pretty house&mdash;nay, were kept up at his
+sole expense, because he liked old-fashioned simplicity, and did not
+choose to be worried with Government inspection.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And,' said Blanche, 'every one says our girls work ever so much
+better, and make nicer servants than those that are crammed with all
+sorts of nonsense not fit for them.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As to the Sunday school.  Mother and the curate take care of that. I'm
+sure, if you like it, you can have my class, for I always have a
+headache there, and very often I can't go.  Only May pegs away at it,
+and she won't let me have the boys, who are the only jolly ones,
+because she says I spoil them.  But you must be my friend&mdash;mind,
+Nuttie, not May's, for we are nearer the same age.  When is your
+birthday?  You must put it down in my book!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie, who had tolerable experience of making acquaintance with new
+girls, was divided between a sense of Blanche's emptiness, and the
+warmth excited by her friendliness, as well as of astonishment at all
+she heard and saw.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Crossing the straggling, meandering village street, the cousins entered
+the grounds of the Rectory, an irregular but well-kept building of the
+soft stone of the country, all the garden front of it a deep verandah
+that was kept open in summer, but closed with glass frames in the
+winter&mdash;flower-beds lying before it, and beyond a lawn where the young
+folk were playing at the inevitable lawn-tennis.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Margaret was not so pretty as Blanche, but had a more sensible face,
+and her welcome to Ursula was civil but reserved.  Rosalind and Adela
+were bright little things, in quite a different style from their
+half-sisters, much lighter in complexion and promising to be handsomer
+women.  They looked full of eagerness and curiosity at the new cousin,
+whom Blanche set down on a bank, and proceeded to instruct in the
+mysteries of the all-important game by comments and criticisms on the
+players.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As soon as Mark and Adela had come out conquerors, Ursula was called on
+to take her first lesson.  May resigned her racket, saying she had
+something to do, and walked off the field, and carrying off with her
+Adela, who, as Blanche said, 'had a spine,' and was ordered to lie down
+for an hour every afternoon.  The cheerfulness with which she went
+spoke well for the training of the family.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie was light-footed and dexterous handed, and accustomed to active
+amusements, so that, under the tuition of her cousins, she became a
+promising pupil, and thawed rapidly, even towards Mark.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was in the midst of her game when the two mothers came out, for the
+drive had been extended all round the park, under pretext of showing it
+to its new mistress, but really to give the Canoness an opportunity of
+judging of her in a tete-a-tete.  Yet that sensible woman had asked no
+alarming questions on the past, still less had offered any advice that
+could seem like interference.  She had only named localities, mentioned
+neighbours, and made little communications about the ways of the place
+such as might elicit remarks; and, as Alice's voice betrayed less and
+less constraint, she ventured on speaking of their daughters, so as to
+draw forth some account of how Ursula might have been educated.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And of this, Alice was ready and eager to talk, telling how clever and
+how industrious Nuttie had always been, and how great an advantage Miss
+Nugent's kindness was, and how she was hoping to go up for the
+Cambridge examination; then, detecting some doubt in her companion's
+manner, she said, 'It would be a great disappointment to her not to do
+so now.  Do you think she had better not?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I don't think she will find time to go on with the preparation! And,
+to tell the truth, I don't think we are quite ripe for such things in
+this county.  We are rather backward, and Ursula, coming in fresh upon
+us, might find it a disadvantage to be thought much cleverer than other
+people.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah!  I was not quite sure whether her father would like it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I do not think he would.  I am sure that if my little Rose were to
+take it into her head, I should have hard work to get her father's
+consent, though no doubt the world will have progressed by the time she
+is old enough.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That settles it,' said Alice.  'Thank you, Mrs. Egremont.  I own,' she
+added presently, 'that I do somewhat regret that it cannot be, for I
+thought that a motive for keeping up her studies would be helpful to my
+child;&mdash;I do not mean for the sake of the studies, but of the&mdash;the
+balance in all this change and novelty.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You are quite right, I have felt it myself,' said her sister-in-law.
+'Perhaps something could be done by essay societies.  May belongs to
+one, and if Ursula is an intellectual girl, perhaps you could keep her
+up to some regular employment in the morning.  I succeeded in doing so
+when May came out, but I can accomplish nothing regular but music with
+Blanche; and an hour's steady practice a day is better than nothing.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The drive was on the whole a success, and so was the tea-drinking in
+the verandah, where Aunt Alice and little five-years old Basil became
+fast friends and mutual admirers; the Canon strolled out and was
+installed in the big, cushioned basket-chair that crackled under his
+weight; Blanche recounted Nuttie's successes, and her own tennis
+engagements for the week; Mark lay on a rug and teased her, and her
+dachshund; Nuttie listened to the family chatter as if it were a play,
+and May dispensed the cups, and looked grave and severe.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well?' said the Canon anxiously, when Mark, Blanche, and little Basil
+had insisted on escorting the guests home, and he and his wife were for
+a few minutes tete-a-tete.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It might have been much worse,' said the lady.  'She is a good little
+innocent thing, and has more good sense than I expected. Governessy,
+that's all, but she will shake out of that.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Of course she will.  It's the best thing imaginable for Alwyn!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His wife kept back the words, 'A hundred times too good for Alwyn!'
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap11"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XI.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LAWN-TENNIS.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'Madam, the guests are come, supper served up,<BR>
+  My young lady asked for!'&mdash;Romeo and Juliet.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+A garden-party, Mrs. William Egremont decided, would be the best mode
+of testifying her approbation of her sister-in-law, and introducing the
+newcomers to the neighbourhood.  So the invitations were sent forth for
+an early day of the coming week.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+From how many points of view was Mrs. William Egremont's garden-party
+regarded, and how different!  There was Basil, to whom it meant wearing
+his velvet suit and eating as many ices as mother would allow.  To
+Blanche, it was an occasion for triumph on the tennis ground for
+herself, and for hopes for her pupil; and Ursula herself looked forward
+to it and practised for it like a knight for his first encounter in the
+lists, her sole care being to distinguish herself with her racket.  To
+her mother, it was an ordeal, where she trusted not to be a
+mortification to her husband and his family; while to the hostess, it
+was a not unwelcome occasion of exercising honest diplomacy and tact,
+not without a sense of magnanimity.  To May, it was a bore to be
+endured with dutiful philosophy; to her good-natured father an occasion
+for hospitality, where he trusted that his brother would appear, and
+appear to advantage, and was ready even to bribe him thereto with that
+wonderful claret that Alwyn had always envied, and declared to be
+wasted on a parson.  And Mark, perhaps he viewed the occasion with
+different eyes from any one else.  At any rate, even the denizens of
+Bridgefield mustered there with as many minds as Scott ascribes to the
+combatants of Bannockburn, and there were probably as many other
+circles of feeling more or less intersecting one another among the more
+distant guests, most of them, however, with the same feeling of
+curiosity as to what this newly-discovered wife and daughter of Alwyn
+Egremont might be like.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Externally, in her rich black silk, trimmed with point lace, and her
+little straw-coloured bonnet with its tuft of feathery grass and blue
+cornflower, she was so charming that her daughter danced round her,
+crying, 'O mammy, mammy, if they could but see you at home'&mdash;then, at a
+look: 'Well then&mdash;Aunt Ursel, and Miss Mary, and Mr. Dutton!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie was very much pleased with her own pretty tennis dress; but she
+had no personal vanity for herself, only for her mother.  The knowledge
+that she was no beauty was no grievance to her youthful spirits; but
+when her father surveyed them in the hall, she looked for his verdict
+for her mother as if their relations were reversed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ha!  Well, you certainly are a pretty creature, Edda,' he said
+graciously.  'You'll pass muster!  You want nothing but style.  And,
+hang it! you'll do just as well without it, if the Canoness will only
+do you justice.  Faces like that weren't given for nothing.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She blushed incarnadine and accepted one of his kisses with a pleasure,
+at which Nuttie wondered, her motherly affection prompting her to
+murmur in his ear&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And Ursula?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'She'll not cut you out; but she is Egremont enough to do very fairly.
+Going already?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If you would come with us,' she said wistfully, to the horror of
+Nuttie, who was burning to be at the beginning of all the matches.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I? oh no!  I promised old Will to look in, but that won't be till late
+in the day, or I shall have to go handing all the dowagers into the
+dining-room to tea.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Then I think we had better go on.  They asked us to come early, so as
+to see people arrive and know who they are.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+<I>They</I> was a useful pronoun to Alice, who felt it a liberty to call her
+grand-looking sister-in-law, Jane&mdash;was too well-bred to term her Mrs.
+William.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The mother and daughter crossed the gardens, Nuttie chattering all the
+way about the tennis tactics she had picked up from Blanche, while her
+mother answered her somewhat mechanically, wondering, as her eye fell
+on the square squat gray church tower, what had become of the earnest
+devotion to church work and intellectual pursuits that used to
+characterise the girl.  True, always both mother and daughter had
+hitherto kept up their church-going, and even their Sunday-school
+habits, nor had any hindrance come in their way, Mr. Egremont
+apparently acquiescing in what he never shared.  But these things
+seemed, in Ursula's mind, to have sunk out of the proportion they held
+at Bridgefield, no longer to be the spirit of a life, but mere Sunday
+duties and occupations.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Was this wicked world getting a hold of the poor child?  Which was
+duty? which was the world?  This was the thought that perplexed Alice,
+too simple as yet to perceive that Ursula's former absorption had been
+in the interests that surrounded her and her companions, exactly as
+they were at present, and that the real being had yet to work itself
+out.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For herself, Alice did not think at all.  She was rejoicing in her
+restored husband, and his evident affection.  Her duty towards him was
+in her eyes plain.  She saw, of course, that he had no religion, but
+she accepted the fact like that of bad weather; she loved him, and she
+loved her daughter; she said her prayers with all her heart for them,
+she hoped, and she did her best, without trying to go below the surface.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was the Rectory gate wide open.  There was Basil rushing up to
+greet his dear Aunt Alice, there were all the windows and doors of the
+Rectory open, and the nearer slopes covered with chairs and seats of
+all dimensions, some under trees, some umbelliferous, and glowing
+Afghan rugs, or spotted skins spread for those who preferred the
+ground.  There was Blanche flitting about wild with excitement, and
+pouncing on Nuttie to admire her outfit, and reiterate instructions;
+there were the two younger girls altering the position of chairs
+according to their mother's directions; there were actually two
+guests&mdash;not very alarming ones, only the curate and his wife, both
+rather gaunt, bony people.  He was button-holing the Canon, and she was
+trying to do the same by the Canoness about some parish casualty. The
+Canon hoped to escape in the welcome to his sister-in-law and niece,
+but he was immediately secured again, while his wife found it requisite
+to hurry off else where, leaving Mrs. Edwards to tell her story to Mrs.
+Egremont.  In point of fact, Alice really liked the good lady, was
+quite at ease with her, and felt parish concerns a natural element, so
+that she gave full heed and attention to the cruelty of Mrs. Parkins'
+depriving Betsy Butter (with an old father and mother to support) of
+her family washing, on the ground of a missing pocket handkerchief, the
+which Mrs. Edwards believed to have been abstracted by the favourite
+pickle of Miss Blanche's class, if only a confession could be elicited
+from him when undefended by his furious mother.  Mrs. Egremont was
+listening with actual interest and sympathy to the history of Betsy
+Butter's struggles, and was inquiring the way to her cottage, when she
+was called off to be introduced to the arrivals who were beginning to
+flood the lawn.  She presently saw May, who had just come down, walking
+up and down with Mrs. Edwards, evidently hearing the story of the
+handkerchief.  She thought it had been Nuttie for a moment.  There was
+a general resemblance between the cousins that made them be mistaken
+for one another several times in the course of the day, since their
+dresses, though not alike, were of the same make and style.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Thus it was that as Nuttie was sitting on the grass in earnest
+contemplation of Blanche's play, a hand was familiarly laid on her
+shoulder, and a voice said,  'I haven't seen that horrid girl yet!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After so many introductions, Nuttie had little idea whom she knew, or
+whom she did not know.  She looked up and saw a small person in light
+blue, with the delicate features, transparent skin, and blue eyes that
+accompany yellow hair, with an indescribable glitter of mirth and
+joyousness about the whole creature, as if she were part and parcel of
+the sunbeam in which she stood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What horrid girl?' said Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'The interloper, the newly-discovered savage, come to upset&mdash;Ah!'&mdash;with
+a little shriek&mdash;'It isn't May!  I beg your pardon.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I'm May's cousin,' said Nuttie, 'Ursula Egremont.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, oh!' and therewith the fact burst on both girls at once.  They
+stood still a moment in dismay, then the stranger went into a fit of
+laughter.  'Oh, I beg your pardon!  I can't help it!  It is so funny!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie was almost infected, though somewhat hurt.  'Who said I was
+horrid?' she asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nobody!  Nobody but me&mdash;Annaple Ruthven&mdash;and they'll all tell you, May
+and all, that I'm always putting my foot in it.  And I never meant that
+you were horrid&mdash;you yourself&mdash;you know&mdash;only&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Only nobody wanted us here,' said Nuttie; 'but we could not help it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Of course not.  It was shocking, just my way.  Please forgive me!' and
+she looked most pleading.  Nuttie held out her hand with something
+about 'No one could mind;' and therewith Annaple cried, 'Oh, if you
+don't mind, we can have our laugh out!' and the rippling laughter did
+set Nuttie off at once.  The peal was not over when May herself was
+upon them demanding what was the joke.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, there she is!  The real May!  Why,' said Annaple, kissing her,
+'only think here I've been and gone and thought this was you, and
+inquired about&mdash;What was it?&mdash;the awful monster&mdash;the chimera dire&mdash;that
+Mark had routed up&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No; you didn't say that,' said Nuttie, half provoked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Never mind what I said.  Don't repeat it.  I only wish myself and
+every one else to forget it.  Now it is swept to the winds by a good
+wholesome giggling.  But what business have you two to be so
+inconveniently alike?  You are as bad as the twin Leslies!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'There's an old foremother on the staircase in white satin who left her
+looks to us both,' said May.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You'll have to wear badges,' said Annaple.  'You know the Leslies were
+so troublesome that one had to be shipped off to the East Indies and
+the other to the West.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'They married, that's all,' said May, seeing Nuttie looking mystified;
+and at that moment, Blanche's side coming out victorious, Nuttie
+descended into the arena to congratulate and be asked to form part of
+the next set.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well, that was a scrape!' said Annaple; 'but she wasn't bad about it!
+I must do something to make up for it somehow&mdash;get Janet to invite her,
+but really Janet is in such a state of mind that I am mildness itself
+compared with her.  She would not have come, only John was curious, and
+declared he should go whether we did or not.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah!' said May, 'I saw him, like the rest of mankind, at madame's feet.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh! is she of that sort?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No,' said May, 'not at all.  Mother and father too both think she is
+good to the backbone; but she is very pretty, with just the inane soft
+sweetness that men rave about&mdash;innocent really.  All accounts of her
+are excellent, and she has nice parish ways, and will be as helpful as
+Uncle Alwyn will let her.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But she couldn't always have been nice?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well, I verily believe it was all Uncle Alwyn's and grandmamma's
+fault.  I know Mark thinks so.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'When the women of a family acquit a woman it goes for something,' said
+Annaple.  'That's not original, my dear, I heard old Lady Grosmede say
+so to Janet when she was deliberating over the invitation, "For a good
+deal more than Mr. Mark's, at any rate.'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mark is very fond of her&mdash;the mother, I mean.  He says when he was a
+little fellow her loss was worse to him than even our mother's.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Do you remember the catastrophe?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not a bit.  Only when she is petting Basil it strikes me that I have
+heard the tones before.  I only remember the time of misery under the
+crosspatches grandmamma got for us.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well, it was a splendid cutting of his own throat in Mark,' said
+Annaple, 'so it ought to turn out well.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I don't know how it is to turn out for Mark,' answered May.  'Oh, here
+he comes!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Will you come into this set, Annaple?' he asked.  'They want another
+couple,' and, as she accepted,  'How do you get on with May's double?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I pity May for having such a double.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Don't encourage her by misplaced pity.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It's abominable altogether!  I want to fly at somebody!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Exhaust your feelings on your racket, and reflect that you see a man
+released from bondage.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Is that philosophy or high-faluting?' she said in a teasing tone as
+the game began.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Ruthvens had very blue blood in their veins, but as there were nine
+of the present generation, they possessed little beyond their long
+pedigree; even the head of the family, Lord Ronnisglen, being forced to
+live as a soldier, leaving his castle to grouse shooters. His seven
+brothers had fared mostly in distant lands as they could, and his
+mother had found a home, together with her youngest child, at Lescombe,
+where her eldest was the wife of Sir John Delmar.  Lady Ronnisglen was
+an invalid, confined to the house, and Lady Delmar had daughters fast
+treading on the heels of Annabella, so christened, but always called
+Annaple after the old Scottish queens, her ancestors. She had been May
+Egremont's chief friend ever since her importation at twelve years old,
+and the intimacy had been promoted by her mother and sister.  Indeed,
+the neighbourhood had looked on with some amusement at the competition
+ascribed to Lady Delmar and to the wealthy parvenu, Mrs. West, for the
+heir-presumptive of Bridgefield Egremont.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Annaple's lightness and dexterity rendered her the best of the lady
+tennis-players, and the less practised Ursula found herself defeated in
+the match, in spite of a partner whose play was superior to Mark's, and
+with whom she shyly walked off to eat ices.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I see,' said Annaple, 'it is a country-town edition of May.  I shan't
+blunder between them again.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'She will polish,' said Mark, 'but she is not equal to her mother.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Whom I have not seen yet.  Ah, there's Mr. Egremont!  Why, he looks
+quite renovated!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well he may be!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But Mark, not to hurt your feelings, he must have behaved atrociously.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I'm not going to deny it,' said Mark.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I always did think he looked like it,' said Annaple.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'When have you seen him before?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Only once, but it was my admirable sagacity, you understand?  I always
+see all the villains in books just on his model.  Oh, but who's that?
+How very pretty!  You don't mean it is she!  Well, she might be the
+heroine of anything!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Isn't she lovely?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And has she been keeping school like Patience on a monument all these
+years?  It doesn't seem to have much damaged her damask cheek!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It was only daily governessing.  She looks much better than when I
+first saw her; and as to the damask&mdash;why, that's deepened by the
+introduction to old Lady Grosmede that is impending.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'She is being walked up to the old Spanish duck with the red rag round
+her leg to receive her fiat.  What a thing it is to be a bearded
+Dowager, and rule one's neighbourhood!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I think she approves.  She has made room for her by her side.  Is she
+going to catechise her?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Annaple made an absurd sound of mingled pity and disgust.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not that she&mdash;my aunt, I mean&mdash;need be afraid.  The shame is all on
+the other side.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And I think Lady Grosmede has too much sense to think the worse of her
+for having worked for herself,' added Annaple.  'If it was not for
+mother I should long to begin!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You?  It's a longing well known to me!&mdash;but you!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Exactly!  As the Irishman felt blue moulded for want of a bating, so
+do I feel fagged out for want of an honest day's work.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If one only knew what to turn to,' said Mark so wearily that Annaple
+exclaimed,
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'We seem to be in the frozen-out state of mind, and might walk up and
+down singing "I've got no work to do,"'&mdash;to which she gave the well
+known intonation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Too true,' said he, joining in the hum.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But I thought you were by way of reading law.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'One must see more than only "by way of" in these days to do any good.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At that moment Basil ran up with a message that Lady Delmar was ready
+to go home.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They walked slowly up the terrace and Mark paused as they came near
+Mrs. Egremont to say, 'Aunt Alice, here is Miss Ruthven, May's great
+friend.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Annaple met a pleasant smile, and they shook hands, exchanging an
+observation or two, while a little way off Lady Grosmede was nodding
+her strong old face at Lady Delmar, and saying, 'Tell your mother I'll
+soon come and see her, my dear.  That's a nice little innocent body,
+lady-like, and thoroughly presentable.  Alwyn Egremont might have done
+worse.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'The only wonder is he did not!' returned Lady Delmar.  'They make the
+best of it here.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Very good taste of them.  But, now I've seen her, I don't believe
+there's anything behind.  Very hard upon the poor young man, though it
+was all his doing, his mother says.  I congratulate you that it had not
+gone any farther in that quarter.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, dear no!  Never dreamt of it.  She is May's friend, that's all.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nevertheless Lady Delmar made a second descent in person to hurry
+Annaple away.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Isn't it disgusting?' said May, catching her stepmother's smile.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You will see a good deal more of the same kind,' said the Canoness; 'I
+am afraid more mortification is in store for Mark than he guesses. I
+wish that girl were more like her mother.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mamma! a girl brought up among umbrella-makers!  Just fancy!  Why, she
+has just nothing in her!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Don't set Mark against her, May; he might do worse.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Her head is a mere tennis ball,' said May, drawing her own higher than
+ever, 'and no one would know her from a shop girl.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'She is young enough,' said the Canoness.  'Don't class me with Lady
+Delmar, May&mdash;I only say&mdash;if&mdash;and that I don't think you realise the
+change Mark will feel.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Better so than sell himself,' muttered May.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap12"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XII.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+OUT OF WORK.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'I'm seeking the fruit that's nae growing.'&mdash;Ballad.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Society recognised the newcomers.  Lady Grosmede's card appeared the
+next day, and was followed by showers of others, and everybody asked
+everybody 'Have you seen Mrs. Egremont?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was well for Alice's happiness even at home that she was a success.
+When Alwyn Egremont had been lashed by his nephew's indignant integrity
+into tardy recognition of the wife of his youth, it had been as if he
+had been forced to pick up a flower which he had thrown away.  He had
+considerable doubts whether it would answer. First, he reconnoitred,
+intending, if he found a homely or faded being, to pension her off; but
+this had been prevented by her undeniable beauty and grace, bringing up
+a rush of such tender associations as he was capable of.  Yet even
+then, her position depended on the impression she might make on those
+about him, on her own power of self-assertion, and on her contributing
+to his comfort or pleasure.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Of self-assertion Alice had none, only a gentle dignity in her
+simplicity, and she was so absolutely devoted to him that he found his
+house far more pleasant and agreeable for her presence and unfailing
+attention, though still his estimation of her was influenced more than
+he owned to himself by that of the world in general, and the Rectory in
+particular.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And the Rectory did its part well.  The Canon was not only charmed with
+the gentle lady, but felt an atonement due to her; and his wife,
+without ever breathing into any ears, save his, the mysterious
+adjective 'governessy,' praised her right and left, confiding to all
+inquirers the romance of the burnt yacht, the lost bride, and the happy
+meeting under Lady Kirkaldy's auspices, with the perfect respectability
+of the intermediate career, while such was the universal esteem for,
+and trust in herself and the Canon, that she was fully believed; and
+people only whispered that probably Alwyn Egremont had been excused for
+the desertion more than he deserved.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The subject of all this gossip troubled herself about it infinitely
+less than did the good Canoness.  In effect she did not know enough of
+the world to think about it at all.  Her cares were of a different
+order, chiefly caused by tenderness of conscience, and solicitude to
+keep the peace between the two beings whom she best loved.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Two things were in her favour in this latter respect, one that they saw
+very little of each other, since Mr. Egremont seldom emerged from his
+own rooms till after luncheon; and the other that Ursula's brains ran
+to little but lawn-tennis for the ensuing weeks.  To hold a champion's
+place at the tournaments, neck and neck with her cousin Blanche, and
+defeat Miss Ruthven, and that veteran player, Miss Basset, was her
+foremost ambition, and the two cousins would have practised morning,
+noon, and night if their mothers would have let them.  There need have
+been no fear of Ursula's rebellion about the Cambridge honours, she
+never seemed even to think of them, and would have had no time in the
+more important competition of rackets. Indeed, it was almost treated as
+a hardship that the pair were forbidden to rush together before twelve
+o'clock, and that Ursula's mother insisted on rational home occupation
+until that time, setting the example herself by letter-writing,
+needlework, and sharing in the music which was a penance to the girl,
+only enforced by that strong sense of protecting affection which
+forbade rebellion.  But Alice could hope that their performances were
+pleasant to her husband in the evening, if only to sleep by, and so she
+persisted in preparing for them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie's rage for tennis, and apparent forgetfulness of her old life
+and aspirations, might be disappointing, but it conduced to make her
+mother's task easier than if she had been her original, critical, and
+protesting self.  In the new and brilliant surroundings she troubled
+herself much less than could have been expected at the failure of her
+father, his house, nay, and of the parish itself, in coming up to the
+St. Ambrose standard.  How much was owing to mere novelty and
+intoxication, how much to a yet unanalysed disappointment, how much to
+May's having thrown her upon the more frivolous Blanche, could not be
+guessed.  The effect was unsatisfactory to her mother, but a certain
+relief, for Nuttie's aid would have been only mischievous in the
+household difficulties that weighed on the anxious conscience. Good
+servants would not stay at Bridgefield Hall for unexplained causes,
+which their mistress believed to be connected with Gregorio, or with
+the treasure of a cook-housekeeper over whom she was forbidden to
+exercise any authority, and who therefore entirely neglected all meals
+which the master did not share with the ladies. Fortunately, Mr.
+Egremont came in one day at their luncheon and found nothing there but
+semi-raw beef, upon which there was an explosion; and being by this
+time convinced that his wife both would and could minister to his
+comfort, her dominion was established in the female department, though,
+as long as Gregorio continued paramount with his master, and the
+stables remained in their former state, it was impossible to bring
+matters up to the decorous standard of the Rectory, and if ever his
+mistress gave an order he did not approve, Gregorio overruled it as her
+ignorance.  In fact, he treated both the ladies with a contemptuous
+sort of civility.  Meantime Mr. Egremont was generally caressing and
+admiring in his ways towards his wife, with only occasional bursts of
+temper when anything annoyed him.  He was proud of her, gave her a
+liberal allowance, and only refused to be troubled; and she was really
+happy in his affection, for which she felt a gratitude only too humble
+in the eyes of her daughter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They had parties.  Blanche's ambition of tennis courts all over the
+lawn was fulfilled, and sundry dinners, which were crosses to Alice,
+who had neither faculty nor training for a leader and hostess, suffered
+much from the menu, more from the pairing of her guests, more again in
+catching her chief lady's eye after, and most of all from her husband's
+scowls and subsequent growls and their consequence, for Ursula broke
+out, 'It is not fair to blame my mother.  How should she have all the
+savoir-faire, or what you may call it, of Aunt Jane, when she has had
+no practice?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Perhaps, Mrs. Egremont,' he retorted with extreme suavity, 'you will
+also attend to your daughter's manners.'  Otherwise he took little
+notice of Ursula, viewing her perhaps, as did the neighbourhood, as a
+poor imitation of May, without her style, or it may be with a sense
+that her tongue might become inconvenient if not repressed.  When he
+began to collect sporting guests of his own calibre in the shooting
+season, the Canoness quietly advised her sister-in-law to regard them
+as gentlemen's parties, and send Ursula down to spend the evening with
+her cousins; and to this no objection was made.  Mr. Egremont wanted
+his beautiful wife at the head of his table, and his guests never
+comported themselves unsuitably before her; but nobody wanted the
+unformed girl, and she and Blanche were always happy together.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The chief restraint was when Mark was at home, and that was not always.
+He made sundry visits and expeditions, and was altogether in an
+uncomfortable condition of reaction and perplexity as to his future.
+He was a good and conscientious fellow, and had never been actually
+idle, but had taken education and life with the easiness of the
+prospective heir to a large property; and though he had acquitted
+himself creditably, it was with no view of making his powers
+marketable.  Though he had been entered at the Temple, it was chiefly
+in order to occupy himself respectably, and to have a nominal
+profession, so as not to be wholly dependent on his uncle; and all that
+he had acquired was the conviction that it would be half a lifetime, if
+not a whole one, before the law would afford him a maintenance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His father wished him to take Holy Orders with a view to the reversion
+of the Rectory, but Mark's estimate of clerical duty and vocation was
+just such as to make him shrink from them.  He was three-and-twenty, an
+awkward age for all those examinations that stand as lions in the face
+of youth intended for almost any sort of service, and seldom or never
+to be gagged by interest.  For one indeed, he went up and failed, and
+in such a manner as to convince him that cramming had more to do than
+general culture with success.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He had a certain consciousness that most people thought another way
+open to him, most decidedly his gentle aunt, and perhaps even his
+parents.  The matter came prominently before him one day at luncheon,
+when, some parochial affairs being on hand and Mr. Egremont out for the
+day, Alice, whose free forenoons enabled her to take a share in church
+and parish affairs, was there, as well as the curate and his wife.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+These good people were in great commotion about a wedding about to take
+place between a young farmer and his delicate first cousin, the only
+survivor of a consumptive family.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'"Proputty, proputty,"' quoted the Canon.  'James Johnson is what they
+call a warm man.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It is a sin and a shame,' said Mrs. Edwards.  'What can they expect?
+George Johnson looks strong enough now, but they tell me his brother
+undoubtedly died of decline, though they called it inflammation; but
+there was tubercular disease.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I am afraid it is strong in the family,' said the Canoness, 'they all
+have those clear complexions; but I do believe George is heartily in
+love with poor little Emily.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'First cousins ought to be in the table of degrees,' said Mr. Edwards.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It is always a question whether the multiplying of prohibitions
+without absolute necessity is expedient,' said the Canon.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He spoke quite dispassionately, but the excellent couple were not
+remarkable for tact.  Mrs. Edwards gave her husband such a glance of
+warning and consternation as violently inclined May to laugh, and he
+obediently and hesitatingly began, 'Oh yes, sir, I beg your pardon. Of
+course there may be instances,' thereby bringing an intense glow of
+carnation into Alice's cheeks, while the Canon, ready for the occasion,
+replied, 'And George Johnson considers himself one of them. He will
+repair the old moat house, I suppose.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And his wife, though she would rather have beaten Mrs. Edwards,
+demanded how many blankets would be wanted that winter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The effect of this little episode was that Mark announced to his father
+that evening his strong desire to emigrate, an intention which the
+Canon combated with all his might.  He was apparently a hale and hearty
+man, but he had had one or two attacks of illness that made him doubt
+whether he would be long-lived; and not only could he not bear to have
+his eldest son out of reach, but he dreaded leaving his family to such
+a head as his brother.  Mark scarcely thought the reasons valid,
+considering the rapidity of communication with Canada, but it was not
+possible to withstand the entreaties of a father with tears in his
+eyes; and though he could not bring himself to consent to preparing to
+be his father's curate, he promised to do nothing that would remove him
+to another quarter of the world, and in two or three days more, started
+for Monks Horton to see what advice his uncle and aunt there could give
+him; indeed, Lord Kirkaldy's influence was reckoned on by his family
+almost as a sure card in the diplomatic line.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Kirkaldys were very fond of Mark, and had an odd feeling of being
+accountable for the discovery which had changed his prospects.  They
+would have done anything for him that they could, but all Lord
+Kirkaldy's interest was at the foreign office, or with his
+fellow-diplomates, and here he soon found an insuperable bar.  Mark's
+education had stood still from the time of Miss Headworth's flight till
+his father's second marriage, his energies having been solely devoted
+to struggles with the grim varieties of governess purveyed by his
+grandmother, and he had thus missed all chance of foundation of foreign
+languages, and when once at school, he had shared in the average
+English boy's contempt and aversion for the French masters who
+outscreamed a whole class.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In consequence, Lord Kirkaldy, an accurate and elegant scholar in
+European tongues, besides speaking them with the cosmopolitan ease of
+an ambassador's son, was horrified, not only at Mark's pronunciation,
+but at his attempts at letter-writing and translation, made with all
+the good will in the world, but fit for nothing but to furnish the good
+stories which the kind uncle refrained from telling any one but his
+wife.  Unluckily, too, a Piedmontese family, some of them not strong in
+their English, were on a visit at Monks Horton, and the dialect in
+which the old marquis and Mark tried at times to interchange ideas
+about pheasants was something fearful.  And as in the course of a week
+Mark showed no signs of improvement in vernacular French or Italian,
+Lord Kirkaldy's conscience would let him give no other advice than that
+his nephew should stick to English law living still on the allowance
+his father gave him, and hoping for one of the chance appointments open
+to an English barrister of good family and fair ability.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Of course Mark had gone at once to carry tidings of 'Aunt Alice,' as he
+scrupulously called her, to old Miss Headworth, whom his aunt had
+continued to visit at intervals.  That good lady had given up her
+boarders, having realised enough to provide for her own old age, and
+she had joined forces with the Nugents, Mary being very thankful to
+have her companionship for Mrs. Nugent, who was growing too blind and
+feeble to be satisfactorily left alone all day.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mark delighted the old ladies by his visits and accounts of their
+darling's success and popularity, which he could paint so brightly that
+they could not help exulting, even though there might be secret
+misgivings as to the endurance of these palmy days.  He was a great
+hero in their eyes, and they had too good taste to oppress him with
+their admiration, so that he really was more at ease in their little
+drawing-room than anywhere at Monks Horton, whither the Italians could
+penetrate.  The marchesino spoke English very well, but that was all
+the worse for Mark, since it gave such a sense of inferiority.  He was
+an intelligent man too, bent on being acquainted with English
+industries of all kinds; and thus it was that a party was organised to
+see the umbrella factory.  It was conducted by Mr. Dutton, with whom
+Lord Kirkaldy, between charities and public business, had become
+acquainted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To Mark's secret shame, this manufacturer spoke French perfectly, and
+even got into such a lively conversation with the old marquis about
+Cavour, that Lord Kirkaldy begged him to come to dinner and continue
+it.  They were all surprised, not only by the details of the
+manufacture and the multitude of artizans, male and female, whom it
+employed, but by the number of warehouse-clerks whom they found at
+work, and who, it appeared, were in correspondence with agencies and
+depots in London and all the principal towns in the kingdom.  Gerard
+Godfrey was there,&mdash;casting looks askance at the young Egremont, whom
+he regarded as a kind of robber.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The marchesino asked from what class these young men were taken, and
+Mr. Dutton made reply that most of them were sons of professional men.
+If they could obtain a small capital and take shares in the business
+they were encouraged to do so, and rose to the headship of the
+agencies, obtaining a fair income.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And you don't exact an examination,' said Mark.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Except in handwriting and book-keeping,' said Mr. Dutton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Poor Mark, you look for your bugbear everywhere!' sighed his aunt.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They went over the Institute, coffee-rooms, eating-rooms, and
+lodging-houses, by which the umbrella firm strove to keep their hands
+respectable and contented, and were highly pleased with all, most
+especially with Mr. Dutton, who, though his name did not come
+prominently forward, had been the prime mover and contriver of all
+these things, and might have been a wealthier man if he had not
+undertaken expenses which he could not charge upon the company.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Gerard Godfrey came in to Mrs. Nugent's that evening in the lowest
+spirits.  He had a sister married to a curate in the same county with
+Bridgefield, and she had sent him a local paper which 'understood that
+a marriage was arranged between Mark de Lyonnais Egremont, Esquire, and
+Ursula, daughter of Alwyn Piercefield Egremont, Esquire, of Bridgefield
+Egremont,' and he could not help coming to display it to Miss Headworth
+in all its impertinence and prematurity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Indeed he said nothing to me about it,' said Miss Headworth, 'and I
+think he would if it had been true.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No doubt he intends it, and is trying to recommend himself through
+you,' said Gerard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I should not think he needed that,' returned Aunt Ursel, 'though I
+should be very glad, I am sure.  He is an excellent young man, and it
+is quite the obvious thing.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'People don't always do the obvious thing,' put in Mary Nugent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Certainly it didn't look like it,' said Miss Headworth,' when he told
+us about the great annual Hunt Ball at Redcastle that Nuttie and his
+sister Blanche are to come out at; he said he did not intend to go home
+for it if he could help it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Struggling against fate,' said Miss Nugent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'The puppy!' burst out Gerard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Having ascertained the particulars of this same Hunt Ball, Gerard
+became possessed with a vehement desire to visit his sister, and so
+earnestly solicited a few days' leave of absence that it was granted to
+him.  'Poor boy, he may settle down when he has ascertained what an ass
+he is,' said Mr. Dutton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah!' said Mary.  'I thought he was very bad when I saw he had not
+changed the green markers for St. Luke's Day.'
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap13"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XIII.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+DETRIMENTALS.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'That tongue of yours at times wags more than charity allows;<BR>
+   And if you're strong, be merciful, great woman of three cows.'&mdash;J. O. MANGAN.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Nine miles was a severe distance through country lanes in November to
+go to a ball; but the Redcastle Hunt Ball was the ball of the year,
+uniting all the county magnates; and young ladies were hardly reckoned
+as 'come out' till they had appeared there.  Mrs. Egremont's position
+would hardly be established till she had been presented to the
+notabilities who lived beyond calling intercourse; and her husband
+prepared himself to be victimised with an amount of grumbling that was
+intended to impress her with the magnitude of the sacrifice, but which
+only made her offer to forego the gaiety, and be told that she would
+never have any common sense.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So their carriage led the way, and was followed by the Rectory
+waggonette containing the ladies and Mark, who had been decisively
+summoned home, since his stepmother disliked public balls without a
+gentleman in attendance, and his father was not to be detached from his
+fireside.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And in a group near the door, got up as elaborately as his powers could
+accomplish, stood Gerard Godfrey.  He knew nobody there except a family
+in his sister's parish, who had good-naturedly given him a seat in
+their fly, and having fulfilled his duty by asking the daughter to
+dance, he had nothing to disturb him in watching for the cynosure whose
+attraction had led him into these unknown regions, and, as he
+remembered with a qualm, on the eve of St. Britius. However, with such
+a purpose, one might surely grant oneself a dispensation from the vigil
+of a black letter saint.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There at length he beheld the entrance.  There was the ogre himself,
+high bred, almost handsome, as long as he was not too closely
+scrutinised, and on his arm the well-known figure, metamorphosed by
+delicately-tinted satin sheen and pearls, and still more by the gentle
+blushing gladness on the fair cheeks and the soft eyes that used to
+droop.  Then followed a stately form in mulberry moire and point lace,
+leaning on Gerard's more especial abhorrence,&mdash;'that puppy,' who had
+been the author of all the mischief; and behind them three girls, one
+in black, the other two in white, and, what was provoking, he really
+could not decide which was Ursula.  The carefully-dressed hair and
+stylish evening dress and equipments had altogether transformed the
+little homely schoolgirl, so that, though he was sure that she was not
+the fair-haired damsel with pale blue flowers, he did not know how to
+decide between the white and daisies and the black and grasses.
+Indeed, he thought the two whites most likely to be sisters, and all
+the more when the black lace halted to exchange greetings with some
+one, and her face put on an expression so familiar to him, that he
+started forward and tried to catch her eye; but in vain, and he
+suffered agonies of doubt whether she had been perverted by greatness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was some comfort that, when presently a rush of waiters floated by,
+she was not with her cousin; but to provoke him still more, as the
+daisies neared him, he beheld for a moment in the whirl the queer
+smile, half-frightened, half-exultant, which he had seen on Nuttie's
+face when swinging sky-high!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When the pause came and people walked about, the black lady stood
+talking so near him that he ventured at last on a step forward and an
+eager 'Miss Egremont,' but, as she turned, he found himself obliged to
+say, 'I beg your pardon.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Did you mean my cousin.  We often get mistaken for each other,' said
+May civilly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He brightened.  'I beg your pardon,' he said, 'I knew her at
+Micklethwayte.  I am here&mdash;quite by accident.  Mrs. Elmore was so good
+as to bring me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+May was rather entertained.  'There's my cousin,' she said, 'Lord
+Philip Molyneux is asking her to dance,' and she left him most
+unnecessarily infuriated with Lord Philip Molyneux.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A steward introduced him to a dull-looking girl, but fortune favoured
+him, for this time he did catch the real Nuttie's eye, and all herself,
+as soon as the dance was over, she came up with outstretched hands, 'Oh
+Gerard! to think of your being here!  Come to mother!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And, beautiful and radiant, Mrs. Egremont was greeting him, and there
+were ten minutes of delicious exchange of news.  But 'pleasures are as
+poppies fled,' Nuttie had no dance to spare, her card was full, and she
+had not learnt fashionable effrontery enough to play tricks with
+engagements, and just then Mr. Egremont descended on them&mdash;'I wish to
+introduce you to the Duchess,' he said to his wife; and on the way he
+demanded&mdash;'Who is that young cub?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Gerard Godfrey&mdash;an old neighbour.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I thought I had seen him racketing about there with Ursula.  I'll not
+have those umbrella fellows coming about!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Does he really make umbrellas, Nuttie?' asked Blanche, catching her
+hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No such thing!' said Nuttie hotly, 'he is in the office.  His father
+was a surgeon; his sisters married clergymen!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And he came here to meet you,' said Annaple Ruthven.  'Poor fellow,
+what a shame it is!  Can't you give him one turn!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh dear!  I'm engaged all through!  To Mark this time.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Give him one of the extras!  Throw Mark over to me!  No,' as she
+looked at the faces of the two girls, 'I suppose that wouldn't do, but
+I'm free this time&mdash;I'm not the fashion.  Introduce me; I'll do my best
+as consolation.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie had just performed the feat, with great shyness, when Mark
+appeared, having been sent in quest of his cousin, when her father
+perceived that she had hung back.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Poor Gerard led off Miss Ruthven the more gloomily, and could not help
+sighing out, 'I suppose that is an engagement!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh! you believe that impertinent gossip in the paper,' returned
+Annaple.  'I wonder they don't contradict it; but perhaps they treat it
+with magnificent scorn.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No doubt they know that it is only premature.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If <I>they</I> means the elders, I daresay they wish it, but we aren't in
+France or Italy.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Then you don't think, Miss Ruthven, that it will come off?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I don't see the slightest present prospect,' said Annaple, unable to
+resist the kindly impulse of giving immediate pleasure, though she knew
+the prospect might be even slighter for her partner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However, he 'footed it' all the more lightly and joyously for the
+assurance, and the good-natured maiden afterwards made him conduct her
+to the tea-room, whither Mark and Nuttie were also tending, and there
+all four contrived to get mixed up together; and Nuttie had time to
+hear of Monsieur's new accomplishment of going home for Mr. Dutton's
+luncheon and bringing it in a basket to the office, before fate again
+descended; Mr. Egremont, who had been at the far end of the room among
+some congeners, who preferred stronger refreshment, suddenly heard her
+laugh, stepped up, and, with a look of thunder towards her, observed in
+a low voice, 'Mark, you will oblige me by taking your cousin back to
+her mother.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'The gray tyrant father,' murmured Annaple in sympathy.  'That being
+the case, I may as well go back in that direction also.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This resulted in finding Lady Delmar and the two Mrs. Egremonts
+together, comparing notes about the two different roads to Redcastle
+from their several homes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lady Delmar was declaring that her coachman was the most obstinate man
+in existence, and that her husband believed in him to any extent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Which way did you come?' she asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'By Bankside Lane,' said the Canoness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Over Bluepost Bridge!  There, Janet,' said Annaple.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'So much the worse.  I know we shall come to grief over Bluepost
+Bridge, and now there will be treble weight to break it down.  I dreamt
+it, I tell you, and there's second sight in the family.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, but you should tell what you did dream, Janet,' said her sister.
+'She thought Robinson, the coachman, was waltzing with her over it, and
+they went into a hole and stuck fast, while the red-flag traction
+engineman prodded her with an umbrella till she was all over blood.
+Now, if it had been anything rational, I should have thought something
+of her second sight!  I tell her 'twas suggested by&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+         "London Bridge is broken down,<BR>
+          Dance o'er my lady Lee!"'<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+'Well, I am quite certain those traction-engines will break it some
+time or other,' said Lady Delmar.  'I am always trying to get John to
+bring it before the magistrates, but he only laughs at me, and nothing
+will induce Robinson to go the other way, because they have just been
+mending the road on Lescombe Hill!  Annaple, my dear, I can't allow you
+another waltz; Mark must excuse you&mdash;I am going.  It is half-past two,
+and the carriage was ordered at two!  Robinson will be in a worse
+temper than ever if we keep him waiting.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She bore her sister off to the cloak-room, and there, nearly an hour
+later, the Egremonts found them still waiting the pleasure of the
+implacable Robinson; but what was that in consideration of having kept
+her sister from such a detrimental as poor Mark had become?  So
+muttered Mr. Egremont, in the satisfaction of having himself, with
+gentlemanly severity, intimated the insuperable gulf between Miss
+Egremont of Bridgefield and the Man of Umbrellas.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Moreover, his sister-in-law took care that he should hear that the
+Duchess of Redcastle had pronounced his wife sweetly pretty and
+lady-like, and talked of inviting them for a visit of a few nights.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'A bore,' observed he ungratefully, ''tis as dull as ditchwater.' But,
+in truth, though the Canon's family, when in residence, were intimate
+with the ducal family, Alwyn Egremont had never been at the castle
+since the days of his earliest youth, and he was not quite prepared to
+owe his toleration there to his wife's charms, or the Canoness's
+patronage of her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And innocent Alice only knew that everybody had been very kind to her,
+and it was only a pity that her husband did not like her to notice poor
+Gerard Godfrey.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap14"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XIV.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+GOING AGEE.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'Gin ye were a brig as auld as me.'&mdash;BURNS.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>>
+
+<P>
+'What's the matter?' exclaimed Mrs. Egremont, waking from a
+doze,&mdash;'that bridge?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Bridge!  Don't be such a fool!  We aren't near it yet.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The servant, his face looking blurred through the window, came to
+explain that the delay was caused by an agricultural engine, which had
+chosen this unlucky night, or morning, to travel from one farm to
+another.  There was a long delay, while the monster could be heard
+coughing frightfully before it could be backed with its spiky companion
+into a field so as to let the carriages pass by; and meantime Mr.
+Egremont was betrayed into uttering ejaculations which made poor Nuttie
+round her eyes in the dark as she sat by his feet on the back seat, and
+Alice try to bury her ears in her hood in the corner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On they went at last, for about a mile, and then came another sudden
+stop&mdash;another fierce growl from Mr. Egremont, another apparition of the
+servant at the window, saying, in his alert deferential manner, 'Sir,
+the bridge have broke under a carriage in front.  Lady Delmar's, sir.
+The horse is plunging terrible.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The door was torn open, and all three, regardless of ball costumes,
+precipitated themselves out.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The moon was up, and they saw the Rectory carriage safe on the road
+before them, but on the bridge beyond was a struggling mass, dimly
+illuminated by a single carriage lamp. Mr. Egremont and the groom
+hurried forward where Mark and the Rectory coachman were already
+rendering what help they could.  May standing at the horses' heads, and
+her mother trying to wrap everybody up, since stay in their carriages
+they could not.  Transferring the horses to Nuttie, the two sisters
+hurried on towards the scene of action, but Blanche's white satin boots
+did not carry her far, and she turned on meeting her uncle.  He spoke
+with a briskness and alacrity that made him like another man in this
+emergency, as he assured the anxious ladies that their friends were
+safe, but that they could not be extricated till the carriage was
+lifted from the hole into which it had sunk amid bricks, stones, and
+broken timbers.  He sent his own coachman to assist, as being the
+stronger man, and, mounting the box, turned and drove off in quest of
+further help, at a wayside cottage, or from the attendants on the
+engine, whose weight had probably done the mischief, and prepared the
+trap for the next comer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As May came near, her brother made her available by putting the lamp
+into her hand, bidding her hold it so as to light those who were
+endeavouring to release the horse, which had cleared the portion of the
+bridge before the break-down under the brougham, and now lay on the
+road, its struggles quelled by a servant at its head.  Nearly the whole
+of the hind wheels and most of the door had disappeared on one side,
+and, though more was visible on the other, it was impossible to open
+the door, as a mass of rubbish lay on it.  Annaple was on this side,
+and her voice was heard calling to May in fits of the laughter which is
+perhaps near akin to screams&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+         '"London bridge is broken down,<BR>
+           Dance o'er my lady Lee!"<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Janet will go in for second-sight ever after.  Yes, she's all right,
+except a scratch from the glass, and that I'm sitting on her more or
+less.  How are they getting on?'  'The horse is all but out.  Not hurt,
+they think.  Here's another man come to help&mdash;a gentleman&mdash;my dear, it
+is your partner, Nuttie's umbrella man.'  'Oh, making it
+complete&mdash;hopes, Janet&mdash;I'm sorry, but I can't help squashing you! I
+can't help subsiding on you!  What is it now?' as the lamp-light
+vanished.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'They are looking for something to make levers of,' returned May;
+'these wooden rails are too rotten.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Can't they get us through the window?' sighed a muffled voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not unless we could be elongated, like the Hope of the Katzekopfs.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'We shall manage now,' cried Mark; 'we have found some iron bars to the
+hatch down there.  But you must prepare for a shock or two before you
+can be set free.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The two gentlemen and three servants strove and struggled, hoisted and
+pushed, to the tune of suppressed sounds, half of sobs, half of
+laughter, till at last the carriage was heaved up sufficiently to be
+dragged backwards beyond the hole; but even then it would not stand,
+for the wheels on the undermost side were crushed, neither could either
+door be readily opened, one being smashed in, and the other jammed
+fast.  Annaple, however, still tried to keep up her own spirits and her
+sister's, observing that she now knew how to sympathise with Johnnie's
+tin soldiers in their box turned upside down.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Two sturdy labourers here made their appearance, having been roused in
+the cottage and brought back by Mr. Egremont, and at last one door was
+forced open by main force, and the ladies emerged, Annaple, helping her
+sister, beginning some droll thanks, but pausing as she perceived that
+Lady Delmar's dress was covered with blood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My dear Janet.  This is worse than I guessed.  Why did you not speak?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It is not much,' said the poor lady, rather faintly.  'My neck&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The elder ladies came about her, and seated her on cushions, where, by
+the light of May's lamp, Alice, who had been to an ambulance class at
+Micklethwayte, detected the extent of the cut, extracted a fragment of
+glass, and staunched the bleeding with handkerchiefs and strips of the
+girls' tulle skirts, but she advised her patient to be driven at once
+to a surgeon to secure that no morsel of glass remained.  Mr. Egremont,
+gratified to see his wife come to the front, undertook to drive her
+back to Redcastle.  Indeed, they must return thither to cross by the
+higher bridge.  'You will go with me,' entreated Lady Delmar, holding
+Alice's hand; and the one hastily consigning Nuttie to her aunt's care,
+the other giving injunctions not to alarm her mother to Annaple, who
+had declared her intention of walking home, the two ladies went off
+under Mr. Egremont's escort.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just then it was discovered that the Delmar coachman, Robinson, had all
+this time been lying insensible, not dead, for he moaned, but
+apparently with a broken leg, if nothing worse.  Indeed, the men had
+known it all along, but, until the ladies had been rescued, nothing had
+been possible but to put his cushion under his head and his rug over
+him.  The ladies were much shocked, and Mrs. William Egremont decided
+that he must be laid at the bottom of the waggonette, and that she
+would take him straight to the hospital.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They were only a mile and a half from Lescombe, and it was pronounced
+safe to cross on foot by the remains of the bridge, so that Annaple,
+who had a pair of fur boots, had already decided on going home on foot.
+The other girls wanted to accompany her, and, as May and Nuttie both
+had overshoes, they were permitted to do so, and desired to go to bed,
+and wait to be picked up by the waggonette, which must return to
+Bridgefield by the Lescombe road.  Blanche, having a delicate throat,
+was sentenced to go with her stepmother.  Mark undertook to ride the
+horse through the river, and escort the three girls, and Gerard Godfrey
+also joined them.  The place where he was staying lay a couple of miles
+beyond Lescombe, and when Mrs. Elmore's fly had been met and turned
+back by Mr. Egremont, he had jumped off to render assistance, and had
+done so effectively enough to win Mark's gratitude.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was by this time about half-past five, as was ascertained by the
+light of the waning moon, the carriage-lamp having burnt out.  It was a
+fine frosty morning, and the moon was still powerful enough to reveal
+the droll figures of the girls.  May had a fur cloak, with the hood
+tied over her head by Mrs. Egremont's lace shawl; Nuttie had a huge
+white cloud over her head, and a light blue opera cloak; Annaple had
+'rowed herself in a plaidie' like the Scotch girl she was, and her eyes
+flashed out merrily from its dark folds.  They all disdained the
+gentlemen's self-denying offers of their ulsters, and only Nuttie
+consented to have the carriage-rug added to her trappings, and
+ingeniously tied on cloak-fashion with her sash by Gerard.  He and Mark
+piloted the three ladies over the narrow border of the hole, which
+looked a very black open gulf.  Annaple had thanked the men, and bidden
+them come to Lescombe the next day to be paid for their assistance.
+Then they all stood to watch Mark ride through the river, at the
+shallowest place, indicated both by her and the labourers.  It was
+perfectly fordable, so Annaple's were mock heroics when she quoted&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+         'Never heavier man and horse<BR>
+          Stemmed a midnight torrent's force.'<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+And Nuttie responded in a few seconds&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+         'Yet through good heart and our Ladye's grace<BR>
+          Full soon he gained the landing place.'<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+They were both in high spirits, admiring each other's droll appearance,
+and speculating on the ghosts they might appear to any one who chanced
+to look out of window.  Annaple walked at the horse's head, calling him
+poor old Robin Hood, and caressing him, while Gerard and Nuttie kept
+together.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+May began to repent of her determination to walk; Lescombe seemed very
+far off, and she had an instinct that she was an awkward fifth wheel.
+Either because Robin Hood walked too fast for her weary limbs, or
+because she felt it a greater duty to chaperon Nuttie than Annaple, she
+fell back on the couple in the rear, and was rather surprised at the
+tenor of their conversation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This 'umbrella man' was telling of his vicar's delight in the beautiful
+chalice veil that had been sent by Mrs. Egremont, and Nuttie was
+communicating, as a secret she ought not to tell, that mother was
+working a set of stoles, and hoped to have the white ones ready by the
+dedication anniversary; also that there was a box being filled for the
+St. Ambrose Christmas tree.  They were trying to get something nice for
+each of the choir boys and of the old women; and therewith, to May's
+surprise, this youth, whom she regarded as a sort of shopman, fell into
+full narration of all the events of a highly-worked parish,&mdash;all about
+the choral festival, and the guilds, and the choir, and the temperance
+work.  A great deal of it was a strange language to May, but she
+half-disapproved of it, as entirely unlike the 'soberness' of
+Bridgefield ways, and like the Redcastle vicar, whom her father
+commonly called 'that madman.'  Still, she had a practical soul for
+parish work, and could appreciate the earnestness that manifested
+itself, and the exertions made for people of the classes whom she had
+always supposed too bad or else too well off to come under clerical
+supervision.  And her aunt and cousin and this young man all evidently
+had their hearts in it!  For Nuttie&mdash;though her new world had put the
+old one apparently aside&mdash;had plunged into all the old interests, and
+asked questions eagerly, and listened to their answers, as if
+Micklethwayte news was water to the thirsty. The two were too happy to
+meet, and, it must be confessed, had not quite manners enough, to feel
+it needful to include in their conversation the weary figure that
+plodded along at a little distance from them, hardly attending to the
+details of their chatter, yet deriving new notions from it of the
+former life of Ursula and her mother, matters which she had hitherto
+thought beneath her attention, except so far as to be thankful that
+they had emerged from it so presentable.  That it was a more actively
+religious, and perhaps a more intellectual one than her own, she had
+thought impossible, where everything must be second-rate.  And yet,
+when her attention had wandered from an account of Mr. Dutton's
+dealings with a refractory choir boy bent on going to the races, she
+found a discussion going on about some past lectures upon astronomy,
+and Nuttie vehemently regretting the not attending two courses promised
+for the coming winter upon electricity and on Italian art, and
+mournfully observing, 'We never go to anything sensible here.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+May at first thought, 'Impertinent little thing,' and felt affronted,
+but then owned to herself that it was all too true.  Otherwise there
+was hardly anything said about the contrast with Nuttie's present life;
+Gerard knew already that the church atmosphere was very different, and
+with the rector's daughter within earshot, he could not utter his
+commiseration, nor Nuttie her regrets.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Once there was a general start, and the whole five came together at the
+sight of a spectrally black apparition, with a huge tufted head on
+high, bearing down over a low hedge upon them.  Nobody screamed except
+Nuttie, but everybody started, though the next moment it was plain that
+they were only chimney-sweepers on their way.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Retribution for our desire to act ghosts!' said Annaple, when the
+sable forms had been warned of the broken bridge.  'Poor May, you are
+awfully tired!  Shouldn't you like a lift in their cart?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Or I could put you up on Robin Hood,' said Mark.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Thank you, I don't think I could stick on.  Is it much farther?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Only up the hill and across the park,' said Annaple, still cheerily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Take my arm, old woman,' said Mark, and then there was a pause, before
+Annaple said in an odd voice, 'You may tell her, Mark.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, Annaple!  Mark! is it so?' cried May joyously, but under her
+breath; and with a glance to see how near the other couple were.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes,' said Annaple between crying and laughing.  'Poor Janet, she'll
+think we have taken a frightfully mean advantage of her, but I am sure
+I never dreamt of such a thing; and the queer thing is, that Mark says
+she put it into his head!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, no,' said Mark; 'you know better than that&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Why, you told me you only found it out when she began to trample on
+the fallen&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I told you I had only understood my own heart.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And I said very much the same&mdash;she made me so angry you see.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I can't but admire your motives!' said May, exceedingly rejoiced all
+the time, and ready to have embraced them both, if it had not been for
+the spectators behind.  'In fact, it was opposition you both wanted.  I
+wonder how long you would have gone on not finding it out, if all had
+been smooth?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'The worst of it is,' said Annaple, 'that I'm afraid it is a very bad
+thing for Mark.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not a bit of it,' retorted he.  'It is the only thing that could have
+put life into my work, or made me care to find any!  And find it I will
+now!  Must we let the whole world in to know before I have found it,
+Annaple?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I could not but tell my mother,' said Annaple.  'It would come out in
+spite of me, even if I wished to keep it back.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh yes!  Lady Ronnisglen is a different thing,' said Mark.  'Just as
+May here is&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And she will say nothing, I know, till we are ready&mdash;my dear old
+minnie,' said Annaple.  'Only, Mark, do pray have something definite to
+hinder Janet with if there are any symptoms of hawking her commodity
+about.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I <I>will</I>,' said Mark.  'If we could only emigrate!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah, if we could!' said Annaple.  'Ronald is doing so well in New
+Zealand, but I don't think my mother could spare me.  She could not
+come out, and she must be with me, wherever I am.  You know&mdash;don't
+you&mdash;that I am seven years younger than Alick.  I was a regular
+surprise, and the old nurse at Ronnisglen said 'Depend upon it, my
+Leddy, she is given to be the comfort of your old age.'  And I have
+always made up my mind never to leave her.  I don't think she would get
+on with Janet or any of them without me, so you'll have to take her
+too, Mark.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'With all my heart,' he answered.  'And, indeed, I have promised my
+father not to emigrate.  I must, and will, find work at hand, and wake
+a home for you both!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But you will tell papa at once?' said May.  'It will hurt him if you
+do not.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You are right, May; I knew it when Annaple spoke of her mother, but
+there is no need that it should go further.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The intelligence had lightened the way a good deal, and they were at
+the lodge gates by this time.  Gerard began rather ruefully to take
+leave; but Annaple, in large-hearted happiness and gratitude, begged
+him to come and rest at the house, and wait for daylight, and this he
+was only too glad to do, especially as May's secession had made the
+conversation a little more personal.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie was in a certain way realising for the first time what her
+mother's loyalty had checked her in expressing, even if the tumult of
+novelties had given her full time to dwell on it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Everybody outside is kind,' she said to Gerard; 'they are nice in a
+way, and good, but oh! they are centuries behind in church matters and
+feeling, just like the old rector.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I gathered that; I am very sorry for you.  Is there no one fit to be a
+guide?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I don't know,' said Nuttie.  'I didn't think&mdash;I must, somehow, before
+Lent.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'There is Advent close at hand,' he said gravely.  'If you could only
+be at our mission services, we hope to get Father Smith!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, if only I could!  But mother never likes to talk about those kind
+of things.  She says our duty is to my father.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not the foremost.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, she would not say that.  But oh, Gerard! if he should be making
+her worldly!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It must be your work to hinder it,' he said, looking at her
+affectionately.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, Gerard! but I'm afraid I'm getting so myself.  I have thought a
+great deal about lawn-tennis, and dress, and this ball,' said Nuttie.
+'Somehow it has never quite felt real, but as if I were out on a visit.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You are in it, but not of it,' said Gerard admiringly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, I'm not so good as that!  I like it all&mdash;almost all.  I thought I
+liked it better till you came and brought a real true breath of
+Micklethwayte.  Oh! if I could only see Monsieur's dear curly head and
+bright eyes!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This had been the tenor of the talk, and these were the actual last
+words before the whole five&mdash;just in the first streaks of
+dawn&mdash;coalesced before the front door, to be admitted by a sleepy
+servant; Mark tied up the horse for a moment, while Annaple sent the
+man to waken Sir John Delmar, and say there had been a slight accident,
+but no one was much hurt; and, as they all entered the warm,
+dimly-lighted hall, they were keenly sensible that they had been
+dancing or walking all night.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Rest in the chairs which stood round the big hearth and smouldering
+wood-fire was so extremely comfortable, as they all dropped down, that
+nobody moved or spoke, or knew how long it was before there was a voice
+on the stairs&mdash;'Eh? what's this, Annaple?  An accident? Where's Janet?'
+and a tall burly figure, candle in hand, in a dressing-gown and
+slippers, was added to the group.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Janet will be at home presently, I hope,' said Annaple, 'but she got a
+cut with some broken glass, and we sent her round by Dr. Raymond's to
+get it set to rights.  Oh, John! we came to grief on Bluepost Bridge
+after all, and I'm afraid Robinson has got his leg broken!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir John was a good-natured heavy man, whose clever wife thought for
+him in all that did not regard horses, dogs, and game.  He looked
+perfectly astounded, and required to have all told him over again
+before he could fully take it in.  Then he uttered a suppressed
+malediction on engines, insisted that all his impromptu guests should
+immediately eat, drink, and sleep, and declared his intention of going
+off at once to Redcastle to see about his wife.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The two gentlemen were committed to the charge of the butler, and
+Annaple took Nuttie and May to her sister's dressing-room, where she
+knew she should find fire and tea, and though they protested that it
+was not worth while, she made them undress and lie down in a room
+prepared for them in the meantime.  It was a state chamber, with a big
+bed, far away from the entrance, shuttered and curtained up, and with
+double doors, excluding all noise.  The two cousins lay down, Nuttie
+dead asleep almost before her head touched the pillow, while May was
+aching all over, declaring herself far too much tired and excited to
+sleep; and, besides that it was not worth while, for she should be
+called for in a very short time.  And she remained conscious of a great
+dread of being roused, so that when she heard her cousin moving about
+the room, she insisted that they had scarcely lain down, whereupon
+Nuttie laughed, declared that she had heard a great clock strike twelve
+before she moved, and showed daylight coming in through the shutters.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'We can't lie here any longer, I suppose,' said May, sitting up
+wearily; 'and yet what can we put on?  It makes one shiver to think of
+going down to luncheon in a ball dress!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Besides, mine is all torn to pieces to make bandages,' said Nuttie. 'I
+must put on the underskirt and my cloak again.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Or Annaple might lend us something.  I must get out somehow to know
+how poor Lady Delmar is, and what has become of everybody.  Ring,
+Ursula, please, and lie down till somebody comes.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The bell was answered by a maid, who told them that my lady had been
+brought home by Mr. and Mrs. Egremont about an hour after their
+arrival.  She was as well as could be expected, and there was no cause
+for anxiety.  Mr. and Mrs. Egremont had then gone on to Bridgefield,
+leaving word that Mrs. William Egremont and Miss Blanche were sleeping
+at Redcastle, having sent home for their own dresses and the young
+ladies', and would call for the rest of their party on the way.
+Indeed, a box for the Miss Egremonts had been deposited by the Canon
+from the pony-carriage an hour ago, and was already in the
+dressing-room; but Miss Ruthven would not have them disturbed.  Miss
+Ruthven,&mdash;oh yes, she was up, she had not been in bed at all.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap15"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XV.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+A CASTLE OF UMBRELLAS.
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+No, Annaple Ruthven could not have slept, even if she had had time. Her
+first care had been to receive her sister, who had been met at the
+entrance of Redcastle by her husband.  There had been profuse offers of
+hospitality to Mr. and Mrs. Egremont, the latter of whom looked tired
+out, and offers of sending messengers to Bridgefield; but Mr. Egremont
+would not hear of them, and every one suspected that he would not incur
+the chance of rising without Gregorio and all his appliances.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+By the time they were disposed of, and Lady Delmar safe in bed, it was
+time to repair to her mother's room, so as to prevent her from being
+alarmed.  Lady Ronnisglen was English born.  She was not by any means
+the typical dowager.  Her invalid condition was chiefly owing to an
+accident, which had rendered her almost incapable of walking, and she
+was also extremely susceptible of cold, and therefore hardly ever went
+out; but there was so much youth and life about her at sixty-three that
+she and Annaple often seemed like companion sisters, and her shrewd,
+keen, managing eldest-born like their mother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Annaple lay down beside her on her bed in the morning twilight, and
+gave her the history of the accident in playful terms indeed. Annaple
+could never help that, but there was something in her voice that made
+Lady Ronnisglen say, when satisfied about Janet's hurt, 'You've more to
+say, Nannie dear.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, minnie mine, I walked home with Mark Egremont.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And&mdash;?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, minnie.  He is going to work and make a home&mdash;a real, true,
+homely home for you and me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My child, my child, you have not hung the old woman about the poor
+boy's neck!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'As if I would have had him if he did not love her, and make a mother
+of her!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But what is he going to do, Nan?  This is a very different thing
+from&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Very different from Janet's notions!' and they both laughed, the
+mother adding to the mirth by saying&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Poor Janet, congratulating herself that no harm had been done, and
+that you had never taken to one another!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Did she really now?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh yes, only yesterday, and I bade her not crow too soon, for I
+thought I saw symptoms&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You dear darling minnie!  Think of that!  Before we either of us knew
+it, and when he is worth ever so much than he was before!  Not but that
+I am enraged when people say he has acted nobly, just as if there had
+been anything else for him to do!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I own that I am glad he has proved himself.  I was afraid he would be
+dragged in the way of his uncle.  Don't be furious, Nannie.  Not at all
+into evil, but into loitering; and I should like to know what are his
+prospects now.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well, mother, I don't think he has any.  But he means to have.  And
+not a word is to be said to anybody except you and his father and May
+till he has looked over the top of the wall, and seen his way.  We need
+not bring Janet down on us till then.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I must see him, my dear.  Let me see him before he goes away.  He
+always has been a very dear lad, a thoroughly excellent right-minded
+fellow.  Only I must know what he means to do, and whether there is any
+reasonable chance of employment or fixed purpose.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lady Ronnisglen's maid here arrived with her matutinal cup of tea; and
+Annaple, beginning to perceive that she was very stiff, went off in
+hopes that her morning toilette would deceive her hardworked little
+frame into believing it had had a proper night's rest.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was quite ready to appear at the breakfast table, though her eldest
+niece, a long-haired, long-limbed girl, considerably the bigger of the
+two, was only too happy to preside over the cups.  All the four young
+people were in the greatest state of excitement, welcoming, as the
+heroes of the night, Mark and Mr. Godfrey, and clamouring to be allowed
+to walk down after breakfast with their father and the gentlemen to see
+the scene of the catastrophe and the remains of the carriage and the
+bridge.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir John made a courteous reference to the governess, but there was a
+general sense that the cat was away, and presently there was a rush
+upstairs to prepare for the walk.  Annaple had time in the course of
+all the bustle, while the colour came back to her cheeks for a moment,
+to tell Mark that her mother had been all that was good, and wanted to
+see him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He must manage to stay till after eleven o'clock; she could not be
+ready before.  Then he might come to her sitting-room, which, as well
+as her bedroom, was on the ground floor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mark had to work off his anxiety by an inspection of the scene of the
+disaster and a circumstantial explanation of the details to the young
+Delmars, who crowded round him and Mr. Godfrey, half awed, half
+delighted, and indeed the youngest&mdash;a considerable tomboy&mdash;had nearly
+given the latter the opportunity of becoming a double hero by tumbling
+through the broken rail, but he caught her in time, and she only
+incurred from Sir John such a scolding as a great fright will produce
+from the easiest of fathers.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Afterwards Mark put Gerard on the way to his brother-in-law's living,
+asking him on the road so many questions about the umbrella business
+that the youth was not quite sure how to take it, and doubted whether
+the young swell supposed that he could talk of nothing else; but his
+petulance was mitigated when he was asked, 'Supposing a person wished
+to enter the business, to whom should he apply?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Do you know any one who wishes for anything of the kind?' he asked.
+'Are you making inquiries for any one?' and on a hesitating
+affirmation, 'Because I know there is an opening for a man with capital
+just at present.  Dutton won't advertise&mdash;'tis so risky; and he wants
+some knowledge of a person's antecedents, and whether he is likely to
+go into it in a liberal, gentlemanly spirit, with good principles, you
+see, such as would not upset all we are doing for the hands.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What amount of capital do you mean?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, from five hundred to a thousand!  Or more would not come amiss. If
+I only had it!  What it would be to conduct an affair like that on true
+principles!  But luck is against me every way.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mark was at the sitting-room door as the four quarters began to strike
+in preparation for eleven, but Lady Ronnisglen had been in her chair
+for nearly half-an-hour, having been rapid and nervous enough to hurry
+even the imperturbable maid, whom Annaple thought incapable of being
+hastened.  She was a little slight woman, with delicate features and
+pale complexion, such as time deals with gently, and her once yellow
+hair now softened with silver was turned back in bands beneath the
+simple net cap that suited her so well.  There was a soft yet sparkling
+look about her as she held out her hands and exclaimed, 'Ah, Master
+Mark, what mischief have you been doing?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mark came and knelt on one knee beside her and said: 'Will you let me
+work for you both, Lady Ronnisglen?  I will do my best to find some.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah! that is the point, my dear boy.  I should have asked and wished
+for definite work, if you had come to me before that discovery of
+yours; and now it is a mere matter of necessity.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes,' said Mark; then, with some hesitation, he added: 'Lady
+Ronnisglen, do you care whether I take to what people call a
+gentleman's profession?  I could, of course, go on till I am called to
+the bar, and then wait for something to turn up; but that would be
+waiting indeed!  Then in other directions I've taken things easy, you
+see, till I'm too old for examinations.  I failed in the only one that
+was still open to me.  Lord Kirkaldy tried me for foreign office work,
+and was appalled at my blunders.  I'm not fit for a parson.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I should have thought you were.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not I,' said Mark.  'I'm not up to the mark there.  I couldn't say
+honestly that I was called to it.  I wish I could, for it would be the
+easiest way out of it; but I looked at the service, and I can't.
+There&mdash;that's a nice confession to come to you with!  I can't think how
+I can have been so impudent.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mark, you are a dear good lad.  I respect and honour you ever so much
+more than before all this showed what stuff was in you!  But the
+question is, What's to be done?  My child is verily the "penniless lass
+with a high pedigree," for she has not a poor thousand to call her own.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And I have no right to anything in my father's lifetime, though I have
+no doubt he would give me up my share of my mother's portion&mdash;about
+£3000.  Now this is what has occurred to me: In the place where I found
+my uncle's wife&mdash;Micklethwayte, close to Monks Horton&mdash;there's a great
+umbrella factory, with agencies everywhere.  There are superior people
+belonging to it.  I've seen some of them, and I've been talking to the
+young fellow who helped us last night, who is in the office.  I find
+that to go into the thing with such capital as I might hope for, would
+bring in a much larger and speedier return than I could hope for any
+other way, if only my belongings would set aside their feelings.  And
+you see there are the Kirkaldys close by to secure her good society.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lady Ronnisglen put out her transparent-looking, black-mittened hand,
+and gave a little dainty pat to his arm.  'I like to see a man in
+earnest,' said she.  Her little Skye terrier was seized with jealousy
+at her gesture, and came nuzzling in between with his black nose. 'Mull
+objects!' she said, smiling; but then, with a graver look, 'And so will
+your father.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'At first,' said Mark; 'but I think he will give way when he has had
+time to look at the matter, and sees how good you are.  That will make
+all the difference.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So Annaple, who had been banished for a little while, was allowed to
+return, and mother, daughter, and lover built themselves a little
+castle of umbrellas, and bestowed a little arch commiseration on poor
+Lady Delmar; who, it was agreed, need know nothing until something
+definite was arranged, since Annaple was clearly accountable to no one
+except her mother.  She would certainly think the latter part of her
+dream only too well realised, and consider that an unfair advantage had
+been taken of her seclusion in her own room.  In spite of all loyal
+efforts to the contrary, Mark, if he had been in a frame of mind to
+draw conclusions, would have perceived that the prospect of escaping
+from the beneficent rule of Lescombe was by no means unpleasant to Lady
+Ronnisglen.  The books that lay within her reach would hardly have
+found a welcome anywhere else in the house.  Sir John was not
+brilliant, and his wife had turned her native wits to the practical
+rather than the intellectual line, and had quite enough to think of in
+keeping up the dignities of Lescombe with a large family amid
+agricultural difficulties.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Annaple remembered at last that she ought to go and look after her
+guests, assisted therein by the pleasure of giving May a hearty kiss
+and light squeeze, with a murmur that 'all was right.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She brought them downstairs just as the gong was sounding, and the rush
+of girls descending from the schoolroom, and Lady Ronnisglen being
+wheeled across the hall in her chair.  Nuttie, who had expected to see
+a gray, passive, silent old lady like Mrs. Nugent, was quite amazed at
+the bright, lively face and voice that greeted the son-in-law and
+grandchildren, May and herself, congratulating these two on having been
+so well employed all the morning, and observing that she was afraid her
+Nannie could not give so good an account of herself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well,' said Sir John, 'I am sure she looks as if she found plodding
+along the lanes as wholesome as sleeping in her bed!  Nan Apple-cheeks,
+eh?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Whereupon Annaple's cheeks glowed all the more into resemblance of the
+baby-name which she had long ceased to deserve; but May could see the
+darkness under her eyes, betraying that it was only excitement that
+drove away fatigue.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir John had not gone far in his circumstantial description of the
+injuries to his unfortunate carriage when the Canon arrived, with his
+wife and Blanche.  Mark would have given worlds in his impatience to
+have matters settled between the two parents then and there; but Lady
+Ronnisglen had already warned him that this would not be possible, and
+assured him that it would be much wiser to prepare his father
+beforehand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then he fixed his hopes on a solitary drive with his father back in the
+pony carriage, but he found himself told off to take that home, and had
+to content himself with May as a companion.  Nor was his sister's mode
+of receiving the umbrella plan reassuring.  She had smiled too often
+with her stepmother over Nuttie's having been brought up among
+umbrellas to be ready to accept the same lot for her brother and her
+friend, and she was quite sure that her father would never consent.
+'An Egremont an umbrella-maker! how horrible!  Just fancy seeing
+Dutton, Egremont and Co. on the handle of one's umbrella!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well, you need not patronise us,' said Mark.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But is it possible that Lady Ronnisglen did not object?' said May.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'She seemed to think it preferable to driving pigs in the Texas, like
+her son Malcolm.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, but then that <I>was</I> the Texas.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh May, May, I did not think you were such a goose!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I should have thought the folly was in not being patient.  Stick to
+your profession, and something must come in time.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ay, and how many men do you think are sticking to it in that hope? No,
+May, 'tis not real patience to wear out the best years of my life and
+hers in idleness, waiting for something not beneath an Egremont to do!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But is there nothing to do better than that?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Find it for me, May.'
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap16"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XVI.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+INFRA DIG.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'Till every penny which she told,<BR>
+  Creative Fancy turned to gold.'&mdash;B. LLOYD.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+The Blueposts Bridge had produced a good deal of effect.  Ursula
+Egremont in special seemed to herself to have been awakened from a
+strange dream, and to have resumed her real nature and affections. She
+felt as if she would give all her partners at the ball for one shake of
+Monsieur's fringed paws; her heart yearned after Aunt Ursel and Miss
+Mary; she longed after the chants of the choir; and when she thought of
+the effort poor Gerard Godfrey had made to see her, she felt him a
+hero, and herself a recreant heroine, who had well-nigh been betrayed
+into frivolity and desertion of him, and she registered secret
+resolutions of constancy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She burned to pour out to her mother all the Micklethwayte tidings, and
+all her longings to be there; but when the Rectory party set her down
+at the door, the footman, with a look of grave importance, announced
+that Mr. Egremont was very unwell.  'Mr. Gregory thinks he has taken a
+chill from the effect of exposure, sir, and Dr. Hamilton has been sent
+for.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Canon and his wife both got out on this intelligence, and Mrs.
+Egremont was summoned to see them.  She came, looking more frightened
+than they thought the occasion demanded, for she was appalled by the
+severe pain in the head and eyes; but they comforted her by assuring
+her that her husband had suffered in the same manner in the spring, and
+she saw how well he had recovered; and then telling Nuttie to bring
+word what the doctor's report was, and then spend the evening at the
+Rectory, they departed, while poor Nuttie only had one kiss, one
+inquiry whether she were rested, before her mother fled back to the
+patient.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nor did she see her again till after the doctor's visit, and then it
+was only to desire her to tell her uncle that the attack was pronounced
+to be a return of the illness of last spring, and that it would be
+expedient to go abroad for the winter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Go abroad!  It had always been a vision of delight to Nuttie, and she
+could not be greatly concerned at the occasion of it; but she did not
+find the Rectory in a condition to converse and sympathise.  Blanche
+was lying down with a bad headache.  The Edwardses and a whole party of
+semi-genteel parish visitors had come in to inquire about the accident,
+and had to be entertained with afternoon tea; and May, though helping
+her stepmother to do her devoir towards them, seemed more preoccupied
+than ever.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As indeed she was, for she knew that Mark was putting his fate to the
+touch with his father in the study.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Canon heard the proposal with utter consternation and dismay at the
+perverseness of the two young people, who might have been engaged any
+time these two years with the full approbation of their families, and
+now chose the very moment when every one was rejoicing at their freedom.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'When a young man has got into a pickle,' he said, 'the first thing is
+to want to be married!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Exactly so, sir, to give him a motive for getting out of the pickle.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Umbrellas!  I should like to hear what your grandfather would have
+said!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'These are not my grandfather's days, sir.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No indeed!  There was nothing to do but to give a hint to old Lord de
+Lyonnais, and he could get you put into any berth you chose. Interest
+was interest in those days!  I don't see why Kirkaldy can't do the
+same.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not unless I had foreign languages at my tongue's end.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Whereat the Canon groaned, and Mark had to work again through all the
+difficulties in the way of the more liberal professions; and the upshot
+was that his father agreed to drive over to Lescombe the next day and
+see Lady Ronnisglen.  He certainly had always implicitly trusted his
+son's veracity, but he evidently thought that there must have been much
+warping of the imagination to make the young man believe the old
+Scottish peeress to have consented to her daughter's marrying into an
+umbrella factory.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie was surprised and gratified that both Mark and May put her
+through an examination on the habits of Micklethwayte and the position
+of Mr. Godfrey, which she thought was entirely due to the favourable
+impression Gerard had produced, and she felt proportionably proud of
+him when Mark pronounced him a very nice gentlemanly young fellow.  She
+could not think why her uncle, with more testiness than she had ever
+seen in that good-natured dignitary, ordered May not to stand
+chattering there, but to give them some music.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Canon drove to Lescombe the next day under pretext of inquiring
+after Lady Delmar, and then almost forgot to do so, after he had
+ascertained that she was a prisoner to her dressing-room, and that Sir
+John was out shooting.  The result of his interview filled him with
+astonishment.  Lady Ronnisglen having had a large proportion of sons to
+put out in life on very small means had learnt not to be fastidious,
+and held that the gentleman might ennoble the vocation instead of the
+vocation debasing the gentleman.  Moreover, in her secret soul she felt
+that her daughter Janet's manoeuvres were far more truly degrading than
+any form of honest labour; and it was very sore to her to have no power
+of preventing them, ridicule, protest, or discouragement being all
+alike treated as the dear mother's old-world unpractical romance.  It
+galled her likewise that she could perceive the determination that
+Annaple Ruthven should be disposed of before Muriel Delmar came on the
+scene; and the retiring to ever so small a home of their own had been
+discussed between mother and daughter, and only put aside because of
+the pain it would give their honest-hearted host and their hostess, who
+really loved them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Thus she did her best to persuade her old friend that there were few
+openings for a man of his son's age, and that if the Micklethwayte
+business were all that Mark imagined, it was not beneath the attention
+even of a well-born gentleman in these modern days, and would involve
+less delay than any other plan, except emigration, which was equally
+dreaded by each parent.  Delay there must be, not only in order to
+ascertain the facts respecting the firm, but to prove whether Mark had
+any aptitude for the business before involving any capital in it.
+However, every other alternative would involve much longer and more
+doubtful waiting.  And altogether the Canon felt that if a person of
+Lady Ronnisglen's rank did not object, he had scarcely a right to do
+so.  However, both alike reserved consent until full inquiry should
+have been made.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Canon wrote to Lord Kirkaldy, and in the meantime wanted to gather
+what information he could from his sister-in-law; but he found her
+absolutely engrossed as her husband's nurse, and scarcely permitted to
+snatch a meal outside the darkened room.  He groaned and grumbled at
+his brother's selfishness, and declared that her health would be
+damaged, while his shrewder lady declared that nothing would be so good
+for her as to let Alwyn find her indispensable to his comfort, even
+beyond Gregorio.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This absorption of her mother fell hard on Ursula, especially when the
+first two days' alarm was over, and her mother was still kept an entire
+prisoner, as companion rather than nurse.  As before, the rheumatic
+attack fastened upon the head and eyes, causing lengthened suffering,
+and teaching Mr. Egremont that he had never had so gentle, so skilful,
+so loving, or altogether so pleasant a slave as his wife, the only
+person except Gregorio whom, in his irritable state, he would tolerate
+about him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His brother could not be entirely kept out, but was never made welcome,
+more especially when he took upon himself to remonstrate on Alice's
+being deprived of air, exercise, and rest.  He got no thanks; Mr.
+Egremont snarled, and Alice protested that she was never tired, and
+needed nothing.  The Rectory party were, excepting the schoolroom
+girls, engaged to make visits from home before going into residence at
+Redcastle, and were to begin with Monks Horton.  They offered to escort
+Ursula to see her great aunt at Micklethwayte&mdash;Oh joy of joys!&mdash;but
+when the Canon made the proposition in his brother's room, Mr. Egremont
+cut it short with 'I'm not going to have her running after those
+umbrella-mongers.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Canon's heart sank within him at the tone, and he was really very
+sorry for his niece, who was likely to have a fortnight or three weeks
+of comparative solitude before her father was ready to set out on the
+journey.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Can't she help you, in reading to her father&mdash;or anything?' he asked
+Alice, who had come out with him into the anteroom to express her warm
+thanks for the kind proposal.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She shook her head.  'He would not like it, nor I, for her.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I should think not!' exclaimed the Canon, as his eye fell on the title
+of a yellow French book on the table.  'I have heard of this! Does he
+make you read such as this to him, Alice?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nothing else seems to amuse him,' she said.  'Do you, think I ought
+not?  I don't understand much of that kind of modern French, but Nuttie
+knows it better.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not <I>that kind</I>, I hope,' said the Canon hastily.  No, no, my dear,'
+as he saw her colour mantling, 'small blame to you.  You have only to
+do the best you can with him, poor fellow!  Then we'll take anything
+for you.  We've said nothing to Nuttie, Jane said I had better ask you
+first.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, that was kind!  I am glad she is spared the disappointment.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Not that she was.  For when she learnt her cousins' destination, she
+entreated to go with them, and had to be told that the proposal had
+been made and refused.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There is no denying that she behaved very ill.  It was the first real
+sharp collision of wills.  She had differed from, and disapproved of,
+her father all along, but what had been required of her had generally
+been pleasant to one side at least of her nature; but here she was
+condemned to the dulness of the lonely outsider to a sick room, when
+her whole soul was leaping back to the delights of her dear old home at
+Micklethwayte.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She made her mother's brief meal with her such a misery of protests and
+insistences on pleadings with her father that poor Alice was fain to
+rejoice when the servants' presence silenced her, and fairly fled from
+her when the last dish was carried out.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When they met again Nuttie demanded, 'Have you spoken to my father?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I told you, my dear, it would be of no use?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You promised.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, Nuttie, I did not.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I'm sure I understood you to say you would if you could.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It was your hopes, my dear child.  He is quite determined.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And you leave him so.  Mother, I can't understand your submitting to
+show such cruel ingratitude!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie was very angry, though she was shocked at the burning colour and
+hot tears that she beheld as, half choked, her mother said: 'Oh, my
+dear, my dear, do not speak so!  You know&mdash;you know it is not in my
+heart, but my first duty, and yours too, is to your father.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Whatever he tells us?' demanded Nuttie, still hot and angry.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I did not say that,' returned her mother gently, 'but you know,
+Nuttie, Aunt Ursel herself would say that it is our duty to abide by
+his decision here.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But you could speak to him,' still argued Nuttie, 'what's the use of
+his being so fond of you if he won't do anything you want?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Hush! hush, Nuttie! you know that is not a right way of speaking.  I
+cannot worry him now he is ill.  You don't know what that dreadful pain
+is!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Happily Nuttie did refrain from saying, 'No doubt it makes him very
+cross;' but she muttered, 'And so we are to be cut off for ever from
+Aunt Ursel, and Miss Mary, and&mdash;and&mdash;every thing good&mdash;and nice&mdash;and
+catholic?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I hope not, indeed, I hope not.  Only he wants us to get the good
+society manners and tone&mdash;like your cousins, you know.  You are young
+enough for it, and a real Egremont, you know Nuttie, and when you have
+learnt it, he will trust you there,' said the mother, making a very
+mild version of his speech about the umbrella-mongers.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, he wants to make me worldly, so that I should not care, but that
+he never shall do, whatever you may let him do to you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His bell rang sharply, and away hurried Alice, leaving her daughter
+with a miserably sore and impatient heart, and the consciousness of
+having harshly wounded the mother whom she had meant to protect.  And
+there was no hugging and kissing to make up for it possible.  They
+would not meet till dinner-time, and Nuttie's mood of stormy repentance
+had cooled before that time into longing to be more tender than usual
+towards her mother, but how was that possible during the awful
+household ceremony of many courses, with three solemn men-servants
+ministering to them?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And poor Alice jumped up at the end, and ran away as if afraid of fresh
+objurgations, so that all Nuttie could do was to rush headlong after
+her, catch her on the landing, kiss her face all over, and exclaim,
+'Oh, mother, mother, I was dreadfully cross!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'There, there!  I knew you would be sorry, dear, dear child, I know it
+is very hard, but let me go.  He wants me!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And a very forlorn and deplorable person was left behind, feeling as if
+her father, after carrying her away from everything else that she
+loved, had ended by robbing her of her mother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She stood on the handsome staircase, and contrasted it with the little
+cosy entrance at her aunt's.  She felt how she hated all these fine
+surroundings, and how very good and unworldly she was for so doing.
+Only, was it good to have been so violent towards her mother?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Rectory folks were dining out, so she could only have recourse to
+Mudie's box to try to drive dull care away.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A few days more and they were gone.  Though Mr. Egremont was gradually
+mending, he still required his wife to be in constant attendance.  In
+point of fact Alice could not, and in her loyalty would not, tell her
+dignified brother-in-law, far less her daughter, of the hint that the
+doctor had given her, namely, that her husband was lapsing into the
+constant use of opiates, founded at first on the needs of his malady,
+but growing into a perilous habit, which accounted for his shutting
+himself up all the forenoon.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+While under medical treatment it was possible to allowance him, and
+keep him under orders, but Dr. Hamilton warned her not to allow the
+quantity to be exceeded or the drugs to be resorted to after his
+recovery, speaking seriously of the consequences of indulgence.  He
+spoke as a duty, but as he looked at the gentle, timid woman, he saw
+little hope of her doing any good!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Poor Alice was appalled.  All she could do was to betake herself to
+'the little weapon called All-Prayer,' and therewith to use all
+vigilance and all her arts of coaxing and cheering away weariness and
+languor, beguiling sleeplessness, soothing pain by any other means. She
+had just enough success to prevent her from utterly despairing, and to
+keep her always on the strain, and at her own cost, for Mr. Egremont
+was far more irritable when he was without the narcotic, and the
+serenity it produced was an absolute relief.  She soon found too that
+Gregorio was a contrary power.  Once, when he had suggested the dose,
+and she had replied by citing the physician's commands, Mr. Egremont
+had muttered an imprecation on doctors, and she had caught a horrible
+grin of hatred on the man's face, which seemed to her almost
+diabolical.  She had prevailed then, but the next time her absence was
+at all prolonged, she found that the opiate had been taken, and her
+dread of quitting her post increased, though she did not by any means
+always succeed.  Sometimes she was good-humouredly set aside, sometimes
+roughly told to mind her own business; but she could not relinquish the
+struggle, and whenever she did succeed in preventing the indulgence she
+felt a hopefulness that&mdash;in spite of himself and Gregorio, she might
+yet save him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Another hint she had from both the Canon and his wife.  When they asked
+what place was chosen, Mr. Egremont said he had made Alice write to
+inquire of the houses to be had at various resorts&mdash;Mentone, Nice,
+Cannes, and the like.  She was struck by the ardour with which they
+both began to praise Nice, Genoa, Sorrento, any place in preference to
+Mentone, which her husband seemed to know and like the best.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And when she went downstairs with them the Canon held her hand a
+moment, and said, 'Anywhere but Mentone, my dear.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She looked bewildered for a moment, and the Canoness added, 'Look in
+the guide-books.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then she remembered Monte Carlo, and for a moment it was to her as
+shocking a warning as if she had been bidden to keep her husband out of
+the temptation of thieving.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She resolved, however, to do her best, feeling immediately that again
+it was a pull of her influence against Gregorio's.  Fortune favoured
+her so far that the villa favoured by Mr. Egremont was not to be had,
+only the side of the bay he disliked, and that a pleasant villa offered
+at Nice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Should she close with it?  Well&mdash;was there great haste?  Gregorio knew
+a good many people at Mentone, and could ascertain in his own way if
+they could get the right side of the bay by going to the hotel and
+waiting.  Alice, however, pressed the matter&mdash;represented the danger of
+falling between two stools, pleaded personal preference, and whereas
+Mr. Egremont was too lazy for resistance to any persuasion, she
+obtained permission to engage the Nice villa.  The next day Gregorio
+announced that he had heard that the proprietor of Villa Francaleone at
+Mentone was giving up hopes of his usual tenants, and an offer might
+secure it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Villa Eugenie at Nice is taken,' said Alice, and she received one of
+those deadly black looks, which were always like a stab.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Of all this Nuttie knew nothing.  She was a good deal thrown with the
+schoolroom party and with the curate's wife for companionship.  Now
+Mrs. Edwards did not approve of even the canonical Egremonts, having an
+ideal far beyond the ritual of Bridgefield; and she was delighted to
+find how entirely Miss Egremont sympathised with her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie described St. Ambrose's as a paradise of church observances and
+parish management, everything becoming embellished and all shortcomings
+forgotten in the loving mists of distance.  The harmonium was never out
+of tune; the choir-boys were only just naughty enough to show how
+wisely Mr. Spyers dealt with them; the surplices, one would think,
+never needed washing; Mr. Dutton and Gerard Godfrey were paragons of
+lay helpers, and district visitors never were troublesome.  Mrs.
+Edwards listened with open ears, and together they bewailed the
+impracticability of moving the Canon to raising Bridgefield to anything
+approaching to such a standard; while Nuttie absolutely cultivated her
+home sickness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+According to promise Blanche wrote to her from Monks Horton, and told
+her thus much&mdash;'We have been all over your umbrella place.  It was very
+curious.  Then we called upon Miss Headworth, who was quite well, and
+was pleased to hear of you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Blanche was famous for never putting into a letter what her
+correspondent wanted to hear, but her stepmother wrote a much longer
+and more interesting letter to Mrs. Egremont.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You will be glad to hear that we found your aunt quite well.  I
+suppose it is not in the nature of things that you should not be
+missed; but I should think your place as well supplied as could be
+hoped by that very handsome and superior Miss Nugent, with whom she
+lives.  I had a good deal of conversation with both; for you will be
+surprised to hear that the Canon has consented to Mark's making the
+experiment of working for a year in Greenleaf and Dutton's office, with
+a view to entering the firm in future.  I was very anxious to
+understand from such true ladies what the position would be socially. I
+longed to talk it over with you beforehand; but Alwyn could never spare
+you, and it was not a subject to be broached without ample time for
+discussion.  We felt that though the Kirkaldys could tell us much, it
+was only from the outside, whereas Miss Headworth could speak from
+within.  The decision is of course a blow to his father, and will be
+still more so to the De Lyonnais family, but they have never done
+anything to entitle them to have a voice in the matter, and the
+Kirkaldys agree with us that, though not a path of distinction, it is
+one of honourable prosperity; and with this, if Mark is content, we
+have no right to object, since his mind is set on present happiness
+rather than ambition.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was a letter gratifying to Alice in its confidential tone, as well
+as in the evident approval of those surroundings which she loved so
+well.  She read it to her husband, as she was desired to give him a
+message that the Canon had not written out of consideration for his
+eyes.  He laughed the laugh that always jarred on her.  'So Master Mark
+has got his nose to the grindstone, has he?' was his first exclamation,
+and, after some cogitation, 'The fellow wants to be married, depend on
+it!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Do you think so?' returned Alice wistfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Think!  Why, you may see it in Jane's letter!  I wonder who it is! The
+little yellow Ruthven girl, most likely!  The boy is fool enough for
+anything!  I thought he would have mended his fortunes with Ursula, but
+he's too proud to stomach that, I suppose!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I did wish that!' said Alice.  'It would have set everything straight,
+and it would have been so nice for her.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You should have cut out your daughter after your own pattern,' he
+answered; 'not let her be such a raw insignificant little spitfire.
+'Tis a pity.  I don't want the estate to go out of the name, though I
+won't leave it to an interfering prig like Mark unless he chooses to
+take my daughter with it!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The latter part of this amiable speech was muttered and scarcely heard
+or attended to by Alice in her struggle to conceal the grief she felt
+at the uncompromising opinion of her child.  Nuttie might outgrow being
+raw, but there seemed less rather than more prospect of a better
+understanding with her father.  About a week later Mark made his
+appearance, timing it happily when his uncle was making his toilette,
+so that his aunt was taking a turn on the sunny terrace with Nuttie
+when the young man came hurrying up the garden.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mark!  What?  Are you come home?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not the others.  They are at Mr. Condamine's, I came last night&mdash;by
+way of Lescombe.  Edda, dear, it is all right!  Oh, I forgot you did
+not know!  There was no seeing you before we went away.  Ah! by the by,
+how is my uncle?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Much better, except that using his eyes brings on the pain.  'What is
+it, Mark?  Ah! I can guess,' she said, aided no doubt by that
+conjecture of her husband's.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, yes, yes!' he answered, with a rapidity quite unlike himself.
+'Why, Nuttie, how mystified you look!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I'm sure I don't wonder at any one being glad to live at dear old
+Micklethwayte,' said Nuttie slowly.  'But, somehow, I didn't think it
+of you, Mark.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My dear, that's not all!' said her mother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh!' cried Nuttie, with a prolonged intonation.  'Is it?&mdash;Oh, Mark!
+did you <I>do it</I> that night when you led the horse home?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Even so, Nuttie!  And, Aunt Alice, Lady Ronnisglen is the best and
+bravest of old ladies, and the wisest.  Nobody objects but Lady Delmar,
+and she declares she shall not consider it an engagement till
+Ronnisglen has been written to in Nepaul, as if he had anything to do
+with it; but that matters the less, since they all insist on our
+waiting till I've had a year's trial at the office!  I suppose they
+could not be expected to do otherwise, but it is a pity, for I'm afraid
+Lady Delmar will lead Annaple and her mother a life of it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Dear Mark, I am delighted that it is all going so well.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I knew you would be!  I told them I must tell <I>you</I>, though it is not
+to go any farther.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So that hope of Mark's restoration to the inheritance faded from Alice,
+and yet she could not be concerned for him.  She had never seen him in
+such good spirits, for the sense of failure and disappointment had
+always been upon him; and the definite prospect of occupation, gilded
+by his hopes of Annaple, seemed to make a new man of him.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap17"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XVII.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+AN OLD FRIEND.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'My heart untravelled still returns to thee.'&mdash;GOLDSMITH.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+To go abroad!  Such had been the fairy castle of Nuttie's life.  She
+had dreamed of Swiss mountains, Italian pictures, Rheinland castles, a
+perpetual panorama of delight, and here she was in one of the great
+hotels of Paris, as little likely to see the lions of that city as she
+had been to see those of London.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The party were halting for two days there because the dentist, on whom
+Mr. Egremont's fine show of teeth depended, practised there; but Nuttie
+spent great part of the day alone in the sitting-room, and her hand-bag
+and her mother's, with all their books and little comforts, had been
+lost in the agony of landing.  Her mother's attendance was required all
+the morning, or what was worse, she expected that it would be, and
+though Nuttie's persistence dragged out the staid, silent English maid,
+who had never been abroad before, to walk in the Tuilleries gardens,
+which they could see from their windows, both felt half-scared the
+whole time.  Nuttie was quite unused to finding her own way
+unprotected, and Martin was frightened, cross, and miserable about the
+bags, which, she averred, had been left by Gregorio's fault.  She so
+hated Gregorio that only a sort of adoration which she entertained for
+Mrs. Egremont  would have induced her to come tete-a-tete with him, and
+perhaps he was visiting his disappointment about Mentone on her.  In
+the afternoon nothing was achieved but a drive in the Bois de Boulogne,
+when it was at once made evident that Mr. Egremont would tolerate no
+questions nor exclamations.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His mouth was in no condition for eating in public, and he therefore
+decreed that his wife and daughter should dine at the table d'hote,
+while he was served alone by Gregorio.  This was a great boon to
+Nuttie, and to her mother it recalled bridal days long past at Dieppe;
+but what was their astonishment when on entering the room they beheld
+the familiar face of Mr. Dutton!  It was possible for him to place
+himself between them, and there is no describing the sense of rest and
+protection his presence imparted to them, more especially to Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He had come over, as he did from time to time, on business connected
+with the materials he used, and he was beguiled into telling them of
+his views of Mark, whom he had put in the way of learning the
+preliminaries needful to an accountant.  He had a deep distrust of the
+business capacities and perseverance of young gentlemen of family,
+especially with a countess-aunt in the neighbourhood, and quoted Lord
+Eldon's saying that to make a good lawyer of one, it was needful for
+him to have spent both his own and his wife's fortune to begin with,
+but he allowed that young Mr. Egremont was a very favourable specimen,
+and was resolutely applying himself to his work, and that he himself
+felt it due to him to give all the assistance possible.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Headworth, he could not deny, had aged, but far less than Mrs.
+Nugent in the past year, and it really was a great comfort to Miss Mary
+to have the old ladies together.  He told too how the mission, now
+lately over, had stirred the Micklethwayte folk into strong excitement,
+and how good works had been undertaken, evil habits renounced,
+reconciliations effected, religious services frequented. Would it last?
+Nobody, he said, had taken it up so zealously as Gerard Godfrey, who
+seemed as if he would fain throw everything up, and spend his whole
+life in some direct service as a home missionary or something of the
+kind.  'He is a good fellow,' said Mr. Dutton, 'and it is quite
+genuine, but I made him wait at least a year, that he may be sure that
+this is not only a passing impulse.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie thought that she knew what was the impulse that had actuated
+him, and felt a pleasant elation and self-consciousness even while she
+repressed a sigh of pity for herself and for him.  Altogether the dip
+into the Micklethwayte world was delightful, but when Mr. Dutton began
+to ask Nuttie what she had seen, she burst out with, 'Nothing&mdash;nothing
+but just a walk and a drive in the Bois de Boulogne;' and her mother
+explained that 'in Mr. Egremont's state of health,' etc.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I wonder,' asked Mr. Dutton, 'if I might be allowed&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie's eyes sparkled with ecstasy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It ended in her mother, who had been wondering how Mr. Egremont could
+be amused all the long evening, arranging that Mr. Dutton should come
+in an hour's time to call on him, on the chance of being admitted, and
+that then the offer might be made when she had prepared him for it,
+advising Nuttie to wait in her own room.  She was beginning to learn
+how to steer between her husband and her daughter, and she did not
+guess that her old friend was sacrificing one of the best French plays
+for the chance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It turned out well; Mr. Egremont was conscious of a want of variety. He
+demanded whether it was the young fellow, and being satisfied on that
+part, observed in almost a good-humoured tone, 'So, we are in for
+umbrellas, we may as well go in for the whole firm!' caused the lights
+to be lowered under pretext of his eyes&mdash;to conceal the lack of
+teeth&mdash;did not absolutely refuse to let Nuttie take advantage of the
+escort, and when Mr. Dutton did come to the anteroom of the apartment,
+he was received with full courtesy, though Gregorio looked unutterable
+contempt.  Mr. Dutton was a man who could talk, and had seen a good
+deal of the world at different times.  Mr. Egremont could appreciate
+intelligent conversation, so that they got on wonderfully well
+together, over subjects that would have been a mere weariness to Nuttie
+but for the exceeding satisfaction of hearing a Micklethwayte voice.
+At last Mr. Dutton said something about offering his escort to the
+ladies, or to Miss Egremont, who used, he said in a paternal way, to be
+a little playfellow of his; Mr. Egremont really smiled, and said, 'Ay,
+ay, the child is young enough to run after sights. Well, thank you, if
+you are so good as to take the trouble, they will be very grateful to
+you, or if her mother cannot go with her, there's the maid.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie thought she had never known him so amiable, and hardly durst
+believe her good fortune would not turn the wheel before morning. And
+it so far did that her mother found, or thought she found, that it
+would not do to be out of call, and sent the silent Martin in her
+stead.  But Mr. Dutton had set telegraphs to work and recovered the
+bags, which Gregorio had professed to give up in despair.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A wonderful amount of lionising was contrived by Mr. Dutton, who had
+lived a few years at Paris in early youth, and had made himself
+acquainted alike with what was most worth seeing, and the best ways and
+means of seeing it, so that as little time as possible was wasted on
+the unimportant.  It was one of the white days of Nuttie's life,
+wanting nothing but her mother's participation in the sight of the St.
+Michael of the Louvre, of the Sainte Chapelle, of the vistas in Notre
+Dame, and of poor Marie Antoinette's cell,&mdash;all that they had longed to
+see together.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had meant to tell Mr. Dutton that it was all her father's
+selfishness, but somehow she could not say so, there was something
+about him that hindered all unbefitting outbreaks of vexation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And thus, when she mentioned her disappointment at not being allowed to
+go to Micklethwayte with her uncle, he answered, 'You could not of
+course be spared with your father so unwell.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, he never let me come near him!  I wasn't of the slightest use to
+him!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mrs. Egremont would have missed you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Really he never gave her time.  He perfectly devours her, body and
+soul.  Oh dear, no!  'Twas for no good I was kept there, but just pride
+and ingratitude, though mother tried to call it being afraid for my
+manners and my style.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'In which, if you lapse into such talk, you fully justify the
+precaution.  I was just thinking what a young lady you had grown into,'
+he answered in a tone of banter, under which, however, she felt a
+rebuke; and while directing her attention to the Pantheon, he took care
+to get within hearing again of Martin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And in looking at these things, he carried her so far below the
+surface.  St. Michael was not so much Raffaelle's triumph of art as the
+eternal victory over sin; the Sainte Chapelle, spite of all its modern
+unsanctified gaudiness, was redolent of St. Louis; and the cell of the
+slaughtered queen was as a martyr's shrine, trod with reverence.  There
+were associations with every turn, and Nuttie might have spent years at
+Paris with another companion without imbibing so many impressions as on
+this December day, when she came home so full of happy chatter that the
+guests at the table d'hote glanced with amusement at the eager girl as
+much as with admiration at the beautiful mother.  Mr. Dutton had been
+invited to come and take coffee and spend the evening with them again,
+but Mr. Egremont's affairs with the dentist had been  completed, and he
+had picked up, or, more strictly speaking, Gregorio had hunted up for
+him, a couple of French acquaintances, who appeared before long and
+engrossed him entirely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Dutton sat between the two ladies on a stiff dark-green sofa on the
+opposite side of the room, and under cover of the eager,
+half-shrieking, gesticulating talk of the Frenchmen they had a quiet
+low-toned conversation, like old times, Alice said.  'More than old
+times,' Nuttie added, and perhaps the others both agreed with her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When the two Englishwomen started at some of the loud French tones,
+almost imagining they were full of rage and fury, their friend smiled
+and said that such had been his first notion on coming abroad.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You have been a great deal abroad?' Mrs. Egremont asked; 'you seem
+quite at home in Paris.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, mamma, he showed me where the school was that he went to, and the
+house where he lived!  Up such an immense way!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Dutton was drawn on to tell more of his former life than ever had
+been known to them.  His father, a wine merchant, had died a bankrupt
+when he was ten years old, and a relation, engaged in the same business
+at Paris, had offered to give him a few years of foreign schooling, and
+then make him useful in the business.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His excellent mother had come with him, and they had lived together on
+very small means, high up in a many-storied lodging-house, while he
+daily attended the Lycie.  His reminiscences were very happy of those
+days of cheerful contrivance, of her eager desire to make the tiny
+appartement a home to her boy, of their pleasant Sundays and holidays,
+and the life that in this manner was peculiarly guarded by her
+influence, and the sense of being all she had upon earth.  He had
+scarcely ever spoken of her before, and he dwelt on her now with a
+tenderness that showed how she had been the guiding spirit of his life.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At fifteen he was taken into the office at Marseilles, and she went
+thither with him, but the climate did not agree with her; she drooped,
+and, moreover, he discovered that the business was not conducted in the
+honourable manner he had supposed.  After a few months of weighing his
+obligations to his kinsman against these instincts, the question was
+solved by his cousin's retiring.  He resolved to take his mother back
+to England at any loss, and falling in with one of the partners of the
+umbrella firm in quest of French silk, he was engaged as foreign
+correspondent, and brought his mother to Micklethwayte, but not in time
+to restore her health, and he had been left alone in the world just as
+he came of age, when a small legacy came to him from his cousin, too
+late for her to profit by it. It had been invested in the business, and
+he had thus gradually risen to his present position.  Mrs. Egremont was
+amazed to hear that his mother had only been dead so short a time
+before she had herself come to Micklethwayte; and fairly apologised for
+the surprise she could not help betraying at finding how youthful he
+had then been, and Nuttie exclaimed, in her original unguarded fashion:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Why, Mr. Dutton, I always thought you were an old bachelor!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nuttie, my dear!' said her mother in a note of warning, but Mr. Dutton
+laughed and said:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not so far wrong!  They tell me I never was a young man.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You had always to be everything to your mother,' said Mrs. Egremont
+softly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes,' he said, 'and a very blessed thing it was for me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah! you don't regret now all that you must have always been giving up
+for her,' returned Alice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, indeed.  Only that I did not give up more.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That is always the way.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It is indeed.  One little knows the whips that a little self-will
+prepares.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie thought he said it for her admonition, and observed, 'But she
+was good,' only, however, in a mumble, that the other two thought it
+inexpedient to notice, though it made both hearts ache for her, even
+Alice's&mdash;with an additional pang of self-reproach that she herself was
+not good enough to help her daughter better.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Neither of them guessed at the effect that a glimpse of the lovely
+young seeming widow had had on the already grave self-restrained young
+man in the home lately made lonely, how she had been his secret object
+for years, and how, when her history was revealed to him, he had still
+hoped on for a certainty which had come at last as so fatal a shock and
+overthrow to all his dreams.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A life of self-restraint and self-conquest had rendered it safe for him
+to thoroughly enjoy the brief intercourse, which had come about by the
+accident of his having come to dine at the Hotel de Louvre, to meet a
+friend who had failed him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+These were two completely happy hours to all the three, and when they
+said 'good-night' there was a sense of soothing and invigoration on
+Alice's mind; and on Nuttie's that patience and dutifulness were the
+best modes of doing justice to her Micklethwayte training, although he
+had scarcely said a word of direct rebuke or counsel.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+While Mr. Dutton sped home to tell Miss Headworth that Mrs. Egremont
+looked lovelier than ever, and was&mdash;yes she was&mdash;more of an angel, that
+her husband had been very pleasant, much better than he expected, and,
+indeed, might come to anything good under such influence; and as to
+little Nuttie&mdash;she was developing fast, and had a brave constant heart,
+altogether at Micklethwayte.  But that servant who was acting as
+courier was an insolent scoundrel, who was evidently cheating them to
+the last degree.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap18"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+A FRIEND IN NEED.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'True courage often is in frightened eyes.'&mdash;Thoughts and Verses.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+All the preliminaries of the sojourn at Nice had been settled in
+correspondence, and the Egremont family had nothing to do, after
+arriving at the station, but to drive up to Villa Eugenie, whose
+flower-wreathed balconies were like a vision of beauty.  Servants had
+been hired through agencies known to Mr. Egremont, and Gregorio looked
+very black at his mistress keeping the reins in her hand, and tried to
+make her feel herself inefficient.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was not an eventful or very interesting part of Ursula's life. She
+was almost wild with the novelty and beauty of the South at first, but
+except for what she could thus see, there was little variety.  The
+mould of the day was as much as possible after the Bridgefield fashion,
+except that there were no cousins at the Rectory, no parish interests,
+very little society, as far as the ladies were concerned.  Mr. Egremont
+had old acquaintance and associates with whom he spent afternoons and
+evenings, after his own fashion, but they were not people to whom he
+wished to introduce his wife and daughter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And the superior English habitues of Nice, the families who formed the
+regular society, knew Mr. Egremont's reputation sufficiently to feel by
+no means disposed to be cordial to the fair wife and grown-up daughter
+whom he so unexpectedly produced on the scene.  It had been different
+at home, where he had county standing, and the Canon and Canoness
+answered for the newcomers; but here, where all sorts of strange people
+came to the surface, the respectable felt it needful to be very
+cautious, and though of course one or two ladies had been asked to call
+through the intervention of Lady Kirkaldy or of Mrs. William Egremont,
+and had been assured on their authority that it was 'all right,' their
+attentions were clogged by doubt, and by reluctance to involve their
+mankind in intimacy with the head of the family.  Thus very little of
+the proverbial gaiety of Nice offered itself to Nuttie and her mother,
+and, except by a clerical family who knew Mr. Spyers, they were kept at
+a distance, which Mr. Egremont perceived and resented by permitting no
+advances.  The climate suited him so well that, to his wife's great
+relief, he seemed to have dropped his inclination for sedatives; but
+his eyes would not bear much, and she felt bound to be always on the
+alert, able to amuse him and hinder his feeling it dull.  Gregorio
+highly disapproved of the house and servants, and was always giving
+hints that Mentone would agree far better with his master; but every
+day that Mr. Egremont seemed sufficiently amused at Nice was so much
+gain, and she had this in her favour, that he was always indolent and
+hard to move. Moreover, between his master's levee and late dinner
+Gregorio was hardly ever to be found.  No doubt he knew the way to
+Monte Carlo well enough, and perhaps preferred that the family should
+be farther off, for he soon ceased to show himself discontented with
+their present abode.  Once when his absence was inconvenient, Mr.
+Egremont abused him roundly as a good-for-nothing gambler, but when
+Alice hoped that he might be called to a reckoning, the wrath had
+subsided with the immediate vexation, and as usual she was told 'All
+those fellows were alike.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The foreign servants were not to be induced to give the early-rising
+ladies more than a roll and cup of coffee, and Nuttie felt ravenous
+till she learned to lay in a stock of biscuits, and, with Martin's
+connivance, made tea on her own account, and sustained her mother for
+the morning's walk before the summons to Mr. Egremont.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He always wanted his wife much earlier in the day, during his hours of
+deshabille, and letting her write his letters and read the papers to
+him.  She was pleased with this advance, but it gave Nuttie a great
+deal more solitude, which was sometimes judiciously spent, but it was
+very hard not to be desultory in spite of learning lessons in French,
+Italian, and drawing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Later in the day came the drive or the visit to the public gardens when
+the band was playing, but this became less frequent as Mr. Egremont
+observed the cold civility shown to his wife, and as he likewise grew
+stronger and made more engagements of his own.  Then Nuttie had happy
+afternoons of driving, donkey-riding, or walking with her mother,
+sketching, botanising, admiring, and laying up stores for the long
+descriptive letters that delighted the party in St. Ambrose's Road,
+drinking in all the charm of the scenery, and entering into it
+intelligently.  They spent a good many evenings alone together
+likewise, and it could not but give Alice a pang to see the gladness
+her daughter did not repress when this was the case, even though to
+herself it meant relaxation of the perpetual vigilance she had to exert
+when the father and daughter were together to avert collisions.  They
+were certainly not coming nearer to one another, though Nuttie was
+behaving very well and submissively on the whole, and seldom showing
+symptoms of rebellion.  This went on through the early part of their
+stay, but latterly there was a growing sense upon the girl that she and
+her mother were avoided by some young ladies to whom they had been
+introduced, and whom they saw regularly at the daily services at St.
+Michael's Church.  They were pleasant-looking girls, with whom Nuttie
+longed to fraternise, and she was mortified at never being allowed to
+get beyond a few frigidly civil words in the street, more especially
+when she came upon sketching parties and picnics in which she was never
+included.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was all very well for her mother to answer her murmurs and
+wonderings with 'You know people are very exclusive, my dear.' Nuttie
+began to guess that her father and her name were the real reason, and
+her eyes were further opened later in the spring when Mr. Egremont, who
+had recovered unusual health and vigour, took his ladies to Mentone to
+spend a day or two in the newer beauties there. Alice had her
+misgivings, but the visit was avowedly to show the place to her, and
+she could not reasonably object.  He was in unusual good humour, and
+even tolerated their ecstasies at the scenery and the flowers, dined at
+the table d'hote and found acquaintance, enjoyed himself, and in the
+forenoon, while Nuttie was out wondering and admiring, and going as far
+as she could drag Martin, he expressed to his wife that she would be
+astonished at the gardens and the music of Monte Carlo.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There, however, Alice made a stand.  'Thank you, it is very kind, but
+if you please, I should not like to take Ursula to Monte Carlo, or to
+go there myself,' she said in an apologetic tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He laughed.  'What! you are afraid of making the little one a confirmed
+gambler?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You know I am not, but&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You think the little prig will be contaminated, eh?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well, I think it will be happier for her if she never sees
+anything&mdash;of the kind.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You little foolish Edda, as if her eyes or ears need see anything but
+flowers and music and good company.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I know that, but I had so much rather not.  It was a sweet face and
+caressing voice that implored, and he still was good humoured.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well, well, I don't want to drag you, old lady, against your will,
+though I fancy you would be rather surprised at the real aspect of the
+abode of iniquity your fancy depicts.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, thank you, thank you so much!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What an absurd little woman it is!  I wonder if you would thank me as
+heartily supposing I cleared a round thousand and gave you&mdash;say a
+diamond necklace?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I am sure I should not!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, I don't believe you would.  That restless little conscience of
+yours would be up on end.  After all, I don't know that you are the
+worse for it, when it looks so prettily out of your brown eyes.  I
+wonder what you expect to see?  The ruined gamester shooting himself on
+every path, eh?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, no; I don't suppose I should see anything horrid or even
+disagreeable.  I know it is all very beautiful; but then every person
+who goes for the innocent pleasures' sake only helps to keep up the
+whole thing&mdash;evil and all.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And what would the old women of all sorts here and at Nice do without
+such a choice temple of scandal to whet their teeth upon? Well, I
+suppose you and your precious daughter can take care of yourselves.
+There are the gardens, or you can tell Gregorio to order you a
+carriage.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Then you are going?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, I promised Grafton.  Don't be afraid, Mistress Edda, I'm not
+going to stake Bridgefield and reduce you to beggary.  I'm an old hand,
+and was a cool one in my worst days, and whatever I get I'll hand over
+to appease you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That was all she could obtain, and she secretly hoped there would be no
+winnings to perplex her.  Thankful that she had not made him angry by
+the resistance for which she had prepared herself with secret prayer
+ever since the Mentone scheme had been proposed, she placed herself at
+Nuttie's disposition for the rest of the day.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They had a charming donkey-ride, and, still unsatiated with beauty,
+Ursula made her mother come out again to wonder at the trees in the
+public gardens.  Rather tired, they were sitting on a shaded bench,
+when a voice close to them exclaimed, 'It is; yes, it must be; 'tis the
+voice&mdash;yes, and the face prettier than ever.  Little Alice&mdash;ah! you
+don't know me.  Time has been kinder to you than to me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh!  I know you now!  I beg your pardon,' cried Alice, recognising in
+the thin nutcracker parchment visage and shabbily-dressed figure the
+remnant of the brilliant aquiline countenance and gay attire of
+eighteen years ago.  'Mrs. Houghton!  I am so glad to have met you, you
+were so kind to me.  And here she is.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What! is this the child?  Bless me, what a proof how time goes! Young
+lady, you'll excuse my not knowing you.  You were a very inconvenient
+personage not quite born when I last met your mother. What a likeness!
+I could have known her for Alwyn Egremont's daughter anywhere!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, they all say she is a thorough Egremont.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Then it is all right.  I saw Alwyn Egremont, Esquire, and family among
+the arrivals at Nice, but I hardly durst expect that it was you.  It
+seemed too good to be true, though I took care the knot should be tied
+faster than my gentleman suspected.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, please!' cried Alice deprecatingly, at first not apprehending the
+force of the words, having never known the gulf from which Mrs.
+Houghton had saved her, and that lady, seeing that the girl was
+listening with all her ears, thought of little pitchers and restrained
+her reminiscences, asking with real warm interest, 'And how was it?
+How did you meet him again?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He came and found me out,' said Alice, with satisfaction in her voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Indeed!  Not at Dieppe; for he was en garcon when I nearly came across
+him ten years ago at Florence.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh no!  He inquired at Dieppe, but they had lost the address my aunt
+left.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Indeed!  I should not have thought it of old Madame Leroux, she seemed
+so thoroughly interested in la pauvre petite.  What did you do?  Your
+aunt wrote to me when your troubles were safely over, and she thought
+him lost in the poor Ninon, that she meant to settle in a place with an
+awfully long Yorkshire name.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Micklethwayte; yes, we lived there, and got on very well.  We had
+boarders, and I had some dear little pupils; but last year Mark
+Egremont&mdash;you remember dear little Mark&mdash;was in the neighbourhood, and
+hearing my name, he told his uncle, who had been seeking us ever since.
+And he came, Mr. Egremont, and took us home, and oh, the family have
+been so kind!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What?  The parson, and that awful old she-lion of a grandmother, whose
+very name scared you out of your wits?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'She is dead, and so is dear good Lady Adelaide.  Canon Egremont is
+kindness itself.  It was all the old lady's doing, and he knew nothing
+about it.  He was gone to Madeira with Lady Adelaide and got none of
+our letters, and he never knew that his brother was married to me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Trust Alwyn for that,' Mrs. Houghton muttered.  'Well, all's well that
+ends well, and I hope he feels due gratitude to me for doing him a good
+turn against his will.  I tried to get at him at Florence to find out
+what he had done with you, but unluckily I was ill, and had to send
+through poor Houghton, and he mismanaged it of course, though I
+actually wrote down that barbarous address, Mickle something, on a
+card.  I believe he only got as far as the man instead of the master.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah!  I wanted to ask for Captain Houghton,' said Alice, glad to lead
+the conversation away from revelations of which she had an instinctive
+dread.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Gone, my dear! two years ago.  Poor fellow! it was low fever, but
+quite as much want of luck, I shall always believe,' she said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, I am sorry!  He was so kind to me!' said Alice, squeezing her
+hand, and looking up with sweet tender commiseration.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'There, there, don't, you pretty creature!' said Mrs. Houghton, putting
+her hand across her eyes.  'I declare, you've almost made me cry&mdash;which
+I've not done&mdash;well, hardly, since I parted with you at Dieppe,
+thinking you a sweet little flower plucked and thrown away to die,
+though I had done my best to bind it to him.  What care I took not to
+let Houghton disabuse him about Jersey marriages!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There is a difference between hearing and hearkening, and Alice
+Egremont's loving and unsuspecting heart was so entirely closed against
+evil thoughts of her husband, and so fully occupied with her old
+friend's condition, that she never took in the signification of all
+this, while Nuttie, being essentially of a far more shrewd and less
+confiding nature, and already imbued with extreme distrust of her
+father, was taking in all these revelations with an open-eyed, silent
+horror of conviction that her old impressions of the likeness to
+Marmion or Theseus had been perfectly correct.  It was all under her
+hat, however, and the elder ladies never thought of her, Alice bringing
+back the conversation to Mrs. Houghton herself.  'Oh, my dear, I drag
+on as I can.  I've got a fragment of our old income, and when that's
+run too low, I go up to Monte Carlo&mdash;I always had the lucky hand, you
+know, and 'tis only restitution after all!  I'm sick of it all though,
+and sometimes think I'll take my good sister Anne's offers and go home.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh do, do!' cried Alice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But,' went on the poor woman, 'humble pie goes against me, and think
+what an amount would be before me&mdash;heigh ho!&mdash;after nearly
+five-and-twenty years; yes, five-and-twenty years it is&mdash;since
+Houghton, poor fellow, told me I was too bright and winsome for a
+little country lawyer's house in a poky street.  What would they think
+of me now?' and she laughed with a sound that was painful to hear.
+'Well, Sycorax had done one good deed, and when I look at you, queening
+it there, I feel that so have I.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You were very good to me, I know; but oh, if you would go home to your
+sister!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My dear, you little know what you ask!  Anne!  Why, she is the prime
+district lady, or whatever you call it, of Dockforth.  Think what it
+would be to her to have this battered old vaurien thrown on her hands,
+to be the stock subject for all the righteous tongues. Besides,' as she
+coughed, 'the English climate would make an end of me outright.  I'm in
+a bad way enough here, where I can sit among the lemon trees half the
+days in the winter, but the English fireside in a stuffy parlour&mdash;' and
+she shuddered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That shiver reminded all that it was getting late, too late for Mrs.
+Houghton to be out of doors, and near the time when Mr. Egremont was to
+meet his ladies at the hotel.  Alice begged for Mrs. Houghton's
+address, and it was given with a short ironical laugh at her promise to
+call again if possible.  'Ay, if possible,' the poor woman repeated.
+'I understand!  No, no,' as Alice was about to kiss her. 'I won't have
+it done.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'There's no one in sight.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'As if that made a difference!  Alice, child, you are as innocent as
+the little dove that flew aboard the Ninon.  How have you done it? Get
+along with you!  No kisses to such as me!  I don't know whether it
+breaks my heart, or binds it up to look at the face of you. Anyway, I
+can't bear it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She hurried away, and made some steps from them.  A terrible paroxysm
+of coughing came on, and Mrs. Egremont hurried towards her, but she
+waved back all help, shook her head, and insisted on going home. Alice
+kept her in sight, till she dived into a small side street.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mother,' said Nuttie.  Then there was a pause.  'Mother, did you know
+all this?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Don't talk of it, Nuttie.  It is not a thing to be talked about to any
+one or by any one.  I wish you had not been there.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But, mother, this once!  Did you know?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I knew that I knew not what I did when I went on board that yacht, but
+that God's kind providence was over me in a way that I little deserved.
+That is all I care to know, and, Ursula, I will have not another word
+about it.  No, I will not hear it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I was only going to ask whether you would tell my father.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Certainly; but not before you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The tone of decision was unwonted, and Nuttie knew she must abide by
+it, but the last shreds of filial respect towards Mr. Egremont were
+torn away by what Mrs. Houghton had implied, and the girl dashed up and
+down her bedroom muttering to herself, 'Oh, why have I such a father?
+And she, she will not see it, she is wilfully blind!  Why not break
+with him and go home to dear Aunt Ursel and Gerard and Mr. Dutton at
+once, instead of this horrid, horrid grandeur?  Oh, if I could fling
+all these fine things in his face, and have done with him for ever.
+Some day I will, when I am of age, and Gerard has won his way.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Meantime Alice, in some trepidation, but with resolution at the bottom,
+had told her husband of the meeting with Mrs. Houghton, of her
+widowhood, sickness, and poverty.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He did not like the intelligence of their meeting, and hoped no one had
+seen it; then, when reassured on this score, he hummed a little and
+exclaimed, 'Poor old Flossy Houghton!  I don't wonder!  They went the
+pace!  Well, what do you want?  Twenty pounds for her!  Why, 'twill all
+be at Monte Carlo in three days' time.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It is very good of you, but I want more than that.  She is so ill and
+wretched, you know.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I can't have you visiting her, if that's what you mean.  Why, after
+all the pains I've been at to get you on your proper level at home,
+here's my Lady Louisa and all her crew, in their confounded insolence,
+fighting shy of you, and you can't give them a better colour for it
+than by running after a woman like that&mdash;divorced to begin with, and
+known at every gambling table in Europe.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I know that, Alwyn, dear Alwyn' (it was very seldom that she called
+him so, and she put her clasped hands on his shoulder); 'but I am sure
+she is dying, and she was so good to me, I can't bear doing nothing for
+her.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well, there's twenty&mdash;fifty, if you like.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Thank you, thank you, but you know I never meant to visit
+her&mdash;like&mdash;like society; only to go sometimes privately and&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And how about your daughter?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I would not take her on any account.  What I want to do is this. Mrs.
+Houghton spoke of her sister, a kind good woman in England, who would
+take her home, and love her, if only she could bring herself to go.
+Now, I think I could persuade her to write, or let me write to the
+sister&mdash;and if only the two were together again!  It is very dreadful
+to think of her dying alone, in the way she is going on!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What, little saint, you want to try your hand on her?  I should say
+she was too tough an old sinner for you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, Alwyn! her heart was very near, though she tried to keep it back.
+I do not want to&mdash;to do what you mean&mdash;only to get her to let her
+sister come.  I'm sure that would do the rest.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If any sister does more than you, you little witch,' he said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Alice pressed him no more then, but a day or two later, when she knew
+he had an engagement, she arranged to dispose of Nuttie with the
+clergyman's wife, and then begged permission to go by train to Mentone,
+and come back in the evening.  He did not like it&mdash;no more did she&mdash;for
+she was perfectly unaccustomed to travelling alone, but there was a
+deep sense of sacred duty upon her, only strengthened by her
+unwillingness to realise how much she owed to Mrs. Houghton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She telegraphed that she was coming, and found her friend more touched
+than she chose to allow at the fact of her visit, declaring that she
+must have wonderful power over Alwyn Egremont, if she knew how to use
+it; indeed, the whole tone was of what Alice felt flattery, intended to
+turn away anything more serious.  Poor woman, she was as careful of
+doing no injury to her young friend's reputation as Mr. Egremont could
+have desired.  Alice had come resolved that she should have one good
+meal, but she would not hear of eating anywhere in public where either
+could be recognised, and the food was brought to a private room in the
+hotel.  To her lodgings she still would not take Alice, nor would she
+give her sister's address.  Except for a genuine shower of tears when
+Alice insisted on kissing her there seemed no ground gained.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Alice went again on her husband's next visit to Mentone.  He was,
+to a certain degree, interested in her endeavours, and really wished
+the poor woman to be under the charge of her relations, instead of
+dying a miserable lonely death among strangers.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This time Alice had to seek her friend in the dreary quatrieme of the
+tall house with the dirty stone stairs. It was a doleful empty room,
+where, with a mannish-looking dressing-gown and a torn lace scarf tied
+hood-fashion over her scanty hair, Mrs. Houghton sat over a pan of
+charcoal oppressive to Alice's English lungs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Come again!' she cried.  'Well, I really shall begin to think that
+angels and ministers of grace exist off the stage!  You pretty thing!
+Let me look at you.  Where did you get that delicious little bonnet?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Why, it is perfectly plain!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'So it is!  'Tis only the face that is in it.  Now if some folks put
+this on&mdash;sister Anne, for example, what dowdies they would be.  Poor
+old Anne, you must know she had a turn for finery, only she never knew
+how to gratify it.  To see the contortions of her crinolines was the
+delight of all the grammar school.  It was a regular comedy for them to
+see her get into our pew edgeways, and once unconsciously she carried
+off a gentleman's hat on her train.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So she went on talking, coughing at intervals, and generally using a
+half-mocking tone, as if defying the tenderness that awoke in spite of
+her, but always of her original home, and especially of her sister.
+Alice ventured to ask whether they often heard from one another.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Good soul, she always writes at Christmas and on my birthday.  I know
+as well as possible that I shall find a letter poste restante wherever
+she heard of me last, and that she hasn't done&mdash;I'm ashamed to say for
+how long&mdash;really, I think not since I let her know that I couldn't
+stand Ivy Lodge, Dockforth, at any price, when she wrote to Monaco on
+seeing poor Houghton's death in the paper.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a good deal of rambling talk of this kind, to which Alice
+listened tenderly and compassionately, making no attempt at persuasion,
+only doing what was possible for the poor lady's comfort. She had
+procured on her way some fruit and jelly, and some good English tea, at
+which Mrs. Houghton laughed, saying, 'Time was, I called it cat-lap!
+Somehow it will seem the elixir of life now, redolent, even milkless,
+of the days when we were young.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then she revealed something of her long, suffering, almost ghastly
+nights, and Alice gently told how her old friend, Mrs. Nugent, suffered
+from sleeplessness, and kept a store of soothing psalms and hymns in
+her memory.  There was a little laugh.  'That's for you good folk.  I
+haven't such a thing about me!  Come, Par exemple!' and Alice repeated
+the first thing she could remember, the verse beginning 'God, who
+madest earth and heaven.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That's one of your charms, is it?  Well, it would not be too much for
+me if my poor old memory would hold it.  Say it again.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Alice generally had about her a tiny prayer-book with 'Hymns, Ancient
+and Modern,' attached.  It had been a gift from Mary Nugent, and she
+was fond of it, but the opportunity was not to be lost, and she took it
+out, saying she would bring a larger one and reclaim it.  And, as she
+was finally taking leave, she said with a throbbing heart, 'Do you know
+that you have betrayed your sister's address?  I shall write to her
+now.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If you do&mdash;!' cried Mrs. Houghton, in a tone like threatening
+deprecation, but with a little of her strange banter in it besides.
+Alice's mind had been made up to do the thing, and she had not felt it
+honest not to give due warning of her intentions.  Even now she was not
+certain of the lady's surname, but she trusted to her husband's
+knowledge of Mrs. Houghton's previous history; and not in vain.  Mr.
+Egremont amused himself with a little ridicule at his wife's quixotry,
+and demanded whether Flossy Houghton was a promising convert; but
+confessed himself very glad that the poor thing should be off their
+hands, declaring that it was quite time her own people looked after
+her, and happily he recollected her maiden name.  So the letter was
+written, after numerous attempts at expressing it suitably, explaining
+Mrs. Houghton's illness and the yearnings she was too proud and ashamed
+to express to her sister, and was answered at once by a few short words
+of earnest gratitude, and an assurance that Miss Reade was preparing to
+start at once.  Could Mrs. Egremont meet her and prepare her sister?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To Alice's disappointment this could not be.  Mr. Egremont had invited
+some friends to the villa, and would not spare her.  She could only
+send a note, assuring Miss Reade that she believed that preparation
+would do more harm than good, and she waited and watched anxiously.  A
+card came by the post in Mrs. Houghton's scrawled writing.  'Naughty
+little wretch!' was all it said, but thence she gathered hope.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The spring was advancing, and Mr. Egremont was in haste to be gone, but
+Alice obtained one more run to Mentone, and once more climbed up the
+dark and dirty stairs to the room, where the well-known voice answered
+her tap, 'Come in!  Ah, there she is, the wicked little angel!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A substantial little roly-poly business-like little woman hurried
+forward with tearful eyes and outstretched hands.  'Oh, Mrs. Egremont!
+can I ever thank you enough?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You can't, Anne, so don't try.  It will be a relief to all parties,'
+interposed Mrs. Houghton.  'Sentiment is not permitted here.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nevertheless she hugged Alice almost convulsively.  She was sitting in
+a comfortable arm-chair, one about which Mrs. Egremont knew something,
+and the whole aspect of the room had changed indescribably for the
+better, as much indeed as Mrs. Houghton's own personal array, which had
+no longer the desolate neglected look of old.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A little stool was close to her chair, as if the two sisters could not
+bear to be far apart, and the look of love and content in their eyes as
+they turned to one another was perfect joy to Alice.  She had no longer
+any doubt that Anne Reade, who had found the wanderer yet a great way
+off, would yet bring her back to the home, spiritually if not outwardly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Houghton spoke, of better rooms when the winter visitors had fled,
+Anne spoke of her being able to return to Dockforth.  Whether that
+would ever be seemed entirely doubtful to Alice's eyes, especially as
+the patient's inclination was evidently otherwise. There was nothing to
+be done but to leave the sisters together, obtaining Miss Reade's ready
+promise to write, and putting into her hands a sum of money which could
+be sincerely called 'only a debt of gratitude from my husband and me,'
+and which would smooth the way either to remaining or returning to
+England.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nor was there any return.  Ere many weeks had passed Mrs. Egremont
+heard from Miss Reade how a fresh cold had made it impossible to move,
+and summer heat had brought on low fever, which had destroyed the
+feeble strength, but not till 'childhood's star' had again arisen, and
+a deeply and truly repentant woman had passed away, saved, as it
+seemed, through that one effort on behalf of the young girl whose
+innocence she had protected.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap19"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XIX.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE VORTEX.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'With one black shadow at her feet.'&mdash;TENNYSON.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+The rebuffs that society had bestowed on his wife and daughter at Nice
+had rendered Mr. Egremont the more determined on producing them in
+London and establishing their position.  He secured a furnished house
+in Westburnia before leaving Nice, and, travelling leisurely home
+without visiting Bridgefield, he took possession the second week in May.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There had not been much correspondence with the Rectory, and on the
+first forenoon, as Mrs. Egremont and Nuttie were trying to enliven the
+drawing-room with the flowers sent up to meet them, they were surprised
+by the entrance of Blanche, full of kisses and welcomes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh! didn't you know?  I'm with the Kirkaldys just round the corner.
+Aunt Margaret has undertaken to do the part of a noble aunt by me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Then you are here for the season?  And May?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'May wouldn't come, except just for a week to see the pictures, and lay
+in a stock of talk.  She's grown more parochial than ever, and we
+believe it is all Hugh Condamine.  Oh! I forgot you were gone before we
+came home last autumn.  He is mamma's nephew, you know, and was
+ordained last year to the curacy of the next parish to his father's
+place.  If the Edwardses only would take themselves off, we would have
+him at home, and then we should have flowers on the altar, and all
+sorts of jolly things.  Papa would stand ever so much more from him
+than from the old Edwardses.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But is he engaged to May, then?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well, no, not exactly.  I believe he does not think it right till he
+has done preparing for priest's orders.  He's ever so strict, you know,
+and he hasn't got much either; but he means it.  Lucy, his sister, you
+know, told me all about it, and that altogether the elders had settled
+it was better for both that he should attend to his preparation, and
+May should not bind herself, though they really understand one another,
+and so she won't come to London.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, that's very good of her!' cried Nuttie; 'but why won't they let
+them settle their minds and be engaged?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'People are always tiresome,' said Blanche; 'and I do believe the
+living is at the bottom of it, at least Lucy thought so.  I mean
+everybody wants to wait&mdash;all the old ones, I mean&mdash;not Hugh or May, of
+course&mdash;to know whether Mark will stick to the umbrellas, or turn back
+and be a clergyman, because, then, of course, he would have the living;
+and if he doesn't, they want to be certain whether Uncle Alwyn, or you,
+Nuttie, would promise it to Hugh if he married May!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Me!' exclaimed Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My dear, I don't like to hear you talk of such things,' said Mrs.
+Egremont gently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh yes, I know&mdash;it's all very dreadful.  I was only telling you what
+is in the old people's heads, and what would settle it, and make it all
+right with them.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And how is Mark?  Is Miss Ruthven in London?' asked Mrs. Egremont,
+glad to turn away the conversation from the contingencies of which
+Blanche spoke with the hardness of youth, as yet not realising sorrow.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I daresay you know nearly as much of Mark as we do, now the Kirkaldys
+are up here.  All his letters go to Lescombe.  Oh no, Annaple is not in
+London.  The Delmars can't afford it, you know, though I believe my
+lady would have made a stretch if Annaple hadn't been bespoke&mdash;but now
+she reserves herself for Muriel.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Alice looked with some discomfort at the soft fair-haired creature who
+was uttering all this worldly jargon in a tone that would have been
+flippant if it had not been so childish.  She asked if Lord. Ronnisglen
+had written.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh yes, long ago.  Lady Delmar had tried to make him nasty about it,
+but he wouldn't be, so that's all right; and Mark seems to get on very
+well, though it must be horridly dull for him now the Kirkaldys are
+away, and he can't spend all his Sundays at Monks Horton.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He will get more into the spirit of the place,' said Nuttie, whereat
+Blanche shrugged her shoulders a little, and exclaimed:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You've got out of it at any rate, Nuttie!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I hope not!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well, then, the look of it!  I never saw any one so improved!  Isn't
+she, Aunt Alice?  She's grown, I declare!  Yes'&mdash;measuring herself
+against her cousin&mdash;'I was a leetle bit taller when you came, and now
+you've got above me! and what a duck of a way of doing your hair! You
+must show me!  I must tell May there's no fear of your being taken for
+one another now; Aunt Margaret will be quite surprised.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was true that Ursula had developed a good deal during the last year,
+and, under the experienced hands of Martin, had lost her schoolgirl
+air, and turned into a young lady capable of becoming the Paris outfit
+which her father had enjoined.  Without positive beauty, she was a
+pleasing, intelligent, animated girl, with the reputation of being an
+heiress, with a romance in the background, and there was nothing to
+prevent her from being a success.  The family connections, with Lady
+Kirkaldy to set the example, had determined on giving full support to
+Mrs. Egremont, and, as of course every one liked to look at so lovely a
+face, the way of both was smoothed in a manner that delighted her
+husband when they encountered any of those who had looked coldly on her
+at Nice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He would have had her presented, but her own reluctance and the united
+counsels of Lady Kirkaldy and the Canoness prevailed on him to drop the
+idea; and then there was a fight with Ursula, who declared that she
+would not go to court if her mother did not; but she was overruled at
+last by that mother's tears at her defiance; and let herself be
+presented, together with Blanche, by Lady Kirkaldy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To Ursula it was altogether a strange time, full of the same kind of
+reckless swing and sense of intoxication that had possessed her at
+Bridgefield.  Not that there was an excessive amount of actual gaiety.
+Hot rooms and late hours were soon found not to agree with Mrs.
+Egremont.  She looked faded and languid after evening parties; and, as
+her husband really cared more to have her ready to wait upon him and
+amuse him than for anything else, he did not insist on her going out
+more than might be needful to establish her position, or when it suited
+him to show her off.  The other purposes were quite as well served by
+letting Ursula go out with Lady Kirkaldy, who was warmly interested in
+mother and daughter, glad of a companion for Blanche, and still more
+glad of a companion for herself.  For she was not slow to discover that
+exhibitions, which were merely fashionable gapeseed to her niece, were
+to Nuttie real delights, viewed intelligently, and eliciting comments
+and questions that Lady Kirkaldy and even her husband enjoyed in their
+fresh interest, but which were unendurable weariness to Blanche, unless
+she had some one to chatter with.  Lectures and lessons, which the aunt
+hoped to render palatable by their being shared by the two cousins,
+only served to show the difference between a trained and eager, and an
+untrained and idle, nature.  With the foreign society to be met at Lord
+Kirkaldy's, Blanche was less at a loss than her brother, and could get
+on by the help of nods and becks and wreathed smiles; but Nuttie, fresh
+from her winter abroad, could really talk, and was often in request as
+a useful person to help in entertaining.  She thus saw some of the
+choicest society in London, and, in addition, had as much of the
+youthful gaiety as Lady Kirkaldy thought wholesome for the two girls.
+Also there were those ecclesiastical delights and privileges which had
+been heard of at Micklethwayte, and were within reach, greatly enjoyed
+by Mrs. Egremont whenever she could share them, though her daughter
+chafed at her treating all except the chief service on Sunday as more
+indulgence than duty.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie was strong, with that spring of energy which unbroken health and
+a quiet life lays up, and, in her own phrase, she went in for
+everything, from early services to late balls, thinking all right
+because it was seldom that her day did not begin with matins or
+Celebration, and because she was not taken to more than two balls a
+week, and conversed at times with superior people, or looked at those
+with world-famed names.  Possibly the whirl was greater than if it had
+been mere gaiety, for then the brain would not have participated in it.
+Church functions, with the scurry to go at all, or to obtain a seat,
+fine music, grand sermons, religious meetings, entertainments for the
+poor, lectures, lessons, exhibitions, rides, drives, kettle-drums,
+garden-parties, concerts, theatres, operas, balls, chattering,
+laughing, discussing, reading up current subjects, enjoying attention,
+excitement as to what should be done and how,&mdash;one thing drove out
+another in perpetual succession, and the one thing she never did or
+could do was to sit still and think!  Rest was simply dreamless sleep,
+generally under the spell of a strong will to wake at the appointed
+hour for church.  The short intervals of being alone with her mother
+were spent in pouring out histories of her doings, which were received
+with a sympathy that doubled their pleasure, excepting when Nuttie
+thought proper to grumble and scold at her mother's not coming to some
+Church festival at an hour when she thought Mr. Egremont might want her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Of him Nuttie saw very little.  He did not want her, and cared little
+what she did, as long as she was under the wing of Lady Kirkaldy, whose
+patronage was a triumphant refutation of all doubts.  He went his own
+way, and had his own club, his own associates, and, with his wife
+always at his beck and call, troubled himself very little about
+anything else.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Alice spent a good deal of time alone, chiefly in waiting his pleasure;
+but she had her own quiet occupations, her books, her needlework, her
+housekeeping, and letter-writing, and was peacefully happy as long as
+she did not displease Nuttie.  There were no collisions between father
+and daughter, and the household arrangements satisfied that fastidious
+taste.  She was proud of Ursula's successes, but very thankful not to
+be dragged out to share them, though she was much less shy, and more
+able on occasion to take her place.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One pain she had.  Good old Mrs. Nugent was rapidly decaying, and she
+shared with all her loving heart in the grief this was to Mary and to
+Miss Headworth, and longed to help them in their nursing.  She would
+not grieve Nuttie by dwelling constantly on the bad accounts, and the
+girl hardly attended to them in the tumult of occupations; and so at
+last, when the final tidings came in the second week in July, they were
+an absolute shock to Nuttie, and affected her as the first grief
+sometimes does.  Mrs. Nugent was really the first person of her own
+intimate knowledge who had died, and in the excited state in which she
+was, the idea of the contrast between her own occupations and Mary's
+was so dreadful to her that she wept most bitterly, with the sobs of
+childhood, such as she really did not know how to restrain.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was an unfortunate day, for it was one of the few on which Mr.
+Egremont wanted to take out his ladies.  There was to be a great
+garden-party at Richmond, given by one of his former set, who had
+lately whitewashed himself by marrying a very fast and fashionable
+lady.  Nuttie had heard strong opinions on the subject at Lord
+Kirkaldy's; but her father was quite elated at being in a position to
+countenance his old friends.  Alice, in the midst of her sorrow,
+recollected this with consternation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My dear, my dear, hush!  You must stop yourself!  Remember we have to
+go out.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Go&mdash;out,' cried Nuttie, her sobs arrested by very horror.  'You
+wouldn't go&mdash;!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I am afraid your father would be very much vexed&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Let him!  It is a horrid wicked place to go to at all; and now&mdash;when
+dear, dear old Mrs. Nugent is lying there&mdash;and&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The crying grew violent again, and in the midst in walked Mr. Egremont
+with an astonished 'What is all this?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'We have lost one of our dear kind old friends at Micklethwayte,' said
+Alice, going towards him; 'dear old Mrs. Nugent,' and she lifted up her
+tear-stained face, which he caressed a little and said, 'Poor old
+body;' but then, at a sob, 'Can't you stop Ursula from making such a
+row and disfiguring herself?  You must pick up your looks, Edda, for I
+mean you to make a sensation at Jerningham's.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, Alwyn, if you could let us stay at home!  Mrs. Nugent was so good
+to us, and it does seem unkind&mdash;' The tears were in her eyes again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nonsense!' he said impatiently.  'I promised Jerningham, and it is
+absurd to have you shutting yourself up for every old woman at
+Micklethwayte.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Thereupon Ursula wiped away her tears, and stood up wrathful before
+him.  'I am not going,' she said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, indeed!' he returned in a tone that made her still more angry.
+'Hein'! a French ejaculation which he had the habit of uttering in a
+most exasperating manner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No,' she said.  'It is scarcely a place to which we even ought to be
+asked to go, and certainly not when&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Do you hear that, Mrs. Egremont?' he asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, Nuttie, Nuttie, dear!' she implored; 'don't.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, mother,' said Nuttie, with flashing eyes; 'if you care so little
+for your best friends as to let yourself be dragged out among all sorts
+of gay, wicked people when your dear friend is lying dead, I'm sure I
+shan't go with you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her father laughed a little.  'A pretty figure you are, to make a
+favour of accompanying us!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, go away, go away, Nuttie,' entreated her mother.  'You don't know
+what you are saying.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I do know,' said Nuttie, exasperated perhaps by the contrast in the
+mirror opposite between her own swelled, disfigured face, and the soft
+tender one of her mother with the liquid eyes.  'I know how much you
+care for the dear friends who took care of us when we were forsaken!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And with this shaft she marched out of the room, while her father again
+laughed, and said, 'Have they been training her for the tragic stage?
+Never mind, Edda, the little vixen will come to her senses upstairs,
+and be begging to go.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I don't think she will,' said Alice sadly; 'she is not that sort of
+stuff, and she was very fond of Mrs. Nugent.  Oh, Alwyn! if you could
+let us off.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not after that explosion, certainly,' he said.  'Besides, I promised
+Jerningham, and such an excuse would never hold water.  She is not even
+a relation.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, but she was very good to me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'The more reason why you should not stay at home and be hipped. Never
+mind that silly girl.  She will be all right by and by.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the contrary, she did not come down to luncheon, and when, about an
+hour later, Alice, after writing a few tender loving words to the
+mourners, went up to her daughter's room, it was to find a limp and
+deplorable figure lying across the bed, and to be greeted with a fresh
+outburst of sobs and inarticulate exclamations.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, Nuttie, dear, this will not do!  It is not right.  Dear good Mrs.
+Nugent herself would tell you that this is not the way any one so good
+and so suffering should be grieved for.  Think&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, I know all that!' cried Nuttie, impatiently; 'but she&mdash;she was the
+dearest&mdash;and nobody cares for her but me.  Not even you&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Again Alice tried to debate the point, and urge on her the duties of
+moderation, self-control, and obedience, but the poor gentle mother was
+at a great disadvantage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the first place, she respected and almost envied her daughter's
+resistance, and really did not know whether it was timidity or
+principle that made it her instinct to act otherwise; in the next,
+Ursula could always talk her down; and, in the third, she was, and
+greatly she reproached herself for that same, in great dread of setting
+herself off into tears that might become hysterical if she once gave
+way to them.  And what would be her husband's feelings if she too
+collapsed and became unpresentable.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So, having once convinced herself that even if Nuttie had been a
+consenting party, no amount of cold water and eau-de-cologne would
+bring those bloodshot eyes, swollen lids, and mottled cheeks to be fit
+to be seen, she fled as fast as possible from the gasps of barbed
+reproaches which put her own composure in peril, and dressed with the
+heaviest of hearts, coupled with the utmost solicitude to look her
+best.  If she had not thought it absolutely wrong, she would even have
+followed Martin's suggestion, and put on a soupcon of rouge; but by the
+time she was summoned to the carriage the feverishness of her effort at
+self-control had done the work, and her husband had paid her the
+compliment of observing that she looked pretty enough for two.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie heard them drive off, with a burst of fresh misery of
+indignation against her mother&mdash;now as a slave and a victim&mdash;now as
+forgetting her old home.  It was chiefly in mutterings; she had pretty
+well used up her tears, for, unconsciously perhaps, she had worked them
+up as a defensive weapon against being carried to the party; and now
+that the danger was over, her head throbbed, her eyes burnt, and her
+throat ached too much for her to wish to cry any more. She had not felt
+physically like this, since the day, seven years ago, when she and
+Mildred Sharpe had been found suspiciously toying with the key of the
+arithmetic, and had been debarred from trying for the prize.  Then she
+felt debased and guilty; now she felt, or ought to feel, like a heroine
+maintaining the right.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She got up and set herself to rights as well as she could.  Martin, who
+had been allowed to know that she had lost an old friend, petted and
+pitied her, and brought her a substantial meal with her tea, after
+which she set out to evensong at the church at the end of the square,
+well veiled under a shady hat, and with a conviction that something
+ought to happen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nothing did, however, happen; she met no one whom she knew, the psalms
+were not particularly appropriate, and her attention wandered away to
+the scene at home.  She did not come back, as she was sure she ought to
+have done, soothed, exhilarated, and refreshed, but rather in a rasped
+state of mind, and a conscience making a vehement struggle to believe
+itself in the right&mdash;a matter in which she thoroughly succeeded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She wrote a long letter to Mary Nugent, and shed some softer tears over
+it, then she built a few castles on her future escape from the power of
+her father; and then she picked up Reata, and became absorbed in it,
+regretting only the weakness of her eyes, and the darkening of the
+summer evening.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was still reading when the others came home.  Her mother kissed
+her, but looked so languid and tired-out that Nuttie was shocked, and
+Martin declared that she ought not to go down to dinner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A tete-a-tete dinner between father and daughter was too dreadful to
+Alice's imagination to be permitted, so she dressed and went down,
+looking like a ghost.  Mr. Egremont scowled at Nuttie, Nuttie scowled
+at him, each considering it the fault of the other, and when at last it
+was over, Alice gave up the struggle, and went off to bed, leaving a
+contrite message that her headache would be better to-morrow.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'All your accursed folly and obstinacy,' observed Mr. Egremont, when
+Nuttie, with a tone of monition gave him the message.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I should call it the consequence of being dragged out with a sore
+heart,' returned Nuttie&mdash;a little speech she had prepared ever since
+she had seen how knocked up her mother was.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Then I should recommend keeping your ideas to yourself,' he answered,
+looking at her in his annihilating manner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was put down. She thought afterwards of a hundred things that she
+could have said to him, but she was crushed for the present, and when
+he went out she could only betake herself to Reata, and forget all
+about it as much as she could.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When she went upstairs, at the end of the third volume, Martin was on
+the watch, and would not let her go into the room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I have been at hand, ma'am, without her guessing it, and I am happy to
+say her tears has had a free course when she was in bed.  Yes, ma'am,
+suppressed grief is always dangerous.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Egremont was still prostrate with fatigue and headache the next
+day, and Nuttie had all the quiet luxuriating in reminiscences she
+desired.  Her father was vexed and angry, and kept out of the way, but
+it must be confessed that Nuttie's spirits had so much risen by the
+afternoon that it was a sore concession to consistency when she found
+herself not expected at Blanche's last little afternoon dance at Lady
+Kirkaldy's!
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap20"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XX.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+WOLF.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'If I cannot once or twice in a quarter bear out a knave against<BR>
+  an honest man, I have but very little credit with your Worship.'&mdash;II. King Henry IV.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Another cause besides Ursula's recalcitrance and her mother's ailment
+contributed to disturb Mr. Egremont, and bring him home.  His agent, by
+name Bulfinch, a solicitor at Redcastle, came to him with irrefragable
+proofs of gross peculation on the part of the bailiff who managed the
+home farm which supplied the house and stables, and showed him that it
+was necessary to make a thorough investigation and change of system.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In point of fact, Mr. Egremont greatly preferred being moderately
+cheated to exerting himself to investigate, but this was going beyond
+moderation, and the explosion had been too public to be passed over. So
+he came home and sat by, while his wife and Mr. Bulfinch did the work
+for him, and made it evident to him that the frauds had been of long
+standing, and carried on with the connivance of the coachman, of
+Gregorio,&mdash;who had before Mrs. Egremont's arrival acted as house
+steward,&mdash;and of the former cook.  Indeed, it was the housekeeper whom
+Mrs. Egremont had left in charge, whose refusal to connive had brought
+about the discovery.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Gregorio's share in all was sufficiently evident, and Alice's heart
+leapt with hope.  Her husband would be wholly her own if his evil
+genius were once departed, but Mr. Egremont would not see it.  He had
+no objection to sacrifice the coachman and all his underlings, with the
+bailiff and his entire family, and felt none of the pity that Alice had
+for the pretty, silly, half-educated daughters; but as to the
+valet&mdash;Pooh! pooh! the poor fellow had been out of the way all this
+time&mdash;whatever he had done had been in the dark, ages long ago, before
+Bridgefield knew its mistress; he was a foreigner, and that was enough
+to prevent him from forgathering with the English.  It was all their
+English prejudice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I can show you facts and figures, sir,' said Mr. Bulfinch.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I daresay, a year or more old.  Why, I was an unprotected carcase
+then&mdash;a mere prey&mdash;the fellow only did after his kind.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Alice held her tongue then, but made an effort in private.  'Indeed, I
+don't think you know; I am afraid Gregorio is not altered.  I found him
+out in his charges about the wine, and the servants' wages at Nice,
+only you wouldn't listen.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'His little perquisites, my dear child!  Come, nonsense, these foreign
+fellows don't pretend to have the morals you ascribe to the native
+flunkey&mdash;generally without foundation either&mdash;they are much of a
+muchness as to that; but your Frenchman or Italian does it more neatly,
+and is a dozen times better servant than the other is.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, ay!  I know you don't like him.  But he knows his manners to you,
+I hope?' said Mr. Egremont, with a suddenness that made her wish she
+could truthfully say he did not.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, he always is&mdash;is respectful, but somehow I see it is under
+protest.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Egremont laughed.  'Rivals&mdash;yes, I see; why, you don't consider the
+sore trial of having a full-grown mistress turned in upon him! Look
+here, you keep the keys already, but the new fellow at the farm and all
+the rest of them shall account to you for everything&mdash;Gregorio and all.
+Won't that satisfy you?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+''Tis not only the money, but I think Gregorio is a bad&mdash;not a
+good&mdash;man.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ho, ho! she wants to advertise for a pious footman and coachman! eh?
+No, I thank you, my dear Edda, I agree with&mdash;who was it who said,
+"Volez moi, mais sans m'ennuyer."'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Rectory likewise had hoped for Gregorio's dismissal, and there were
+grave looks when Alice had to confess that nothing would move her
+husband against him.  The Canon even lashed himself up to say, 'I tell
+you how it is, Alwyn, you'll never do any good with your household,
+while you keep that fellow.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I am not aware what description of good you expect me to do with it,
+Will,' coolly answered the elder brother in a disconcerting tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Poor Alice, on her side, thought of the Little Master, and then
+wondered if it was uncharitable to do so.  For she knew it had become
+war to the knife with Gregorio!  Whether his master told him, or
+whether it were his own evil conscience, or the wonderful intuition of
+servants, he certainly knew of the pressure for his dismissal, and he
+visited it on her as much as he durst.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Outwardly deferential, he could thwart and annoy her in a hundred ways,
+from making love to the housemaids to making evil suggestions to his
+master, yet never giving her any overt cause of complaint.  He could
+worry and sting her under the politest exterior, and he knew very well
+that the most effectual form of annoyance was the persuading his master
+that any discomfort or lassitude was to be removed by some form of
+narcotic.  This would have the further advantage of stupefying Mr.
+Egremont, and making him more ready to lapse under the old influence;
+while the duration and strength of the new one was already a surprise
+to Gregorio.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But there was no doubt that Mrs. Egremont had profited by her year of
+training.  She looked tired, and less youthful and pretty, but she had
+gained in grace and importance as well as in style, and was much more
+really the mistress of Bridgefield.  Her shyness had passed away, and
+she knew now to take her place in society, though still she was
+somewhat silent.  And her husband depended upon her entirely for all
+his correspondence, for much of his occupation and amusement, and even
+for the regulation of his affairs.  In the household, Gregorio was
+little more than his personal attendant, and she had the general
+management, even of the other men-servants.  The Canoness might well
+say it had turned out better than she expected.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And Nuttie had become more womanly, and had acquired the indefinable
+polish given by a London season.  She had learnt the art of
+conversation, and could make herself agreeable to her uncle, or to any
+one else who came in her way.  Even May allowed that she had something
+in her, and cultivated her more than before; but, on the other hand,
+even the Rectory could perceive that there was now an absolute
+alienation between her and her father, and what might before have been
+fear had become dislike.  If she had to refer to him, especially if her
+plans for herself or her mother were crossed, there was always a tone
+of bitterness or of sarcasm about her; and her greater boldness and
+freedom of speech would occasionally manifest itself towards him.  This
+was not indeed often, since not only did his cool contempt make her
+come off the worst in the encounters, but the extreme distress they
+gave to her mother made her refrain whenever her temper, or what she
+thought her conscience, would let her; but still there was always a
+danger which kept poor Alice on thorns whenever there was a possible
+difference of schemes or opinions.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. William Egremont was seriously considering of representing to
+Ursula that her conduct was bad taste, bad policy, and, moreover, was
+doing her mother's spirits and health serious harm; but it was a
+delicate matter in which to meddle, and the good lady could not make up
+her mind how far to surrender her brother-in-law's character and allow
+a partial justification to Ursula.  She was a cautious woman, and
+waited and watched her opportunities.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the beginning of October Mr. and Mrs. Egremont were invited to a
+great shooting party at Sir James Jerningham's.  The invitation did not
+include Ursula.  Perhaps she had never dawned on their hostess's
+imagination; perhaps it was that Lady Jerningham was well known to
+dislike girls, or any one who might absorb young men's attention. At
+any rate the omission was a cause of thankfulness to the party
+concerned, and she did not neglect to worry her mother by a protest
+against keeping such company as would be met at Waldicotes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Alice smiled a little faintly and said, 'I don't think it hurts me, my
+dear; I don't understand half of what they talk about, and they are
+always kind to me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I don't think you ought to go among them or countenance them.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My dear child,'&mdash;and the colour rose&mdash;'I don't feel as if I had a
+right to set myself above any one.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mother!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'People might have said just the same of me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And whose fault was that?' muttered Nuttie under her breath, but Mrs.
+Egremont would not hear.  She only pleaded, as perhaps mother ought not
+to have done with child.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You know, Nuttie, it is not for my own pleasure, but your father's
+eyesight makes him dislike to go anywhere without me now; and I really
+should be uneasy about him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes; he is all you care for,' said Nuttie.  'You sacrifice everything
+you used to think essential, just to his will and pleasure.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, Nuttie, I hope not; I don't think I do!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If I thought it was doing him any good I should not so much mind,'
+went on the girl; 'but he is just the same, and I am always thinking of
+"As the husband is, the wife is&mdash;"'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Hush! hush!  You have no right to think in that way of your father. I
+will not hear it.  I have let you say too much already, Nuttie.' Then
+after a pause she added, gently and wistfully, 'You have been better
+taught, and are clearer headed than ever I was, my Nuttie, and it is
+quite right that you should hate what seems evil to you.  I can only go
+on trying to do what seems my duty from day to day.  I know,' she added
+with rising tears, 'that the sin and folly of my younger days worked a
+difficult position for us both; but we can only act according to our
+lights, and pray God to direct us; and please&mdash;please bear with me, my
+dear one, if the same course does not always seem right to us both.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie had never heard her say anything so fully showing that she
+realised these difficulties, and, greatly touched, she asked pardon,
+kissed and caressed her mother.  There was a calm over them for the
+next few days, and Nuttie actually refrained from bitter comments when
+her mother was not allowed to go to evensong on Sunday, on the plea of
+her being tired, but, as the girl believed, in order that she might
+read the newspapers aloud.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She knew that her silence was appreciated by the way her mother kissed
+her and called her a dear, good, considerate girl.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On Monday Mr. and Mrs. Egremont went away at what was a strangely early
+hour for the former, Nuttie spending her days at the Rectory.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the Tuesday Blanche went with her little sister and the governess on
+a shopping expedition to Redcastle, and in relating her adventures on
+her return, she said, 'Oh, by the bye, I met Annaple in Park's shop!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Full of Micklethwayte news, I suppose,' said May.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, of course.  Did you know, Nuttie, that your aunt was ill?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, indeed, I did not.  What was the matter?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Bronchitis, I believe&mdash;brown titus, as Betty Butter calls it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Bronchitis!  Oh dear! oh dear!  Are you quite sure, Blanche?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh yes!  I am quite certain Annaple said Mark told her that Miss
+Headworth was laid up with bronchitis.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And nobody has written to us all this week!' sighed Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I should think that a sign there could not be much in it,' observed
+May; 'it may be only a bad cold.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But Aunt Ursel had bronchitis four years ago, and was very ill
+indeed,' persisted Nuttie.  'I'm sure it is bronchitis, and that she
+won't let Miss Mary write to us.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was in much distress about it, though May privately told her that
+she ought to know Blanche's way better than to trust implicitly to any
+of her reports; and her aunt said much the same thing in more general
+terms, even proposing that if she did not hear the next morning she
+should go over to Lescombe to ascertain what Mark had really said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This pacified her a little, but on her way home the alarm grew upon
+her, and, moreover, she recollected the opposition that she believed
+that her father was certain to make to either her mother or herself
+going to nurse her aunt.  It flashed upon her that if she were to
+hasten to Micklethwayte on this alarm before there could be a
+prohibition, it would be no disobedience, and perfectly justifiable,
+not to say noble.  Her parents were to return on Thursday evening, and
+she made up her mind that, unless she were fully reassured as to Miss
+Headworth's state, she would go off at once to Micklethwayte before any
+one could gainsay her.  She had plenty of money, and she consulted the
+time-table in the hall before going upstairs.  It only concerned the
+nearest line, but she calculated that if she caught the express, she
+should reach her destination in time to write to her mother at
+Waldicotes, and prevent needless shocks.  Her eagerness for the plan
+grew upon her, so that it seemed like liberation; she could hardly
+sleep for thinking of it, and certainly was not as much disappointed as
+she believed herself when the post came in&mdash;a blank.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Martin was away with her mistress, so Nuttie explained matters to the
+upper housemaid, who was very sympathetic, carried down her orders for
+the carriage, procured for her both breakfast and provision for the
+journey, and packed her clothes.  Ursula would fain have been off
+before the Rectory was aware, but the two little girls came up with a
+message about the plans for the day, just as she was beginning an
+explanatory note, and she entrusted to them the information that she
+was so uneasy about Miss Headworth that she had decided on going to see
+for herself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So in dashed Adela and Rosalind to their mother's room full of
+excitement with the news that Cousin Nuttie was gone off by the train,
+because her aunt was very ill indeed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Gone, Adela? are you sure?  Really gone?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh yes, mamma!  The dogcart was coming round, and she said she wanted
+to catch the 10.05 train, and was very sorry she had not time to write
+a note to you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Was there a letter?  What had she heard?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, only that her aunt was so very ill!  She did not tell us&mdash;did she,
+Rosie?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'There was something about being in time to write to Aunt Alice,'
+suggested Adela.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I am very sorry about this.  I am afraid it will be a great shock to
+Alice,' observed the mother, as she imparted the news at her husband's
+dressing-room door.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Young girls are so precipitate!' said the Canon.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Your brother won't like it at all,' the lady continued.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not he.  But after all, it is just as well that he was not asked. They
+do owe that poor old lady a good deal, and Alwyn's not the man to see
+it.  I'm not sorry the girl took the matter into her own hands, though
+I couldn't have advised it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Except that it will all fall on Alice.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He is very fond of Alice.  She has done more with him than I ever
+thought possible.  Kept him respectable this whole year, and really it
+grows on him.  He makes ever so much more of her now than when he first
+brought her home&mdash;and no wonder.  No, no; he won't fall foul of her.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Perhaps not; but it is just as bad, or worse, for her if he falls foul
+of her daughter.  Besides, she is very much attached to her aunt.  I
+wish I knew what the account was, or whether she knows anything about
+it.'
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap21"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXI.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+URSULA'S RECEPTION.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.'&mdash;SHAKESPEARE.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+It was at half-past seven o'clock that Ursula Egremont's cab stopped at
+St. Ambrose's Road.  She had missed the express train, and had to come
+on by a stopping one.  But here at last she was, with eyes even by
+gaslight full of loving recognition, a hand full of her cab-fare, a
+heart full of throbbing hope and fear, a voice full of anxiety, as she
+inquired of the astonished servant, 'Louisa, Louisa, how is Aunt
+Ursel!' and, without awaiting the reply, she opened the adjoining door.
+There sat, with their evening meal on the table, not only Mary Nugent,
+but Miss Headworth herself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie rushed at her, and there was an incoherency of exclamations, the
+first thing that made itself clear to the senses of the traveller
+being, 'Ill, my dear?  No such thing!  Only I had a bad cold, and Mary
+here is only too careful of me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But Mark said you had bronchitis.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What could have put that into his head?  He did not write it, surely?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He wrote it to Annaple Ruthven, and she told Blanche.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh!' and Mary Nugent's tone was rather nettling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And then it was such a terrible time since we had heard anything,'
+added Nuttie, on the defensive.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Did not your mother get my letter?' said Miss Headworth.  'I wrote to
+her at&mdash;what's the name of that place?  I hope I addressed it right.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, but I was not there.  I didn't go with them.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah, yes, I remember.  Then did not she send you?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, I came off this morning.  I heard this yesterday evening, and I
+determined that nothing should stop me if there was no news by the
+post.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Dear child!  But will your father not be displeased?' said Miss
+Headworth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He hasn't any right to object,' cried Nuttie, with flashing eyes and a
+look that made Miss Nugent anxious; but at the moment there could be
+little thought save of welcome to the warm-hearted girl.  Louisa was
+already brewing fresh tea, and extemporising additions to the meal, and
+Nuttie was explaining how she hoped to have arrived a couple of hours
+sooner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'By the bye, I meant to have written to mother for her to have it
+to-morrow before leaving Waldicotes.  Is there time?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+No, the pillar at hand was cleared at seven, and the regular
+post-office could not be reached in time; so they satisfied themselves
+with the knowledge that Mrs. Egremont must have had Aunt Ursel's
+cheerful letter, and Mary recommended telegraphing to the Canon the
+first thing in the morning.  Then they gave themselves up to enjoyment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'At any rate, I'm here,' said Nuttie, 'and I'll make the most of it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And her handsome furs were laid aside, and her boots taken off, and she
+resigned herself to absolute ease and luxury, while Mary poured out the
+tea, and her aunt heaped her plate with eggs and rashers 'such as one
+doesn't get anywhere else,' said Nuttie, declaring herself quite
+voracious, while her aunt fondly admired her growth and improvement,
+and she inquired into the cold, not quite gone yet; and there were
+speculations over what Mark could have got into his head. Mary
+remembered having met him coming to call, and having told him that she
+had persuaded Miss Headworth to keep her bed because her colds were apt
+to be severe, and it was agreed to lay the exaggeration at the door of
+the lovers and Blanche.  Miss Headworth laughed, and said she ought to
+be flattered that an old woman's sore throat should be thought worthy
+of mention by a fine young gentleman like Mr. Mark.  'A very good young
+man he is,' she added.  'You would never have thought how kind he is in
+coming in here to tell me everything he hears about your dear mother,
+Nuttie.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He makes himself very useful while Mr. Dutton is away,' added Mary,
+'taking his young men's class and all.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh! is Mr. Dutton away?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes; he has had to be in London a great deal of late.  I am afraid he
+may have to live there altogether.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What a grievous pity!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He won't be anywhere without doing good,' said Miss Headworth, 'but I
+sometimes wish we had his cool good sense here.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And how is Mr. Spyers,' asked Nuttie.  She felt shy of asking for
+Gerard Godfrey, or perhaps she thought she ought to be shy of his name,
+and kept hoping that it would come in naturally.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mr. Spyers is very well.  Very busy of course, and very much delighted
+with your mother's gifts to the church.  All her own work, isn't it,
+Nuttie?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes; every bit.  She does lots of embroidery and work of all kinds
+when she is waiting for <I>him</I> or sitting with him, and luckily it has
+never occurred to him to ask what it is for.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The two ladies knew well what was meant by him, but they would not
+pursue the subject, and proceeded to put Nuttie au courant with St.
+Ambrose affairs&mdash;how last year's mission had produced apparently an
+immense effect in the town, and how the improvement had been ebbing
+ever since, but had left various individual gains, and stirred up more
+than one good person who had hitherto thought it enough to save one's
+own soul and let other people alone; how Mr. Spyers was endeavouring to
+bind people together in a guild; how a violent gust of temperance
+orators had come down upon the place, and altogether fascinated and
+carried away Gerard Godfrey.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was his name at last, and Nuttie was rather gratified to feel
+herself blushing as she asked, 'Ah! poor Gerard&mdash;how is he?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'As good and sincere as ever,' said Miss Nugent, 'but not much wiser.
+He is so excitable and vehement.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes,' said Miss Headworth.  'I don't understand the kind of thing. In
+my time a steady young clerk used to be contented after hours with
+playing at cricket in the summer, or learning the flute in the
+winter&mdash;and a great nuisance it was sometimes, but now Gerard must get
+himself made a sort of half clergyman.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'A reader,' suggested Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Minor orders.  Oh, how delightful!' cried Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'People, don't half understand it,' added Miss Headworth.  'Mrs.
+Jeffreys will have it that he is no better than a Jesuit, and really I
+did not know what to say, for he talked, to me by the hour about his
+being an external brother to something.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not to the Jesuits, certainly,' said Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, I told her that; but she thinks all monks are Jesuits, you know,
+and that all brothers are monks; and he does wear his cassock&mdash;his
+choir cassock, I mean&mdash;when he has his service in the iron room at the
+sandpits.  And now he has taken up temperance, and flies about giving
+the pledge, and wanting one to wear bits of blue ribbon.  I told him I
+never did take, and never had taken, more than a little hot wine and
+water when I had a cold, and I couldn't see what good it would do to
+George Jenkins and the poor fellows at the Spread Eagle if I took ever
+so many vows.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'There's a regular blue-ribbon fever set in,' said Miss Nugent. 'Gerard
+told me I was supporting the cause of intemperance yesterday because I
+was so wicked as to carry the rest of your bottle of port, Miss
+Headworth, to poor Anne Crake.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well! he is a dear boy, and youth wouldn't be youth if it were not
+sometimes rather foolish,' said Miss Headworth, 'and it is better it
+should be for good than evil.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Eager in a cause and not for selfishness,' said Mary.  'Poor Gerard, I
+wonder where he will be safely landed!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So did Nuttie, who had a secret flattering faith in being the cause of
+all the poor young fellow's aberrations, and was conscious of having
+begun the second volume of her life's novel.  She went to bed in the
+elated frame of mind proper to a heroine.  There was a shade over all
+in the absence of dear old Mrs. Nugent, and in Mary's deep mourning,
+but there is more tenderness than poignancy in sorrow for shocks of
+corn gathered in full season, and all was cheerful about her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had quite a triumph the next day, as old friends dropped in for the
+chance of seeing her.  The least agreeable encounter was that with
+Mark, who came in on his way to the office, having just received by the
+second post a letter from his father inquiring into Miss Headworth's
+state.  He met Nuttie in the vestibule, with her hat on, and in a great
+hurry, as she wanted to walk with Mary to the School of Art, Gerard
+Godfrey accompanying them as far as the office; and she did not at all
+like the being called to account, and asked what could have possessed
+her to take alarm.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Why, you wrote yourself!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'To Annaple Ruthven.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What am I supposed to have written?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That Aunt Ursel was very ill with bronchitis.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I'll be bound that Miss Ruthven said no such thing.  You don't pretend
+that you heard it from herself?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No; but Blanche did.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Blanche!  Oh, that accounts for it!  Though I should have thought you
+knew Blanche by this time.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But what did you say?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I believe I said I couldn't get a knitting pattern Miss Headworth was
+to send Lady Ronnisglen because she was in bed with a cold.  What you
+and Blanche could contrive to make of a simple thing like that&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And Annaple!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well,' but checking himself with a smile, 'we will not fight about
+that.  I only hope it has not brought you into an awkward scrape,
+Nuttie.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I can't help that,' she answered with her head rather high.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You have written and explained?' he said anxiously.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'To my mother, of course.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If I were you,' he said, lowering his voice, 'I should write or send a
+special message to your father.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I can't see why.  It was a mistake.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yours was a strong measure, and he won't like it.  Be advised, Nuttie.
+Recollect your mother.  The best way would be to go home at once.  I
+could get a day to take you&mdash;if you would start this afternoon.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Thank you; I'm not going back till I hear,' she said proudly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Time being up, Mark took his leave hastily, and as he shut the door,
+Nuttie uttered half aloud the words she had scarcely repressed, 'No, I
+thank you, Mr. Mark, I am not going back like a dog in a string.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What, was that what he expected of you?' said Gerard Godfrey, whom she
+had not intended to hear her, but who had come out of the sitting-room
+on the sounds of departure.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He said he would take me home if I could go at once.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Wouldn't he have liked it!' exclaimed Gerard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It might be the best way,' said Miss Nugent, who had followed young
+Godfrey.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Now, Miss Mary,' cried Nuttie, 'as if I could shorten my holiday now
+that I have it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And I don't see what business he had to call you to account,' said
+Gerard.  'A stuck-up fellow.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Of course all the Egremonts are set against my being here,' said
+Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I thought the Canon offered to bring you last year,' said Mary gently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, that was only to Monks Horton!  It would have been simply
+tantalising.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Lady Kirkaldy is an excellent person,' said Miss Nugent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Is she at home now?' asked Ursula.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Coming next week, they tell me,' said Gerard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He&mdash;your cousin&mdash;will always be loafing up there now, giving up all
+that he had undertaken, I suppose.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not very likely,' said Mary quietly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is a mere Scottish anti-church influence,' said Gerard, turning
+round at the swing-door of his office.  'Why else will Egremont not
+take the pledge?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wherewith he disappeared, blue ribbon and all, while Mary smiled,
+though she was vexed; and Nuttie observed, 'Poor Gerard; but I can't
+see why he should be jealous of Mark <I>now</I>.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary did not choose to understand what Nuttie implied in her
+simplicity, and made answer, 'He is rather blue ribbon mad.  Besides, I
+am afraid the fact of being a "swell" does not conduce to your cousin's
+popularity among the clerks.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Surely he does not give himself airs,' said Ursula, her family
+feelings awaking.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No; but I fancy he is rather reserved.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What's this about giving up what he has undertaken?  What is it?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'When Mr. Dutton went to London, he asked Mark to take his Sunday
+afternoons with the big lads.  He thought they wanted some one with
+more resources and variety than there is in poor Gerard, who didn't at
+all like being passed over.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I never should have thought it of Mark.  He never dreamt of teaching
+anybody at home.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Very likely not, but there is an atmosphere at St. Ambrose's.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And oh, how glad I am to be in it!  I wonder how long they will let me
+stay!  The dear little mother will try to get me a Sunday here, if she
+dares.  Indeed, I can't hear before Saturday, and then there would
+hardly be time to get home!  Oh, that's jolly!  I'll go to the nursery
+gardens, and get <I>such</I> flowers for the vases!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Saturday brought Nuttie a letter, but not from her mother&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+'My Dear Ursula&mdash;I write because we are anxious to keep your mother as
+quiet as possible.  It was a serious shock to her to find that you had
+left home, and she naturally supposed that Miss Headworth was in great
+danger.  Your father was greatly displeased, and she has been much
+overcome, and very unwell, but we hope by keeping her perfectly quiet
+that worse consequences may be prevented.  Your father desires you to
+remain where you are for the present, as he will not have her disturbed
+again.  Your mother sends her love both to you and to your aunt, and
+desires me to say that she will write in a day or two, and that she
+thinks you had better not come back till she is better and your
+father's vexation has diminished.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+'I wish you had informed us of your intentions, as then we could have
+ascertained the grounds of the report that terrified you so
+strangely.&mdash;I remain your affectionate aunt,
+<BR><BR>
+                                         JANE M. EGREMONT.'<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+'Poor mother! he has been sneering at us all in his dreadful cynical
+way, and knocked her up into one of her awful headaches,' said Nuttie,
+who felt extremely angered by the grave tone of rebuke in the letter,
+and tossed it over to her aunt without absolutely reading it all.  Miss
+Headworth was a good deal distressed, and anxious to know what Mrs.
+William Egremont meant; but Nuttie positively declared, 'Oh, it is her
+headaches!  You know she always had them more or less, and they have
+grown a great deal worse since she has taken to sitting in that horrid,
+stuffy, perfumy, cigar-ry room, and doesn't take half exercise enough.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And when Miss Headworth showed herself much concerned about the state
+of things, Nuttie coaxed her, and declared that she should fancy
+herself unwelcome, and have to go and beg a lodging somewhere instead
+of enjoying her reprieve.  And Aunt Ursel was far less impervious to
+coaxing than she used to be when she was the responsible head of a
+boarding house.  She did most thoroughly enjoy the affection of her
+great niece, and could not persuade herself to be angry with her,
+especially when the girl looked up smiling and said, 'If the worst came
+to the worst and he did disinherit me, the thing would only right
+itself.  I always meant to give it back to Mark.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+No great aunt in the world could fail to admire the generous spirit of
+the girl who came back from the great world of luxury, so loving and
+happy in her humble surroundings.  The only sighs were for poor Alice,
+in the hands of a man of whom Miss Headworth knew so much evil.  If she
+were not wretched and a victim&mdash;and Nuttie did not think her such&mdash;she
+must surely be getting spoilt and worldly.  Her daughter implied fears
+of this kind, yet who could read her letters and think so?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie was fortunately too much in awe of the Canoness to write all the
+pertnesses that tingled at her fingers' ends, and she sent a proper and
+fairly meek letter, intimating, however, that she was only too happy to
+remain at Micklethwayte.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was two or three days more before she heard again.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+'My Own Dear Child&mdash;They have let me write at last, and I can say how
+much I like to think of your nestling up to dear Aunt Ursel, and how
+glad I am to find that she was well enough to enjoy you. It is almost
+like being there to hear of you, and the only thing that grieves me is
+that your father was very much vexed at your setting off in that sudden
+way, and at my being so foolish about it.  His eyes have been very bad,
+and he missed me sadly while I was laid up.  We are neither of us very
+strong, and we think&mdash;if Aunt Ursel and Mary can keep you for a little
+longer&mdash;it will be better for you to stay on with them, as it might be
+as dreary for you as it was last winter, especially as the Rectory folk
+will soon be going into residence.  I will write to them about it and
+persuade them to take something for your board, so as to make it easy
+for them.  And then you can have a fire in your room; you must not
+leave it off now you are used to it.  My dear, I wish you would write a
+little apology to your father.  I ought not to conceal that he is
+really very angry, and I think it would be well if you expressed some
+regret, or if you cannot truthfully do that, asked his pardon for your
+impetuosity; for you know he cannot be expected to realise all that
+dear Aunt Ursel is to us.  You cannot think how kind your Aunt Jane has
+been to me; I did not think she could have been so tender.  This is the
+first letter I ever had to write to you, my own dear child.  I miss you
+every moment, but after all it is better you should be away till your
+father has overlooked this hurried expedition of yours.  I am sure he
+would if you wrote him a real nice letter, telling how you were really
+frightened, and that it was not a mere excuse.  Pray do, and then you
+can come back to your loving little mother.
+<BR><BR>
+                                'A. E.'<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+'As if I would or could,' quoth Nuttie to herself.  'Apologise to him
+indeed, for loving the aunt who toiled for us when he deserted us. Poor
+little mother, she can't really expect it of me.  Indeed, I don't think
+she quite knows what she wants, or whether she likes me to be here or
+at Bridgefield!  My belief is that he bullies her less when I am out of
+the way, because she just gives way to him, and does not assert any
+principle.  I've tried to back her up, and it is of no use, and I am
+sure I don't want such a winter as the last.  So I am much better here;
+and as to begging pardon, when I have done nothing wrong, I am sure I
+won't, to please anybody.  I shall tell her that she ought to know me
+better than to expect it!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Nuttie did not show the letter either to Aunt Ursel or Mary Nugent;
+nor did she see that in which Alice had satisfied them that it might be
+better that her daughter should pay them a long visit, while Mr.
+Egremont's health required constant attendance, and the Canon's family
+were at Redcastle.  And as her husband was always open-handed, she
+could make Ursula's stay with them advantageous to their slender means,
+without hurting their feelings.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She told them as much as she could, but there was more that no living
+creature might know, namely, the advantage that Gregorio had gained
+over that battlefield, his master, during her days of illness.  The
+first cold weather had brought on pain, and anger and anxiety, nervous
+excitement and sleeplessness, which the valet had taken upon him to
+calm with a narcotic under a new name that at first deceived her till
+she traced its effects, and inquired of Dr. Hammond about it.
+Unwillingly, on her account, he enlightened her, and showed her that,
+though the last year's care had done much to loosen the bonds of the
+subtle and alluring habit, yet that any resumption of it tended to
+plunge its victim into the fatal condition of the confirmed
+opium-eater, giving her every hope at the same time that this
+propensity might be entirely shaken off, and that the improvement in
+Mr. Egremont's health and habits which had set in might be confirmed,
+and raise him above the inclination.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Could she have been rid of Gregorio, she would have felt almost sure of
+victory; but as it was, she believed the man absolutely meant to baffle
+her, partly out of a spiteful rivalry, partly because his master's
+torpid indolence could be used to his own advantage.  She was
+absolutely certain that his sneering tone of remark made her husband
+doubly disinclined to let any religious book be near, or to permit her
+to draw him to any Sunday observance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The battle must be fought out alone.  The gentle woman could have no
+earthly helper in the struggle.  The Canon and Mark, the only persons
+who could have given her the slightest aid, were both at a distance,
+even if her loyal heart could have brooked confession to them, and she
+only hoped that Nuttie would never know of it.  Only aid from above
+could be with her in the daily, hourly effort of cheerfulness,
+patience, and all the resources of feminine affection, to avert the
+temptation; and she well knew that the presence of the ardent,
+unsubdued, opinionative girl would, alas! only double the difficulties.
+So she acquiesced, at least for the present, in Nuttie's grand
+achievement of having broken away from all the wealth and luxury of
+Bridgefield to return to her simple home and good old aunt.  Mark was a
+good deal vexed, but Nuttie did not care about that, attributing this
+displeasure to Egremont clanship; Mary Nugent was doubtful and anxious,
+and thought it her duty to reconcile herself to her father; but Miss
+Headworth, who, be it remembered, had reason to have the worst
+impressions of Mr. Egremont, rejoiced in her young niece having escaped
+from him for the time, and only sighed over the impossibility of
+Alice's doing the same.  And when Nuttie described, as she constantly
+did, the various pleasures she had enjoyed during the past year, the
+good old lady secretly viewed her as a noble Christian heroine for
+resigning all this in favour of the quiet little home at Micklethwayte,
+though reticent before her, and discussed her excellence whenever she
+was alone with Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nor would Miss Nugent vex her with contradictions or hints that what
+Nuttie was giving up at present might be a dull house, with her mother
+engrossed by an irritable semi-invalid, and the few gaieties to be
+enjoyed by the help of the Canon's family at Redcastle.  She did ask
+the girl whether Mrs. Egremont, being avowedly not quite well, might
+not need her assistance; but Nuttie vehemently disavowed being of any
+possible use to her father; he never let her read to him! oh no! he
+called her music schoolgirly, a mere infliction; he never spoke to her
+if he could help it, and then it was always with a sort of sneer; she
+believed he could not bear the sight of her, and was ashamed of it, as
+well he might be!  For Mrs. Houghton's disclosures had rankled ever
+since within her, and had been confirmed by her aunt.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But that is very sad,' said Mary.  'I am so sorry for you.  Ought you
+not to try hard to conquer his distaste?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I&mdash;why, he cares for nothing good!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nay,' smiling.  'Not for your mother?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh!  She's pretty, you know; besides, she makes herself a regular
+slave to him, and truckles to him in everything, as I could never do.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Perhaps she is overcoming evil with good.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I am afraid it is more like being overcome of evil.  No, no, dear Miss
+Mary, don't be shocked.  The dear little mother never would be anything
+but good in her own sweet self, but it is her nature not to stand up
+for anything, you know.  She seems to me just like a Christian woman
+that has been obliged to marry some Paynim knight. And it perfectly
+provokes me to see her quite gratified at his notice, and ready to
+sacrifice anything to him, now I know how he treated her.  If I had
+been in her place, I wouldn't have gone back to him; no, not if he had
+been ready to crown me after I was dead, like Ines de Castro.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I don't know that you would have had much choice in that case.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My very ghost would have rebelled,' said Nuttie, laughing a little.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And Mary could believe that Mrs. Egremont, with all her love for her
+daughter, might find it a relief not to have to keep the peace between
+the father and child.  'Yet,' she said to herself, 'if Mr. Dutton were
+here, he would have taken her back the first day.'
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap22"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXII.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+DISENCHANTMENT.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'He promised to buy me a bunch of blue ribbons.'<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+St. Ambrose's road was perfectly delightful as long as there was any
+expectation of a speedy recall.  Every day was precious; every meeting
+with an old face was joyful; each interchange of words with Mr. Spyers
+or Gerard Godfrey was hailed as a boon; nothing was regretted but the
+absence of Monsieur and his master, and that the favourite choir boy's
+voice was cracked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But when there was reason to think that success had been complete, when
+Miss Headworth had been persuaded by Mary that it was wiser on all
+accounts not to mortify Alice by refusing the two guineas a week
+offered for Miss Egremont's expenses; when a couple of boxes of clothes
+and books had arrived, and Ursula found herself settled at
+Micklethwayte till after Christmas, she began first to admit to herself
+that somehow the place was not all that it had once been to her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her mother was absent, that was one thing.  Mrs. Nugent was gone, that
+was another.  There was no Monsieur or Mr. Dutton to keep her in awe of
+his precision, even while she laughed at it.  There were no boarders to
+patronise and play with, and her education at the High School was over.
+If she saw a half-clothed child, it was not half so interesting to buy
+an ulster in the next shop, as it was to turn over the family rag-bag,
+knit, sew, and contrive!  Somehow things had a weariness in them, and
+the little excitements did not seem to be the exquisite delights they
+used to be.  After having seen Patience at the Princess's it was not
+easy to avoid criticising a provincial Lady Jane, and it was the like
+with other things of more importance.  Even the ritual of St. Ambrose's
+Church no longer struck her as the ne plus ultra of beauty, and only
+incited her to describe London churches.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She resumed her Sunday-school classes, and though she talked at first
+of their raciness and freedom, she soon longed after the cleanliness,
+respectfulness, and docility of the despised little Bridgefordites, and
+uttered bitter things of Micklethwayte turbulence, declaring&mdash;perhaps
+not without truth&mdash;that the children had grown much worse in her
+absence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And as Mr. Godfrey had been superintendent during the latter half of
+the time, this was a cruel stroke.  He wanted to make her reverse her
+opinions.  And they never met without 'Now, Ursula, don't you remember
+Jem Burton putting on Miss Pope's spectacles, and grinning at all the
+class.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes; and how Mr. Dutton brought him up to beg her pardon.  Now, was
+any notice taken when that horrid boy&mdash;I don't know his name&mdash;turned
+the hymn they were saying to her into "Tommy, make room for your
+uncle"?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, Albert Cox!  It is no use doing anything to him, he would go off
+at once to the Primitives.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Let him!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I cannot make him a schismatic.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I wonder what he is now!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Besides, Miss Pope perfectly provokes impertinence.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Then I wouldn't give her work she can't do.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Such an argument as this might be very well at the moment of
+provocation, but it became tedious when recurred to at every meeting.
+Nuttie began to wonder when Monks Horton would be inhabited again, and
+how much notice Lady Kirkaldy would take of her, and she was a good
+deal disappointed when Mark told her that Lord Kirkaldy had been begged
+to undertake a diplomatic mission which would keep them abroad all the
+winter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a certain weariness and want of interest.  It was not exactly
+that there was nothing intellectual going on.  There were the lectures,
+but they were on chemistry, for which Nuttie cared little. There were
+good solid books, and lively ones too, but they seemed passe to one who
+had heard them discussed in town.  Mary and Miss Headworth read and
+talked them over, and perhaps their opinions were quite as wise, and
+Miss Nugent's conversation was equal to that of any of Nuttie's London
+friends, but it was only woman's talk after all&mdash;the brilliancy and
+piquancy, the touch and go, she had enjoyed in Lady Kirkaldy's
+drawing-room was lacking.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Spyers was too much immersed in parish matters to read anything
+secular, and neither he nor Gerard Godfrey seemed ever to talk of
+anything but parish matters.  There was not the slightest interest in
+anything beyond.  Foreign politics, European celebrities,&mdash;things in
+which Nuttie had learnt to take warm interest when with the Kirkaldys,
+were nothing to them.  Even Mary wondered at her endeavours to see the
+day's paper, and she never obtained either information or sympathy
+unless she came across Mark.  It seemed to her that Gerard cared less
+for the peace or war of an empire than for a tipsy cobbler taking the
+pledge.  The monotony and narrowness of the world where she had once
+been so happy fretted and wearied her, though she was ashamed of
+herself all the time, and far too proud to allow that she was tired of
+it all.  Aunt Ursel at her best had always been a little dry and grave,
+an authority over the two nieces; and though softened, she was not
+expansive, did not invite confidences, and home was not home without
+the playfellow-mother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And most especially was she daily tired of Gerard Godfrey!  Had he
+always talked of nothing but 'the colours,' chants, E. C. U., classes,
+and teetotalism?  Whatever she began it always came back to one or
+other of these subjects, and when she impatiently declared that she was
+perfectly sick of hearing of the Use of Sarum, he looked at her as
+guilty of a profanity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Perhaps it was true that he was narrower than he had been.  He was a
+good, honest, religiously-minded lad, but with no great depth or grasp
+of intellect; Ursula Egremont had been his companion first and then his
+romance, and the atmosphere of the community in which he lived had been
+studious and intelligent.  His expedition to Redcastle had convinced
+him that the young lady lived in a different world, entirely beyond his
+reach, and in the reaction of his hopelessness, he had thrown himself
+into the excitement of the mission, and it had worked on him a zealous
+purpose to dedicate himself totally to a religious life, giving up all
+worldly aims, and employing the small capital he could call his own in
+preparing for the ministry.  Mr. Dutton had insisted that he should
+test his own steadfastness and resolution by another year's work in his
+present situation before he took any steps.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He had submitted, but still viewed himself as dedicated, and so far as
+business hours permitted, gave his services like a clerical pupil to
+St. Ambrose's with the greatest energy, and perhaps somewhat less
+judgment than if Mr. Dutton had been at hand.  Being without natural
+taste for intellectual pursuits, unless drawn into them by his
+surroundings, he had dropped them entirely, and read nothing but the
+ephemeral controversial literature of his party, and not much of that,
+for he was teaching, preaching, exhorting, throughout his spare time;
+while the vicar was in too great need of help to insist on deepening
+the source from which his zealous assistant drew.  As Miss Nugent
+observed, teetotalism was to him what dissipation was to other young
+men.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On this vehemence of purpose descended suddenly Ursula Egremont once
+more; and the human heart could not but be quickened with the idea, not
+entirely unfounded, that it was to him that she had flown back, and
+that her exile proved that she cared for him more than for all the
+delights she had enjoyed as heiress of Bridgefield.  The good youth was
+conscientious to the back-bone, and extremely perplexed between his
+self-dedication and the rights that their implied understanding might
+give to her.  Was she to be the crowning blessing of his life, to be
+saved partly through his affection from worldly trials and temptations,
+and bestowing on him a brilliant lot in which boundless good could be
+effected?  Or was she a syren luring him to abandon his higher and
+better purposes?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The first few days of her stay, the former belief made him feel like
+treading on air, or like the hero of many a magazine story; but as time
+went on this flattering supposition began to fail him, when Nuttie
+showed her weariness of the subjects which, in his exclusiveness, he
+deemed the only ones worthy of a Christian, or rather of a Catholic.
+Both of them had outgrown the lively, aimless chatter and little jests
+that had succeeded the games of childhood, and the growth had been in
+different directions, so that Ursula felt herself untrue to her old
+romance when she became weary of his favourite topics, disappointed by
+his want of sympathy and comprehension, fretted by his petty
+disapprovals, and annoyed by his evident distaste for Mark, to whom she
+turned as to one of her proper world.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At last, after many tossings, Gerard fixed upon a test.  If she endured
+it she would be the veritable maiden of his imagination, and they would
+stand by one another, come what would; if not, he would believe that
+the past had been fancy, not love, or love that had not withstood the
+attractions of fashionable life.  A great temperance meeting was coming
+on, and Gerard, eager at once to fill the room, and to present a goodly
+roll of recruits, watched anxiously for his moment, and came on Nuttie
+with his hands full of bills in huge letters, and his pockets of badges.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Excellent speakers,' he cried.  'We shall have the hall crowded.
+You'll come, Ursula?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I don't know what Miss Mary will do.  I don't think she means it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, if you insist, if we both insist, she will.  Look at the paper&mdash;we
+are to have some splendid experiences.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie made a face.  'I've heard all about those,' she said.  'That
+man,' pointing to one of the names, 'regularly rants about it; he is
+like a madman.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He does go rather far, but it is quite necessary, as you will hear.
+Oh, Nuttie, if you would only be one of us!  I've brought a card!  If
+you would!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Why, what's the use, Gerard!  I don't like wine, I never do drink it,
+except a little claret-cup sometimes when I can't get water.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Then it would cost you nothing.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, it would.  It would make me ridiculous.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You used not to heed the sneers of the world.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not for anything worth doing&mdash;but this is not.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It is the greatest cause of the day!' he cried, in an eager exalted
+manner, which somewhat inclined her to laugh.  'Do away with alcohol
+and you would do away with crime!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Thank you for the compliment, Gerard; I never found that the
+infinitesimal drop of alcohol that I suppose there is in a tumbler of
+claret-cup disposed me to commit crimes.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Why won't you understand me, Ursula!  Can't you give up that for the
+sake of saving others!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I wonder whom it would save.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Example saves!  If you put on this'&mdash;taking out the badge&mdash;'how many
+should you not lead at your home?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Just nobody!  Mother and I should have a bad time of it, that's all.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And if you endured, what would not your testimony effect in the
+household and village?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nothing!  I have nothing to do with the men-servants, and as to the
+village, it is very sober.  There's only one public house, and that is
+kept by Uncle William's old butler, and is as orderly as can be.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah! that's the way you all deceive yourselves.  Moderate drinkers are
+ten times more mischievous than regular drunkards.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Thank you, Gerard!  And outrageous abstainers are more mischievous
+than either of them, because they make the whole thing so utterly
+foolish and absurd.'  She was really angry now, and so was Gerard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Is that your ultimatum?' he asked, in a voice that he strove to render
+calm.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Certainly; I'm not going to take the pledge.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Having quarrelled in childhood, made quarrelling now easier, and Gerard
+answered bitterly:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Very well, I hope you will have no cause to repent it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+''Tis not the way to make me repent it, to see how it seems to affect
+some people's common sense.  It is just as if all your brains had run
+to water!' said Nuttie, laughing a little; but Gerard was desperately
+serious, and coloured vehemently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Very well, Miss Egremont, I understand.  I have had my answer,' he
+said, gathering up his papers and marching out of the room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She stood still, offended, and not in the least inclined to run after
+him and take back her words.  He, poor fellow, stumbled down the steps,
+and held by the garden rail to collect his senses and compose himself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What's the matter, Gerard, are you ill or giddy?' asked Miss Nugent,
+coming up in the winter twilight.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, oh no!  Only the dream of my life is over,' he answered, scarce
+knowing what he said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You haven't&mdash;' cried Mary aghast.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh no,' he said, understanding the blank, 'only she won't take the
+pledge!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I don't see how she could or ought,' responded Mary.  'Is that all?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I had made it the test,' muttered poor Gerard.  'It is right!  It is
+all over now.  I shall know how to go on my way.  It is best so&mdash;I know
+it is&mdash;only I did not know whether anything was due to her.'  It was
+almost a sob.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Dear old Gerard,' said Mary, 'I see you meant to do right.  It is well
+your mind should be settled.  I think you'll find comfort in your good
+work.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He wrung her hand, and she went in, half amused, for she was fully
+aware of the one-sidedness of the mania for temperance under which he
+acted, yet honouring his high, pure motives, and rejoicing that he had
+found this indirect mode of gauging Nuttie's feelings towards him&mdash;that
+is, if he was right about them, and there was no revulsion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Far from it.  Nuttie was still angry.  'Gerard had been so ridiculous,'
+she said, 'teasing her to take the pledge, and quite incapable of
+understanding her reasons.  I can't think why Gerard has grown so
+stupid.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Enthusiasms carry people away,' returned Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If Mr. Dutton had only stayed, he would have kept Gerard like
+himself,' said Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But there was no relenting.  The two young people avoided each other;
+and perhaps Nuttie was secretly relieved that the romance she had
+outgrown no longer entangled her.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap23"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+A FAILURE.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'Would I had loved her more!'&mdash;Mrs. Hemans.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+'On the 14th of January, at Bridgefield Egremont, the wife of Alwyn
+Piercefield Egremont, Esquire, a son and heir.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ursula had been prepared for this event for about a fortnight by a long
+tender letter from her mother, mourning over the not meeting at
+Christmas, and the long separation, but saying that she had wished to
+spare the long anxiety, and that it had been a trying time which she
+felt herself able to cope with better alone, than even with her dear
+Nuttie, knowing her to be happy and safe with Aunt Ursel.  Now, if all
+went well, they would have a happy meeting, and begin on a new score.
+'If the will of God should be otherwise,' added Alice, 'I am sure I
+need not entreat my Nuttie to do and be all that she can to her father.
+My child, you do not know how sorely he needs such love and tendance
+and prayer as you can give him.  I know you have thought I have set you
+aside&mdash;if not better things, for his sake.  Indeed I could not help
+it.'  Then there was something tear-stained and blotted out, and it
+ended with, 'He is beginning to miss your step and voice about the
+house.  I believe he will really be glad to see you, when the bright
+spring days come, and I can kiss my own Nuttie again.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie was very much delighted, but a little hurt that her aunt and
+Mary should have been in the secret, and pledged to say nothing to her
+till her mother should write.  She found, moreover, that Miss Headworth
+was extremely anxious and not altogether reassured by Mrs. William
+Egremont's letter of announcement, which filled Nuttie with delight.
+How happy the little mother must be to have a baby in her arms again,
+and though she herself did not profess to have a strong turn for infant
+humanity, it was the greatest possible relief to be no longer an
+heiress, excepting that the renunciation in favour of Mark was no
+longer practicable.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The residence at Redcastle was not over, but the Canoness had come to
+nurse her sister-in-law, and kept up the correspondence.  The son and
+heir was reported to be a perfect specimen, and his father was greatly
+elated and delighted, but the letters showed anxiety about the mother,
+who did not get on as she ought, and seemed to have no power of rally
+about her.  At length came a letter that seemed to burn itself into
+Nuttie's brain&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+'My Dear Ursula&mdash;Your mother is longing to see you.  You had better
+come home directly.  Your aunt saved her before.  Tell her if she will
+come, she shall have my deepest gratitude.  I shall send to meet the
+5.11 train.&mdash;Your affectionate father,
+<BR><BR>
+                                       A. P. EGREMONT.'<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. William Egremont wrote at more length.  Symptoms had set in which
+filled the doctors and nurses with double anxiety.  Advice had been
+sent for from London, and Mr. Egremont was in an uncontrollable state
+of distress.  She had undertaken to summon Ursula home, and to beg Miss
+Headworth to undertake the journey.  She evidently did not know that
+her brother-in-law had written himself, and before they could start a
+telegram terrified them, but proved to contain no fresh tidings, only a
+renewed summons.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Headworth forgot all her resolutions about Mr. Egremont's
+hospitality&mdash;her Alice was her only thought, and all the remedies that
+had been found efficacious at Dieppe.  The good lady had a certain
+confidence in her own nursing and experience of Alice, which buoyed her
+up with hope, while Ursula seemed absolutely stunned.  She had never
+thought of such a frightful loss or grief, and her mental senses were
+almost paralysed, so that she went through the journey in a kind of
+surface trance, observing all around her much as usual, looking out for
+the luggage and for the servant who had come to meet them with the
+report 'No change.'  She did the honours of the carriage, and covered
+Miss Headworth with the fur rug.  They wanted it, for they were
+shivering with anxiety.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Canon Egremont came out to the front hall to meet them, and put his
+arms round Nuttie tenderly, saying, 'My poor dear child!' then as he
+saw he had frightened them, 'No, no!  She is alive&mdash;conscious they say,
+only so very weak.'  Then with something of his usual urbane grace, he
+held out his hand, 'Miss Headworth, it is very good in you to come.
+You have a great deal to forgive.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He took them into the tent-room, where tea was standing, interrupting
+himself in the account he was giving to bid Nuttie let her aunt have
+some.  It was plain from his manner that he had given up hope, and in
+another minute in hurried his brother, looking terribly haggard and
+with bloodshot eyes, giving his hand to each, with, 'That's right, Miss
+Headworth, thank you.  Come, let me know what you think of her!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Does she know they are come?' said the Canon.  'No?  Then, Alwyn, let
+them have some tea, and take off their things.  I can tell you, the
+nurses will never let them in just off a journey.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Headworth seconded this, and Mr. Egremont submitted, allowing that
+she had not asked for Nuttie since the morning, and then had smiled and
+squeezed his hand when he said she was coming with her aunt; but he
+walked up and down in direful restlessness, his whole mind apparently
+bent on extracting from Miss Headworth that she had been as ill or
+worse at Dieppe.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Alas! when Mrs. William Egremont came down to fetch Nuttie; there was
+no question that matters were much worse.  The sweet face was perfectly
+white and wasted, and the heavy lids of the dark eyes scarcely lifted
+themselves, but the lips moved into a smile, and the hand closed on
+that of the girl, who stood by her as one frozen into numbness.  There
+was the same recognition when her aunt was brought to her side, the
+poor old lady commanding herself with difficulty, as the loving glance
+quivered over the face.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Time passed on, and she still held Nuttie's hand.  Once, when a little
+revived by some stimulant at her lips, she made an effort and said,
+'Stay with him!  Take care of him!  <I>Love</I> him!  And your little
+brother, my Nuttie!  Promise!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I promise,' the girl answered, scarce knowing what she said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And the eyes closed with an air of peace and rest.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Again when Miss Headworth was doing something to ease her position she
+said, 'Thank you,' and then more vigorously, 'Thank you, dear aunt, for
+all you have been to us.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was little more.  She asked Nuttie for 'her hymn,' the evening
+hymn with which mother and daughter used nightly to go to sleep, and
+which, in her strange dreamy way, the girl managed to say.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then a little murmur and sign passed between the elder ladies, and Mrs.
+William Egremont fetched her husband.  As he opened his book to find
+the commendatory prayer, thinking her past all outward consciousness,
+and grieved by the look of suffering, her eyes again unclosed and her
+lips said, 'Failed.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Don't think of that!  God can make failures success.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a half smile, a look of peace.  '<I>He</I> makes up,' she said;
+and those were the last audible words before it was over, and the
+tender spirit was released from its strife, some time later, they only
+knew when by the failure of the clasp on her husband's hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Old Miss Headworth did not understand the meaning of that sad word till
+the next forenoon.  Then,&mdash;as she sat in the darkened tent-room, crying
+over her letters,&mdash;while the stunned and bewildered Nuttie was, under
+her Aunt Jane's direction, attending to the needful arrangements, Canon
+Egremont wandered in upon her in the overflow of confidence of a man
+with a full heart, wanting to talk it all out, communicating the more,
+because she was a discreet woman, and asked no questions.  He had tried
+to see his brother, but Gregorio had not admitted him.  He was aware
+now of the whole state of things.  Dr. Hammond had told him, when first
+beginning to be alarmed for his patient, that the principal cause for
+anxiety was the exhaustion caused by the long strain on her spirits and
+strength consequent on her efforts to wean her husband from his fatal
+propensity.  There had been other 'complications,' as the doctor called
+them, and more immediate causes of danger, but both he and his
+colleague, summoned from London, believed that she would have
+surmounted them if she had had more strength to rally.  But her nurses
+dated the decided turn for the worse from the day when she had gazed up
+into Mr. Egremont's face, and detected the look in his eyes that she
+had learnt too well to understand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She would fain have lived, and, according to her obedient nature, had
+submitted to all the silence and stillness enforced on her; but she had
+told Dr. Hammond that she must see her brother-in-law before she was
+too far gone.  And the doctor, knowing all, took care it should be
+brought about.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And then she had spoken of her failure in the effort of these years.
+'If I had begun better,' she said, 'it might not have been so with him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My dear, indeed you have nothing to blame yourself for.  You were
+grievously sinned against by us all.  Alwyn was no saint when he drew
+you into it&mdash;and you, you have been his good angel, doing all and more
+too,' said the Canon, almost breaking down.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I tried&mdash;but if I had been a better woman&mdash;And to leave him to that
+man!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Child, child, victories sometimes come this way!' he cried, scarce
+knowing how it was put into his mouth, but glad to see the light in her
+eye.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Thanks,' she replied.  'No, I ought not to have said that.  I leave
+him to God, and my poor Nuttie.  I want you to tell her, if I can't,
+what she must try to do.  If I had but brought them together more! But
+I tried for the best.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then she begged for her last communion, saying, 'I do pray for that
+poor Gregorio.  Isn't that forgiving him?'  And the attempt to exchange
+forgiveness with the Canon for their mutual behaviour at the time of
+her marriage overcame them both so much that they had to leave it not
+half uttered.  Indeed, in speaking of the scene, William Egremont was
+utterly overwhelmed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And that's the woman that I treated as a mere outcast!' he cried,
+walking about the little room.  'Oh God, forgive me!  I shall never
+forgive myself.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Poor Miss Headworth!  In past days she had longed for any amount of
+retribution on Alice's hard-hearted employers, but it was a very
+different thing to witness such grief and self reproach.  He had in
+truth much more developed ideas of duty, both as man and priest, than
+when he had passively left a disagreeable subject to his mother-in-law,
+as lying within a woman's province; and his good heart was suffering
+acutely for the injustice and injury in which he had shared towards one
+now invested with an almost saintly halo.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the gush of feeling he had certainly revealed more to Miss
+Headworth, than his wife, or even he himself, in his cooler moments,
+would have thought prudent, and he ended by binding her to secrecy; and
+saying that he should only tell his niece what was necessary for her to
+know.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie was going about, dry-eyed and numbed, glad of any passing
+occupation that would prevent the aching sense of desolation at her
+heart from gaining force to overwhelm her; courting employment, and
+shunning pity and condolence, but she could not escape when her uncle
+took her hand, made her sit down by him, with 'I want to speak to you,
+my dear;' and told her briefly and tenderly what her mother's effort
+had been, and of the message and task she had bequeathed. The poor
+girl's heart fainted within her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh! but, Uncle William, how can I?  How can I ever?  Mother could do
+things I never could!  He <I>did</I> care for her!  He does not care for me!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You must teach him to do so, Nuttie.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh!' she said, with a hopeless sound.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Canon did think it very hopeless in his heart, but he persevered,
+as in duty bound.  'I told your dear mother that perhaps you would
+succeed where she thought she had failed, though indeed she had done
+much.  It made her happy.  So, my dear child, you are bound to do your
+best.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes;' then, after a pause&mdash;'But mother could coax him and manage him.
+Mother was with him day and night; she could always get at him. What
+can I do?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I think you will find that he depends upon you more,' said the Canon,
+'and it may be made easier to you, if you only set your will to it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If I ought, I'll try,' said poor Nuttie, more humbly perhaps than she
+had ever spoken before, but in utter dejection, and her uncle answered
+her like a child.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'There, that's a good girl.  Nobody can do more.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For the Canon had one hope.  He had not thought it becoming to speak to
+her of the counter influence, but he could not help thinking it
+possible that if he and his son, backed by doctor and lawyer, made a
+long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether, they might induce his
+brother to part with Gregorio, and this would render Ursula's task far
+less impossible.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was confirmed in this hope by finding that Mark's arrival was not
+unwelcome to Mr. Egremont, who seemed to have forgotten the
+unpleasantness with which he had regarded the engagement, and only
+remembered that his nephew had been Alice's champion, resuming old
+customs of dependence, making him act as amanuensis, and arraigning the
+destiny that had restored so lovely and charming a creature only to
+snatch her away, leaving nothing but a headstrong girl and a helpless
+baby.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That poor little fellow was all that could be desired at his age, but
+Nuttie felt her beautiful mother almost insulted when the elder ladies
+talked of the wonderful resemblance that the Canoness declared to have
+been quite startling in the earlier hours of his life.  For the
+convenience of one of the sponsors, he was to be christened in the
+afternoon following the funeral, the others being&mdash;by his mother's
+special entreaty&mdash;his sister and Mark.  Egremont customs were against
+the ladies going to the funeral, so that Nuttie was kept at home, much
+against her will; but after the luncheon she escaped, leaving word with
+her aunts that she was going to walk down to church alone, and they
+were sorry enough for her to let her have her own way, especially as
+her father, having been to the funeral, had shut himself up and left
+all the rest to them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Egremont family had a sort of enclosure or pen with iron rails
+round it close to the church wall, where they rested under flat slabs.
+The gate in this was open now, and the new-made grave was one mass of
+white flowers,&mdash;wreaths and crosses, snowdrops, hyacinths, camellias,
+and the like,&mdash;and at the feet was a flowerpot with growing plants of
+the white hyacinth called in France 'lys de la Vierge.'  These, before
+they became frequent in England, had been grown in Mr. Dutton's
+greenhouse, and having been favourites with Mrs. Egremont, it had come
+to be his custom every spring to bring her the earliest plants that
+bloomed.  Nuttie knew them well, the careful tying up, the neat
+arrangement of moss over the earth, the peculiar trimness of the whole;
+and as she looked, the remembrance of the happy times of old, the sick
+longing for all that was gone, did what nothing had hitherto
+effected&mdash;brought an overwhelming gush of tears.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was no checking them now that they had come.  She fled into
+church on the first sounds of arrival and hid herself in the friendly
+shelter of the great family pew; but she had to come out and take her
+place, though she could hardly utter a word, and it was all that she
+could do to keep from sobbing aloud; she could not hand the babe, and
+the Canon had to take on trust the name 'Alwyn Headworth,' for he could
+not hear the words that were on her trembling lips.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was soon over; and while the baby and his attendants, with Miss
+Headworth, were being packed into the carriage, and her uncle and aunt
+bowing off the grand god-father, she clutched her cousin's arm, and
+said, 'Mark; where's Mr. Dutton?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I&mdash;I didn't know he was coming, but now you ask, I believe I saw him
+this morning.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I know he is here.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Do you want to see him?' said Mark kindly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, if I might!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then, with a sudden impulse, she looked back into the church, and
+recognised a black figure and slightly bald head bowed down in one of
+the seats.  She pointed him out.  'No doubt he is waiting for us all to
+be gone,' said Mark in a low voice.  'You go into the Rectory, Nuttie;
+there's a fire in the study, and I'll bring him to you there. I'll get
+him to stay the night if I can.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, thank you!' and it was a really fervent answer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mark waited, and when Mr. Dutton rose, was quite shocked at his
+paleness and the worn look on his face, as of one who had struggled
+hard for resignation and calm.  He started, almost as if a blow had
+been struck him, as Mark uttered his name in the porch, no doubt having
+never meant to be perceived nor to have to speak to any one; but in one
+moment his features had recovered their usual expression of courteous
+readiness.  He bowed his head when Mark told him that Ursula wanted to
+shake hands with him, and came towards the Rectory, but he entirely
+declined the invitation to sleep there, declaring that he must return
+to London that night.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mark opened the study door, and then went away to secure that the man
+whom he had learnt to esteem very highly should at least have some
+refreshment before he left the house.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Those few steps had given Mr. Dutton time to turn from a mourner to a
+consoler, and when Nuttie came towards him with her hand outstretched,
+and 'Oh, Mr. Dutton, Mr. Dutton!' he took it in both his, and with a
+calm broken voice said, 'God has been very good to us in letting us
+know one like her.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But oh! what can we do without her?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah, Nuttie! that always comes before us.  But I saw your work and your
+comfort just now.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Poor little boy!  I shall get to care about him, I know, but as yet I
+can only feel how much rather I would have <I>her</I>.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No doubt, but it is <I>her</I> work that is left you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Her work?  Yes!  But oh, Mr. Dutton, you don't know how dreadful it
+is!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He did not know what she meant.  Whether it was simply the burthen on
+any suddenly motherless girl, or any special evil on her father's part,
+but he was soon enlightened, for there was something in this old friend
+that drew out her confidence beyond all others, even when he repressed
+her, and she could not help telling him in a few murmured furtive words
+such as she knew she ought not to utter, and he felt it almost treason
+to hear.  'Opiates! she was always trying to keep my father from them!
+It was too much for her!  My uncle says I must try to do it, and I
+can't.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Poor child!' said Mr. Dutton kindly, though cut to the heart at the
+revelation of sweet Alice's trial; 'at least you can strive, and there
+is always a blessing on resolution.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, if you knew! and he doesn't like me.  I don't think I've ever been
+nice to him, and that vexed her!  I haven't got her ways.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No,' said Mr. Dutton, 'but you will learn others.  Look here, Nuttie.
+You used to be always craving for grand and noble tasks, the more
+difficult the better.  I think you have got one now, more severe than
+ever could have been thought of&mdash;and very noble.  What are those lines
+about the task "bequeathed from bleeding sire to son"?  Isn't it like
+that?  You are bound to go on with her work, and the more helpless you
+feel, and the more you throw yourself on God, the more God will help
+you.  He takes the will for the deed, if only you have will enough;
+and, Nuttie, you can pray that you may be able to love and honour him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Teacups were brought in, followed by Mark, and interrupted them; and,
+after a short interval, they parted at the park gate, and Ursula walked
+home with Mark, waked from her dull numb trance, with a crushed feeling
+as if she had been bruised all over, and yet with a purpose within her.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap24"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+FARMS OR UMBRELLAS.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'He tokin into his handis<BR>
+   His londis and his lode.'&mdash;CHAUCER.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+'Mark!  Mark!'  A little figure stood on the gravel road leading
+through Lescombe Park, and lifted up an eager face, as Mark jumped down
+from his horse.  'I made sure you would come over.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, but I could not get away earlier.  And I have so much to say to
+you and your mother, Annaple; there's a great proposition to be
+considered.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh dear! and here is John bearing down upon us.  Never mind.  We'll
+get into the mither's room and be cosy!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well, Mark,' said Sir John's hearty voice, 'I thought you would be
+here.  Come to luncheon?  That's right!  And how is poor Egremont? I
+thought he looked awful at the funeral.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He is fairly well, thank you; but it was a terrible shock.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I should think so.  To find such a pretty sweet creature just to lose
+her again.  Child likely to live, eh?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh yes, he is a fine fellow, and has never had anything amiss with
+him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Poor little chap!  Doesn't know what he has lost!  Well, Nannie,' as
+they neared the house, 'do you want a tete-a-tete or to take him in to
+your mother?  Here, I'll take the horse.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Come to her at once,' said Annaple; 'she wants to hear all, and
+besides she is expecting me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mark was welcomed by Lady Ronnisglen with inquiries for all concerned,
+and especially for that 'poor girl.  I do pity a young thing who has to
+take a woman's place too soon,' she said.  'It takes too much out of
+her!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I should think Ursula had plenty of spirit,' said Annaple.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I don't know whether spirit is what is wanted,' said Mark.  'Her
+mother prevailed more without it than I am afraid she is likely to do
+with it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Complements answer better than parallels sometimes, but not always,'
+said Lady Ronnisglen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Which are we?' asked Annaple demurely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not parallels certainly, for then we should never meet,' responded
+Mark.  'But here is the proposal.  My father and all the rest of us
+have been doing our best to get my uncle to smooth Ursula's way by
+getting rid of that valet of his.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'The man with the Mephistopheles face?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Exactly.  He is a consummate scoundrel, as we all know, and so does my
+uncle himself, but he has been about him these twelve or fourteen
+years, and has got a sort of hold on him&mdash;that&mdash;that&mdash; It is no use to
+talk of it, but it did not make that dear aunt of mine have an easier
+life.  In fact I should not be a bit surprised if he had been a
+hindrance in the hunting her up.  Well, the fellow thought proper to
+upset some arrangements my mother had made, and then was more insolent
+than I should have thought even he could have been towards her.  I
+suppose he had got into the habit with poor Aunt Alice.  That made a
+fulcrum, and my father went at my uncle with a will.  I never saw my
+father so roused in my life.  I don't mean by the behaviour to his
+wife, but at what he knew of the fellow, and all the harm he had done
+and is doing.  And actually my uncle gave in at last, and consented to
+tell Gregorio to look out for another situation, if he has not
+feathered his nest too well to need one, as I believe he has.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, that will make it much easier for Ursula!' cried Annaple.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If he goes,' put in her mother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I think he will.  I really had no notion how much these two years have
+improved my uncle!  To be sure, it would be hard to live with such a
+woman as that without being the better for it!  But he really seems to
+have acquired a certain notion of duty!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They did not smile at the simple way in which Mark spoke of this vast
+advance, and Lady Ronnisglen said, 'I hope so, for the sake of his
+daughter and that poor little boy.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I think that has something to do with it,' said Mark.  'He feels a
+responsibility, and still more, I think he was struck by having a
+creature with him to whom evil was like physical pain.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It will work,' said Lady Ronnisglen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Then,' went on Mark, 'he took us all by surprise by making me this
+proposal&mdash;to take the management of the estate, and become a kind of
+private secretary to him.  You know he gets rheumatism on the optic
+nerve, and is almost blind at times.  He would give me £300 a year, and
+do up the house at the home farm, rent free.  What do you say to that,
+Annaple?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a silence, then Annaple said: 'Give up the umbrellas!  Oh!
+What do you think, Mark?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My father wishes it,' said Mark.  'He would, as he had promised to do,
+make over to me my share of my own mother's fortune, and that would, I
+have been reckoning, bring us to just what we had thought of starting
+upon this spring at Micklethwayte.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'The same now,' said Lady Ronnisglen, after some reckoning, 'but what
+does it lead to?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well&mdash;nothing, I am afraid,' said Mark; 'as you know, this is all I
+have to reckon upon.  The younger children will have hardly anything
+from their mother, so that my father's means must chiefly go to them.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And this agency is entirely dependent on your satisfying Mr. Egremont?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'True, but that's a thing only too easily done.  However, as you say,
+this agency has no future, and if that came to an end, I should only
+have to look out for another or take to farming.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And ask poor John if that is a good speculation nowadays!' said
+Annaple.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Fortunes are and have been made on the umbrellas,' said Mark.
+'Greenleaf has a place almost equal to Monks Horton, and Dutton, though
+he makes no show, has realised a considerable amount.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh yes, let us stick to the umbrellas!' cried Annaple; 'you've made
+the plunge, so it does not signify now, and we should be so much more
+independent out of the way of everybody.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You would lose in society,' said Mark, 'excepting, of course, as to
+the Monks Horton people; but they are often away.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Begging your pardon, Mark, is there much to lose in this same
+neighbourhood?' laughed Annaple, 'now May will go.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It is not so much a question of liking,' added her mother, 'as of what
+is for the best, and where you may wish to be&mdash;say ten years hence.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Looked at in this way, there could be no question but that the umbrella
+company promised to make Mark a richer man in ten years' time than did
+the agency at Bridgefield Egremont.  He had a salary from the office
+already, and if he purchased shares in the partnership with the portion
+his father would resign to him, his income would already equal what he
+would have at Bridgefield, and there was every prospect of its
+increase, both as he became more valuable, and as the business
+continued to prosper.  If the descent in life had been a grievance to
+the ladies, the agency would have been an infinite boon, but having
+swallowed so much, as Annaple said, they might as well do it in
+earnest, and to some purpose.  Perhaps, too, it might be detected that
+under the circumstances Annaple would prefer the living in a small way
+out of reach of her sister's visible compassion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So the matter was settled, but there was an undercurrent in Mark's mind
+on which he had not entered, namely, that his presence at home might
+make all the difference in that reformation in his uncle's habits which
+Alice had inaugurated, and left in the hands of others. With him at
+hand, there was much more chance of Gregorio's being dispensed with,
+Ursula's authority maintained, little Alwyn well brought up, and the
+estate, tenants, and household properly cared for, and then he smiled
+at his notion of supposing himself of so much importance.  Had he only
+had himself to consider, Mark would have thought his duty plain; but
+when he found Miss Ruthven and her mother so entirely averse, he did
+not deem it right to sacrifice them to the doubtful good of his uncle,
+nor indeed to put the question before them as so much a matter of
+conscience that they should feel bound to consider it in that light.
+He did indeed say, 'Well, that settles it,' in a tone that led Annaple
+to exclaim: 'I do believe you want to drop the umbrellas!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No,' he answered, 'it is not that, but my father wished it, and
+thought it would be good for my uncle.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No doubt,' said Annaple, 'but he has got a daughter, also a son, and a
+brother, and agents are plentiful, so I can't see why all the family
+should dance attendance on him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lady Ronnisglen, much misdoubting Mr. Egremont's style of society, and
+dreading that Mark might be dragged into it, added her word, feeling on
+her side that it was desirable and just to hinder the family from
+sacrificing Mark's occupation and worldly interest to a capricious old
+roue, who might very possibly throw him over when it would be almost
+impossible to find anything else to do.  Moreover, both she and Annaple
+believed that the real wish was to rescue the name of Egremont from
+association with umbrellas, and they held themselves bound to combat
+what they despised and thought a piece of worldly folly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So Mark rode home, more glad that the decision was actually made than
+at the course it had taken.  His father was disappointed, but could not
+but allow that it was the more prudent arrangement; and Mr. Egremont
+showed all the annoyance of a man whose good offer has been rejected.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+''Tis that little giggling Scotch girl!' he said.  'Well, we are quit
+of her, anyway.  'Tis a pity that Mark entangled himself with her, and
+a mother-in-law into the bargain!  I was a fool to expect to get any
+good out of him!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This was said to his daughter, with whom he was left alone; for Miss
+Headworth could not bear to accept his hospitality a moment longer than
+needful, and besides had been so much shaken in nerves as to suspect
+that an illness was coming on, and hurried home to be nursed by Mary
+Nugent.  Canon Egremont was obliged to go back to Redcastle to finish
+his residence, and his wife, who had been absent nearly a month from
+her family, thought it really wisest to let the father and daughter be
+thrown upon one another at once, so that Ursula might have the benefit
+of her father's softened mood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There could be no doubt that he was softened, and that he had derived
+some improvement from the year and a half that his wife had been with
+him.  It might not have lifted him up a step, but it had arrested him
+in his downward course.  Selfish and indolent he was as ever, but there
+had been a restraint on his amusements, and a withdrawal from his worst
+associates, such as the state of his health might continue, above all
+if Gregorio could be dispensed with.  The man himself had become aware
+of the combination against him, and, though reckoning on his master's
+inertness and dependence upon him, knew that a fresh offence might
+complete his overthrow, and therefore took care to be on his good
+behaviour.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Thus Nuttie's task might be somewhat smoothed; but the poor girl felt
+unspeakably desolate as she ate her breakfast all alone with a dull
+post-bag, and still more so when, having seen the housekeeper, who,
+happily for her, was a good and capable woman, and very sorry for her,
+she had to bethink herself what to do in that dreary sitting-room
+during the hour when she had always been most sure of her
+sister-mother's dear company.  How often she had grumbled at being
+called on to practise duets for her father's evening lullaby!  She
+supposed she ought to get something up, and she proceeded to turn over
+and arrange the music with a sort of sick loathing for whatever was
+connected with those days of impatient murmurs, which she would so
+gladly have recalled.  Everything had fallen into disorder, as Blanche
+and May had left it the last time they had played there; and the
+overlooking it, and putting aside the pieces which she could never use
+alone, occupied her till Gregorio, very meek and polite, came with a
+message that Mr. Egremont would be glad if she would come to his room.
+In some dread, some distaste, and yet some pity and some honest
+resolution, she made her way thither.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There he sat, in dressing-gown, smoking-cap, and blue spectacles, with
+the glittering February sunshine carefully excluded.  He looked worse
+and more haggard than when she had seen him at dinner in the evening,
+made up for company, and her compassion increased, especially as he not
+only held out his hand, but seemed to expect her to kiss him, a thing
+she had never done since their first recognition.  It was not pleasant
+in itself, but it betokened full forgiveness, and indeed he had never
+spoken to her in his sneering, exasperating voice since her mournful
+return home.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Have you seen the boy?' he asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes; they are walking him up and down under the south wall,' said
+Nuttie, thankful that she had peeped under the many wraps as he was
+carried across the hall.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Here!  I want you to read this letter to me.  A man ought to be
+indicted for writing such a hand!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was really distinct penmanship, though minute; but, as Nuttie found,
+her father did not like to avow how little available were his eyes.  He
+could write better than he could read, but he kept her over his
+correspondence for the rest of the morning, answering some of the
+letters of condolence for him in her own name, writing those of
+business, and folding and addressing what he himself contrived to
+write.  Her native quickness stood her in good stead, and, being rather
+nervous, she took great pains, and seldom stumbled; indeed, she only
+once incurred an exclamation of impatience at her stupidity or slowness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She guessed rightly that this forbearance was owing to tender
+persuasions of her mother, and did not guess that a certain fear of
+herself was mingled with other motives.  Her father had grown used to
+woman's ministrations; he needed them for his precious little heir, and
+he knew his daughter moreover for a severe judge, and did not want to
+alienate her and lose her services; so they got on fairly well
+together, and she shared his luncheon, during which a message came up
+about the carriage; and as there had been an application for some
+nursery needment, and moreover black-edged envelopes had run short,
+there was just purpose enough for a drive to the little town.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then Nuttie read her father to sleep with the newspaper; rushed round
+the garden in the twilight to stretch her young limbs; tried to read a
+little, dressed, dined with her father; finished what he had missed in
+the paper, then offered him music, and was told 'if she pleased,' and
+as she played she mused whether this was to be her life.  It looked
+very dull and desolate, and what was the good of it all?  But there
+were her mother's words, 'Love him!'  How fulfil them?  She could pity
+him now, but oh! how could she love one from whom her whole nature
+recoiled, when she thought of her mother's ruined life? Mr. Dutton too
+had held her new duties up to her as capable of being ennobled.  Noble!
+To read aloud a sporting paper she did not want to understand, to be
+ready to play at cards or billiards, to take that dawdling drive day by
+day, to devote herself to the selfish exactions of burnt-out
+dissipation.  Was this noble?  Her mother had done all this, and never
+even felt it a cross, because of her great love.  It must be Nuttie's
+cross if it was her duty; but could the love and honour possibly come
+though she tried to pray in faith?
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap25"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXV.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE GIGGLING SCOTCH GIRL.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'For every Lamp that trembled here,<BR>
+  And faded in the night,<BR>
+  Behold a Star serene and clear<BR>
+  Smiles on me from the height.'&mdash;B. M.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie was not mistaken in supposing that this first day would be a
+fair sample of her life, though, of course, after the first weeks of
+mourning there were variations; and the return of the Rectory party
+made a good deal of brightening, and relieved her from the necessity of
+finding companionship and conversation for her father on more than half
+her afternoons and evenings.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He required her, however, almost every forenoon, and depended on her
+increasingly, so that all her arrangements had to be made with
+reference to him.  It was bondage, but not as galling in the fact as
+she would have expected if it had been predicted to her a few months
+previously.  In the first place, Mr. Egremont never demanded of her
+what was actually against her conscience, except occasionally giving up
+a Sunday evensong to read the paper to him, and that only when he was
+more unwell than usual.  He was, after all, an English gentleman, and
+did not ask his young daughter to read to him the books which her
+mother had loathed.  Moreover, Gregorio was on his good behaviour,
+perfectly aware that there was a family combination against him, and
+having even received a sort of warning from his master, but by no means
+intending to take it, and therefore abstaining from any kind of offence
+that could furnish a fresh handle against him; and thus for the
+present, Dr. Hammond's regimen was well observed, and Mr. Egremont was
+his better self in consequence, for, under his wife's guardianship, the
+perilous habit had sufficiently lost strength to prevent temper and
+spirits from manifestly suffering from abstinence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The first time Nuttie found herself obliged to make any very real
+sacrifice to her father's will was on the occasion of Mark's marriage
+at Easter.  Things had arranged themselves very conveniently for him at
+Micklethwayte, though it seemed to Nuttie that she only heard of
+affairs there in a sort of distant dream, while such events were taking
+place as once would have been to her the greatest possible revolutions.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Aunt Ursel reached home safely, but her expectations of illness were
+realised.  She took to her bed on arriving, and though she rose from
+it, there was reason to think she had had a slight stroke, for her
+activity of mind and body were greatly decayed, and she was wholly
+dependent on Mary Nugent for care and comfort.  Mary, remembering the
+consequences of the former alarm, made the best of the old lady's
+condition; and Nuttie, ashamed of having once cried 'wolf,' did not
+realise the true state of the case, nor indeed could she or would she
+have been spared to go to Micklethwayte.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The next news told that Gerard Godfrey, at the end of the year required
+by Mr. Dutton, had resigned his situation, and at the close of his
+quarter's notice was going to prepare for Holy Orders under the
+training of a clergyman who would employ him in his parish, and assist
+him in reading up to the requirements for admission to a theological
+college.  Poor dear old Gerard!  It gave Nuttie a sort of pang of
+self-reproach to own how good and devoted he was, and yet so narrow and
+stupid that she could never have been happy with him.  Was he too good,
+or was he too dull for her?  Had she forsaken him for the world's sake,
+or was it a sound instinct that had extinguished her fancy for him?  No
+one could tell, least of all the parties concerned.  He might be far
+above her in spiritual matters, but he was below her in intellectual
+ones, and though they would always feel for one another that peculiar
+tenderness left by the possibilities of a first love, no doubt the
+quarrel over the blue ribbon had been no real misfortune to either.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The next tidings were still more surprising.  Mr. Dutton was leaving
+the firm.  Though his father had died insolvent, and he had had to
+struggle for himself in early life, he was connected with wealthy
+people, and change and death among these had brought him a fair share
+of riches.  An uncle who had emigrated to Australia at the time of the
+great break up had died without other heirs, leaving him what was the
+more welcome to him that Micklethwayte could never be to him what it
+had been in its golden age.  He had realised enough to enable him to be
+bountiful, and his parting gift to St Ambrose's would complete the
+church; but he himself was winding up the partnership, and withdrawing
+his means from Greenleaf and Co. in order to go out to Australia to
+decide what to do with his new possessions.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mark Egremont purchased a number of the shares, though, to gratify the
+family, the shelter of the Greenleaf veiled his name under the 'Co.,'
+and another, already in the firm, possessed of a business-like
+appellation, gave designation to the firm as Greenleaf, Goodenough, and
+Co.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Dutton's well-kept house, with the little conservatory and the
+magnolia, was judged sufficient for present needs, and the lease was
+taken off his hands, so that all was in order for the marriage of Mark
+and Annaple immediately after Easter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lady Delmar had resigned herself to the inevitable, and the wedding was
+to take place at Lescombe.  Nuttie, whose chief relaxation was in
+hearing all the pros and cons from May and Blanche, was asked to be one
+of the bridesmaids by Annaple, who had come over to the Rectory in a
+droll inscrutable state of mischief, declaring that she had exasperated
+Janet to the verge of insanity by declaring that she should have little
+umbrellas like those in the Persian inscriptions on her cards, and that
+Mark was to present all the bridesmaids with neat parasols.  If
+crinolines had not been gone out they could have all been dressed
+appropriately.  Now they must wear them closely furled.  All this
+banter was hardly liked by May and Blanche, whose little sisters were
+laughed at again for needing the assurance that they were really to
+wear white and rowan leaves and berries&mdash;the Ronnisglen badge.  Nuttie,
+who had drawn much nearer to May, refrained from relating this part of
+the story at home, but was much disappointed when, on telling her
+father of the request, she was answered at once:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Hein!  The 24th?  You'll be in London, and a very good thing too.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Are we to go so soon?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes.  Didn't I tell you to take that house in Berkshire Road from the
+20th?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I did not think we were to start so soon.  Is there any particular
+reason?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes.  That Scotch girl ought to have known better than to ask you in
+your deep mourning.  I thought women made a great point of such things.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Aunt Jane did not seem to think it wrong,' said Nuttie, for she really
+wished much for consent.  Not only had she grown fond both of Mark and
+Annaple, but she had never been a bridesmaid, and she knew that not
+only the Kirkaldys but Mr. Dutton had been invited; she had even
+ventured on offering to lodge some of the overflowing guests of the
+Rectory.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Their heads are all turned by that poverty-stricken Scotch peerage,'
+returned Mr. Egremont; 'or the Canoness should have more sense of
+respect.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie's wishes were so strong that she made one more attempt, 'I need
+not be a bridesmaid.  They would not mind if I wore my black.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I should, then!' said her father curtly.  'If they don't understand
+the proprieties of life, I do.  I won't have you have anything to do
+with it.  If you are so set upon gaiety, you'll have enough of weddings
+at fitter times!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was the old sneering tone.  Nuttie felt partly confounded, partly
+indignant, and terribly disappointed.  She did care for the sight of
+the wedding&mdash;her youthful spirits had rallied enough for that, but far
+more now she grieved at missing the sight of Mr. Dutton, when he was
+going away, she knew not where, and might perhaps come on purpose to
+see her; and it also made her sore and grieved at being accused of
+disregard to her mother.  She was silenced, however, and presently her
+father observed, in the same unpleasant tone, 'Well, if you've digested
+your disappointment, perhaps you'll condescend to write to the agent,
+that I expect the house to be ready on the 21st.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie got through her morning's work she hardly knew how, though her
+father was dry and fault-finding all the time.  Her eyes were so full
+of tears when she was released that she hardly saw where she was going,
+and nearly ran against her aunt, who had just walked into the hall.
+Mrs. Egremont was too prudent a woman to let her burst out there with
+her grievance, but made her come into the tent-room before she
+exclaimed, 'He is going to take me away to London; he won't let me go
+to the wedding.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I am sorry for your disappointment,' said her aunt quietly, 'but I am
+old-fashioned enough to be glad that such strong respect and feeling
+should be shown for your dear mother.  I wish Annaple had spoken to me
+before asking you, and I would have felt the way.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I'm sure it is not want of feeling,' said Nuttie, as her tears broke
+forth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I did not say it was,' returned her aunt, 'but different generations
+have different notions of the mode of showing it; and the present
+certainly errs on the side of neglect of such tokens of mourning.  If I
+did not think that Annaple and her mother are really uncomfortable at
+Lescombe, I should have told Mark that it was better taste to wait till
+the summer.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If I might only have stayed at home&mdash;even if I did not go to the
+wedding,' sighed Nuttie, who had only half listened to the Canoness's
+wisdom.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Since you do not go, it is much better that you should be out of the
+way,' said Mrs. Egremont.  'Is your father ready to see me?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So Nuttie had to submit, though she pouted to herself, feeling
+grievously misjudged, first as if she had been wanting in regard to the
+memory of her mother, who had been so fond of Mark, and so rejoiced in
+his happiness; and then that her vexation was treated as mere love of
+gaiety, whereas it really was disappointment at not seeing Mr. Dutton,
+that good, grave, precise old friend, who could not be named in the
+same breath with vanity.  Moreover, she could not help suspecting that
+respect to her mother was after all only a cloak to resentment against
+Mark and his marriage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However, she bethought herself that her mother had often been
+disappointed and had borne it cheerfully, and after having done what
+Aunt Ursel would have called 'grizzling' in her room for an hour, she
+wrote her note to Miss Ruthven and endeavoured to be as usual, feeling
+keenly that there was no mother now to perceive and gratefully commend
+one of her only too rare efforts for good humour. On other grounds she
+was very sorry to leave Bridgefield.  May had, in her trouble, thawed
+to her, and they were becoming really affectionate and intimate
+companions, by force of propinquity and relationship, as well as of the
+views that May had imbibed from Hugh Condamine.  Moreover Nuttie felt
+her aunt's watch over the baby a great assistance to her own ignorance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However the Canoness had resigned to the poor little heir the perfect
+and trustworthy nurse, whom Basil had outgrown, and who consented to
+the transfer on condition of having her nursery establishment entirely
+apart from the rest of the household.  Her reasons were known though
+unspoken, namely, that the rejection of one or two valets highly
+recommended had made it plain that there had been no dislodgment of
+Gregorio.  The strong silent objection to him of all good female
+servants was one of the points that told much against him.  Martin and
+the housekeeper just endured him, and stayed on for the present chiefly
+because their dear lady had actually begged them not to desert her
+daughter if they could help it, at least not at first.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie bound over her cousins to give her a full account of the
+wedding, and both of them wrote to her.  Blanche's letter recorded
+sundry scattered particulars,&mdash;as to how well the rowan-trimmed tulle
+dresses looked&mdash;how every one was packed into the carriages for the
+long drive&mdash;how there had been a triumphal arch erected over the
+Bluepost Bridge itself, and Annaple nearly choked with laughing at the
+appropriateness&mdash;how, to her delight, a shower began, and the
+procession out of the church actually cried out for umbrellas&mdash;how
+papa, when performing the ceremony, could not recollect that the
+bride's proper name was Annabella, and would dictate it as Anna-Maria,
+Sir John correcting him each time sotto voce&mdash;how Basil and little
+Hilda Delmar walked together and 'looked like a couple of ducks,'
+which, it was to be hoped, was to be taken metaphorically&mdash;how
+dreadfully hard the ice on the wedding-cake was, so that when Annaple
+tried to cut it the knife slipped and a little white dove flew away and
+hit May, which everyone said was a grand omen that she would be the
+next bride, while of course Annaple was perfectly helpless with mirth.
+Every one said it was the merriest wedding ever seen, for the bride's
+only tears were those of laughter.  What Nuttie really cared for most
+came just at the end, and not much of that. 'Your Mr. Dutton is just
+gone.  He got on famously with Hugh Condamine, and I forgot to tell you
+that he has given Mark such a jolly present, a lovely silver
+coffee-pot, just the one thing they wanted, and Lady Delmar said he
+didn't look near so like a tradesman as she expected.  I see May is
+writing too, but I don't know what you will get out of her, as Hugh
+Condamine came for the day.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie, however, had more hopes from May.  Her letter certainly was
+fuller of interest, if shorter.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+'My Dear Nuttie&mdash;Blanche has no doubt told you all the externals.  I
+suppose there never was a brighter wedding, for as Annaple keeps her
+mother with her, there was no real rending asunder of ties.  Indeed I
+almost wish her excitement did not always show itself in laughing, for
+it prevents people from understanding how much there is in her.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+(Plainly Hugh Condamine had been rather scandalised by the 'giggling
+Scotch girl.')
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+'Dear old Lady Ronnisglen was delightful.  If there were any tears,
+they were hers, and Lady Delmar was very cordial and affectionate. Of
+course Hugh and Mr. Dutton missed much that one would have liked in a
+wedding.  I drove back with them afterwards, and it was very
+interesting to listen to their conversation about church matters. Hugh
+is very much struck with your friend; he had heard a good deal about
+Micklethwayte before, and says that such a lay worker is perfectly
+invaluable.  It is a great pity that he is not going on in the firm, it
+would make it so much nicer for Mark, but he says he has duties towards
+his new property.  I think he was sorry not to find you at home, but he
+plainly never thought it possible you should be at the wedding.  I
+don't know whether I ought to tell you this, but I think you ought to
+know it.  There is a lovely new wreath of Eucharis lilies and
+maiden-hair at dear Aunt Alice's grave, close against the rails at the
+feet, and Hugh told me that he looked out of his window very early
+yesterday morning and saw Mr. Dutton standing there, leaning on the
+rail, with his bare head bowed between his hands.  You can't think how
+it impressed Hugh.  He said he felt reverent towards him all through
+that day, and he was quite angry with Rosalind and Adela for jesting
+because, when the shower began as we were coming out of church, Mr.
+Dutton rushed up with an umbrella, being the only person there who had
+one, I believe.  Hugh says you may be proud of such a friend.  I wish
+you could have seen Hugh.&mdash;Your affectionate cousin,
+<BR><BR>
+                                             'MARGARET EGREMONT.'<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap26"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THREE YEARS LATER.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'There's something rotten in the State.'&mdash;Hamlet.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+On an east-windy afternoon in March Mary Nugent emerged from the School
+of Art, her well-worn portfolio under her arm, thinking how many
+successive generations of boys and girls she had drilled through
+'free-hand,' 'perspective,' and even 'life' with an unvarying average
+of failure and very moderate success, and how little talent or
+originality had come to the front, though all might be the better for
+knowing how to use eyes and fingers.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the whole her interest as well as her diligence did not flag; but a
+sense of weariness and monotony would sometimes come after a recurrence
+of well-known blunders of her pupils, and she missed the sense of going
+home to refreshment and enjoyment which had once invigorated her.  St.
+Ambrose's Road had had its golden age, but the brightness had been
+dimmed ever since that festival at Monks Horton. One after another of
+the happy old society had dropped away.  The vicar had received
+promotion, and she only remained of the former intimates, excepting old
+Miss Headworth, who was no longer a companion, but whom affection
+forbade her to desert in feeble old age.  Had her thoughts of the old
+times conjured up a figure belonging to them?  There was the
+well-brushed hat, the natty silk umbrella, the perfect fit of garments,
+the precise turn-out, nay, the curly lion-shaven poodle, with all his
+fringes, leaping on her in recognition, and there was that slightly
+French flourish of the hat, before&mdash;with a bounding heart&mdash;she met the
+hand in an English grasp.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Miss Nugent!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mr. Dutton!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I thought I should meet you here!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'When did you come?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Half an hour ago.  I came down with George Greenleaf, left my things
+at the Royal Hotel, and came on to look for you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You will come and spend the evening with us?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If you are so good as to ask me.  How is Miss Headworth?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Very feeble, very deaf; but she will be delighted to see you.  There
+is no fear of her not remembering you, though she was quite lost when
+Mrs. Egremont came in yesterday.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mrs. Egremont!' he repeated with a little start.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mrs. Mark.  Ah! we have got used to the name&mdash;the Honourable Mrs.
+Egremont, as the community insist on calling her.  What a sunny
+creature she is!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And Miss Egremont, what do you hear of her?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'She writes long letters, poor child.  I hope she is fairly happy. Are
+you come home for good, or is this only a visit?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I have no intention of returning.  I have been winding up my good
+cousin's affairs at Melbourne.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary's heart bounded again with a sense of joy, comfort, and
+protection; but she did not long keep Mr. Dutton to herself, for every
+third person they met gladly greeted him, and they were long in getting
+to St. Ambrose's Road, now dominated by a tall and beautiful spire,
+according to the original design.  They turned and looked in at the
+pillared aisles, stained glass, and handsome reredos.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Very different from our struggling days,' said Mr. Dutton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes,' said Mary, with half a sigh.  'There's the new vicar,' as he
+passed with a civil nod.  'He has three curates, and a house of
+Sisters, and works the parish excellently.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You don't speak as if you were intimate.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No.  His womankind are rather grand&mdash;quite out of our beat; and in
+parish work I am only an estimable excrescence.  It is very well that I
+am not wanted, for Miss Headworth requires a good deal of attention,
+and it is only the old Adam that regrets the days of importance.  Ah,
+do you see?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They were passing Mr. Dutton's old home.  On the tiny strip of lawn in
+front was a slender black figure, with yellow hair, under a tiny black
+hat, dragging about a wooden horse whereon was mounted a sturdy boy of
+two, also yellow-locked and in deep mourning under his Holland blouse.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Billy-boy is riding to meet his daddy!' was merrily called out both by
+mother and son before they perceived the stranger.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mr. Dutton,' said Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Annaple bowed, but did not put out her hand, and such a flush was on
+her face that Miss Nugent said, 'I am sure that is too much for you!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh no&mdash;' she began; but 'Allow me,' said Mr. Dutton, and before she
+could refuse he was galloping round and round the little lawn, the boy
+screaming with delight as Monsieur raced with them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'So he is come!' she said in a low doubtful voice to Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes.  He has met Mr. Greenleaf in London.  I always think he has the
+contrary to the evil eye.  Whatever he takes in hand rights itself.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I'll hope so.  Oh, thank you!  Billy-boy, say thank you!  What a ride
+you have had!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Why are they in such deep mourning?' asked Mr. Dutton, after they had
+parted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, did you not know? for good old Lady Ronnisglen.  She had a bad
+fall about two years ago, and never left her bed again; and this last
+autumn she sank away.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'They have had a great deal of trouble, then.  I saw the death of Canon
+Egremont in the Times soon after I went out to Australia.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes; he had heart disease, and died quite suddenly.  The living is
+given to Mr. Condamine, who married the eldest daughter, and the widow
+is gone to live under the shadow of Redcastle Cathedral.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Therewith Miss Nugent opened her own door, and Miss Headworth was soon
+made aware of the visitor.  She was greatly changed, and had the
+indescribable stony look that tells of paralysis; and though she knew
+Mr. Dutton, and was delighted to see him, his presence made her expect
+to see Alice and Nuttie come in, though she soon recollected herself
+and shed a few helpless tears.  Then&mdash;in another mood&mdash;she began to
+display with pride and pleasure the photographs of 'Alice's dear little
+boy.'  She had a whole series of them, from the long-clothed babe on
+his sister's knee to the bright little fellow holding a drum&mdash;a very
+beautiful child, with a striking resemblance to his mother, quite
+startling to Mr. Dutton, especially in the last, which was coloured,
+and showed the likeness of eyes and expression.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nuttie always sends me one whenever he is taken,' said the old lady.
+'Dear Nuttie!  It is very good for her.  She is quite a little mother
+to him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I was sure it would be so,' said Mr. Dutton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes,' said Mary, 'he is the great interest and delight of her life.
+Her letters are full of his little sayings and doings.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Is she at home now?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No; at Brighton.  Her father seems to have taken a dislike to
+Bridgefield since his brother's death, and only goes there for a short
+time in the shooting season.  He has taken a lease of a house in
+London, and spends most of the year there.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah!' as she showed him the address, 'that is near the old house where
+I used to stay with my grand-aunt.  We thought it altogether in the
+country then, but it is quite absorbed now, and I have dazzling offers
+from building companies for the few acres of ground around it. Have you
+seen her?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh no; I believe she is quite necessary to her father.  I only hear of
+her through Lady Kirkaldy, who has been very kind to her, but, I am
+sorry to say, is now gone with her Lord to the East.  She says she
+thinks that responsibility has been very good for Nuttie; she is
+gentler and less impetuous, and a good deal softened by her affection
+for the child.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'She was certain to develop.  I only dreaded what society her father
+might surround her with.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Lady Kirkaldy says that all has turned out better than could have been
+expected.  You see, as she says, Mr. Egremont has been used to good
+women in his own family, and would not like to see her in a slangy fast
+set.  All her own gaieties have been under Lady Kirkaldy's wing, or
+that of Mrs. William Egremont's relations, and only in a quiet moderate
+way.  Her father gets his own old set about him, and they have not been
+very choice, but they are mostly elderly men, and gentlemen, and know
+how to behave themselves to her. Indeed, her cousin Blanche, who was
+here in the winter, gave us to understand that Ursula knows how to take
+care of herself, and gets laughed at as rather an old maidish model of
+propriety, if you can believe it of your little Nuttie.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I could quite believe in her on the defensive, unprotected as she is.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What did that young lady&mdash;Miss Blanche&mdash;tell us about that gentleman,
+Mary?' asked Miss Headworth, hearing and uttering what Miss Nugent
+hoped had passed unnoticed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, I think that was all gossip!' returned Mary, 'and so I am sure did
+the Mark Egremonts.  She said there was one of Mr. Egremont's friends,
+Mr. Clarence Fane, I think she called him, rather younger than the
+others, who, she was pleased to say, seemed smitten with Nuttie, but I
+have heard nothing more about it, and Mrs. Mark scouted the idea,' she
+added in haste, as she saw his expression vary in spite of himself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Do you see much of your neighbours?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'We are both too busy to see much of one another, but we have our
+little talks over the wall.  What a buoyant creature she is.  It seems
+as if playfulness was really a sustaining power in her, helping her to
+get diversion out of much that others might stumble at.  You know
+perhaps that when she arrived the work-people had got up a beautiful
+parasol for her, white, with a deep fringe and spray of rowan.  Little
+Susie Gunner presented her with it, and she was very gracious and nice
+about it.  But then what must Mr. Goodenough do but dub it the
+Annabella sunshade, and blazon it, considerably vulgarised, in all the
+railway stations, and magazines.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I know!  I had the misfortune to see it in the station at Melbourne;
+and my mind misgave me from that hour.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Her husband was prepared to be very angry, but she fairly laughed him
+out of it, made all sorts of fun out of the affair, declared it her
+only opening to fame, and turned it into a regular joke; so that indeed
+the Greenleafs, who were vexed at the matter, and tried to apologise,
+were quite perplexed in their turn, and not at all sure that the whole
+concern was not being turned into ridicule.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I wonder it did not make him cut the connection,' said Mr. Dutton,
+muttering 'I only wish it had.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mrs. Greenleaf is very funny about her, 'added Mary, 'proud of the
+Honourable Mrs. Egremont, as they insist on calling her, yet not quite
+pleased that she should be the junior partner's wife; and decidedly
+resenting her hardly going into society at all, though I really don't
+see how she could; for first there was the Canon's death, and then just
+after the boy was born came Lady Ronnisglen's accident, and for the
+next year and a half there was constant attendance on her.  They fitted
+up a room on the ground floor for her, the one opening into your
+drawing-room, and there they used to sit with her.  I used to hear them
+reading to her and singing to her, and they were always as merry as
+possible, till last autumn, when something brought on erysipelas, and
+she was gone almost before they took alarm.  The good little daughter
+was beaten down then, really ill for a week; but if you can understand
+me, the shock seemed to tell on her chiefly bodily, and though she was
+half broken-hearted when her husband in a great fright brought me up to
+see her, and say whether her sister should be sent for, she still made
+fun of him, and described the impossible advice they would bring on
+themselves.  I had to take care of her while he went away to the
+funeral in Scotland, and then I learnt indeed to like her and see how
+much there is in her besides laughter.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Did the old lady leave them anything?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I believe she had nothing to leave.  Her jointure was not much, but I
+am sure they miss that, for Mrs. Egremont has parted with her nurse,
+and has only a little girl in her stead, driving out the perambulator
+often herself, to the great scandal of the Greenleafs, though she would
+have one believe it is all for want of occupation.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Do you think they have taken any alarm?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'There's no judging from her joyous surface, but I have thought him
+looking more careworn and anxious than I liked.  Mr. Dutton, don't
+answer if I ought not to ask, but is it true that things are going
+wrong?  I know you have been seeing Mr. Greenleaf, so perhaps you are
+in his confidence and cannot speak.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Tell me, what is known or suspected?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Just this, that Mr. Goodenough has been the ruin of the concern.  He
+has been quite different ever since his voyage to America.  You were
+gone, old Mr. Greenleaf has been past attending to business ever since
+he had that attack, and George Greenleaf has been playing the country
+squire at Horton Bishop, and not looking after the office work, and Mr.
+Egremont was inexperienced.  One could see, of course, that the whole
+character of the business was changed&mdash;much more advertising, much more
+cheap and flashy work&mdash;to be even with the times, it was said, but the
+old superior hands were in despair at the materials supplied to them,
+and the scamped work expected.  You should have heard old Thorpe
+mourning for you, and moralising over the wickedness of this world.
+His wife told me she really thought he would go melancholy mad if he
+did not leave the factory, and he has done so.  They have saved enough
+to set up a nice little shop at Monks Horton.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I must go and see them!  Good old Thorpe!  I ought never to have put
+those poor young things into the firm when I ceased to have any control
+over it.  I shall never forgive myself&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nothing could seem safer then!  No one could have guessed that young
+Mr. Greenleaf would be so careless without his father to keep him up to
+the mark, nor that Mr. Goodenough should alter so much.  Is it very
+bad?  Is there worse behind?  Speculation, I suppose&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Of course.  I do not see to the bottom of it yet; poor George seemed
+to reckon on me for an advance, but I am afraid this is more than a
+mere temporary depression, such as may be tided over, and that all that
+can be looked to is trying to save honourable names by an utter break
+up, which may rid them of that&mdash;that&mdash;no, I won't call him a scoundrel.
+I thought highly of him once, and no doubt he never realised what he
+was doing.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Before the evening was far advanced Mark Egremont knocked at the door,
+and courteously asked whether Mr. Dutton could be spared to him for a
+little while.  Mary Nugent replied that she was just going to help Miss
+Headworth to bed, and that the parlour was at their service for a
+private interview, but Mark answered, 'My wife is anxious to hear.  She
+knows all that I do, and is quite prepared to hear whatever Mr. Dutton
+may not object to saying before her.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So they bade good-night to Mary, and went on together to the next
+house, Mr. Dutton saying 'You have much to forgive me, Mr. Egremont; I
+feel as if I had deserted the ship just as I had induced you to embark
+in it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You did not guess how ill it would be steered without you,' returned
+Mark, with a sigh.  'Do not fear to speak out before my wife, even if
+we are sinking.  She will hear it bravely, and smile to the last.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The room which Mr. Dutton entered was not like the cabin of a sinking
+ship, nor, as in his own time, like the well-ordered apartment of a
+bachelor of taste.  Indeed, the house was a great puzzle to Monsieur,
+who entered by invitation, knowing his way perfectly, thinking himself
+at home after all his travels, and then missing his own particular mat,
+and sniffing round at the furniture.  It was of the modified aesthetic
+date, but arranged more with a view to comfort than anything else, and
+by the light of the shaded lamp and bright fire was pre-eminently
+home-like, with the three chairs placed round the hearth, and
+bright-haired Annaple rising up from the lowest with her knitting to
+greet Mr. Dutton, and find a comfortable lair for Monsieur.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Miss Nugent says that you set everything right that you do but look
+at, Mr. Dutton,' she said; 'so we are prepared to receive you as a good
+genius to help us out of our tangle.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Dutton was afraid that the tangle was far past unwinding, and of
+course the details, so far as yet known, were discussed.  There was, in
+truth, nothing for which Mark could be blamed.  He had diligently
+attended to his office-work, which was mere routine, and, conscious of
+his own inexperience, and trusting to the senior partners, he had only
+become anxious at the end of the year, when he perceived Goodenough's
+avoidance of a settlement of accounts, and detected shuffling.  He had
+not understood enough of the previous business to be aware of the
+deterioration of the manner of dealing with it, though he did think it
+scarcely what he expected.  If he had erred, it was in acting too much
+as a wheel in the machinery, keeping his thoughts and heart in his own
+happy little home, and not throwing himself into the spirit of the
+business, or the ways of those concerned in it, so that he had been in
+no degree a controlling power.  He had allowed his quality of gentleman
+to keep him an outsider, instead of using it to raise the general level
+of the transactions, so that the whole had gone down in the hands of
+the unscrupulous Goodenough.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Annaple listened and knitted quietly while the affairs were explained
+on either hand.  Mark had had one serious talk with George Greenleaf,
+and both had had a stormy scene with Goodenough.  Then Mr. Dutton had
+telegraphed his arrival, and Greenleaf had met him in London, with
+hopes, bred of long and implicit trust, that his sagacity and perhaps
+his wealth would carry the old house through the crisis.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Mr. Dutton, though reserving his judgment till the books should
+have been thoroughly examined and the liabilities completely
+understood, was evidently inclined to believe that things had gone too
+far, and that the names of Greenleaf and Egremont could only be
+preserved from actual dishonour by going into liquidation, dissolving
+partnership, and thus getting quit of Goodenough.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mark listened resignedly, Annaple with an intelligence that made Mr.
+Dutton think her the more clearheaded of the two, though still she
+could not refrain from her little jokes.  'I'm sure I should not mind
+how liquid we became if we could only run off clear of Goodenough,' she
+said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You know what it means?' said her husband.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh yes, I know what it means.  It is the fine word for being sold up.
+Well, Mark, never mind, we are young and strong, and it will not be a
+bit the worse for the Billy-boy in the end to begin at the bottom of
+everything.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I hope&mdash;may I ask&mdash;is everything embarked in the poor old firm?' said
+Mr. Dutton with some hesitation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'All that is mine,' said Mark, with his elbow on the table and his chin
+on his hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But I've got a hundred a year, charged on poor old Ronnisglen's
+estate,' said Annaple.  'All the others gave theirs up when they
+married, and I wanted to do so, but my dear mother would not let me;
+she said I had better try how I got on first.  Think of that, Mark, a
+hundred a year!  Why, old Gunner or Thorpe would think themselves
+rolling in riches if they only heard that they had a hundred a year!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You won't find it go far!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, I shall, for I shall make you live on porridge, with now and then
+a sheep's head for a treat!  Besides, there will be something to do.
+It will be working up again, you know.  But seriously, Mr. Dutton, I
+have some things here of my dear mother's that really belong to
+Ronnisglen, and I was only keeping till he comes home. Should not they
+be got out of the way?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My dear, we are not come to that yet!  I hope it may be averted!'
+cried Mark.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Mr. Dutton agreed with the young wife that it would be much better
+to send these things away before their going could excite suspicion.
+There was only a tiny silver saucepan, valued as a gift of 'Queen'
+Clementina to an ancestress, also a silver teapot and some old point,
+and some not very valuable jewellery, all well able to go into a small
+box, which Mr. Dutton undertook to deposit with Lord Ronnisglen's
+bankers.  He was struck with the scrupulous veracity with which Annaple
+decided between what had become her own property and the heirlooms,
+though what she claimed might probably be sacrificed to the creditors.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mark could hardly endure to see what made the crisis so terribly real.
+'That I should have brought you to this!' he said to his wife, when
+their visitor had at length bidden them good-night.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If we begin at that work,' said Annaple, 'it was I who brought you! I
+have often thought since it was rather selfish not to have consented to
+your helping poor Ursula with her heavy handful of a father!  It was
+all money grubbing and grabbing, you see, and if we had thought more of
+our neighbour than ourselves we might have been luxuriating at the Home
+Farm, or even if your uncle had quarrelled with you, he would not have
+devoured your substance.  I have thought so often, ever since I began
+to see this coming.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My dear child, you don't mean that you have seen this coming!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My prophetic soul!  Why, Mark, you have as good as inferred it over
+and over again.  I've felt like scratching that Badenough whenever I
+met him in the street.  I must indulge myself by calling him so for
+once in strict privacy.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You have guessed it all the time, while I only thought how unconscious
+you were.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not to say stupid, considering all you told me.  Besides, what would
+have been the use of howling and moaning and being dismal before the
+time?  For my part, I could clap my hands even now at getting rid of
+Goodenough, and his jaunty, gracious air!  Come, Mark, it won't be so
+bad after all, you'll see.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nothing can be "so bad," while you are what you are, my Nan.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That's right.  While we have each other and the Billy-boy, nothing
+matters much.  There's plenty of work in us both, and that good man
+will find it for us; or if he doesn't, we'll get a yellow van, and knit
+stockings, and sell them round the country.  How jolly that would be!
+Imagine Janet's face.  There, that's right,' as her mimicry evoked a
+smile, 'I should be ashamed to be unhappy about this, when our good
+name is saved, and when there is a blessing on the poor,' she added in
+a lower voice, tenderly kissing her husband's weary brow.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap27"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE BOY OF EGREMONT.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'And the boy that walked beside me,<BR>
+  He could not understand<BR>
+  Why, closer in mine, ah, closer,<BR>
+  I press'd his warm soft hand.'&mdash;LONGFELLOW.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+The agony of a firm like Greenleaf, Goodenough, and Co. could not be a
+rapid thing, and Mr. Dutton lived between London and Micklethwayte for
+several weeks, having much to endure on all sides.  The senior partners
+thought it an almost malicious and decidedly ungrateful thing in him
+not to throw in his means, or at any rate, offer his guarantee to tide
+them over their difficulties.  Goodenough's tergiversations and
+concealments needed a practised hand and acute head to unravel them,
+and often deceived Mr. Greenleaf himself; and when, for a time, he was
+convinced that the whole state was so rotten that a crash was
+inevitable, his wife's lamentations and complaints of Mr. Dutton would
+undo the whole, and it was as if he were doing them an injury that the
+pair accepted the comfortable prospect he was able to offer them in
+Australia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He would have made the like proposal to the Egremonts, but found that
+Mark held himself bound by his promise to his father not to emigrate,
+and thought of some kind of office-work.  Before trying to procure this
+for him, however, Mr. Dutton intended to see his uncle, and try whether
+the agency, once rejected, could still be obtained for him. Learning
+from Miss Nugent that the Egremonts were in town, he went up thither
+with the purpose of asking for an interview.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a new church in the immediate neighbourhood of his house in a
+state of growth and development congenial to the St. Ambrose trained
+mind, and here Mr. Dutton, after old Micklethwayte custom, was
+attending the early matins, when, in the alternate verses of the psalm,
+he heard a fresh young voice that seemed to renew those days gone by,
+and looking across the central aisle his eyes met a pair of dark ones
+which gave a sudden glitter of gladness at the encounter. That was all
+he saw or cared to see.  He did not take in the finished completeness
+of the very plain dark dress and hat, nor the womanly air of the little
+figure, until they clasped hands in the porch, and in the old tones
+Nuttie exclaimed:  'I've been hoping you would come to London.  How is
+Monsieur?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'In high health, thank you, the darling of the steamer both going and
+coming.  I hope your charges are well?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My father is tolerable, just as usual, and my little Alwyn is getting
+more delicious every day.  He will be so delighted to see Monsieur.  I
+have told him so many stories about him!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Do you think I may call on Mr. Egremont?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh do!  He is ready to be called on between two and three, and we
+always have Wynnie downstairs then, so that you will see him too. And
+you have been at Micklethwayte.  I am afraid you found a great change
+in Aunt Ursel.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes; but she is very peaceful and happy.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And I have to leave her altogether to dear excellent Miss Nugent. It
+seems very, very wrong, but I cannot help it!  And how about Mark and
+Annaple?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I think she is the bravest woman I ever met.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Then things are really going badly with the dear old firm?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I am hoping to talk to Mr. Egremont about it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie paused.  Towards Mr. Dutton she always had a stronger impulse of
+confidence than towards any one else she had ever met; but she felt
+that he might think it unbecoming to say that she had perceived a
+certain dislike on her father's part towards Mark ever since the
+rejection of the agency and the marriage, which perhaps was regarded as
+a rejection of herself.  He had a habit of dependence on Mark, which
+resulted in personal liking, when in actual contact, but in absence the
+distaste and offence always revived, fostered, no doubt, by Gregorio;
+and Canon Egremont's death had broken the link which had brought them
+together.  However, for his brother's sake, and for the sake of the
+name, the head of the family might be willing to do something.  It was
+one of Nuttie's difficulties that she never could calculate on the way
+her father would take any matter.  Whether for better or for worse, he
+always seemed to decide in diametrical opposition to her expectation.
+And, as she was certainly less impetuous and more dutiful, she parted
+with Mr. Dutton at her own door without any such hint.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+These three years had been discipline such as the tenderest, wisest
+hand could not have given her, though it had been insensible.  She had
+been obliged to attend to her father and watch over her little brother,
+and though neither task had seemed congenial to her disposition, the
+honest endeavour to do them rightly had produced the affection born of
+solicitude towards her father, and the strong warm tenderness of the
+true mother-sister towards little Alwyn.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ursula Egremont was one of those natures to which responsibility is the
+best training.  If she had had any one to guard or restrain her, she
+might have gone to the utmost limits before she yielded to the curb.
+As it was, she had to take care of herself, to bear and forbear with
+her father, to walk warily with her household, and to be very guarded
+with the society into which she was thrown from time to time.  It was
+no sudden change, but one brought about by experience. An outbreak of
+impatience or temper towards her father was sure to be followed by his
+galling sneer, or by some mortification to her desires; any act of
+mismanagement towards the servants brought its own punishment; and if
+she was tempted by girlish spirits to relax the quiet, stiff courtesy
+which she observed towards her father's guests, there followed jests,
+or semi-patronage, or a tone of conversation that offended her, and
+made her repent it.  Happily, Mr. Egremont did not wish her to be
+otherwise.  One day, when she had been betrayed into rattling and
+giggling, he spoke to her afterwards with a cutting irony which
+bitterly angered her at the moment, and which she never forgot.  Each
+irksome duty, each privation, each disappointment, each recurrence of
+the sweeping sense of desolation and loneliness had had one effect&mdash;it
+had sent her to her knees.  She had no one else to go to.  She turned
+to her Father in heaven. Sometimes, indeed, it was in murmuring and
+complaint at her lot, but still it was to Him and Him alone, and
+repentance sooner or later came to aid her, while refreshments sprang
+up around her&mdash;little successes, small achievements, pleasant hours,
+tokens that her father was pleased or satisfied, and above all, the
+growing charms of little Alwyn.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The special grievance, Gregorio's influence, had scarcely dwelt on her
+at first as it had done on her mother.  The man had been very cautious
+for some time, knowing that his continuance in his situation was in the
+utmost jeopardy, and Mr. Egremont had, in the freshness of his grief
+for his wife, abstained from relapsing into the habits from which she
+had weaned him.  When, however, the Canon was dead, and his son at a
+distance, Gregorio began to feel more secure, and in the restless
+sorrow of his master over the blow that had taken away an only brother,
+he administered soothing drugs under another name, so that Ursula, in
+her inexperience, did not detect what was going on, and still fancied
+that the habit had been renounced.  All she did know was that it was
+entirely useless for her to attempt to exert any authority over the
+valet, and that the only way to escape insolently polite disobedience
+was to let him alone.  Moreover, plans to which her father had agreed,
+when broached by her, had often been overthrown after his valet had
+been with him.  It was a life full of care and disappointment, yet
+there was a certain spring of trust that kept Ursula's youth from being
+dimmed, and enabled her to get a fair share of happiness out of it,
+though she was very sorry not to be more at Bridgefield, where she
+could have worked with all her heart with May Condamine.  Moreover,
+Lady Kirkaldy's absence from London was a great loss to her, for there
+was no one who was so kind or so available in taking her into society;
+and Nuttie, though mistress of her father's house, was not yet
+twenty-two, and strongly felt that she must keep within careful bounds,
+and not attempt to be her own chaperon.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the very sight of her old friend, and the knowledge that he was in
+the neighbourhood, filled her heart with gladness, and seemed like a
+compensation for everything.  Mr. Egremont was in a gracious mood, and
+readily consented to see Mr. Dutton&mdash;the friend who had been so
+pleasant and helpful at Paris&mdash;and Nuttie gave her private instructions
+to the footman to insure his admittance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His card was brought in just as the father and daughter were finishing
+luncheon, and he was received in Mr. Egremont's sitting-room, where the
+first civilities had hardly passed before the door was opened, and in
+trotted the golden-haired boy, so beautiful a child that it would have
+been impossible not to look at him with delight, even for those to whom
+his dark eyes and sweet smile did not recall those that had once been
+so dear.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Egremont's voice took a fresh tone: 'Ah! here he comes, the old
+fellow'&mdash;and he held out his hands; but the boy was intent on his own
+purpose.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Where's black doggie?' he asked in a silver-bell of a little voice,
+but lisping a good deal; 'Wyn got penny for him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Wynnie must be a good boy.  Kiss papa first, and Mr. Dutton,'
+remonstrated the sister; and Alwyn obeyed so far as to submit to his
+father's embrace, and then raising those velvety eyes to the visitor's
+face, he repeated: 'Where black doggie?  Wyn want to see him buy bun.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'There! your fame has preceded you,' said Mr. Egremont, 'or rather your
+dog's.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You shall see him,' said Mr. Dutton, taking the pretty boy almost
+reverently on his knee, 'but he is at home now.  I could not leave him
+out on the street, and I did not know if I might bring him in.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, Mr. Dutton! as if Monsieur would not be welcome,' cried the Nuttie
+of old times.  'I only wish I had stipulated for him, dear old fellow.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Wyn want to see him,' reiterated the child.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'May I take him to see the performance?' said Mr. Dutton.  'I live only
+at the corner of Berkshire Road, and there's a dairy just opposite
+where Monsieur has been allowed to keep up his accomplishment.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Alwyn's legs, arms, and voice, were all excitement and entreaty; and
+Mr. Egremont himself proposed that they should all come and witness the
+feat; so Nuttie, in great glee, climbed the stairs with her little
+brother to get ready; and when she came down again, found the gentlemen
+deep, not in Mark Egremont's umbrellas, but in the gas and smoke
+grievances which had arisen since the lease of the house had been
+taken, and in which sympathy might be expected from a fellow-inhabitant
+of the district.  Little Alwyn was, however, plainly the lord of the
+ascendant, and unused to see anything else attended to in his presence.
+He took possession of Mr. Dutton's hand, and his tongue went fast, nor
+did his father or sister seem to desire any better music.  They reached
+an old-walled garden, with lilac and laburnum and horse-chestnut
+blossoming above, and showing a mass of greenery through the iron
+railing that surmounted, the low wall on the street side, where Mr.
+Dutton halted and took out his key.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Is this yours?' exclaimed Nuttie, 'I have so often wondered whose it
+could be.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, it was a country-house when I was of the age of this little man,
+though you might not think it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'The increase of London had not been on that side,' said Mr. Egremont.
+'This must be a very valuable property!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And Nuttie perceived that such an inheritance made Mr. Dutton much more
+in his eyes than an ex-umbrella-monger; but no sooner was the tall iron
+gate opened than Monsieur, beautifully shaved, with all his curly tufts
+in perfection, came bounding to meet his master, and Alwyn had his arms
+round the neck in a moment.  Monsieur had in his time been introduced
+to too many children not to understand the situation, and respond
+politely; and he also recognised Ursula, and gave unmistakable proofs
+of being glad to see her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then the halfpenny was presented to him.  He wagged his queer tail,
+smiled with his intelligent brown eyes, took it between his teeth, and
+trotted across the street in the most business-like way, the others
+following, but detaining the boy from keeping too close. They found the
+creature sitting upright, tapping the floor with his tail, the centre
+of rapturous admiration to all the customers already in the dairy shop.
+He received his bun, and demurely dropping on his front legs, walked
+back with it to his master, and crossed the road with it uneaten,
+rather to Alwyn's disappointment, but Mr. Dutton said he would probably
+dispose of it in some hiding-place in the garden until his evening
+appetite came on.  It was well he was a dog of moderation, for there
+was great temptation to repeat the entertainment more than was
+wholesome for him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'There, Wynnie,' said Nuttie in a voice of monition, 'Monsieur doesn't
+eat all his goodies at once, he keeps them for bedtime.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It might be perceived that the over-supply of sweets was a matter of
+anxiety to the elder sister.  To the nurse, who waited in readiness,
+Alwyn was consigned for his walk, while his father and sister accepted
+Mr. Dutton's invitation to look round his domain.  It would have been
+small in the country, but it was extensive for the locality, and there
+was a perfect order and trimness about the shaven lawn, the little
+fountain in the midst, the flower-beds gay with pansies,
+forget-me-nots, and other early beauties, and the freshly-rolled gravel
+paths, that made Nuttie exclaim: 'Ah! I should have known this for
+yours anywhere.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I have not had much to do to it,' he said.  'My old aunts had it well
+kept up, even when they could only see it from their windows. Their old
+gardener still lives in the cottage behind the tool-house, though he is
+too infirm for anything but being wheeled about in the sun in their
+Bath-chair.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You keep a large amount lying idle by retaining it as it is,' said Mr.
+Egremont.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'True, but it is well to preserve an oasis here and there.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie knew well that it was not for himself alone, and as they entered
+the little conservatory, and her eye fell on the row of white
+hyacinths, the very scent carried her back to the old times, and her
+eyes grew moist while Mr. Dutton was cutting a bouquet for her in
+accordance with well-known tastes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I shall put them in my room.  It will feel like home,' she said, and
+then she saw that she had said what her father did not like; for he was
+always sensitive as to any reference to her early life.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Dutton, however, took this opportunity of saying that he had been
+backwards and forwards to Micklethwayte several times this spring.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I hope you are well out of the concern there,' said Mr. Egremont.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Thank you, sir; I have no share in it at present.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'So much the better!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But I am very anxious about my friends.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah!'  But Mr. Egremont's attention was drawn off at the entrance of
+the house by a new-fashioned stove of which Mr. Dutton did the honours,
+conducting father and daughter into the drawing-room, where obvious
+traces of the old ladies remained, and thence into his own
+sitting-room, smelling pleasantly of Russia leather, and recalling that
+into which Nuttie had been wont, before her schooldays, to climb by the
+window, and become entranced by the illustrations of a wonderful old
+edition of Telemaque, picked up at Paris.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Dutton made them sit and rest, for this had been a good deal of
+exercise for Mr. Egremont; coffee was brought in, having been ordered
+on their arrival, and therewith Mr. Dutton entered on an exposition of
+the affairs of Greenleaf and Goodenough, which was listened to with a
+good deal of interest, though Nuttie could not quite detect whether it
+were altogether friendly interests in Mark's misfortunes, or if there
+were not a certain triumph in the young man having run into trouble by
+rejecting his offer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Dutton explained that his present object was to induce the friends
+of the family to prevent annoyance by preserving the furniture and
+personals at a valuation; and Mr. Egremont readily agreed to contribute
+to doing this, though he said the sisters and stepmother were well able
+also to do their share.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And then to give the young people a fresh start,' added Mr. Dutton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'There are some men who are always wanting fresh starts,' said Mr.
+Egremont, 'just as there are some vessels that are always unlucky. And
+if you observe, it is just those men who are in the greatest haste to
+hang an expensive wife and family round their necks.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I don't think poor Annaple can be accused of being expensive, papa,'
+said Nuttie.  'Only think, when Wynnie has two nurses always after him,
+her Willie has only the fraction of a little maid, who does all sorts
+of work besides.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, I never saw more resolute and cheerful exertion than Mrs. Mark
+Egremont's,' said Mr. Dutton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'She owes him something,' said Mr. Egremont, 'for she has been the ruin
+of him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Of his worldly prospects in one sense,' said Mr. Dutton quietly; while
+Nuttie felt how much better and wiser an answer it was than the
+indignant denial that trembled on her tongue.  'There can be no doubt
+that they made a grievous mistake in their choice, and I unfortunately
+was concerned in leading them into it; but no one can see how they meet
+their troubles without great respect and admiration, and I am
+especially bound to seek for some new opening for them.  I have little
+doubt that some office work might be found for him in London, but they
+are essentially country people, and it would be much better for them if
+he could have some agency.  I suppose the situation you offered him
+before, sir, is filled up?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not really,' cried Nuttie.  'We have only a very common sort of
+uneducated bailiff, who would be much better with some one over him.
+You said so, papa.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Did he request you to apply to me?' said Mr. Egremont sharply, looking
+at Mr. Dutton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Neither he nor she has the least idea of my intention; I only thought,
+sir, you might be willing to consider how best to assist a nephew, who
+has certainly not been wanting either in industry or economy, and who
+bears your name.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well, I will think it over,' said Mr. Egremont, rising to take leave.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The carriage had been bidden to await them at the door for their daily
+drive, and as Mr. Egremont leant back with the furs disposed over him
+he observed: 'That's a man who knows how to take care of himself.  I
+wonder where he gets his coffee, I've not drunk any like it since I was
+at Nice.'  And Nuttie, though well knowing that Mr. Dutton's love of
+perfection was not self-indulgence, was content to accept this as high
+approbation, and a good augury for Mark and Annaple.  Indeed, with Mr.
+Dutton settled near, and with the prospect of a daily walk from church
+with him, she felt such a complete content and trust as she had not
+known since she had been uprooted from Micklethwayte.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap28"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+A BRAVE HEART.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'One furnace many times the good and bad may hold,<BR>
+  Yet what consumes the chaff will only cleanse the gold.'<BR>
+                                     Archbishop TRENCH.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Never was there a truer verse than that which tells us that in seeking
+duty we find pleasure by the way, and in seeking pleasure we meet pain.
+It might be varied to apply to our anticipations of enjoyment or the
+reverse.  Ursula had embraced her lot as a necessity, and found it
+enlivened by a good many sunshiny hours; and when she looked upon Mr.
+Dutton's neighbourhood as a continual source of delight and
+satisfaction, she found that it gave rise to a continual course of
+small disappointments.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the first place, he did not walk home from church with her every
+morning.  She looked for him in vain, even when she knew he was in
+town.  He only appeared there on Sundays, and at intervals when he had
+some especial reason for speaking to her.  At first she thought he must
+have grown lazy or out of health to have thus dropped his old
+Micklethwayte habits, but after a time she discovered by accident that
+he frequented another church, open at a still earlier hour and a little
+farther off, and she was forced to come to the conclusion that he acted
+out of his characteristic precise scrupulosity, which would not
+consider it as correct for her to walk home every day with him. She
+chafed, and derided 'the dear old man' a little in her own mind, then
+ended with a sigh.  Was there any one who cared so much about what was
+proper for her?  And, after all, was he really older than Mr. Clarence
+Fane, whom everybody in her father's set called Clarence, or even
+Clare, and treated as the boy of the party, so that she had taken it as
+quite natural that he should be paired off with her.  It was quite a
+discovery!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was another and more serious disappointment.  Mr. Egremont had
+not seemed disinclined to consider the giving the agency to Mark, and
+Nuttie had begun to think with great satisfaction of May Condamine's
+delight in welcoming him, and of the good influence that would be
+brought to bear on the dependents, when suddenly there came a coolness.
+She could trace the moment, and was sure that it was, when Gregorio
+became aware of what was intended.  He had reason to dread Mark as an
+enemy, and was likely to wish to keep him at a distance; and it had
+been Ursula's great hope that an absolute promise might have been given
+before he heard of the plan; but Mr. Egremont was always slow to make
+up his mind, except when driven by a sudden impulse, and had never
+actually said that the post should be offered to his nephew.  Nuttie
+only detected the turn of the tide by the want of cordiality, the hums
+and haws, and by and by the resumption of the unkind ironical tone when
+Mark and Annaple were mentioned; and at last, when she had been reading
+to him a letter from Mrs. William Egremont full of anxiety for the
+young people, and yet of trust in his kindness to them, he exclaimed,
+'You've not been writing to her about this absurd proposal?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I have not mentioned any proposal at all.  What do you mean?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Why, this ridiculous idea about the agency.  As if I was going to put
+my affairs into the hands of a man who has made such a mull of his own.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But that was not Mark's fault, papa.  He was junior, you know, and had
+no power over that Goodenough.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He ought, then!  Never sail with an unlucky captain.  No, no, Mark's
+honourable lady would not let him take the agency when he might have
+had it, and I am not going to let them live upon me now that they have
+nothing of their own.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, papa, but you almost promised!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Almost!' he repeated with his ironical tone; 'that's a word capable of
+a good deal of stretching.  This is what you and that umbrella fellow
+have made out of my not giving him a direct refusal on the spot.  He
+may meddle with Mark's affairs if he chooses, but not with mine.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie had learnt a certain amount of wisdom, and knew that to argue a
+point only made her father more determined, so she merely answered,
+'Very well;' adding in a meek voice, 'Their furniture, poor things!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh ay.  Their umbrella friend is making a collection for them.  Yes, I
+believe I said I would contribute.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hot blood surged up within Nuttie at the contemptuous tone, and she bit
+her lip to keep down the answer, for she knew Mr. Dutton intended to
+call the next afternoon for her father's ultimatum before going down to
+Micklethwayte, where the crisis was fast approaching, and she had so
+much faith in his powers that she dreaded to forestall him by an
+imprudent word.  Alas, Gregorio must have been on his guard, for,
+though Nuttie was sure she heard her friend's ring at the usual time,
+no entrance followed.  She went up to put on her habit to ride with her
+father, and when she came down Mr. Egremont held out a card with the
+name 'Philip Dutton,' and the pencilled request below to be allowed to
+see Mr. Egremont later in the day.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He has been denied!' exclaimed she in consternation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Hein!  Before we go out, sit down and write a note for me.'  And he
+dictated&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+     'Dear Sir&mdash;I will not trouble you to call again this<BR>
+      afternoon, as I have decided on reflection that there<BR>
+      is no employment on my estate suited to my nephew,<BR>
+      Mark Egremont.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+     'As I understand that you are raising a family<BR>
+      subscription for rescuing his furniture from the<BR>
+      creditors, I enclose a cheque for £50 for the purpose.<BR>
+<BR>
+                                           &mdash;I remain&mdash;'<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+'Yours&mdash;what&mdash;papa?&mdash;' asked Ursula, with a trembling voice, full of
+tears.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yours, etc., of course.  Quite intimate enough for an
+ex-umbrella-monger. Here, give it to me, and I'll sign it while you
+fill up the cheque for me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That such should be the first letter that Nuttie ever addressed to Mr.
+Dutton, since the round-hand one in 'which Miss Ursula wished Mr. Duton
+to have the onner of a tee with me on my birthday, and I am your
+affected little Nuttie'!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She hoped to explain and lament the next morning, after church.  He
+would surely come to talk it over with her; but he only returned a
+civil note with his receipt, and she did not see him again before his
+departure.  She was greatly vexed; she had wanted so much to tell him
+how it was, and then came an inward consciousness that she would
+probably have told him a great deal too much.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Was it that tiresome prudence of his again that would think for her and
+prevent impulsive and indignant disclosures?  It made her bring down
+her foot sharply on the pavement with vexation as she suspected that he
+thought her so foolish, and then again her heart warmed with the
+perception of self-denying care for her.  She trusted to that same
+prudence for no delusive hopes having been given to Mark and his wife.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She did so justly.  Mr. Dutton had thought the matter far too uncertain
+to be set before them.  The Canoness's vague hopes had been the fruit
+of a hint imprudently dropped by Nuttie herself in a letter to Blanche.
+She had said more to Miss Nugent, but Mary was a nonconductor.  Mr.
+Dutton's heart sank as he looked at the houses, and he had some
+thoughts of going to her first for intelligence, but Annaple had spied
+him, and ran out to the gate to welcome him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, Mr. Dutton, I'm so glad!  Mark will be delighted.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Is he at home?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh no, at the office, wading through seas of papers with Mr.
+Greenleaf, but he will come home to eat in a quarter of an hour.  So
+come in;' then, as her boy's merry voice and a gruffer one were heard,
+'That's the bailiff.  He is Willie's devoted slave.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I hoped to have been in time to have saved you that.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well, I'm convinced that among the much maligned races are bailiffs. I
+wonder what I could get by an article on prejudice against classes! I
+was thinking how much beer I should have to lay in for this one, and
+behold he is a teetotaller, and besides that amateur nurse-maid,
+parlour-maid, kitchen-maid, etc. etc.&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What bailiff could withstand Mrs. Egremont?  Perhaps you have tamed
+him?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not I.  The cook did that.  Indeed I believe there's a nice little
+idyll going on in the kitchen, and besides he wore the blue ribbon, and
+was already a devoted follower of young Mr. Godfrey!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'However, if the valuation is ready, I hope you may be relieved from
+him, if you won't be too much concerned at the parting!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mrs. Egremont told us that our people are very good to us,' said
+Annaple, 'and don't mean to send us out with nothing but a pack at our
+backs.  It is very kind in them and in you, Mr. Dutton, to take the
+trouble of it!  No, I'll not worry you with thanks.  The great point
+is, hope for something for Mark to do.  That will keep up his spirits
+best!  Poor Mr. Greenleaf is so melancholy that it is all I can do to
+keep him up to the mark.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I have been making inquiries, and I have three possible openings, but
+I hardly like to lay them before you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, we are not particular about gentility!  It is work we want, and if
+it was anything where I could help that would be all the better! I'm
+sure I only wonder there are so many as three.  I think it is
+somebody's doing.  Ah! there's Mark,' and she flew out to meet him.
+'Mark!' she said, on the little path, 'here's the good genius, with
+three chances in his pocket.  Keep him to luncheon.  I've got plenty.
+Poor old man, how hot you look!  Go and cool in the drawing-room, while
+I wash my son's face.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And she disappeared into the back regions, while Mark, the smile she
+had called up vanishing from his face, came into the drawing-room, and
+held out a cordial, thankful hand to his friend, whose chief
+intelligence was soon communicated.  'Yes,' said Mark, when he heard
+the amount entrusted by the family to Mr. Dutton, 'that will save all
+my wife's poor little household gods.  Not that I should call them so,
+for I am sure she does not worship them.  I don't know what would
+become of me if she were like poor Mrs. Greenleaf, who went into
+hysterics when the bailiff arrived, and has kept her room ever since. I
+sometimes feel as if nothing could hurt us while Annaple remains what
+she is.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Dutton did not wonder that he said so, when she came in leading her
+little son, with his sunny hair newly brushed and shining, and carrying
+a little bouquet for the guest of one La Marque rosebud and three
+lilies of the valley.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Take it to Mr. Dutton, Billy-boy; I think he knows how the flowers
+came into the garden.  You shall have daddy's button-hole to take to
+him next.  There, Mark, it is a pansy of most smiling countenance, such
+as should beam on you through your accounts.  I declare, there's that
+paragon of a Mr. Jones helping Bessy to bring in dinner!  Isn't it very
+kind to provide a man-servant for us?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It might be rattle, and it might be inconsequent, but it was much
+pleasanter than hysterics.  Billy-boy was small enough to require a
+good deal of attention at dinner, especially as he was more disposed to
+open big blue eyes at the stranger, than to make use of his spoon, and
+Annaple seemed chiefly engrossed with him, though a quick keen word at
+the right moment showed that she was aware of all that was going on, as
+Mark and Mr. Dutton discussed the present situation and future measures.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was quite true that a man concerned in a failure was in great danger
+of being left out of the race for employment, and Mr. Dutton did not
+think it needful to mention the force of the arguments he was using to
+back his recommendation of Mark Egremont.  The possibilities he had
+heard of were a clerkship at a shipping agent's, another at a warehouse
+in their own line, and a desk at an insurance office.  This sounded
+best, but had the smallest salary to begin with, and locality had to be
+taken into account.  Mr. Dutton's plan was, that as soon as Mark was no
+longer necessary for what Annaple was pleased to call the fall of the
+sere and withered leaf, the pair should come to stay with him, so that
+Mark could see his possible employers, and Annaple consider of the
+situations.  They accepted this gratefully, Mark only proposing that
+she should go either to his stepmother or her own relations to avoid
+the final crisis.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'As if I would!' she exclaimed.  'What sort of a little recreant goose
+do you take me for?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I take you for a gallant little woman, ready to stand in the breach,'
+said Mark.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah, don't flatter yourself!  There is a thing I have not got courage
+to face&mdash;without necessity, and that's Janet's triumphant pity.  Mr.
+Dutton lives rather too near your uncle, but he is a man, and he can't
+be so bad.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This of course did not pass till Mr. Dutton had gone in to greet the
+ladies next door, to promise to tell them of their child at length when
+the business hours of the day should be over.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Shall it be told?  There was something in his tone&mdash;perfectly
+indefinable, with which he spoke of 'Miss Egremont,' that was like the
+old wistfully reverential voice in which he used to mention 'Mrs.
+Egremont.'  It smote Mary Nugent's quiet heart with a pang.  Was it
+that the alteration from the old kindly fatherliness of regard to
+'little Nuttie' revealed that any dim undefined hope of Mary's own must
+be extinguished for ever; or was it that she grieved that he should
+again be wasting his heart upon the impracticable?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A little of both, perhaps, but Mary was as ready as ever to sympathise,
+and to rejoice in hearing that the impetuous child had grown into the
+forbearing dutiful woman.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap29"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+A FRESH START.
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+'Did you say that Mark and his wife were come to Springfield House?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'They come the day after to-morrow,' answered Ursula.  'Mark could not
+finish up the business sooner.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well, I suppose we must have them to dinner for once.  He has made a
+fool of himself, but I won't have the Canoness complaining that I take
+no notice of him; and it is easier done while he is there than when he
+has got into some hole in the City&mdash;that is if he ever gets anything to
+do.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mr. Dutton has several situations in view for him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'In view.  That's a large order.  Or does it mean living on Dutton and
+doing something nominal?  I should think Dutton too old and sharp a
+hand for that, though he is quartering them on himself.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I believe there is nothing Mr. Dutton would like better, if he thought
+it right for them, but I am quite sure Mark and Annaple would not
+consent.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ha, ha!' and Mr. Egremont laughed.  'Their nose is not brought to the
+grindstone yet!  Say Saturday, then, Ursula.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Am I to ask Mr. Dutton?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Of course; I'm not going to have a tete-a-tete with Master Mark.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So Ursula had the satisfaction of writing a more agreeable note to Mr.
+Dutton than her last, and her invitation was accepted, but to her
+vexation Mr. Egremont further guarded himself from anything
+confidential by verbally asking Mr. Clarence Fane on that very day, and
+as that gentleman was a baronet's son, she knew she should fall to his
+lot at dinner, and though she was glad when this was the case at their
+ordinary parties, it was a misfortune on the present occasion.  She had
+not seen Annaple since her marriage, except at the family gathering on
+the Canon's death, when she was very much absorbed by the requirements
+of the stricken household; and Nuttie expected to see her in the same
+subdued condition.  All Mr. Dutton had said or Mary Nugent had written
+about her courage and cheerfulness had given the impression of
+'patience smiling at grief,' and in a very compassionate mood she
+started for a forenoon call at Springfield House; but, early as it was,
+nobody was at home, unless it might be the little boy, whose voice she
+thought she heard while waiting at the gate.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was out driving with her father afterwards in the long summer
+evening, and only found Mark's card on returning just in time to dress.
+It was a bright glaring day, and she was sitting by the window, rather
+inattentively listening to Mr. Fane's criticism of a new performance at
+one of the theatres, when she heard the bell, and there entered the
+slight, bright creature who might still have been taken for a mere
+girl.  The refined though pronounced features, the transparent
+complexion, crispy yellow hair and merry eyes, were as sunbeam-like as
+at the Rectory garden-party almost five years ago, and the black dress
+only marked the contrast, and made the slenderness of the figure more
+evident.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mark looked older, and wrung his cousin's hand with a pressure of
+gratitude and feeling, but Annaple's was a light little gay kiss, and
+there was an entire unconsciousness about her of the role of poor
+relation.  She made an easy little acknowledgment of the introduction
+of Mr. Fane, and, as Mr. Egremont appeared the next moment, exchanged
+greetings with him in a lively ordinary fashion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This was just what he liked.  He only wanted to forget what was
+unpleasant, and, giggling Scotch girl as she was, he was relieved to
+find that she could not only show well-bred interest in the surface
+matters of the time, but put in bright flashes of eagerness and
+originality, well seconded by Mr. Dutton.  Mr. Fane was always a
+professor of small talk, and Nuttie had learnt to use the current
+change of society, so that though Mark was somewhat silent, the dinner
+was exceedingly pleasant and lively; and, as Mr. Fane remarked
+afterwards, he had been asked to enliven a doleful feast to ruined
+kindred, he could only say he wished prosperity always made people so
+agreeable.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'This is all high spirit and self-respect,' thought Nuttie.  'Annaple
+is talking as I am, from the teeth outwards.  I shall have it out with
+her when we go upstairs!  At any rate my father is pleased with her!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie made the signal to move as soon as she could, and as they went
+upstairs, put her arm round the slim waist and gave a sympathetic
+pressure, but the voice that addressed her had still the cheery ring
+that she fancied had been only assumed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I'm sorry I missed you, but we set out early and made a day of it; and
+oh! we've been into such funny places as I never dreamt of!  You didn't
+see my boy?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No.  I thought I heard him.  I must see him to-morrow.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And I must see yours.  May it not be a pleasure to-night?  I've no
+doubt you go and gloat over him at night.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well, I do generally run up after dinner; but after your day, I can't
+think of dragging you up all these stairs.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, that's nothing!  Only you see it is jollier to have my Billy-boy
+in the next room.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They were mounting all the time, and were received in the day nursery
+by the old Rectory nurse, much increased in dignity, but inclined to be
+pathetic as she inquired after 'Mr. Mark,' while Annaple, like a little
+insensible being, answered with provoking complacency as to his perfect
+health, and begged Mrs. Poole to bring Master Alwyn to play in the
+garden at Springfield with her Willie.  In fact there was a general
+invitation already to Alwyn to play there, but his attendants so much
+preferred the society of their congeners in the parks that they did not
+avail themselves of it nearly as often as Ursula wished.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Little Alwyn asleep was, of course, a beautiful sight, with a precious
+old headless rabbit pressed tight to his cheek; Annaple's face grew
+tender as she looked at the motherless creature; and she admired him to
+any extent except saying that he excelled her own. Being more than a
+year the elder, there could be no rivalry as to accomplishments; but as
+soon as they were out of the nursery hush, Annaple laughed her way down
+again with tales of Billy-boy's wonder at his first experiences of
+travelling.  They sat down among the plants in the balcony, as far from
+the lamps as possible, and talked themselves into intimacy over
+Micklethwayte.  There are two Eden homes in people's lives, one that of
+later childhood, the other the first of wedded happiness, and St.
+Ambrose Road had the same halo to both of these; for both had been
+uprooted from it against their will; the chief difference being that
+Ursula could cast longing, lingering looks behind, while Annaple held
+herself resolutely steeled against sentiment, and would only turn it
+off by something absurd.  Nothing was absolutely settled yet; Mark had
+been presenting himself at offices, and she had been seeing rooms and
+lodgings.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'The insurance office sounds the best, and would be the least shock to
+our belongings,' said Annaple; 'but it seems to lead to nothing. He
+would not get on unless we had capital to invest, and even if we had
+any, you wouldn't catch us doing that again!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Does Mr. Dutton advise that?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, he only thought we should like it better; but we are quite past
+caring for people's feelings in the matter.  They couldn't pity us
+worse than they do.  I incline to Stubbs and Co.  One of them was once
+in the Greenleaf office, and has a regard for anything from thence;
+besides Mark would have something to do besides desk work. He would
+have to judge of samples, and see to the taking in and storing of
+goods.  He does know something about that, and I'm sure it would agree
+with him better than an unmitigated high stool, with his nose to a
+desk.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I should like it better.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That's right!  Now I have got some one to say so.  Besides, rising is
+possible, if one gets very useful.  I mean to be Mrs. Alderman, if not
+my Lady Mayoress, before we have done.  Then they have a great big
+almost deserted set of rooms over the warehouse, where we might live
+and look after the place.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh! but should you like that?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mr. Dutton wants us to live out in some of the suburban places, where
+it seems there is a perfect population of clerks' families in
+semi-detached houses.  He says we should save Mark's railway fare,
+rent, and all in doctors' bills.  But people, children and all, do live
+and thrive in the City; and I think Mark's health will be better looked
+after if I am there to give him his midday bite and sup, and brush him
+up, than if he is left to cater for himself; and as to exercise for the
+Billy-boy, 'tis not so far to the Thames Embankment. The only things
+that stagger me are the blacks!  I don't know whether life is long
+enough to be after the blacks all day long, but perhaps I shall get
+used to them!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well, I think that would be worse.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Perhaps it would; and at any rate, if the blacks do beat me, we could
+move.  Think, no rent, nor rates, nor taxes&mdash;that is an inducement to
+swallow&mdash;no&mdash;to contend with, any number of blackamoors, isn't it? even
+if they settle on the tip of Billy-boy's nose.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I could come to see you better there than out in a suburb,' said
+Nuttie.  'But what do these rooms look out upon?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'On one side into their own court, on the other into Wulstan Street&mdash;a
+quiet place on the whole&mdash;all walls and warehouses; and there's an
+excellent parish church, Mr. Underwood's; so I think we might do worse.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie was very sorry that the gentlemen came up, and Mr. Fane wandered
+out and began asking whether they were going to the rose show.  Somehow
+on that evening she became conscious that Annaple looked at her and Mr.
+Fane rather curiously; and when they met again the next day, and having
+grown intimate over the introduction of the two little boys, were
+driving out together, there were questions about whether she saw much
+of him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, I don't know!  He is the nicest, on the whole, of papa's friends;
+he can talk of something besides'&mdash;Nuttie paused over her
+'besides,'&mdash;'horseyness, and all that sort of thing&mdash;he is not so like
+an old satyr as some of them are; and so he is a resource.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I see.  And you meet him elsewhere, don't you, in general society?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I don't go out much now that Lady Kirkaldy is not in town; but he
+always seems to turn up everywhere that one goes.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ursula, I'm very glad of that tone of yours.  I was afraid&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Afraid of what?' cried Nuttie in a defiant tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That you liked him, and he is not really nice, Nuttie.  Mark knows all
+about him; and so did I when I lived with the Delmars.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie laughed rather bitterly.  'Thank you, Annaple.  As if I could
+care for that man&mdash;or he for me, for that matter!  I know but too
+well,' she added gravely, 'that nobody nice is ever intimate at home.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I beg your pardon.  I would not have worried you about it, only I
+think you must take care, Nuttie, for Blanche mentioned it to us last
+winter.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Blanche is an arrant gossip!  If she saw a grandfather and great
+grandmother gossiping she would say they were going to be married.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, as Mark says, one always swallows Blanche with a qualification.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You may be quite sure, Annaple, that nothing like that will ever be
+true about me!  Why, what would ever become of my poor little Wyn if I
+was so horrid as to want to go and marry?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She said it with an ineffable tone of contempt, just like the original
+Nuttie, who seemed to be recalled by association with Annaple.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That sojourn of Mark and his wife at Springfield House was a bright
+spot in that summer.  If it had been only that Annaple's presence gave
+the free entree to such an island of old Micklethwayte, it would have
+been a great pleasure to her; but there was besides the happiness of
+confidence and unrestraint in their society, a restful enjoyment only
+to be appreciated by living the guarded life of constraint that was
+hers.  She was so seldom thrown among people whom she could admire and
+look up to.  Annaple told her husband of Nuttie's vehement repudiation
+of any intention of marriage.  'I am sure she meant it,' she observed,
+'it was only a little too strong. I wonder if that poor youth who came
+to her first ball, and helped to pick us out of the hole in Bluepost
+Bridge, had anything to do with it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Annaple had an opportunity of judging.  Mr. Dutton would not have
+brought about a meeting which might be painful and unsettling to both;
+but one afternoon, when Nuttie was 'off duty' with her father, and had
+come in to share Annaple's five o'clock tea, Gerard Godfrey, looking
+the curate from head to foot, made his appearance, having come up from
+the far east, about some call on Mr. Dutton's purse.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The two shook hands with pleased surprise, and a little heightening of
+colour, but that was all.  Nuttie had been out to luncheon, and was
+dressed 'like a mere fashionable young lady' in his eyes; and when,
+after the classes and clubs and schools of his district had been
+discussed, he asked, 'And I suppose you are taking part in everything
+here?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, that I can't!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Indeed!  I know Porlock, the second curate here very well, and he
+tells me that his vicar has a wonderful faculty of finding appropriate
+work for every one.  Of course you know him?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, I don't;' said Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Miss Egremont has her appropriate work,' said Mr. Dutton, and the
+deacon felt himself pushed into his old position at Micklethwayte. He
+knew the clergy of the district very well, and how persistently either
+Mr. Egremont, or perhaps Gregorio, prevented their gaining admittance
+at his house; and he guessed, but did not know, that Nuttie could not
+have got into personal intercourse with them without flat disobedience.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Annaple threw herself into the breach, and talked of St. Wulstan's; and
+the encounter ended, leaving the sense of having drifted entirely away
+from one another, and being perfectly heart whole, though on the one
+hand Ursula's feeling was of respect and honour; and Gerard's had a
+considerable element of pity and disapprobation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No!' said Annaple when they were gone, 'he will not cry like the
+kloarek in the Breton ballad who wetted three great missals through
+with his tears at his first mass.  He is very good, I am sure, but he
+is a bit of a prig!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It is very hard to youth to be good without priggishness,' said Mr.
+Dutton.  'Self-assertion is necessary, and it may easily be carried too
+far.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Buttresses are useful, but they are not beauties,' rejoined Annaple.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The warehouse arrangement was finally adopted, and after the three
+weeks necessary for the cleaning and fitting of their floor, and the
+bringing in of their furniture, Mark and Annaple began what she termed
+'Life among the Blacks.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie had great designs of constantly seeing Annaple, sending her
+supplies from the gardens and preserves at Bridgefield, taking her out
+for drives, and cultivating a friendship between Alwyn and Willie, who
+had taken to each other very kindly on the whole.  They could not
+exactly understand each other's language, and had great fights from
+time to time over toys, for though there was a year between them they
+were nearly equal in strength; but they cared for each other's company
+more than for anything else, were always asking to go to one another,
+and roared when the time of parting came; at least Alwyn did so
+unreservedly, for Nuttie had begun to perceive with compunction that
+Billy-boy was much the most under control, and could try to be good at
+his mother's word, without other bribe than her kiss and smile.  Ah!
+but he had a mother!
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap30"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXX.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+NUTTIE'S PROSPECTS.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'Three hundred pounds and possibilities.'&mdash;Merry Wives of Windsor.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Again Nuttie's plans were doomed to be frustrated.  It did not prove to
+be half so easy to befriend Mr. and Mrs. Mark Egremont as she expected,
+at the distance of half London apart, and with no special turn for
+being patronised on their side.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her father took a fancy for almost daily drives with her in the park,
+because then he could have Alwyn with him; and the little fellow's
+chatter had become his chief amusement.  Or if she had the carriage to
+herself, there was sure to be something needful to be done which made
+it impossible to go into the city to take up and set down Mrs. Mark
+Egremont; and to leave her to make her way home would be no kindness.
+So Nuttie only accomplished a visit once before going out of town, and
+that was by her own exertions&mdash;by underground railway and cab.  Then
+she found all going prosperously; the blacks not half so obnoxious as
+had been expected (of course not, thought Nuttie, in the middle of the
+summer); the look-out over the yard very amusing to Billy-boy; and the
+large old-fashioned pannelled rooms, so cool and airy that Annaple was
+quite delighted with them, and contemned the idea of needing a holiday.
+She had made them very pretty and pleasant with her Micklethwayte
+furniture, whose only fault was being on too small a scale for these
+larger spaces, but that had been remedied by piecing, and making what
+had been used for two serve for one.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The kitchen was on the same floor, close at hand, which was well, for
+Annaple did a good deal there, having only one young maid for the
+rougher work.  She had taken lessons in the School of Cookery, and
+practised a good deal even at Micklethwayte, and she was proud of her
+skill and economy.  Mark came in for his mid-day refreshment, and
+looked greatly brightened, as if the worst had come and was by no means
+so bad as he expected.  All the time he had been at Mr. Dutton's he had
+been depressed and anxious, but now, with his boy on his knee, he was
+merrier than Nuttie had ever known him.  As to exercise, there were
+delightful evening walks, sometimes early marketings in the long summer
+mornings before business began&mdash;and altogether it seemed, as Nuttie
+told her father afterwards, as if she had had a glimpse into a little
+City Arcadia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Hein!' said he, 'how long will it last?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And Nuttie was carried away to Cowes, where he had been persuaded to
+recur to his old favourite sport of yachting.  She would have rather
+liked this if Clarence Fane had not been there too, and continually
+haunting them.  She had been distrustful of him ever since Annaple's
+warning, and it became a continual worry to the motherless girl to
+decide whether his civil attentions really meant anything, or whether
+she were only foolish and ridiculous in not accepting them as freely
+and simply as before.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Of one thing she became sure, namely, that Gregorio was doing whatever
+in him lay to bring them together.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In this seaside temporary abode, great part of the London establishment
+was left behind, and Gregorio condescended to act the part of butler,
+with only a single man-servant under him, and thus he had much more
+opportunity of regulating the admission of visitors than at home; and
+he certainly often turned Mr. Fane in upon her, when she had intended
+that gentleman to be excluded, and contrived to turn a deaf or
+uncomprehending ear when she desired that there should be no admission
+of visitors unless her father was absolutely ready for them; and also
+there were times when he must have suggested an invitation to dinner,
+or a joining in a sail.  No doubt Gregorio would have been delighted to
+see her married, and to be thus free from any counter influence over
+his master; but as she said to herself, 'Catch me!  Even if I cared a
+rush for the man, I could not do it.  I don't do my poor father much
+good, but as to leaving poor little Alwyn in his clutches&mdash;I must be
+perfectly demented with love even to think of it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a desire on the valet's part to coax and court little Alwyn
+of which she felt somewhat jealous.  The boy was naturally the pet of
+every one in the household, but he was much less out of Gregorio's
+reach in the present confined quarters, and she could not bear to see
+him lifted up in the valet's arms, allowed to play with his watch, held
+to look at distant sails on board the yacht, or even fed with sweet
+biscuits or chocolate creams.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Rectory nursery had gone on a strict regimen and nurse was as angry
+as Nuttie herself; but there was no preventing it, for his father was
+not above cupboard love, and never resisted the entreaties that were
+always excited by the sight of dainties, only laughing when Nuttie
+remonstrated, or even saying, 'Never mind sister, Wynnie, she's got
+Mrs. Teachem's cap on,' and making the child laugh by pretending to
+smuggle in papers of sweets by stealth, apart from the severe eyes of
+sister or nurse.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That cut Nuttie to the heart.  To speak of the evils for which
+self-indulgence was a preparation would only make her father sneer at
+her for a second Hannah More.  It was a language he did not understand;
+and as to the physical unwholesomeness, he simply did not choose to
+believe it.  She almost wished Alwyn would for once be sick enough to
+frighten him, but that never happened, nor would he accept nurse's
+statement of the boy being out of order.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Poor little Alwyn, he was less and less of an unmixed joy to her as he
+was growing out of the bounds of babyhood, and her notions of
+discipline were thwarted by her father's unbounded indulgence.  To her
+the child was a living soul, to be trained for a responsible position
+here and for the eternal world beyond; to her father he was a
+delightful plaything, never to be vexed, whose very tempers were
+amusing, especially when they teased the serious elder sister.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh father! do you ever think what it will come to?' Nuttie could not
+help saying one day when Mr. Egremont had prevented her from carrying
+him off in disgrace to the nursery for tying the rolls up in dinner
+napkins to enact Punch and Judy, in spite of his own endeavours to
+prevent the consequent desolation of the preparations.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Egremont shrugged his shoulders, and only observed, 'An excuse for
+a little home tyranny, eh?  No, no, Wyn; we don't want tame little
+muffs here.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie was obliged to run out of the room and&mdash;it must be
+confessed&mdash;dance and stamp out her agony of indignation and misery that
+her father should be bent on ruining his child, for she could not
+understand that all this was simply the instinctive self-indulgence of
+a drugged brain and dulled conscience.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She did, however, get a little support and help during a brief stay in
+the shooting season at Bridgefield.  The Canoness was visiting the
+Condamines at the Rectory, and very soon understood all the state of
+things, more perhaps from her former nurse than from Ursula.  She was
+witness to one of those trying scenes, when Nuttie had been forbidding
+the misuse of a beautiful elaborate book of nursery rhymes, where Alwyn
+thought proper to 'kill' with repeated stabs the old woman of the shoe,
+when preparing to beat her progeny.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just as she was getting the dagger paper-knife out of his little hand,
+and was diverting the pout on his swelling lip, his father became aware
+of the contest, and immediately the half conquered boy appealed to him.
+'Sister naughty.  Won't let Wynnie kill cross ugly old woman, beating
+poor little children.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'A fellow feeling! eh, sister?  Kill her away, boy, tear her out! Yes,
+give her to sister, and tell her that's the way to serve sour females!
+I declare, Ursula, she has got something of your expression.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh Wynnie, Wynnie!' said Nuttie, as he trotted up to her, 'is sister
+cross and ugly?' and she opened her arms to him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Sister, Wyn's own sister,' said the child affectionately, letting
+himself be kissed as he saw her grieved.  'She shan't be ugly old
+woman&mdash;ugly old woman go in fire.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So perilously near the flame did he run to burn the old woman that Mr.
+Egremont shouted to her that in spite of all that humbug, she was
+perfectly careless of the child, although if she had withheld him she
+would probably have been blamed for thwarting him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Are you quite fair towards Ursula?' the aunt ventured to say when the
+girl had gone to dress for walking down with her to the Rectory. 'It is
+hard on her, and not good for the boy to upset her authority.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Eh?  Why, the girl is just a governess manquee, imbued with the spirit
+of all those old women who bred her up.  A nice life the poor child
+would have of it, but for me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I am sure she is devotedly attached to him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Hein!  So she thinks; but trust human nature for loving to wreak
+discipline on the child who has cut her out.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That is scarcely just, Alwyn.  She was greatly relieved to be cut out.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Egremont laughed at this, and his sister-in-law indignantly added
+with all the authority of a successful parent, 'Anyway, nothing is so
+bad for a child as collision between the authorities in a family.
+Ursula is doing her best to act as a mother to that child, and it will
+be very injurious to him to interfere with her influences.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'She's a good girl enough&mdash;gives very little trouble,' he allowed, 'but
+I'm not going to have the boy sat upon.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As he spoke the words, Nuttie returned, and as soon as she was out of
+the house and out of hearing she exclaimed, 'Oh, Aunt Jane, you see how
+it is!  How am I to prevent my boy from being utterly ruined?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I have been speaking to your father,' said Mrs. Egremont, 'but he does
+not seem to understand.  Men don't.  A child's faults and fancies seem
+such trifles to them that they can't see the harm of indulging them,
+and, besides, they expect to be amused.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And is that poor dear little fellow to grow up spoilt?' said Nuttie,
+her eyes hot with unshed tears.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I hope not, Ursula.  I have great confidence in your influence, for I
+see you are a sensible girl.'  This was astonishing praise from the
+Canoness.  'But you will throw away your chances if you keep up a
+continual opposition to what your father allows.  It will be much less
+hurtful if Alwyn does get too much indulgence, and does a little
+unnecessary mischief, than for him to learn to think you the enemy of
+his pleasures, always wanting to check and punish him.  Oh yes,' as
+Nuttie was going to answer, 'I know it is for his real good, but how is
+that baby to understand that?  Indeed, my dear, I know how it is; I
+have gone through the same sort of thing with Basil.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, it could never have been so bad!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, of course not; but I have had to allow what I did not like for the
+child rather than let him see the shadow of difference of opinion
+between us, and I don't think it has done him any harm.  The great
+point is that you should keep that poor little fellow's affection and
+respect, and make him unwilling to vex you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That he is, dear little man.  He is sorry when he sees sister grieved.
+He is always distressed if anything is hurt or pained.  He is really
+tender-hearted.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, but boys are boys.  That feeling will fail you if you work it too
+hard, and especially if you show vexation at his pleasures.  Keep that
+for real evils, like falsehood or cruelty.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not for disobedience?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'The evil of disobedience depends much more upon the authority of an
+order than on the child itself.  If he disobeys you under his father's
+licence, you cannot make much of it.  You have him a good deal to
+yourself?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Then make use of that time to strengthen his principles and sense of
+right and wrong, as well as to secure his affections.  My dear, I never
+saw a girl in a more difficult position than yours, but I see you are
+doing your utmost; only I am afraid the love of sedatives is the same.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh aunt, I did think he had given it up!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You are inexperienced, my dear.  I see it in his eyes.  Well, I'm
+afraid there is no stopping that.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mother&mdash;' and Nuttie's voice was choked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'She did her best, but you have not the same opportunities.  It can't
+be helped with a man of that age.  Mark might have done something, but
+he is out of the question now, poor fellow!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Indeed, Aunt Jane, I think Mark and Annaple are some of the happiest
+people I ever saw.  I only wish my poor Alwyn were as forward as their
+Billy, but I'm not even allowed to teach him his letters, because once
+he cried over them.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I wish they had anything to fall back upon,' said Mrs. Egremont
+anxiously.  'They are so unwilling to let any one know of their
+difficulties that I feel as if I never knew in what straits they may
+be.  You will be sure to let me know, Ursula, if there is anything that
+I can do for them.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That conversation was a great comfort and help to Nuttie, who was
+pleased to find herself treated as a real friend by her aunt, and
+perceived the wisdom of her advice.  But the watching over the Mark
+Egremonts was a very difficult matter to accomplish, for when she went
+back to London she was warned that Billy had the whooping cough,
+rendering them unapproachable all the winter, so that she could only
+hear of them through Mr. Dutton, whom she continued to see occasionally
+whenever there was anything to communicate.  Mr. Egremont rather liked
+him, and on meeting him in the street, would ask him casually in to
+dinner, or to make up a rubber, or play piquet, for he excelled in
+these arts, and still more in chess, and an evening with Mr. Dutton was
+quite a red-letter time with Nuttie. It gave her an indefinable sense
+of safety and protection; but it was not always to be had, for her
+friend had many engagements, being one of the active lay church
+workers, and devoting two regular evenings in each week to Gerard
+Godfrey's eastern district, where he kept all the accounts, had a model
+court and evening class, besides hospitably resting tired clergymen and
+their wives in his pleasant quiet house.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the spring Mr. Egremont was laid up with the worst rheumatic attack
+he had yet had, in consequence of yielding to the imperious will of his
+son, who had insisted on standing in a bleak corner to see the Life
+Guards pass by.  On this occasion Nuttie did not prove herself the
+heaven-born nurse that the true heroine ought to be, but was extremely
+frightened, and altogether dependent on Gregorio, who knew all about
+the symptoms, and when to send for the doctor and a garde-malade.
+Gregorio always talked French to Nuttie when he felt himself in the
+ascendant, as he certainly was at present; but he became much less
+gracious when he heard that Mrs. William Egremont might be expected,
+declaring that madame would only excite his master, and that her
+presence was quite unnecessary.  Her coming had been volunteered, but
+it was a great boon to Ursula, who was thus helped out in many
+perplexities, although Mrs. Egremont was a great deal at her
+step-son's, and neither lady was of much avail in the sick-room, during
+the stress of the illness.  It was never actually dangerous, but there
+was great suffering and much excitement, and for four or five days the
+distress and anxiety were considerable.  After this passed off Ursula
+was surprised to find her company preferred to that of her aunt.  She
+was a better souffre-douleur, was less of a restraint, and was besides
+his regular reader and amanuensis, so that as the force of the attack
+abated, he kept her a good deal in his room during the latter part of
+the day, imparting scraps of intelligence, skimming the papers for him,
+and reading his letters.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a lease to be signed, and, as soon as might be, Mr. Bulfinch,
+the Redcastle solicitor, brought it up, and had to be entertained at
+luncheon.  While he was waiting in the drawing-room for Mr. Egremont to
+be made ready for him, he looked with deep interest on the little heir,
+whom Ursula presently led off to the other end of the room to the hoard
+of downstair toys; and an elaborate camp was under construction, when
+by the fireside, the Canoness inquired in a low confidential tone, 'May
+I ask whether you came about a will?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, Mrs. Egremont.  I wish I were.  It is only about the lease of
+Spinneycotes farm.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Then there is none?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'None that I am aware of.  None has ever been drawn up by us. Indeed, I
+was wishing that some influence could be brought to bear which might
+show the expedience of making some arrangement.  Any melancholy event
+is, I trust, far distant, but contingencies should be provided for.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Exactly so.  He is recovering now, but these attacks always leave
+effects on the heart, and at his age, with his habits, no one knows
+what may happen.  Of course it would not make much difference to the
+boy.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, the Court of Chancery would appoint the most suitable natural
+guardians.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But,' said Mrs. Egremont, 'I am afraid that the personal property when
+divided would not be much of a provision for her.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You are right.  The investments are unfortunately and
+disproportionately small.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'She ought either to have them all, or there should be a charge on the
+estate,' said the Canoness decisively.  'If possible, he must be made
+to move.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, don't!' cried Nuttie, jumping up from the floor.  'He mustn't be
+upset on any account.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My dear, I had no notion that you heard us!' exclaimed her aunt.  'I
+thought Alwyn was making too much noise with his soldiers.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I beg your pardon,' said Nuttie, 'perhaps I should have spoken sooner,
+but indeed he must not be worried and disturbed,' she added, somewhat
+fiercely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Don't be afraid, my dear,' said her aunt.  'Mr. Bulfinch knows that
+your father is in no condition to have such matters brought before him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Certainly,' said the old lawyer politely;' and we will trust that Miss
+Egremont's prospects may soon come forward on a more auspicious
+occasion.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie could have beaten him, but she was obliged to content herself
+with such a sweeping charge of her Zulus among Alwyn's Englishmen, that
+their general shrieked out in indignation against such a variation of
+the accustomed programme of all their games.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie thought she had defended her patient sufficiently, but she found
+she had been mistaken, for when her aunt had left them, some days
+later, her father began, 'We are well quit of her.  Those troublesome
+dictatorial women always get worse when they are left widows&mdash;taking
+upon them to say what their dear husbands would have said, forsooth.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Aunt Jane was very kind to me,' said Ursula, not in the least knowing
+what he was thinking of.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'To you.  Ay, I should think so, taking upon her to lecture me about
+securing a provision for you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh!  I hoped&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What?' he broke in.  'You knew of it!  You set her on, I suppose.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh! no, no, father.  She and Mr. Bulfinch began about it, not meaning
+me to hear&mdash;about a will, I mean&mdash;and I told them I wasn't going to
+have you worried, and I thought I had stopped it altogether.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Stop a woman bent on her duty?  Hein!  But you are a good girl, and
+shall come to no loss when we have to make your marriage settlement.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You won't have to do that, father!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Hein!  What do you keep that poor fellow Clarence Fane dangling in
+attendance on you for?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I don't!  I'm sure I don't want him.  I would do anything to keep him
+at a distance!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'How now!  I thought your Grace condescended to him more than to any
+one else.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I don't dislike him unless he has <I>that</I> in his head; but as to
+marrying him!  Oh&mdash;h&mdash;h,' such a note of horror that elicited a little
+laugh.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'So hot against him, are we?  Who is it then?  Not the umbrella fellow?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Father! how can you?' she cried, with a burning flush of indignation.
+He&mdash;why&mdash;he!  He has always been a sort of uncle, ever since I was a
+little girl.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh yes, adopted uncles are very devout when young ladies rush out to
+morning prayers at unearthly hours&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Father!' with her voice trembling, 'I assure you he doesn't&mdash;I mean he
+always goes to St. Michael's, unless he has anything particular to say
+to me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh yes, I understand,' and Mr. Egremont indulged in a hearty laugh,
+which almost drove poor Nuttie beside herself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Indeed&mdash;indeed,' she stammered, in her confusion and suppressed wrath;
+'it is nothing of that sort.  He is a regular old bachelor&mdash;he always
+was.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'At what age do men become old bachelors?  For he seems to me about the
+age of poor Clarry, whom you seem to view as a bugbear.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I wish you would not think of such things, father; I have not the
+slightest intention of leaving you and dear little Wynnie!  Nothing
+should tempt me!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nothing?  Hein!  Then you may as well be on your guard, Miss Egremont,
+or we shall have pleadings that you have encouraged them&mdash;church and
+world&mdash;or both, maybe.  You pious folk take your little diversions and
+flirtations just like your poor sisters whom you shake your heads at,
+never guessing how Gregorio and I have looked out at you and your
+adopted uncle parading the street.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I wish Gregorio would mind his own business, and not put such things
+in your head!' burst out Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At which Mr. Egremont laughed longer and louder than ever.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Poor Nuttie!  It was terrible discomfiture, not only for the moment,
+but a notion had been planted in her mind that seemed cruel, almost
+profane, and yet which would not be dismissed, and made her heart leap
+with strange bounds at the wild thought, 'Could it be true?' then sink
+again with shame at her own presumptuous folly in entertaining such a
+thought for a moment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yet whenever she actually encountered Mr. Dutton her habitual comfort
+and reliance on him revived, and dispelled all the embarrassment which
+at other times she expected to feel in his presence.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap31"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+SPES NON FRACTA.
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Summer had quite set in before Mr. Egremont was able to go out for a
+drive, and then he was ordered to Buxton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie only once saw her cousins before leaving town, for their little
+boy fulfilled the nursery superstition by whooping till May; and all
+intercourse was prohibited, till he had ceased for a whole week to
+utter a suspicious sound.  Mr. Dutton had insisted on the family
+spending a fortnight at Springfield House for change of air, and it was
+there that Nuttie was permitted to see them, though the children were
+still forbidden to meet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Annaple looked very thin, but rattled as merrily as ever.  'No one
+could guess,' she said, 'what a delight it was not to know what one was
+to have for dinner?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'To do more than know, I am afraid,' said Ursula.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well, next to the delight of knowing nothing at all about it&mdash;and even
+that is only good for a holiday&mdash;is the delight of seeing a pudding
+come out smooth and comfortable and unbroken from its basin. "Something
+attempted, something done," you know.  It is quite as good a work of
+art as a water-coloured drawing.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Only not quite so permanent.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No; it is only one's first pudding that one wants to embalm in a glass
+case for being so good as not to leave its better part behind in the
+basin, or to collapse as soon as it is in the dish.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Which my puddings always did in the happy days of old, but then I was
+always hunted ignominiously out of the kitchen and told I wasted good
+food,' said Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, and waste is fearful when Mark and Billy have to eat it all the
+same, like the poor cows with spoilt hay.  I wonder whether your old
+experiences recall the joy of finding trustworthy eggs within your
+price.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah, I was not housekeeper.  I only remember being in disgrace for
+grumbling when there was no pudding, because the hens would not lay.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Though I heard a woman declaring the other day that there ought to be
+a machine for them.  Oh, the scenes that I encounter when I am
+marketing!  If I only could describe them for Punch!  I walked home
+once with our porter's wife, carrying two most brilliant sticks of
+rhubarb, all carmine stalk and gamboge leaf, and expressing a very
+natural opinion that the rhubarb tree must be very showy to look at,
+and curious to know in what kind of fruit the medicine grew.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, Annaple! do you go yourself in that way?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mark used to go with me, but, poor old fellow, he has ruinous ideas
+about prices and quantities, and besides, now he is so hard worked-up
+and down all day&mdash;he wants a little more of his bed in the morning.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And what do you want?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I never was a sleepy creature, and I get back in time to dress the
+boy.  I generally find him at high-jinks on his father's bed.  It uses
+up a little superfluous energy before the dressing.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But surely you have a servant now?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I've come to the conclusion that a workman's wife charing is a better
+institution.  No. 1, a pet of Miss Nugent's, was a nice creature, but
+the London air did for her at once.  No. 2, also from Micklethwayte,
+instantly set up a young man, highly respectable, and ready to marry on
+the spot, as they did, though their united ages don't amount to
+thirty-nine.  No. 3 was a Cockney, and couldn't stay because the
+look-out was so dull; and No. 4 gossiped with her kind when I thought
+her safe in the Temple Gardens with Billy, whereby he caught the
+whooping-cough, and as she also took the liberty of wearing my fur
+cloak, and was not particular as to accuracy, we parted on short
+notice; and I got this woman to come in every day to scrub, help make
+the bed, etc.  It is much less trouble, and the only fault I have to
+find with her is an absolute incapability of discerning blacks.  I
+believe she thinks I have a monomania against them.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Still Annaple insisted that she did not work half so hard as her
+nieces, Muriel and Janet, in their London season, and that her economy
+was not nearly so trying and difficult as that which Lady Delmar had
+been practising for years in order to afford them a summer there; nor
+was her anxiety to make both ends meet by any means equal to her
+sister's in keeping up appearances, and avoiding detrimentals. The two
+sisters met occasionally, but Lady Delmar was so compassionate and
+patronising that Annaple's spirit recoiled in off-hand levity and
+rattle, and neither regretted the occupation that prevented them from
+seeing much of one another.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+A year passed by, chiefly spent by Mr. Egremont in the pursuit of
+comparative health, at Buxton, Bagneres, and Biarritz, during which his
+daughter could do little but attend to him and to little Alwyn. The boy
+had been enough left to her and nurse during his father's acute illness
+to have become more amenable.  He was an affectionate child,
+inheriting, with his mother's face, her sweetness and docility of
+nature, and he was old enough to be a good deal impressed with the fact
+that he had made poor papa so ill by teasing him to stand in the cold.
+Mr. Egremont was not at rest without a sight of the child every day, if
+only for a moment, and the helplessness and suffering had awed the
+little fellow a good deal.  It was touching to see him pause when
+galloping about the house when he went past the sick-room, and hush his
+merry voice of his own accord.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And in the journeys, when his father's invalided state would have made
+a fractious or wilful child a serious inconvenience, his good temper
+and contentment were invaluable.  He would sit for hours on his
+sister's lap, listening to whispered oft-told tales, or playing at
+impromptu quiet games; he could go to sleep anywhere, and the wonderful
+discoveries he made at each new place were the amusement of all his
+auditors.  Sister was always his playfellow and companion whenever she
+could be spared from her father, and she had an ever-increasing
+influence over him which she did her best to raise into principle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Perhaps she never had a happier moment than when she heard how he had
+put his hands behind him and steadily refused when Gregorio had offered
+to regale him at a stall of bonbons forming only a thin crust to
+liqueurs, which unfortunately he had already been taught to like.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But I told him sister said I mustn't have them,' said Alwyn.  'And
+then he made a face and said something in French about you.  I know
+'twas you, for he said "soeur."  What was it?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Never mind, Wynnie dear. We had much better never know.  You were
+sister's own dear steadfast boy, and you shall kiss mother's picture.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie had a beautiful coloured photograph of her mother, finished like
+a miniature, which had been taken at Nice, in the time of Alice
+Egremont's most complete and matured beauty.  She had taught Alwyn to
+kiss and greet it every evening before his prayers, and such a kiss was
+his reward when he had shown any special act of goodness, for which, as
+she told him, 'mother would have been pleased with her little son.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Such another boon was his one Sunday evening at Biarritz, when she
+found that while she was shut up at dinner with her father he had
+voluntarily gone to church with nurse instead of playing on the beach
+with some other English children.  'It was all very long and tiresome,'
+he said, when asked if he liked it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Then why did you go, old man?  There was no need to drag you there,'
+said his father.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'She didn't drag me,' said the boy; 'I walked.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You need not have walked then, Master Dignity.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Poor nursie couldn't go without me,' said Alwyn, 'and sister says
+there's a blessing on those that go.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'A blessing? eh! and what idea does that little head entertain of a
+blessing?' said Mr. Egremont.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Alwyn lifted his soft brown eyes reverently and said, 'It is something
+good,' speaking, as he always did, in a baby lisp inimitable here.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And it comes from God.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well, what is it?  Can you see it?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No'&mdash;he looked in perplexity towards Nuttie, who was in agony all the
+time, lest there should be a scoff that might remain in the child's
+mind.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Never mind sister.  Can you feel it?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes;' and the little face lighted with such a reality that the
+incipient mockery turned into wonder on the next question.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And how does it feel?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, so nice!  It makes Wynnie glad here,' and he spread his hands over
+his breast; and gave a little caper like a kid for very gladness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'There!' said Mr. Egremont, leaning back fairly conquered.  'Any one
+might envy Wynnie!  Goodnight, my boy, blessing and all.  I wonder if
+one felt like that when one was a little shaver,' he pursued, as Alwyn
+went off to his bed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I think I did sometimes,' said Nuttie, 'but I never was half as good
+as Wynnie!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What?' exclaimed her father.  'You! bred up among the saints.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah! but I hadn't the same nature.  I never was like&mdash;<I>her</I>.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well&mdash;'tis very pretty now, and I don't know how we could stand a
+young Turk, but you mustn't make a girl of him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'There's no fear of that,' said Nuttie.  'He is full of spirit.  That
+old bathing woman calls him "un vrai petit diable d'Anglais," he is so
+venturous.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Which delighted Mr. Egremont as much as the concession that the boy's
+faith was 'pretty' delighted Ursula.  Indeed, he went a little further,
+for when she came back from her few minutes at Alwyn's bedside he
+proceeded to tell her of the absolute neglect in which his mother, a
+belle of the Almacks days, had left her nursery.  It was the first time
+he had ever hinted at a shadow of perception that anything in his own
+life had been amiss, and Ursula could not but feel a dreamy, hopeful
+wonder whether her sweet little Alwyn could be the destined means of
+doing that in which her mother had failed.  It was at least enough to
+quicken those prayers which had been more dutiful than trustful.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And then her hope sank again when she realised that her father's days
+were spent between the lull of opiate, followed by a certain serenity,
+then in a period of irritability, each being more or less prolonged,
+according to health, weather, or entertainment, and closed again by the
+sedatives in various forms.  It relieved her indeed, but she felt it a
+wickedness to be glad of the calm, and she was aware that the habit was
+making inroads on her father's powers.  Between that and his defect of
+eyesight, he was often much confused, especially about money matters,
+and was more and more dependent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Would that it had been only upon her, but she was constantly certain
+that Gregorio was taking advantage of his master's helplessness, and
+keeping it up by all means in his power.  Yet what could be done? For
+the valet was absolutely necessary to his comfort, and yet she
+sometimes thought her father half in dread of him, and afraid to
+expostulate about personal neglects, which became more frequent.
+Things, that would have enraged him from others, were only grumbled and
+fretted over, when Gregorio caused him real inconvenience by absence or
+forgetfulness, and made very insufficient apology.  It seemed like a
+bondage; Nuttie thought of her mother's efforts, and blamed herself in
+vain.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was during this journey that she heard of good Miss Headworth's
+death.  The old lady's mind had long failed, and the actual present
+loss to Nuttie was not great; but it seemed to close a long account of
+gratitude such as she had not thoroughly felt or understood before; and
+the link with Micklethwayte was severed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For Mark and Annaple prevailed on Mrs. Egremont to install Miss Nugent
+as governess to Rosalind and Adela.  In that capacity Nuttie hoped to
+see a good deal of her; but of course was again disappointed, for her
+father would not hear of returning to Bridgefield.  It was draughty,
+and dull, and desolate, and nothing suited him but London.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap32"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+BLACKS IN THE ASCENDANT.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'Man's work ends with set of sun,<BR>
+  Woman's work is never done.'&mdash;Proverb.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+It was far on in May when Ursula found herself again in the
+sitting-room over the warehouse.  Somehow it had not the dainty
+well-cared-for air of erst.  The pretty table ornaments were out of
+sight; the glass over the clock was dim, the hands had stopped; some of
+Annaple's foes, the blacks, had effected a lodgment on the Parian
+figures; the chintzes showed wear and wash, almost grime; the carpet's
+pattern was worn; a basket full of socks was on the sofa; and on the
+table a dress, once belonging to Annaple's trousseau, was laid out,
+converted into its component parts.  The wails of a baby could be heard
+in the distance, and the first person to appear was Master William,
+sturdy and happy in spite of wofully darned knees to his stockings.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mother's coming, if baby will stop crying,' he said, 'and lie in her
+cradle.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Your little sister!  What's her name?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Jane Christian,' said the boy, with a much more distinct enunciation
+than Alwyn, though a year older, had yet acquired.  'She does cry so!
+She won't let mother make my new knickies out of her blue gown!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Thoughts of the suits that Alwyn was discarding came across Nuttie.
+Could they be offered without offence?  She asked, however, 'Do you
+remember Alwyn&mdash;my Wynnie?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Wynnie gave me my horse,' cried the boy, unstabling a steed which had
+seen hard service since the presentation.  'Where's Wynnie?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He is at home.  You must come and see him,' said Nuttie, who had not
+been allowed to bring him till secure of a clean bill of health. 'But
+see, just outside the door, there's something for Billy.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had made her servant bring up the parcels to the passage outside,
+and Billy was soon hugging a magnificent box of soldiers, wherewith he
+pranced off to show them to his mother, leaving the doors open, so that
+Ursula could more decidedly hear the baby's voice, not a healthy
+child's lusty cry, but a poor little feeble wail, interspersed with
+attempts at consolation.  'Come, won't she go to Emily?  Oh, Billy-boy,
+how splendid!  I hope you thanked Cousin Ursula.  Baby Jenny, now can't
+you let any one speak but yourself?  Oh! shall I never teach you that
+"Balow, my babe," is not "bellow, my babe."  That's better!  Now can't
+you let Emily have you, while I go to Cousin Nuttie?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Let me come!  Mayn't I?' exclaimed Ursula, invading the room that
+served as kitchen, where Annaple was trying to hush off the child and
+make her over to a little twelve years old maid, who stood in waiting,
+helping Willie meantime to unpack his soldiers, with smothered
+exclamations of delight.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, Nuttie, how good of you!  Please to excuse the accompaniment.
+There never was such a young lady for self-assertion to make up for
+there being so little of her.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And Annaple, very thin and tired looking, held up the child, fearfully
+small and pinched for four months old, to be kissed by Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Does she always go on like this?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+''Cept when she is asleep,' said Willie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Poor wee lassie,' said Annaple; 'there's great excuse for her, for the
+food has not yet been invented that suits her ladyship.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You must come and consult nurse.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And how are you all?  I'm glad you are at hand, Nuttie!  Is Mr.
+Egremont better?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'As well as ever he is&mdash;lame and altogether an invalid,&mdash;but he has not
+had such bad attacks of pain lately.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And his eyes?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'About the same.  He can write, and tell one card from another, but he
+can't read&mdash;or rather it hurts him to do so, and he can't bear a strong
+light.  But, Annaple, how are you?  That child is wearing you to a
+shadow.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh! I'm quite well&mdash;perfectly.  There, I think she is gone off at
+last.  You had better walk her about a little, Emily; she will break
+out again if we try to put her in the cradle.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And having handed over the child with only a very low murmur, Annaple
+left her combined kitchen and nursery.  She flew at the flowers Nuttie
+had brought like a thirsty person, crying, as she buried her face in
+them, 'Now for beauty!  Now Mark will be refreshed!  Ah! here's a
+pretty pickle for a reception room.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, don't put it away!  I could help you; I do so like that kind of
+work.  It is so like old times.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It must be put away, thank you, for Mark will be coming in.  And the
+saying about the public washing of garments is specially true of one's
+own husband.  Ways and means are worrying to the masculine mind.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I thought it was too early for Mark?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He has an appointment to keep at Charing Cross or thereabouts, so I
+made him promise to come in in time to "put a bit in his head," as our
+Irish charwoman says.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Then I can take him.  I have the carriage, and I must be at home by
+half-past twelve.  I wish you would come too, Annaple.  There's plenty
+of room.  You could show the baby to nurse, and the boys could have a
+good game.  I would send you back in the evening.  Mark could come on
+after his business is done.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Thank you, Nuttie, I can't to-day&mdash;for a whole heap of domestic
+reasons; but, if you can get Mark to come, do, it would be so good for
+him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'How is Mark?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He is well, quite well,' said Annaple; 'and so good and patient. But
+you see, it does take it out of a man when that doleful little noise
+won't stop all night!  We are both acquiring a form of somnambulism,
+but when there's real out-of-door business to be done, it is not like
+proper sleep.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Or when there's woman's indoor business, I am afraid,' said Nuttie,
+much concerned at the extreme thinness of Annaple's face and hands, and
+the weary look of her large eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, one makes that up at odd times!' she answered brightly.  'One
+thing is, this work suits Mark, he feels that he can do it, and he gets
+on well with the men.  They asked him to join in their club, and he was
+so much pleased.  He gets up subjects for them, and I am so glad he has
+such a pleasure and interest to keep him from missing the society he
+was used to.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It must be very good for them too.  Mr. Dutton said he really thought
+Mark had kept them from going in for a strike.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Besides the glory of the thing,' said Annaple drawing herself up, 'Mr.
+Dobbs thought so too, and raised us ten pounds; which made us able to
+import that little Bridgefield lassie to hold baby&mdash;when&mdash;when Miss
+Jenny will let her.  He has some law copying to do besides, but I don't
+like that; it burns the candle at both ends, and he does get bad
+headaches sometimes, and goes on all the same.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You must both come and see my Wyn.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah! I had never asked after him.  I suppose he is as pretty as ever,'
+said Annaple, who secretly thought his beauty too girlish compared with
+her sturdy Billy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Prettier, I think, as he gets more expression.  We can't persuade
+ourselves to cut his hair, and it looks so lovely on his sailor suit.
+And he is so good.  I could not have believed a child could be so quiet
+and considerate on a journey.  You should have seen him standing by my
+father's knee in the railway carriage, and amusing him with all that
+was to be seen, and stopping at the least hint that he was chattering
+too much.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Billy is wonderfully helpful.  Ah&mdash;' and Annaple's eyes lighted up as
+the step that had music in't came up the stair; and as Mark came in,
+Nuttie thought him grown older, his hair thinner, his shoulders
+rounded, and his office coat shabby, but she saw something in his
+countenance there had never been before.  Ever since she had known him
+he had worn a certain air of depression, or perhaps more truly of
+failure and perplexity, which kept before her conscious mind the
+Desdichado on Ivanhoe's shield, even when he was a gentleman at ease at
+the luxurious Rectory; but there was now not only the settled air of a
+man who had found his vocation, but something of the self-respect and
+eagerness of one who was doing it well, and feeling himself valued.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Is baby&mdash;' he began.  'Oh, Nuttie!  Are you there?  Mr. Dutton told me
+you were coming.  How is my uncle?'  And the voice was much brisker
+than in the days of lawn-tennis.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Father, father, look!' cried the boy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Why, Billy-boy, you are set up!  Zouaves and chasseurs!  I see where
+they came from.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+During the mixture of greetings and inquiries, admiration of the
+flowers, and the exhibition of Billy's treasures, Annaple glided away,
+and presently placed before him a tray, daintily benapkinned and set
+forth with a little cup of soup.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Baby is really asleep, and Emily as proud as a Hielandman,' she said.
+'Now eat this, without more ado, for that good Nuttie is going to set
+you down at Charing Cross.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'This is the way we spoil our husbands, Nuttie,' said Mark. 'Refections
+served up at every turn.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Only bones!  The immortal pot au feu,' said Annaple.  'And you are to
+go on after you have interviewed your man of steel, and have tea with
+Nuttie, and pay your respects to your uncle, like a dutiful nephew.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, that I can't, Nannie; I promised Dobbs to go and see a man for
+him, and I must come back as soon as I can after that.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He looked&mdash;as to figure and air&mdash;much more like his old self when he
+had changed his coat.  They fed him, almost against his will, with a
+few of the forced strawberries Nuttie had brought.  Billy pressed on
+him wonders from a Paris bonbon box, and Annaple fastened a rose and a
+pink in his button-hole, and came down to the street door with her boy
+to see him off.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What do you think of her?' was Mark's first inquiry.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Think!  As Mr. Dutton said long ago, never was braver lady!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Never was there a truer word!  I meant as to her health?  As to
+courage, spirits, and temper, there is no question; I never saw them
+fail; but are they not almost too much for the frame?' he asked
+anxiously.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It echoed Nuttie's fear, but she tried to frame a cheerful answer. 'She
+is very thin, but she seems well.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'She never complains, but I am sure her strength is not what it was.
+She cannot walk out as she did at first.  Indeed, she gets no real rest
+day nor night, and there's no relieving her!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'She says you don't get much rest either.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'More than my share,' said Mark.  'The poor little thing never sleeps
+except in someone's arms, and if awake, is not content for a moment
+except in her mother's.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And that has been going on four months?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Three.  Ever since we brought her back from Redcastle.  I have nearly
+determined to move into some suburb when I get a rise at Michaelmas,
+unless she improves.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nurse might suggest something.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Or at any rate tell us what to think.  We showed her to a doctor, and
+all he could propose was some kind of food, which was no more
+successful than the rest.  Did you look at her, Nuttie?  She is a
+pretty little thing when she is quiet, but she dwindles away&mdash;at least
+so it seems to me, though Annaple will not see it, and&mdash;and if we are
+not permitted to keep the little one, I dread what the effect may be on
+her.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie said something about bravery and goodness, thinking in her heart
+that, if the blow fell, it would be better for all than the perpetual
+suffering of the poor little sickly being.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah! you don't know what her affections are,' said Mark.  'You did not
+see her when she lost her mother, and there had been no strain on her
+powers then.  However, I've no business to croak.  Many a child gets
+over troubles of this kind, and, as Annaple says, little Jenny will be
+all the more to us for what we go through with her.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The carriage stopped, and Nuttie asked him if it would delay him too
+long if she executed a commission about her father's glasses.  He had
+plenty of time, but she was delayed longer than she expected, and on
+her return was surprised to find that he had dropped asleep.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah! that's what comes of a moment's quiet;' he said, smiling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Fine quiet in the roar of Ludgate Hill!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'To a Cockney 'tis as the mill to the miller!  I like the full stir and
+tide,' he added, looking out upon it.  'I never knew what life was
+before!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I should have thought you never knew what hardness and hard work were.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That's just it,' he answered, smiling.  'The swing of it is
+exhilaration&mdash;very different from being a cumberer of the ground.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, Mark, all the privations and anxiety!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'The privation! that's nothing.  Indeed I am afraid&mdash;yes, I am ashamed
+to say&mdash;it falls more on my dear wife than myself, but if we can only
+wear through a year or two we shall get a further rise, and my poor
+Annaple may get out of this drudgery.  Please God, she and the little
+one can stand it for a time, and I think she has a spring within her
+that will;' then, as he saw tears in his cousin's eyes, he added,
+'Don't be unhappy about it, Nuttie; I have had it in my mind ever so
+long to tell you that the finding you at Micklethwayte was the best
+thing that ever happened to me!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yes, so far as character went, Ursula could believe that it had been
+so.  He was twice the man he would have been without the incentive to
+work, and the constant exercise of patience and cheerfulness; but her
+heart was heavy with apprehension that the weight of the trial might be
+too heavy.  To her eyes the baby's life seemed extremely doubtful, and
+Annaple looked so fragile that the increase of her burthens, any
+saddening of the heart, might destroy her elasticity, and crush her
+outright; while even Mark seemed to her to be toiling so close within
+the limits of his powers that a straw might break the camel's back!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She longed to talk to Mr. Dutton about them, but she found herself
+doomed to a day that perhaps Annaple would have thought more trying
+than her harrowed life.  She was a little later than she had intended,
+and her father had been waiting impatiently to have a note read to him,
+so he growled at her impatience to run after 'that Scotch girl.'  And
+the note happened to be of an irritating nature; moreover, the cutlets
+at luncheon were said to be akin to indiarubber, and there was the
+wrong flavour in the sauce.  Ursula let that cook do what she pleased
+without remonstrance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Even Alwyn did not afford as much satisfaction as usual, for the boy
+was in high spirits and wanted to blow a little trumpet, which was more
+than his father could stand.  He was very good when this was silenced,
+but he then began to rush round the room daring his sister to catch the
+wild colt as he went by.  This had likewise to be stopped, with the
+murmur that Ursula spoilt the child.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She tried to compose matters by turning out the old toys in the
+ottoman, but Alwyn had outgrown most of them, and did not care for any
+except a certain wooden donkey, minus one ear and a leg, which went by
+the name of Sambo, and had absorbed a good deal of his affection.  He
+had with difficulty been consoled for Sambo being left behind, and now
+turned over everything with considerable clatter in search of him.
+Alas!  Sambo could nowhere be found in the room, and Alwyn dashed off
+to inquire of all the household after him.  His father meanwhile
+growled at the child's noise, and went on trying the glasses Nuttie had
+brought, and pronouncing each pair in turn useless, vowing that it was
+no use to send her anywhere.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Upon this, back came Alwyn, terribly distressed and indignant, for he
+had extracted from the housemaid left in charge, who was as cross as
+she was trustworthy, 'What! that old broken thing, Master Egremont? I
+threw it on the fire!  I'd never have thought a young gentleman of your
+age would have cared for such rubbish as that.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You are a wicked cruel woman,' returned Alwyn, with flashing eyes; 'I
+shall tell papa and sister of you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And in he flew, sobbing with grief and wrath for the dear Sambo,
+feeling as if it had been a live donkey burnt to death, and hiding his
+face on his sister's breast for consolation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Come, come, Wyn,' said his father, who did not brook interruption;
+'here's half a sovereign to go and buy a new donkey.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It won't be Sambo,' said Alwyn ruefully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But you should thank papa,' said Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Thank you, papa,' he said, with quivering lip, 'but I don't want a new
+one.  Oh Sambo, Sambo! burnt!' and he climbed on Nuttie's lap, hid his
+face against her and cried, but her comfortings were broken off by,
+'How can you encourage the child in being so foolish?  Have done, Wyn;
+don't be such a baby!  Go out with nurse and buy what you like, but I
+can't have crying here.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He tried to stop in sheer amazement, but the ground swell of sob could
+not be controlled.  Nuttie was going to lead him away, and console him
+with more imaginative sympathy than could be expected from the maids,
+but her father sharply called her back.  He wanted her himself, and
+indeed there was no question which was the worse spoilt child.  He
+might idolise Alwyn, but not so as to clash with his own comforts.  The
+glasses being unsuccessful, Nuttie proposed to drive back to Ludgate
+Hill for him to choose for himself, but he would not hear of going into
+the heat of the City, and growled at her for thinking of such a thing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They took an aimless drive instead in the park, and Nuttie was nearly
+baked while the carriage was stopped for her father to have a long talk
+over the prospects of the Derby day with one of his most unpleasant
+associates, who stood leaning over the door on the shady side of the
+carriage, no one recking how little protection she derived from her
+small fringed parasol.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She came home tired out, and thankful that her father went to rest in
+his own room.  She climbed to the nursery, thinking to share Alwyn's
+tea and comfort him, but she found only nurse there.  Nurse had a bad
+foot, and dreaded hot pavement, so she had sent Master Alwyn out with
+her subordinate, a country girl, to play in Mr. Dutton's garden till it
+should be cool enough to go and make his purchase, and a message had
+since arrived that he was going to drink tea there, and Mr. Dutton
+would take him out.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His sister envied him the green shades, and had just done her best to
+cool the back drawing-room and rest herself with a book, when Mr. Fane
+was announced.  He talked pleasantly enough, and lingered and lingered,
+no doubt intending to be asked to dinner, but she was equally
+determined to do no such thing.  She had heard enough of races for one
+day, she thought, and at last he took his leave, only just before she
+dressed for dinner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I thought Fane was here,' said Mr. Egremont as he came in; no doubt
+told by Gregorio.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He has been, but he is gone.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You didn't ask him to stay and dine?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I did not know you wished it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You might have known that I should have liked to see him.  I suppose
+you think your sweet self society enough for any man?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I am sorry&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I'm sick of hearing you are sorry!  I believe there's nothing you like
+so well as doing an ungracious thing to a friend of mine.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie had learnt to hold her tongue on such occasions.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dinner was nearly over, and her father had been grumbling again at
+having no one to take a hand at cards with him, when the door opened a
+little way, and Alwyn's pretty glowing face looked in.  He was come to
+say good-night rather later than usual, and he ran up to his sister
+with a little bouquet of yellow banksia and forget-me-nots. 'Mithter
+Button'&mdash;so Alwyn called him&mdash;'sent you this.  He said you would like
+it, 'cause it came from one that grew at Mittletwait.  And oh, look,
+look!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was hugging a little ship, which he proudly exhibited, while his
+father's brow had darkened at the message.  'Did you buy that?' asked
+his sister.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, Mr. Button went with me, and we sailed it.  We sailed it by the
+fountain in Mr. Button's garden, And we made a storm!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He danced about with glee, and Mr. Egremont observed, 'A dear purchase
+for ten shillings.  Did it cost all that, Wyn?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'They gived me a big silver half-crown, and I gived that to a little
+boy what came to speak to Mr. Button, and had his toes through his
+boots, and he was so glad.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Your money is not for beggars, Wyn.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'The little boy was not a beggar, papa.  He came with a newspaper to
+Mr. Button, and he is so good to his poor sick mother,' said Alwyn.
+'See, see, sister!' turning the prow of his small vessel towards her,
+and showing a word on it in pencil which he required her to spell out.
+It was Ursula.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh Wynnie!' she said, duly flattered, 'did Mr. Dutton do that?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He held my hand, and I did!' cried Alwyn, triumphantly, 'and he will
+paint it on Saturday.  Then it will dry all Sunday, and not come off,
+so it will be the Ursula for ever and always.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Here nurse claimed her charge; and when the goodnights were over, and a
+murmur recommenced, Nuttie suggested that if Mr. Dutton was at home
+perhaps he would come in and make up the game, but she encountered the
+old humour.  'I'll tell you what, Ursula, I'll not have that umbrella
+fellow encouraged about the house, and if that child is to be made the
+medium of communication, I'll put a stop to it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The words were spoken just as Gregorio had entered the room with a
+handkerchief of his master's.  Nuttie, colouring deeply at the insult,
+met his triumphant eyes, bit her lips, and deigned no word of reply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+An undefined but very slight odour, that told her of opium smoke,
+pervaded the stairs that night.  It was the only refuge from
+fretfulness; but her heart ached for her father, herself, and most of
+all for her little brother.  And was she to be cut off from her only
+counsellor?
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap33"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE LOST HEIR.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'Seemed to the boy some comrade gay<BR>
+  Led him forth to the woods to play.'&mdash;SCOTT.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Though it was the Derby day, Mr. Egremont's racing days were over, and
+he only took his daughter with him in quest of the spectacles he
+wanted.  When they came back, Nuttie mounted to the nursery, but no
+little brother met her on the stairs, and she found nurse in deep
+displeasure with her subordinate.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I sent him out with Ellen to play in the garden at Springfield, and
+swim his ship, where he couldn't come to no harm,' said nurse; 'being
+that my foot is that bad I can't walk the length of the street; and
+what does the girl do but lets that there Gregorio take the dear child
+and go&mdash;goodness knows where&mdash;without her.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I'm sure, ma'am,' said the girl crying, 'I would never have done it,
+but Mr. Gregory said as how 'twas his papa's wish.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What was?' said Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That he shouldn't never go and play at Mr. Dutton's again,' said Ellen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I told her she was to take her orders off me, and no one else,'
+returned nurse, 'except, of course, you, Miss Egremont, as has the
+right.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Quite so; you should have told Mr. Gregorio so, Ellen.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I did, ma'am, but he said those was Mr. Egremont's orders; and he
+said,' cried the girl, unable to withstand the pleasure of repeating
+something disagreeable, 'that Mr. Egremont wouldn't have no messengers
+between you and a low tradesman fellow, as made umbrellas, and wanted
+to insinuate himself in here.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That's quite enough, Ellen; I don't want to hear any impertinences.
+Perhaps you did not understand his foreign accent.  Did he say where he
+was going?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I think he said he'd take him to the Serpentine to sail his ship,'
+said Ellen, disposed to carry on asseverations of the correctness of
+her report, but nurse ordered her off the scene, and proceeded, as a
+confidential servant, 'The girl had no call to repeat it; but there's
+not a doubt of it he did say something of the sort.  There's not one of
+us but knows he is dead against Mr. Dutton, because he tried to get
+master to get to sleep without that nasty opium smoke of his.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was bitter feud between nurse and valet, and Nuttie could have
+exchanged with her many a lament, but she contented herself with
+saying, 'I wish he would let Master Alwyn alone.  It is high time they
+should come in.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'The child will be tired to death, and all dirt!  His nice new sailor
+suit too!  Going grubbing about at the Serpentine with no one knows
+who, as isn't fit for a young gentleman,' moaned nurse.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This, however, was the worst fear she entertained, and it was with a
+certain malicious satisfaction that she heard her master's bell for
+Gregorio.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie descended to explain, and whereas the need was not very urgent,
+and she looked distressed and angered at the valet, her father received
+her complaint with, 'Well, the boy is getting too big to be tied for
+ever to a nursery-maid.  It will do him good to go about with a man.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But as dressing-time came on, and still neither Gregorio nor Alwyn
+appeared, Mr. Egremont became impatient, and declared that the valet
+had no business to keep the child out so long; indeed, he would sooner
+have taken alarm but for Nuttie's manifest agony of anxiety, starting
+and rushing to listen at every ring at the bell or sound of wheels near
+at hand.  At last, at eight o'clock, there was a peal of the servants'
+bell, and the footman who answered it turned round to the anxious
+crowd: 'Mr. Gregory!  He just asked if the child was come home, and
+went off like lightning.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'The villain!  He's lost him!' shrieked nurse, with a wild scream. 'Run
+after him, James!  Catch him up!' suggested the butler at the same
+moment.  'Make him tell where he saw him last!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+James was not a genius, but the hall boy, an alert young fellow, had
+already dashed down the steps in pursuit, and came up with the valet so
+as to delay him till the other servants stood round, and Gregorio
+turned back with them, pale, breathless, evidently terribly dismayed
+and unwilling to face his master, who stood at the top of the steps,
+white with alarm and wrath.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Sir,' cried Gregorio, with a stammering of mixed languages, 'I have
+been searching everywhere!  I was going to give notice to the police.
+Je ferai tout!  Je le trouverai.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Where did you lose him?' demanded Mr. Egremont in a hoarse voice, such
+as Nuttie had never heard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'In the Park, near the bridge over the Serpentine.  I was speaking for
+a few moments to a friend.  Bah!  Il etait parti.  Mais je le
+trouverai.  Parker, he seeks too.  Fear not, sir, I shall find him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Find him, you scoundrel, or never dare to see me again!  I've borne
+with your insolences long, and now you've brought them to a height. Go,
+I say, find my boy!' exclaimed Mr. Egremont, with a fierce oath and
+passionate gesture, and Gregorio vanished again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Bring the carriage&mdash;no, call a cab;' commanded Mr. Egremont, snatching
+up his hat.  'Who is this Parker?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The servants hesitated, but the butler said he believed the man to be a
+friend of Gregorio's employed at one of the clubs.  Nuttie meanwhile
+begging her father not to go without her, flew upstairs to put on her
+hat, and coming down at full speed found that Mr. Dutton, passing by
+and seeing the open door and the terrified servants on the steps, had
+turned in to ask what was the matter, and was hearing in no measured
+terms from Mr. Egremont how the child had been taken away from his
+nurse and lost in the Park while that scamp Gregorio was chattering to
+some good-for-nothing friend.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To Nuttie's great relief, Mr. Dutton offered to go with the father to
+assist in the search, and the coachman, far too anxious and excited to
+let his master go without him in a cab, contrived to bring up the
+carriage.  Some of the servants were ordered off to the various police
+offices.  Poor nurse, who was nearly distracted, started in a hansom on
+her own account, persuaded that she should see and recognise traces of
+her darling at the scene of his loss, and she almost raced the
+carriage, which was bound for the same spot.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sluggish natures like Mr. Egremont's can sometimes be roused to great
+violence, and then pour forth the long pent-up accumulations kept back
+by indolence and indifference.  His only occupation during the rapid
+drive was to vituperate his valet, the curse of his life, he said.  To
+hear him talk, it would have seemed as if Gregorio had been the tyrant
+who had kept him in bondage all these years, fully aware of his
+falsehood, peculation, and other rascality, but as unable to break the
+yoke as if he had been in truth the slave of anything but his own evil
+habit and helpless acquiescence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Would it last if Gregorio made his appearance at that instant with
+Alwyn in his hand?  Or even, as Mr. Dutton confidently predicted, a
+policeman might bring the boy home, before many hours were passed. The
+chief doubt here was that Alwyn's defective pronunciation, which had
+been rather foolishly encouraged, might make it difficult to understand
+his mode  of saying his own name, or even that of the street, if he
+knew it perfectly; but the year he had been absent from London had
+prevented him from acquiring the curious ready local instinct of the
+true town child, and he had been so much guarded and watched that he
+was likely to be utterly at a loss when left alone; and Nuttie was
+wretched at the thought of his terror and loneliness, even while Mr.
+Dutton told her of speedy recoveries of lost children through kind
+people or the police.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They found all the officials of the Park already aware and on the
+alert, and quite certain of the impossibility of nurse's prime dread
+that the boy had fallen into the water unseen by any one and been
+drowned.  She was even ready to look into every bush, in case he had
+been frightened and hidden himself; and nothing would satisfy her but
+to stay making these researches, when her master had decided on
+endeavouring to find 'Parker' at the club, and to ascertain from him
+particulars of time and place.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was found there.  The dinner-hour had brought him back, he being a
+man in authority there, very well dressed and deferential, declaring
+himself immensely distressed at the occurrence, and at having accosted
+Gregorio and attracted his attention.  It was about four o'clock, he
+thought, and he described the exact spot where the little boy had been
+sailing his vessel fastened to a string.  They might have been talking
+twenty minutes or half an hour when Gregorio missed his charge, and
+since that time both had been doing all in their power to find him,
+until half-past seven, when he had to return to his club, and Gregorio
+went to see whether the child had been taken home.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+By this time Mr. Egremont looked so utterly exhausted, that Mr. Dutton
+availed himself of the hope that the boy might be found safe at home to
+take him back; but alas! nothing had been heard there.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The poor man was in a restless, unmanageable state of excitement,
+almost as terrifying to his daughter as the distress that occasioned
+it.  He swallowed a tumblerful of claret, but would not eat nor go to
+bed; and indeed, Gregorio alone having had the personal charge of him,
+latterly sleeping in his dressing-room, none of the other servants knew
+what to do for him.  Mr. Dutton agreed with her that it would be better
+to send for his doctor, as probably he ought to have a sedative, and
+neither would take the responsibility of giving it; while he himself
+declared he neither would nor could rest till he had his boy again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The doctor was dining out, and they had two terrible hours; while Mr.
+Egremont paced to the windows; threw himself on the sofa; denounced
+Gregorio; or, for a change, all the system of police which had made no
+discovery; and Ursula for letting the boy be so helpless.  Mr. Dutton
+sometimes diverted his attention for a few minutes, and hoped he would
+doze, but the least sound brought him to his feet again, and the only
+congenial occupation was the composition of a description of poor
+little Alwyn's person and dress, which set Nuttie crying so
+uncontrollably, that she had to run out of the room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dr. Brownlow came at last, and was very kind and helpful, taking the
+command, and insisting that Mr. Egremont should go to bed, and take the
+dose which he mixed.  Broadbent, the butler, was to take Gregorio's
+place, but he was a ponderous man, without much tact, and unused to the
+valet's office.  'I might just as well have a rhinoceros about me,'
+said Mr. Egremont, in a fit of irritation; and it ended, Nuttie hardly
+knew how, in Mr. Dutton's going upstairs to smooth matters.  He came
+down after a time and said: 'I am not satisfied to leave him alone or
+to Broadbent; I have his consent to my sleeping in the dressing-room.
+I am just going home to fetch my things.  Let me find you gone when I
+come back.  You will hear no more to-night.  Even if he is found, they
+will keep him till morning.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It is of no use; I can't sleep.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Even if you don't, the mere restful position will make you fitter for
+the morrow.  Will you promise me to undress and really go to bed?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh yes! if you say I must,' said Nuttie drearily; following an
+instinct of obedience.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And remember,' he said, 'though I do not say it will be so, this may
+be deliverance from bondage.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But what a terrible deliverance!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Bonds are not burst without something terrible.  No; don't be
+frightened.  Remember there is safekeeping for that sweet little
+fellow, wherever he may be.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, Mr. Dutton, if I could pray for him; but the turmoil seems to have
+driven away all such things!  My boy, my boy, where is he now? Who has
+heard him say his little prayers?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'His Heavenly Father has; of that we may be secure.  You will feel it
+in the quiet of your own room.  Good-night.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And I shall know you are praying, better than I can,' murmured Nuttie,
+as she returned his good-night, and crept up to her chamber.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap34"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+FETTERS RENT.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'The gods are just, and of our pleasant sins<BR>
+  Make whips to scourge us.'&mdash;King Lear.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+There was no real sleep for Ursula that short summer night.  She saw
+the early dawn, listened to the distant roll of market-carts, and
+wondered when it would be reasonable to be afoot, and ready to hear, if
+aught there was to hear.  At any hour after seven, surely the finders
+would have mercy and bring the welcome news.  And just before seven she
+fell asleep, deeply, soundly, and never woke till past eight, but that
+was just enough to revive the power of hope, and give the sense of a
+new day.  But there was nothing to hear&mdash;no news.  She found Mr. Dutton
+in the dining-room.  He had had to administer another draught to her
+father, and had left him in a sleep which would probably last for some
+time.  If she would go and sit in the outer room, after her breakfast,
+he would go out to obtain intelligence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You must have some breakfast,' she said, ringing the bell, and
+wistfully looking over the blinds; then exclaiming: 'Oh, there's Mark!
+Has he heard anything?' and out she darted, opening the door before he
+rang.  'Mark! have you found him?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes,' he said gravely, looking utterly amazed as she clasped her
+hands, and seemed ready to fling herself on his neck with joy.  'I came
+because it will be a great shock to my uncle.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Then it is so!  Nurse was right,' said Nuttie, turning deadly pale,
+and standing as if before a firing platoon.  'Tell me, Mark, where did
+they find him?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'At the Faringdon Station.  I was sent for to identify him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Stay,' said Mr. Dutton, as there was a wild horrified look in Nuttie's
+eyes.  'Do you mean little Alwyn?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Little Alwyn!  No, certainly not.  What of him?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Gregorio managed to lose him in the park yesterday,' put in Mr. Dutton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That accounts for it, then,' said Mark.  'No, it was Gregorio himself,
+poor man.  He was knocked down by the engine, and killed on the spot,
+just by the station, at eleven o'clock last night.  Our name was found
+on him, and I was sent for early this morning.  There was no doubt
+about it, so I came on here at once to let my uncle know, little
+thinking&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, it is dreadful!' cried Nuttie, sinking into a chair.  'Do you
+remember, my father told him never to see his face again unless he
+found Alwyn?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Broadbent came in at the moment with the coffee-pot, and stood
+suspended, as he was told what had happened, Mark adding the detail:
+'He was crossing the line in front of the engine.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, sir,' said the butler.  'It is an awful dispensation.  No doubt
+he knew it was all up with him.  You may not be aware, sir, of the
+subject of his conversation in the park.  Mr. Parker had just seen a
+telegram of the result of the Derby, and he had heavy bets on Lady
+Edina.  I am afraid, sir, there can be no doubt that he found a
+voluntary grave.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'We will not talk of that.  We cannot judge,' said Mark, shuddering. 'I
+said I would send some one from here to arrange what was to be done
+after the inquest.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Broadbent immediately undertook to go, if his master did not require
+him, and this was thought advisable, as his services were certainly not
+acceptable to Mr. Egremont.  Mark had thought himself likely to be
+detained and had provided for his absence, and the awe-stricken trio
+were consulting together over the breakfast-table, eating mechanically,
+from the very exhaustion of agitation, when the door opened, and Mr.
+Egremont in his dressing-gown was among them, exclaiming: 'You are
+keeping it from me.'  He had been wakened by the whispers and rushes of
+the excited maids, had rung his bell in vain, dressed himself as best
+he could after so many years of dependence, and stumbled downstairs,
+where, as with his daughter, it was something like a relief to know
+that hope was not extinguished in Alwyn's case.  But Mr. Egremont was
+in a very trembling, broken condition, and much overcome by his valet's
+end after so many years of intimate association.  Certainly, if either
+of the others had so parted with the man, it would have been a horror
+in the recollection, but he did not seem to dwell on it; and, indeed,
+attention was distracted by every sound at the door, since each might
+bring news of the missing child.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One of these tantalising rings proved to be a policeman with poor
+Gregorio's keys, and a demand for an investigation into any papers he
+might have left which would show his state of mind.  Mr. Egremont was
+very much annoyed, declaring that he would have no stranger meddle with
+them, and that he saw no use in such prying.  What difference could it
+make to any living creature?  However, when he found there was no help
+for it, he said he must do it himself. Nuttie offered to help, but was
+sharply, strongly refused.  Mark alone might and should help.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then Mr. Dutton volunteered to go and explain matters to Mr. Dobbs, so
+as to get freedom for Mark for at least the remainder of the day. He
+would call at the police offices and see what was doing in the search,
+put forward the advertisements, and obtain that the Serpentine should
+be dragged, for he saw that only that measure would remove one great
+terror from these anxious hearts.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And,' he said to Mark, 'with your permission, I will bring back Mrs.
+Egremont and the children if they will do me the honour to become my
+guests.  She will be a comfort to Miss Egremont, and then you will be
+at hand in the evening.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mark could only be thankful, and presently addressed himself to the
+investigation, which his uncle insisted should be made in his own
+presence, though the opiate kept him for the most part dozing in an
+arm-chair, only rousing up now and then by some noise at the front
+door, or putting queries, the replies to which startled him more and
+more, as he grew more wakeful and Mark proceeded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All, except a few unimportant bills and a betting-book, was locked into
+a dressing-case that had once belonged to Mr. Egremont, and had tricks
+of secret drawers that only he could explain.  It was full of papers,
+and they were a strange revelation that Mr. Egremont might well wish to
+withhold from his daughter.  They went very far back, and of course did
+not come out in order of chronology, nor would Mark have understood
+them but for exclamations and comments here and there from his uncle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Everything seemed to be there,&mdash;the old passport and certificate to
+Gregorio Savelli, when he left his Savoyard home to be a waiter at a
+hotel; a few letters in Italian, probably from his parents, which Mark
+could not read, but which soon ceased; the counter-signed character
+with which he had entered General Egremont's service; and then came a
+note or two signed A. P. E., which Mr. Egremont regarded with great
+annoyance, though they only consisted of such phrases as 'Back on
+Wednesday.  Find an excuse,' or in French, 'Envoyez moi la petite
+boite!'  'Que la porte soit ouverte apres minuit.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That was the way,' groaned Mr. Egremont.  'The scoundrel! he kept all
+those to be able to show me up to the General if he chose!  I was a
+young man then, Mark, not the straitlaced lad you've always been. And
+the General!  A bad old dog he was, went far beyond what I ever did,
+but for all that he had no notion of any one going any way but his own,
+and wanted to rein me in as tight as if he had been an epitome of all
+the virtues.  And Gregorio seemed a good-natured young fellow then, and
+made things easy for me, though no doubt he meant to have me in his
+hands, in case I tried to shake him off.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Another discovery affected him far more.  It was of a letter in Alice's
+handwriting, addressed to Captain Egremont, in the yacht Ninon&mdash;poste
+restante, Madeira.  He had never seen it, never known of its existence;
+Gregorio had gone to inquire for the letters, and had suppressed it.
+Mr. Egremont had wondered how he had become aware of the marriage.  His
+knowledge had from that time been used as a means of enforcing the need
+of a good understanding with the heir.  Mr. Egremont was much moved by
+the sight of the letter, and its date, from Dieppe, about six months
+after he had left his young wife there. He made Mark give it to him
+unread, handled it tenderly, struggled to read the delicate pointed
+writing to himself, but soon deferred the attempt, observing, 'There,
+there, I can't stand it now!  But you see, Mark,' he added after an
+interval, 'I was not altogether the heartless brute you thought me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mark, as he told his wife afterwards, could not help thinking of the
+old preamble to indictments, 'By the temptation of the devil.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And by and by, out of a pocket-book bearing the date of the General's
+death, came a copy of the certificate of the baptism of Ursula Alice,
+daughter of Alwyn Piercefield and Alice Egremont, together with that
+address which Miss Headworth had left at Dieppe to gratify Alice's
+forlorn idea of a possible rescue, and which Gregorio had asseverated
+to be non-existent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Doubtless he infinitely preferred his master's wandering bachelor life
+to the resumption of marriage ties, and thus he had contrived to keep
+Mr. Egremont from meeting the Houghtons at Florence.  At the same time
+the uncertainty as to Alice's fate had prevented any other marriage.
+Gregorio had taken care that, if Mr. Egremont had been villain enough
+to make such an attempt, he should know that his secret could be
+brought to light.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Compared with all this wickedness, the proofs of fraud and dishonesty
+were entirely unimportant.  Gambling had evidently been a passion with
+the valet, and peculation had followed, and Mark could have traced out
+the full tide before the reinstatement of Mrs. Egremont in her home,
+the gradual ebb during her reign, the diminished restraint under her
+daughter.  The other servants had formerly been implicated, but, except
+a young groom and footman, Mark thought the present set quite free from
+the taint, and was glad to acquit Broadbent.  But the last telegrams
+and the betting-book in the unhappy man's pocket confirmed Parker's
+evidence that of late he had staked almost madly, and had risked sums
+far beyond any means he could raise upon the horse which had failed.
+The bailiff at Bridgefield had, it had long been guessed, played into
+his hands, but to what an extent Mark only now discovered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The result was that what he had learnt in the Park had so astounded him
+that his inattention to the child had not been wonderful.  He had&mdash;as
+Parker testified&mdash;sought the little fellow vehemently, and had he been
+successful, he might yet have made some effort, trusting to his
+master's toleration; but the loss and reproach had made him an
+absolutely desperate man.  Was it blind flight or self-destruction?
+That he had money about him, having cashed a cheque of his master's,
+favoured the first idea, and no one would too curiously inquire whether
+Mr. Egremont was aware of the amount.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was only too true that, as he had said, Gregorio Savelli had been
+the curse of his life, having become one of the whips left by pleasant
+vices, and the breaking of the yoke had been not only at a terrible
+price, but, to a man in his half-blind and invalid condition, the
+actual loss of the person on whom he had depended was a privation.  Dr.
+Brownlow, however, knew of a good man-servant just set at liberty by
+the death of an invalid master, and promised to send him on trial.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was a day of agitations and disappointments, a sample of many that
+were to follow.  There was not a sound of a bell that did not make
+anxious hearts throb.  And oh! how many were spent on vain reports, on
+mere calls of sympathy by acquaintance whom the father and sister could
+not see, and on notes of inquiry or condolence that Nuttie had to
+answer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Annaple came and was a great help and support to her.  Poor nurse,
+oblivious of her bad foot, or perhaps, willing to wreak vengeance on it
+as the cause of all the mischief, had insisted on continuing her search
+in the morning under all the thorns and rhododendrons where she thought
+the dear lamb might have hidden and cried himself to sleep, and at last
+had been brought home in a cab quite worn out and despairing.  But the
+screaming baby proved to be a much better comforter to her than any
+amount of reasonable argument.  To soothe it, to understand what ailed
+it, to find suitable food for it, was an occupation which made the
+suspense less intolerable.  The very handling of an infant would have
+been congenial; and a sickly crying one was only too interesting.
+Willie was too near her darling's age to be a welcome sight, but he was
+already a prime pet with the servants at Springfield; and Annaple,
+secure that her children were in safe and experienced hands, and
+overflowing with motherly sympathy for the grievous loss, was ready to
+devote herself to Nuttie, whether by talk, by letter writing, or by
+seeing inquiring friends.  She did not expect to be of any use to Mr.
+Egremont, who had always held aloof from and disliked 'the giggling
+Scotch girl,' but who came drearily wandering at an unexpected time
+into the room where she was sitting with his daughter, and presently
+was involved in their conversation.  Whether it was the absence of the
+poor familiar, or that Annaple was no longer a giggling girl, but a
+brave, cheerful wife and mother, it was certain that he found the same
+comfort and support in her presence as did Nuttie.  When fits of
+restless misery and despair pressed hardest upon him, it was soon
+perceived that Annaple's cheerful tact enabled her to deal with him as
+no one else could do.  There was the restraint of courtesy towards her,
+such as had worn out towards his daughter, and besides her sanguine
+optimist spirit never became so depressed as did poor Nuttie's.  Mark
+went by day to his work, but came back to dine at his uncle's, hear the
+reports, and do what he could for him; and meantime Annaple spent the
+chief part of the day in aiding Nuttie and Mr. Egremont, while her baby
+really showed signs of improvement in nurse's keeping.  And so the days
+went on, while every endeavour was made to trace the child, but with no
+result but bitter disappointment.  Twice, strayed children, younger
+than Alwyn&mdash;one even a girl&mdash;were brought as the lost boy, and the
+advertisements bore fruit in more than one harassing and heartless
+correspondence with wretches who professed to be ready to restore the
+child, on promises of absolute secrecy, and sums of money sent
+beforehand, with all sorts of precautions against interference from the
+police.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The first of these created great excitement, and the pursuit was
+committed to Mr. Dutton.  When it proved abortive, Mr. Egremont's
+disappointment and anger were great, and he could not be persuaded that
+all was not the fault of Mr. Dutton's suspicion and precaution in
+holding back the money, nor could any one persuade him that it was mere
+imposture.  When another ill-written enigmatical letter arrived, he
+insisted that it was from the same quarter, and made Broadbent conduct
+the negotiations, with the result that after considerable sums had been
+paid in circuitous fashions, the butler was directed to a railway arch
+where the child would be deposited, and where he found a drab-coloured
+brat of whom he disposed at the nearest police station, after which he
+came home savagely disgusted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie was not much less so at what she felt as a slight to Mr. Dutton
+as well as at the failure.  'When you are doing so much for us.  We
+deserve that you should do nothing more,' she said with tears shining
+in her eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Do not talk in that way,' he answered.  'You know my feeling for the
+dear little fellow himself, and&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh yes,' interrupted Nuttie, 'I do trust to that!  Nobody&mdash;not the
+most indifferent person, but must long to save him.  Yes, I know it was
+doing you a wicked injustice to fancy that you could take offence in
+that way at a father in such trouble.  Please forgive me, Mr. Dutton.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'As if I had anything to forgive.  As if there were anything on earth
+that could come before the endeavour to recover him,' said Mr. Dutton,
+too much moved for his usual precision of speech.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes; he is <I>her</I> child,' said Nuttie, with a trembling tearful smile.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'<I>Her</I> child!  Yes, and even if he were not, he is <I>your</I> brother,'
+said Mr. Dutton; then hastily gathering himself up, as if he had said
+too much, he rose to take leave, adding as their hands clasped,
+'Remember, as long as I live, you may count upon me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, I know, I know!  There's nobody like you, but I don't know what I
+say in this awful suspense.  If I had only seen him lying white and
+cold and peaceful, it would have been far better than to think of him
+pining and miserable among wicked people, who would try to bring him up
+like themselves.  Mother's own little boy!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It will not be allowed, it will not be allowed,' cried Mr. Dutton.
+'God's Providence is still over him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And there are prayers, I know&mdash;at our church and Mr. Godfrey's-and all
+ours, but oh! it takes a great deal of faith to lean on them.  I wonder
+if you would, Annaple, if it were Willy?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'We will not ask Mrs. Egremont,' said Mr. Dutton, as Annaple made a
+gesture of something like doubt.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It is almost as bad,' said she, coming up and putting her arm round
+Nuttie.  'But indeed, Mr. Dutton, she does trust, only it is very, very
+sore, for her,&mdash;as it is for us all.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You are her great comfort,' said Mr. Dutton, as he shook hands with
+her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He could hardly help thanking me,' said Annaple to her husband
+afterwards.  'Mr. Egremont may well call him an adopted uncle.  I
+should say he was a good deal more, poor man.'
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap35"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE HULL OF THE URSULA.
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Ten days had passed, and Mark and Annaple were thinking that they ought
+to return to ordinary life, and leave the bereaved ones to endeavour to
+construct their life afresh under the dreadful wearing uncertainty of
+their darling's fate.  Still they were detained by urgent entreaties
+from father and daughter, who both dreaded their departure as
+additional desolation, and as closing the door of hope. And certainly,
+even this rest was good for Annaple; and her baby, for whom nurse had
+discovered a better system, had really not cried more for a whole day
+than 'befitted a rational child,' said the mother, as she walked back
+to Springfield with her husband in the summer night, after dinner, on
+the day that Broadbent's negotiations had failed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nurse will break her heart at parting with her,' said Mark.  'I wish
+we could afford to have her.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Afford, indeed!  Her wages are about a quarter of your salary, sir!
+And after all, 'tis not the nurse that guards the child, as we have
+seen only too plainly.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Do you think he is alive, Nan?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I begin to think not.  He is not so young but that he could make
+himself known, and those advertisements are so widely spread.  I am
+sure poor Nuttie would be more at rest if she could give up hope.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I did not tell you before, Nan, but Dutton was going to-day to look at
+a poor little unclaimed child's body that had been found in the Thames.
+He knew him better than I, so he went.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He would have come if&mdash;' said Annaple.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Assuredly.  He meant to fetch nurse if he had any doubt, but
+afterwards he was going to his court about his rents.  He always does
+that on Saturday evenings.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Dutton himself opened his door to the pair.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well,' said Mark.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Certainly not.  The poor child was evidently much younger, and had red
+hair.  But look here,' and he held out a battered something, black with
+a white stripe.  Mark understood nothing, but Annaple exclaimed, 'Is it
+his ship?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, I could swear to it, for see,' and he pointed to some grimed,
+almost effaced, but still legible capitals, which, however, scarcely
+any one but himself could have read as "Ursula."  'I guided his hand to
+make those the evening before he was lost,' said Mr. Dutton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Dear little man!  And where did you find it?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Where I never thought of doing so!  On the bed of a little crippled
+boy in the next court to mine.  He is rather a friend of mine, and I
+turned in to take him some strawberries.  I found him hugging this.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'How did he get it?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Our "Liz" brought it to him.  Our "Liz" is a very wild specimen, who
+has spent her life in eluding the school board officer till she is too
+old for his clutches; but she has a soft spot in her heart for her
+little brother, and I believe another for Gerard Godfrey.  We must be
+very cautious, and not excite any alarm, or we shall be baffled
+altogether.  I am not sure that I did quite prudently in giving little
+Alf a fresh boat in exchange for this; but I could not help bringing it
+home.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You did not see the girl?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No.  Those girls wander long and late on these hot nights, and I do
+not think I could have got anything out of her.  I have been to Gerard
+Godfrey, and the next step must be left to him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'The next question is whether you will tell those poor things at No.
+5,' said Mark.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Dutton hesitated.  'I should have no doubt of giving Miss Egremont
+the comfort of knowing that there was a possible clue, but if her
+father insisted on setting on the police, there would be very little
+more hope of success.  I am afraid it will be more prudent to wait till
+we know what Godfrey says.  He hopes to see the girl to-morrow evening
+at his mission class, but of course she is a very uncertain attendant
+there.  No, I cannot trust myself.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Annaple was forced to brook withholding the hope from the fainting
+hearts all the ensuing Sunday, which was a specially trying day, as
+Nuttie pined for her dear little companion with the pictures, stories,
+and hymns that he had always enjoyed, and made pretty childish remarks
+about, such as she began to treasure as memorable.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As soon as he could, early on Monday morning, Mr. Dutton repaired to
+Gerard Godfrey's lodgings, and found that the young clergyman had
+succeeded in seeing the girl, and had examined her so as not to put the
+wild creature on her guard, and make her use the weapons of falsehood
+towards one who had never been looked on as an ally of the police.  It
+appeared that she had brought home the ship, or rather its hull, from
+one of the lowest of lodging houses, where she had employment as
+something between charwoman and errand girl.  She had found it on what
+passed for a bed in its present condition, one morning, when going to
+make the extremely slight arrangements that the terrible lair, which
+served as a common bedroom, underwent, and had secreted it as a prize
+for her little brother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At first she had been stolid, and affected utter ignorance as to how it
+got there, but Mr. Godfrey had entreated her as a friend to try to
+discover; and had with all his heart made a pathetic description of the
+girl (he durst not say lady) who had always been a mother to her little
+brother, and now had lost him, and was in terrible uncertainty as to
+his fate.  That came home to Lizzie's feelings, and she let out what
+she had seen or picked up in the way of gossip,&mdash;that the ship had been
+left behind by its owner, whether boy or girl Liz was uncertain, for it
+had long fair hair, wore a petticoat, and had been dosed with gin and
+something else when carried away.  They said it had made noise enough
+when brought there by Funny Frank and Julia. They were performing folk,
+who had come in after the Derby day to have a spree, and to pick up
+another kid to do fairies and such like, because the last they had had
+hurt his back and had to be left in the workhouse.  Yes, she had heard
+tell that they had got the child from Mother Bet, of whom Gerard had a
+vague idea as one of the horrible hags, who not only beg themselves,
+but provide outfits for beggars, including infants, to excite
+compassion.  Either she or one of her crew had picked up the child and
+disposed of his clothes; and then finding him too old and intelligent
+to be safely used for begging purposes, she had sold or hired him out
+to these acrobatic performers, who had gone off into that vague and
+unknown region, the country.  Liz had no notion what was their real
+name, nor where they would go, only that they attended races and fairs;
+and as soon as the actual pleasure of communicating information was
+over, she was seized with a panic, implored Mr. Godfrey to make no use
+of her information, and explained that the people of the house were
+quite capable of killing her, if they suspected her of betraying any of
+their transactions.  It was impossible to bring any authorities to bear
+on the quest; and Mr. Dutton held it wisest only to write a note
+telling Mr. Egremont that he had obtained evidence that the child was
+living, and that he was going in pursuit, but thought it safer to say
+no more at present.  He gave the note to Mark at his office.  'I cannot
+trust myself to see your cousin,' he said.  'I might be tempted to say
+more than was consistent with Godfrey's honour towards his informant.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I think you are right,' said Mark.  'You had better leave me with only
+indefinite knowledge, for I shall be hard pressed.  Do you not go home
+first?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, I go to pack up a few things and fetch Monsieur.  A run in the
+country will do him good, and he may be a valuable auxiliary.  I shall
+find no one at Springfield at this hour.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What is your plan?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I shall venture so far as to apply to the police for the names of the
+usual attendants at races and fairs, and for some idea of their
+ordinary rounds.  I have no doubt that these are known at the chief
+offices.  For the rest, I must use my eyes.  But tell your cousin that,
+with God's blessing, I hope to bring him back to her.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He will,' said Ursula, when Mark gave her the message, and from that
+moment she was calmer.  She did not fret Mark with questions even as
+much as Annaple did, she tried to prevent her father from raging at the
+scant information, and she even endeavoured to employ herself with some
+of her ordinary occupations, though all the time she kept up the
+ceaseless watch.  'Mr. Dutton would not have said that without good
+hope,' she averred, 'and I trust to him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yet when four, five, six, eight, days had passed with no tidings, the
+heart sickness grew almost more than she could bear, though she still
+answered with spirit when her father again took to abusing the
+umbrella-fellow for choosing to keep all in his own hands.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Even Annaple could not help saying to her husband that a precise, prim,
+old bachelor was the very last person for a hunt in slums and the like.
+The very sight of him would put the people on their guard. 'And think
+of his fine words,' she added.  'I wish I could go!  If I started with
+a shawl over my head, yoked to a barrel-organ, I should have a far
+better chance than he will.  I declare, Mark, if he does not succeed
+we'll do it.  We'll hire an organ, whereon you shall play.  Ah! you
+shake your head.  A musical education is not required, and I know I
+shall do something desperate soon, if that dear little boy is not
+found.'
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap36"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+NUTTIE'S KNIGHT.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'The night came on and the bairnies grat,<BR>
+  Their minnie aneath the mools heard that.'<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+'LYNDHURST, 4th July.&mdash;Philip Dutton to Miss Egremont.  Found.
+Waterloo, 6.15.'
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+'I knew he would,' said Nuttie, with a strange quietness, but as she
+tried to read it to her father her voice choked, and she had to hand it
+to Annaple.  But for the first time in her life she went up and
+voluntarily kissed her father's forehead.  And perhaps it was for the
+first time in his life that the exclamation broke from him, 'Thank God!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Perhaps it was well that the telegram had not come earlier in the day,
+for Mr. Egremont was very restless, showing himself much shaken in
+nerves and spirits before the time for driving to the station, which he
+greatly antedated.  Nuttie could hardly keep him in the carriage, and
+indeed had to persuade him to return thither, when he had once sprung
+out on the arrival of a wrong train.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And after all, when the train did come, his blue spectacles were
+directed to the row of doors at the other end, and Nuttie was anxiously
+trying to save him from being jostled, when a voice said 'Here!' and
+close beside them stood Mr. Dutton, with a little boy by his side who
+looked up in her face and said 'Sister!'  It was said in a dreamy,
+almost puzzled way, not with the ecstatic joy Nuttie had figured to
+herself; and there was something passive in the mode of his hearing his
+father's 'My boy, my boy!'  Instinctively all turned to the harbour of
+the carriage; Mr. Dutton lifted Alwyn in, and as Nuttie received him, a
+pang shot across her, as she felt how light, how bony the little frame
+had become in these three weeks.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Come in!  Come back with us!  Tell us all!' said Mr. Egremont, as Mr.
+Dutton was about to help him in.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My dog,' said Mr. Dutton, while Alwyn looked up from nestling in
+Nuttie's lap to say, 'Mithter Button come!  And Mothu!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'We have room for him,' said Mr. Egremont graciously.  'Here, poor
+fellow.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He has the right,' said Mr. Dutton, 'for he was the real finder.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And Monsieur, curly and shiny, occupied with great dignity the back
+seat beside his master, while Alwyn, in a silent but dreamy content, as
+if he only half understood where he was, rested against his sister's
+bosom with his hands in his father's.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Come, old chap,' said his father cheerily, 'tell us all about it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Alwyn only shuddered a little, raised his eyelids slightly, and
+gave a tiny faint smile.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I think he is very much tired,' said Mr. Dutton.  'There was a good
+deal to be done to make him presentable this morning.  You must forgive
+me for sacrificing his curls, there was nothing else to be done with
+them.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah!' and Nuttie looked again.  The boy was in a new, rather coarse,
+ready-made, sailor suit that hung loosely upon his little limbs, his
+hair was short, and he was very pale, the delicate rosy flush quite
+gone, and with it the round outline of the soft cheek; and there were
+purple marks under the languid eyes.  She bent down and kissed him,
+saying, 'Was Mr. Button nurse to you, Wynnie?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He smiled again and murmured, 'Mr. Button made me boy again.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After a question and answer or two as to main facts of place and time
+of the discovery, Mr. Dutton told his story.  'I did not effect much
+with my inquiries after the circuses.  All I heard of were of too
+superior an order for kidnapping practices.  However, I thought the
+only way would be to haunt fairs and races, and look at their
+camp-followers.  At a place in Hertfordshire I saw a performance
+advertised with several children as fairies, so I went to see it.  I
+was soon satisfied that Alwyn was not there; but it struck me that I
+had known the face of the prime hero, a fine handsome supple fellow,
+who was called in the programme Herr Adalbert Steinfuggen, or some such
+name.  Well, it seemed that he knew me, for as I struggled out after a
+considerable interval, I heard myself accosted, "Mr. Dutton! Sir,
+surely I have the honour of speaking to Mr. Dutton of Micklethwayte?"
+I assure you he was the very pink of politeness.  Do you remember, Miss
+Egremont, Abel Stone?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, Abel Stone!  He was a choir boy at Micklethwayte, I remember! He
+was very handsome, and had a splendid voice; but he was a real monkey
+for mischief, and nobody could manage him but mother.  She was always
+pleading that he should not be turned out, and at last he ran away.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes; he went off with a circus, and there he found his vocation, rose
+and throve, married the prima-donna, and is part owner.  He seems very
+respectable, and was so friendly and affectionate that I ventured to
+consult him; when, on hearing whom I was seeking, he became warmly
+interested, and gave me just the information I wanted. He said he had
+little doubt that Funny Frank was a clown called Brag, with whom he had
+had words some years back for misusing the children. He said he did not
+hold with harshness to the little ones in teaching them to do the
+feats, which certainly were wonderful.  If they were frightened, they
+were nervous and met with accidents; but make much of them, and they
+thought it all fun, and took a pride and pleasure in their
+performances.  However this Brag, though a clever fellow, could not be
+hindered from bullying, and at last he went off with a girl of the
+troupe and set up on their own account.  Stone, or whatever he pleases
+to call himself, had met them several times, but he spoke of them with
+great contempt as "low," and they did not frequent the same places as
+he does.  However, he referred to one of his men, and found that they
+had been at Epsom on the Derby day, and moreover, that there was a
+report of them having lately narrowly escaped being in a scrape about a
+child who had been injured.  There was no scruple as to advising me
+where to look for them, or as to the best means of detection.  Stone
+was very indignant, and made me understand that all his young people
+were either to the manner born, or willingly hired out by their
+parents.  I saw them in private life, and they looked happy and
+well-fed, but that was no guarantee for Funny Frank.  Well, I followed
+him up without success, trying each place Stone had set down for me,
+till I came last night to Lyndhurst, a very pretty place in the New
+Forest, where there is to be a fair to-morrow, beginning this
+afternoon.  Stone advised me to look about before the affair opened,
+while unpacking and arranging was going on. Well, after all, it was
+very simple.  I strolled out with my dog round the field where the vans
+and booths were getting into order. There was what I thought a little
+girl in a faded red petticoat sitting on the steps at the bottom of a
+yellow van with her head on her hands.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That was me,' said Alwyn, lighting up.  'And Mothu came and kissed
+Fan!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes,' said Mr. Dutton; 'I verily believe we might have missed one
+another, but Monsieur ran up to him and, as I was actually whistling
+him off, I heard a little voice say, "Mothu!  Mothu!" and saw they
+were&mdash;well, embracing one another, and then came "Mithter Button,
+Mithter Button, oh, take me home!'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Eager caressing hands were held out to Monsieur, who jumped off the
+seat to receive the pats and laudations lavished on his curly round
+pate, and had to be reduced to order before Mr. Dutton could answer the
+question whether he had any further difficulty or danger.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I took him up in my arms, and a handsome truculent-looking woman burst
+out on me, demanding what I was about with her child.  To which I
+answered that she knew very well he was no such thing.  Her man came
+swaggering up, declaring impudently that I had better be off&mdash;but I
+believe he saw that the people who came round would not take his part,
+for he gave in much more easily than I expected.  I explained as loud
+as I could that this was a gentleman's son who had been stolen from his
+nurse in the Park.  The man began to protest that they had found him
+deserted, and taken him with them out of charity, requesting to be paid
+for his keep.  So I thought it better to give them a sovereign at once,
+so as to have no further trouble, and get him away as fast as I could.
+The woman came after me, making further demands, but the sight of a
+policeman in the distance turned her back.  I went up to him and
+explained.  I found he knew all about the loss and the reward, and
+looked regretfully at my prize.  We went back to the hotel, where I set
+Alwyn to rights as well as I could, sent out for some clothes, such as
+the place would produce, and which at least, as he says, made a boy of
+him again.  I'm afraid the process was rather trying from such
+unaccustomed hands, though he was very good, and he has been asleep
+almost all the way home, and, his senses all as in a dream bound up.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The heaviness&mdash;whether weariness or content, still continued.  Alwyn
+seemed to find it too much trouble to talk, and only gave little
+smiles, more like his mother than himself.  He clung quite desperately
+to his sister when Mark offered to lift him from the carriage, but
+nurse was close behind, and it was good to see the little arms
+stretched out, and the head laid on her shoulder, the hand put up to
+stroke her cheek, and the lips whispering 'Wyn's own nursie.'  The
+jubilant greeting and triumphant procession with which he was borne
+upstairs seemed almost to oppress him.  He appeared almost as if he was
+afraid of wakening from a happy dream, and his lively merriment seemed
+all gone; there were only beams of recognition and gladness at 'Wyn's
+own nursery, Wyn's own pretty cup,' touching it as if to make sure that
+it was real, and pleased to see the twisted crusts, his special treat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But he could not eat much of them, and soon laid his head down, as one
+weary, with the exhaustion of content; and nurse, who had allowed that
+Mr. Dutton had, considering all things, done much for the outward
+restoration of the daintiness of her recovered child, was impatient to
+give him the hot bath and night's rest that was to bring back the
+bright joyous Alwyn.  So Nuttie only lingered for those evening prayers
+she had yearned after so sorely.  When she held his mother's picture to
+him to be kissed, he raised his eyes to her and said: 'Will she come to
+me at night now?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Who, my darling?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'She, mother dear.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Here's her picture, dear boy.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not only the picture&mdash;she came out of it, when I cried, up on the
+nasty-smelling bundle in the van all in the dark.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'She came?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, she came, and made it so nice, and hushed me.  I wasn't afraid to
+go to by-by when she came.  And she sang.  Sister, can't you sing like
+that?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Not here, I'm afraid, dear, dear boy,' she whispered, holding him so
+tight that he gave a little cry of 'It hurts.'  Then came the prayers,
+not a word forgotten, and the little voice joined in her murmured
+thanksgiving for bringing him home.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was much moved and awe-stricken at these words of her little
+brother; but she had to dress in haste for dinner, listening the while
+to her maid's rejoinings and vituperations of the wretches who had
+maltreated the child.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When she came down she found no one in the drawing-room but Mr. Dutton,
+whom her father had asked to the happiest meal that had perhaps ever
+been eaten in that house.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She went towards him with winged steps in her white dress: 'Oh! Mr.
+Dutton, we have not said half enough to you, but we never, never can.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He gave a curious, trembling half smile, as she held out her hands to
+him, and said: 'The joy is great in itself,' speaking in a very low
+voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh! I am so glad that you did it,' cried Ursula.  'It would not have
+been half so sweet to owe it to any one else.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Miss Egremont, do you know what you are saying?' he exclaimed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Don't call me Miss Egremont!  You never used to.  Why should you?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I have not dared&mdash;' he began.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Dared!  Don't you know you always were our own Mr. Dutton&mdash;best,
+wisest friend of all, and now more than ever.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Stay,' he said, 'I cannot allow you in your fervour to say such things
+to me, unaware of the strength of feeling you are stirring within me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You! you!  Mr. Dutton!' cried Nuttie, with a moment's recoil.  'You
+don't mean that you care for <I>me</I>.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I know it is preposterous&mdash;' he began.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Preposterous!  Yes, that you should care one bit for silly, foolish,
+naughty, self-willed me.  Oh, Mr. Dutton, you can't mean it!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Indeed, I would have kept silence, and not disturbed you with my
+presumption, if&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Hush!' she cried.  'Why, it makes me so glad and so proud, I don't
+know what to do.  I didn't think anybody was good enough for
+you&mdash;unless it was dear, dear mother&mdash;and that it should be me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It is true,' he said gravely, 'my younger days were spent in a vain
+dream of that angel, then when all that was ended, I thought such
+things were not for me; but the old feeling has wakened, it seems to me
+in greater force than ever, though I meant to have kept it in control&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, I am glad you didn't!  It seems as if the world swam round with
+wonder and happiness,' and she held his hand as if to steady herself,
+starting however as Annaple opened the door saying, 'We've been sending
+telegrams with the good news.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then an arch light came into her bright eyes, but the others were
+behind her, and she said no more.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap37"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+FOUND AND TAKEN.
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  'The angels of the gateway<BR>
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;  Bent softly to the child,<BR>
+  And stretched glad hands to take him<BR>
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;  To the kingdom undefiled.'&mdash;B. M.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+'Come up and see him,' said Nuttie, as the dining-room door was shut.
+'I must feast my eyes on him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Annaple replied by throwing an arm round her and looking into her eyes,
+kissing her on each cheek, and then, as they reached the landing in the
+summer twilight, waltzing round and round that narrow space with her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You ridiculous person!' said Nuttie.  'Do you mean that you saw!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Of course I did; I've seen ever so long&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nonsense!  That's impossible&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Impossible to owls and bats perhaps, but to nothing else not to see
+that there was one sole and single hero in the world to you, and that
+to him there was one single being in the world; and that being the
+case&mdash;-'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But, Annaple, you can't guess what he has always been to me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh! don't I know?&mdash;a sort of Archbishop of Canterbury and George
+Heriot rolled into one.  So much the more reason, my dear, I don't know
+when I've been so glad in my life than that your good times should be
+coming.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'They are come in knowing this!  It is only too wonderful,' said
+Nuttie, as they stood together among the plants in the little
+conservatory on the way upstairs.  'I always thought it insulting to
+him when they teased me about him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'They did, did they?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My father, incited by poor Gregorio.  Oh, Annaple! don't let any one
+guess till we know how my father will take it.  What is it, Ellen?' as
+the nursery-maid appeared on the stairs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If you please, ma'am, Mrs. Poole would be glad if you are coming up to
+the nursery.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They both hastened up and nurse came out to meet them in the day
+nursery, making a sign to Ellen to take her place by the cot, and
+withholding the two ladies.  She made them come as far off as possible,
+and then said that she was not at all satisfied about Master Alwyn.
+There had been the same drowsiness and disinclination to speak, and
+when she had undressed and washed him, he had seemed tender all over,
+and cried out and moaned as if her touch hurt him, especially on one
+side where, she felt convinced, there was some injury; but when she
+asked about it his eyes grew frightened and bewildered, and he only
+cried in a feeble sort of way, as if sobs gave him pain.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had soothed him, and he had gone into his own bed with the same
+gentle languid gladness, but had presently begun moaning, and imploring
+in his sleep, wakening with screams and entreaties, 'Oh, I'll do it!
+I'll try!' and she thought him very feverish.  Would it not be better
+that a doctor should see him?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nurse was always an alarmist, and Nuttie could not help thinking that
+to wake the child to see a stranger to-night would only add to his
+terror and distress, while Annaple declared her entire belief that
+though no doubt the poor little fellow had been cruelly knocked about
+and bruised, a night's rest would probably restore his bright self, and
+make all that was past only like a bad dream.  There was no judging
+to-night, and sleep was wonderful reparation to those little beings.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then however the moans and murmurs began again, and now the awakening
+cry.  They started forward, and as Nuttie came to the cot-side the
+child threw himself into her bosom with, 'Sister!  Sister!  It is
+sister!' but his eyes grew round with terror at sight of Annaple, and
+clinging tightly to Nuttie he gasped, 'Send her away! don't let her
+touch me!  Fan's not here!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To tell him she was Cousin Annaple, Billy's mamma, had no effect; he
+did not seem able to understand, and she could only retire&mdash;nurse being
+thus convinced that to let him see another stranger to-night would only
+do further harm.  Nuttie and nurse succeeded in reassuring him that he
+was safe at home and with them, and in hushing him off into what they
+hoped would be a quiet wholesome sleep in spite of the hot sultry
+night, on which Annaple laid a good deal of the blame of his
+restlessness and feverishness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie only came down for a short time before the visitors went away;
+and then she wrote a note to Dr. Brownlow, which Mark promised to leave
+as he went to the city in the morning, Mr. Egremont, in his present
+relief, pooh-poohing all fears, and backing up Annaple's belief in the
+powers of 'tired nature's soft restorer'; but Mr. Dutton looked grave
+and said that he had remarked the extreme tenderness, but had hoped
+that much was due to his own inexperience in handling little children.
+The parting clasp of the hand had a world of meaning in it, and Nuttie
+openly said that she hoped to tell him after matins at St. Michael's
+how the boy was.  But she could not be there.  When she went upstairs
+at night the half-delirious terrors had returned, and there was another
+difficult soothing and comforting before the child slept again.  Nurse
+fancied the unwonted presence might disturb him, and insisted on her
+going to her own room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When she returned in the morning it was to find that since daylight he
+had been more quietly asleep; but there was a worn sunken look about
+his face, and she could not be satisfied to leave him alone while the
+nurses stirred about and breakfasted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He awoke smiling and happy; he looked about and said gladly, 'Wyn at
+home!  Wyn's own nursery,' but he did not want to get up; 'Wyn so
+tired,' he said, speaking of himself in the baby form that he had for
+several months discarded, but he said his pretty 'thank you,' and took
+delight in breakfasting in his cot, though still in a subdued way, and
+showing great reluctance to move or be touched.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie was sent for to report of him to his father, who would not hear
+for a moment of anxiety, declaring that the boy would be quite well if
+they let him alone, he only wanted rest, and insisting on following out
+his intention of seeing a police superintendent to demand whether the
+kidnapping rascals could not be prosecuted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Neither by Nuttie nor nurse could much be extracted from the poor
+little fellow himself about his adventures.  He could not bear to think
+of them, and there was a mist of confusion over his mind, partly from
+weakness, partly, they also thought, from the drugged spirits with
+which he had been more than once dosed.  He dimly remembered missing
+Gregorio in the park, and that he had tried to find his way home alone,
+but some one, a big boy, he thought, had said he would show him the
+way, took hold of his hand, dragged him, he knew not where, into
+dreadful dirt and stench, and apparently had silenced him with a blow
+before stripping him.  But it was all very indistinct, he could not
+tell how Mother Bet got hold of him, and the being dressed in the rags
+of a girl had somehow loosed his hold of his own identity.  He did not
+seem at all certain that the poor little dirty petticoated thing who
+had wakened in a horrible cellar, or in a dark jolting van who had been
+dubbed Fan, who had been forced by the stick to dance and twist and
+compelled to drink burning, choking stuff, was the same with Alwyn in
+his sailor suit or in his white cot.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was Dr. Brownlow who at once detected that there had been much of
+this dosing, and drew forth the fact.  It had probably been done
+whenever it was expedient that he should be hidden, or unable to make
+any appeal to outsiders.  Alwyn was quite himself by day, and showed no
+unreasonable fear or shyness, but he begged not to be touched, and
+though he tried to be good and manly, could not keep from cries and
+screams when the doctor examined him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then it came out.  'It's where he kicked me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Who?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That man&mdash;master, she said I must call him.  He kicked poor little Fan
+with his great heavy big boots&mdash;'cause Fan would say Wyn's prayers.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Who was Fan?' asked the puzzled doctor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Himself,' whispered Nuttie.  'Alas! himself!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Wyn was Fan,' said Alwyn.  'Fan's gone now!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And did the man kick poor little Fan,' repeated the doctor&mdash;'here?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh don't&mdash;don't!  It hurts so.  Master said he would have none of
+that, and he kicked with his big boot.  Oh!  Fan couldn't dance one bit
+after that.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He could not tell how long ago this had been.  He seemed to have lost
+all reckoning of days, and probably felt as if ages had past in Funny
+Frank's van, but Dr. Brownlow thought the injury could not be above two
+or three days old, and probably it accounted for there having been no
+more obstructions put in the way of removing the child, since he had
+ceased to be of use, and the discovery of the injury might have brought
+the perpetrator into trouble.  Indeed, as it was, Mr. Egremont caused
+the police to be written to, demanding the arrest of the man and woman
+Brag, but they had already decamped, and were never traced, which was
+decidedly a relief to those who dreaded all that a prosecution would
+have involved.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And Dr. Brownlow became very grave over the injury.  He said it was a
+surgical case, and he should like to have another opinion, enjoining
+that the child should be kept in bed, and as quiet as possible, till he
+could bring his friend in the afternoon, which was no difficult matter,
+for Alwyn seemed to have no desire for anything but rest and the sight
+of his friends and his treasures, which were laid beside him to be
+gently handled and stroked but not played with.  Mothu and Mithter
+Button were among the friends he craved for, but he showed no desire to
+see Billy-boy, and it was thought best to keep that young gentleman's
+rampant strength at a distance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The chief difficulty was with his father, who declared they were all
+croaking, and that the boy would be as well as ever to-morrow.  He went
+and sat by the cot, and talked merrily of the pony that Alwyn was to
+ride, and the yachting they would have in the summer; and the little
+fellow smiled and was pleased, but went to sleep in the midst. Then Mr.
+Egremont went out, taking Annaple with him, because Nuttie would not go
+till the doctors' visit was over, though he declared that they were
+certain not to come till long after her return from the drive.  He
+actually went to the dealer's, and had pony after pony paraded before
+the carriage, choosing a charming toy Shetland at last, subject to its
+behaviour with the coachman's little boy, while Annaple hopefully
+agreed with him that Alwyn would be on its back in another week.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He still maintained his opinion, outwardly at least, when he was met on
+his return by Nuttie with a pale, almost thunderstruck face.  Dr.
+Brownlow had called her from trying to soothe away the fright and
+suffering of the examination, to break to her that both he and his
+colleague thought very seriously of the injury and its consequences,
+and deemed it very doubtful whether the poor little fellow could be
+pulled through.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Egremont was again angry, declared that she had misunderstood, and
+made the worst of it; that Dr. Brownlow was a conceited young ass; that
+his friend played into his hands; with other amenities of the same
+kind, to which she listened with mingled irritation and pity for his
+unreasonableness, and even at the sympathy which he found in Annaple's
+hopeful nature.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The young mother never dreaded nor expected what she could not bear to
+think possible, such as the death-warrant of that beautiful child,
+while Nuttie's nature always expected the worst, and indeed had read
+the doom in the doctor's eyes and voice rather than in his words.  So
+Annaple backed Mr. Egremont up when he made his daughter write to
+desire Dr. Brownlow to call in the first advice in London; and among
+them they made so sure that this would be effective that they actually
+raised Nuttie's hopes so as to buoy her through the feverish early
+hours of the night when the pain was aggravated, the terrors returned,
+the boy was tormented by his duality with Fan, and the past miseries
+were acted over again.  Even nurse and sister did not suffice, and
+Mithter Button had to be fetched by Mark before he could feel quite
+secure that he was Alwyn and not Fan.  Indeed, in these light-headed
+moments, a better notion was gained of what he must have endured than
+in the day-time, when all seemed put aside or forgotten. After a time
+he became capable of being soothed by hymns, though still asking why
+his sister could not sing like that vision of his mother which had
+comforted him in his previous miseries, and craving for her return.
+Then at last he fell quietly asleep, and Nuttie was left with a few
+sustaining words and a pressure from Mr. Dutton's hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Alas! the new consultation could only ratify the first opinion.  The
+injury need not have been necessarily fatal, though dangerous to any
+young child, and here it had been aggravated by previous ill-treatment,
+and by the doses of spirits that had been forced down, besides which,
+Alwyn was naturally delicate, and&mdash;though the doctors would not say so
+to father or sister&mdash;there were hereditary predispositions that gave
+him the less chance of battling through.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yet Mr. Egremont concluded his purchase of the pony, and insisted that
+Alwyn should be carried to the window to see it; and Alwyn's smile was
+almost enough to break Nuttie's heart, but his head drooped on nurse's
+shoulder, he hardly lifted his heavy eyelids, and begged for 'by-by'
+again.  Even Annaple burst into tears at the sight, ran out of the room
+with her sobs, and never augured recovery again, though still she
+strove to cheer and while away the poor father's piteous hours by
+making the most of every sign that the child was happy and not
+suffering much.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That he would be viewed as a 'pale placid martyr' was his sister's
+chief comfort.  His replies as to the manner of the hurt, as well as
+his light-headed wanderings, had made it more and more evident that the
+man Brag's brutality had been excited by his persisting in kneeling
+down to say his prayers aloud&mdash;the only way he knew how to say them.
+Indeed there was a recurring anxiety night and morning to kneel, which
+had to be reasoned away, even when he was too weak to make the attempt,
+and was only appeased by 'Sister' kneeling by his side, holding his
+hands, and repeating the little prayers with him. It was of his own
+accord that he added: 'And forgive those people, and make them good.'
+Annaple burst into tears again and almost scolded when she heard of it.
+'Oh dear! oh dear! now I know he won't get well!  I'm glad Billy isn't
+so horribly good!  Nuttie, Nuttie, don't!  You know I don't mean it.
+Only I just can't bear it.  He is the sweetest little fellow in the
+world!  And oh! the cruelty of it.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes,' said Nuttie in her dreary calmness; 'he is too sweet and lovely
+and beautiful and good to be anywhere but safe with mother.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For it was more apparent that they could not keep him.  It did not last
+long; there were a couple of piteous days of restless pain and
+distress, and then came the more fatal lull and absence of suffering, a
+drowsiness in which the little fellow sank gradually away, lying with a
+strange calm beauty on his face, and smiling feebly when he now and
+then lifted his eyes to rest them on sister or nurse.  His father could
+not bear the sight.  It filled him more with angry compassion than with
+the tender reverence and hushed awe with which Ursula watched her
+darling slipping as it were from her hold.  So Mr. Egremont wandered
+wretchedly about the lower rooms, while Mark and Annaple tried their
+best for him through the long summer evening, darkening into night.  By
+and by Alwyn lifted his hand, turned his head, opened his lips, and
+whispered, 'Hark, sister, she is singing.' The look of exceeding joy
+beamed more and more over the pinched little face.  'She's come again,'
+he said; and once more, 'Come to take Wyn to the dear Lord.'  After
+that there were very few more long breaths before little Alwyn
+Egremont's spirit was gone to that unseen world, and only the fair
+little frame left with that wondrous look of delighted recognition on
+the face.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap38"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE UMBRELLA MAN.
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Little Alwyn was laid to rest beside his mother in a beautiful summer
+noontide.  His father was not in a state to attend the funeral, and was
+left under the care of Annaple, his own choice among those who offered
+to stay and minister to him.  It was his own wish that his daughter
+should be to the last with her little brother.  He had even said to her
+that she had been a good sister, and his boy had been very fond of her,
+and he would not keep her away on any account.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And, with a man's preference for a young and kindly woman, he chose
+Annaple to be with him rather than Mr. Dutton, remembering likewise
+that but for him the boy would have died in some workhouse, unknown and
+unclaimed, or among the wretches who had caused his death.  So Nuttie
+had the comfort of Mr. Dutton's going down with her, as well as Mark,
+and poor broken-down nurse, but not a word referring to the confession
+of that happy evening had passed between them during the mournful
+fortnight which had since elapsed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+May Condamine and her husband had made all as fair and consoling as
+they could.  There were white-robed children to bear the boy from the
+churchyard gate, choristers sang hymns, the grave was lined with moss
+and daisies, and white roses decked the little coffin and the mound.
+There was as much of welcome and even of triumph as befitted the
+innocent child, whose death had in it the element of testimony to the
+truth.  And Nuttie felt it, or would feel it by and by, when her spirit
+felt less as if some precious thing had been torn up by the roots&mdash;to
+be safe and waiting for her elsewhere, indeed, but that did not solace
+the yearning longing for the merry loving child; nor the aching pity
+for the crushed blighted creature whom she had watched suffering and
+dying.  It was far beyond her power as yet to acquiesce in her aunt's
+consolation that it was happier for the child himself, than if he was
+to grow up to temptation from without, and with an unsound
+constitution, with dangerous hereditary proclivities.  She could
+believe it in faith, nay, she had already experienced the difficulties
+her father had thrown in her way of dealing with him, she tried to be
+resigned, but the good sense of the Canoness was too much for her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was a day of more haste than suited the ideal of such a time, for
+Mr. Egremont could not be left for a night; so there was only time for
+a luncheon, with little jerks of talk, and then for an hour spent in
+short private interviews.  Mrs. Egremont obtained from poor Nurse Poole
+all the details, and, moreover, her opinion of Mr. Mark's baby, in
+whom, it having been born under her auspices, she took a special
+interest.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie meantime was pacing the shady walk with her dear old friend Miss
+Nugent, feeling it strange that her heart did not leap up at the bare
+presence of one she loved so much, yet conscious of the soothing of her
+sympathy.  And Mary, watching her all through, had been struck with the
+increased sweetness and nobleness her countenance had acquired during
+these years of discipline.  More of her mother's expression had come
+than could have been thought possible in features of such a different
+mould, formed for so much more strength and energy.  They had not met
+since Nuttie had been summoned home to her mother's deathbed, and their
+time was chiefly spent on reminiscences alike of the old sorrow and the
+new; but, when the time for parting was nearly come, Mary said
+affectionately, 'And you, my dear?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, I am all right,' said Nuttie, and her eyes shone with a light Mary
+did not at the moment understand; 'you need not be anxious for me
+<I>now</I>.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I suppose that unhappy valet's death makes your task easier,' said
+Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I think it will,' said Nuttie.  'Poor man!  He was&mdash;I can't help
+saying it&mdash;the evil genius of the house.  Dear mother knew it,
+struggled against him, and broke down in the struggle.  It seems so
+strange that what she could not do has been done in such a manner, and
+at such a price!  I wonder whether she knew it when she welcomed her
+boy!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Her influence will aid you still,' said Mary, 'and you have Mr. Dutton
+to help you too.  I was so glad to find he was so near you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, Mr. Dutton!' exclaimed Ursula, in a strange tone that sent a
+thrill through Mary, though she knew not why; but at that moment they
+were interrupted, very inopportunely, by Mr. Bulfinch, who could not go
+away without asking Miss Egremont whether she thought her father could
+see him on business if he came up to town the next day.  She thought
+that such an interview would rouse her father and do him good, advising
+him to call on the chance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mark's tete-a-tete had been with his sister May, to whom he had much to
+tell of his wife and her gallant patience and energy, and how curious
+it was that now the incubus that had weighed on his uncle's household
+was removed, the prejudice had melted away, and he had grown so fond of
+her that, next to Ursula, she was his best comforter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I hope that will lead to more,' said May.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I don't see how,' said Mark.  The more we rely only on a blessing on
+our own exertions the better.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Even when Annaple works within an inch of her life?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Now that she is on a right tack about the baby, that will be easier.
+Yes, May, I do feel sometimes that I have brought her down to drudgery
+and narrowness and want of variety such as was never meant for her, but
+she will never let me think so.  She says that it is living in
+realities, and that it makes her happier than toiling after society, or
+rather after the world, and I do believe it is true!  I'm sure it is
+with me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But such work as yours, Mark.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Nonsense, May; I enjoy it.  I did not when I was in the Greenleaf
+firm, with an undeveloped sense that Goodenough was not to be trusted,
+and we were drifting to the bad, yet too green to understand or hinder
+it; but this I thoroughly like.  What does one want but honest
+effective work, with some power of dealing with and helping those good
+fellows, the hands, to see the right and help themselves?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+May sighed.  'And yet, now that poor child is gone, I feel all the more
+how hard it is that you should be put out of the rights of your name.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I never had any rights.  It was the bane of my life to be supposed to
+have them.  Nothing but this could have made a man of me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And don't you have regrets for your boy?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I don't think I have&mdash;provided we can give him an education&mdash;such as I
+failed to make proper use of, or Annaple might be luxuriating at Pera
+at this moment.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well!' said May, pausing as she looked up the vista of trees at the
+great house; 'I can't bear it to go out of the old name.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Names may be taken!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You don't mean that there's any chance of&mdash;Oh! not that horrid Mr.
+Fane?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Certainly not.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh!' as a trim black figure appeared walking down the open space.
+'That man!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I am not authorised to tell any one so, May.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, I understand.  The wretch, he is taking stock of the place
+already!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'For shame.  May, no one has deserved so well of them.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I don't care, he got you into that horrid concern.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And got me out of it, and found my work for me.  I tell you, May, it
+is the best thing that could possibly happen to your parish, or the
+estate, or my poor uncle either!  And you will soon come to a better
+mind.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Never, while he is to get into your place!  Turn back before he comes
+within hailing distance.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Before Mark could do anything towards bringing his sister to a better
+mind he was seized on by his stepmother to propound a scheme she had
+hatched, namely that, as a mutual benefit, Nurse Poole should be
+allowed the consolation of bringing her chief comforter, his little
+daughter, down with her on the visit Mrs. Egremont had invited her to
+pay at Redcastle.  He was very grateful, though doubtful whether
+Annaple would accept the offer, for she was missing her children's
+company, though they were only at Springfield House, and she had been
+with them part of every day.  And, sad as this month had been, it had
+been such a rest from sheer physical toil that she had gained almost as
+much by it as the little one.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a general assembly and coffee-drinking in the verandah,&mdash;Mr.
+Condamine, Blanche, and her two young sisters were all there,&mdash;and May
+had to be duly civil to Mr. Dutton, though he came back with some
+water-lilies that he had fished out of the lake for Nuttie, and she
+thought it taking possession.  Then the Londoners set forth for the
+station, and there Mark, having perhaps had a hint from his wife, saw
+Nuttie and Mr. Dutton safely bestowed by Broadbent in an empty
+carriage, and then discovered a desire to smoke, and left them to
+themselves.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They had not been alone together for more than a second since the
+evening of Alwyn's return, and there was a great shyness between them,
+which lasted till the first station was past without any irruption of
+newcomers.  Nothing had been said but a few comments on the
+arrangements and the attendants, but probably both were trying to begin
+to speak, and at last it was Ursula who crossed over so that her face
+could not be seen, and said in an odd tone&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mr. Dutton&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes,' and he turned, instantly on the alert.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Did you mean it&mdash;what I thought you meant that evening?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Can you doubt it?' he said earnestly.  'But even then I was surprised
+into the avowal, and I would have held it back if possible, if I had
+guessed what was going to happen.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah! but then I should not have had that drop of comfort through it
+all,' and she laid hold of his hand, which returned the pressure
+strongly, but he sedulously guarded both words and tone as he said:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Listen, Ursula, before you speak again.  How dear you must always be
+to me, I cannot tell you, but when I then spoke, it was with the sense
+that on every account, I should meet with strong opposition from your
+father and family.  And now your position is altered, so that the
+unsuitability is doubled.  I am not a young man, remember, and my
+thoughts must be for you above all, I want you to consider whether, in
+the present state of affairs, you would not do better to look on what
+then passed as unsaid, or only as the ebullition of gratitude towards
+your old friend.  Let me go abroad, and give you full opportunity
+for&mdash;for some fresh beginning likely to be fitter for you&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Mr. Dutton, how can you say such horrid things?  As if a dukedom would
+make any difference.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes,' he said, turning towards her.  'If it is only the old-friend
+feeling, then it is better dropped, but if your heart is in it, child,
+then we go on, come what may.  It is due to you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She raised her face towards him now, and he gave a grave kiss to her
+forehead.  She drew a long breath, and said after a little pause, 'And
+now I have something to say.  One does think of such things even in
+these sad times, and you can help me.  I am so glad it is you, because
+I know you will, and be rejoiced to do so.  You know when Mark found us
+out first, dear mother and I always felt that it was a great pity he
+should not have the estate he had been brought up to expect.  I believe
+dear mother thought it would have been the right thing for me to marry
+him, but I always did mean to give it back to him, even when I didn't
+like him.  Well, then, you know it all seemed settled otherwise, but
+now, it is so lucky you spoke to me while that dear little fellow was
+with us, because now you will help me to persuade my father that it is
+the only satisfactory thing to do to let it go in the male line to Mark
+and his Willy.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I see!  I see!' said Mr. Dutton eagerly.  'It would be an infinite
+relief if it could be carried out.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I believe my father would like it,' said Nuttie.  'He cares for the
+name; and now no one prevents it; he is fond of Mark, and still more of
+Annaple!  And you!  Oh, Mr. Dutton, if he will only take it in the
+right way, I think you will make me able to do what it grieved dear
+mother never to have brought about for my poor father.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'My whole self is yours to aid you,' he said.  'You know of course that
+I could not ask you to detach yourself from one to whom you are so
+necessary.  If he will permit us, we will watch over him together as
+doing her work.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Thank you,' was all Nuttie's lips could utter, though her hand said
+much more.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And before they reached London they had arranged something of a plan of
+action for propitiating Mr. Egremont, and bringing the future prospects
+to be available so as to save Annaple from being worked to death in the
+meantime.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap39"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+ANNAPLE'S AMBITION FALLEN.
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+'Well, how did you get on, Annaple?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh! very well, poor old man, on the whole, though it made one pity him
+doubly that he chose to make as if he forgot everything, and you were
+all gone on a picnic, taking me out for a long drive in the
+afternoon&mdash;where we were least likely to meet any one&mdash;that I will say
+for him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Forgetting is not the best for him.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'As if he could forget!  But he was very nice and friendly, and put on
+his best, most courteous self.  I think he looks on me rather as a
+protector from the solemn Mr. Edsall.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Surely Edsall treats him well.  He was excellently recommended.  You
+know I saw his master's daughter.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh! only <I>too</I> well.  He takes the management of him as if he were
+three years old, or a lunatic.  He simply <I>will</I> not be offended any
+more than if he had to do with a baby.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What should offend him?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'That Mr. Egremont greatly resents being allowed nothing but by what
+Edsall calls medical sanction.  He is too blind, you know, to venture
+to pour out anything for himself, and besides, Edsall has all the drugs
+under lock and key, and is coolness itself about any amount of
+objurgations, such as I fancy go on sometimes.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Do you think he will stand it?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Who?  Your uncle?  Yes, I think he will.  This man really makes him
+more comfortable than poor Gregorio did.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes; Nuttie said she was sure that there was neglect, if not bullying
+latterly.  But he must miss Gregorio terribly.  They had been together
+for at least five-and-twenty or thirty years, and had plenty of gossip
+together.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Whereas the present paternal despotism and appalling dignity and
+gravity will keep him more dependent on his right congeners.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If they are of the right sort, that's all.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He has been making me read him a whole heap of letters; indeed, as you
+know, I have been doing that all along, when he could not get Nuttie.
+There were some from Mr. Bulfinch.  Do you know that bailiff of his
+must be next door to a swindler?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Bulfinch is coming up to see him to-morrow.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And, Mark, do you know, he has been putting out feelers as if to
+discover whether we would do&mdash;what he asked us to do five years ago.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Would you?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If it were not for the children, and&mdash;and sometimes the extreme pinch,
+I should say it was more like <I>life</I> to work yourself up as a City
+man,' said Annaple.  'If you were the Squire, with all his
+opportunities, it would be a different thing, but there's no outlet
+there, and I have often admired the wisdom of the Apocryphal saying,
+"Make not thyself an underling to a foolish man."'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well, it is lucky you think so, Nannie, for though Dutton is certainly
+not a foolish man, he will not want an underling.  And what do you say
+to my mother's proposal of having poor Poole to stay at Redcastle, and
+borrowing baby to comfort her till she goes out again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I hate it,' said Annaple energetically.  'It is very horrid, but it is
+awfully good of the Canoness; and I suppose we shall have to let it
+come to pass, and miss all that most charming time of babyhood which is
+coming.  But most likely it will quite set the little woman up, and be
+a real kindness to poor Poole.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If we could only keep her for good.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, and then our children would not be half so much our own.  I do
+want to be away with them in our own quarters.  I wonder when Nuttie
+can spare us, but I should like to see her through the great crisis
+with her father.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That crisis was to involve more than Annaple in the least expected.
+Nuttie found that the momentous confession could not possibly take
+place before the interview with Mr. Bulfinch, at which her presence was
+needed to help her father with his papers.  The principal concern was
+to show the full enormity of the bailiff, and decide upon the steps to
+be taken, the solicitor being anxious for a prosecution, while a
+certain tenderness for poor Gregorio's memory, or perhaps for the
+exposure of his own carelessness, made Mr. Egremont reluctant. There
+was also a proposal, brought forward with much diffidence from Mr.
+Condamine's mother, to rent Bridgefield House, but on this, as well as
+respecting a successor to the bailiff, Mr. Egremont was to give his
+answer the next day, when Mr. Bulfinch would call again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nuttie was thankful for the business that had filled up the hour after
+luncheon, when Alwyn used to play in the drawing-room and delight his
+father; but she was feeling desperate to have the crisis over, and
+resolved to speak when she went out driving with him.  It was he,
+however, who began.  'I sounded Mark's wife yesterday, Ursula.  She is
+a nice little thing enough, and a good wife in her way.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'A very good wife.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Except when she persuaded him to turn up his nose at the agency. D'ye
+think he would take it now, since he has tasted the sweets of his
+umbrella business?' then, as Nuttie paused, taken by surprise; 'Five
+hundred a year and the Home Farm would be better than, what is it, a
+hundred and fifty and a floor over a warehouse!  I don't like to see
+old Will's son wearing himself out there, and the lad is a good honest
+lad, with business habits, who would do justice to you after I am gone.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Father,' said Nuttie, trembling with the effort, 'I want you to do
+something better than that.  I want you to let Mark take the agency
+with a view to himself&mdash;not me.  Let him be as he would have been if he
+had never hunted us up at Micklethwayte, and put me in his place.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Eh!' said Mr. Egremont.  'It is not entailed&mdash;worse luck; if it had
+been, I should not have been bound to dance attendance at the heels of
+such an old sinner as the General.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, but it ought to go to the heir male, and keep in the old name.
+Think&mdash;there have been Egremonts at Bridgefield for four hundred years!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Very pretty talk, but how will it be with you, Miss.  We shall have
+Fane, and I don't know how many more, coming after the scent of
+Bridgefield now,' he said with a heavy sigh, ending with a bitter 'Hang
+them all!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And welcome,' said Nuttie, answering the thought rather than the
+words.  'Father, I wanted to tell you&mdash;'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'You don't mean that any one has been after you at such a time as
+this!' he cried.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It was before&mdash;I mean it was the evening when we were all so glad,
+before we began to be afraid.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'The umbrella man!  By Jove!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'And now,' went on Nuttie, in spite of the explosion, 'he would hardly
+have ventured to go on with it but for this&mdash;I mean,' as her father
+gave a little laugh of his unpleasant sort, 'he said it would be the
+greatest possible relief, and make it all right for the property to go
+to the heir male.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Hein!  You think so, do you?  See how it will be when I come to talk
+to him!  A shrewd fellow like that who got out of the Micklethwayte
+concern just in time.  Catch him giving up a place like that, though he
+may humbug you.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Then you will see him, father?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'If you turn him in on me, I can't help it.  Bless me! umbrellas
+everywhere!  And here you mean to turn me over to the mercies of that
+solemn idiot, Edsall.  I should have been better off with poor
+Gregorio.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'No, father; Mr. Dutton would not take me from you.  We would both try
+all we could to make you comfortable.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Convert the old reprobate?  Is that his dodge?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Don't, father,' for the sneering tone returned.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Come now,' he added in a much more fatherly manner, for her voice had
+struck him.  'You don't mean that a well-looking girl like you, who
+could have her pick of all the swells in town, can really be smitten
+with a priggish old retired umbrella-monger like that.  Why, he might
+be your father.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'He has been getting younger ever since I knew him,' said Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Well.  He plays as good a game of whist as any man in England,'
+muttered Mr. Egremont, leaving his daughter in actual doubt whether he
+meant this as a recommendation, or as expressing a distrust of him, as
+one likely to play his cards to the best advantage.  She had to remain
+in doubt, for they overtook Clarence Fane, who came and spoke to them
+in a very friendly and solicitous manner, and showed himself willing to
+accept a lift in the carriage.  Mr. Egremont, willing to escape from
+perplexities as well as to endeavour to drive away if possible the
+oppression of his grief, invited him in, and he had some gossip to
+impart, which at first seemed to amuse the hearer after this time of
+seclusion, but the sick and sore heart soon wearied of it, and long
+before the drive was over, Mr. Egremont was as much bored as his
+daughter had been from the first.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When Mr. Fane got out, he paused a moment to hold Ursula's hand in a
+tender manner, while he told her that he had not ventured to intrude
+(he had left a card of inquiry every day), but that if ever he could be
+of the least use in amusing Mr. Egremont, he was at her service, and
+would give up any engagement.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Hein! my fine fellow!  No doubt you would!' said Mr. Egremont, when
+his daughter had uttered her cold thanks, and they had driven on.  'I
+see your little game, but it is soon to begin it.  We may as well let
+them know that she is booked before the running begins.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was a remarkable intimation of his acceptance of her engagement, but
+Ursula was contented to take it as such, and be thankful.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Dutton had his interview as soon as Mr. Egremont had rested after
+his drive, and the result was satisfactory.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+No doubt much was due to the Egremont indolence and want of energy,
+which always preferred to let things take their course.  And now that
+Gregorio was no longer present to amuse, and take all trouble off his
+hands, Mr. Egremont could hardly have borne to part with his daughter;
+and, despite of umbrellas and religion, was not sorry to have a
+perfectly trustworthy son-in-law in the house, able to play at cards
+with him, manage his household, and obviate all trouble about suitors
+for the heiress.  Moreover, his better feelings were stirred by
+gratitude on his poor little son's account, and he knew very well that
+a more brilliant match for his daughter would not have secured for his
+old age the care and attention he could rely upon here.  He was obliged
+likewise to believe in the disinterestedness, which disclaimed all
+desire for the estate, as involving cares and duties for which there
+had been no training; and he was actually glad to keep the property in
+the direct line.  The old liking for Mark, and sense of the hardship of
+his exclusion, revived, strengthened now by regard for Annaple;
+together with the present relief from care obtained by making him
+manager of the estate.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When once brought to a point, Mr. Egremont was always sudden and
+impetuous, chiefly for the sake of having it over and being unmolested
+and at rest again.  So that very evening, while Nuttie only ventured on
+sharing with Annaple the glad tidings that Mr. Dutton was accepted, and
+in his marvellous goodness, undertook to make his home with her father.
+Mark was almost stunned by the news, confirmed to him by Mr. Dutton as
+well as his uncle, that he was to be acknowledged as heir of
+Bridgefield Egremont, and in the meantime manage the estate with an
+income suitable to an oldest son.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Presently he came upstairs by himself, and beckoned to Nuttie, rather
+to the alarm of his wife.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ursula,' he said, and took both her hands, 'I cannot have you do this
+for me.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Can't you, Mark?  You can't prevent it, you see.  And don't you know
+it is the beginning of all my happiness?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'But indeed, I cannot feel it right.  It is a strained sense of
+justice.  Come and tell her so, Nannie.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'What?' said Annaple coming forward.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They both paused a moment, then Nuttie said, 'Only that the estate
+ought to go in the male line.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh, is that all?' said Annaple, 'I was afraid Mr. Egremont had a fit!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Ah!  Don't you see what it means,' said Mark.  'They want it to be as
+if there were an entail&mdash;to begin treating me as an eldest son at once.
+It is Ursula's doing, putting herself out of the succession.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'I always hated being an heiress,' said Nuttie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It would be more dreadful than ever now.  Annaple, do be sensible!
+Don't you see it is the only right thing to do?'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Billy!' was the one word Annaple said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes, Billy and Jenny and all,' said Nuttie, 'before you've all died of
+your horrid place&mdash;Oh! you haven't heard that part of it.  Of course
+Mark will have to go down to Bridgefield and look after the place, and
+live like a gentleman.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Eight hundred a year,' murmured Mark, 'and the house at the Home Farm.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Oh! dear,' gasped Annaple, 'I wanted you to be Lord Mayor, and now
+you'll only be a stupid old country squire.  No, no, Nuttie,
+it's&mdash;it's&mdash;it's the sort of thing that one only laughs at because
+otherwise one would have to do the other thing!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And she gripped Nuttie tight round the waist, and laid her head on her
+shoulder, shaking with a few little sobs, which might be one thing or
+the other.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'It will save her youth, perhaps her life,' whispered Mark, lifting
+Nuttie's hand to his lips for a moment, and then vanishing, while
+Annaple recovered enough to say, 'I'm tougher than that, sir.  But
+little Jenny!  Oh, Nuttie, I believe it has come in time.  I've known
+all along that one straw more might break the camel's back.  We've been
+very happy, but I am glad it is over before Mark got worn down before
+his time.  Grinding is very wholesome, but one may have too much; and I
+haven't Mark's scruples, Nuttie dear, for I do think the place is more
+in his line than yours or Mr. Dutton's.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes,' said Ursula, 'you see he was always happy there, and I never
+was.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The next thing was for Mr. Dutton and Ursula to keep Mr. Egremont up to
+the point of making his long deferred will; nor did they find this so
+difficult as they expected, for having once made up his mind, he wished
+to have the matter concluded, and he gave his instructions to Bulfinch
+the next day.  Of course Mark had to give full notice to his employers;
+but the allowance was to begin at once, so that Annaple only went back
+to the warehouse to pack up, since she was to occupy No. 5, while Mr.
+Egremont and his daughter were going under Mr. Dutton's escort to the
+baths in Dauphine, an entirely new resort, free from the associations
+he dreaded, for he could not yet bear the sight of little Willy&mdash;the
+rival 'boy of Egremont.'  But the will was safely signed before he
+went, to the great relief of Nuttie, who, according to the experience
+of fiction, could hardly believe his life safe till what she called
+justice had been done.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After all Mr. Egremont became so dependent on Mr. Dutton, during this
+journey, that he did not like the separation at its close, and pressed
+on the marriage even sooner than either of the lovers felt quite
+reverent towards the recent sorrow.  He insisted on Bulfinch having the
+settlements ready for them on their return, and only let them wait long
+enough to keep their residence, before there was a very quiet wedding
+in their parish church, with the cousins for bridesmaids.  Then Mark
+and Annaple took care of Mr. Egremont for the fortnight while Mr.
+Dutton showed his wife his old haunts in France, returning to
+Springfield House, where there was plenty of room for Mr. Egremont to
+make his home with them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Said Annaple to Miss Nugent, 'I never saw Nuttie so youthful and
+bright.  She is more like a girl than I ever saw her since the first.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+'Yes,' said Mary, 'she has some one to rest on now.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Egremont lived between three and four years, more contented and
+peaceful than he had ever been, though frequently suffering, and
+sometimes giving way to temper and impatience.  But Mr. Dutton
+understood how to manage on these occasions, and without giving up his
+own extensive usefulness, could give him such care, attention, and
+amusement as beguiled his discomforts, and made his daughter's task an
+easier one.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+How far the sluggish enfeebled nature was capable of a touch of better
+things, or whether his low spirits were repentance, no one could judge.
+At any rate sneers had ended, and when he was laid beside his wife and
+boy at Bridgefield, Ursula stood by the grave with a far more tender
+and hopeful feeling than she could have thought possible when he had
+rent her away from her old home. She looked up at her husband and said,
+'Is not her work done?'
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<P CLASS="finis">
+THE END.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR><BR>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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diff --git a/4053.txt b/4053.txt
new file mode 100644
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+++ b/4053.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,13690 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Nuttie's Father, by Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Nuttie's Father
+
+Author: Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+Posting Date: June 12, 2009 [EBook #4053]
+Release Date: May, 2003
+First Posted: October 21, 2001
+Last Updated: November 10, 2001
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NUTTIE'S FATHER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sandra Laythorpe.  HTML version by Al Haines.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Nuttie's Father
+
+
+by
+
+Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+       I.  ST. AMBROSE'S CHOIR.
+      II.  MONKS HORTON.
+     III.  HEIR HUNTING.
+      IV.  A NAME.
+       V.  SUSPENSE.
+      VI.  THE WATER-SOLDIER.
+     VII.  THAT MAN.
+    VIII.  THE FATHER.
+      IX.  NEW PLUMES.
+       X.  BRIDGEFIELD EGREMONT.
+      XI.  LAWN-TENNIS.
+     XII.  OUT OF WORK.
+    XIII.  DETRIMENTALS.
+     XIV.  GOING AGEE.
+      XV.  A CASTLE OF UMBRELLAS.
+     XVI.  INFRA DIG.
+    XVII.  AN OLD FRIEND.
+   XVIII.  A FRIEND IN NEED.
+     XIX.  THE VORTEX.
+      XX.  WOLF.
+     XXI.  URSULA'S RECEPTION.
+    XXII.  DISENCHANTMENT.
+   XXIII.  A FAILURE.
+    XXIV.  FARMS OR UMBRELLAS.
+     XXV.  THE GIGGLING SCOTCH GIRL.
+    XXVI.  THREE YEARS LATER.
+   XXVII.  THE BOY OF EGREMONT.
+  XXVIII.  A BRAVE HEART.
+    XXIX.  A FRESH START.
+     XXX.  NUTTIE'S PROSPECTS.
+    XXXI.  SPES NON FRACTA.
+   XXXII.  BLACKS IN THE ASCENDANT.
+  XXXIII.  THE LOST HEIR.
+   XXXIV.  FETTERS RENT.
+    XXXV.  THE HULL OF THE URSULA.
+   XXXVI.  NUTTIE'S KNIGHT.
+  XXXVII.  FOUND AND TAKEN.
+ XXXVIII.  THE UMBRELLA MAN.
+   XXXIX.  ANNAPLE'S AMBITION FALLEN.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+ST. AMBROSE'S CHOIR.
+
+  'For be it known
+  That their saint's honour is their own.'--SCOTT.
+
+
+The town of Micklethwayte was rising and thriving.  There were
+salubrious springs which an enterprising doctor had lately brought into
+notice.  The firm of Greenleaf and Dutton manufactured umbrellas in
+large quantities, from the stout weather-proof family roof down to the
+daintiest fringed toy of a parasol.  There were a Guild Hall and a
+handsome Corn Market.  There was a Modern School for the boys, and a
+High School for the girls, and a School of Art, and a School of
+Cookery, and National Schools, and a British School, and a Board
+School, also churches of every height, chapels of every denomination,
+and iron mission rooms budding out in hopes to be replaced by churches.
+
+Like one of the animals which zoologists call radiated, the town was
+constantly stretching out fresh arms along country roads, all living
+and working, and gradually absorbing the open spaces between.  One of
+these arms was known as St. Ambrose's Road, in right of the church, an
+incomplete structure in yellow brick, consisting of a handsome chancel,
+the stump of a tower, and one aisle just weather-tight and usable, but,
+by its very aspect, begging for the completion of the beautiful design
+that was suspended above the alms-box.
+
+It was the evening of a summer day which had been very hot.  The choir
+practice was just over, and the boys came out trooping and chattering;
+very small ones they were; for as soon as they began to sing tolerably
+they were sure to try to get into the choir of the old church, which
+had a foundation that fed, clothed, taught, and finally apprenticed
+them.  So, though the little fellows were clad in surplices and
+cassocks, and sat in the chancel for correctness sake, there was a
+space round the harmonium reserved for the more trustworthy band of
+girls and young women who came forth next, followed by four or five
+mechanics.
+
+Behind came the nucleus of the choir--a slim, fair-haired youth of
+twenty; a neat, precise, well-trimmed man, closely shaven, with
+stooping shoulders, at least fifteen years older, with a black poodle
+at his heels, as well shorn as his master, newly risen from lying
+outside the church door; a gentle, somewhat drooping lady in black, not
+yet middle-aged and very pretty; a small eager, unformed, black-eyed
+girl, who could hardly keep back her words for the outside of the
+church door; a tall self-possessed handsome woman, with a fine
+classical cast of features; and lastly, a brown-faced, wiry hardworking
+clergyman, without an atom of superfluous flesh, but with an air of
+great energy.
+
+'Oh! vicar, where are we to go?' was the question so eager to break
+forth.
+
+'Not to the Crystal Palace, Nuttie.  The funds won't bear it.  Mr.
+Dutton says we must spend as little as possible on locomotion.'
+
+'I'm sure I don't care for the Crystal Palace.  A trumpery tinsel
+place, all shams.'
+
+'Hush, hush, my dear, not so loud,' said the quiet lady; but Nuttie
+only wriggled her shoulders, though her voice was a trifle lowered. 'If
+it were the British Museum now, or Westminster Abbey.'
+
+'Or the Alps,' chimed in a quieter voice, 'or the Ufizzi.'
+
+'Now, Mr. Dutton, that's not what I want.  Our people aren't ready for
+that, but what they have let it be real.  Miss Mary, don't you see what
+I mean?'
+
+'Rather better than Miss Egremont herself,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Well,' said the vicar, interposing in the wordy war, 'Mrs. Greenleaf's
+children have scarlatina, so we can't go to Horton Bishop.  The choice
+seems to be between South Beach and Monks Horton.'
+
+'That's no harm,' cried Nuttie; 'Mrs. Greenleaf is so patronising!'
+
+'And both that and South Beach are so stale,' said the youth.
+
+'As if the dear sea could ever be stale,' cried the young girl.
+
+'I thought Monks Horton was forbidden ground,' said Miss Mary.
+
+'So it was with the last regime', said the vicar; 'but now the new
+people are come I expect great things from them.  I hear they are very
+friendly.'
+
+'I expect nothing from them,' said Nuttie so sententiously that all her
+hearers laughed and asked 'her exquisite reason,' as Mr. Dutton put it.
+
+'Lady Kirkaldy and a whole lot of them came into the School of Art.'
+
+'And didn't appreciate "Head of Antinous by Miss Ursula Egremont,"' was
+the cry that interrupted her, but she went on with dignity
+unruffled--'Anything so foolish and inane as their whole talk and all
+their observations I never heard.  "I don't like this style," one of
+them said.  "Such ugly useless things!  I never see anything pretty and
+neatly finished such as we used to do."'  The girl gave it in a tone of
+mimicry of the nonchalant voice, adding, with fresh imitation, "'And
+another did not approve of drawing from the life--models might be such
+strange people."'
+
+'My ears were not equally open to their profanities,' said Miss Mary.
+'I confess that I was struck by the good breeding and courtesy of the
+leader of the party, who, I think, was Lady Kirkaldy herself.'
+
+'I saw!  I thought she was patronising you, and my blood boiled!' cried
+Nuttie.
+
+'Will boiling blood endure a picnic in the park of so much ignorance,
+folly, and patronage?' asked Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Oh, indeed, Mr. Dutton, Nuttie never said that,' exclaimed gentle Mrs.
+Egremont.
+
+'Whether it is fully worth the doing is the question,' said the vicar.
+
+'Grass and shade do not despise,' said Miss Mary.
+
+'There surely must be some ecclesiastical remains,' said the young man.
+
+'And there is a river,' added the vicar.
+
+'I shall get a stickleback for my aquarium,' cried Nuttie.  'We shall
+make some discoveries for the Scientific Society.  I shall note down
+every individual creature I see!  I say! you are sure it is not a sham
+waterfall or Temple of Tivoli?'
+
+'It would please the choir boys and G. F. S. girls quite as much, if
+not more, in that case,' said Miss Mary; 'but you need not expect that,
+Nuttie.  Landscape-gardening is gone by.'
+
+'Even with the county people?' said Nuttie.
+
+'By at least half a century,' said Mr. Dutton, 'with all deference to
+this young lady's experience.'
+
+'It was out of their own mouths,' cried the girl defiantly.  'That's
+all I know about county people, and so I hope it will be.'
+
+'Come in, my dear, you are talking very fast,' interposed Mrs.
+Egremont, with some pain in the soft sweet voice, which, if it had been
+a little stronger, would have been the best in the choir.
+
+These houses in St. Ambrose's Road were semi-detached.  The pair which
+the party had reached had their entrances at the angles, with a narrow
+gravel path leading by a tiny grass plat to each.  One, which was
+covered with a rich pall of purple clematis, was the home of Mrs.
+Egremont, her aunt, and Nuttie; the other, adorned with a Gloire de
+Dijon rose in second bloom, was the abode of Mary Nugent, with her
+mother, the widow of a naval captain.  Farther on, with adjoining
+gardens, was another couple of houses, in one of which lived Mr.
+Dutton; in the other lodged the youth, Gerard Godfrey, together with
+the partner of the principal medical man.  The opposite neighbours were
+a master of the Modern School and a scholar.  Indeed, the saying of the
+vicar, the Rev. Francis Spyers, was, and St. Ambrose's Road was proud
+of it, that it was a professional place.  Every one had something to do
+either with schools or umbrellas, scarcely excepting the doctor and the
+solicitor, for the former attended the pupils and the latter supplied
+them.  Mr. Dutton was a partner in the umbrella factory, and lived, as
+the younger folk said, as the old bachelor of the Road.  Had he not a
+housekeeper, a poodle, and a cat; and was not his house, with lovely
+sill boxes full of flowers in the windows, the neatest of the neat; and
+did not the tiny conservatory over his dining-room window always
+produce the flowers most needed for the altar vases, and likewise
+bouquets for the tables of favoured ladies. Why, the very daisies never
+durst lift their heads on his little lawn, which even bore a French
+looking-glass globe in the centre. Miss Nugent, or Miss Mary as every
+one still called her, as her elder sister's marriage was recent, was
+assistant teacher at the School of Art, and gave private drawing
+lessons, so as to supplement the pension on which her mother lived.
+They also received girls as boarders attending the High School.
+
+So did Miss Headworth, who had all her life been one of those people
+who seem condemned to toil to make up for the errors or disasters of
+others.  First she helped to educate a brother, and soon he had died to
+leave an orphan daughter to be bred up at her cost.  The girl had
+married from her first situation; but had almost immediately lost her
+husband at sea, and on this her aunt had settled at Micklethwayte to
+make a home for her and her child, at first taking pupils, but when the
+High School was set up, changing these into boarders; while Mrs.
+Egremont went as daily governess to the children of a family of
+somewhat higher pretensions.  Little Ursula, or Nuttie, as she was
+called, according to the local contraction, was like the child of all
+the party, and after climbing up through the High School to the last
+form, hoped, after passing the Cambridge examination, to become a
+teacher there in another year.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+MONKS HORTON.
+
+  'And we will all the pleasures prove,
+  By shallow rivers, by whose falls
+  Melodious birds sing madrigals.'--Old Ballad.
+
+
+It was holiday-time, and liberties were taken such as were not
+permissible, when they might have afforded a bad precedent to the
+boarders.  Therefore, when two afternoons later Mary Nugent, returning
+from district visiting, came out into her garden behind the house, she
+was not scandalised to see a pair of little black feet under a holland
+skirt resting on a laurel branch, and going a few steps more she beheld
+a big shady hat, and a pair of little hands busy with a pencil and a
+blank book; as Ursula sat on the low wall between the gardens, shaded
+by the laburnum which facilitated the ascent on her own side.
+
+'Oh Miss Mary!  Delicious!  Come up here!  You don't know how charming
+this is.'
+
+She moved aside so as to leave the ascent--by an inverted flower-pot
+and a laurel branch--open to her friend, thus knocking down one of the
+pile of books which she had taken to the top of the wall.  Miss Nugent
+picked it up, 'Marie Stuart!  Is this your way of studying her?'
+
+'Now, you know 'tis holiday time, and volunteer work; besides, she was
+waiting for you, and I could not help doing this.'  She held out a
+hand, which was scarcely needed, and Mary sprang lightly to share her
+perch upon the wall.  'Look here!'
+
+'Am I to guess the subject as in the game of historic outlines,' said
+Miss Nugent, as the book was laid on her lap.  'It looks like a
+modern--no, a mediaeval--edition of Marcus Curtius about to leap into
+the capital opening for a young man, only with his dogs instead of his
+horse.  That hound seems very rationally to object.'
+
+'Now don't!  Guess in earnest.'
+
+'A compliment to your name.  The Boy of Egremont, poor fellow, just
+about to bound across the strid.'
+
+'Exactly!  I always feel sure that my father must have done something
+like this.'
+
+'Was it so heroic?' said Miss Mary. 'You know it was for the hundredth
+time, and he had no reason to expect any special danger.'
+
+'Oh, but his mother was waiting, and he had to go.  Now, I'll tell you
+how it must have been with my father.  You know he sailed away in a
+yacht before I was born, and poor mother never saw him again; but I
+know what happened.  There was a ship on fire like the Birkenhead, and
+the little yacht went near to pick up the people, and my father called
+out, like Sir Humphrey Gilbert--
+
+          "Do not fear, Heaven is as near
+           By water as by land."
+
+
+And the little yacht was so close when the great ship blew up that it
+got sucked down in the whirlpool, and rescuers and all died a noble
+death together!'
+
+'Has your mother been telling you?' asked Miss Mary.
+
+'Oh no! she never mentions him.  She does not know.  No one does; but I
+am quite sure he died nobly, with no one to tell the tale, only the
+angels to look on, and that makes it all the finer.  Or just suppose he
+was on a desert island all the time, and came back again to find us!  I
+sometimes think he is.'
+
+'What?  When you are _quite sure_ of the other theory?'
+
+'I mean I am quite sure while I am thinking about it, or reading
+Robinson Crusoe, or the Swiss Family.'
+
+'Oh!'
+
+'Miss Mary, has no one ever told you anything about my father?'
+
+'No one.'
+
+'They never tell me.  Mother cries, and aunt Ursula puts on her
+"there's-an-end-of-it look."  Do you think there is anything they are
+waiting to tell me till I am older?'
+
+'If there were, I am sure you had better not try to find it out
+beforehand.'
+
+'You don't think I would do anything of _that sort?_  But I thought you
+might know.  Do you remember their first settling here?'
+
+'Scarcely.  I was a very small child then.'
+
+Miss Nugent had a few vague recollections which she did not think it
+expedient to mention.  A dim remembrance rose before her of mysterious
+whisperings about that beautiful young widow, and that it had been said
+that the rector of the Old Church had declared himself to know the
+ladies well, and had heartily recommended them.  She thought it wiser
+only to speak of having been one of their first scholars, telling of
+the awe Miss Headworth inspired; but the pleasure it was to bring a
+lesson to pretty Mrs. Egremont, who always rewarded a good one with a
+kiss, 'and she was so nice to kiss--yes, and is.'
+
+'Aunt Ursel and mother both were governesses,' continued the girl, 'and
+yet they don't want me to go out.  They had rather I was a teacher at
+the High School.'
+
+'They don't want to trust their Little Bear out in the world.'
+
+'I think it is more than that,' said the girl.  'I can't help thinking
+that he--my father--must have been some one rather grand, with such a
+beautiful name as Alwyn Piercefield Egremont.  Yes; I know it was that,
+for I saw my baptismal certificate when I stood for the scholarship; it
+was Dieppe,--Ursula Alice, daughter of Alwyn Piercefield and Alice
+Elizabeth Egremont, May 15, 1860.  James Everett--I think he was the
+chaplain at Dieppe.'
+
+Mary Nugent thought it the wisest way to laugh and say: 'You, of all
+people in the world, to want to make out a connection with the
+aristocracy!'
+
+'True love is different,' said Ursula.  'He must have been cast off by
+his family for her sake, and have chosen poverty--
+
+     "To make the croon a pund, my Alwyn gaed to sea,
+      And the croon and the pund, they were baith for me."'
+
+
+Miss Mary did not think a yacht a likely place for the conversion of a
+croon into a pound, and the utter silence of mother and aunt did not
+seem to her satisfactory; but she feared either to damp the youthful
+enthusiasm for the lost father, or to foster curiosity that might lead
+to some painful discovery, so she took refuge in an inarticulate sound.
+
+'I think Mr. Dutton knows,' proceeded Nuttie.
+
+'You don't mean to ask him?'
+
+'Catch me!  I know how he would look at me.'
+
+'Slang!  A forfeit!'
+
+'Oh, it's holiday time, and the boarders can't hear.  There's Mr.
+Dutton's door!'
+
+This might in one way be a relief to Miss Nugent, but she did not like
+being caught upon the wall, and therefore made a rapid descent, though
+not without a moment's entanglement of skirt, which delayed her long
+enough to show where she had been, as Mr. Dutton was at the same moment
+advancing to his own wall on the opposite side of the Nugent garden.
+Perhaps he would have pretended to see nothing but for Nuttie's cry of
+glee.
+
+'You wicked elf,' said Miss Mary, 'to inveigle people into
+predicaments, and then go shouting ho! ho! ho! like Robin Goodfellow
+himself.'
+
+'You should have kept your elevation and dignity like me,' retorted
+Ursula; 'and then you would have had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Dutton
+climbing his wall and coming to our feet.'
+
+'Mischievous elves deserve no good news,' said Mr. Dutton, who was by
+no means so venerable that the crossing the wall was any effort or
+compromise of dignity, and who had by this time joined Mary on her
+grass plat.
+
+'Oh, what is it!  Are we to go to Monks Horton?' cried Nuttie.
+
+'Here is a gracious permission from Lord Kirkaldy, the only
+stipulations being that no vestiges of the meal, such as sandwich
+papers or gooseberry skins, be left on the grass; and that nobody does
+any mischief,' he added in an awful tone of personality.  'So if I see
+anybody rooting up holly trees I shall be bound to interfere.'
+
+'Now, Mr. Dutton, it was only a baby holly in a chink.'
+
+'Only a holly tree!  Just like the giant's daughter when she only
+carried off waggon, peasant, oxen, and all in her pinafore.'
+
+'It is not longer than my finger now!'
+
+'Well, remember, mischief either wanton or scientific is forbidden. You
+are to set an example to the choir-boys.'
+
+'Scientific mischief is a fatal thing to rare plants,' said Mary.
+
+'If I'm not to touch anything, I may as well stay at home,' pouted
+Nuttie.
+
+'You may gather as many buttercups and daisies as the sweet child
+pleases,' said Mr. Dutton; whereupon she threatened to throw her books
+at his head.
+
+Miss Nugent asked how they were to go, and Mr. Dutton explained that
+there was only a quarter of a mile's walk from the station; that return
+tickets would be furnished at a tariff of fourpence a head; and that
+there would be trains at 1.15 and 7.30.
+
+'How hungry the children will be.'
+
+'They will eat all the way.  That's the worst of this sort of outing.
+They eat to live and live to eat.'
+
+'At least they don't eat at church,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Not since the peppermint day, when Mr. Spyers suspended Dickie Drake,'
+put in Mary.
+
+And the Spa Terrace Church people said it was incense.'
+
+'No.  Nuttie!'
+
+'Indeed they did.  Louisa Barnet attacked us about it at school, and I
+said I wished it had been.  Only they mustn't eat peppermint in the
+train, for it makes mother quite ill.'
+
+'Do you mean that Mrs. Egremont will come?' exclaimed Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Oh yes, she shall.  It is not too far, and it will be very good for
+her.  I shall make her.'
+
+'There's young England's filial duty!' said Mary.
+
+'Why, I know what is good for her, and she always does as "I wish."'
+
+'Beneficent despotism!' said Mr. Dutton.  'May I ask if Miss Headworth
+is an equally obedient subject.'
+
+'Oh! Aunt Ursel is very seldom tiresome.'
+
+'Nuttie! Nuttie! my dear,' and a head with the snows of more than half
+a century appeared on the other side of the wall, under a cap and
+parasol.  'I am sorry to interrupt you, but it is cool enough for your
+mother to go into the town, and I wish you to go with her.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+HEIR HUNTING.
+
+  'And she put on her gown of green,
+  And left her mother at sixteen,
+       To marry Peter Bell!'--WORDSWORTH.
+
+
+In the shrubberies of Monks Horton were walking a lady somewhat past
+middle age, but full of activity and vigour, with one of those bright
+faces that never grow old, and with her a young man, a few years over
+twenty, with a grave and almost careworn countenance.
+
+More and more confidential waxed the conversation, for the lady was
+making fresh acquaintance with a nephew seldom seen since he had been
+her pet and darling as almost a baby, and he was experiencing the
+inexpressible charm of tone and manner that recalled the young mother
+he had lost in early boyhood.
+
+'Then your mind is made up,' she said; 'you are quite right to decide
+on having a profession; but how does your father take it?'
+
+'He is quite convinced that to repeat my uncle's life, dangling on as
+heir, would be the most fatal mistake.'
+
+'Assuredly, and all the legal knowledge you acquire is so much in
+favour of your usefulness as the squire.'
+
+'If I ever am the squire, of which I have my doubts.'
+
+'You expect Mr. Egremont to marry?'
+
+'Not a future marriage, but one in the past.'
+
+'A private marriage!  Do you suspect it?'
+
+'I don't suspect it--I know it.  I have been hoping to talk the matter
+over with you.  Do you remember our first governess, Miss Headworth?'
+
+'My dear Mark, did I not lose at Pera the charms of your infancy?'
+
+'Then neither my mother nor my grandmother ever wrote to you about her?'
+
+'I do remember that it struck me that immunity from governesses was a
+compensation for the lack of daughters.'
+
+'Can you tell me no details,' said Mark anxiously.  'Have you no
+letters?  It was about the time when Blanche was born, when we were
+living at Raxley.'
+
+'I am sorry to say that our roving life prevented my keeping old
+letters.  I have often regretted it.  Let me see, there was one who
+boxed May's ears.'
+
+'That was long after.  I think it was that woman's barbarity that made
+my father marry again, and a very good thing that was.  It was wretched
+before.  Miss Headworth was in my own mother's time.'
+
+'I begin to remember something happening that your mother seemed unable
+to write about, and your grandmother said that she had been greatly
+upset by "that miserable affair," but I was never exactly told what it
+had been.'
+
+'Miss Headworth came when I was four or five years old.  Edda, as we
+used to call her in May's language, was the first person who gave me a
+sense of beauty.  She had dark eyes and a lovely complexion.  I
+remember in after times being silenced for saying, "not so pretty as my
+Edda."  I was extremely fond of her, enough to have my small jealousy
+excited when my uncle joined us in our walks, and monopolised her,
+turning May and me over to play with his dog!'
+
+'But, Mark, Mr. Egremont is some years older than your father.  He
+could not have been a young man at that time.'
+
+'So much the worse.  Most likely he seemed to her quite paternal. The
+next thing I recollect was our being in the Isle of Wight, we two
+children, with Miss Headworth and the German nurse, and our being told
+of our new sister.  Uncle Alwyn and his yacht were there, and we went
+on board once or twice.  Then matters became confused with me, I
+recollect a confusion, papa and grandmamma suddenly arriving, everybody
+seeming to us to have become very cross, our dear Miss Headworth
+nowhere to be found, our attendants being changed, and our being
+forbidden to speak of her again.  I certainly never thought of the
+matter till a month ago.  You know my uncle's eyes have been much
+affected by his illness, and he has made a good deal of use of me. He
+has got a valet, a fellow of no particular country, more Savoyard than
+anything else, I fancy.  He is a legacy, like other evils, from the old
+General, and seems a sort of necessity to my uncle's existence.
+Gregorio they call him.  He was plainly used to absolute government,
+and viewed the coming down amongst us as an assertion of liberty much
+against his will.  We could see that he was awfully jealous of my
+father and me, and would do anything to keep us out; but providentially
+he can't write English decently, though he can speak any language you
+please.  Well, the man and I came into collision about a scamp of a
+groom who was doing intolerable mischief in the village, and whom they
+put it on me to get discharged.  On that occasion Mr. Gregorio grew
+insolent, and intimated to me that I need not make so sure of the
+succession.  He knew that which might make the Chanoine and me change
+our note.  Well, my father is always for avoiding rows; he said it was
+an unmeaning threat, it was of no use to complain of Gregorio, and we
+must digest his insolence.  But just after, Uncle Alwyn sent me to hunt
+up a paper that was missing, and in searching a writing-case I came
+upon an unmistakable marriage certificate between Alwyn Piercefield
+Egremont and Alice Headworth, and then the dim recollections I told you
+of began to return.'
+
+'What did you do?'
+
+'I thought I had better consult my father, expecting to hear that she
+was dead, and that no further notice need be taken of the matter. But
+he was greatly disturbed to hear of the certificate, and would hardly
+believe me.  He said that some friend of my grandmother had written her
+word of goings on at Freshwater between his brother and the young
+governess, and that they went off at once to put a stop to it, but
+found us left with the German maid, who declared that Miss Headworth
+had gone off with Mr. Egremont in the yacht.  No more was heard of my
+uncle for six weeks, and when he came back there was a great row with
+the old General, but he absolutely denied being married.  I am afraid
+that was all the old sinner wished, and they went off together in the
+yacht to the West Indies, where it was burnt; but they, as you know,
+never came to England again, going straight off to the Mediterranean,
+having their headquarters at Sorrento, and cruising about till the
+General's death ten years ago.'
+
+'Yes, I once met them at Florence, and thought them two weary pitiable
+men.  One looked at the General as a curious relic of the old buck of
+the Regency days, and compassionated his nephew for having had his life
+spoilt by dangling after the old man.  It was a warning indeed, and I
+am glad you have profited by it, Mark.'
+
+'He came back, after the old man died, to club life in London, and
+seldom has been near the old place; indeed, it has been let till
+recently, and he wants to let it again, but it is altogether too
+dilapidated for that without repairs.  So he came down to see about it,
+and was taken ill there.  But to return to what my father told me. He
+was shocked to hear of the certificate, for he had implicitly believed
+his brother's denial of the marriage, and he said Miss Headworth was so
+childish and simple that she might easily have been taken in by a sham
+ceremony.  He said that he now saw he had done very wrong in letting
+his mother-in-law take all the letters about "that unhappy business"
+off his hands without looking at them, but he was much engrossed by my
+mother's illness, and, as he said, it never occurred to him as a duty
+to trace out what became of the poor thing, and see that she was
+provided for safely.  You know Mrs. Egremont says laissez faire is our
+family failing, and that our first thought is how _not_ to do it.'
+
+'Yes, utter repudiation of such cases was the line taken by the last
+generation; and I am afraid my mother would be very severe.'
+
+'Another thing that actuated my father was the fear of getting his
+brother into trouble with General Egremont, as he himself would have
+been the one to profit by it.  So I do not wonder so much at his
+letting the whole drop without inquiry, and never even looking at the
+letters, which there certainly were.  I could not get him to begin upon
+it with my uncle, but Mrs. Egremont was strongly on my side in thinking
+that such a thing ought to be looked into, and as I had found the paper
+it would be best that I should speak.  Besides that there was no
+enduring that Gregorio should be pretending to hold us in terror by
+such hints.'
+
+'Well, and has there been a wife and family in a cottage all this time?'
+
+'Aunt Margaret, he has never seen or heard of her since he left her at
+Dieppe!  Would you believe it, he thinks himself a victim?  He never
+meant more than to amuse himself with the pretty little governess; and
+he took on board a Mr. and Mrs. Houghton to do propriety, shady sort of
+people I imagine, but that she did not know.'
+
+'I have heard of them,' said Lady Kirkaldy, significantly.
+
+'She must have been a kind friend to the poor girl,' said Mark.  'On
+some report that Lady de Lyonnais was coming down on her, wrathful and
+terrible, the poor foolish girl let herself be persuaded to be carried
+off in the yacht, but there Mrs. Houghton watched over her like a
+dragon.  She made them put in at some little place in Jersey, put in
+the banns, all unknown to my uncle, and got them married. Each was
+trying to outwit the other, while Miss Headworth herself was quite
+innocent and unconscious, and, I don't know whether to call it an
+excuse for Uncle Alwyn or not, but to this hour he is not sure whether
+it was a legal marriage, and my father believes it was not, looking on
+it as a youthful indiscretion.  He put her in lodgings at Dieppe, under
+Mrs. Houghton's protection, while he returned home on a peremptory
+summons from the General.  He found the old man in such a state of body
+and mind as he tries to persuade me was an excuse for denying the whole
+thing, and from that time he represents himself as bound hand and foot
+by the General's tyranny.  He meant to have kept the secret, given her
+an allowance, and run over from time to time to see her, but he only
+could get there once before the voyage to the West Indies.  The whole
+affair was, as he said, complicated by his debts, those debts that the
+estate has never paid off.  The General probably distrusted him, for he
+curtailed his allowance, and scarcely let him out of sight; and he--he
+submitted for the sake of his prospects, and thinking the old man much
+nearer his end than he proved to be.  I declare as I listened, it came
+near to hearing him say he had sold his soul to Satan!  From the day he
+sailed in the Ninon he has never written, never attempted any
+communication with the woman whose life he had wrecked, except one
+inquiry at Dieppe, and that was through Gregorio.'
+
+'What! the valet?'
+
+Yes.  I believe I seemed surprised at such a medium being employed, for
+Uncle Alwyn explained that the man had got hold of the secret
+somehow--servants always know everything--and being a foreigner he was
+likely to be able to trace her out.
+
+'I daresay he profited by the knowledge to keep Alwyn in bondage during
+the old man's lifetime.'
+
+'I have no doubt of it, and he expected to play the same game with me.
+The fellow reminds me, whenever I look at him, of a sort of incarnate
+familiar demon.  When I asked my uncle whether he could guess what had
+become of her, he held up his hands with a hideous French grimace.  I
+could have taken him by the throat.'
+
+'Nay, one must pity him.  The morals of George IV.'s set had been
+handed on to him by the General,' said Lady Kirkaldy, rejoicing in the
+genuine indignation of the young face, free from all taint of vice, if
+somewhat rigid.  'And what now?'
+
+'He assured me that he could make all secure to my father and me, as if
+that were the important point; but finally he perceived that we had no
+right to stand still without endeavouring to discover whether there be
+a nearer heir, and my father made him consent to my making the search,
+grinning at its Quixotism all the time.'
+
+'Have you done anything?'
+
+'Yes.  I have been to Jersey, seen the register--July 20, 1859--and an
+old French-speaking clerk, who perfectly recollected the party coming
+from the yacht, and spoke of her as tres belle.  I have also
+ascertained that there is no doubt of the validity of the marriage.
+Then, deeply mistrusting Master Gregorio, I went on to Dieppe, where I
+entirely failed to find any one who knew or remembered anything about
+them--there is such a shifting population of English visitors and
+residents, and it was so long ago.  I elicited from my uncle that she
+had an aunt, he thought, of the same name as herself; but my father
+cannot remember who recommended her, or anything that can be a clue.
+Has any one looked over my grandmother's letters?'
+
+'I think not.  My brother spoke of keeping them till I came to London.
+That might give a chance, or the Houghtons might know about her.  I
+think my husband could get them hunted up.  They are sure to be at some
+continental resort.'
+
+'What's that?' as a sound of singing was heard.
+
+'"Auld Langsyne."  The natives are picnicking in the ravine below
+there.  They used to be rigidly excluded, but we can't stand that; and
+this is the first experiment of admitting them on condition that they
+don't make themselves obnoxious.'
+
+'Which they can't help.'
+
+'We have yet to see if this is worse than an Austrian or Italian
+festival.  See, we can look down from behind this yew tree.  It really
+is a pretty sight from this distance.'
+
+'There's the cleric heading his little boys and their cricket, and
+there are the tuneful party in the fern on the opposite side.  They
+have rather good voices, unless they gain by distance.'
+
+'And there's a girl botanising by the river.'
+
+'Sentimentalising over forget-me-nots, more likely.'
+
+'My dear Mark, for a specimen of young England, you are greatly
+behindhand in perception of progress!'
+
+'Ah! you are used to foreigners, Aunt Margaret.  You have never
+fathomed English vulgarity.'
+
+'It would serve you right to send you to carry the invitation to go
+round the gardens and houses.'
+
+'Do you mean it, aunt?'
+
+'Mean it?  Don't you see your uncle advancing down the
+road--there--accosting the clergyman--what's his name--either Towers or
+Spires--something ecclesiastical I know.  We only waited to reconnoitre
+and see whether the numbers were unmanageable.'
+
+'And yet he does not want to sit for Micklethwayte?'
+
+'So you think no one can be neighbourly except for electioneering! O
+Mark, I must take you in hand.'
+
+'Meantime the host is collecting.  I abscond.  Which is the least showy
+part of the establishment?'
+
+'I recommend the coal cellar--'and, as he went off--'poor boy, he is a
+dear good fellow, but how little he knows how to be laughed at!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A NAME.
+
+  'Sigh no more lady, lady sigh no more,
+    Men were deceivers ever,
+  One foot on sea and one on land--
+    To one thing constant never.'--Old Ballad.
+
+
+'So you have ventured out again,' said Lady Kirkaldy, as her nephew
+strolled up to her afternoon tea-table under a great cedar tree:
+
+'The coast being clear, and only distant shouts being heard in the
+ravine--
+
+          '"Like an army defeated
+            The choir retreated;
+            And now doth fare well
+            In the valley's soft swell,"'
+
+said the aunt.
+
+'At least you have survived; or is this the reaction,' said the nephew,
+putting on a languid air.
+
+'There were some very nice people among them, on whom the pictures were
+by no means thrown away.  What would you say, Mark, if I told you that
+I strongly suspect that I have seen your lost aunt?'
+
+'Nonsense!' cried Mark, as emphatically as disrespectfully.
+
+'I am not joking in the least,' said Lady Kirkaldy, looking up at him.
+'I heard the name of Egremont, and made out that it belonged to a very
+lady-like pretty-looking woman in gray and white; she seemed to be
+trying to check and tame a bright girl of eighteen or so, who was in a
+perfect state of rapture over the Vandykes.  I managed to ask the
+clergyman who the lady was, and he told me she was a Mrs. Egremont, who
+lives with her aunt, a Miss Headworth, who boards girls for the High
+School; very worthy people, he added.'
+
+'Headworth?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'But if it were, she would have known your name.'
+
+'Hardly.  The title had not come in those days; and if she heard of us
+at all it would be as Kerrs.  I ventured further to put out a feeler by
+asking whether he knew what her husband had been, and he said he
+believed he had been lost at sea, but he, Mr. Spyers I mean, had only
+been at Micklethwayte three or four years, and had merely known her as
+a widow.'
+
+'I suppose it is worth following up,' said Mark, rather reluctantly. 'I
+wish I had seen her.  I think I should know Miss Headworth again, and
+she would hardly know me.'
+
+'You see what comes of absconding.'
+
+'After all, it was best,' said Mark.  'Supposing her to be the real
+woman, which I don't expect, it might have been awkward if she had
+heard my name!  How can we ascertain the history of this person without
+committing ourselves?'
+
+Lord Kirkaldy, an able man, who had been for many years a diplomatist,
+here joined the party, and the whole story was laid before him.  He was
+new to Micklethwayte, having succeeded a somewhat distant kinsman, and
+did not know enough of the place to be able to fix on any one to whom
+to apply for information; but the result of the consultation was that
+Lady Kirkaldy should go alone to call on Miss Headworth, and explain
+that she was come to inquire about a young lady of the same name, who
+had once been governess to the children of her sister, Lady Adelaide
+Egremont.  Mark was rather a study to his uncle and aunt all the
+evening.  He was as upright and honourable as the day, and not only
+acted on high principle, but had a tender feeling to the beautiful
+playfellow governess, no doubt enhanced by painful experiences of
+successors chosen for their utter dissimilarity to her.  Still it was
+evidently rather flat to find himself probably so near the tangible
+goal of his romantic search; and the existence of a first cousin had
+been startling to him, though his distaste was more to the taking her
+from second-rate folk in a country town than to the overthrow of his
+own heirship.  At least so he manifestly and honestly believed, and
+knowing it to be one of those faiths that make themselves facts, the
+Kirkaldys did not disturb him in it, nor commiserate him for a loss
+which they thought the best thing possible for him.
+
+Miss Headworth was accustomed to receive visitors anent boarders, so
+when Lady Kirkaldy's card was brought to her, the first impression was
+that some such arrangement was to be made.  She was sitting in her
+pretty little drawing-room alone, for Nuttie and her mother had gone
+out for a walk with Miss Nugent.
+
+The room, opening on the garden, and cool with blinds, had a certain
+homely grace about the faded furniture.  The drawings on the walls were
+good, the work quaint and tasteful.  There was a grand vase of
+foxgloves before the empty grate, and some Marshal Nial roses in a
+glass on the table.  The old lady herself--with alert black eyes and a
+sweet expression--rose from her chair in the window to receive her
+guest.
+
+Lady Kirkaldy felt reassured as to the refinement of the surroundings,
+and liked the gentle but self-possessed tones of the old lady.  She
+noticed the foxgloves.
+
+'Yes,' said Miss Headworth, 'they are the fruits of yesterday's
+expedition.  My two children, as I call them, brought them home in
+triumph.  I cannot tell you what pleasure Lord Kirkaldy's kindness gave
+them--and many more.'
+
+'I am glad,' said the lady, while she said to herself, 'now for it,'
+and sat forward.  'It struck me,' she said, 'on hearing your name that
+you might be related to--to a young lady who lived a good while ago in
+the family of my sister, Lady Adelaide Egremont.'
+
+A strange look came into Miss Headworth's eyes, her lips trembled, she
+clutched tightly the arm of her chair, but then cast a puzzled glance
+at her visitor.
+
+'Perhaps if you heard of me then,' said the latter, 'it was as Lady
+Margaret Kerr.'
+
+'Yes,' said Miss Headworth, then pausing, she collected herself and
+said in an anxious voice,  'Do I understand that your ladyship is come
+to inquire for my niece, being aware of the circumstances.'
+
+'I only became aware of them yesterday,' said Lady Kirkaldy.  'I was in
+Turkey at the time, and no particulars were given to me; but my nephew,
+Mark Egremont, your niece's old pupil, came to consult us, having just
+discovered among his uncle's papers evidence of the marriage, of which
+of course he had been ignorant.'
+
+'Then,' exclaimed Miss Headworth, holding her hands tightly clasped,
+'Shall I really see justice done at last to my poor child?'
+
+'It is young Mark's most earnest wish and his father--'Lady Kirkaldy
+hesitated for a word, and Miss Headworth put in:
+
+'His father!  Why would he never even acknowledge either Alice's
+letters or mine?  We wrote several times both to him and Lady Adelaide,
+and never received any reply, except one short one, desiring he might
+not be troubled on such a subject.  It was cruel! Alice said it was not
+in his writing.  She had done very wrong, and the family might well be
+offended, but a poor child like her, just eighteen, might have been
+treated with some pity.'
+
+'My sister was in declining health.  He was very much engrossed.  He
+left the matter to--to others,' said Lady Kirkaldy.  'He is very sorry
+now that he acquiesced in what was then thought right.  He did not then
+know that there had been a marriage.'
+
+'I should have thought in that case a clergyman would have been bound
+to show the more compassion.'
+
+Lady Kirkaldy knew that the cruel silence had been chiefly the work of
+the stem Puritan pitilessness of her mother, so she passed this over,
+saying, 'We are all very anxious to atone, as far as possible, for what
+is past, but we know little or nothing, only what my nephew Mark has
+been able to gather.'
+
+'Little Mark!  Alice always talked of him with great affection.  How
+pleased she will be to hear of his remembering her.'
+
+'Would you object to telling me what you know of this history?' said
+Lady Kirkaldy.  'I am afraid it is very painful to you, but I think we
+should understand it clearly.  Please speak to me as a friend, as woman
+to woman.'
+
+'Your ladyship is very kind,' said the poor old lady.  'I have only
+mentioned the subject once since we came to settle here, seventeen
+years ago, but such things one cannot forget.  If you will excuse me, I
+have some dates that will assist my accuracy.'
+
+She hurried away, and came back in a few moments, having evidently
+dried some tears, perhaps of thankfulness, but she paused as if
+reluctant to begin.
+
+'I think your niece had no nearer relation than yourself,' said Lady
+Kirkaldy, anxious to set her off and at ease.
+
+'Oh no, or she never would have been so treated.  She was an orphan. My
+poor brother was a curate.  He married--as young men will--on
+insufficient means, his strength gave way, and he died of diphtheria
+when this poor child was only two years old.  Indeed, two little ones
+died at the same time, and the mother married again and went to
+Shanghai.  She did not long live there, poor thing, and little Alice
+was sent home to me.  I thought I did my best for her by keeping her at
+a good school.  I have often wished that I had given up my situation,
+and become an assistant there, so as to have her more under my own
+eyes; but I fancied it important to receive a salary out of which I
+could save.  I am wearying your ladyship, but I can't but dwell on the
+excuses for my poor child.'
+
+'Indeed I wish to hear all the details,' was the sincere and gentle
+answer.
+
+'I had her with me generally in the holidays, and I confess I was
+absolutely alarmed to see how pretty the child was growing, knowing how
+great a disadvantage it often is.  She was always a good girl, not
+naturally so studious as could be wished, but docile, merry, gentle, a
+favourite with every one, and peculiarly innocent and childish.  I
+wished her to remain a few years longer as teacher, but it so happened
+that Lady Adelaide Egremont, coming to consult the head of the
+establishment about a nursery-governess, saw Alice, and was so much
+struck with her sweet face, which was all sunshine then, as to insist
+on engaging her.'
+
+'Ah! my dear sister, I remember her enthusiastic letter about her
+pretty governess, and her boy's affection for her, an affection that
+has lasted--'
+
+'It seemed so safe.  A clergyman's family in the country, and so kind a
+lady at the head, that, though Alice had been educated for a superior
+governess, it appeared the best beginning she could have. And she was
+very happy, and met with great kindness.  Only, unfortunately, Lady
+Adelaide was delicate, and for many weeks entirely confined to the
+sofa.  Mr. Egremont's elder brother was much there.  He seemed to my
+poor inexperienced child quite elderly, and his attentions like those
+of--of an old uncle--she told me afterwards--'
+
+'He must really have been over forty--'
+
+'No doubt my poor Alice was unguarded.  We know what a merry, happy,
+childish girl may be, but I never heard that her conduct was even
+censured while she remained at Baxley, though I find that Captain
+Egremont used to join them in their walks, under pretext of playing
+with the children.  Then she was sent to Freshwater with the two eldest
+children during Lady Adelaide's confinement, and there, most
+unjustifiably, Captain Egremont continually visited them from his
+yacht, and offered to take them out in it.  Alice knew she ought not to
+go without a married lady on board, and he brought a Mr. and Mrs.
+Houghton to call, who were very kind and caressing to her and the
+children, so that she thought all was right.  Oh! Lady Kirkaldy, I
+don't mean to defend her, I daresay she was very giddy and silly, she
+reproaches herself, poor dear, but I do say that a wicked advantage was
+taken of her innocence and ignorance.  She says that she had begun to
+grow a little uneasy at the way people looked when Captain Egremont
+joined them on the beach; and the nurse, a German, said something that
+she could not understand.  On the 1st of July--yes--but I have the date
+here--came a telegram to the hotel to have rooms for Lady de Lyonnais
+and Mr. Egremont ready by the evening.  The whole place knew it, and
+some meddling person burst on Alice with the news, roughly and coarsely
+given, that they were coming to call her to account for her goings on.
+Captain Egremont found her crying in the utmost terror, and--she really
+hardly knew what he said to her--she thinks he offered to shelter her
+on board the Ninon, from Lady de Lyonnais' first wrath while he and
+Mrs. Houghton explained matters; but she cannot tell, for she lost her
+senses with fright, only knew that he was kind and sweet to her in her
+distress, and thought only of escaping.  Well, I don't excuse her.  Of
+course it was the most terrible and fatal thing she could have done,
+and--' The good old lady was quite overcome, and Lady Kirkaldy had
+tears in her eyes as she said,
+
+'It was frightful folly--but she was guarded.'
+
+'Yes, her innocence was guarded, thank God,' said Miss Headworth
+fervently.  'You see she did know that Mr. and Mrs. Houghton were on
+board, and Mrs. Houghton was a truly kind protector who deserved her
+confidence, though, poor lady, she admitted to me that her own conduct
+had not been-strictly correct.'
+
+'How long was it before you heard of her?'
+
+'There was a dreadful letter from Mr. Egremont enclosing what was due
+of her salary, and then I heard no more for seven months.  I went to
+the Isle of Wight and made all inquiries, but the nurse and children
+had gone away immediately, and I could obtain no trace of them.'
+
+'Then she--your niece, never wrote.'
+
+'She was afraid, poor dear.  She had never been at her ease with me.
+Her mother had taught her to think me strict and harsh, and she had
+never opened to me in those days.  Besides, he had forbidden her.  At
+last, however, in January, came a letter from this Mrs. Houghton,
+telling me that my Alice was very unwell at Dieppe, that nothing had
+been heard of her husband, Captain Egremont, to whom she had been
+married on the 20th of July at St. Philippe, in Jersey, and that she
+herself was obliged to leave the place almost immediately; but she
+would, if possible, wait till my arrival, as Mrs. Egremont was not in a
+condition to be left alone.  My dear friends, with whom I was then
+living, were as kind as possible, and set me free to go.  I was there
+in three days, and truly the dear, beautiful, merry girl I had parted
+with only a year before was a sad piteous sight.  Mrs. Houghton seemed
+broken-hearted at leaving her, thinking there was little chance of her
+living; but Mr. Houghton, who, I am afraid, was a professed gambler,
+had got into some scrape, and was gone to Paris, where she had to
+follow him.  She told me all about it, and how, when Captain Egremont
+fancied that a marriage in the Channel Islands was one he could play
+fast and loose with, she had taken care that the formalities should be
+such as to make all secure.  Foolish and wrong as poor Alice had been,
+she had awakened all the best side of that poor woman's nature, and no
+mother could have been more careful and tender.  She gave me the
+certificate--here it is--and assured me that it would hold good.  I
+have shown it to a lawyer, and he said the same; but when I sent a copy
+to Mr. Egremont, my letter was returned unopened.'
+
+'Captain Egremont had denied the marriage, and they believed him,' said
+Lady Kirkaldy.  'It is hard to believe that he could be so heartless,
+but he was in bondage to the old General Egremont, and dreaded losing
+his inheritance.'
+
+'So he told them in his one visit to Dieppe.  He said he must keep his
+marriage secret, but promised an allowance, on condition that Alice
+would live quietly at Dieppe, and not communicate with any one of her
+own family or his.  He had left L100 with her, but that was nearly
+gone, and she had never heard from him.  It had preyed on her, and she
+was so ill that I never expected, any more than Mrs. Houghton, to see
+her recover.  I stayed there with her; she could not be moved, even if
+she would have consented, when she was continually expecting him; but
+at last--four days after her little girl was born--came the news of the
+Ninon having been burnt, with all on board, three months before.  Do
+you know, strange to say, though I had feared so much to tell her, she
+began to revive from that time.  The suspense and watching were over.
+She saw that he had not deserted her, and believed that he had loved
+her to the last.  She cried a great deal, but it was in a peaceful,
+natural way.  I wrote then, as I had already written, to Lady Adelaide
+and to Mr. Egremont, but was not answered.'
+
+'I can account for that,' said Lady Kirkaldy.  'My sister had been
+ordered to Madeira in the autumn, and there they remained till her
+death in May.  All the letters were sent to my mother, and she did not
+think fit to forward, or open, any bearing on the subject.  In the
+meantime Mr. Egremont was presented to the family living, and on his
+return moved to Bridgefield Egremont.  And you came here?'
+
+'Of course I could not part with my poor Alice again.  Mr. and Mrs.
+Fordyce, whose daughter I had long ago educated, had always kept up a
+correspondence with me, and, knowing all the story, proposed to me to
+come here.  He was then rector of the old church, and by their help and
+recommendation, with such capital as I had, we were able to begin a
+little school; and though that has had to give way to the High School,
+what with boarders, and with Alice's employment as daily governess, we
+have, I am thankful to say, gone on very well and comfortably, and my
+dear child has recovered her cheerfulness, though she can never be
+quite what--I think she was meant to be,' said the old lady, with a sad
+smile, 'though perhaps she is something better.'
+
+'Do you think she was absolutely convinced of his death?'
+
+'Do you mean that he is alive?' exclaimed Miss Headworth in dismay.
+'Oh! he is a wickeder man than even I supposed, to have forsaken her
+all these years.  Is my poor child in his power?  Must her peace, now
+she has attained it, be disturbed?'
+
+'There is a great deal to take into consideration,' said Lady Kirkaldy.
+'I had better tell you how this visit of mine came about, and explain
+some matters about the Egremont family.'
+
+She then told how Captain Egremont, after a brief service in the Life
+Guards, had been made to retire, that the old General, whose heir he
+was, might keep him in attendance on him.  Already self-indulgent and
+extravagant, the idleness of the life he led with the worn-out old roue
+had deadened his better feelings, and habituated him to dissipation,
+while his debts, his expensive habits, and his dread of losing the
+inheritance, had bound him over to the General.  Both had been saved
+from the fire in the Ninon, whence they were picked up by a Chilian
+vessel, and they had been long in communicating with home. The General
+hated England, and was in broken health.  He had spent the remaining
+years of his life at various continental resorts, where he could enjoy
+a warm climate, combined with facilities for high play.
+
+When at length, he died, Captain Egremont had continued the life to
+which he had become accustomed, and had of late manifested an
+expectation that his nephew Mark should play the same part by him as he
+had done by the General, but the youth, bred in a very different tone,
+would on no account thus surrender himself to an evil bondage. Indeed
+he felt all the severity of youthful virtue, and had little toleration
+for his uncle's ways of thinking; though, when the old man had come
+home ill, dejected, and half blind, he had allowed himself to be made
+useful on business matters.  And thus he had discovered the marriage,
+and had taken up the cause with the ardour stimulated by a chivalrous
+feeling for the beautiful vision of his childhood, whose sudden
+disappearance had ended his brightest days.
+
+'I suppose it is right and generous of the young man,' said Miss
+Headworth.  'But since the--the man is alive, I wish my poor Alice
+could have been left at peace!'
+
+'You forget that her daughter has rights which must be taken into
+consideration.'
+
+'Little Nuttie!  Dear child!  I should so far like her to be provided
+for, so far as that she need not go out in the world to earn her own
+livelihood.  But no! better be as we are than accept anything from that
+man!'
+
+'I quite understand and respect your feeling, Miss Headworth,' returned
+the lady; 'but may I return to my question whether you think your niece
+has any doubt of her husband being dead.'
+
+Miss Headworth considered.  'Since you ask me, I think she has kept the
+possibility of the life before her.  We have never mentioned the
+subject, and, as I said, the belief in his death ended a great suspense
+and sense of wounded affection.  She began soon and vigorously to turn
+her attention to the support of her child, and has found a fair measure
+of happiness; but at the same time she has shrunk from all notice and
+society, more than would be natural in so very young a widow and so
+attractive, more than I should have expected from her original
+character.  And once, when she did apprehend symptoms of admiration,
+she insisted that I should tell the history, enough, as she said, to
+make it plain that it was impossible.  There was one night too, when
+she had scarlatina, and was a little lightheaded, only four years ago,
+when she talked a good deal about his coming back; but that might have
+been only the old impression on her brain, of that long watching at
+Dieppe.  He--Captain Egremont, does not yet know where she is?'
+
+'No, certainly not.  But I fear he must.'
+
+'I suppose he ought,' sighed Miss Headworth; 'but in the meantime, till
+we know what line he takes, surely she need not be unsettled by the
+knowledge of his existence.'
+
+'By no means.  You had better act as you think best about that.  But
+you will not object to my nephew, her old pupil, Mark, coming to see
+her?  I will make him promise not to enter upon the subject.'
+
+Miss Headworth had only time to make a sign of reluctant acquiescence
+when the door opened and mother and daughter came in.  Nuttie first,
+eager as usual and open-mouthed, unaware that any one was there, for
+Lady Kirkaldy, wishing to avoid talk and observation, had left her
+carriage at the livery stables, and walked to St. Ambrose Road.  The
+girl, whom in a moment she classed as small, dark, and oddly like May
+Egremont, stopped short at sight of a stranger; the mother would have
+retreated but for Miss Headworth's nervous call 'Alice, my dear, here
+is Lady Kirkaldy.'
+
+Very lovely was Lady Kirkaldy's impression as she saw a slender figure
+in a dark gray linen dress, and a face of refined, though not
+intellectual, beauty and sweetness, under a large straw hat with a good
+deal of white gauziness about it, and the curtsey was full of natural
+grace.
+
+'You do not know me,' said Lady Kirkaldy, taking her hand, 'but I am
+aunt to some former pupils of yours, one of whom, Mark Egremont, is
+very anxious to come and see you.'
+
+'Mark!  My dear little Mark,' and her face lighted up.  'How very kind
+of him.  But he is not little Mark now.'
+
+'He is not a very big Mark either.  Most of the Egremonts are small. I
+see your daughter takes after them,' said Lady Kirkaldy, shaking hands
+with Ursula, who looked at her in unmitigated amazement.
+
+Alice faltered something about Lady Adelaide.
+
+'My dear sister fell into a decline, and died while the three children
+were still babies.  Poor things, I believe they had a sad time till
+their father married a Miss Condamine, who has been an excellent
+stepmother to them.  I have been to see them, but Mark was not then at
+home, so he has come to me at Monks Horton.  When will he find you at
+home?  Or may I bring him in at once.  He was to meet me at
+Micklethwayte.'
+
+'I should like very much to see him,' was the answer.  And Miss
+Headworth was obliged to say something about her ladyship taking a cup
+of tea.  Lady Kirkaldy, knowing that Mark was on the watch, set off in
+search of him, and found him, as she expected, pacing the pavement in
+front of the church.  There was no great distance in which to utter her
+explanations and cautions, warning him of her promise that the
+intelligence of the husband's being alive was to be withheld for a
+fitter time, but he promised dutifully, and his aunt then took him in
+with her.
+
+The recognition of her claims was a less stunning shock to Alice
+Egremont than to her aunt.  Shielded by her illness, as well as by her
+simplicity and ignorance, she had never been aware of her aunt's
+attempted correspondence with the Egremonts, nor of their deafness to
+appeals made on her behalf.  Far less had it ever occurred to her that
+the validity of her marriage could be denied, and the heinous error of
+her elopement seemed to her quite sufficient to account for her having
+been so entirely cast off by the family.  The idea that as wife or
+widow she had any claims on them, or that Ursula might have rights
+above those of Mark, had not come into her mind, which, indeed, at the
+moment was chiefly occupied by the doubt whether the milk was come in,
+and by ordering in the best teacups, presented by the boarders.
+
+Thus she was in the passage when Mark entered, and his exclamation
+instantly was 'Oh, Edda, dear old Edda!  You aren't a bit altered!' and
+he put his head under her hat and kissed her, adding, as she seemed
+rather startled, 'You are my aunt, you know; and where's my cousin?
+You are Ursula?'
+
+He advanced upon Nuttie, took her by the hand and kissed her forehead
+before she was aware, but she flashed at him with her black eyes, and
+looked stiff and defiant.  She had no notion of kisses to herself,
+still less to her pretty mother whom she protected with a half proud,
+half jealous fondness.  How could the man presume to call her by that
+foolish name?  However, that single effusion had exhausted Mark's
+powers of cordiality, or else Nuttie's stiffness froze him.  They were
+all embarrassed, and had reason to be grateful to Lady Kirkaldy's
+practised powers as a diplomate's wife.  She made the most of Mrs.
+Egremont's shy spasmodic inquiries, and Mark's jerks of information,
+such as that they were all living at Bridgefield Egremont, now, that
+his sister May was very like his new cousin, that Blanche was come out
+and was very like his mother, etc. etc.  Every one was more at ease
+when Lady Kirkaldy carried the conversation off to yesterday's
+entertainment, hoping no one had been overtired, and the like.  Mrs.
+Egremont lighted up a little and began telling some of the expressions
+of delight she had heard, and in the midst, Nuttie, waking from her
+trance of stiff displeasure, came plump in with 'Oh! and there's a
+water-soldier, a real Stratiotes aculeatus in your lake.  May we get
+it?  Mr. Dutton didn't think we ought, but it would be such a prize!'
+
+'Ursula means a rare water-plant,' said Mrs. Egremont gently, seeing
+that Lady Kirkaldy had no notion of the treasure she possessed.  'She
+and some of her friends are very eager botanists.'
+
+'I am sure you may,' said the lady, amused.
+
+'Thank you!  Then, O mother!  Miss Mary and I will go.  And we'll wait
+till after office hours, and then Gerard Godfrey can come and fish it
+out for us!  Oh, thank you.  He wants the pattern of the Abbot's cross
+for an illumination, and he can get some ferns for the church.'
+
+Soon after this ebullition, Lady Kirkaldy carried off her nephew, and
+his first utterance outside the door was 'A woman like that will be the
+salvation of my uncle.'
+
+'Firstly, if you can bring them together,' said his aunt; 'and
+secondly, if there is stuff enough in that pretty creature.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+SUSPENSE.
+
+  'Where shall the traitor rest
+  He, the deceiver?'--SCOTT.
+
+
+Poor Miss Headworth's peace of mind was utterly destroyed.  That the
+niece whom she had nursed back to life and happiness, and brought to
+love her as a mother, should be at the mercy of a man whom she looked
+on as a heartless profligate, was dreadful to her beyond measure. And
+it involved Ursula's young life likewise?  Could it be a duty, after
+these eighteen years, to return to him?  What legal rights had he to
+enforce the resumption of the wife he had deserted.  'I will consult
+Mr. Dutton,' said the old lady to herself; 'Mr. Dutton is the only
+person who knows the particulars.  He will give me the best advice.'
+
+And while Miss Headworth, over her evening toilette, was coming to this
+resolution in one bedroom, Nuttie, in another, was standing aghast at
+her mother's agitation, and receiving a confession which filled her
+with astonishment.
+
+'I can't think why that gentleman should go and be so affectionate all
+on a sudden, 'quoth Nuttie;' if he is my cousin, and so fond of you,
+why couldn't he have come to see us before?'
+
+'Oh, Nuttie, dear, you don't understand why it is so good of him!  My
+dear, now this has come, I must tell you--you must hear--the sad thing
+your mother did.  Yes, my dear, I was their governess--and--and I did
+not--In short, my dear, I eloped.'
+
+'You, mother!  Oh what fun!' cried the girl in the utter extremity of
+wonder.
+
+'Nuttie!' exclaimed Mrs. Egremont, in a tone of horror and
+indignation--nay, of apprehension.
+
+'O mother--I didn't mean that!  But I can't get to believe it.  You,
+little mother mine, you that are so timid and bashful and quiet. That
+you--you should have done such a thing.'
+
+'Nuttie, my dear, can't you understand that such a thing would make me
+quiet?  I am always feeling when I see people, or they bring their
+daughters here.  "If they only knew--"'
+
+'No, no, no!  They would still see you were the sweetest dear.  But
+tell me all about it.  How very much in love you must have been!' said
+Nuttie, a magnificent vision of a young sailor with curly hair and open
+throat rising before her.
+
+'I think I was more frightened than in love,' faintly said Mrs.
+Egremont.  'At least I didn't know it was love, I thought he was only
+kind to me.'
+
+'But you liked it?' said Ursula magisterially.
+
+'I liked it, oh, I liked it!  It gave me a feeling such as nothing else
+ever did, but I never thought of its being love, he was so much older.'
+
+'Older!' exclaimed Nuttie, much taken aback.  'Oh! as old as Mr.
+Dutton?'
+
+'Mr. Dutton is thirty-six, I think.  Yes, he was older than that.'
+
+'Mother, how could you?'  For to be older than Mr. Dutton seemed to the
+youthful fancy to be near decrepitude; but she added, 'I suppose he was
+very noble, and had done great things.'
+
+'He was the grandest gentleman I ever saw, and had such, a manner,'
+said the mother, passing over the latter suggestion.  'Anyway, I never
+thought what it all meant--all alone with the children as I was--till I
+found people looking at me, and laughing at me, and then I heard Lady
+de Lyonnais and Mr. Egremont were coming down, very angry, to send me
+away.  I ought, I know it now, to have waited, for they would have
+written to my aunt.  But I was horribly frightened, and I couldn't bear
+to think of never seeing him again, and he came and comforted me, and
+said he would take me to Mrs. Houghton, the kind lady who was staying
+in the Ninon, and they would make it all square for me--and then--oh!
+it was very sweet--but I never knew that we were sailing away to Jersey
+to be married!  I knew it was very dreadful without any one's leave,
+but it was so noble of him to take the poor little governess and defend
+her, and it wasn't as if my mother had been alive.  I didn't know Aunt
+Ursel then as I did afterwards.  And Mrs. Houghton said there was
+nothing else to be done.'
+
+'O don't leave off, mother.  Do tell me.  How long did you have him?'
+
+'Six weeks then--and afterwards one fortnight at Dieppe.  He was not
+free.  He had an old uncle, General Egremont, who was sick and
+hot-tempered, and he was obliged to keep everything secret from him,
+and therefore from everybody else.  And so I was to live at Dieppe,
+while he went out to take care of his uncle, and you know--you know--'
+
+'Yes, I know, dear mother.  But I am sure he was saving somebody else,
+and it was a noble death!  And I know how Aunt Ursel came to Dieppe,
+and how I--your own little Frenchwoman--came to take care of you.  And
+haven't we been jolly without any of these fine relations that never
+looked after you all this time?  Besides, you know he is very likely to
+be on a lonely coral island, and will come home yet. I often think he
+is.'
+
+'My dear child, I have been happier than I deserved,' said Alice
+Egremont, drying her eyes.  'But oh! Nuttie, I hope you will be a wiser
+woman than your mother.'
+
+'Come, don't go on in that way!  Why, I've such advantages!  I've Miss
+Mary, and Aunt Ursel, and Mr. Spyers, and Mr. Dutton, and you, you poor
+little thing, had nobody!  One good thing is, we shall get the
+water-soldier.  Mr. Dutton needn't come, for he's like a cat, and won't
+soil his boots, but Gerard is dying to get another look at the old
+ruin.  He can't make up his mind about the cross on one of the
+stone-coffin lids, so he'll be delighted to come, and he'll get it out
+of the pond for us.  I wonder when we can go.  To-night is choir
+practice, and to-morrow is cutting-out day.'
+
+Miss Headworth was not sorry that the small sociabilities of the
+friends did not leave her alone with her niece all that evening, or the
+next day, when there was a grand cutting-out for the working party,--an
+operation always performed in the holidays.  Miss Headworth had of late
+years been excused from it, and it gave her the opportunity she wanted
+of a consultation with Mr. Dutton.  He was her prime adviser in
+everything, from her investments (such as they were) to the
+eccentricities of her timepieces; and as the cuckoo-clock had that
+night cuckooed all the hours round in succession, no one thought it
+wonderful that she should send a twisted note entreating him to call as
+early as he could in the afternoon.  Of course Nuttie's chatter had
+proclaimed the extraordinary visitors, and it needed not the old lady's
+dash under "on an anxious affair" to bring him to her little
+drawing-room as soon as he could quit his desk.  Perhaps he hastened
+his work with a hope in his heart which he durst not express, but the
+agitation on the usually placid face forbade him to entertain it for an
+instant, and he only said, 'So our expedition has led to unforeseen
+consequences, Miss Headworth.'  And then she answered under her breath,
+as if afraid of being overheard: 'Mr. Dutton, my poor child does not
+know it yet, but the man is alive!'
+
+Mr. Dutton compressed his lips.  It was the greater shock, for he had
+actually made inquiries at the Yacht Club, but the officials there
+either had not been made aware of the reappearance of the two
+Egremonts, or they did not think it worth while to look beyond the
+record which declared that all hands had perished, and the connection
+of the uncle and nephew with the Yacht Club had not been renewed.
+Presently he said, 'Then hers was a right instinct.  There is reason to
+be thankful.'
+
+Miss Headworth was too full of her own anxieties to heed his causes for
+thankfulness.  She told what she had heard from Lady Kirkaldy and from
+Mark Egremont, and asked counsel whether it could be Alice's duty to
+return to the man who had deserted her, or even to accept anything from
+him.  There was an impetuous and indignant spirit at the bottom of the
+old lady's heart, in spite of the subdued life she had led for so many
+years, and she hardly brooked the measured considerate manner in which
+her adviser declared that all depended on circumstances, and the manner
+in which Captain Egremont made the first move.  At present no one was
+acting but young Mark, and, as Mr. Dutton observed, it was not a matter
+in which a man was very likely to submit to a nephew's dictation.
+
+There was certainly no need for Mrs. Egremont to _force_ her presence
+on him.  But Mr. Dutton did think that for her own sake and her child's
+there ought to be full recognition of their rights, and that this
+should be proved by their maintenance.
+
+'I imagine that Ursula may probably be a considerable heiress, and her
+lights must not be sacrificed.'
+
+'Poor little girl!  Will it be for her happiness?  I doubt it greatly!'
+
+'Of that I suppose we have no right to judge,' said Mr. Dutton,
+somewhat tremulously. 'Justice is what we have to look to, and to allow
+Nuttie to be passed over would be permitting a slur to be cast on her
+and her mother.'
+
+'I see that,' said Miss Headworth, with an effort.  'I suppose I am
+after all a selfish, faithless old woman, and it is not in my hands
+after all.  But I must prepare my poor Alice for what may be coming.'
+
+'If any terms are offered to her, she had better put the matter into a
+lawyer's hands.  Dobson would be a safe man to deal with.'
+
+Miss Headworth was amazed that he--who had helped her in many a little
+question bordering on law--should not proffer his aid now in this
+greatest stress.  He was a resolute, self-controlled man, and she never
+guessed at the feeling that made him judge himself to be no fitting
+champion for Alice Egremont against her husband.  Ever since, ten years
+ago, he had learnt that his beautiful neighbour did not regard herself
+so certainly a widow as to venture to open her heart to any other love,
+he had lived patiently on, content to serve her as a trustworthy
+friend, and never betraying the secret hope so long cherished and now
+entirely crushed.
+
+He was relieved to escape from the interview, and the poor old lady
+remained a little more certain as to her duty perhaps, but with a
+certainty that only made her more unhappy, and she was so restless and
+nervous that, in the middle of the evening's reading of Archbishop
+Trench's Lectures on History, Alice suddenly broke off in the very
+middle of a sentence and exclaimed, 'Aunt Ursel! you are keeping
+something from me.'
+
+Miss Headworth made a faint attempt by saying something about
+presently, and glancing with her eyes to indicate that it was to be
+reserved till after Nuttie's bedtime, but the young lady comprehended
+the signs and exclaimed, 'Never mind me, Aunt Ursel,--I know all about
+mother; she told me last night.'
+
+'It is!' broke in Mrs. Egremont, who had been watching her aunt's face.
+'You have heard of _him_.'
+
+'Oh, my father!  You really have!' cried Nuttie.  'Then he really was
+on the desert island all this time; I was quite sure of it.  How
+delightful!'  She jumped up and looked at the door, as if she expected
+to see him appear that instant, clad in skins like Robinson Crusoe, but
+her aunt's nervous agitation found vent in a sharp reproof: 'Nuttie,
+hold your tongue, and don't be such a foolish child, or I shall send
+you out of the room this instant!'
+
+'But aunt?' gasped Alice, unable to bear the suspense.
+
+'Yes, my poor dear child.  Captain Egremont with the General got off
+with some of the crew in a boat when the Ninon was burnt.  He spent a
+good many years abroad with the old man, but he has now inherited the
+family place, and is living there.'  Miss Headworth felt as if she had
+fired a cannon and looked to see the effect.
+
+'Ah, if we could have stayed at Dieppe!' said Mrs. Egremont.  'But we
+did write back to say where we could be heard of.'
+
+'That was of no use.  Mark found no traces of us when he went thither.'
+
+'Did he send Mark?'
+
+'No.  My dear Alice, I must not conceal from you that this is all Mr.
+Mark Egremont's doing.  He seems to have been helping his uncle with
+his papers when he came on the evidence of your marriage, and,
+remembering you as he does, he forced the confession of it from the
+captain, and of his own accord set forth to discover what had become of
+you and to see justice done to you.'
+
+'Dear little Mark!' said she; 'he always was such an affectionate
+little boy.'
+
+'And now, my dear, you must consider how you will receive any advances
+on his part.'
+
+'Oh, Aunt Ursel, don't!  I can't talk now.  Please let me go to bed.
+Nuttie, dear, you need not come yet.'
+
+The desire for solitude, in which to realise what she had heard, was
+overpowering, and she fled away in the summer twilight, leaving Nuttie
+with wide open eyes, looking after her vanished hero and desert island.
+
+'My poor Alice!' sighed the old lady.
+
+'Aunt Ursel!' exclaimed Nuttie, 'was--I mean--is my father a good or a
+bad man?'
+
+'My dear, should a daughter ask such a question?'
+
+'Aunt Ursel, I can't help it.  I think I ought to know all about it,'
+said Nuttie gravely, putting away her childishness and sitting down by
+her aunt.  'I did not think so much of it when mother told me they
+eloped, because, though I know it was very wrong, people do do odd
+things sometimes when they are very much in love (she said it in a
+superior patronising tone that would have amused Miss Headworth very
+much at any other time); and it has not spoilt mother for being the
+dearest, sweetest, best thing in the world, and, besides, they had
+neither of them any fathers or mothers to disobey.  But, then, when I
+found he was so old, and that he kept it a secret, and must have told
+stories only for the sake of money (uttered with extreme contempt), I
+didn't like it.  And if he left her as Theseus left Ariadne, or Sir
+Lancelot left Elaine, I--I don't think it is nice.  Do you think he
+only pretended to be lost in the Ninon to get rid of her, or that he
+could not find her?'
+
+'The Ninon was really reported lost with all on board,' said Miss
+Headworth.  'That was ascertained.  He was saved by a Chilian ship, and
+seems to have been a good while making his way back to Europe.  I had
+taken care that our address should be known at Dieppe, but it is quite
+possible that he may not have applied to the right people, or that they
+may not have preserved my letter, so that we cannot feel sore that he
+was to blame.'
+
+'If he had been worth anything at all, he would have moved heaven and
+earth to find her!' cried Nuttie; 'and you said yourself it was all
+_that_ Mark's doing!'
+
+'He seems to be a very upright and generous young man, that Mr. Mark
+Egremont,' said Miss Headworth, a whole romance as to Nuttie's future
+destiny sweeping across her mind in an instant, with a mental
+dispensation to first cousins in such a case.  'I think you will find
+him a staunch champion even against his own interests.'
+
+Perceptions came across Nuttie.  'Oh, then I am a sort of lost heiress,
+like people in a story!  I see!  But, Aunt Ursel, what do you think
+will happen?'
+
+'My dear child, I cannot guess in the least.  Perhaps the Egremont
+property will not concern you, and only go to male heirs.  That would
+be the best thing, since in any case you must be sufficiently provided
+for.  Your father must do that.'
+
+'But about mother?'
+
+'A proper provision must be insisted on for her,' said Miss Headworth.
+'It is no use, however, to speculate on the future.  We cannot guess
+how Mr. Mark Egremont's communication will be received, or whether any
+wish will be expressed for your mother's rejoining your father.  In
+such a case the terms must be distinctly understood, and I have full
+trust both in Mr. Mark and in Lady Kirkaldy as her champions to see
+that justice is done to you both.'
+
+'I'm sure he doesn't deserve that mother should go to him.'
+
+'Nor do I expect that he will wish it, or that it would be proper; but
+he is bound to give her a handsome maintenance, and I think most
+probably you will be asked to stay with your uncle and cousins,' said
+Miss Headworth, figuring to herself a kind of Newstead Abbey or some
+such scene of constant orgies at Bridgefield Egremont.
+
+'I shall accept nothing from the family that does not include mother,'
+said Nuttie.
+
+'Dear child, I foresee many trials, but you must be her protector.'
+
+'That I will,' said Nuttie; and in the gallant purpose she went to bed,
+to find her mother either asleep or feigning slumber with tears on her
+cheek.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE WATER-SOLDIER.
+
+  'Presumptuous maid, with looks intent,
+  Again she stretched, again she bent,
+  Nor knew the gulf between.'--GRAY.
+
+
+It all seemed like a dream to Ursula, perhaps likewise to her mother,
+when they rose to the routine of daily life with the ordinary interests
+of the day before them.  There was a latent unwillingness in Mrs.
+Egremont's mind to discuss the subject with either aunt or daughter;
+and when the post brought no letter, Ursula, after a moment's sense of
+flatness, was relieved, and returned to her eager desire to hurry after
+the water-soldier.  It was feasible that very afternoon.  Mary Nugent
+came in with the intelligence.
+
+'And can Gerard come? or we shall only look at it.'
+
+'Yes, Gerard can come, and so will Mr. Dutton,' said Mary, who,
+standing about half-way between Mrs. Egremont and her daughter, did not
+think herself quite a sufficient chaperon.
+
+'He will look on like a hen at her ducklings,' said Nuttie.  'It is
+cruel to take him, poor man!'
+
+'Meantime, Nuttie, do you like an hour of "Marie Stuart?"'
+
+'Oh, thank you!'  But she whispered, 'Aunt Ursel, may I tell her?'
+
+'Ask your mother, my dear.'
+
+Leave was given, half reluctantly, and with a prohibition against
+mentioning the subject to any one else, but both mother and aunt had
+confidence in Mary Nugent's wisdom and discretion, so the two friends
+sat on the wall together, and Ursula poured out her heart.  Poor little
+girl! she was greatly discomfited at the vanishing of her noble vision
+of the heroic self-devoted father, and ready on the other hand to
+believe him a villain, like Bertram Risingham, or 'the Pirate,' being
+possessed by this idea on account of his West Indian voyages.  At any
+rate, she was determined not to be accepted or acknowledged without her
+mother, and was already rehearsing magnanimous letters of refusal.
+
+Miss Mary listened and wondered, feeling sometimes as if this were as
+much a romance as the little yacht going down with the burning ship;
+and then came back the recollection that there was a real fact that
+Nuttie had a father, and that it was entirely uncertain what part he
+might take, or what the girl might be called on to do.  Considering
+anxiously these bearings of the question, she scarcely heard what she
+was required to assent to, in one of Nuttie's eager, 'Don't you think
+so?'
+
+'My dear Nuttie,' she said, rousing herself, 'what I do think is that
+it will all probably turn out exactly contrariwise to our imaginations,
+so I believe it would be wisest to build up as few fancies as possible,
+but only to pray that you may have a right judgment in all things, and
+have strength to do what is right, whatever you may see that to be.'
+
+'And of course that will be to stick by mother.'
+
+'There can be little doubt of that, but the how?  No, dear, do not let
+us devise all sorts of _hows_ when we have nothing to go upon. That
+would be of no use, and only perplex you when the time comes. It would
+be much better to "do the nexte thinge," and read our "Marie Stuart."'
+
+Nuttie pouted a little, but submitted, though she now and then broke
+into a translation with 'You know mother will never stand up for
+herself,' or 'They think I shall be asked to stay with the Egremonts,
+but I must work up for the exam.'
+
+However, the school habit of concentrating her attention prevailed, and
+the study quieted Nuttie's excitement.  The expedition took place as
+arranged.  There was a train which stopped so that the party could go
+down by it, and the distance was not too great for walking back.
+
+Mr. Dutton met them on the platform, well armed with his neat silk
+umbrella, and his black poodle, Monsieur, trotting solemnly after him.
+Gerard Godfrey bore materials for an exact transcript of the Abbot's
+monumental cross, his head being full of church architecture, while
+Nuttie carried a long green tin case, or vasculum as she chose to call
+it, with her three vowels, U A E, and the stars of the Little Bear
+conspicuously painted on it in white.
+
+'You did not venture on that the other day,' said Mr. Dutton.  'How
+much of the park do you mean to carry away in it?'
+
+'Let me take it,' said Gerard politely.
+
+'No, thank you.  You'd leave it behind, while you were pottering over
+the mouldings.'
+
+'You are much more likely to leave it behind yourself.'
+
+'What--with my soldier, my Stratiotes, in it?  I think I see myself.'
+
+'Give it to me,' said Gerard.  'Of course I can't see you carrying a
+great thing like that.'
+
+'Can't you, indeed?'
+
+'Gently, gently, my dear,' said Miss Mary, as the young people seemed
+very near a skirmish, and the train was sweeping up.  Then there was
+another small scuffle, for Nuttie had set her heart on the third class;
+but Mr. Dutton had taken second-class tickets, and was about to hand
+them into a carriage whence there had just emerged a very supercilious
+black-moustached valet, who was pulling out a leather-covered
+dressing-case, while Gerard was consoling Nuttie by telling her that
+Monsieur never deigned to go third class.
+
+'It is a smoking carriage,' said Miss Nugent, on the step.  'Pah! how
+it smells,' as she jumped back.
+
+'Beautiful backy--a perfect nosegay,' said Gerard.
+
+'Trust that fellow for having the best.'
+
+'His master's, no doubt,' suggested Mr. Dutton.
+
+'You'd better go in it, to enjoy his reversion,' said Nuttie.
+
+'And where's my escort, then?'
+
+'Oh, I'm sure we don't want you.'
+
+'Nuttie, my dear,' expostulated Miss Nugent, dragging her into the next
+carriage.
+
+'You may enjoy the fragrance still,' said Nuttie when seated.  'Do you
+see--there's the man's master; he has stood him up against that post,
+with his cigar, to wait while he gets out the luggage.  I daresay you
+can get a whiff if you lean out far enough.'
+
+'I say! that figure is a study!' said Gerard.  'What is it that he is
+so like?'
+
+'Oh! I know,' said Nuttie.  'It is Lord Frederick Verisopht, and the
+bad gentlefolks in the pictures to the old numbers of Dickens that you
+have got, Miss Mary.  Now, isn't he?  Look! only Lord Frederick wasn't
+fat.'
+
+Nuttie was in a state of excitement that made her peculiarly
+unmanageable, and Miss Nugent was very grateful to Mr. Dutton for his
+sharp though general admonition against staring, while, under pretext
+of disposing of the umbrella and the vasculum, he stood up, so as to
+block the window till they were starting.
+
+There was no one else to observe them but a demure old lady, and in ten
+minutes' time they were in open space, where high spirits might work
+themselves off, though the battle over the botanical case was ended by
+Miss Nugent, who strongly held that ladies should carry their own extra
+encumbrances, and slung it with a scarf over Nuttie's shoulders in a
+knowing knapsack fashion.
+
+The two young people had known one another all their lives, for Gerard
+was the son of a medical man who had lived next door to Miss Headworth
+when the children were young.  The father was dead, and the family had
+left the place, but this son had remained at school, and afterwards had
+been put into the office at the umbrella factory under charge of Mr.
+Dutton, whose godson he was, and who treated him as a nephew.  He was a
+good-hearted, steady young fellow, with his whole interest in
+ecclesiastical details, wearing a tie in accordance with 'the colours,'
+and absorbed in church music and decorations, while his recreations
+were almost all in accordance therewith.
+
+There was plenty of merriment, as he drew and measured at the very
+scanty ruins, which were little more than a few fragments of wall,
+overgrown luxuriantly with ivy and clematis, but enclosing some fine
+old coffin-lids with floriated crosses, interesting to those who cared
+for architecture and church history, as Mr. Dutton tried to make the
+children do, so that their ecclesiastical feelings might be less
+narrow, and stand on a surer foundation than present interest, a
+slightly aggressive feeling of contempt for all the other town
+churches, and a pleasing sense of being persecuted.
+
+They fought over the floriations and mouldings with great zest, and
+each maintained a date with youthful vigour--both being, as Mr. Dutton
+by and by showed them, long before the foundation.  The pond had been
+left to the last with a view to the wellbeing of the water-soldier on
+the return.  Here the difficulties of the capture were great, for the
+nearest plant flourished too far from the bank to be reached with
+comfort, and besides, the sharp-pointed leaves to which it owes its
+name were not to be approached with casual grasps.
+
+'Oh Monsieur, I wish you were a Beau,' sighed Nuttie.  'Why, are you
+too stupid to go and get it?'
+
+'It is a proof of his superior intelligence,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'But really it is too ridiculous--too provoking--to have come all this
+way and not get it,' cried the tantalised Nuttie.  'Oh, Gerard, are you
+taking off your boots and stockings?  You duck!'
+
+'Just what I wish I was,' said the youth, rolling up his trousers.
+
+But even the paddling in did not answer.  Mr. Dutton called out
+anxiously, 'Take care, Gerard, the bottom may be soft,' and came down
+to the very verge just in time to hold out his hand, and prevent an
+utterly disastrous fall, for Gerard, in spite of his bare feet, sank at
+once into mud, and on the first attempt to take a step forward, found
+his foot slipping away from under him, and would in another instant
+have tumbled backwards into the slush and weeds.  He scrambled back,
+his hat falling off into the reeds, and splashing Mr. Dutton all over,
+while Monsieur began to bark 'with astonishment at seeing his master in
+such a plight,' declared the ladies, who stood convulsed with cruel
+laughter.
+
+'Isn't it dreadful?' exclaimed Ursula.
+
+'Well!  It might have been worse,' gravely said Mr. Dutton, wiping off
+the more obnoxious of his splashes with his pocket handkerchief.
+
+'Oh I didn't mean you, but the water-soldier,' said Nuttie.  'To have
+come five miles for it in vain!'
+
+'I don't know what to suggest,' added Gerard.  'Even if the ladies were
+to retire--'
+
+'No, no,' interposed Mr. Dutton, ''tis no swimming ground, and I forbid
+the expedient.  You would only be entangled in the weeds.'
+
+'Behold!' exclaimed Mary, who had been prowling about the banks, and
+now held up in triumph one of the poles with a bill-hook at the end
+used for cutting weed.
+
+'Bravo, Miss Nugent!' cried Gerard.
+
+'Female wit has circumvented the water-soldier,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Don't cry out too soon,' returned Mary; 'the soldier may float off and
+escape you yet.'
+
+However, the capture was safely accomplished, without even a dip under
+water to destroy the beauty of the white flowers.  With these, and a
+few waterlilies secured by Gerard for the morrow's altar vases, the
+party set out on their homeward walk, through plantations of whispering
+firs, the low sun tingeing the trunks with ruddy light; across heathery
+commons, where crimson heath abounded, and the delicate blush-coloured
+wax-belled species was a prize; by cornfields in ear hanging out their
+dainty stamens; along hedges full of exquisite plumes of feathering or
+nodding grass, of which Nuttie made bouquets and botanical studies, and
+Gerard stored for harvest decorations.  They ran and danced on together
+with Monsieur at their heels, while the elders watched them with some
+sadness and anxiety. Free-masonry had soon made both Mary and Mr.
+Dutton aware of each other's initiation, and they had discussed the
+matter in all its bearings, agreed that the man was a scoundrel, and
+the woman an angel, even if she had once been weak, and that she ought
+to be very resolute with him if he came to terms.  And then they looked
+after their young companions, and Mr. Dutton said, 'Poor children, what
+is before them?'
+
+'It is well they are both so young,' answered Mary.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THAT MAN.
+
+  'It is the last time--'tis the last!'--SCOTT.
+
+
+Sundays were the ever-recurring centres of work and interests to the
+little circle in St. Ambrose's Road.  To them the church services and
+the various classes and schools were the great objects and excitements
+of the week.  A certain measure of hopeful effort and varying success
+is what gives zest to life, and the purer and higher the aim, and the
+more unmixed the motives, the greater the happiness achieved by the
+'something attempted, something done.'
+
+Setting apart actual spiritual devotion, the altar vases, purchased by
+a contribution of careful savings, and adorned with the Monks Horton
+lilies, backed by ferns from the same quarter; the surplices made by
+the ladies themselves, the chants they had practised, the hymns they
+had taught, could not but be much more interesting to them than if they
+had been mere lookers on.  Every cross on the markers, every flower on
+the altar cloth was the work of one or other of them; everything in the
+church was an achievement, and choir boys, school children, Bible
+classes, every member of the regular congregation, had some special
+interest; nay, every irregular member or visitor might be a convert in
+time--if not a present sympathiser, and at the very least might swell
+the offertory that was destined to so many needs of the struggling
+district.
+
+Thus it was with some curiosity mingled with self-reproach that Nuttie,
+while singing her Benedictus among the tuneful shop-girls, to whom she
+was bound to set an example, became aware of yesterday's first-class
+traveller lounging, as far as the rows of chairs would permit, in the
+aisle, and, as she thought, staring hard at her mother.  It was well
+that Mrs. Egremont's invariable custom was never to lift her eyes from
+her book or her harmonium, or she surely must have been disconcerted,
+her daughter thought, by the eyes that must have found her out, under
+her little black net bonnet and veil, as the most beautiful woman in
+church,--as she certainly was,--even that fine good-for-nothing
+gentleman thinking so.  Nuttie would add his glances to the glories of
+her lovely mother!
+
+And she did so, with triumph in her tone of reprobation, as she trotted
+off, after the early dinner, to her share of Sunday-school work as
+usual under Miss Nugent's wing.  It began with a children's service,
+and then ensued, in rooms at the factory, lent by Mr. Dutton, the
+teaching that was to supply the omissions of the Board School; the
+establishment of a voluntary one being the next ambition of St.
+Ambrose's.
+
+Coming home from their labours, in the fervent discussion of their
+scholars, and exchanging remarks and greetings with the other teachers
+of various calibres, the friends reached their own road, and there, to
+their amazement, beheld Miss Headworth.
+
+'Yes, it really is!' cried Nuttie.  'We can't be too late?  No--there's
+no bell!  Aunt Ursel!  What has brought you out?  What's the matter?
+Where's mother?'
+
+'In the house.  My dear,' catching hold of her, and speaking
+breathlessly, 'I came out to prepare you.  He is come--your father--'
+
+'Where?' cried Nuttie, rather wildly.
+
+'He is in the drawing-room with your mother.  I said I would send you.'
+Poor Miss Headworth gasped with agitation.  'Oh! where's Mr.
+Dutton--not that anything can be done--'
+
+'Is it _that man_?' asked Nuttie, and getting no answer, 'I know it is!
+Oh Aunt Ursel, how could you leave her with him?  I must go and protect
+her.  Gerard--come.  No, go and fetch Mr. Dutton.'
+
+'Hush! hush, Nuttie,' cried her aunt, grasping her.  'You know nothing
+about it.  Wait here till I can tell you.'
+
+'Come in here, dear Miss Headworth,' said Mary, gently drawing her arm
+into hers, for the poor old lady could hardly stand for trembling, and
+bidding Gerard open the door of her own house with the latch-key.
+
+She took them into the dining-room, so as not to disturb her mother,
+sent Gerard off after Mr. Dutton in the very uttermost astonishment and
+bewilderment, and set Miss Headworth down in an easy-chair, where she
+recovered herself, under Mary's soothing care, enough to tell her story
+in spite of Nuttie's exclamations.  'Wait! wait, Nuttie!  You mustn't
+burst in on them so!  No, you need not be afraid.  Don't be a silly
+child!  He won't hurt her!  Oh no!  They are quite delighted to meet.'
+
+'Delighted to meet?' said Nuttie, as if transfixed.
+
+'Yes,' said her aunt.  'Oh yes, I always knew the poor child cared for
+him and tried to believe in him all along.  He only had to say the
+word.'
+
+'I wouldn't,' cried the girl, her eyes flashing.  'Why didn't you ask
+him how he could desert her and leave her?'
+
+'My dear! how can one come between husband and wife?  Oh, my poor
+Alice!'
+
+'How was it, how did they meet, dear Miss Headworth?' asked Mary,
+administering the wine she had been pouring out.
+
+'You hadn't been gone half an hour, Alice was reading to me, and I was
+just dozing, when in came Louisa.  "A gentleman to see Mrs. Egremont,"
+she said, and there he was just behind.  We rose up--she did not know
+him at once, but he just said "Edda, my little Edda, sweeter than ever,
+I knew you at once," or something of that sort, and she gave one little
+cry of "I knew you would come," and sprang right into his arms.
+I--well, I meant to make him understand how he had treated her, but
+just as I began "Sir"--he came at me with his hand outstretched--'
+
+'You didn't take it, aunt, I hope?' cried Nuttie.
+
+'My dear, when you see him, you will know how impossible it is.  He
+_has_ that high-bred manner it is as if he were conferring a favour.
+"Miss Headworth, I conclude," said he, "a lady to whom I owe more than
+I can express."  Just as if I had done it for his sake.'  Miss Nugent
+felt this open expression dangerous on account of the daughter, and she
+looked her consternation at Mr. Dutton, who had quietly entered,
+ruthlessly shutting Gerard Godfrey out with only such a word of
+explanation as could be given on the way.
+
+'Then he comes with--with favourable intentions,' said Mary, putting as
+much admonition as she could into her voice.
+
+'Oh! no doubt of that,' said Miss Headworth, drawing herself together.
+'He spoke of the long separation,--said he had never been able to find
+her, till the strange chance of his nephew stumbling on her at Abbots
+Norton.'
+
+'That is--possib--probably true,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'It can't be,' broke in Nuttie.  'He never troubled himself about it
+till his nephew found the papers.  You said so, Aunt Ursel!  He is a
+dreadful traitor of a man, just like Marmion, or Theseus, or Lancelot,
+and now he is telling lies about it!  Don't look at me. Aunt Ursel,
+they are lies, and I _will_ say it, and he took in poor dear mother
+once, and now he is taking her in again, and I can't bear that he
+should be my father!'
+
+It was so entirely true, yet so shocking to hear from her mouth, that
+all three stood aghast, as she stood with heaving chest, crimson
+cheeks, and big tears in her eyes.  Miss Headworth only muttered, 'Oh,
+my poor child, you mustn't!'
+
+Mr. Dutton prevented another passionate outburst by his tone of grave,
+gentle authority.  'Listen a moment, Ursula,' he said.  'It is
+unhappily true that this man has acted in an unjustifiable way towards
+your mother and yourself.  But there are, no doubt, many more excuses
+for him than you know of, and as I found a few years ago that the
+people at Dieppe had lost the address that had been left with them, he
+must have found no traces of your mother there.  You cannot understand
+the difficulties that may have been in his way.  And there is no use,
+quite the contrary, in making the worst of him.  He has found your
+mother out, and it seems that he claims her affectionately, and she
+forgives and welcomes him--out of the sweet tenderness of her heart.'
+
+'She may--but I can't,' murmured Nuttie.
+
+'That is not a fit thing for a daughter, nor a Christian, to say,' Mr.
+Dutton sternly said.
+
+''Tis not for myself--'tis for her,--'objected Nuttie.
+
+'That's nonsense; a mere excuse,' he returned.  'You have nothing at
+all to forgive, since he did not know you were in existence.  And as to
+your mother, whom you say you put first, what greater grief or pain can
+you give her than by showing enmity and resentment against her husband,
+when she, the really injured person, loves and forgives?'
+
+'He's a bad man.  If she goes back to him, I know he will make her
+unhappy--'
+
+'You don't know any such thing, but you do know that your opposition
+will make her unhappy.  Remember, there's no choice in the matter. He
+has legal rights over you both, and since he shows himself ready (as I
+understand from Miss Headworth that he is) to give her and you your
+proper position, you have nothing to do but to be thankful.  I think
+myself that it is a great subject of thankfulness that your mother can
+return so freely without any bitterness.  It is the blessing of such as
+she--'
+
+Nuttie stood pouting, but more thoughtful and less violent, as she
+said, 'How can I be thankful?  I don't want position or anything.  I
+only want him to let my--my own mother, and aunt, and me alone.'
+
+'Child, you are talking of what you do not understand.  You must not
+waste any more time in argument.  Your mother has sent for you, and it
+is your duty to go and let her introduce you to your father.  I have
+little doubt that you will find him very unlike all your imagination
+represents him, but let that be as it may, the fifth Commandment does
+not say, "Honour only thy good father," but, "Honour thy father."  Come
+now, put on your gloves--get her hat right, if you please, Miss Mary.
+There--now, come along, be a reasonable creature, and a good girl, and
+do not give unnecessary pain and vexation to your mother.'  He gave her
+his arm, and led her away.
+
+'Well done, Mr. Dutton!' exclaimed Miss Nugent.
+
+'Poor Mr. Dutton!'  All Aunt Ursel's discretion could not suppress that
+sigh, but Mary prudently let it pass unnoticed, only honouring in her
+heart the unselfishness and self-restraint of the man whose long,
+patient, unspoken hopes had just received a death-blow.
+
+'Oh, Mary!  I never thought it would have been like this!' cried the
+poor old lady.  'I ought not to have spoken as I did before the child,
+but I was so taken by surprise!  Alice turned to him just as if he had
+been the most faithful, loving husband in the world.  She is believing
+every word he says.'
+
+'It is very happy for her that she can,' pleaded Mary.
+
+'So it is, yes, but--when one knows what he is, and what she is!  Oh,
+Mr. Dutton, is the poor child gone in?'
+
+'Yes, I saw her safe into the room.  She was very near running off up
+the stairs,' said Mr. Dutton.  'But I daresay she is fascinated by this
+time.  That sort of man has great power over women.'
+
+'Nuttie is hardly a woman yet,' said Miss Nugent.
+
+'No, but there must be a strong reaction, when she sees something
+unlike her compound of Marmion and Theseus.'
+
+'I suppose there is no question but that they must go with him!' said
+Miss Headworth wistfully.
+
+'Assuredly.  You say he--this Egremont--was affectionate,' said Mr.
+Dutton quietly, but Mary saw his fingers white with his tight clenching
+of the bar of the chair.
+
+'Oh yes, warmly affectionate, delighted to find her prettier than ever,
+poor dear; I suppose he meant it.  Heaven forgive me, if I am judging
+him too hardly, but I verily believe he went to church to reconnoitre,
+and see whether she pleased his fancy--'
+
+'And do you understand,' added Mr. Dutton, 'that he is prepared to do
+her full justice, and introduce her to his family and friends as his
+wife, on equal terms?  Otherwise, even if she were unwilling to stand
+up for herself, it would be the duty of her friends to make some
+stipulations.'
+
+'I am pretty sure that he does,' said the aunt; 'I did not stay long
+when I saw that I was not wanted, but I heard him say something about
+his having a home for her now, and her cutting out the Redcastle
+ladies.'
+
+'Besides, there is the nephew, Mr. Mark Egremont,' said Mary.  'He will
+take care of her.'
+
+'Yes,' said Mr. Dutton.  'It appears to be all right.  At any rate,
+there can be no grounds for interference on our part.'
+
+Mr. Dutton took his leave with these words, wringing Miss Headworth's
+hand in mute sympathy, and she, poor old lady, when he was gone, fairly
+collapsed into bitter weeping over the uncertain future of those whom
+she had loved as her own children, and who now must leave her desolate.
+Mary did her best with comfort and sympathy, and presently took her to
+share her griefs and fears with gentle old Mrs. Nugent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE FATHER.
+
+  'I do think this lady
+  To be my child.'--King Lear.
+
+
+Nuttie, in her fresh holland Sunday dress, worked in crewels with wild
+strawberries by her mother's hands, and with a white-trimmed straw hat,
+was almost shoved into the little drawing-room by Mr. Dutton, though he
+was himself invisible.
+
+Her eyes were in such a daze of tears that she hardly saw more at first
+than that some one was there with her mother on the sofa.  'Ah, there
+she is!' she heard her mother cry, and both rose.  Her mother's arm was
+round her waist, her hand was put into another, Mrs. Egremont's voice,
+tremulous with exceeding delight, said, 'Our child, our Ursula, our
+Nuttie!  Oh, this is what I have longed for all these years!  Oh,
+thanks, thanks!' and her hands left her daughter to be clasped and
+uplifted for a moment in fervent thanksgiving, while Nuttie's hand was
+held, and a strange hairy kiss, redolent of tobacco-smoking, was on her
+forehead--a masculine one, such as she had never known, except her
+cousin Mark's, since the old rector died, and she had grown too big for
+Mr. Dutton's embraces.  It was more strange than delightful, and yet
+she felt the polish of the tone that said, 'We make acquaintance
+somewhat late, Ursula, but better late than never.'
+
+She looked up at this new father, and understood instantly what she had
+heard of his being a grand gentleman.  There was a high-bred look about
+him, an entire ease and perfect manner that made everything he did or
+said seem like gracious condescension, and took away the power of
+questioning it at the moment.  He was not above the middle size, and
+was becoming unwieldy; but there was something imposing and even
+graceful in his deportment, and his bald narrow forehead looked
+aristocratic, set off between side tufts of white hair, white whiskers,
+and moustaches waxed into sharp points, Victor Emmanuel fashion, and a
+round white curly beard.  His eyes were dark, and looked dull, with
+yellow unwholesome corners, and his skin was not of a pleasant colour,
+but still, with all Nuttie's intentions of regarding him with horror,
+she was subdued, partly by the grand breeding and air of distinction,
+and partly by the current of sympathy from her mother's look of perfect
+happiness and exultation. She could not help feeling it a favour,
+almost an undeserved favour, that so great a personage should say, 'A
+complete Egremont, I see. She has altogether the family face.'
+
+'I am so glad you think so,' returned her mother.
+
+'On the whole it is well, but she might have done better to resemble
+you, Edda,' he said caressingly; 'but perhaps that would have been too
+much for the Earlsforth natives.  William's girls will have enough to
+endure without a double eclipse!' and he laughed.
+
+'I--I don't want--' faltered the mother.
+
+'You don't want, no, but you can't help it,' he said, evidently with a
+proud delight in her beauty.  'Now that I have seen the child,' he
+added, 'I will make my way back to the hotel.'
+
+'Will you--won't you stay to tea or dinner?' said his wife, beginning
+with an imploring tone which hesitated as she reviewed possible chops
+and her aunt's dismay.
+
+'Thank you, I have ordered dinner at the hotel,' he answered, 'and
+Gregorio is waiting for me with a cab.  No doubt you will wish to make
+arrangements with Madame--the old lady--and I will not trouble her
+further to-night.  I will send down Gregorio to-morrow morning, to tell
+you what I arrange.  An afternoon train, probably, as we shall go no
+farther than London.  You say Lady Kirkaldy called on you.  We might
+return her visit before starting, but I will let you know when I have
+looked at the trains.  My compliments to Miss Headworth.  Good evening,
+sweetest.'  He held his wife in a fond embrace, kissing her brow and
+cheeks and letting her cling to him, then added, 'Good evening, little
+one,' with a good-natured careless gesture with which Nuttie was quite
+content, for she had a certain loathing of the caresses that so charmed
+her mother.  And yet the command to make ready had been given with such
+easy authority that the idea of resisting it had never even entered her
+mind, though she stood still while her mother went out to the door with
+him and watched him to the last.
+
+Coming back, she threw her arms round her daughter, kissed her again
+and again, and, with showers of the glad tears long repressed, cried,
+'Oh, my Nuttie, my child, what joy!  How shall I be thankful enough!
+Your father, your dear father!  Now it is all right.'  Little sentences
+of ecstasy such as these, interspersed with caresses, all in the
+incoherence of overpowering delight, full of an absolute faith that the
+lost husband had loved her and been pining for her all these years, but
+that he had been unable to trace her, and was as happy as she was in
+the reunion.
+
+The girl was somewhat bewildered, but she was carried along by this
+flood of exceeding joy and gladness.  The Marmion and Theseus images
+had been dispelled by the reality, and, with Mr. Dutton's sharp reproof
+fresh upon her, she felt herself to have been doing a great injustice
+to her father; believed all that her mother did, and found herself the
+object of a romantic recognition--if not the beggar girl become a
+princess, at any rate, the little school-teacher a county lady!  And
+she had never seen her mother so wildly, overpoweringly happy with joy.
+That made her, too, feel that something grand and glorious had happened.
+
+'What are we going to do?' she asked, as the vehemence of Mrs.
+Egremont's emotion began to work itself off.
+
+'Home!  He takes us to his home!  _His_ home!' repeated her mother, in
+a trance of joy, as the yearnings of her widowed heart now were
+fulfilled.
+
+'Oh, but Aunt Ursel!'
+
+'Poor Aunt Ursel!  Oh, Nuttie, Nuttie, I had almost forgotten!  How
+could I?' and there was a shower of tears of compunction.  'But he said
+he owed everything to her!  She will come with us!  Or if she doesn't
+live with us, we will make her live close by in a dear little cottage.
+Where is she?  When did she go?  I never saw her go.'
+
+The sound of the front door was heard, for the visitor had been watched
+away and Miss Headworth was returning to her own house to be there
+received with another fervent gush of happiness, much more trying to
+her, poor thing, than to Nuttie.
+
+There was evensong imminent, and the most needful act at the moment was
+to compose the harmonium-player sufficiently for her to take her part.
+Miss Headworth was really glad of the necessity, since it put off the
+discussion, and made a reason for silencing Nuttie until all should be
+more recovered from the first agitation.  Alice Egremont herself was
+glad to carry her gratitude and thankfulness to the Throne of Grace,
+and in her voluntary, and all her psalms, there was an exulting strain
+that no one had thought the instrument capable of producing, and that
+went to the heart of more than one of her hearers.  No one who knew her
+could doubt that hers was simply innocent exultation in the recovery of
+him whom she so entirely loved and confided in.  But there could not
+but be terrible doubts whether he were worthy of that trust, and what
+the new page in her life would be.
+
+Miss Headworth had said they would not talk till after church, but
+there was no deferring the matter then.  She was prepared, however,
+when her niece came up to her in a tender deprecating manner, saying,
+'Aunt Ursel, dear Aunt Ursel, it does seem very ungrateful, but--'
+
+'He is going to take you away?  Yes, I saw that.  And it ought to be,
+my dear.  You know where?'
+
+'Yes; to London first, to be fitted out, and then to his own home. To
+Bridgefield Egremont.  I shall have to see Mr. Egremont,' and her voice
+sank with shame.  'But Mark will be good to me, and why should I care
+when I have him.'
+
+'It is quite right. I am glad it should be so,' firmly said the old
+lady.
+
+'And yet to leave you so suddenly.'
+
+'That can't be helped.'
+
+'And it will only be for a little while,' she added, 'till you can make
+arrangements to come to us.  My dear husband says he owes you
+everything.  So you must be with us, or close to us.'
+
+'My dear, it's very dear and good of you to think of it, but I must be
+independent.'  She put it in those words, unwilling again to speak
+unguardedly before Nuttie.
+
+'Oh, dear auntie, indeed you must!  Think what you are to us, and what
+you have done for us.  We can't go away to be happy and prosperous and
+leave you behind.  Can we, Nuttie?  Come and help me to get her to
+promise.  Do--do dearest auntie,' and she began the coaxing and
+caressing natural to her, but Nuttie did not join in it, and Miss
+Headworth shook her head and said gravely--
+
+'Don't, Alice.  It is of no use.  I tell you once for all that my mind
+is made up.'
+
+Alice, knowing by long experience that, when her aunt spoke in that
+tone, persuasion was useless, desisted, but looked at her in
+consternation, with eyes swimming in tears.  Nuttie understood her a
+little better, and felt the prickings of distrust again.
+
+'But, aunt, dear aunt, how can we leave you?  What will you do with all
+the boarders,' went on Mrs. Egremont.
+
+'I shall see my way, my dear.  Do not think about that.  It is a great
+thing to see you and this child receive justice.'
+
+'And only think, after all the hard things that have been said of him,
+that we should meet first at church!  He would not wait and send
+letters and messages by Mark.  You see he came down himself the first
+moment.  I always knew he would.  Only I am so sorry for him, that he
+should have lost all those sweet years when Nuttie was a tiny child.
+She must do all she can to make up to him.'
+
+'Oh dear!' broke out Nuttie.  'It is so strange!  It will be all so
+strange!'
+
+'It will be a very new life,' said her aunt, rather didactically; 'but
+you must do your best to be a good daughter, and to fill your new
+position, and I have no doubt you will enjoy it.'
+
+'If I could but take all with me!' said Nuttie.  'Oh dear! whatever
+will you do, Aunt Ursel?  Oh mother, the choir!  Who will play the
+harmonium? and who will lead the girls? and whatever will Mr. Spyers
+do? and who will take my class?  Mother, couldn't we stay a little
+longer to set things going here?'
+
+'It is nice of you to have thought of it, my dear,' said Mrs. Egremont,
+'but your father would not like to stay on here.'
+
+'But mightn't I stay, just a few days, mother, to wish everybody
+good-bye?  Mr. Dutton, and Miss Mary, and Gerard, and all the girls?'
+
+There was some consolation in this plan, and the three women rested on
+it that night, Mrs. Egremont recovering composure enough to write three
+or four needful notes, explaining her sudden departure.  The aunt could
+not talk of a future she so much dreaded for her nieces, losing in it
+the thought of her own loneliness; Alice kept back her own loving,
+tender, undoubting joy with a curious sense that it was hard and
+ungrateful towards the aunt; but it was impossible to think of that,
+and Nuttie was in many moods.
+
+Eager anticipation of the new unseen world beyond, exultation in
+finding herself somebody, sympathy with her mother's happiness, all had
+their share, but they made her all the wilder, because they were far
+from unmixed.  The instinctive dislike of Mr. Egremont's countenance,
+and doubt of his plausible story, which had vanished before his
+presence, and her mother's faith, returned upon her from time to time,
+caught perhaps from her aunt's tone and looks.  Then her aunt had been
+like a mother to her--her own mother much more like a sister, and the
+quitting her was a wrench not compensated for as in Mrs. Egremont's
+case by a more absorbing affection.  Moreover, Nuttie felt sure that
+poor Gerard Godfrey would break his heart.  As the mother and daughter
+for the last time lay down together in the room that had been theirs
+through the seventeen years of the girl's life, Alice fell asleep with
+a look of exquisite peace and content on her face, feeling her long
+term of trial crowned by unlooked-for joy, while Ursula, though
+respecting her slumbers too much to move, lay with wide-open eyes, now
+speculating on the strange future, now grieving over those she
+left--Aunt Ursel, Gerard, Mary, and all such; the schemes from which
+she was snatched, and then again consoling herself with the hope that,
+since she was going to be rich, she could at once give all that was
+wanted--the white altar cloth, the brass pitcher--nay, perhaps finish
+the church and build the school!  For had not some one said something
+about her position?  Oh yes, she had not thought of it before, but,
+since she was the elder brother's daughter, she must be the heiress!
+There was no doubt a grand beautiful story before her; she would
+withstand all sorts of fascinations, wicked baronets and earls
+innumerable, and come back and take Gerard by the hand, and say, 'Pride
+was quelled and love was free.'  Not that Gerard had ever uttered a
+word tending in that direction since he had been seven years old, but
+that would make it all the prettier; they would both be silently
+constant, till the time came, perhaps when she was of age.  Mother
+would like it, though _that_ father would certainly be horrid.  And how
+nice it would be to give Gerard everything, and they would go all over
+the Continent, and see pictures, and buy them, and see all the
+cathedrals and all the mountains.  But perhaps, since Mark Egremont had
+really been so generous in hunting up the cousin who was displacing
+him, she was bound in duty to marry him; perhaps he reckoned on her
+doing so.  She would be generous in her turn, give up all the wealth to
+him, and return to do and be everything to Micklethwayte.  How they
+would admire and bless her.  And oh! she was going to London
+to-morrow--London, which she so much wished to see--Westminster Abbey,
+British Museum, All Saints, National Gallery, no end of new dresses.
+
+Half-waking, half-dreaming, she spent the night which seemed long
+enough, and the light hours of the summer morning seemed still longer,
+before she could call it a reasonable time for getting up. Her
+splashings  awoke her mother, who lay smiling for a few moments,
+realising and giving thanks for her great joy, then bestirred herself
+with the recollection of all that had to be done on this busy morning
+before any summons from her husband could arrive.
+
+Combining packing and dressing, like the essentially unmethodical
+little woman she was, Mrs. Egremont still had all her beautiful silky
+brown hair about her shoulders when the bell of St. Ambrose's was heard
+giving its thin tinkling summons to matins at half-past seven. She was
+disappointed; she meant to have gone for this last time, but there was
+no help for it, and Nuttie set off by herself.
+
+Gerard Godfrey was at his own door.  He was not one of the regular
+attendants at the short service, being of that modern species that
+holds itself superior to 'Cranmer's prayers,' but on this morning he
+hastened up to her with outstretched hand.
+
+'And you are going away!' he said.
+
+'I hope to get leave to stay a few days after mother,' she said.
+
+'To prolong the torment?' he said.
+
+'To wish everybody good-bye.  It is a great piece of my life that is
+come to an end, and I can't bear to break it off so short.'
+
+'And if you feel so, who are going to wealth and pleasure, what must it
+be to those who are left behind?'
+
+'Oh!' said Nuttie, 'some one will be raised up.  That's what they
+always say.'
+
+'I shall go into a brotherhood,' observed Gerard desperately.
+
+'Oh, don't,' began Nuttie, much gratified, but at that moment Miss
+Nugent came out at her door, and Mr. Spyers, who was some way in
+advance, looked round and waited for them to come up.  He held out his
+hands to her and said, 'Well, Nuttie, my child, you are going to begin
+a new life.'
+
+'Oh dear!  I wish I could have both!' cried Nuttie, not very relevantly
+as far as the words went.
+
+'Scheiden und weiden thut weh!' quoted Mary.
+
+'If his place was only Monks Horton.  What will Aunt Ursel do?'
+
+'I think perhaps she may be induced to join us,' said Mary.  'We mean
+to do our best to persuade her.'
+
+'And there's the choir!  And my class, and the harmonium,' went on
+Nuttie, while Gerard walked on disconsolately.
+
+'Micklethwayte has existed without you, Nuttie,' said Mr. Spyers,
+taking her on with him alone.  'Perhaps it will be able to do so again.
+My dear, you had better look on.  There will be plenty for you to learn
+and to do where you are going, and you will be sure to find much to
+enjoy, and also something to bear.  I should like to remind you that
+the best means of going on well in this new world will be to keep self
+down and to have the strong desire that only love can give to be
+submissive, and to do what is right both to God and your father and
+mother.  May I give you a text to take with you? "Children, obey your
+parents in the Lord, for this is right."'
+
+They were at the door and there was no time for an answer, but Nuttie,
+as she took her place, was partly touched and partly fretted at the
+admonition.
+
+The question as to her remaining a day or two after her mother was soon
+disposed of.  Mrs. Egremont sent a pretty little note to make the
+request, but the elegant valet who appeared at ten o'clock brought a
+verbal message that his master wished Mrs. and Miss Egremont to be
+ready by two o'clock to join him in calling on Lady Kirkaldy at Monks
+Horton, and that if their luggage was ready by four o'clock, he
+(Gregorio) would take charge of it, as they were all to go up to town
+by the 4.40 train.
+
+'Did he have my note?' faltered Alice, stimulated by the imploring
+glances of aunt and daughter, but anticipating the answer.
+
+'Yes, madame, but he wishes that Miss Egremont should accompany you
+immediately.'
+
+'Of course,' was Alice's comment, 'now that he has found his child, he
+cannot bear to part with her.'
+
+And all through the farewells that almost rent the gentle Alice's heart
+in two, she was haunted by the terror that she or her daughter should
+have red eyes to vex her husband.  As to Mr. Dutton, he had only come
+in with Gerard in a great hurry just after breakfast, said there was
+much to do to-day at the office, as they were going to take stock, and
+they should neither of them have time to come home to luncheon.  He
+shook the hands of mother and daughter heartily, promised to 'look
+after' Miss Headworth, and bore off in his train young Gerard, looking
+the picture of woe, and muttering 'I believe he has got it up on
+purpose;' while mother and daughter thought it very odd, and rather
+unkind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+NEW PLUMES.
+
+  'And ye sall walk in silk attire,
+  And siller hae to spare.'--Old Ballad.
+
+
+The very best open fly and pair of horses, being the equipage most like
+a private carriage possessed by the Royal Hotel, came to the door with
+Mr. Egremont seated in it, at a few minutes after two o'clock, and
+found Alice in her only black silk, with a rose in her bonnet, and a
+tie to match on her neck, hastily procured as signs of her wifehood.
+
+She had swallowed her tears, and Nuttie was not a crying person, but
+was perfectly scarlet on her usually brown cheeks.  Her father muttered
+some civility about back seats, but it was plain that it was only in
+words, and she never thought of anything but looking back, with her
+last wave to her aunt and the two maids, one crying at the gate, the
+other at the door.
+
+'There,' said Mr. Egremont, as they drove away, 'that is over!'
+
+'My dear aunt,' said his wife.  'Who can express her goodness to me?'
+
+'Cela va sans dire,' was the reply.  'But these are connections that
+happily Ursula is young enough to forget and leave behind.'
+
+'I shall never forget!' began Nuttie, but she saw her father composing
+himself in his corner without paying the slightest heed to what she was
+saying, and she encountered a warning and alarmed glance from her
+mother, so she was forced to content herself with uttering silent vows
+of perpetual recollection as she passed each well-known object,--the
+unfinished church, with Mr. Spyers at the door talking to old Bellman;
+the Town Hall, whose concerts, lectures, and S. P. G. meetings had been
+her chief gaiety and excitement; the School of Art, where Lady
+Kirkaldy's appearance now seemed to her to have been like that of a
+bird of omen; past the shops in the High Street, with a little
+exultation at the thought of past desires which they had excited.  Long
+could she have rattled away, her hopes contradicting her regrets, and
+her regrets qualifying her anticipations, but she saw that her mother
+was nervous about every word and gesture, and fairly looked dismayed
+when she exclaimed, 'Oh, mother, there's Etta Smith; how surprised she
+will be!' bowing and smiling with all her might.
+
+There was a look of bare toleration on Mr. Egremont's face, as if he
+endured because it would soon be over, as Nuttie bowed several times,
+and his wife, though less quick to catch people's eyes, sometimes also
+made her recognition.  When the streets were past and Nuttie had aimed
+her last nods at the nursery parties out walking on the road, she
+became aware that those cold, lack-lustre, and yet sharply critical
+eyes of her father were scanning her all over.
+
+'She has been educated?' he presently said to his wife.
+
+'Oh yes,' was the eager answer.  'She is in the highest form at the
+High School, and has to go up for the Senior Local Examination.  Miss
+Belper makes sure that she will get a first class.'
+
+Mr. Egremont gave a little wave of the hand, as dismissing something
+superfluous, and said, 'I hope she has some accomplishments.'
+
+'She has done very fairly in French and German--'
+
+'And Latin,' put in Ursula.
+
+'And she has had several prizes at the School of Art.'
+
+'And music?  That's the only thing of any value in society,' he said
+impatiently, and Mrs. Egremont said more timidly, 'She has learnt music
+regularly.'
+
+'But I don't care about it,' broke in Nuttie.  'I haven't mother's ear
+nor her voice.  I learnt the science in case I should have to teach,
+and they make me practise.  I don't mind classical music, but I can't
+stand rubbish, and I think it is waste of time.'
+
+Mr. Egremont looked fairly amused, as at the outspoken folly of an
+enfant terrible, but he only said, either to his wife or to himself, 'A
+little polish, and then she may be fairly presentable.'
+
+'We have taken great pains with her,' answered the gentle mother,
+evidently taking this as a great compliment, while the daughter was
+tingling with indignation.  She, bred up by mother, and aunt, and Mary
+Nugent, to be barely presentable.  Was not their society at
+Micklethwayte equal in good manners to any, and superior, far superior,
+in goodness and intelligence to these stupid fashionable people, who
+undervalued all her real useful acquirements, and cared for nothing but
+trumpery music.
+
+The carriage entered the park, and Nuttie saw lake and woods from a
+fresh point of view.  The owners were both at home, and Nuttie found
+herself walking behind her parents into a cheerful apartment, half
+library, half morning-room.  Mrs. Egremont was by far the most shy and
+shrinking of the party, but it was an occasion that showed her
+husband's complete tact and savoir favre.  He knew perfectly well that
+the Kirkaldys knew all about it, and he therefore took the initiative.
+'You are surprised to see us,' he said, as he gave his hand, 'but we
+could not leave the country without coming to thank Lady Kirkaldy for
+her kindness in assisting in following up the clue to Mrs. Egremont's
+residence.'
+
+'I am very happy,' said Lady Kirkaldy, while all were being seated.
+
+'I think it was here that my nephew Mark first met one whom, child as
+he was, he could not but remember.'
+
+'I don't think you met him here,' said Lady Kirkaldy to Mrs. Egremont;
+'but he heard the name and was struck by it.'
+
+'Dear Mark!' was the response.  'He was so kind.'
+
+'He is a dear good boy,' chimed in my lady.
+
+'Yes,' said her lord, 'an excellent good fellow with plenty of brains.'
+
+'As he well knows,' said Mr. Egremont.  'Oh yes; I quite agree with all
+you say of him!  One ought to be thankful for the possession of a rare
+specimen.'
+
+It was in the tone in which Falstaff discussed that sober boy, Lord
+John of Lancaster.  Lord Kirkaldy asked if the visitors were going to
+remain long in the neighbourhood.
+
+'We are due in London to-night,' replied Mr. Egremont.  'We shall spend
+a day or two there, and then go home.  Alice,' he added, though his
+wife had never heard him call her so before, 'Lady Kirkaldy knows your
+inexperience.  Perhaps she would be good enough to give you some
+addresses that might be useful.'
+
+'I shall be delighted,' said the lady, cordially looking at the
+blushing Mrs. Egremont.
+
+'Dressmaker, and all the rest of it,' said Mr. Egremont.  'You know
+better than she does what she will require, and a little advice will be
+invaluable.  Above all, if you could tell her how to pick up a maid.'
+
+Lady Kirkaldy proposed to take the mother and daughter up to her
+dressing-room, where she kept her book of addresses to London
+tradesmen; and Mr. Egremont only begged that they would remember the
+4.40 train.  Then Lord Kirkaldy was left to entertain him, while the
+ladies went up the broad staircase to the pleasant room, which had a
+mingled look of refinement and usefulness which struck Nuttie at once.
+Lady Kirkaldy, as soon as the door was shut, took her visitor by the
+hand, kissed her forehead, and said, 'You must let me tell you how glad
+I am.'
+
+The crystal veil at once spread over Alice's eyes.
+
+'Oh, thank you. Lady Kirkaldy!  I am _so_ happy, and yet I am so
+afraid.  Please tell me what we shall _do_ so that we may not vex him,
+so high bred and fastidious as he is?'
+
+'Be yourself!  That's all, my dear,' said Lady Kirkaldy tenderly.
+'Don't be afraid.  You are quite incapable of doing anything that could
+distress the most fastidious taste.'
+
+It was perfectly true of the mother, perhaps less so of the daughter;
+but Lady Kirkaldy only thought of her as a mere girl, who could easily
+be modelled by her surroundings.  The kind hostess applied herself to
+giving the addresses of the people she thought likely to be most useful
+in the complete outfit which she saw would be necessary, explaining to
+which establishments she applied with confidence if she needed to
+complete her wardrobe in haste, feeling certain that nothing would be
+sent her that she disliked, and giving leave to use her name.  She soon
+saw that the mother was a little dazed, while Ursula's eyes grew
+rounder at the unlimited vista of fine clothes, and she assented, and
+asked questions as to the details.  As to a maid, Lady Kirkaldy would
+write to a person who would call on Mrs. Egremont at the hotel in
+London, and who might be what was wanted; and in conclusion, Lady
+Kirkaldy, with some diffidence, begged to be written to--'if--if,' she
+said, 'there happened to be any difficulty about which you might not
+like to consult Mrs. William Egremont.'  Nuttie hardly knew whether to
+be grateful or not, for she did not believe in any standard above that
+of Micklethwayte, and she was almost angry at her mother's grateful
+answer--'Oh, thank you!  I should be so grateful!  I am so afraid of
+annoying him by what he may think small, ignorant, country-town ways!
+You will understand--'
+
+Lady Kirkaldy did understand, and she dreaded what might be before the
+sweet little yielding woman, not from want of breeding so much as from
+the long-indulged selfishness of her husband; but she encouraged her as
+much as possible, and promised all possible counsel, bringing her
+downstairs again just in time.
+
+'Pretty little soul!' said Lord Kirkaldy, as the fly clattered away. 'I
+wonder whether Mark has done her a kindness!'
+
+'It is just what she is, a pretty, nay, a beautiful soul, full of
+tenderness and forgiveness and affection and humility, only I doubt
+whether there is any force or resolution to hold her own.  You smile!
+Well, perhaps the less of that she has the better she may get on with
+him.  Did he say anything about her?'
+
+'No; I think he wants to ignore that they have not spent the last
+twenty years together.'
+
+'That may be the best way for all parties.  Do you think he will behave
+well to her?'
+
+'No man could well do otherwise to such a sweet little thing,' said
+Lord Kirkaldy; 'especially as she will be his most obedient slave, and
+will make herself necessary to him.  It is much better luck than he
+deserves; but I pity her when she comes to make her way with yon
+ladies!'
+
+'I wish I was there!  I know she will let herself be trodden on!
+However, there's Mark to stand up for her, and William Egremont will do
+whatever he thinks right and just.  I wish I knew how his wife will
+take it!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+BRIDGEFIELD EGREMONT.
+
+  'Let us see these handsome houses
+  Where the wealthy nobles dwell.'--TENNYSON.
+
+
+'Mother, mother!' cried two young people, bursting open the door of the
+pretty dining-room of Bridgefield Rectory, where the grown-up part of
+the family were lingering over a late breakfast.
+
+'Gently, gently, children,' said the dignified lady at the head of the
+table.  'Don't disturb papa.'
+
+'But we really have something to say, mother!' said the elder girl,
+'and Fraulein said you ought to know.  Uncle Alwyn is come home, and
+Mrs. Egremont.  And please, are we to call her Aunt Egremont, or Aunt
+Alwyn, or what?'
+
+The desired sensation was produced.  Canon Egremont put down his
+newspaper.  The two elder sisters looked from one to the other in
+unmitigated astonishment.  Mark briefly made answer to the final
+question, 'Aunt Alice,' and Mrs. Egremont said gravely, 'How did you
+hear this, Rosalind?  You know I always forbid you to gossip.'
+
+'We didn't gossip, mother.  We went up to the gardens to get some
+mulberries for our half-holiday feast; and Ronaldson came out and told
+us we must ask leave first, for the ladies were come.  The Squire came
+home at nine o'clock last night, and Mrs. Egremont and all, and only
+sent a telegram two hours before to have the rooms got ready.'
+
+'Has Uncle Alwyn gone and got himself married?' exclaimed one of the
+young ladies, in utter amazement.
+
+'Not just now, Blanche,' said her father.  'It is an old story now.
+Your uncle married this lady, who had been governess to May and Mark,
+many years ago, and from--circumstances in which she was not at all to
+blame, he lost sight of her while he was abroad with old General
+Egremont.  Mark met her about a fortnight ago, and this has led to your
+uncle's going in quest of her, though he has certainly been more sudden
+in his proceedings than I expected.'
+
+The mother here succeeded in sending Rosalind and Adela, with their
+wondering eyes, off the scene, and she would much have liked to send
+her two stepdaughters after them, but one-and-twenty and eighteen could
+not so readily be ordered off as twelve and ten; and Mark, who had been
+prohibited from uttering a word to his sisters, was eagerly examining
+Margaret whether she remembered their Edda; but she had been only three
+years old at the time of the adventures in the Isle of Wight, and
+remembered nothing distinctly but the aspect of one of the sailors in
+the yacht.
+
+'Well,' said Mrs. Egremont, 'this has come very suddenly upon us.  It
+would have been more for her own dignity if she had held out a little
+before coming so easily to terms, after the way in which she has been
+treated.'
+
+'When you see her, mother, you will understand,' said Mark.
+
+'Shall we have to be intimate with her?' asked May.
+
+'I desire that she should be treated as a relation,' said the Canon
+decidedly.  'There is nothing against her character,' and, as his wife
+was about to interrupt,--'nothing but an indiscretion to which she was
+almost driven many years ago.  She was cruelly treated, and I for one
+am heartily sorry for having let myself be guided by others.'
+
+Mrs. William Egremont felt somewhat complacent, for she knew he meant
+Lady de Lyonnais, and there certainly had been no love lost between her
+and her step-children's grandmother; but she was a sensible woman, and
+forbore to speak, though there was a mental reservation that intimacy
+would a good deal depend upon circumstances.  Blanche cried out that it
+was a perfect romance, and May gravely said, 'But is she a lady?'
+
+'A perfect lady,' said Mark.  'Aunt Margaret says so.'
+
+'One knows what a perfect lady means,' returned May.
+
+'Come, May,' said Mrs. Egremont, 'do not let us begin with a prejudice.
+By all accounts the poor thing has conducted herself with perfect
+respectability all this time.  What did you tell me, Mark? She has been
+living with an aunt, keeping a school at Micklethwayte.'
+
+'Not quite,' said Mark.  'She has been acting as a daily governess. She
+seemed to be on friendly terms with the clerical folk.  I came across
+the name at a school feast, or something of the kind, which came off in
+the Kirkaldys' park.'
+
+'Oh, then, I know exactly the sort of person!' returned May, pursing up
+her lips.
+
+Mark laughed and said, 'I wonder whether it is too soon to go up and
+see them.  I wonder what my uncle thinks of his daughter.'
+
+'What!  You don't mean to say there is a daughter?' cried May.
+
+'Even so.  And exactly like you too, Miss May.'
+
+'Then you are cut out, Mark!'
+
+'You are cut out, I think, May.  You'll have to give her all your Miss
+Egremont cards.'
+
+'No,' said the young lady; 'mother made me have my Christian name
+printed.  She said all but the daughters of the head of the family
+ought to have it so.  I'm glad of it.'
+
+'How old is she?' asked Blanche.
+
+'About a year younger than you.'
+
+'I think it is very interesting,' said Blanche.  'How wonderful it must
+all be to her!  I will go up with you, Mark, as soon as I can get
+ready.'
+
+'You had better wait till later in the day, Blanche,' said the mother.
+She knew the meeting was inevitable, but she preferred having it under
+her own eye, if she could not reconnoitre.
+
+She was a just and sensible woman, who felt reparation due to the
+newly-discovered sister-in-law, and that harmony, or at least the
+appearance of it, must be preserved; but she was also exclusive and
+fastidious by nature, and did not look forward to the needful
+intercourse with much satisfaction either on her own account or that of
+her family.
+
+She told Mark to say that she should come to see Mrs. Egremont after
+luncheon, since he was determined to go at once, and moreover to drag
+his father with him.  Canon Egremont was a good and upright man,
+according to his lights, which were rather those of a well-beneficed
+clergyman of the first than of the last half of the century,
+intensified perhaps that the passive voice was the strongest in him.
+All the country knew that Canon Egremont could be relied on to give a
+prudent, scholarly judgment, and to be kind and liberal, when once
+induced to stir mind or body--but how to do that was the problem.  He
+had not been a young man at the time of his first marriage, and was
+only a few years' junior to his brother, though he had the fresh,
+wholesome look of a man who kept regular hours and lived much in the
+air.
+
+Alice knew him at once, and thought eighteen years had made little
+change, as, at Nuttie's call to her, she looked from the window and saw
+the handsome, dignified, gray-haired, close-shaven rosy face, and the
+clerical garb unchanged in favour of long coats and high waistcoats.
+
+The mother and daughter were exploring the house together.  Mr.
+Egremont had made it known that he preferred having his breakfast
+alone, and not being disturbed in the forenoon.  So the two ladies had
+breakfasted together at nine, the earliest hour at which they could
+prevail on the household to give them a meal.  Indeed Nuttie had slept
+till nearly that time, for between excitement and noise, her London
+slumbers had been broken; and her endeavour to keep Micklethwayte hours
+had resulted in a long, weary, hungry time in the sitting-room of the
+hotel, with nothing to do, when the gaze from the window palled on her,
+but to write to her aunt and Mary Nugent.  The rest of the day had been
+spent in driving about in a brougham with her mother shopping, and this
+she could not but enjoy exceedingly, more than did the timid Mrs.
+Egremont, who could not but feel herself weighted with responsibility;
+and never having had to spend at the utmost more than ten pounds at a
+time, felt bewildered at the cheques put into her hands, and then was
+alarmed to find them melting away faster than she expected.
+
+There was a very late dinner, after which Mr. Egremont, on the first
+day, made his wife play bezique with him.  She enjoyed it, as a tender
+reminiscence of the yachting days; but Nuttie found herself de trop,
+and was reduced to the book she had contrived to purchase on her
+travels.  The second night Mr. Egremont had picked up two friends, not
+yet gone out of town, whose talk was of horses and of yachts, quite
+incomprehensible to the ladies.  They were very attentive to Mrs.
+Egremont, whom they evidently admired, one so visibly as to call up a
+blush; but they disregarded the daughter as a schoolgirl.  Happily they
+appeared no more after the dinner; but Nuttie's first exclamation of
+astonished disgust was silenced at once by her mother with unusual
+determination, 'You must not speak so of your father's friends.'
+
+'Not when--'
+
+'Not at all,' interrupted Mrs. Egremont.
+
+The only sense of promotion to greatness that Ursula had yet enjoyed
+was in these fine clothes, and the maid whom Lady Kirkaldy had
+recommended, a grave and severe-looking person, of whom both stood
+somewhat in awe.  The arrival at Bridgefield had been too late for
+anything to be taken in but a general impression of space and
+dreariness, and the inevitable dinner of many courses, after which
+Nuttie was so tired out that her mother sent her to bed.
+
+Since the waking she had made some acquaintance with the house. There
+was no show of domestics, no curtseying housekeeper to parade the new
+mistress over the house; Mr. Egremont had told his wife that she must
+fill up the establishment as she pleased, but that there was an
+admirable cook downstairs, and he would not have her interfered
+with--she suited his tastes as no one else did, and she must be left to
+deal with the provisions and her own underlings.  There was a stable
+establishment, and a footman had been hired in town, but there was
+besides only one untidy-looking housemaid, who began by giving warning;
+and Alice and Nuttie had roamed about without meeting any one from the
+big wainscotted dining-room with faded crimson curtains and family
+portraits, the older grimy, the younger chalky, to the two
+drawing-rooms, whose gilding and pale blue damask had been preserved by
+pinafores of brown holland; the library, which looked and smelt as if
+Mr. Egremont was in the habit of sitting there, and a big
+billiard-room, all opening into a shivery-feeling hall, with Scagliola
+columns and a few dirty statues between them; then upstairs to a
+possible morning-room, looking out over a garden lawn, where mowing was
+going on in haste, and suites of dreary shut-up fusty bedrooms.
+Nuttie, who had notions of choosing her own bower, could not make up
+her mind which looked the least inviting.  It did not seem as if girls
+could ever have laughed together, or children clattered up and down the
+stairs.  Mrs. Egremont begged her to keep possession for the present at
+least of the chamber where the grim housemaid had chosen to put her,
+and which had the advantage of being aired.
+
+The two windows looked out over the park, and thence it was that while
+Morris, the maid, was unpacking and putting away the new purchases, and
+Nuttie was standing, scarcely realising that such pretty hats and
+bonnets could be her very own, when her mother beheld the Canon and
+Mark advancing up the drive.  It was with a great start that she called
+Ursula to come down directly with her, as no one would know where to
+find them, hastily washing the hands that had picked up a sense of
+dustiness during the exploration, and taking a comprehensive glance in
+the cheval glass, which showed her some one she felt entirely
+unfamiliar to her in a dainty summer costume of pale gray silk picked
+out with a mysterious shade of pink.  Ursula too thought Miss
+Egremont's outer woman more like a Chelsea shepherdess than Nuttie's
+true self, as she tripped along in her buckled shoes and the sea green
+stockings that had been sent home with her skirt.  With crimson cheeks
+and a throbbing heart, Alice was only just at the foot of the stairs
+when the newcomers had made their way in, and the kind Canon, ignoring
+all that was past, held out his hands saying, 'Well, my dear, I am glad
+to see you here,' kissing Mrs. Egremont on each cheek.  'And so this is
+your daughter.  How do you do, my dear--Ursula?  Isn't that your name?'
+And Ursula had again to submit to a kiss, much more savoury and kindly
+than her father's, though very stubbly.  And oh! her uncle's dress was
+like that of no one she had ever seen except the rector of the old
+church, the object of unlimited contempt to the adherents of St.
+Ambrose's.
+
+As to Mark, he only kissed his aunt, and shook hands with her, while
+his father ran on with an unusual loquacity that was a proof of
+nervousness in him.
+
+'Mrs. Egremont--Jane, I mean--will be here after luncheon.  She thought
+you would like to get settled in first.  How is Alwyn?  Is he down yet?'
+
+'I will see,' in a trembling voice.
+
+'Oh no, never mind, Alwyn hates to be disturbed till he has made
+himself up in the morning.  My call is on you, you know.  Where are you
+sitting?'
+
+'I don't quite know.  In the drawing-room, I suppose.'
+
+The Canon, knowing the house much better than she did, opened a door
+into a third drawing-room she had not yet seen, a pretty little room,
+fitted up with fluted silk, like a tent, somewhat faded but not much
+the worse for that, and opening into a conservatory, which seemed to
+have little in it but some veteran orange trees.  Nuttie, however,
+exclaimed with pleasure at the nicest room she had seen, and Mark began
+unfastening the glass door that led into it.  Meantime Alice, with
+burning cheeks and liquid eyes, nerved her voice to say, 'Oh, sir--Mr.
+Egremont--please forgive me!  I know now how wrong I was.'
+
+'Nonsense, my dear.  Bygones are bygones.  You were far more sinned
+against than sinning, and have much to forgive me.  There, my dear, we
+will say no more about it, nor think of it either.  I am only too
+thankful that poor Alwyn should have some one to look after him.'
+
+Alice, who had dreaded nothing more than the meeting with her former
+master, was infinitely relieved and grateful for this kindness.  She
+had ejaculated, 'Oh, you are so good!' in the midst, and now at the
+mention of her husband, she exclaimed, 'Oh! do you think he is ill? I
+can't help being afraid he is, but he will not tell me, and does not
+like to be asked.'
+
+'Poor fellow, he has damaged his health a good deal,' was the answer.
+'He had a sharp attack in the spring, but he has pretty well got over
+it, and Raikes told me there was no reason for uneasiness, provided he
+would be careful; and that will be a much easier matter now.  I should
+not wonder if we saw him with quite a renewed youth.'
+
+So the Canon and Mrs. Egremont were getting on pretty well together,
+but there was much more stiffness and less cordiality between the two
+cousins, although Mark got the window open into the conservatory, and
+showed Nuttie the way into the garden, advising her to ask Ronaldson,
+the gardener, to fill the conservatory with flowers.  The pavilion, as
+this little room was called, always seemed to have more capacities for
+being lived in than any other room in the house.  It had been fitted up
+when such things were the fashion for the shortlived bride of 'our
+great uncle.'
+
+'The colour must have been awful then,' said Mark, looking up at it,
+'enough to set one's teeth on edge; but it has faded into something
+quite orthodox--much better than could be manufactured for you.'
+
+Mark had evidently some ideas of art, and was besides inclined to do
+the honours to the stranger; but Nuttie was not going to encourage him
+or anybody else to make up to her, while she had that look of Gerard
+Godfrey's in her mind's eye.  So she made small answer, and he felt
+rebuffed, but supposed her shy, and wondered when he could go back to
+her mother, who was so much more attractive.
+
+Presently his father went off to storm the den of the master of the
+house, and there was a pleasant quarter of an hour, during which the
+three went out through the conservatory, and Mark showed the
+ins-and-outs of the garden, found out Ronaldson, and congratulated him
+on having some one at last to appreciate his flowers, begging him to
+make the conservatory beautiful.  And Mrs. Egremont's smile was so
+effective that the Scot forthwith took out his knife and presented her
+with the most precious of the roses within his reach.
+
+Moreover Mark told the names and ages of all his sisters, whole and
+half.  He was the only son, except a little fellow in the nursery. And
+he exhorted his aunt not to be afraid of his step-mother, who was a
+most excellent person, he declared, but who never liked to see any one
+afraid of her.
+
+There was something a little alarming in this, but on the whole the
+visit was very pleasant and encouraging to Mrs. Egremont; and she began
+rejoicing over the kindness as soon as the Canon had summoned his son,
+and they had gone away together.
+
+'I am sure you must be delighted with your uncle and cousin, my dear,'
+she said.
+
+'He's not a bit my notion of a priest,' returned Nuttie.  'And I don't
+believe he has any daily prayers!'
+
+'He is old-fashioned, my dear.'
+
+'One of the stodgey old clergymen in books,' observed Nuttie.  'I
+didn't think there were any of that sort left.'
+
+'Oh, my dear, pray don't take fancies into your head!  He is a very,
+very good man, and has been most kind to me, far more than I deserve,
+and he is your uncle, Nuttie.  I do so hope you will get on well with
+your cousins.'
+
+Here a gong, a perfectly unknown sound to Nuttie, made itself heard,
+and rather astonished her by the concluding roar.  The two ladies came
+out into the hall as Mr. Egremont was crossing it.  He made an
+inclination of the head, and uttered a sort of good morning to his
+daughter, but she was perfectly content to have no closer salutation.
+Having a healthy noonday appetite, her chief wish was at the moment
+that those beautiful little cutlets, arranged in a crown form, were not
+so very tiny; or that, with two men-servants looking on, it were
+possible to attain to a second help, but she had already learnt that
+Gregorio would not hear her, and that any attempt to obtain more food
+frightened her mother.
+
+'So his reverence has been to see you,' observed Mr. Egremont.
+'William, if you like it better.'
+
+'Oh yes, and he was kindness itself!'
+
+'And how did Master Mark look at finding I could dispense with his
+assistance?'
+
+'I think he is very glad.'
+
+Mr. Egremont laughed.  'You are a simple woman, Edda!  The pose of
+virtuous hero was to have been full compensation for all that it might
+cost him!  And no doubt he looks for the reward of virtue likewise.'
+
+Wherewith he looked full at Ursula, who, to her extreme vexation, felt
+herself blushing up to the ears.  She fidgeted on her chair, and began
+a most untrue 'I'm sure--' for, indeed, the poor girl was sure of
+nothing, but that her father's manner was most uncomfortable to her.
+His laugh choked whatever she might have said, which perhaps was well,
+and her mother's cheeks glowed as much as hers did.
+
+'Did the Canoness--Jane, I mean--come up?' Mr. Egremont went on.
+
+'Mrs. Egremont?  No; she sent word that she is coming after luncheon.'
+
+'Hm!  Then I shall ride out and leave you to her majesty.  Now look
+you, Alice, you are to be very careful with William's wife.  She is a
+Condamine, you know, and thinks no end of herself, and your position
+among the women-folk of the county depends more on how she takes you up
+than anything else.  But that doesn't mean that you are to let her give
+herself airs and domineer over you.  Remember you are the elder
+brother's wife--Mrs. Egremont of Bridgefield Egremont--and she is
+nothing but a parson's wife, and I won't have her meddling in my house.
+Only don't you be absurd and offend her, for she can do more for or
+against you in society than any one else--more's the pity!'
+
+'Oh! won't you stay and help me receive her?' exclaimed the poor lady,
+utterly confused by these contrary directions.
+
+'Not I!  I can't abide the woman! nor she me!'  He added, after a
+moment, 'You will do better without me.'
+
+So he went out for his ride, and Ursula asked, 'Oh, mother! what will
+you do?'
+
+'The best I can, my dear.  They are good people, and are sure to be
+kinder than I deserve.'
+
+Nuttie was learning that her mother would never so much as hear, far
+less answer, a remark on her husband.  It was beginning to make a sore
+in the young heart that a barrier was thus rising, where there once had
+been as perfect oneness and confidence as could exist between two
+natures so dissimilar, though hitherto the unlikeness had never made
+itself felt.
+
+Mrs. Egremont turned the conversation to the establishing themselves in
+the pavilion, whither she proceeded to import some fancy-work that she
+had bought in London, and sent Nuttie to Ronaldson, who was arranging
+calceolarias, begonias, and geraniums in the conservatory, to beg for
+some cut-flowers for a great dusty-looking vase in the centre of the
+table.
+
+These were being arranged when Mrs. William Egremont and Miss Blanche
+Egremont were ushered in, and there were the regular kindred embraces,
+after which Alice and Nuttie were aware of a very handsome,
+dignified-looking lady, well though simply dressed in what was
+evidently her home costume, with a large shady hat and feather, her
+whole air curiously fitting the imposing nickname of the Canoness.
+Blanche was a slight, delicate-looking, rather pretty girl in a
+lawn-tennis dress.  The visitor took the part of treating the newcomers
+as well-established relations.
+
+'We would not inundate you all at once,' she said, 'but the children
+are all very eager to see their cousin.  I wish you would come down to
+the Rectory with me.  My ponies are at the door.  I would drive you,
+and Ursula might walk with Blanche.'  And, as Alice hesitated for a
+moment, considering how this might agree with the complicated
+instructions that she had received, she added, 'Never mind Alwyn.  I
+saw him going off just before I came up, and he told William he was
+going to look at some horses at Hale's, so he is disposed of for a good
+many hours.'
+
+Alice decided that her husband would probably wish her to comply, and
+she rejoiced to turn her daughter in among the cousins, so hats,
+gloves, and parasols were fetched, and the two mothers drove away with
+the two sleek little toy ponies.  By which it may be perceived that
+Mrs. William Egremont's first impressions were favourable.
+
+'It is the shortest way through the gardens,' said Blanche.  'Have you
+been through them yet?'
+
+'Mark walked about with us a little.'
+
+'You'll improve them ever so much.  There are great capabilities. Look,
+you could have four tennis courts on this one lawn.  We wanted to have
+a garden-party up here last year, and father said we might, but mother
+thought Uncle Alwyn might think it a liberty; but now you'll have some
+delicious ones?  Of course you play lawn-tennis?'
+
+'I have seen it a very few times,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Oh, we must teach you!  Fancy living without lawn-tennis!' said
+Blanche.  'I always wonder what people did without it.  Only'--with an
+effort at antiquarianism--'I believe they had croquet.'
+
+'Aunt Ursula says there weren't garden-parties before croquet came in.'
+
+'How dreadful, Ursula!  Your name's Ursula, isn't it?  Haven't you some
+jolly little name to go by?'
+
+'Nuttie.'
+
+'Nuttie!  That's scrumptious!  I'll call you Nuttie, and you may call
+me Pussycat.'
+
+'That's not so nice as Blanche.'
+
+'Mother won't have me called so when strangers are there, but you
+aren't a stranger, you know.  You must tell me all about yourself, and
+how you came never to learn tennis!'
+
+'I had something else to do,' said Nuttie, with dignity.
+
+'Oh, you were in the schoolroom!  I forgot.  Poor little Nuts!'
+
+'At school,' said Ursula.
+
+'Ah, I remember!  But you're out now, aren't you?  I've been out since
+this spring.  Mother won't let us come out till we are eighteen, isn't
+it horrid?  And we were so worked there!  I can tell you a finishing
+governess is an awful institution!  Poor little Rosie and Adey will be
+in for one by and by.  At present they've only got a jolly little
+Fraulein that they can do anything they please with.'
+
+'Oh, I wonder if she would tell me of some German books!'
+
+'You don't mean that you want to read German!' and Blanche stood still,
+and looked at her cousin in astonishment.
+
+'Why, what else is the use of learning it?'
+
+'Oh, I don't know.  Every one does.  If one went abroad or to court,
+you know,' said Blanche vaguely; but Ursula had now a fresh subject of
+interest; for, on emerging from the shrubbery, they came in sight of a
+picturesque but not very architectural church, which had the smallest
+proportion of wall and the largest of roof, and a pretty oriel-windowed
+schoolhouse covered with clematis.  Nuttie rushed into inquiries about
+services and schools, and was aghast at hearing of mere Sundays and
+saints' days.
+
+'Oh no! father isn't a bit Ritualistic.  I wish he was, it would be so
+much prettier; and then he always advertises for curates of moderate
+views, and they are so stupid.  You never saw such a stick as we have
+got now, Mr. Edwards; and his wife isn't a lady, I'm sure.'
+
+Then as to schools, it was an absolute amazement to Nuttie to find that
+the same plans were in force as had prevailed when her uncle had come
+to the living and built that pretty house--nay, were kept up at his
+sole expense, because he liked old-fashioned simplicity, and did not
+choose to be worried with Government inspection.
+
+'And,' said Blanche, 'every one says our girls work ever so much
+better, and make nicer servants than those that are crammed with all
+sorts of nonsense not fit for them.'
+
+As to the Sunday school.  Mother and the curate take care of that. I'm
+sure, if you like it, you can have my class, for I always have a
+headache there, and very often I can't go.  Only May pegs away at it,
+and she won't let me have the boys, who are the only jolly ones,
+because she says I spoil them.  But you must be my friend--mind,
+Nuttie, not May's, for we are nearer the same age.  When is your
+birthday?  You must put it down in my book!'
+
+Nuttie, who had tolerable experience of making acquaintance with new
+girls, was divided between a sense of Blanche's emptiness, and the
+warmth excited by her friendliness, as well as of astonishment at all
+she heard and saw.
+
+Crossing the straggling, meandering village street, the cousins entered
+the grounds of the Rectory, an irregular but well-kept building of the
+soft stone of the country, all the garden front of it a deep verandah
+that was kept open in summer, but closed with glass frames in the
+winter--flower-beds lying before it, and beyond a lawn where the young
+folk were playing at the inevitable lawn-tennis.
+
+Margaret was not so pretty as Blanche, but had a more sensible face,
+and her welcome to Ursula was civil but reserved.  Rosalind and Adela
+were bright little things, in quite a different style from their
+half-sisters, much lighter in complexion and promising to be handsomer
+women.  They looked full of eagerness and curiosity at the new cousin,
+whom Blanche set down on a bank, and proceeded to instruct in the
+mysteries of the all-important game by comments and criticisms on the
+players.
+
+As soon as Mark and Adela had come out conquerors, Ursula was called on
+to take her first lesson.  May resigned her racket, saying she had
+something to do, and walked off the field, and carrying off with her
+Adela, who, as Blanche said, 'had a spine,' and was ordered to lie down
+for an hour every afternoon.  The cheerfulness with which she went
+spoke well for the training of the family.
+
+Nuttie was light-footed and dexterous handed, and accustomed to active
+amusements, so that, under the tuition of her cousins, she became a
+promising pupil, and thawed rapidly, even towards Mark.
+
+She was in the midst of her game when the two mothers came out, for the
+drive had been extended all round the park, under pretext of showing it
+to its new mistress, but really to give the Canoness an opportunity of
+judging of her in a tete-a-tete.  Yet that sensible woman had asked no
+alarming questions on the past, still less had offered any advice that
+could seem like interference.  She had only named localities, mentioned
+neighbours, and made little communications about the ways of the place
+such as might elicit remarks; and, as Alice's voice betrayed less and
+less constraint, she ventured on speaking of their daughters, so as to
+draw forth some account of how Ursula might have been educated.
+
+And of this, Alice was ready and eager to talk, telling how clever and
+how industrious Nuttie had always been, and how great an advantage Miss
+Nugent's kindness was, and how she was hoping to go up for the
+Cambridge examination; then, detecting some doubt in her companion's
+manner, she said, 'It would be a great disappointment to her not to do
+so now.  Do you think she had better not?'
+
+'I don't think she will find time to go on with the preparation! And,
+to tell the truth, I don't think we are quite ripe for such things in
+this county.  We are rather backward, and Ursula, coming in fresh upon
+us, might find it a disadvantage to be thought much cleverer than other
+people.'
+
+'Ah!  I was not quite sure whether her father would like it.'
+
+'I do not think he would.  I am sure that if my little Rose were to
+take it into her head, I should have hard work to get her father's
+consent, though no doubt the world will have progressed by the time she
+is old enough.'
+
+'That settles it,' said Alice.  'Thank you, Mrs. Egremont.  I own,' she
+added presently, 'that I do somewhat regret that it cannot be, for I
+thought that a motive for keeping up her studies would be helpful to my
+child;--I do not mean for the sake of the studies, but of the--the
+balance in all this change and novelty.'
+
+'You are quite right, I have felt it myself,' said her sister-in-law.
+'Perhaps something could be done by essay societies.  May belongs to
+one, and if Ursula is an intellectual girl, perhaps you could keep her
+up to some regular employment in the morning.  I succeeded in doing so
+when May came out, but I can accomplish nothing regular but music with
+Blanche; and an hour's steady practice a day is better than nothing.'
+
+The drive was on the whole a success, and so was the tea-drinking in
+the verandah, where Aunt Alice and little five-years old Basil became
+fast friends and mutual admirers; the Canon strolled out and was
+installed in the big, cushioned basket-chair that crackled under his
+weight; Blanche recounted Nuttie's successes, and her own tennis
+engagements for the week; Mark lay on a rug and teased her, and her
+dachshund; Nuttie listened to the family chatter as if it were a play,
+and May dispensed the cups, and looked grave and severe.
+
+'Well?' said the Canon anxiously, when Mark, Blanche, and little Basil
+had insisted on escorting the guests home, and he and his wife were for
+a few minutes tete-a-tete.
+
+'It might have been much worse,' said the lady.  'She is a good little
+innocent thing, and has more good sense than I expected. Governessy,
+that's all, but she will shake out of that.'
+
+'Of course she will.  It's the best thing imaginable for Alwyn!'
+
+His wife kept back the words, 'A hundred times too good for Alwyn!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+LAWN-TENNIS.
+
+  'Madam, the guests are come, supper served up,
+  My young lady asked for!'--Romeo and Juliet.
+
+
+A garden-party, Mrs. William Egremont decided, would be the best mode
+of testifying her approbation of her sister-in-law, and introducing the
+newcomers to the neighbourhood.  So the invitations were sent forth for
+an early day of the coming week.
+
+From how many points of view was Mrs. William Egremont's garden-party
+regarded, and how different!  There was Basil, to whom it meant wearing
+his velvet suit and eating as many ices as mother would allow.  To
+Blanche, it was an occasion for triumph on the tennis ground for
+herself, and for hopes for her pupil; and Ursula herself looked forward
+to it and practised for it like a knight for his first encounter in the
+lists, her sole care being to distinguish herself with her racket.  To
+her mother, it was an ordeal, where she trusted not to be a
+mortification to her husband and his family; while to the hostess, it
+was a not unwelcome occasion of exercising honest diplomacy and tact,
+not without a sense of magnanimity.  To May, it was a bore to be
+endured with dutiful philosophy; to her good-natured father an occasion
+for hospitality, where he trusted that his brother would appear, and
+appear to advantage, and was ready even to bribe him thereto with that
+wonderful claret that Alwyn had always envied, and declared to be
+wasted on a parson.  And Mark, perhaps he viewed the occasion with
+different eyes from any one else.  At any rate, even the denizens of
+Bridgefield mustered there with as many minds as Scott ascribes to the
+combatants of Bannockburn, and there were probably as many other
+circles of feeling more or less intersecting one another among the more
+distant guests, most of them, however, with the same feeling of
+curiosity as to what this newly-discovered wife and daughter of Alwyn
+Egremont might be like.
+
+Externally, in her rich black silk, trimmed with point lace, and her
+little straw-coloured bonnet with its tuft of feathery grass and blue
+cornflower, she was so charming that her daughter danced round her,
+crying, 'O mammy, mammy, if they could but see you at home'--then, at a
+look: 'Well then--Aunt Ursel, and Miss Mary, and Mr. Dutton!'
+
+Nuttie was very much pleased with her own pretty tennis dress; but she
+had no personal vanity for herself, only for her mother.  The knowledge
+that she was no beauty was no grievance to her youthful spirits; but
+when her father surveyed them in the hall, she looked for his verdict
+for her mother as if their relations were reversed.
+
+'Ha!  Well, you certainly are a pretty creature, Edda,' he said
+graciously.  'You'll pass muster!  You want nothing but style.  And,
+hang it! you'll do just as well without it, if the Canoness will only
+do you justice.  Faces like that weren't given for nothing.'
+
+She blushed incarnadine and accepted one of his kisses with a pleasure,
+at which Nuttie wondered, her motherly affection prompting her to
+murmur in his ear--
+
+'And Ursula?'
+
+'She'll not cut you out; but she is Egremont enough to do very fairly.
+Going already?'
+
+'If you would come with us,' she said wistfully, to the horror of
+Nuttie, who was burning to be at the beginning of all the matches.
+
+'I? oh no!  I promised old Will to look in, but that won't be till late
+in the day, or I shall have to go handing all the dowagers into the
+dining-room to tea.'
+
+'Then I think we had better go on.  They asked us to come early, so as
+to see people arrive and know who they are.'
+
+_They_ was a useful pronoun to Alice, who felt it a liberty to call her
+grand-looking sister-in-law, Jane--was too well-bred to term her Mrs.
+William.
+
+The mother and daughter crossed the gardens, Nuttie chattering all the
+way about the tennis tactics she had picked up from Blanche, while her
+mother answered her somewhat mechanically, wondering, as her eye fell
+on the square squat gray church tower, what had become of the earnest
+devotion to church work and intellectual pursuits that used to
+characterise the girl.  True, always both mother and daughter had
+hitherto kept up their church-going, and even their Sunday-school
+habits, nor had any hindrance come in their way, Mr. Egremont
+apparently acquiescing in what he never shared.  But these things
+seemed, in Ursula's mind, to have sunk out of the proportion they held
+at Bridgefield, no longer to be the spirit of a life, but mere Sunday
+duties and occupations.
+
+Was this wicked world getting a hold of the poor child?  Which was
+duty? which was the world?  This was the thought that perplexed Alice,
+too simple as yet to perceive that Ursula's former absorption had been
+in the interests that surrounded her and her companions, exactly as
+they were at present, and that the real being had yet to work itself
+out.
+
+For herself, Alice did not think at all.  She was rejoicing in her
+restored husband, and his evident affection.  Her duty towards him was
+in her eyes plain.  She saw, of course, that he had no religion, but
+she accepted the fact like that of bad weather; she loved him, and she
+loved her daughter; she said her prayers with all her heart for them,
+she hoped, and she did her best, without trying to go below the surface.
+
+There was the Rectory gate wide open.  There was Basil rushing up to
+greet his dear Aunt Alice, there were all the windows and doors of the
+Rectory open, and the nearer slopes covered with chairs and seats of
+all dimensions, some under trees, some umbelliferous, and glowing
+Afghan rugs, or spotted skins spread for those who preferred the
+ground.  There was Blanche flitting about wild with excitement, and
+pouncing on Nuttie to admire her outfit, and reiterate instructions;
+there were the two younger girls altering the position of chairs
+according to their mother's directions; there were actually two
+guests--not very alarming ones, only the curate and his wife, both
+rather gaunt, bony people.  He was button-holing the Canon, and she was
+trying to do the same by the Canoness about some parish casualty. The
+Canon hoped to escape in the welcome to his sister-in-law and niece,
+but he was immediately secured again, while his wife found it requisite
+to hurry off else where, leaving Mrs. Edwards to tell her story to Mrs.
+Egremont.  In point of fact, Alice really liked the good lady, was
+quite at ease with her, and felt parish concerns a natural element, so
+that she gave full heed and attention to the cruelty of Mrs. Parkins'
+depriving Betsy Butter (with an old father and mother to support) of
+her family washing, on the ground of a missing pocket handkerchief, the
+which Mrs. Edwards believed to have been abstracted by the favourite
+pickle of Miss Blanche's class, if only a confession could be elicited
+from him when undefended by his furious mother.  Mrs. Egremont was
+listening with actual interest and sympathy to the history of Betsy
+Butter's struggles, and was inquiring the way to her cottage, when she
+was called off to be introduced to the arrivals who were beginning to
+flood the lawn.  She presently saw May, who had just come down, walking
+up and down with Mrs. Edwards, evidently hearing the story of the
+handkerchief.  She thought it had been Nuttie for a moment.  There was
+a general resemblance between the cousins that made them be mistaken
+for one another several times in the course of the day, since their
+dresses, though not alike, were of the same make and style.
+
+Thus it was that as Nuttie was sitting on the grass in earnest
+contemplation of Blanche's play, a hand was familiarly laid on her
+shoulder, and a voice said,  'I haven't seen that horrid girl yet!'
+
+After so many introductions, Nuttie had little idea whom she knew, or
+whom she did not know.  She looked up and saw a small person in light
+blue, with the delicate features, transparent skin, and blue eyes that
+accompany yellow hair, with an indescribable glitter of mirth and
+joyousness about the whole creature, as if she were part and parcel of
+the sunbeam in which she stood.
+
+'What horrid girl?' said Nuttie.
+
+'The interloper, the newly-discovered savage, come to upset--Ah!'--with
+a little shriek--'It isn't May!  I beg your pardon.'
+
+'I'm May's cousin,' said Nuttie, 'Ursula Egremont.'
+
+'Oh, oh!' and therewith the fact burst on both girls at once.  They
+stood still a moment in dismay, then the stranger went into a fit of
+laughter.  'Oh, I beg your pardon!  I can't help it!  It is so funny!'
+
+Nuttie was almost infected, though somewhat hurt.  'Who said I was
+horrid?' she asked.
+
+'Nobody!  Nobody but me--Annaple Ruthven--and they'll all tell you, May
+and all, that I'm always putting my foot in it.  And I never meant that
+you were horrid--you yourself--you know--only--'
+
+'Only nobody wanted us here,' said Nuttie; 'but we could not help it.'
+
+'Of course not.  It was shocking, just my way.  Please forgive me!' and
+she looked most pleading.  Nuttie held out her hand with something
+about 'No one could mind;' and therewith Annaple cried, 'Oh, if you
+don't mind, we can have our laugh out!' and the rippling laughter did
+set Nuttie off at once.  The peal was not over when May herself was
+upon them demanding what was the joke.
+
+'Oh, there she is!  The real May!  Why,' said Annaple, kissing her,
+'only think here I've been and gone and thought this was you, and
+inquired about--What was it?--the awful monster--the chimera dire--that
+Mark had routed up--'
+
+'No; you didn't say that,' said Nuttie, half provoked.
+
+'Never mind what I said.  Don't repeat it.  I only wish myself and
+every one else to forget it.  Now it is swept to the winds by a good
+wholesome giggling.  But what business have you two to be so
+inconveniently alike?  You are as bad as the twin Leslies!'
+
+'There's an old foremother on the staircase in white satin who left her
+looks to us both,' said May.
+
+'You'll have to wear badges,' said Annaple.  'You know the Leslies were
+so troublesome that one had to be shipped off to the East Indies and
+the other to the West.'
+
+'They married, that's all,' said May, seeing Nuttie looking mystified;
+and at that moment, Blanche's side coming out victorious, Nuttie
+descended into the arena to congratulate and be asked to form part of
+the next set.
+
+'Well, that was a scrape!' said Annaple; 'but she wasn't bad about it!
+I must do something to make up for it somehow--get Janet to invite her,
+but really Janet is in such a state of mind that I am mildness itself
+compared with her.  She would not have come, only John was curious, and
+declared he should go whether we did or not.'
+
+'Ah!' said May, 'I saw him, like the rest of mankind, at madame's feet.'
+
+'Oh! is she of that sort?'
+
+'No,' said May, 'not at all.  Mother and father too both think she is
+good to the backbone; but she is very pretty, with just the inane soft
+sweetness that men rave about--innocent really.  All accounts of her
+are excellent, and she has nice parish ways, and will be as helpful as
+Uncle Alwyn will let her.'
+
+'But she couldn't always have been nice?'
+
+'Well, I verily believe it was all Uncle Alwyn's and grandmamma's
+fault.  I know Mark thinks so.'
+
+'When the women of a family acquit a woman it goes for something,' said
+Annaple.  'That's not original, my dear, I heard old Lady Grosmede say
+so to Janet when she was deliberating over the invitation, "For a good
+deal more than Mr. Mark's, at any rate.'"
+
+'Mark is very fond of her--the mother, I mean.  He says when he was a
+little fellow her loss was worse to him than even our mother's.'
+
+'Do you remember the catastrophe?'
+
+'Not a bit.  Only when she is petting Basil it strikes me that I have
+heard the tones before.  I only remember the time of misery under the
+crosspatches grandmamma got for us.'
+
+'Well, it was a splendid cutting of his own throat in Mark,' said
+Annaple, 'so it ought to turn out well.'
+
+'I don't know how it is to turn out for Mark,' answered May.  'Oh, here
+he comes!'
+
+'Will you come into this set, Annaple?' he asked.  'They want another
+couple,' and, as she accepted,  'How do you get on with May's double?'
+
+'I pity May for having such a double.'
+
+'Don't encourage her by misplaced pity.'
+
+'It's abominable altogether!  I want to fly at somebody!'
+
+'Exhaust your feelings on your racket, and reflect that you see a man
+released from bondage.'
+
+'Is that philosophy or high-faluting?' she said in a teasing tone as
+the game began.
+
+The Ruthvens had very blue blood in their veins, but as there were nine
+of the present generation, they possessed little beyond their long
+pedigree; even the head of the family, Lord Ronnisglen, being forced to
+live as a soldier, leaving his castle to grouse shooters. His seven
+brothers had fared mostly in distant lands as they could, and his
+mother had found a home, together with her youngest child, at Lescombe,
+where her eldest was the wife of Sir John Delmar.  Lady Ronnisglen was
+an invalid, confined to the house, and Lady Delmar had daughters fast
+treading on the heels of Annabella, so christened, but always called
+Annaple after the old Scottish queens, her ancestors. She had been May
+Egremont's chief friend ever since her importation at twelve years old,
+and the intimacy had been promoted by her mother and sister.  Indeed,
+the neighbourhood had looked on with some amusement at the competition
+ascribed to Lady Delmar and to the wealthy parvenu, Mrs. West, for the
+heir-presumptive of Bridgefield Egremont.
+
+Annaple's lightness and dexterity rendered her the best of the lady
+tennis-players, and the less practised Ursula found herself defeated in
+the match, in spite of a partner whose play was superior to Mark's, and
+with whom she shyly walked off to eat ices.
+
+'I see,' said Annaple, 'it is a country-town edition of May.  I shan't
+blunder between them again.'
+
+'She will polish,' said Mark, 'but she is not equal to her mother.'
+
+'Whom I have not seen yet.  Ah, there's Mr. Egremont!  Why, he looks
+quite renovated!'
+
+'Well he may be!'
+
+'But Mark, not to hurt your feelings, he must have behaved atrociously.'
+
+'I'm not going to deny it,' said Mark.
+
+'I always did think he looked like it,' said Annaple.
+
+'When have you seen him before?'
+
+'Only once, but it was my admirable sagacity, you understand?  I always
+see all the villains in books just on his model.  Oh, but who's that?
+How very pretty!  You don't mean it is she!  Well, she might be the
+heroine of anything!'
+
+'Isn't she lovely?'
+
+'And has she been keeping school like Patience on a monument all these
+years?  It doesn't seem to have much damaged her damask cheek!'
+
+'It was only daily governessing.  She looks much better than when I
+first saw her; and as to the damask--why, that's deepened by the
+introduction to old Lady Grosmede that is impending.'
+
+'She is being walked up to the old Spanish duck with the red rag round
+her leg to receive her fiat.  What a thing it is to be a bearded
+Dowager, and rule one's neighbourhood!'
+
+'I think she approves.  She has made room for her by her side.  Is she
+going to catechise her?'
+
+Annaple made an absurd sound of mingled pity and disgust.
+
+'Not that she--my aunt, I mean--need be afraid.  The shame is all on
+the other side.'
+
+'And I think Lady Grosmede has too much sense to think the worse of her
+for having worked for herself,' added Annaple.  'If it was not for
+mother I should long to begin!'
+
+'You?  It's a longing well known to me!--but you!'
+
+'Exactly!  As the Irishman felt blue moulded for want of a bating, so
+do I feel fagged out for want of an honest day's work.'
+
+'If one only knew what to turn to,' said Mark so wearily that Annaple
+exclaimed,
+
+'We seem to be in the frozen-out state of mind, and might walk up and
+down singing "I've got no work to do,"'--to which she gave the well
+known intonation.
+
+'Too true,' said he, joining in the hum.
+
+'But I thought you were by way of reading law.'
+
+'One must see more than only "by way of" in these days to do any good.'
+
+At that moment Basil ran up with a message that Lady Delmar was ready
+to go home.
+
+They walked slowly up the terrace and Mark paused as they came near
+Mrs. Egremont to say, 'Aunt Alice, here is Miss Ruthven, May's great
+friend.'
+
+Annaple met a pleasant smile, and they shook hands, exchanging an
+observation or two, while a little way off Lady Grosmede was nodding
+her strong old face at Lady Delmar, and saying, 'Tell your mother I'll
+soon come and see her, my dear.  That's a nice little innocent body,
+lady-like, and thoroughly presentable.  Alwyn Egremont might have done
+worse.'
+
+'The only wonder is he did not!' returned Lady Delmar.  'They make the
+best of it here.'
+
+'Very good taste of them.  But, now I've seen her, I don't believe
+there's anything behind.  Very hard upon the poor young man, though it
+was all his doing, his mother says.  I congratulate you that it had not
+gone any farther in that quarter.'
+
+'Oh, dear no!  Never dreamt of it.  She is May's friend, that's all.'
+
+Nevertheless Lady Delmar made a second descent in person to hurry
+Annaple away.
+
+'Isn't it disgusting?' said May, catching her stepmother's smile.
+
+'You will see a good deal more of the same kind,' said the Canoness; 'I
+am afraid more mortification is in store for Mark than he guesses. I
+wish that girl were more like her mother.'
+
+'Mamma! a girl brought up among umbrella-makers!  Just fancy!  Why, she
+has just nothing in her!'
+
+'Don't set Mark against her, May; he might do worse.'
+
+'Her head is a mere tennis ball,' said May, drawing her own higher than
+ever, 'and no one would know her from a shop girl.'
+
+'She is young enough,' said the Canoness.  'Don't class me with Lady
+Delmar, May--I only say--if--and that I don't think you realise the
+change Mark will feel.'
+
+'Better so than sell himself,' muttered May.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+OUT OF WORK.
+
+  'I'm seeking the fruit that's nae growing.'--Ballad.
+
+
+Society recognised the newcomers.  Lady Grosmede's card appeared the
+next day, and was followed by showers of others, and everybody asked
+everybody 'Have you seen Mrs. Egremont?'
+
+It was well for Alice's happiness even at home that she was a success.
+When Alwyn Egremont had been lashed by his nephew's indignant integrity
+into tardy recognition of the wife of his youth, it had been as if he
+had been forced to pick up a flower which he had thrown away.  He had
+considerable doubts whether it would answer. First, he reconnoitred,
+intending, if he found a homely or faded being, to pension her off; but
+this had been prevented by her undeniable beauty and grace, bringing up
+a rush of such tender associations as he was capable of.  Yet even
+then, her position depended on the impression she might make on those
+about him, on her own power of self-assertion, and on her contributing
+to his comfort or pleasure.
+
+Of self-assertion Alice had none, only a gentle dignity in her
+simplicity, and she was so absolutely devoted to him that he found his
+house far more pleasant and agreeable for her presence and unfailing
+attention, though still his estimation of her was influenced more than
+he owned to himself by that of the world in general, and the Rectory in
+particular.
+
+And the Rectory did its part well.  The Canon was not only charmed with
+the gentle lady, but felt an atonement due to her; and his wife,
+without ever breathing into any ears, save his, the mysterious
+adjective 'governessy,' praised her right and left, confiding to all
+inquirers the romance of the burnt yacht, the lost bride, and the happy
+meeting under Lady Kirkaldy's auspices, with the perfect respectability
+of the intermediate career, while such was the universal esteem for,
+and trust in herself and the Canon, that she was fully believed; and
+people only whispered that probably Alwyn Egremont had been excused for
+the desertion more than he deserved.
+
+The subject of all this gossip troubled herself about it infinitely
+less than did the good Canoness.  In effect she did not know enough of
+the world to think about it at all.  Her cares were of a different
+order, chiefly caused by tenderness of conscience, and solicitude to
+keep the peace between the two beings whom she best loved.
+
+Two things were in her favour in this latter respect, one that they saw
+very little of each other, since Mr. Egremont seldom emerged from his
+own rooms till after luncheon; and the other that Ursula's brains ran
+to little but lawn-tennis for the ensuing weeks.  To hold a champion's
+place at the tournaments, neck and neck with her cousin Blanche, and
+defeat Miss Ruthven, and that veteran player, Miss Basset, was her
+foremost ambition, and the two cousins would have practised morning,
+noon, and night if their mothers would have let them.  There need have
+been no fear of Ursula's rebellion about the Cambridge honours, she
+never seemed even to think of them, and would have had no time in the
+more important competition of rackets. Indeed, it was almost treated as
+a hardship that the pair were forbidden to rush together before twelve
+o'clock, and that Ursula's mother insisted on rational home occupation
+until that time, setting the example herself by letter-writing,
+needlework, and sharing in the music which was a penance to the girl,
+only enforced by that strong sense of protecting affection which
+forbade rebellion.  But Alice could hope that their performances were
+pleasant to her husband in the evening, if only to sleep by, and so she
+persisted in preparing for them.
+
+Nuttie's rage for tennis, and apparent forgetfulness of her old life
+and aspirations, might be disappointing, but it conduced to make her
+mother's task easier than if she had been her original, critical, and
+protesting self.  In the new and brilliant surroundings she troubled
+herself much less than could have been expected at the failure of her
+father, his house, nay, and of the parish itself, in coming up to the
+St. Ambrose standard.  How much was owing to mere novelty and
+intoxication, how much to a yet unanalysed disappointment, how much to
+May's having thrown her upon the more frivolous Blanche, could not be
+guessed.  The effect was unsatisfactory to her mother, but a certain
+relief, for Nuttie's aid would have been only mischievous in the
+household difficulties that weighed on the anxious conscience. Good
+servants would not stay at Bridgefield Hall for unexplained causes,
+which their mistress believed to be connected with Gregorio, or with
+the treasure of a cook-housekeeper over whom she was forbidden to
+exercise any authority, and who therefore entirely neglected all meals
+which the master did not share with the ladies. Fortunately, Mr.
+Egremont came in one day at their luncheon and found nothing there but
+semi-raw beef, upon which there was an explosion; and being by this
+time convinced that his wife both would and could minister to his
+comfort, her dominion was established in the female department, though,
+as long as Gregorio continued paramount with his master, and the
+stables remained in their former state, it was impossible to bring
+matters up to the decorous standard of the Rectory, and if ever his
+mistress gave an order he did not approve, Gregorio overruled it as her
+ignorance.  In fact, he treated both the ladies with a contemptuous
+sort of civility.  Meantime Mr. Egremont was generally caressing and
+admiring in his ways towards his wife, with only occasional bursts of
+temper when anything annoyed him.  He was proud of her, gave her a
+liberal allowance, and only refused to be troubled; and she was really
+happy in his affection, for which she felt a gratitude only too humble
+in the eyes of her daughter.
+
+They had parties.  Blanche's ambition of tennis courts all over the
+lawn was fulfilled, and sundry dinners, which were crosses to Alice,
+who had neither faculty nor training for a leader and hostess, suffered
+much from the menu, more from the pairing of her guests, more again in
+catching her chief lady's eye after, and most of all from her husband's
+scowls and subsequent growls and their consequence, for Ursula broke
+out, 'It is not fair to blame my mother.  How should she have all the
+savoir-faire, or what you may call it, of Aunt Jane, when she has had
+no practice?'
+
+'Perhaps, Mrs. Egremont,' he retorted with extreme suavity, 'you will
+also attend to your daughter's manners.'  Otherwise he took little
+notice of Ursula, viewing her perhaps, as did the neighbourhood, as a
+poor imitation of May, without her style, or it may be with a sense
+that her tongue might become inconvenient if not repressed.  When he
+began to collect sporting guests of his own calibre in the shooting
+season, the Canoness quietly advised her sister-in-law to regard them
+as gentlemen's parties, and send Ursula down to spend the evening with
+her cousins; and to this no objection was made.  Mr. Egremont wanted
+his beautiful wife at the head of his table, and his guests never
+comported themselves unsuitably before her; but nobody wanted the
+unformed girl, and she and Blanche were always happy together.
+
+The chief restraint was when Mark was at home, and that was not always.
+He made sundry visits and expeditions, and was altogether in an
+uncomfortable condition of reaction and perplexity as to his future.
+He was a good and conscientious fellow, and had never been actually
+idle, but had taken education and life with the easiness of the
+prospective heir to a large property; and though he had acquitted
+himself creditably, it was with no view of making his powers
+marketable.  Though he had been entered at the Temple, it was chiefly
+in order to occupy himself respectably, and to have a nominal
+profession, so as not to be wholly dependent on his uncle; and all that
+he had acquired was the conviction that it would be half a lifetime, if
+not a whole one, before the law would afford him a maintenance.
+
+His father wished him to take Holy Orders with a view to the reversion
+of the Rectory, but Mark's estimate of clerical duty and vocation was
+just such as to make him shrink from them.  He was three-and-twenty, an
+awkward age for all those examinations that stand as lions in the face
+of youth intended for almost any sort of service, and seldom or never
+to be gagged by interest.  For one indeed, he went up and failed, and
+in such a manner as to convince him that cramming had more to do than
+general culture with success.
+
+He had a certain consciousness that most people thought another way
+open to him, most decidedly his gentle aunt, and perhaps even his
+parents.  The matter came prominently before him one day at luncheon,
+when, some parochial affairs being on hand and Mr. Egremont out for the
+day, Alice, whose free forenoons enabled her to take a share in church
+and parish affairs, was there, as well as the curate and his wife.
+
+These good people were in great commotion about a wedding about to take
+place between a young farmer and his delicate first cousin, the only
+survivor of a consumptive family.
+
+'"Proputty, proputty,"' quoted the Canon.  'James Johnson is what they
+call a warm man.'
+
+'It is a sin and a shame,' said Mrs. Edwards.  'What can they expect?
+George Johnson looks strong enough now, but they tell me his brother
+undoubtedly died of decline, though they called it inflammation; but
+there was tubercular disease.'
+
+'I am afraid it is strong in the family,' said the Canoness, 'they all
+have those clear complexions; but I do believe George is heartily in
+love with poor little Emily.'
+
+'First cousins ought to be in the table of degrees,' said Mr. Edwards.
+
+'It is always a question whether the multiplying of prohibitions
+without absolute necessity is expedient,' said the Canon.
+
+He spoke quite dispassionately, but the excellent couple were not
+remarkable for tact.  Mrs. Edwards gave her husband such a glance of
+warning and consternation as violently inclined May to laugh, and he
+obediently and hesitatingly began, 'Oh yes, sir, I beg your pardon. Of
+course there may be instances,' thereby bringing an intense glow of
+carnation into Alice's cheeks, while the Canon, ready for the occasion,
+replied, 'And George Johnson considers himself one of them. He will
+repair the old moat house, I suppose.'
+
+And his wife, though she would rather have beaten Mrs. Edwards,
+demanded how many blankets would be wanted that winter.
+
+The effect of this little episode was that Mark announced to his father
+that evening his strong desire to emigrate, an intention which the
+Canon combated with all his might.  He was apparently a hale and hearty
+man, but he had had one or two attacks of illness that made him doubt
+whether he would be long-lived; and not only could he not bear to have
+his eldest son out of reach, but he dreaded leaving his family to such
+a head as his brother.  Mark scarcely thought the reasons valid,
+considering the rapidity of communication with Canada, but it was not
+possible to withstand the entreaties of a father with tears in his
+eyes; and though he could not bring himself to consent to preparing to
+be his father's curate, he promised to do nothing that would remove him
+to another quarter of the world, and in two or three days more, started
+for Monks Horton to see what advice his uncle and aunt there could give
+him; indeed, Lord Kirkaldy's influence was reckoned on by his family
+almost as a sure card in the diplomatic line.
+
+The Kirkaldys were very fond of Mark, and had an odd feeling of being
+accountable for the discovery which had changed his prospects.  They
+would have done anything for him that they could, but all Lord
+Kirkaldy's interest was at the foreign office, or with his
+fellow-diplomates, and here he soon found an insuperable bar.  Mark's
+education had stood still from the time of Miss Headworth's flight till
+his father's second marriage, his energies having been solely devoted
+to struggles with the grim varieties of governess purveyed by his
+grandmother, and he had thus missed all chance of foundation of foreign
+languages, and when once at school, he had shared in the average
+English boy's contempt and aversion for the French masters who
+outscreamed a whole class.
+
+In consequence, Lord Kirkaldy, an accurate and elegant scholar in
+European tongues, besides speaking them with the cosmopolitan ease of
+an ambassador's son, was horrified, not only at Mark's pronunciation,
+but at his attempts at letter-writing and translation, made with all
+the good will in the world, but fit for nothing but to furnish the good
+stories which the kind uncle refrained from telling any one but his
+wife.  Unluckily, too, a Piedmontese family, some of them not strong in
+their English, were on a visit at Monks Horton, and the dialect in
+which the old marquis and Mark tried at times to interchange ideas
+about pheasants was something fearful.  And as in the course of a week
+Mark showed no signs of improvement in vernacular French or Italian,
+Lord Kirkaldy's conscience would let him give no other advice than that
+his nephew should stick to English law living still on the allowance
+his father gave him, and hoping for one of the chance appointments open
+to an English barrister of good family and fair ability.
+
+Of course Mark had gone at once to carry tidings of 'Aunt Alice,' as he
+scrupulously called her, to old Miss Headworth, whom his aunt had
+continued to visit at intervals.  That good lady had given up her
+boarders, having realised enough to provide for her own old age, and
+she had joined forces with the Nugents, Mary being very thankful to
+have her companionship for Mrs. Nugent, who was growing too blind and
+feeble to be satisfactorily left alone all day.
+
+Mark delighted the old ladies by his visits and accounts of their
+darling's success and popularity, which he could paint so brightly that
+they could not help exulting, even though there might be secret
+misgivings as to the endurance of these palmy days.  He was a great
+hero in their eyes, and they had too good taste to oppress him with
+their admiration, so that he really was more at ease in their little
+drawing-room than anywhere at Monks Horton, whither the Italians could
+penetrate.  The marchesino spoke English very well, but that was all
+the worse for Mark, since it gave such a sense of inferiority.  He was
+an intelligent man too, bent on being acquainted with English
+industries of all kinds; and thus it was that a party was organised to
+see the umbrella factory.  It was conducted by Mr. Dutton, with whom
+Lord Kirkaldy, between charities and public business, had become
+acquainted.
+
+To Mark's secret shame, this manufacturer spoke French perfectly, and
+even got into such a lively conversation with the old marquis about
+Cavour, that Lord Kirkaldy begged him to come to dinner and continue
+it.  They were all surprised, not only by the details of the
+manufacture and the multitude of artizans, male and female, whom it
+employed, but by the number of warehouse-clerks whom they found at
+work, and who, it appeared, were in correspondence with agencies and
+depots in London and all the principal towns in the kingdom.  Gerard
+Godfrey was there,--casting looks askance at the young Egremont, whom
+he regarded as a kind of robber.
+
+The marchesino asked from what class these young men were taken, and
+Mr. Dutton made reply that most of them were sons of professional men.
+If they could obtain a small capital and take shares in the business
+they were encouraged to do so, and rose to the headship of the
+agencies, obtaining a fair income.
+
+'And you don't exact an examination,' said Mark.
+
+'Except in handwriting and book-keeping,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Poor Mark, you look for your bugbear everywhere!' sighed his aunt.
+
+They went over the Institute, coffee-rooms, eating-rooms, and
+lodging-houses, by which the umbrella firm strove to keep their hands
+respectable and contented, and were highly pleased with all, most
+especially with Mr. Dutton, who, though his name did not come
+prominently forward, had been the prime mover and contriver of all
+these things, and might have been a wealthier man if he had not
+undertaken expenses which he could not charge upon the company.
+
+Gerard Godfrey came in to Mrs. Nugent's that evening in the lowest
+spirits.  He had a sister married to a curate in the same county with
+Bridgefield, and she had sent him a local paper which 'understood that
+a marriage was arranged between Mark de Lyonnais Egremont, Esquire, and
+Ursula, daughter of Alwyn Piercefield Egremont, Esquire, of Bridgefield
+Egremont,' and he could not help coming to display it to Miss Headworth
+in all its impertinence and prematurity.
+
+'Indeed he said nothing to me about it,' said Miss Headworth, 'and I
+think he would if it had been true.'
+
+'No doubt he intends it, and is trying to recommend himself through
+you,' said Gerard.
+
+'I should not think he needed that,' returned Aunt Ursel, 'though I
+should be very glad, I am sure.  He is an excellent young man, and it
+is quite the obvious thing.'
+
+'People don't always do the obvious thing,' put in Mary Nugent.
+
+'Certainly it didn't look like it,' said Miss Headworth,' when he told
+us about the great annual Hunt Ball at Redcastle that Nuttie and his
+sister Blanche are to come out at; he said he did not intend to go home
+for it if he could help it.'
+
+'Struggling against fate,' said Miss Nugent.
+
+'The puppy!' burst out Gerard.
+
+Having ascertained the particulars of this same Hunt Ball, Gerard
+became possessed with a vehement desire to visit his sister, and so
+earnestly solicited a few days' leave of absence that it was granted to
+him.  'Poor boy, he may settle down when he has ascertained what an ass
+he is,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Ah!' said Mary.  'I thought he was very bad when I saw he had not
+changed the green markers for St. Luke's Day.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+DETRIMENTALS.
+
+  'That tongue of yours at times wags more than charity allows;
+   And if you're strong, be merciful, great woman of three cows.'
+                                                     --J. O. MANGAN.
+
+
+Nine miles was a severe distance through country lanes in November to
+go to a ball; but the Redcastle Hunt Ball was the ball of the year,
+uniting all the county magnates; and young ladies were hardly reckoned
+as 'come out' till they had appeared there.  Mrs. Egremont's position
+would hardly be established till she had been presented to the
+notabilities who lived beyond calling intercourse; and her husband
+prepared himself to be victimised with an amount of grumbling that was
+intended to impress her with the magnitude of the sacrifice, but which
+only made her offer to forego the gaiety, and be told that she would
+never have any common sense.
+
+So their carriage led the way, and was followed by the Rectory
+waggonette containing the ladies and Mark, who had been decisively
+summoned home, since his stepmother disliked public balls without a
+gentleman in attendance, and his father was not to be detached from his
+fireside.
+
+And in a group near the door, got up as elaborately as his powers could
+accomplish, stood Gerard Godfrey.  He knew nobody there except a family
+in his sister's parish, who had good-naturedly given him a seat in
+their fly, and having fulfilled his duty by asking the daughter to
+dance, he had nothing to disturb him in watching for the cynosure whose
+attraction had led him into these unknown regions, and, as he
+remembered with a qualm, on the eve of St. Britius. However, with such
+a purpose, one might surely grant oneself a dispensation from the vigil
+of a black letter saint.
+
+There at length he beheld the entrance.  There was the ogre himself,
+high bred, almost handsome, as long as he was not too closely
+scrutinised, and on his arm the well-known figure, metamorphosed by
+delicately-tinted satin sheen and pearls, and still more by the gentle
+blushing gladness on the fair cheeks and the soft eyes that used to
+droop.  Then followed a stately form in mulberry moire and point lace,
+leaning on Gerard's more especial abhorrence,--'that puppy,' who had
+been the author of all the mischief; and behind them three girls, one
+in black, the other two in white, and, what was provoking, he really
+could not decide which was Ursula.  The carefully-dressed hair and
+stylish evening dress and equipments had altogether transformed the
+little homely schoolgirl, so that, though he was sure that she was not
+the fair-haired damsel with pale blue flowers, he did not know how to
+decide between the white and daisies and the black and grasses.
+Indeed, he thought the two whites most likely to be sisters, and all
+the more when the black lace halted to exchange greetings with some
+one, and her face put on an expression so familiar to him, that he
+started forward and tried to catch her eye; but in vain, and he
+suffered agonies of doubt whether she had been perverted by greatness.
+
+It was some comfort that, when presently a rush of waiters floated by,
+she was not with her cousin; but to provoke him still more, as the
+daisies neared him, he beheld for a moment in the whirl the queer
+smile, half-frightened, half-exultant, which he had seen on Nuttie's
+face when swinging sky-high!
+
+When the pause came and people walked about, the black lady stood
+talking so near him that he ventured at last on a step forward and an
+eager 'Miss Egremont,' but, as she turned, he found himself obliged to
+say, 'I beg your pardon.'
+
+'Did you mean my cousin.  We often get mistaken for each other,' said
+May civilly.
+
+He brightened.  'I beg your pardon,' he said, 'I knew her at
+Micklethwayte.  I am here--quite by accident.  Mrs. Elmore was so good
+as to bring me.'
+
+May was rather entertained.  'There's my cousin,' she said, 'Lord
+Philip Molyneux is asking her to dance,' and she left him most
+unnecessarily infuriated with Lord Philip Molyneux.
+
+A steward introduced him to a dull-looking girl, but fortune favoured
+him, for this time he did catch the real Nuttie's eye, and all herself,
+as soon as the dance was over, she came up with outstretched hands, 'Oh
+Gerard! to think of your being here!  Come to mother!'
+
+And, beautiful and radiant, Mrs. Egremont was greeting him, and there
+were ten minutes of delicious exchange of news.  But 'pleasures are as
+poppies fled,' Nuttie had no dance to spare, her card was full, and she
+had not learnt fashionable effrontery enough to play tricks with
+engagements, and just then Mr. Egremont descended on them--'I wish to
+introduce you to the Duchess,' he said to his wife; and on the way he
+demanded--'Who is that young cub?'
+
+'Gerard Godfrey--an old neighbour.'
+
+'I thought I had seen him racketing about there with Ursula.  I'll not
+have those umbrella fellows coming about!'
+
+'Does he really make umbrellas, Nuttie?' asked Blanche, catching her
+hand.
+
+'No such thing!' said Nuttie hotly, 'he is in the office.  His father
+was a surgeon; his sisters married clergymen!'
+
+'And he came here to meet you,' said Annaple Ruthven.  'Poor fellow,
+what a shame it is!  Can't you give him one turn!
+
+'Oh dear!  I'm engaged all through!  To Mark this time.'
+
+'Give him one of the extras!  Throw Mark over to me!  No,' as she
+looked at the faces of the two girls, 'I suppose that wouldn't do, but
+I'm free this time--I'm not the fashion.  Introduce me; I'll do my best
+as consolation.'
+
+Nuttie had just performed the feat, with great shyness, when Mark
+appeared, having been sent in quest of his cousin, when her father
+perceived that she had hung back.
+
+Poor Gerard led off Miss Ruthven the more gloomily, and could not help
+sighing out, 'I suppose that is an engagement!'
+
+'Oh! you believe that impertinent gossip in the paper,' returned
+Annaple.  'I wonder they don't contradict it; but perhaps they treat it
+with magnificent scorn.'
+
+'No doubt they know that it is only premature.'
+
+'If _they_ means the elders, I daresay they wish it, but we aren't in
+France or Italy.'
+
+'Then you don't think, Miss Ruthven, that it will come off?'
+
+'I don't see the slightest present prospect,' said Annaple, unable to
+resist the kindly impulse of giving immediate pleasure, though she knew
+the prospect might be even slighter for her partner.
+
+However, he 'footed it' all the more lightly and joyously for the
+assurance, and the good-natured maiden afterwards made him conduct her
+to the tea-room, whither Mark and Nuttie were also tending, and there
+all four contrived to get mixed up together; and Nuttie had time to
+hear of Monsieur's new accomplishment of going home for Mr. Dutton's
+luncheon and bringing it in a basket to the office, before fate again
+descended; Mr. Egremont, who had been at the far end of the room among
+some congeners, who preferred stronger refreshment, suddenly heard her
+laugh, stepped up, and, with a look of thunder towards her, observed in
+a low voice, 'Mark, you will oblige me by taking your cousin back to
+her mother.'
+
+'The gray tyrant father,' murmured Annaple in sympathy.  'That being
+the case, I may as well go back in that direction also.'
+
+This resulted in finding Lady Delmar and the two Mrs. Egremonts
+together, comparing notes about the two different roads to Redcastle
+from their several homes.
+
+Lady Delmar was declaring that her coachman was the most obstinate man
+in existence, and that her husband believed in him to any extent.
+
+'Which way did you come?' she asked.
+
+'By Bankside Lane,' said the Canoness.
+
+'Over Bluepost Bridge!  There, Janet,' said Annaple.
+
+'So much the worse.  I know we shall come to grief over Bluepost
+Bridge, and now there will be treble weight to break it down.  I dreamt
+it, I tell you, and there's second sight in the family.'
+
+'Yes, but you should tell what you did dream, Janet,' said her sister.
+'She thought Robinson, the coachman, was waltzing with her over it, and
+they went into a hole and stuck fast, while the red-flag traction
+engineman prodded her with an umbrella till she was all over blood.
+Now, if it had been anything rational, I should have thought something
+of her second sight!  I tell her 'twas suggested by--
+
+         "London Bridge is broken down,
+          Dance o'er my lady Lee!"'
+
+
+'Well, I am quite certain those traction-engines will break it some
+time or other,' said Lady Delmar.  'I am always trying to get John to
+bring it before the magistrates, but he only laughs at me, and nothing
+will induce Robinson to go the other way, because they have just been
+mending the road on Lescombe Hill!  Annaple, my dear, I can't allow you
+another waltz; Mark must excuse you--I am going.  It is half-past two,
+and the carriage was ordered at two!  Robinson will be in a worse
+temper than ever if we keep him waiting.'
+
+She bore her sister off to the cloak-room, and there, nearly an hour
+later, the Egremonts found them still waiting the pleasure of the
+implacable Robinson; but what was that in consideration of having kept
+her sister from such a detrimental as poor Mark had become?  So
+muttered Mr. Egremont, in the satisfaction of having himself, with
+gentlemanly severity, intimated the insuperable gulf between Miss
+Egremont of Bridgefield and the Man of Umbrellas.
+
+Moreover, his sister-in-law took care that he should hear that the
+Duchess of Redcastle had pronounced his wife sweetly pretty and
+lady-like, and talked of inviting them for a visit of a few nights.
+
+'A bore,' observed he ungratefully, ''tis as dull as ditchwater.' But,
+in truth, though the Canon's family, when in residence, were intimate
+with the ducal family, Alwyn Egremont had never been at the castle
+since the days of his earliest youth, and he was not quite prepared to
+owe his toleration there to his wife's charms, or the Canoness's
+patronage of her.
+
+And innocent Alice only knew that everybody had been very kind to her,
+and it was only a pity that her husband did not like her to notice poor
+Gerard Godfrey.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+GOING AGEE.
+
+  'Gin ye were a brig as auld as me.'--BURNS.
+
+
+'What's the matter?' exclaimed Mrs. Egremont, waking from a
+doze,--'that bridge?'
+
+'Bridge!  Don't be such a fool!  We aren't near it yet.'
+
+The servant, his face looking blurred through the window, came to
+explain that the delay was caused by an agricultural engine, which had
+chosen this unlucky night, or morning, to travel from one farm to
+another.  There was a long delay, while the monster could be heard
+coughing frightfully before it could be backed with its spiky companion
+into a field so as to let the carriages pass by; and meantime Mr.
+Egremont was betrayed into uttering ejaculations which made poor Nuttie
+round her eyes in the dark as she sat by his feet on the back seat, and
+Alice try to bury her ears in her hood in the corner.
+
+On they went at last, for about a mile, and then came another sudden
+stop--another fierce growl from Mr. Egremont, another apparition of the
+servant at the window, saying, in his alert deferential manner, 'Sir,
+the bridge have broke under a carriage in front.  Lady Delmar's, sir.
+The horse is plunging terrible.'
+
+The door was torn open, and all three, regardless of ball costumes,
+precipitated themselves out.
+
+The moon was up, and they saw the Rectory carriage safe on the road
+before them, but on the bridge beyond was a struggling mass, dimly
+illuminated by a single carriage lamp. Mr. Egremont and the groom
+hurried forward where Mark and the Rectory coachman were already
+rendering what help they could.  May standing at the horses' heads, and
+her mother trying to wrap everybody up, since stay in their carriages
+they could not.  Transferring the horses to Nuttie, the two sisters
+hurried on towards the scene of action, but Blanche's white satin boots
+did not carry her far, and she turned on meeting her uncle.  He spoke
+with a briskness and alacrity that made him like another man in this
+emergency, as he assured the anxious ladies that their friends were
+safe, but that they could not be extricated till the carriage was
+lifted from the hole into which it had sunk amid bricks, stones, and
+broken timbers.  He sent his own coachman to assist, as being the
+stronger man, and, mounting the box, turned and drove off in quest of
+further help, at a wayside cottage, or from the attendants on the
+engine, whose weight had probably done the mischief, and prepared the
+trap for the next comer.
+
+As May came near, her brother made her available by putting the lamp
+into her hand, bidding her hold it so as to light those who were
+endeavouring to release the horse, which had cleared the portion of the
+bridge before the break-down under the brougham, and now lay on the
+road, its struggles quelled by a servant at its head.  Nearly the whole
+of the hind wheels and most of the door had disappeared on one side,
+and, though more was visible on the other, it was impossible to open
+the door, as a mass of rubbish lay on it.  Annaple was on this side,
+and her voice was heard calling to May in fits of the laughter which is
+perhaps near akin to screams--
+
+         '"London bridge is broken down,
+           Dance o'er my lady Lee!"
+
+
+Janet will go in for second-sight ever after.  Yes, she's all right,
+except a scratch from the glass, and that I'm sitting on her more or
+less.  How are they getting on?'  'The horse is all but out.  Not hurt,
+they think.  Here's another man come to help--a gentleman--my dear, it
+is your partner, Nuttie's umbrella man.'  'Oh, making it
+complete--hopes, Janet--I'm sorry, but I can't help squashing you! I
+can't help subsiding on you!  What is it now?' as the lamp-light
+vanished.
+
+'They are looking for something to make levers of,' returned May;
+'these wooden rails are too rotten.'
+
+'Can't they get us through the window?' sighed a muffled voice.
+
+'Not unless we could be elongated, like the Hope of the Katzekopfs.'
+
+'We shall manage now,' cried Mark; 'we have found some iron bars to the
+hatch down there.  But you must prepare for a shock or two before you
+can be set free.'
+
+The two gentlemen and three servants strove and struggled, hoisted and
+pushed, to the tune of suppressed sounds, half of sobs, half of
+laughter, till at last the carriage was heaved up sufficiently to be
+dragged backwards beyond the hole; but even then it would not stand,
+for the wheels on the undermost side were crushed, neither could either
+door be readily opened, one being smashed in, and the other jammed
+fast.  Annaple, however, still tried to keep up her own spirits and her
+sister's, observing that she now knew how to sympathise with Johnnie's
+tin soldiers in their box turned upside down.
+
+Two sturdy labourers here made their appearance, having been roused in
+the cottage and brought back by Mr. Egremont, and at last one door was
+forced open by main force, and the ladies emerged, Annaple, helping her
+sister, beginning some droll thanks, but pausing as she perceived that
+Lady Delmar's dress was covered with blood.
+
+'My dear Janet.  This is worse than I guessed.  Why did you not speak?'
+
+'It is not much,' said the poor lady, rather faintly.  'My neck--'
+
+The elder ladies came about her, and seated her on cushions, where, by
+the light of May's lamp, Alice, who had been to an ambulance class at
+Micklethwayte, detected the extent of the cut, extracted a fragment of
+glass, and staunched the bleeding with handkerchiefs and strips of the
+girls' tulle skirts, but she advised her patient to be driven at once
+to a surgeon to secure that no morsel of glass remained.  Mr. Egremont,
+gratified to see his wife come to the front, undertook to drive her
+back to Redcastle.  Indeed, they must return thither to cross by the
+higher bridge.  'You will go with me,' entreated Lady Delmar, holding
+Alice's hand; and the one hastily consigning Nuttie to her aunt's care,
+the other giving injunctions not to alarm her mother to Annaple, who
+had declared her intention of walking home, the two ladies went off
+under Mr. Egremont's escort.
+
+Just then it was discovered that the Delmar coachman, Robinson, had all
+this time been lying insensible, not dead, for he moaned, but
+apparently with a broken leg, if nothing worse.  Indeed, the men had
+known it all along, but, until the ladies had been rescued, nothing had
+been possible but to put his cushion under his head and his rug over
+him.  The ladies were much shocked, and Mrs. William Egremont decided
+that he must be laid at the bottom of the waggonette, and that she
+would take him straight to the hospital.
+
+They were only a mile and a half from Lescombe, and it was pronounced
+safe to cross on foot by the remains of the bridge, so that Annaple,
+who had a pair of fur boots, had already decided on going home on foot.
+The other girls wanted to accompany her, and, as May and Nuttie both
+had overshoes, they were permitted to do so, and desired to go to bed,
+and wait to be picked up by the waggonette, which must return to
+Bridgefield by the Lescombe road.  Blanche, having a delicate throat,
+was sentenced to go with her stepmother.  Mark undertook to ride the
+horse through the river, and escort the three girls, and Gerard Godfrey
+also joined them.  The place where he was staying lay a couple of miles
+beyond Lescombe, and when Mrs. Elmore's fly had been met and turned
+back by Mr. Egremont, he had jumped off to render assistance, and had
+done so effectively enough to win Mark's gratitude.
+
+It was by this time about half-past five, as was ascertained by the
+light of the waning moon, the carriage-lamp having burnt out.  It was a
+fine frosty morning, and the moon was still powerful enough to reveal
+the droll figures of the girls.  May had a fur cloak, with the hood
+tied over her head by Mrs. Egremont's lace shawl; Nuttie had a huge
+white cloud over her head, and a light blue opera cloak; Annaple had
+'rowed herself in a plaidie' like the Scotch girl she was, and her eyes
+flashed out merrily from its dark folds.  They all disdained the
+gentlemen's self-denying offers of their ulsters, and only Nuttie
+consented to have the carriage-rug added to her trappings, and
+ingeniously tied on cloak-fashion with her sash by Gerard.  He and Mark
+piloted the three ladies over the narrow border of the hole, which
+looked a very black open gulf.  Annaple had thanked the men, and bidden
+them come to Lescombe the next day to be paid for their assistance.
+Then they all stood to watch Mark ride through the river, at the
+shallowest place, indicated both by her and the labourers.  It was
+perfectly fordable, so Annaple's were mock heroics when she quoted--
+
+         'Never heavier man and horse
+          Stemmed a midnight torrent's force.'
+
+
+And Nuttie responded in a few seconds--
+
+         'Yet through good heart and our Ladye's grace
+          Full soon he gained the landing place.'
+
+
+They were both in high spirits, admiring each other's droll appearance,
+and speculating on the ghosts they might appear to any one who chanced
+to look out of window.  Annaple walked at the horse's head, calling him
+poor old Robin Hood, and caressing him, while Gerard and Nuttie kept
+together.
+
+May began to repent of her determination to walk; Lescombe seemed very
+far off, and she had an instinct that she was an awkward fifth wheel.
+Either because Robin Hood walked too fast for her weary limbs, or
+because she felt it a greater duty to chaperon Nuttie than Annaple, she
+fell back on the couple in the rear, and was rather surprised at the
+tenor of their conversation.
+
+This 'umbrella man' was telling of his vicar's delight in the beautiful
+chalice veil that had been sent by Mrs. Egremont, and Nuttie was
+communicating, as a secret she ought not to tell, that mother was
+working a set of stoles, and hoped to have the white ones ready by the
+dedication anniversary; also that there was a box being filled for the
+St. Ambrose Christmas tree.  They were trying to get something nice for
+each of the choir boys and of the old women; and therewith, to May's
+surprise, this youth, whom she regarded as a sort of shopman, fell into
+full narration of all the events of a highly-worked parish,--all about
+the choral festival, and the guilds, and the choir, and the temperance
+work.  A great deal of it was a strange language to May, but she
+half-disapproved of it, as entirely unlike the 'soberness' of
+Bridgefield ways, and like the Redcastle vicar, whom her father
+commonly called 'that madman.'  Still, she had a practical soul for
+parish work, and could appreciate the earnestness that manifested
+itself, and the exertions made for people of the classes whom she had
+always supposed too bad or else too well off to come under clerical
+supervision.  And her aunt and cousin and this young man all evidently
+had their hearts in it!  For Nuttie--though her new world had put the
+old one apparently aside--had plunged into all the old interests, and
+asked questions eagerly, and listened to their answers, as if
+Micklethwayte news was water to the thirsty. The two were too happy to
+meet, and, it must be confessed, had not quite manners enough, to feel
+it needful to include in their conversation the weary figure that
+plodded along at a little distance from them, hardly attending to the
+details of their chatter, yet deriving new notions from it of the
+former life of Ursula and her mother, matters which she had hitherto
+thought beneath her attention, except so far as to be thankful that
+they had emerged from it so presentable.  That it was a more actively
+religious, and perhaps a more intellectual one than her own, she had
+thought impossible, where everything must be second-rate.  And yet,
+when her attention had wandered from an account of Mr. Dutton's
+dealings with a refractory choir boy bent on going to the races, she
+found a discussion going on about some past lectures upon astronomy,
+and Nuttie vehemently regretting the not attending two courses promised
+for the coming winter upon electricity and on Italian art, and
+mournfully observing, 'We never go to anything sensible here.'
+
+May at first thought, 'Impertinent little thing,' and felt affronted,
+but then owned to herself that it was all too true.  Otherwise there
+was hardly anything said about the contrast with Nuttie's present life;
+Gerard knew already that the church atmosphere was very different, and
+with the rector's daughter within earshot, he could not utter his
+commiseration, nor Nuttie her regrets.
+
+Once there was a general start, and the whole five came together at the
+sight of a spectrally black apparition, with a huge tufted head on
+high, bearing down over a low hedge upon them.  Nobody screamed except
+Nuttie, but everybody started, though the next moment it was plain that
+they were only chimney-sweepers on their way.
+
+'Retribution for our desire to act ghosts!' said Annaple, when the
+sable forms had been warned of the broken bridge.  'Poor May, you are
+awfully tired!  Shouldn't you like a lift in their cart?'
+
+'Or I could put you up on Robin Hood,' said Mark.
+
+'Thank you, I don't think I could stick on.  Is it much farther?'
+
+'Only up the hill and across the park,' said Annaple, still cheerily.
+
+'Take my arm, old woman,' said Mark, and then there was a pause, before
+Annaple said in an odd voice, 'You may tell her, Mark.'
+
+'Oh, Annaple!  Mark! is it so?' cried May joyously, but under her
+breath; and with a glance to see how near the other couple were.
+
+'Yes,' said Annaple between crying and laughing.  'Poor Janet, she'll
+think we have taken a frightfully mean advantage of her, but I am sure
+I never dreamt of such a thing; and the queer thing is, that Mark says
+she put it into his head!'
+
+'No, no,' said Mark; 'you know better than that--'
+
+'Why, you told me you only found it out when she began to trample on
+the fallen--'
+
+'I told you I had only understood my own heart.'
+
+'And I said very much the same--she made me so angry you see.'
+
+'I can't but admire your motives!' said May, exceedingly rejoiced all
+the time, and ready to have embraced them both, if it had not been for
+the spectators behind.  'In fact, it was opposition you both wanted.  I
+wonder how long you would have gone on not finding it out, if all had
+been smooth?'
+
+'The worst of it is,' said Annaple, 'that I'm afraid it is a very bad
+thing for Mark.'
+
+'Not a bit of it,' retorted he.  'It is the only thing that could have
+put life into my work, or made me care to find any!  And find it I will
+now!  Must we let the whole world in to know before I have found it,
+Annaple?'
+
+'I could not but tell my mother,' said Annaple.  'It would come out in
+spite of me, even if I wished to keep it back.'
+
+'Oh yes!  Lady Ronnisglen is a different thing,' said Mark.  'Just as
+May here is--'
+
+'And she will say nothing, I know, till we are ready--my dear old
+minnie,' said Annaple.  'Only, Mark, do pray have something definite to
+hinder Janet with if there are any symptoms of hawking her commodity
+about.'
+
+'I _will_,' said Mark.  'If we could only emigrate!'
+
+'Ah, if we could!' said Annaple.  'Ronald is doing so well in New
+Zealand, but I don't think my mother could spare me.  She could not
+come out, and she must be with me, wherever I am.  You know--don't
+you--that I am seven years younger than Alick.  I was a regular
+surprise, and the old nurse at Ronnisglen said 'Depend upon it, my
+Leddy, she is given to be the comfort of your old age.'  And I have
+always made up my mind never to leave her.  I don't think she would get
+on with Janet or any of them without me, so you'll have to take her
+too, Mark.'
+
+'With all my heart,' he answered.  'And, indeed, I have promised my
+father not to emigrate.  I must, and will, find work at hand, and wake
+a home for you both!'
+
+'But you will tell papa at once?' said May.  'It will hurt him if you
+do not.'
+
+'You are right, May; I knew it when Annaple spoke of her mother, but
+there is no need that it should go further.'
+
+The intelligence had lightened the way a good deal, and they were at
+the lodge gates by this time.  Gerard began rather ruefully to take
+leave; but Annaple, in large-hearted happiness and gratitude, begged
+him to come and rest at the house, and wait for daylight, and this he
+was only too glad to do, especially as May's secession had made the
+conversation a little more personal.
+
+Nuttie was in a certain way realising for the first time what her
+mother's loyalty had checked her in expressing, even if the tumult of
+novelties had given her full time to dwell on it.
+
+'Everybody outside is kind,' she said to Gerard; 'they are nice in a
+way, and good, but oh! they are centuries behind in church matters and
+feeling, just like the old rector.'
+
+'I gathered that; I am very sorry for you.  Is there no one fit to be a
+guide?'
+
+'I don't know,' said Nuttie.  'I didn't think--I must, somehow, before
+Lent.'
+
+'There is Advent close at hand,' he said gravely.  'If you could only
+be at our mission services, we hope to get Father Smith!'
+
+'Oh, if only I could!  But mother never likes to talk about those kind
+of things.  She says our duty is to my father.'
+
+'Not the foremost.'
+
+'No, she would not say that.  But oh, Gerard! if he should be making
+her worldly!'
+
+'It must be your work to hinder it,' he said, looking at her
+affectionately.
+
+'Oh, Gerard! but I'm afraid I'm getting so myself.  I have thought a
+great deal about lawn-tennis, and dress, and this ball,' said Nuttie.
+'Somehow it has never quite felt real, but as if I were out on a visit.'
+
+'You are in it, but not of it,' said Gerard admiringly.
+
+'No, I'm not so good as that!  I like it all--almost all.  I thought I
+liked it better till you came and brought a real true breath of
+Micklethwayte.  Oh! if I could only see Monsieur's dear curly head and
+bright eyes!'
+
+This had been the tenor of the talk, and these were the actual last
+words before the whole five--just in the first streaks of
+dawn--coalesced before the front door, to be admitted by a sleepy
+servant; Mark tied up the horse for a moment, while Annaple sent the
+man to waken Sir John Delmar, and say there had been a slight accident,
+but no one was much hurt; and, as they all entered the warm,
+dimly-lighted hall, they were keenly sensible that they had been
+dancing or walking all night.
+
+Rest in the chairs which stood round the big hearth and smouldering
+wood-fire was so extremely comfortable, as they all dropped down, that
+nobody moved or spoke, or knew how long it was before there was a voice
+on the stairs--'Eh? what's this, Annaple?  An accident? Where's Janet?'
+and a tall burly figure, candle in hand, in a dressing-gown and
+slippers, was added to the group.
+
+'Janet will be at home presently, I hope,' said Annaple, 'but she got a
+cut with some broken glass, and we sent her round by Dr. Raymond's to
+get it set to rights.  Oh, John! we came to grief on Bluepost Bridge
+after all, and I'm afraid Robinson has got his leg broken!'
+
+Sir John was a good-natured heavy man, whose clever wife thought for
+him in all that did not regard horses, dogs, and game.  He looked
+perfectly astounded, and required to have all told him over again
+before he could fully take it in.  Then he uttered a suppressed
+malediction on engines, insisted that all his impromptu guests should
+immediately eat, drink, and sleep, and declared his intention of going
+off at once to Redcastle to see about his wife.
+
+The two gentlemen were committed to the charge of the butler, and
+Annaple took Nuttie and May to her sister's dressing-room, where she
+knew she should find fire and tea, and though they protested that it
+was not worth while, she made them undress and lie down in a room
+prepared for them in the meantime.  It was a state chamber, with a big
+bed, far away from the entrance, shuttered and curtained up, and with
+double doors, excluding all noise.  The two cousins lay down, Nuttie
+dead asleep almost before her head touched the pillow, while May was
+aching all over, declaring herself far too much tired and excited to
+sleep; and, besides that it was not worth while, for she should be
+called for in a very short time.  And she remained conscious of a great
+dread of being roused, so that when she heard her cousin moving about
+the room, she insisted that they had scarcely lain down, whereupon
+Nuttie laughed, declared that she had heard a great clock strike twelve
+before she moved, and showed daylight coming in through the shutters.
+
+'We can't lie here any longer, I suppose,' said May, sitting up
+wearily; 'and yet what can we put on?  It makes one shiver to think of
+going down to luncheon in a ball dress!'
+
+'Besides, mine is all torn to pieces to make bandages,' said Nuttie. 'I
+must put on the underskirt and my cloak again.'
+
+'Or Annaple might lend us something.  I must get out somehow to know
+how poor Lady Delmar is, and what has become of everybody.  Ring,
+Ursula, please, and lie down till somebody comes.'
+
+The bell was answered by a maid, who told them that my lady had been
+brought home by Mr. and Mrs. Egremont about an hour after their
+arrival.  She was as well as could be expected, and there was no cause
+for anxiety.  Mr. and Mrs. Egremont had then gone on to Bridgefield,
+leaving word that Mrs. William Egremont and Miss Blanche were sleeping
+at Redcastle, having sent home for their own dresses and the young
+ladies', and would call for the rest of their party on the way.
+Indeed, a box for the Miss Egremonts had been deposited by the Canon
+from the pony-carriage an hour ago, and was already in the
+dressing-room; but Miss Ruthven would not have them disturbed.  Miss
+Ruthven,--oh yes, she was up, she had not been in bed at all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+A CASTLE OF UMBRELLAS.
+
+
+No, Annaple Ruthven could not have slept, even if she had had time. Her
+first care had been to receive her sister, who had been met at the
+entrance of Redcastle by her husband.  There had been profuse offers of
+hospitality to Mr. and Mrs. Egremont, the latter of whom looked tired
+out, and offers of sending messengers to Bridgefield; but Mr. Egremont
+would not hear of them, and every one suspected that he would not incur
+the chance of rising without Gregorio and all his appliances.
+
+By the time they were disposed of, and Lady Delmar safe in bed, it was
+time to repair to her mother's room, so as to prevent her from being
+alarmed.  Lady Ronnisglen was English born.  She was not by any means
+the typical dowager.  Her invalid condition was chiefly owing to an
+accident, which had rendered her almost incapable of walking, and she
+was also extremely susceptible of cold, and therefore hardly ever went
+out; but there was so much youth and life about her at sixty-three that
+she and Annaple often seemed like companion sisters, and her shrewd,
+keen, managing eldest-born like their mother.
+
+Annaple lay down beside her on her bed in the morning twilight, and
+gave her the history of the accident in playful terms indeed. Annaple
+could never help that, but there was something in her voice that made
+Lady Ronnisglen say, when satisfied about Janet's hurt, 'You've more to
+say, Nannie dear.'
+
+'Yes, minnie mine, I walked home with Mark Egremont.'
+
+'And--?'
+
+'Yes, minnie.  He is going to work and make a home--a real, true,
+homely home for you and me.'
+
+'My child, my child, you have not hung the old woman about the poor
+boy's neck!'
+
+'As if I would have had him if he did not love her, and make a mother
+of her!'
+
+'But what is he going to do, Nan?  This is a very different thing
+from--'
+
+'Very different from Janet's notions!' and they both laughed, the
+mother adding to the mirth by saying--
+
+'Poor Janet, congratulating herself that no harm had been done, and
+that you had never taken to one another!'
+
+'Did she really now?'
+
+'Oh yes, only yesterday, and I bade her not crow too soon, for I
+thought I saw symptoms--'
+
+'You dear darling minnie!  Think of that!  Before we either of us knew
+it, and when he is worth ever so much than he was before!  Not but that
+I am enraged when people say he has acted nobly, just as if there had
+been anything else for him to do!'
+
+'I own that I am glad he has proved himself.  I was afraid he would be
+dragged in the way of his uncle.  Don't be furious, Nannie.  Not at all
+into evil, but into loitering; and I should like to know what are his
+prospects now.'
+
+'Well, mother, I don't think he has any.  But he means to have.  And
+not a word is to be said to anybody except you and his father and May
+till he has looked over the top of the wall, and seen his way.  We need
+not bring Janet down on us till then.'
+
+'I must see him, my dear.  Let me see him before he goes away.  He
+always has been a very dear lad, a thoroughly excellent right-minded
+fellow.  Only I must know what he means to do, and whether there is any
+reasonable chance of employment or fixed purpose.'
+
+Lady Ronnisglen's maid here arrived with her matutinal cup of tea; and
+Annaple, beginning to perceive that she was very stiff, went off in
+hopes that her morning toilette would deceive her hardworked little
+frame into believing it had had a proper night's rest.
+
+She was quite ready to appear at the breakfast table, though her eldest
+niece, a long-haired, long-limbed girl, considerably the bigger of the
+two, was only too happy to preside over the cups.  All the four young
+people were in the greatest state of excitement, welcoming, as the
+heroes of the night, Mark and Mr. Godfrey, and clamouring to be allowed
+to walk down after breakfast with their father and the gentlemen to see
+the scene of the catastrophe and the remains of the carriage and the
+bridge.
+
+Sir John made a courteous reference to the governess, but there was a
+general sense that the cat was away, and presently there was a rush
+upstairs to prepare for the walk.  Annaple had time in the course of
+all the bustle, while the colour came back to her cheeks for a moment,
+to tell Mark that her mother had been all that was good, and wanted to
+see him.
+
+He must manage to stay till after eleven o'clock; she could not be
+ready before.  Then he might come to her sitting-room, which, as well
+as her bedroom, was on the ground floor.
+
+Mark had to work off his anxiety by an inspection of the scene of the
+disaster and a circumstantial explanation of the details to the young
+Delmars, who crowded round him and Mr. Godfrey, half awed, half
+delighted, and indeed the youngest--a considerable tomboy--had nearly
+given the latter the opportunity of becoming a double hero by tumbling
+through the broken rail, but he caught her in time, and she only
+incurred from Sir John such a scolding as a great fright will produce
+from the easiest of fathers.
+
+Afterwards Mark put Gerard on the way to his brother-in-law's living,
+asking him on the road so many questions about the umbrella business
+that the youth was not quite sure how to take it, and doubted whether
+the young swell supposed that he could talk of nothing else; but his
+petulance was mitigated when he was asked, 'Supposing a person wished
+to enter the business, to whom should he apply?'
+
+'Do you know any one who wishes for anything of the kind?' he asked.
+'Are you making inquiries for any one?' and on a hesitating
+affirmation, 'Because I know there is an opening for a man with capital
+just at present.  Dutton won't advertise--'tis so risky; and he wants
+some knowledge of a person's antecedents, and whether he is likely to
+go into it in a liberal, gentlemanly spirit, with good principles, you
+see, such as would not upset all we are doing for the hands.'
+
+'What amount of capital do you mean?'
+
+'Oh, from five hundred to a thousand!  Or more would not come amiss. If
+I only had it!  What it would be to conduct an affair like that on true
+principles!  But luck is against me every way.'
+
+Mark was at the sitting-room door as the four quarters began to strike
+in preparation for eleven, but Lady Ronnisglen had been in her chair
+for nearly half-an-hour, having been rapid and nervous enough to hurry
+even the imperturbable maid, whom Annaple thought incapable of being
+hastened.  She was a little slight woman, with delicate features and
+pale complexion, such as time deals with gently, and her once yellow
+hair now softened with silver was turned back in bands beneath the
+simple net cap that suited her so well.  There was a soft yet sparkling
+look about her as she held out her hands and exclaimed, 'Ah, Master
+Mark, what mischief have you been doing?'
+
+Mark came and knelt on one knee beside her and said: 'Will you let me
+work for you both, Lady Ronnisglen?  I will do my best to find some.'
+
+'Ah! that is the point, my dear boy.  I should have asked and wished
+for definite work, if you had come to me before that discovery of
+yours; and now it is a mere matter of necessity.'
+
+'Yes,' said Mark; then, with some hesitation, he added: 'Lady
+Ronnisglen, do you care whether I take to what people call a
+gentleman's profession?  I could, of course, go on till I am called to
+the bar, and then wait for something to turn up; but that would be
+waiting indeed!  Then in other directions I've taken things easy, you
+see, till I'm too old for examinations.  I failed in the only one that
+was still open to me.  Lord Kirkaldy tried me for foreign office work,
+and was appalled at my blunders.  I'm not fit for a parson.'
+
+'I should have thought you were.'
+
+'Not I,' said Mark.  'I'm not up to the mark there.  I couldn't say
+honestly that I was called to it.  I wish I could, for it would be the
+easiest way out of it; but I looked at the service, and I can't.
+There--that's a nice confession to come to you with!  I can't think how
+I can have been so impudent.'
+
+'Mark, you are a dear good lad.  I respect and honour you ever so much
+more than before all this showed what stuff was in you!  But the
+question is, What's to be done?  My child is verily the "penniless lass
+with a high pedigree," for she has not a poor thousand to call her own.'
+
+'And I have no right to anything in my father's lifetime, though I have
+no doubt he would give me up my share of my mother's portion--about
+L3000.  Now this is what has occurred to me: In the place where I found
+my uncle's wife--Micklethwayte, close to Monks Horton--there's a great
+umbrella factory, with agencies everywhere.  There are superior people
+belonging to it.  I've seen some of them, and I've been talking to the
+young fellow who helped us last night, who is in the office.  I find
+that to go into the thing with such capital as I might hope for, would
+bring in a much larger and speedier return than I could hope for any
+other way, if only my belongings would set aside their feelings.  And
+you see there are the Kirkaldys close by to secure her good society.'
+
+Lady Ronnisglen put out her transparent-looking, black-mittened hand,
+and gave a little dainty pat to his arm.  'I like to see a man in
+earnest,' said she.  Her little Skye terrier was seized with jealousy
+at her gesture, and came nuzzling in between with his black nose. 'Mull
+objects!' she said, smiling; but then, with a graver look, 'And so will
+your father.'
+
+'At first,' said Mark; 'but I think he will give way when he has had
+time to look at the matter, and sees how good you are.  That will make
+all the difference.'
+
+So Annaple, who had been banished for a little while, was allowed to
+return, and mother, daughter, and lover built themselves a little
+castle of umbrellas, and bestowed a little arch commiseration on poor
+Lady Delmar; who, it was agreed, need know nothing until something
+definite was arranged, since Annaple was clearly accountable to no one
+except her mother.  She would certainly think the latter part of her
+dream only too well realised, and consider that an unfair advantage had
+been taken of her seclusion in her own room.  In spite of all loyal
+efforts to the contrary, Mark, if he had been in a frame of mind to
+draw conclusions, would have perceived that the prospect of escaping
+from the beneficent rule of Lescombe was by no means unpleasant to Lady
+Ronnisglen.  The books that lay within her reach would hardly have
+found a welcome anywhere else in the house.  Sir John was not
+brilliant, and his wife had turned her native wits to the practical
+rather than the intellectual line, and had quite enough to think of in
+keeping up the dignities of Lescombe with a large family amid
+agricultural difficulties.
+
+Annaple remembered at last that she ought to go and look after her
+guests, assisted therein by the pleasure of giving May a hearty kiss
+and light squeeze, with a murmur that 'all was right.'
+
+She brought them downstairs just as the gong was sounding, and the rush
+of girls descending from the schoolroom, and Lady Ronnisglen being
+wheeled across the hall in her chair.  Nuttie, who had expected to see
+a gray, passive, silent old lady like Mrs. Nugent, was quite amazed at
+the bright, lively face and voice that greeted the son-in-law and
+grandchildren, May and herself, congratulating these two on having been
+so well employed all the morning, and observing that she was afraid her
+Nannie could not give so good an account of herself.
+
+'Well,' said Sir John, 'I am sure she looks as if she found plodding
+along the lanes as wholesome as sleeping in her bed!  Nan Apple-cheeks,
+eh?'
+
+Whereupon Annaple's cheeks glowed all the more into resemblance of the
+baby-name which she had long ceased to deserve; but May could see the
+darkness under her eyes, betraying that it was only excitement that
+drove away fatigue.
+
+Sir John had not gone far in his circumstantial description of the
+injuries to his unfortunate carriage when the Canon arrived, with his
+wife and Blanche.  Mark would have given worlds in his impatience to
+have matters settled between the two parents then and there; but Lady
+Ronnisglen had already warned him that this would not be possible, and
+assured him that it would be much wiser to prepare his father
+beforehand.
+
+Then he fixed his hopes on a solitary drive with his father back in the
+pony carriage, but he found himself told off to take that home, and had
+to content himself with May as a companion.  Nor was his sister's mode
+of receiving the umbrella plan reassuring.  She had smiled too often
+with her stepmother over Nuttie's having been brought up among
+umbrellas to be ready to accept the same lot for her brother and her
+friend, and she was quite sure that her father would never consent.
+'An Egremont an umbrella-maker! how horrible!  Just fancy seeing
+Dutton, Egremont and Co. on the handle of one's umbrella!'
+
+'Well, you need not patronise us,' said Mark.
+
+'But is it possible that Lady Ronnisglen did not object?' said May.
+
+'She seemed to think it preferable to driving pigs in the Texas, like
+her son Malcolm.'
+
+'Yes, but then that _was_ the Texas.'
+
+'Oh May, May, I did not think you were such a goose!'
+
+'I should have thought the folly was in not being patient.  Stick to
+your profession, and something must come in time.'
+
+'Ay, and how many men do you think are sticking to it in that hope? No,
+May, 'tis not real patience to wear out the best years of my life and
+hers in idleness, waiting for something not beneath an Egremont to do!'
+
+'But is there nothing to do better than that?'
+
+'Find it for me, May.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+INFRA DIG.
+
+  'Till every penny which she told,
+  Creative Fancy turned to gold.'--B. LLOYD.
+
+
+The Blueposts Bridge had produced a good deal of effect.  Ursula
+Egremont in special seemed to herself to have been awakened from a
+strange dream, and to have resumed her real nature and affections. She
+felt as if she would give all her partners at the ball for one shake of
+Monsieur's fringed paws; her heart yearned after Aunt Ursel and Miss
+Mary; she longed after the chants of the choir; and when she thought of
+the effort poor Gerard Godfrey had made to see her, she felt him a
+hero, and herself a recreant heroine, who had well-nigh been betrayed
+into frivolity and desertion of him, and she registered secret
+resolutions of constancy.
+
+She burned to pour out to her mother all the Micklethwayte tidings, and
+all her longings to be there; but when the Rectory party set her down
+at the door, the footman, with a look of grave importance, announced
+that Mr. Egremont was very unwell.  'Mr. Gregory thinks he has taken a
+chill from the effect of exposure, sir, and Dr. Hamilton has been sent
+for.'
+
+The Canon and his wife both got out on this intelligence, and Mrs.
+Egremont was summoned to see them.  She came, looking more frightened
+than they thought the occasion demanded, for she was appalled by the
+severe pain in the head and eyes; but they comforted her by assuring
+her that her husband had suffered in the same manner in the spring, and
+she saw how well he had recovered; and then telling Nuttie to bring
+word what the doctor's report was, and then spend the evening at the
+Rectory, they departed, while poor Nuttie only had one kiss, one
+inquiry whether she were rested, before her mother fled back to the
+patient.
+
+Nor did she see her again till after the doctor's visit, and then it
+was only to desire her to tell her uncle that the attack was pronounced
+to be a return of the illness of last spring, and that it would be
+expedient to go abroad for the winter.
+
+Go abroad!  It had always been a vision of delight to Nuttie, and she
+could not be greatly concerned at the occasion of it; but she did not
+find the Rectory in a condition to converse and sympathise.  Blanche
+was lying down with a bad headache.  The Edwardses and a whole party of
+semi-genteel parish visitors had come in to inquire about the accident,
+and had to be entertained with afternoon tea; and May, though helping
+her stepmother to do her devoir towards them, seemed more preoccupied
+than ever.
+
+As indeed she was, for she knew that Mark was putting his fate to the
+touch with his father in the study.
+
+The Canon heard the proposal with utter consternation and dismay at the
+perverseness of the two young people, who might have been engaged any
+time these two years with the full approbation of their families, and
+now chose the very moment when every one was rejoicing at their freedom.
+
+'When a young man has got into a pickle,' he said, 'the first thing is
+to want to be married!'
+
+'Exactly so, sir, to give him a motive for getting out of the pickle.'
+
+'Umbrellas!  I should like to hear what your grandfather would have
+said!'
+
+'These are not my grandfather's days, sir.'
+
+'No indeed!  There was nothing to do but to give a hint to old Lord de
+Lyonnais, and he could get you put into any berth you chose. Interest
+was interest in those days!  I don't see why Kirkaldy can't do the
+same.'
+
+'Not unless I had foreign languages at my tongue's end.'
+
+Whereat the Canon groaned, and Mark had to work again through all the
+difficulties in the way of the more liberal professions; and the upshot
+was that his father agreed to drive over to Lescombe the next day and
+see Lady Ronnisglen.  He certainly had always implicitly trusted his
+son's veracity, but he evidently thought that there must have been much
+warping of the imagination to make the young man believe the old
+Scottish peeress to have consented to her daughter's marrying into an
+umbrella factory.
+
+Nuttie was surprised and gratified that both Mark and May put her
+through an examination on the habits of Micklethwayte and the position
+of Mr. Godfrey, which she thought was entirely due to the favourable
+impression Gerard had produced, and she felt proportionably proud of
+him when Mark pronounced him a very nice gentlemanly young fellow.  She
+could not think why her uncle, with more testiness than she had ever
+seen in that good-natured dignitary, ordered May not to stand
+chattering there, but to give them some music.
+
+The Canon drove to Lescombe the next day under pretext of inquiring
+after Lady Delmar, and then almost forgot to do so, after he had
+ascertained that she was a prisoner to her dressing-room, and that Sir
+John was out shooting.  The result of his interview filled him with
+astonishment.  Lady Ronnisglen having had a large proportion of sons to
+put out in life on very small means had learnt not to be fastidious,
+and held that the gentleman might ennoble the vocation instead of the
+vocation debasing the gentleman.  Moreover, in her secret soul she felt
+that her daughter Janet's manoeuvres were far more truly degrading than
+any form of honest labour; and it was very sore to her to have no power
+of preventing them, ridicule, protest, or discouragement being all
+alike treated as the dear mother's old-world unpractical romance.  It
+galled her likewise that she could perceive the determination that
+Annaple Ruthven should be disposed of before Muriel Delmar came on the
+scene; and the retiring to ever so small a home of their own had been
+discussed between mother and daughter, and only put aside because of
+the pain it would give their honest-hearted host and their hostess, who
+really loved them.
+
+Thus she did her best to persuade her old friend that there were few
+openings for a man of his son's age, and that if the Micklethwayte
+business were all that Mark imagined, it was not beneath the attention
+even of a well-born gentleman in these modern days, and would involve
+less delay than any other plan, except emigration, which was equally
+dreaded by each parent.  Delay there must be, not only in order to
+ascertain the facts respecting the firm, but to prove whether Mark had
+any aptitude for the business before involving any capital in it.
+However, every other alternative would involve much longer and more
+doubtful waiting.  And altogether the Canon felt that if a person of
+Lady Ronnisglen's rank did not object, he had scarcely a right to do
+so.  However, both alike reserved consent until full inquiry should
+have been made.
+
+The Canon wrote to Lord Kirkaldy, and in the meantime wanted to gather
+what information he could from his sister-in-law; but he found her
+absolutely engrossed as her husband's nurse, and scarcely permitted to
+snatch a meal outside the darkened room.  He groaned and grumbled at
+his brother's selfishness, and declared that her health would be
+damaged, while his shrewder lady declared that nothing would be so good
+for her as to let Alwyn find her indispensable to his comfort, even
+beyond Gregorio.
+
+This absorption of her mother fell hard on Ursula, especially when the
+first two days' alarm was over, and her mother was still kept an entire
+prisoner, as companion rather than nurse.  As before, the rheumatic
+attack fastened upon the head and eyes, causing lengthened suffering,
+and teaching Mr. Egremont that he had never had so gentle, so skilful,
+so loving, or altogether so pleasant a slave as his wife, the only
+person except Gregorio whom, in his irritable state, he would tolerate
+about him.
+
+His brother could not be entirely kept out, but was never made welcome,
+more especially when he took upon himself to remonstrate on Alice's
+being deprived of air, exercise, and rest.  He got no thanks; Mr.
+Egremont snarled, and Alice protested that she was never tired, and
+needed nothing.  The Rectory party were, excepting the schoolroom
+girls, engaged to make visits from home before going into residence at
+Redcastle, and were to begin with Monks Horton.  They offered to escort
+Ursula to see her great aunt at Micklethwayte--Oh joy of joys!--but
+when the Canon made the proposition in his brother's room, Mr. Egremont
+cut it short with 'I'm not going to have her running after those
+umbrella-mongers.'
+
+The Canon's heart sank within him at the tone, and he was really very
+sorry for his niece, who was likely to have a fortnight or three weeks
+of comparative solitude before her father was ready to set out on the
+journey.
+
+'Can't she help you, in reading to her father--or anything?' he asked
+Alice, who had come out with him into the anteroom to express her warm
+thanks for the kind proposal.
+
+She shook her head.  'He would not like it, nor I, for her.'
+
+'I should think not!' exclaimed the Canon, as his eye fell on the title
+of a yellow French book on the table.  'I have heard of this! Does he
+make you read such as this to him, Alice?'
+
+'Nothing else seems to amuse him,' she said.  'Do you, think I ought
+not?  I don't understand much of that kind of modern French, but Nuttie
+knows it better.'
+
+'Not _that kind_, I hope,' said the Canon hastily.  No, no, my dear,'
+as he saw her colour mantling, 'small blame to you.  You have only to
+do the best you can with him, poor fellow!  Then we'll take anything
+for you.  We've said nothing to Nuttie, Jane said I had better ask you
+first.'
+
+'Oh, that was kind!  I am glad she is spared the disappointment.'
+
+Not that she was.  For when she learnt her cousins' destination, she
+entreated to go with them, and had to be told that the proposal had
+been made and refused.
+
+There is no denying that she behaved very ill.  It was the first real
+sharp collision of wills.  She had differed from, and disapproved of,
+her father all along, but what had been required of her had generally
+been pleasant to one side at least of her nature; but here she was
+condemned to the dulness of the lonely outsider to a sick room, when
+her whole soul was leaping back to the delights of her dear old home at
+Micklethwayte.
+
+She made her mother's brief meal with her such a misery of protests and
+insistences on pleadings with her father that poor Alice was fain to
+rejoice when the servants' presence silenced her, and fairly fled from
+her when the last dish was carried out.
+
+When they met again Nuttie demanded, 'Have you spoken to my father?'
+
+'I told you, my dear, it would be of no use?'
+
+'You promised.'
+
+'No, Nuttie, I did not.'
+
+'I'm sure I understood you to say you would if you could.'
+
+'It was your hopes, my dear child.  He is quite determined.'
+
+'And you leave him so.  Mother, I can't understand your submitting to
+show such cruel ingratitude!'
+
+Nuttie was very angry, though she was shocked at the burning colour and
+hot tears that she beheld as, half choked, her mother said: 'Oh, my
+dear, my dear, do not speak so!  You know--you know it is not in my
+heart, but my first duty, and yours too, is to your father.'
+
+'Whatever he tells us?' demanded Nuttie, still hot and angry.
+
+'I did not say that,' returned her mother gently, 'but you know,
+Nuttie, Aunt Ursel herself would say that it is our duty to abide by
+his decision here.'
+
+'But you could speak to him,' still argued Nuttie, 'what's the use of
+his being so fond of you if he won't do anything you want?'
+
+'Hush! hush, Nuttie! you know that is not a right way of speaking.  I
+cannot worry him now he is ill.  You don't know what that dreadful pain
+is!'
+
+Happily Nuttie did refrain from saying, 'No doubt it makes him very
+cross;' but she muttered, 'And so we are to be cut off for ever from
+Aunt Ursel, and Miss Mary, and--and--every thing good--and nice--and
+catholic?'
+
+'I hope not, indeed, I hope not.  Only he wants us to get the good
+society manners and tone--like your cousins, you know.  You are young
+enough for it, and a real Egremont, you know Nuttie, and when you have
+learnt it, he will trust you there,' said the mother, making a very
+mild version of his speech about the umbrella-mongers.
+
+'Yes, he wants to make me worldly, so that I should not care, but that
+he never shall do, whatever you may let him do to you.'
+
+His bell rang sharply, and away hurried Alice, leaving her daughter
+with a miserably sore and impatient heart, and the consciousness of
+having harshly wounded the mother whom she had meant to protect.  And
+there was no hugging and kissing to make up for it possible.  They
+would not meet till dinner-time, and Nuttie's mood of stormy repentance
+had cooled before that time into longing to be more tender than usual
+towards her mother, but how was that possible during the awful
+household ceremony of many courses, with three solemn men-servants
+ministering to them?
+
+And poor Alice jumped up at the end, and ran away as if afraid of fresh
+objurgations, so that all Nuttie could do was to rush headlong after
+her, catch her on the landing, kiss her face all over, and exclaim,
+'Oh, mother, mother, I was dreadfully cross!'
+
+'There, there!  I knew you would be sorry, dear, dear child, I know it
+is very hard, but let me go.  He wants me!'
+
+And a very forlorn and deplorable person was left behind, feeling as if
+her father, after carrying her away from everything else that she
+loved, had ended by robbing her of her mother.
+
+She stood on the handsome staircase, and contrasted it with the little
+cosy entrance at her aunt's.  She felt how she hated all these fine
+surroundings, and how very good and unworldly she was for so doing.
+Only, was it good to have been so violent towards her mother?
+
+The Rectory folks were dining out, so she could only have recourse to
+Mudie's box to try to drive dull care away.
+
+A few days more and they were gone.  Though Mr. Egremont was gradually
+mending, he still required his wife to be in constant attendance.  In
+point of fact Alice could not, and in her loyalty would not, tell her
+dignified brother-in-law, far less her daughter, of the hint that the
+doctor had given her, namely, that her husband was lapsing into the
+constant use of opiates, founded at first on the needs of his malady,
+but growing into a perilous habit, which accounted for his shutting
+himself up all the forenoon.
+
+While under medical treatment it was possible to allowance him, and
+keep him under orders, but Dr. Hamilton warned her not to allow the
+quantity to be exceeded or the drugs to be resorted to after his
+recovery, speaking seriously of the consequences of indulgence.  He
+spoke as a duty, but as he looked at the gentle, timid woman, he saw
+little hope of her doing any good!
+
+Poor Alice was appalled.  All she could do was to betake herself to
+'the little weapon called All-Prayer,' and therewith to use all
+vigilance and all her arts of coaxing and cheering away weariness and
+languor, beguiling sleeplessness, soothing pain by any other means. She
+had just enough success to prevent her from utterly despairing, and to
+keep her always on the strain, and at her own cost, for Mr. Egremont
+was far more irritable when he was without the narcotic, and the
+serenity it produced was an absolute relief.  She soon found too that
+Gregorio was a contrary power.  Once, when he had suggested the dose,
+and she had replied by citing the physician's commands, Mr. Egremont
+had muttered an imprecation on doctors, and she had caught a horrible
+grin of hatred on the man's face, which seemed to her almost
+diabolical.  She had prevailed then, but the next time her absence was
+at all prolonged, she found that the opiate had been taken, and her
+dread of quitting her post increased, though she did not by any means
+always succeed.  Sometimes she was good-humouredly set aside, sometimes
+roughly told to mind her own business; but she could not relinquish the
+struggle, and whenever she did succeed in preventing the indulgence she
+felt a hopefulness that--in spite of himself and Gregorio, she might
+yet save him.
+
+Another hint she had from both the Canon and his wife.  When they asked
+what place was chosen, Mr. Egremont said he had made Alice write to
+inquire of the houses to be had at various resorts--Mentone, Nice,
+Cannes, and the like.  She was struck by the ardour with which they
+both began to praise Nice, Genoa, Sorrento, any place in preference to
+Mentone, which her husband seemed to know and like the best.
+
+And when she went downstairs with them the Canon held her hand a
+moment, and said, 'Anywhere but Mentone, my dear.'
+
+She looked bewildered for a moment, and the Canoness added, 'Look in
+the guide-books.'
+
+Then she remembered Monte Carlo, and for a moment it was to her as
+shocking a warning as if she had been bidden to keep her husband out of
+the temptation of thieving.
+
+She resolved, however, to do her best, feeling immediately that again
+it was a pull of her influence against Gregorio's.  Fortune favoured
+her so far that the villa favoured by Mr. Egremont was not to be had,
+only the side of the bay he disliked, and that a pleasant villa offered
+at Nice.
+
+Should she close with it?  Well--was there great haste?  Gregorio knew
+a good many people at Mentone, and could ascertain in his own way if
+they could get the right side of the bay by going to the hotel and
+waiting.  Alice, however, pressed the matter--represented the danger of
+falling between two stools, pleaded personal preference, and whereas
+Mr. Egremont was too lazy for resistance to any persuasion, she
+obtained permission to engage the Nice villa.  The next day Gregorio
+announced that he had heard that the proprietor of Villa Francaleone at
+Mentone was giving up hopes of his usual tenants, and an offer might
+secure it.
+
+'Villa Eugenie at Nice is taken,' said Alice, and she received one of
+those deadly black looks, which were always like a stab.
+
+Of all this Nuttie knew nothing.  She was a good deal thrown with the
+schoolroom party and with the curate's wife for companionship.  Now
+Mrs. Edwards did not approve of even the canonical Egremonts, having an
+ideal far beyond the ritual of Bridgefield; and she was delighted to
+find how entirely Miss Egremont sympathised with her.
+
+Nuttie described St. Ambrose's as a paradise of church observances and
+parish management, everything becoming embellished and all shortcomings
+forgotten in the loving mists of distance.  The harmonium was never out
+of tune; the choir-boys were only just naughty enough to show how
+wisely Mr. Spyers dealt with them; the surplices, one would think,
+never needed washing; Mr. Dutton and Gerard Godfrey were paragons of
+lay helpers, and district visitors never were troublesome.  Mrs.
+Edwards listened with open ears, and together they bewailed the
+impracticability of moving the Canon to raising Bridgefield to anything
+approaching to such a standard; while Nuttie absolutely cultivated her
+home sickness.
+
+According to promise Blanche wrote to her from Monks Horton, and told
+her thus much--'We have been all over your umbrella place.  It was very
+curious.  Then we called upon Miss Headworth, who was quite well, and
+was pleased to hear of you.'
+
+Blanche was famous for never putting into a letter what her
+correspondent wanted to hear, but her stepmother wrote a much longer
+and more interesting letter to Mrs. Egremont.
+
+'You will be glad to hear that we found your aunt quite well.  I
+suppose it is not in the nature of things that you should not be
+missed; but I should think your place as well supplied as could be
+hoped by that very handsome and superior Miss Nugent, with whom she
+lives.  I had a good deal of conversation with both; for you will be
+surprised to hear that the Canon has consented to Mark's making the
+experiment of working for a year in Greenleaf and Dutton's office, with
+a view to entering the firm in future.  I was very anxious to
+understand from such true ladies what the position would be socially. I
+longed to talk it over with you beforehand; but Alwyn could never spare
+you, and it was not a subject to be broached without ample time for
+discussion.  We felt that though the Kirkaldys could tell us much, it
+was only from the outside, whereas Miss Headworth could speak from
+within.  The decision is of course a blow to his father, and will be
+still more so to the De Lyonnais family, but they have never done
+anything to entitle them to have a voice in the matter, and the
+Kirkaldys agree with us that, though not a path of distinction, it is
+one of honourable prosperity; and with this, if Mark is content, we
+have no right to object, since his mind is set on present happiness
+rather than ambition.'
+
+It was a letter gratifying to Alice in its confidential tone, as well
+as in the evident approval of those surroundings which she loved so
+well.  She read it to her husband, as she was desired to give him a
+message that the Canon had not written out of consideration for his
+eyes.  He laughed the laugh that always jarred on her.  'So Master Mark
+has got his nose to the grindstone, has he?' was his first exclamation,
+and, after some cogitation, 'The fellow wants to be married, depend on
+it!'
+
+'Do you think so?' returned Alice wistfully.
+
+'Think!  Why, you may see it in Jane's letter!  I wonder who it is! The
+little yellow Ruthven girl, most likely!  The boy is fool enough for
+anything!  I thought he would have mended his fortunes with Ursula, but
+he's too proud to stomach that, I suppose!'
+
+'I did wish that!' said Alice.  'It would have set everything straight,
+and it would have been so nice for her.'
+
+'You should have cut out your daughter after your own pattern,' he
+answered; 'not let her be such a raw insignificant little spitfire.
+'Tis a pity.  I don't want the estate to go out of the name, though I
+won't leave it to an interfering prig like Mark unless he chooses to
+take my daughter with it!'
+
+The latter part of this amiable speech was muttered and scarcely heard
+or attended to by Alice in her struggle to conceal the grief she felt
+at the uncompromising opinion of her child.  Nuttie might outgrow being
+raw, but there seemed less rather than more prospect of a better
+understanding with her father.  About a week later Mark made his
+appearance, timing it happily when his uncle was making his toilette,
+so that his aunt was taking a turn on the sunny terrace with Nuttie
+when the young man came hurrying up the garden.
+
+'Mark!  What?  Are you come home?'
+
+'Not the others.  They are at Mr. Condamine's, I came last night--by
+way of Lescombe.  Edda, dear, it is all right!  Oh, I forgot you did
+not know!  There was no seeing you before we went away.  Ah! by the by,
+how is my uncle?'
+
+'Much better, except that using his eyes brings on the pain.  'What is
+it, Mark?  Ah! I can guess,' she said, aided no doubt by that
+conjecture of her husband's.
+
+'Yes, yes, yes!' he answered, with a rapidity quite unlike himself.
+'Why, Nuttie, how mystified you look!'
+
+'I'm sure I don't wonder at any one being glad to live at dear old
+Micklethwayte,' said Nuttie slowly.  'But, somehow, I didn't think it
+of you, Mark.'
+
+'My dear, that's not all!' said her mother.
+
+'Oh!' cried Nuttie, with a prolonged intonation.  'Is it?--Oh, Mark!
+did you _do it_ that night when you led the horse home?'
+
+'Even so, Nuttie!  And, Aunt Alice, Lady Ronnisglen is the best and
+bravest of old ladies, and the wisest.  Nobody objects but Lady Delmar,
+and she declares she shall not consider it an engagement till
+Ronnisglen has been written to in Nepaul, as if he had anything to do
+with it; but that matters the less, since they all insist on our
+waiting till I've had a year's trial at the office!  I suppose they
+could not be expected to do otherwise, but it is a pity, for I'm afraid
+Lady Delmar will lead Annaple and her mother a life of it.'
+
+'Dear Mark, I am delighted that it is all going so well.'
+
+'I knew you would be!  I told them I must tell _you_, though it is not
+to go any farther.'
+
+So that hope of Mark's restoration to the inheritance faded from Alice,
+and yet she could not be concerned for him.  She had never seen him in
+such good spirits, for the sense of failure and disappointment had
+always been upon him; and the definite prospect of occupation, gilded
+by his hopes of Annaple, seemed to make a new man of him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+AN OLD FRIEND.
+
+  'My heart untravelled still returns to thee.'--GOLDSMITH.
+
+
+To go abroad!  Such had been the fairy castle of Nuttie's life.  She
+had dreamed of Swiss mountains, Italian pictures, Rheinland castles, a
+perpetual panorama of delight, and here she was in one of the great
+hotels of Paris, as little likely to see the lions of that city as she
+had been to see those of London.
+
+The party were halting for two days there because the dentist, on whom
+Mr. Egremont's fine show of teeth depended, practised there; but Nuttie
+spent great part of the day alone in the sitting-room, and her hand-bag
+and her mother's, with all their books and little comforts, had been
+lost in the agony of landing.  Her mother's attendance was required all
+the morning, or what was worse, she expected that it would be, and
+though Nuttie's persistence dragged out the staid, silent English maid,
+who had never been abroad before, to walk in the Tuilleries gardens,
+which they could see from their windows, both felt half-scared the
+whole time.  Nuttie was quite unused to finding her own way
+unprotected, and Martin was frightened, cross, and miserable about the
+bags, which, she averred, had been left by Gregorio's fault.  She so
+hated Gregorio that only a sort of adoration which she entertained for
+Mrs. Egremont  would have induced her to come tete-a-tete with him, and
+perhaps he was visiting his disappointment about Mentone on her.  In
+the afternoon nothing was achieved but a drive in the Bois de Boulogne,
+when it was at once made evident that Mr. Egremont would tolerate no
+questions nor exclamations.
+
+His mouth was in no condition for eating in public, and he therefore
+decreed that his wife and daughter should dine at the table d'hote,
+while he was served alone by Gregorio.  This was a great boon to
+Nuttie, and to her mother it recalled bridal days long past at Dieppe;
+but what was their astonishment when on entering the room they beheld
+the familiar face of Mr. Dutton!  It was possible for him to place
+himself between them, and there is no describing the sense of rest and
+protection his presence imparted to them, more especially to Nuttie.
+
+He had come over, as he did from time to time, on business connected
+with the materials he used, and he was beguiled into telling them of
+his views of Mark, whom he had put in the way of learning the
+preliminaries needful to an accountant.  He had a deep distrust of the
+business capacities and perseverance of young gentlemen of family,
+especially with a countess-aunt in the neighbourhood, and quoted Lord
+Eldon's saying that to make a good lawyer of one, it was needful for
+him to have spent both his own and his wife's fortune to begin with,
+but he allowed that young Mr. Egremont was a very favourable specimen,
+and was resolutely applying himself to his work, and that he himself
+felt it due to him to give all the assistance possible.
+
+Miss Headworth, he could not deny, had aged, but far less than Mrs.
+Nugent in the past year, and it really was a great comfort to Miss Mary
+to have the old ladies together.  He told too how the mission, now
+lately over, had stirred the Micklethwayte folk into strong excitement,
+and how good works had been undertaken, evil habits renounced,
+reconciliations effected, religious services frequented. Would it last?
+Nobody, he said, had taken it up so zealously as Gerard Godfrey, who
+seemed as if he would fain throw everything up, and spend his whole
+life in some direct service as a home missionary or something of the
+kind.  'He is a good fellow,' said Mr. Dutton, 'and it is quite
+genuine, but I made him wait at least a year, that he may be sure that
+this is not only a passing impulse.'
+
+Nuttie thought that she knew what was the impulse that had actuated
+him, and felt a pleasant elation and self-consciousness even while she
+repressed a sigh of pity for herself and for him.  Altogether the dip
+into the Micklethwayte world was delightful, but when Mr. Dutton began
+to ask Nuttie what she had seen, she burst out with, 'Nothing--nothing
+but just a walk and a drive in the Bois de Boulogne;' and her mother
+explained that 'in Mr. Egremont's state of health,' etc.
+
+'I wonder,' asked Mr. Dutton, 'if I might be allowed--'
+
+Nuttie's eyes sparkled with ecstasy.
+
+It ended in her mother, who had been wondering how Mr. Egremont could
+be amused all the long evening, arranging that Mr. Dutton should come
+in an hour's time to call on him, on the chance of being admitted, and
+that then the offer might be made when she had prepared him for it,
+advising Nuttie to wait in her own room.  She was beginning to learn
+how to steer between her husband and her daughter, and she did not
+guess that her old friend was sacrificing one of the best French plays
+for the chance.
+
+It turned out well; Mr. Egremont was conscious of a want of variety. He
+demanded whether it was the young fellow, and being satisfied on that
+part, observed in almost a good-humoured tone, 'So, we are in for
+umbrellas, we may as well go in for the whole firm!' caused the lights
+to be lowered under pretext of his eyes--to conceal the lack of
+teeth--did not absolutely refuse to let Nuttie take advantage of the
+escort, and when Mr. Dutton did come to the anteroom of the apartment,
+he was received with full courtesy, though Gregorio looked unutterable
+contempt.  Mr. Dutton was a man who could talk, and had seen a good
+deal of the world at different times.  Mr. Egremont could appreciate
+intelligent conversation, so that they got on wonderfully well
+together, over subjects that would have been a mere weariness to Nuttie
+but for the exceeding satisfaction of hearing a Micklethwayte voice.
+At last Mr. Dutton said something about offering his escort to the
+ladies, or to Miss Egremont, who used, he said in a paternal way, to be
+a little playfellow of his; Mr. Egremont really smiled, and said, 'Ay,
+ay, the child is young enough to run after sights. Well, thank you, if
+you are so good as to take the trouble, they will be very grateful to
+you, or if her mother cannot go with her, there's the maid.'
+
+Nuttie thought she had never known him so amiable, and hardly durst
+believe her good fortune would not turn the wheel before morning. And
+it so far did that her mother found, or thought she found, that it
+would not do to be out of call, and sent the silent Martin in her
+stead.  But Mr. Dutton had set telegraphs to work and recovered the
+bags, which Gregorio had professed to give up in despair.
+
+A wonderful amount of lionising was contrived by Mr. Dutton, who had
+lived a few years at Paris in early youth, and had made himself
+acquainted alike with what was most worth seeing, and the best ways and
+means of seeing it, so that as little time as possible was wasted on
+the unimportant.  It was one of the white days of Nuttie's life,
+wanting nothing but her mother's participation in the sight of the St.
+Michael of the Louvre, of the Sainte Chapelle, of the vistas in Notre
+Dame, and of poor Marie Antoinette's cell,--all that they had longed to
+see together.
+
+She had meant to tell Mr. Dutton that it was all her father's
+selfishness, but somehow she could not say so, there was something
+about him that hindered all unbefitting outbreaks of vexation.
+
+And thus, when she mentioned her disappointment at not being allowed to
+go to Micklethwayte with her uncle, he answered, 'You could not of
+course be spared with your father so unwell.'
+
+'Oh, he never let me come near him!  I wasn't of the slightest use to
+him!'
+
+'Mrs. Egremont would have missed you.'
+
+'Really he never gave her time.  He perfectly devours her, body and
+soul.  Oh dear, no!  'Twas for no good I was kept there, but just pride
+and ingratitude, though mother tried to call it being afraid for my
+manners and my style.'
+
+'In which, if you lapse into such talk, you fully justify the
+precaution.  I was just thinking what a young lady you had grown into,'
+he answered in a tone of banter, under which, however, she felt a
+rebuke; and while directing her attention to the Pantheon, he took care
+to get within hearing again of Martin.
+
+And in looking at these things, he carried her so far below the
+surface.  St. Michael was not so much Raffaelle's triumph of art as the
+eternal victory over sin; the Sainte Chapelle, spite of all its modern
+unsanctified gaudiness, was redolent of St. Louis; and the cell of the
+slaughtered queen was as a martyr's shrine, trod with reverence.  There
+were associations with every turn, and Nuttie might have spent years at
+Paris with another companion without imbibing so many impressions as on
+this December day, when she came home so full of happy chatter that the
+guests at the table d'hote glanced with amusement at the eager girl as
+much as with admiration at the beautiful mother.  Mr. Dutton had been
+invited to come and take coffee and spend the evening with them again,
+but Mr. Egremont's affairs with the dentist had been  completed, and he
+had picked up, or, more strictly speaking, Gregorio had hunted up for
+him, a couple of French acquaintances, who appeared before long and
+engrossed him entirely.
+
+Mr. Dutton sat between the two ladies on a stiff dark-green sofa on the
+opposite side of the room, and under cover of the eager,
+half-shrieking, gesticulating talk of the Frenchmen they had a quiet
+low-toned conversation, like old times, Alice said.  'More than old
+times,' Nuttie added, and perhaps the others both agreed with her.
+
+When the two Englishwomen started at some of the loud French tones,
+almost imagining they were full of rage and fury, their friend smiled
+and said that such had been his first notion on coming abroad.
+
+'You have been a great deal abroad?' Mrs. Egremont asked; 'you seem
+quite at home in Paris.'
+
+'Oh, mamma, he showed me where the school was that he went to, and the
+house where he lived!  Up such an immense way!'
+
+Mr. Dutton was drawn on to tell more of his former life than ever had
+been known to them.  His father, a wine merchant, had died a bankrupt
+when he was ten years old, and a relation, engaged in the same business
+at Paris, had offered to give him a few years of foreign schooling, and
+then make him useful in the business.
+
+His excellent mother had come with him, and they had lived together on
+very small means, high up in a many-storied lodging-house, while he
+daily attended the Lycie.  His reminiscences were very happy of those
+days of cheerful contrivance, of her eager desire to make the tiny
+appartement a home to her boy, of their pleasant Sundays and holidays,
+and the life that in this manner was peculiarly guarded by her
+influence, and the sense of being all she had upon earth.  He had
+scarcely ever spoken of her before, and he dwelt on her now with a
+tenderness that showed how she had been the guiding spirit of his life.
+
+At fifteen he was taken into the office at Marseilles, and she went
+thither with him, but the climate did not agree with her; she drooped,
+and, moreover, he discovered that the business was not conducted in the
+honourable manner he had supposed.  After a few months of weighing his
+obligations to his kinsman against these instincts, the question was
+solved by his cousin's retiring.  He resolved to take his mother back
+to England at any loss, and falling in with one of the partners of the
+umbrella firm in quest of French silk, he was engaged as foreign
+correspondent, and brought his mother to Micklethwayte, but not in time
+to restore her health, and he had been left alone in the world just as
+he came of age, when a small legacy came to him from his cousin, too
+late for her to profit by it. It had been invested in the business, and
+he had thus gradually risen to his present position.  Mrs. Egremont was
+amazed to hear that his mother had only been dead so short a time
+before she had herself come to Micklethwayte; and fairly apologised for
+the surprise she could not help betraying at finding how youthful he
+had then been, and Nuttie exclaimed, in her original unguarded fashion:
+
+'Why, Mr. Dutton, I always thought you were an old bachelor!'
+
+'Nuttie, my dear!' said her mother in a note of warning, but Mr. Dutton
+laughed and said:
+
+'Not so far wrong!  They tell me I never was a young man.'
+
+'You had always to be everything to your mother,' said Mrs. Egremont
+softly.
+
+'Yes,' he said, 'and a very blessed thing it was for me.'
+
+'Ah! you don't regret now all that you must have always been giving up
+for her,' returned Alice.
+
+'No, indeed.  Only that I did not give up more.'
+
+'That is always the way.'
+
+'It is indeed.  One little knows the whips that a little self-will
+prepares.'
+
+Nuttie thought he said it for her admonition, and observed, 'But she
+was good,' only, however, in a mumble, that the other two thought it
+inexpedient to notice, though it made both hearts ache for her, even
+Alice's--with an additional pang of self-reproach that she herself was
+not good enough to help her daughter better.
+
+Neither of them guessed at the effect that a glimpse of the lovely
+young seeming widow had had on the already grave self-restrained young
+man in the home lately made lonely, how she had been his secret object
+for years, and how, when her history was revealed to him, he had still
+hoped on for a certainty which had come at last as so fatal a shock and
+overthrow to all his dreams.
+
+A life of self-restraint and self-conquest had rendered it safe for him
+to thoroughly enjoy the brief intercourse, which had come about by the
+accident of his having come to dine at the Hotel de Louvre, to meet a
+friend who had failed him.
+
+These were two completely happy hours to all the three, and when they
+said 'good-night' there was a sense of soothing and invigoration on
+Alice's mind; and on Nuttie's that patience and dutifulness were the
+best modes of doing justice to her Micklethwayte training, although he
+had scarcely said a word of direct rebuke or counsel.
+
+While Mr. Dutton sped home to tell Miss Headworth that Mrs. Egremont
+looked lovelier than ever, and was--yes she was--more of an angel, that
+her husband had been very pleasant, much better than he expected, and,
+indeed, might come to anything good under such influence; and as to
+little Nuttie--she was developing fast, and had a brave constant heart,
+altogether at Micklethwayte.  But that servant who was acting as
+courier was an insolent scoundrel, who was evidently cheating them to
+the last degree.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+A FRIEND IN NEED.
+
+  'True courage often is in frightened eyes.'--
+                                 Thoughts and Verses.
+
+
+All the preliminaries of the sojourn at Nice had been settled in
+correspondence, and the Egremont family had nothing to do, after
+arriving at the station, but to drive up to Villa Eugenie, whose
+flower-wreathed balconies were like a vision of beauty.  Servants had
+been hired through agencies known to Mr. Egremont, and Gregorio looked
+very black at his mistress keeping the reins in her hand, and tried to
+make her feel herself inefficient.
+
+It was not an eventful or very interesting part of Ursula's life. She
+was almost wild with the novelty and beauty of the South at first, but
+except for what she could thus see, there was little variety.  The
+mould of the day was as much as possible after the Bridgefield fashion,
+except that there were no cousins at the Rectory, no parish interests,
+very little society, as far as the ladies were concerned.  Mr. Egremont
+had old acquaintance and associates with whom he spent afternoons and
+evenings, after his own fashion, but they were not people to whom he
+wished to introduce his wife and daughter.
+
+And the superior English habitues of Nice, the families who formed the
+regular society, knew Mr. Egremont's reputation sufficiently to feel by
+no means disposed to be cordial to the fair wife and grown-up daughter
+whom he so unexpectedly produced on the scene.  It had been different
+at home, where he had county standing, and the Canon and Canoness
+answered for the newcomers; but here, where all sorts of strange people
+came to the surface, the respectable felt it needful to be very
+cautious, and though of course one or two ladies had been asked to call
+through the intervention of Lady Kirkaldy or of Mrs. William Egremont,
+and had been assured on their authority that it was 'all right,' their
+attentions were clogged by doubt, and by reluctance to involve their
+mankind in intimacy with the head of the family.  Thus very little of
+the proverbial gaiety of Nice offered itself to Nuttie and her mother,
+and, except by a clerical family who knew Mr. Spyers, they were kept at
+a distance, which Mr. Egremont perceived and resented by permitting no
+advances.  The climate suited him so well that, to his wife's great
+relief, he seemed to have dropped his inclination for sedatives; but
+his eyes would not bear much, and she felt bound to be always on the
+alert, able to amuse him and hinder his feeling it dull.  Gregorio
+highly disapproved of the house and servants, and was always giving
+hints that Mentone would agree far better with his master; but every
+day that Mr. Egremont seemed sufficiently amused at Nice was so much
+gain, and she had this in her favour, that he was always indolent and
+hard to move. Moreover, between his master's levee and late dinner
+Gregorio was hardly ever to be found.  No doubt he knew the way to
+Monte Carlo well enough, and perhaps preferred that the family should
+be farther off, for he soon ceased to show himself discontented with
+their present abode.  Once when his absence was inconvenient, Mr.
+Egremont abused him roundly as a good-for-nothing gambler, but when
+Alice hoped that he might be called to a reckoning, the wrath had
+subsided with the immediate vexation, and as usual she was told 'All
+those fellows were alike.'
+
+The foreign servants were not to be induced to give the early-rising
+ladies more than a roll and cup of coffee, and Nuttie felt ravenous
+till she learned to lay in a stock of biscuits, and, with Martin's
+connivance, made tea on her own account, and sustained her mother for
+the morning's walk before the summons to Mr. Egremont.
+
+He always wanted his wife much earlier in the day, during his hours of
+deshabille, and letting her write his letters and read the papers to
+him.  She was pleased with this advance, but it gave Nuttie a great
+deal more solitude, which was sometimes judiciously spent, but it was
+very hard not to be desultory in spite of learning lessons in French,
+Italian, and drawing.
+
+Later in the day came the drive or the visit to the public gardens when
+the band was playing, but this became less frequent as Mr. Egremont
+observed the cold civility shown to his wife, and as he likewise grew
+stronger and made more engagements of his own.  Then Nuttie had happy
+afternoons of driving, donkey-riding, or walking with her mother,
+sketching, botanising, admiring, and laying up stores for the long
+descriptive letters that delighted the party in St. Ambrose's Road,
+drinking in all the charm of the scenery, and entering into it
+intelligently.  They spent a good many evenings alone together
+likewise, and it could not but give Alice a pang to see the gladness
+her daughter did not repress when this was the case, even though to
+herself it meant relaxation of the perpetual vigilance she had to exert
+when the father and daughter were together to avert collisions.  They
+were certainly not coming nearer to one another, though Nuttie was
+behaving very well and submissively on the whole, and seldom showing
+symptoms of rebellion.  This went on through the early part of their
+stay, but latterly there was a growing sense upon the girl that she and
+her mother were avoided by some young ladies to whom they had been
+introduced, and whom they saw regularly at the daily services at St.
+Michael's Church.  They were pleasant-looking girls, with whom Nuttie
+longed to fraternise, and she was mortified at never being allowed to
+get beyond a few frigidly civil words in the street, more especially
+when she came upon sketching parties and picnics in which she was never
+included.
+
+It was all very well for her mother to answer her murmurs and
+wonderings with 'You know people are very exclusive, my dear.' Nuttie
+began to guess that her father and her name were the real reason, and
+her eyes were further opened later in the spring when Mr. Egremont, who
+had recovered unusual health and vigour, took his ladies to Mentone to
+spend a day or two in the newer beauties there. Alice had her
+misgivings, but the visit was avowedly to show the place to her, and
+she could not reasonably object.  He was in unusual good humour, and
+even tolerated their ecstasies at the scenery and the flowers, dined at
+the table d'hote and found acquaintance, enjoyed himself, and in the
+forenoon, while Nuttie was out wondering and admiring, and going as far
+as she could drag Martin, he expressed to his wife that she would be
+astonished at the gardens and the music of Monte Carlo.
+
+There, however, Alice made a stand.  'Thank you, it is very kind, but
+if you please, I should not like to take Ursula to Monte Carlo, or to
+go there myself,' she said in an apologetic tone.
+
+He laughed.  'What! you are afraid of making the little one a confirmed
+gambler?'
+
+'You know I am not, but--'
+
+'You think the little prig will be contaminated, eh?'
+
+'Well, I think it will be happier for her if she never sees
+anything--of the kind.'
+
+'You little foolish Edda, as if her eyes or ears need see anything but
+flowers and music and good company.'
+
+'I know that, but I had so much rather not.  It was a sweet face and
+caressing voice that implored, and he still was good humoured.
+
+'Well, well, I don't want to drag you, old lady, against your will,
+though I fancy you would be rather surprised at the real aspect of the
+abode of iniquity your fancy depicts.'
+
+'Oh, thank you, thank you so much!'
+
+'What an absurd little woman it is!  I wonder if you would thank me as
+heartily supposing I cleared a round thousand and gave you--say a
+diamond necklace?'
+
+'I am sure I should not!'
+
+'No, I don't believe you would.  That restless little conscience of
+yours would be up on end.  After all, I don't know that you are the
+worse for it, when it looks so prettily out of your brown eyes.  I
+wonder what you expect to see?  The ruined gamester shooting himself on
+every path, eh?'
+
+'No, no; I don't suppose I should see anything horrid or even
+disagreeable.  I know it is all very beautiful; but then every person
+who goes for the innocent pleasures' sake only helps to keep up the
+whole thing--evil and all.'
+
+'And what would the old women of all sorts here and at Nice do without
+such a choice temple of scandal to whet their teeth upon? Well, I
+suppose you and your precious daughter can take care of yourselves.
+There are the gardens, or you can tell Gregorio to order you a
+carriage.'
+
+'Then you are going?'
+
+'Yes, I promised Grafton.  Don't be afraid, Mistress Edda, I'm not
+going to stake Bridgefield and reduce you to beggary.  I'm an old hand,
+and was a cool one in my worst days, and whatever I get I'll hand over
+to appease you.'
+
+That was all she could obtain, and she secretly hoped there would be no
+winnings to perplex her.  Thankful that she had not made him angry by
+the resistance for which she had prepared herself with secret prayer
+ever since the Mentone scheme had been proposed, she placed herself at
+Nuttie's disposition for the rest of the day.
+
+They had a charming donkey-ride, and, still unsatiated with beauty,
+Ursula made her mother come out again to wonder at the trees in the
+public gardens.  Rather tired, they were sitting on a shaded bench,
+when a voice close to them exclaimed, 'It is; yes, it must be; 'tis the
+voice--yes, and the face prettier than ever.  Little Alice--ah! you
+don't know me.  Time has been kinder to you than to me.'
+
+'Oh!  I know you now!  I beg your pardon,' cried Alice, recognising in
+the thin nutcracker parchment visage and shabbily-dressed figure the
+remnant of the brilliant aquiline countenance and gay attire of
+eighteen years ago.  'Mrs. Houghton!  I am so glad to have met you, you
+were so kind to me.  And here she is.'
+
+'What! is this the child?  Bless me, what a proof how time goes! Young
+lady, you'll excuse my not knowing you.  You were a very inconvenient
+personage not quite born when I last met your mother. What a likeness!
+I could have known her for Alwyn Egremont's daughter anywhere!'
+
+'Yes, they all say she is a thorough Egremont.'
+
+'Then it is all right.  I saw Alwyn Egremont, Esquire, and family among
+the arrivals at Nice, but I hardly durst expect that it was you.  It
+seemed too good to be true, though I took care the knot should be tied
+faster than my gentleman suspected.'
+
+'Oh, please!' cried Alice deprecatingly, at first not apprehending the
+force of the words, having never known the gulf from which Mrs.
+Houghton had saved her, and that lady, seeing that the girl was
+listening with all her ears, thought of little pitchers and restrained
+her reminiscences, asking with real warm interest, 'And how was it?
+How did you meet him again?'
+
+'He came and found me out,' said Alice, with satisfaction in her voice.
+
+'Indeed!  Not at Dieppe; for he was en garcon when I nearly came across
+him ten years ago at Florence.'
+
+'Oh no!  He inquired at Dieppe, but they had lost the address my aunt
+left.'
+
+'Indeed!  I should not have thought it of old Madame Leroux, she seemed
+so thoroughly interested in la pauvre petite.  What did you do?  Your
+aunt wrote to me when your troubles were safely over, and she thought
+him lost in the poor Ninon, that she meant to settle in a place with an
+awfully long Yorkshire name.'
+
+'Micklethwayte; yes, we lived there, and got on very well.  We had
+boarders, and I had some dear little pupils; but last year Mark
+Egremont--you remember dear little Mark--was in the neighbourhood, and
+hearing my name, he told his uncle, who had been seeking us ever since.
+And he came, Mr. Egremont, and took us home, and oh, the family have
+been so kind!'
+
+'What?  The parson, and that awful old she-lion of a grandmother, whose
+very name scared you out of your wits?'
+
+'She is dead, and so is dear good Lady Adelaide.  Canon Egremont is
+kindness itself.  It was all the old lady's doing, and he knew nothing
+about it.  He was gone to Madeira with Lady Adelaide and got none of
+our letters, and he never knew that his brother was married to me.'
+
+'Trust Alwyn for that,' Mrs. Houghton muttered.  'Well, all's well that
+ends well, and I hope he feels due gratitude to me for doing him a good
+turn against his will.  I tried to get at him at Florence to find out
+what he had done with you, but unluckily I was ill, and had to send
+through poor Houghton, and he mismanaged it of course, though I
+actually wrote down that barbarous address, Mickle something, on a
+card.  I believe he only got as far as the man instead of the master.'
+
+'Ah!  I wanted to ask for Captain Houghton,' said Alice, glad to lead
+the conversation away from revelations of which she had an instinctive
+dread.
+
+'Gone, my dear! two years ago.  Poor fellow! it was low fever, but
+quite as much want of luck, I shall always believe,' she said.
+
+'Oh, I am sorry!  He was so kind to me!' said Alice, squeezing her
+hand, and looking up with sweet tender commiseration.
+
+'There, there, don't, you pretty creature!' said Mrs. Houghton, putting
+her hand across her eyes.  'I declare, you've almost made me cry--which
+I've not done--well, hardly, since I parted with you at Dieppe,
+thinking you a sweet little flower plucked and thrown away to die,
+though I had done my best to bind it to him.  What care I took not to
+let Houghton disabuse him about Jersey marriages!'
+
+There is a difference between hearing and hearkening, and Alice
+Egremont's loving and unsuspecting heart was so entirely closed against
+evil thoughts of her husband, and so fully occupied with her old
+friend's condition, that she never took in the signification of all
+this, while Nuttie, being essentially of a far more shrewd and less
+confiding nature, and already imbued with extreme distrust of her
+father, was taking in all these revelations with an open-eyed, silent
+horror of conviction that her old impressions of the likeness to
+Marmion or Theseus had been perfectly correct.  It was all under her
+hat, however, and the elder ladies never thought of her, Alice bringing
+back the conversation to Mrs. Houghton herself.  'Oh, my dear, I drag
+on as I can.  I've got a fragment of our old income, and when that's
+run too low, I go up to Monte Carlo--I always had the lucky hand, you
+know, and 'tis only restitution after all!  I'm sick of it all though,
+and sometimes think I'll take my good sister Anne's offers and go home.'
+
+'Oh do, do!' cried Alice.
+
+'But,' went on the poor woman, 'humble pie goes against me, and think
+what an amount would be before me--heigh ho!--after nearly
+five-and-twenty years; yes, five-and-twenty years it is--since
+Houghton, poor fellow, told me I was too bright and winsome for a
+little country lawyer's house in a poky street.  What would they think
+of me now?' and she laughed with a sound that was painful to hear.
+'Well, Sycorax had done one good deed, and when I look at you, queening
+it there, I feel that so have I.'
+
+'You were very good to me, I know; but oh, if you would go home to your
+sister!'
+
+'My dear, you little know what you ask!  Anne!  Why, she is the prime
+district lady, or whatever you call it, of Dockforth.  Think what it
+would be to her to have this battered old vaurien thrown on her hands,
+to be the stock subject for all the righteous tongues. Besides,' as she
+coughed, 'the English climate would make an end of me outright.  I'm in
+a bad way enough here, where I can sit among the lemon trees half the
+days in the winter, but the English fireside in a stuffy parlour--' and
+she shuddered.
+
+That shiver reminded all that it was getting late, too late for Mrs.
+Houghton to be out of doors, and near the time when Mr. Egremont was to
+meet his ladies at the hotel.  Alice begged for Mrs. Houghton's
+address, and it was given with a short ironical laugh at her promise to
+call again if possible.  'Ay, if possible,' the poor woman repeated.
+'I understand!  No, no,' as Alice was about to kiss her. 'I won't have
+it done.'
+
+'There's no one in sight.'
+
+'As if that made a difference!  Alice, child, you are as innocent as
+the little dove that flew aboard the Ninon.  How have you done it? Get
+along with you!  No kisses to such as me!  I don't know whether it
+breaks my heart, or binds it up to look at the face of you. Anyway, I
+can't bear it.'
+
+She hurried away, and made some steps from them.  A terrible paroxysm
+of coughing came on, and Mrs. Egremont hurried towards her, but she
+waved back all help, shook her head, and insisted on going home. Alice
+kept her in sight, till she dived into a small side street.
+
+'Mother,' said Nuttie.  Then there was a pause.  'Mother, did you know
+all this?'
+
+'Don't talk of it, Nuttie.  It is not a thing to be talked about to any
+one or by any one.  I wish you had not been there.'
+
+'But, mother, this once!  Did you know?'
+
+'I knew that I knew not what I did when I went on board that yacht, but
+that God's kind providence was over me in a way that I little deserved.
+That is all I care to know, and, Ursula, I will have not another word
+about it.  No, I will not hear it.'
+
+'I was only going to ask whether you would tell my father.'
+
+'Certainly; but not before you.'
+
+The tone of decision was unwonted, and Nuttie knew she must abide by
+it, but the last shreds of filial respect towards Mr. Egremont were
+torn away by what Mrs. Houghton had implied, and the girl dashed up and
+down her bedroom muttering to herself, 'Oh, why have I such a father?
+And she, she will not see it, she is wilfully blind!  Why not break
+with him and go home to dear Aunt Ursel and Gerard and Mr. Dutton at
+once, instead of this horrid, horrid grandeur?  Oh, if I could fling
+all these fine things in his face, and have done with him for ever.
+Some day I will, when I am of age, and Gerard has won his way.'
+
+Meantime Alice, in some trepidation, but with resolution at the bottom,
+had told her husband of the meeting with Mrs. Houghton, of her
+widowhood, sickness, and poverty.
+
+He did not like the intelligence of their meeting, and hoped no one had
+seen it; then, when reassured on this score, he hummed a little and
+exclaimed, 'Poor old Flossy Houghton!  I don't wonder!  They went the
+pace!  Well, what do you want?  Twenty pounds for her!  Why, 'twill all
+be at Monte Carlo in three days' time.'
+
+'It is very good of you, but I want more than that.  She is so ill and
+wretched, you know.'
+
+'I can't have you visiting her, if that's what you mean.  Why, after
+all the pains I've been at to get you on your proper level at home,
+here's my Lady Louisa and all her crew, in their confounded insolence,
+fighting shy of you, and you can't give them a better colour for it
+than by running after a woman like that--divorced to begin with, and
+known at every gambling table in Europe.'
+
+'I know that, Alwyn, dear Alwyn' (it was very seldom that she called
+him so, and she put her clasped hands on his shoulder); 'but I am sure
+she is dying, and she was so good to me, I can't bear doing nothing for
+her.'
+
+'Well, there's twenty--fifty, if you like.'
+
+'Thank you, thank you, but you know I never meant to visit
+her--like--like society; only to go sometimes privately and--'
+
+'And how about your daughter?'
+
+'I would not take her on any account.  What I want to do is this. Mrs.
+Houghton spoke of her sister, a kind good woman in England, who would
+take her home, and love her, if only she could bring herself to go.
+Now, I think I could persuade her to write, or let me write to the
+sister--and if only the two were together again!  It is very dreadful
+to think of her dying alone, in the way she is going on!'
+
+'What, little saint, you want to try your hand on her?  I should say
+she was too tough an old sinner for you.'
+
+'Oh, Alwyn! her heart was very near, though she tried to keep it back.
+I do not want to--to do what you mean--only to get her to let her
+sister come.  I'm sure that would do the rest.'
+
+'If any sister does more than you, you little witch,' he said.
+
+Alice pressed him no more then, but a day or two later, when she knew
+he had an engagement, she arranged to dispose of Nuttie with the
+clergyman's wife, and then begged permission to go by train to Mentone,
+and come back in the evening.  He did not like it--no more did she--for
+she was perfectly unaccustomed to travelling alone, but there was a
+deep sense of sacred duty upon her, only strengthened by her
+unwillingness to realise how much she owed to Mrs. Houghton.
+
+She telegraphed that she was coming, and found her friend more touched
+than she chose to allow at the fact of her visit, declaring that she
+must have wonderful power over Alwyn Egremont, if she knew how to use
+it; indeed, the whole tone was of what Alice felt flattery, intended to
+turn away anything more serious.  Poor woman, she was as careful of
+doing no injury to her young friend's reputation as Mr. Egremont could
+have desired.  Alice had come resolved that she should have one good
+meal, but she would not hear of eating anywhere in public where either
+could be recognised, and the food was brought to a private room in the
+hotel.  To her lodgings she still would not take Alice, nor would she
+give her sister's address.  Except for a genuine shower of tears when
+Alice insisted on kissing her there seemed no ground gained.
+
+But Alice went again on her husband's next visit to Mentone.  He was,
+to a certain degree, interested in her endeavours, and really wished
+the poor woman to be under the charge of her relations, instead of
+dying a miserable lonely death among strangers.
+
+This time Alice had to seek her friend in the dreary quatrieme of the
+tall house with the dirty stone stairs. It was a doleful empty room,
+where, with a mannish-looking dressing-gown and a torn lace scarf tied
+hood-fashion over her scanty hair, Mrs. Houghton sat over a pan of
+charcoal oppressive to Alice's English lungs.
+
+'Come again!' she cried.  'Well, I really shall begin to think that
+angels and ministers of grace exist off the stage!  You pretty thing!
+Let me look at you.  Where did you get that delicious little bonnet?'
+
+'Why, it is perfectly plain!'
+
+'So it is!  'Tis only the face that is in it.  Now if some folks put
+this on--sister Anne, for example, what dowdies they would be.  Poor
+old Anne, you must know she had a turn for finery, only she never knew
+how to gratify it.  To see the contortions of her crinolines was the
+delight of all the grammar school.  It was a regular comedy for them to
+see her get into our pew edgeways, and once unconsciously she carried
+off a gentleman's hat on her train.'
+
+So she went on talking, coughing at intervals, and generally using a
+half-mocking tone, as if defying the tenderness that awoke in spite of
+her, but always of her original home, and especially of her sister.
+Alice ventured to ask whether they often heard from one another.
+
+'Good soul, she always writes at Christmas and on my birthday.  I know
+as well as possible that I shall find a letter poste restante wherever
+she heard of me last, and that she hasn't done--I'm ashamed to say for
+how long--really, I think not since I let her know that I couldn't
+stand Ivy Lodge, Dockforth, at any price, when she wrote to Monaco on
+seeing poor Houghton's death in the paper.'
+
+There was a good deal of rambling talk of this kind, to which Alice
+listened tenderly and compassionately, making no attempt at persuasion,
+only doing what was possible for the poor lady's comfort. She had
+procured on her way some fruit and jelly, and some good English tea, at
+which Mrs. Houghton laughed, saying, 'Time was, I called it cat-lap!
+Somehow it will seem the elixir of life now, redolent, even milkless,
+of the days when we were young.'
+
+Then she revealed something of her long, suffering, almost ghastly
+nights, and Alice gently told how her old friend, Mrs. Nugent, suffered
+from sleeplessness, and kept a store of soothing psalms and hymns in
+her memory.  There was a little laugh.  'That's for you good folk.  I
+haven't such a thing about me!  Come, Par exemple!' and Alice repeated
+the first thing she could remember, the verse beginning 'God, who
+madest earth and heaven.'
+
+'That's one of your charms, is it?  Well, it would not be too much for
+me if my poor old memory would hold it.  Say it again.'
+
+Alice generally had about her a tiny prayer-book with 'Hymns, Ancient
+and Modern,' attached.  It had been a gift from Mary Nugent, and she
+was fond of it, but the opportunity was not to be lost, and she took it
+out, saying she would bring a larger one and reclaim it.  And, as she
+was finally taking leave, she said with a throbbing heart, 'Do you know
+that you have betrayed your sister's address?  I shall write to her
+now.'
+
+'If you do--!' cried Mrs. Houghton, in a tone like threatening
+deprecation, but with a little of her strange banter in it besides.
+Alice's mind had been made up to do the thing, and she had not felt it
+honest not to give due warning of her intentions.  Even now she was not
+certain of the lady's surname, but she trusted to her husband's
+knowledge of Mrs. Houghton's previous history; and not in vain.  Mr.
+Egremont amused himself with a little ridicule at his wife's quixotry,
+and demanded whether Flossy Houghton was a promising convert; but
+confessed himself very glad that the poor thing should be off their
+hands, declaring that it was quite time her own people looked after
+her, and happily he recollected her maiden name.  So the letter was
+written, after numerous attempts at expressing it suitably, explaining
+Mrs. Houghton's illness and the yearnings she was too proud and ashamed
+to express to her sister, and was answered at once by a few short words
+of earnest gratitude, and an assurance that Miss Reade was preparing to
+start at once.  Could Mrs. Egremont meet her and prepare her sister?
+
+To Alice's disappointment this could not be.  Mr. Egremont had invited
+some friends to the villa, and would not spare her.  She could only
+send a note, assuring Miss Reade that she believed that preparation
+would do more harm than good, and she waited and watched anxiously.  A
+card came by the post in Mrs. Houghton's scrawled writing.  'Naughty
+little wretch!' was all it said, but thence she gathered hope.
+
+The spring was advancing, and Mr. Egremont was in haste to be gone, but
+Alice obtained one more run to Mentone, and once more climbed up the
+dark and dirty stairs to the room, where the well-known voice answered
+her tap, 'Come in!  Ah, there she is, the wicked little angel!'
+
+A substantial little roly-poly business-like little woman hurried
+forward with tearful eyes and outstretched hands.  'Oh, Mrs. Egremont!
+can I ever thank you enough?'
+
+'You can't, Anne, so don't try.  It will be a relief to all parties,'
+interposed Mrs. Houghton.  'Sentiment is not permitted here.'
+
+Nevertheless she hugged Alice almost convulsively.  She was sitting in
+a comfortable arm-chair, one about which Mrs. Egremont knew something,
+and the whole aspect of the room had changed indescribably for the
+better, as much indeed as Mrs. Houghton's own personal array, which had
+no longer the desolate neglected look of old.
+
+A little stool was close to her chair, as if the two sisters could not
+bear to be far apart, and the look of love and content in their eyes as
+they turned to one another was perfect joy to Alice.  She had no longer
+any doubt that Anne Reade, who had found the wanderer yet a great way
+off, would yet bring her back to the home, spiritually if not outwardly.
+
+Mrs. Houghton spoke, of better rooms when the winter visitors had fled,
+Anne spoke of her being able to return to Dockforth.  Whether that
+would ever be seemed entirely doubtful to Alice's eyes, especially as
+the patient's inclination was evidently otherwise. There was nothing to
+be done but to leave the sisters together, obtaining Miss Reade's ready
+promise to write, and putting into her hands a sum of money which could
+be sincerely called 'only a debt of gratitude from my husband and me,'
+and which would smooth the way either to remaining or returning to
+England.
+
+Nor was there any return.  Ere many weeks had passed Mrs. Egremont
+heard from Miss Reade how a fresh cold had made it impossible to move,
+and summer heat had brought on low fever, which had destroyed the
+feeble strength, but not till 'childhood's star' had again arisen, and
+a deeply and truly repentant woman had passed away, saved, as it
+seemed, through that one effort on behalf of the young girl whose
+innocence she had protected.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE VORTEX.
+
+  'With one black shadow at her feet.'--TENNYSON.
+
+
+The rebuffs that society had bestowed on his wife and daughter at Nice
+had rendered Mr. Egremont the more determined on producing them in
+London and establishing their position.  He secured a furnished house
+in Westburnia before leaving Nice, and, travelling leisurely home
+without visiting Bridgefield, he took possession the second week in May.
+
+There had not been much correspondence with the Rectory, and on the
+first forenoon, as Mrs. Egremont and Nuttie were trying to enliven the
+drawing-room with the flowers sent up to meet them, they were surprised
+by the entrance of Blanche, full of kisses and welcomes.
+
+'Oh! didn't you know?  I'm with the Kirkaldys just round the corner.
+Aunt Margaret has undertaken to do the part of a noble aunt by me.'
+
+'Then you are here for the season?  And May?'
+
+'May wouldn't come, except just for a week to see the pictures, and lay
+in a stock of talk.  She's grown more parochial than ever, and we
+believe it is all Hugh Condamine.  Oh! I forgot you were gone before we
+came home last autumn.  He is mamma's nephew, you know, and was
+ordained last year to the curacy of the next parish to his father's
+place.  If the Edwardses only would take themselves off, we would have
+him at home, and then we should have flowers on the altar, and all
+sorts of jolly things.  Papa would stand ever so much more from him
+than from the old Edwardses.'
+
+'But is he engaged to May, then?'
+
+'Well, no, not exactly.  I believe he does not think it right till he
+has done preparing for priest's orders.  He's ever so strict, you know,
+and he hasn't got much either; but he means it.  Lucy, his sister, you
+know, told me all about it, and that altogether the elders had settled
+it was better for both that he should attend to his preparation, and
+May should not bind herself, though they really understand one another,
+and so she won't come to London.'
+
+'Oh, that's very good of her!' cried Nuttie; 'but why won't they let
+them settle their minds and be engaged?'
+
+'People are always tiresome,' said Blanche; 'and I do believe the
+living is at the bottom of it, at least Lucy thought so.  I mean
+everybody wants to wait--all the old ones, I mean--not Hugh or May, of
+course--to know whether Mark will stick to the umbrellas, or turn back
+and be a clergyman, because, then, of course, he would have the living;
+and if he doesn't, they want to be certain whether Uncle Alwyn, or you,
+Nuttie, would promise it to Hugh if he married May!'
+
+'Me!' exclaimed Nuttie.
+
+'My dear, I don't like to hear you talk of such things,' said Mrs.
+Egremont gently.
+
+'Oh yes, I know--it's all very dreadful.  I was only telling you what
+is in the old people's heads, and what would settle it, and make it all
+right with them.'
+
+'And how is Mark?  Is Miss Ruthven in London?' asked Mrs. Egremont,
+glad to turn away the conversation from the contingencies of which
+Blanche spoke with the hardness of youth, as yet not realising sorrow.
+
+'I daresay you know nearly as much of Mark as we do, now the Kirkaldys
+are up here.  All his letters go to Lescombe.  Oh no, Annaple is not in
+London.  The Delmars can't afford it, you know, though I believe my
+lady would have made a stretch if Annaple hadn't been bespoke--but now
+she reserves herself for Muriel.'
+
+Alice looked with some discomfort at the soft fair-haired creature who
+was uttering all this worldly jargon in a tone that would have been
+flippant if it had not been so childish.  She asked if Lord. Ronnisglen
+had written.
+
+'Oh yes, long ago.  Lady Delmar had tried to make him nasty about it,
+but he wouldn't be, so that's all right; and Mark seems to get on very
+well, though it must be horridly dull for him now the Kirkaldys are
+away, and he can't spend all his Sundays at Monks Horton.'
+
+'He will get more into the spirit of the place,' said Nuttie, whereat
+Blanche shrugged her shoulders a little, and exclaimed:
+
+'You've got out of it at any rate, Nuttie!'
+
+'I hope not!'
+
+'Well, then, the look of it!  I never saw any one so improved!  Isn't
+she, Aunt Alice?  She's grown, I declare!  Yes'--measuring herself
+against her cousin--'I was a leetle bit taller when you came, and now
+you've got above me! and what a duck of a way of doing your hair! You
+must show me!  I must tell May there's no fear of your being taken for
+one another now; Aunt Margaret will be quite surprised.'
+
+It was true that Ursula had developed a good deal during the last year,
+and, under the experienced hands of Martin, had lost her schoolgirl
+air, and turned into a young lady capable of becoming the Paris outfit
+which her father had enjoined.  Without positive beauty, she was a
+pleasing, intelligent, animated girl, with the reputation of being an
+heiress, with a romance in the background, and there was nothing to
+prevent her from being a success.  The family connections, with Lady
+Kirkaldy to set the example, had determined on giving full support to
+Mrs. Egremont, and, as of course every one liked to look at so lovely a
+face, the way of both was smoothed in a manner that delighted her
+husband when they encountered any of those who had looked coldly on her
+at Nice.
+
+He would have had her presented, but her own reluctance and the united
+counsels of Lady Kirkaldy and the Canoness prevailed on him to drop the
+idea; and then there was a fight with Ursula, who declared that she
+would not go to court if her mother did not; but she was overruled at
+last by that mother's tears at her defiance; and let herself be
+presented, together with Blanche, by Lady Kirkaldy.
+
+To Ursula it was altogether a strange time, full of the same kind of
+reckless swing and sense of intoxication that had possessed her at
+Bridgefield.  Not that there was an excessive amount of actual gaiety.
+Hot rooms and late hours were soon found not to agree with Mrs.
+Egremont.  She looked faded and languid after evening parties; and, as
+her husband really cared more to have her ready to wait upon him and
+amuse him than for anything else, he did not insist on her going out
+more than might be needful to establish her position, or when it suited
+him to show her off.  The other purposes were quite as well served by
+letting Ursula go out with Lady Kirkaldy, who was warmly interested in
+mother and daughter, glad of a companion for Blanche, and still more
+glad of a companion for herself.  For she was not slow to discover that
+exhibitions, which were merely fashionable gapeseed to her niece, were
+to Nuttie real delights, viewed intelligently, and eliciting comments
+and questions that Lady Kirkaldy and even her husband enjoyed in their
+fresh interest, but which were unendurable weariness to Blanche, unless
+she had some one to chatter with.  Lectures and lessons, which the aunt
+hoped to render palatable by their being shared by the two cousins,
+only served to show the difference between a trained and eager, and an
+untrained and idle, nature.  With the foreign society to be met at Lord
+Kirkaldy's, Blanche was less at a loss than her brother, and could get
+on by the help of nods and becks and wreathed smiles; but Nuttie, fresh
+from her winter abroad, could really talk, and was often in request as
+a useful person to help in entertaining.  She thus saw some of the
+choicest society in London, and, in addition, had as much of the
+youthful gaiety as Lady Kirkaldy thought wholesome for the two girls.
+Also there were those ecclesiastical delights and privileges which had
+been heard of at Micklethwayte, and were within reach, greatly enjoyed
+by Mrs. Egremont whenever she could share them, though her daughter
+chafed at her treating all except the chief service on Sunday as more
+indulgence than duty.
+
+Nuttie was strong, with that spring of energy which unbroken health and
+a quiet life lays up, and, in her own phrase, she went in for
+everything, from early services to late balls, thinking all right
+because it was seldom that her day did not begin with matins or
+Celebration, and because she was not taken to more than two balls a
+week, and conversed at times with superior people, or looked at those
+with world-famed names.  Possibly the whirl was greater than if it had
+been mere gaiety, for then the brain would not have participated in it.
+Church functions, with the scurry to go at all, or to obtain a seat,
+fine music, grand sermons, religious meetings, entertainments for the
+poor, lectures, lessons, exhibitions, rides, drives, kettle-drums,
+garden-parties, concerts, theatres, operas, balls, chattering,
+laughing, discussing, reading up current subjects, enjoying attention,
+excitement as to what should be done and how,--one thing drove out
+another in perpetual succession, and the one thing she never did or
+could do was to sit still and think!  Rest was simply dreamless sleep,
+generally under the spell of a strong will to wake at the appointed
+hour for church.  The short intervals of being alone with her mother
+were spent in pouring out histories of her doings, which were received
+with a sympathy that doubled their pleasure, excepting when Nuttie
+thought proper to grumble and scold at her mother's not coming to some
+Church festival at an hour when she thought Mr. Egremont might want her.
+
+Of him Nuttie saw very little.  He did not want her, and cared little
+what she did, as long as she was under the wing of Lady Kirkaldy, whose
+patronage was a triumphant refutation of all doubts.  He went his own
+way, and had his own club, his own associates, and, with his wife
+always at his beck and call, troubled himself very little about
+anything else.
+
+Alice spent a good deal of time alone, chiefly in waiting his pleasure;
+but she had her own quiet occupations, her books, her needlework, her
+housekeeping, and letter-writing, and was peacefully happy as long as
+she did not displease Nuttie.  There were no collisions between father
+and daughter, and the household arrangements satisfied that fastidious
+taste.  She was proud of Ursula's successes, but very thankful not to
+be dragged out to share them, though she was much less shy, and more
+able on occasion to take her place.
+
+One pain she had.  Good old Mrs. Nugent was rapidly decaying, and she
+shared with all her loving heart in the grief this was to Mary and to
+Miss Headworth, and longed to help them in their nursing.  She would
+not grieve Nuttie by dwelling constantly on the bad accounts, and the
+girl hardly attended to them in the tumult of occupations; and so at
+last, when the final tidings came in the second week in July, they were
+an absolute shock to Nuttie, and affected her as the first grief
+sometimes does.  Mrs. Nugent was really the first person of her own
+intimate knowledge who had died, and in the excited state in which she
+was, the idea of the contrast between her own occupations and Mary's
+was so dreadful to her that she wept most bitterly, with the sobs of
+childhood, such as she really did not know how to restrain.
+
+It was an unfortunate day, for it was one of the few on which Mr.
+Egremont wanted to take out his ladies.  There was to be a great
+garden-party at Richmond, given by one of his former set, who had
+lately whitewashed himself by marrying a very fast and fashionable
+lady.  Nuttie had heard strong opinions on the subject at Lord
+Kirkaldy's; but her father was quite elated at being in a position to
+countenance his old friends.  Alice, in the midst of her sorrow,
+recollected this with consternation.
+
+'My dear, my dear, hush!  You must stop yourself!  Remember we have to
+go out.'
+
+'Go--out,' cried Nuttie, her sobs arrested by very horror.  'You
+wouldn't go--!'
+
+'I am afraid your father would be very much vexed--'
+
+'Let him!  It is a horrid wicked place to go to at all; and now--when
+dear, dear old Mrs. Nugent is lying there--and--'
+
+The crying grew violent again, and in the midst in walked Mr. Egremont
+with an astonished 'What is all this?'
+
+'We have lost one of our dear kind old friends at Micklethwayte,' said
+Alice, going towards him; 'dear old Mrs. Nugent,' and she lifted up her
+tear-stained face, which he caressed a little and said, 'Poor old
+body;' but then, at a sob, 'Can't you stop Ursula from making such a
+row and disfiguring herself?  You must pick up your looks, Edda, for I
+mean you to make a sensation at Jerningham's.'
+
+'Oh, Alwyn, if you could let us stay at home!  Mrs. Nugent was so good
+to us, and it does seem unkind--' The tears were in her eyes again.
+
+'Nonsense!' he said impatiently.  'I promised Jerningham, and it is
+absurd to have you shutting yourself up for every old woman at
+Micklethwayte.'
+
+Thereupon Ursula wiped away her tears, and stood up wrathful before
+him.  'I am not going,' she said.
+
+'Oh, indeed!' he returned in a tone that made her still more angry.
+'Hein'! a French ejaculation which he had the habit of uttering in a
+most exasperating manner.
+
+'No,' she said.  'It is scarcely a place to which we even ought to be
+asked to go, and certainly not when--'
+
+'Do you hear that, Mrs. Egremont?' he asked.
+
+'Oh, Nuttie, Nuttie, dear!' she implored; 'don't.'
+
+'No, mother,' said Nuttie, with flashing eyes; 'if you care so little
+for your best friends as to let yourself be dragged out among all sorts
+of gay, wicked people when your dear friend is lying dead, I'm sure I
+shan't go with you.'
+
+Her father laughed a little.  'A pretty figure you are, to make a
+favour of accompanying us!'
+
+'Oh, go away, go away, Nuttie,' entreated her mother.  'You don't know
+what you are saying.'
+
+'I do know,' said Nuttie, exasperated perhaps by the contrast in the
+mirror opposite between her own swelled, disfigured face, and the soft
+tender one of her mother with the liquid eyes.  'I know how much you
+care for the dear friends who took care of us when we were forsaken!'
+
+And with this shaft she marched out of the room, while her father again
+laughed, and said, 'Have they been training her for the tragic stage?
+Never mind, Edda, the little vixen will come to her senses upstairs,
+and be begging to go.'
+
+'I don't think she will,' said Alice sadly; 'she is not that sort of
+stuff, and she was very fond of Mrs. Nugent.  Oh, Alwyn! if you could
+let us off.'
+
+'Not after that explosion, certainly,' he said.  'Besides, I promised
+Jerningham, and such an excuse would never hold water.  She is not even
+a relation.'
+
+'No, but she was very good to me.'
+
+'The more reason why you should not stay at home and be hipped. Never
+mind that silly girl.  She will be all right by and by.'
+
+On the contrary, she did not come down to luncheon, and when, about an
+hour later, Alice, after writing a few tender loving words to the
+mourners, went up to her daughter's room, it was to find a limp and
+deplorable figure lying across the bed, and to be greeted with a fresh
+outburst of sobs and inarticulate exclamations.
+
+'Oh, Nuttie, dear, this will not do!  It is not right.  Dear good Mrs.
+Nugent herself would tell you that this is not the way any one so good
+and so suffering should be grieved for.  Think--'
+
+'Oh, I know all that!' cried Nuttie, impatiently; 'but she--she was the
+dearest--and nobody cares for her but me.  Not even you--'
+
+Again Alice tried to debate the point, and urge on her the duties of
+moderation, self-control, and obedience, but the poor gentle mother was
+at a great disadvantage.
+
+In the first place, she respected and almost envied her daughter's
+resistance, and really did not know whether it was timidity or
+principle that made it her instinct to act otherwise; in the next,
+Ursula could always talk her down; and, in the third, she was, and
+greatly she reproached herself for that same, in great dread of setting
+herself off into tears that might become hysterical if she once gave
+way to them.  And what would be her husband's feelings if she too
+collapsed and became unpresentable.
+
+So, having once convinced herself that even if Nuttie had been a
+consenting party, no amount of cold water and eau-de-cologne would
+bring those bloodshot eyes, swollen lids, and mottled cheeks to be fit
+to be seen, she fled as fast as possible from the gasps of barbed
+reproaches which put her own composure in peril, and dressed with the
+heaviest of hearts, coupled with the utmost solicitude to look her
+best.  If she had not thought it absolutely wrong, she would even have
+followed Martin's suggestion, and put on a soupcon of rouge; but by the
+time she was summoned to the carriage the feverishness of her effort at
+self-control had done the work, and her husband had paid her the
+compliment of observing that she looked pretty enough for two.
+
+Nuttie heard them drive off, with a burst of fresh misery of
+indignation against her mother--now as a slave and a victim--now as
+forgetting her old home.  It was chiefly in mutterings; she had pretty
+well used up her tears, for, unconsciously perhaps, she had worked them
+up as a defensive weapon against being carried to the party; and now
+that the danger was over, her head throbbed, her eyes burnt, and her
+throat ached too much for her to wish to cry any more. She had not felt
+physically like this, since the day, seven years ago, when she and
+Mildred Sharpe had been found suspiciously toying with the key of the
+arithmetic, and had been debarred from trying for the prize.  Then she
+felt debased and guilty; now she felt, or ought to feel, like a heroine
+maintaining the right.
+
+She got up and set herself to rights as well as she could.  Martin, who
+had been allowed to know that she had lost an old friend, petted and
+pitied her, and brought her a substantial meal with her tea, after
+which she set out to evensong at the church at the end of the square,
+well veiled under a shady hat, and with a conviction that something
+ought to happen.
+
+Nothing did, however, happen; she met no one whom she knew, the psalms
+were not particularly appropriate, and her attention wandered away to
+the scene at home.  She did not come back, as she was sure she ought to
+have done, soothed, exhilarated, and refreshed, but rather in a rasped
+state of mind, and a conscience making a vehement struggle to believe
+itself in the right--a matter in which she thoroughly succeeded.
+
+She wrote a long letter to Mary Nugent, and shed some softer tears over
+it, then she built a few castles on her future escape from the power of
+her father; and then she picked up Reata, and became absorbed in it,
+regretting only the weakness of her eyes, and the darkening of the
+summer evening.
+
+She was still reading when the others came home.  Her mother kissed
+her, but looked so languid and tired-out that Nuttie was shocked, and
+Martin declared that she ought not to go down to dinner.
+
+A tete-a-tete dinner between father and daughter was too dreadful to
+Alice's imagination to be permitted, so she dressed and went down,
+looking like a ghost.  Mr. Egremont scowled at Nuttie, Nuttie scowled
+at him, each considering it the fault of the other, and when at last it
+was over, Alice gave up the struggle, and went off to bed, leaving a
+contrite message that her headache would be better to-morrow.
+
+'All your accursed folly and obstinacy,' observed Mr. Egremont, when
+Nuttie, with a tone of monition gave him the message.
+
+'I should call it the consequence of being dragged out with a sore
+heart,' returned Nuttie--a little speech she had prepared ever since
+she had seen how knocked up her mother was.
+
+'Then I should recommend keeping your ideas to yourself,' he answered,
+looking at her in his annihilating manner.
+
+She was put down. She thought afterwards of a hundred things that she
+could have said to him, but she was crushed for the present, and when
+he went out she could only betake herself to Reata, and forget all
+about it as much as she could.
+
+When she went upstairs, at the end of the third volume, Martin was on
+the watch, and would not let her go into the room.
+
+'I have been at hand, ma'am, without her guessing it, and I am happy to
+say her tears has had a free course when she was in bed.  Yes, ma'am,
+suppressed grief is always dangerous.'
+
+Mrs. Egremont was still prostrate with fatigue and headache the next
+day, and Nuttie had all the quiet luxuriating in reminiscences she
+desired.  Her father was vexed and angry, and kept out of the way, but
+it must be confessed that Nuttie's spirits had so much risen by the
+afternoon that it was a sore concession to consistency when she found
+herself not expected at Blanche's last little afternoon dance at Lady
+Kirkaldy's!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+WOLF.
+
+  'If I cannot once or twice in a quarter bear out a knave against
+  an honest man, I have but very little credit with your Worship.'
+                                               --II. King Henry IV.
+
+
+Another cause besides Ursula's recalcitrance and her mother's ailment
+contributed to disturb Mr. Egremont, and bring him home.  His agent, by
+name Bulfinch, a solicitor at Redcastle, came to him with irrefragable
+proofs of gross peculation on the part of the bailiff who managed the
+home farm which supplied the house and stables, and showed him that it
+was necessary to make a thorough investigation and change of system.
+
+In point of fact, Mr. Egremont greatly preferred being moderately
+cheated to exerting himself to investigate, but this was going beyond
+moderation, and the explosion had been too public to be passed over. So
+he came home and sat by, while his wife and Mr. Bulfinch did the work
+for him, and made it evident to him that the frauds had been of long
+standing, and carried on with the connivance of the coachman, of
+Gregorio,--who had before Mrs. Egremont's arrival acted as house
+steward,--and of the former cook.  Indeed, it was the housekeeper whom
+Mrs. Egremont had left in charge, whose refusal to connive had brought
+about the discovery.
+
+Gregorio's share in all was sufficiently evident, and Alice's heart
+leapt with hope.  Her husband would be wholly her own if his evil
+genius were once departed, but Mr. Egremont would not see it.  He had
+no objection to sacrifice the coachman and all his underlings, with the
+bailiff and his entire family, and felt none of the pity that Alice had
+for the pretty, silly, half-educated daughters; but as to the
+valet--Pooh! pooh! the poor fellow had been out of the way all this
+time--whatever he had done had been in the dark, ages long ago, before
+Bridgefield knew its mistress; he was a foreigner, and that was enough
+to prevent him from forgathering with the English.  It was all their
+English prejudice.
+
+'I can show you facts and figures, sir,' said Mr. Bulfinch.
+
+'I daresay, a year or more old.  Why, I was an unprotected carcase
+then--a mere prey--the fellow only did after his kind.'
+
+Alice held her tongue then, but made an effort in private.  'Indeed, I
+don't think you know; I am afraid Gregorio is not altered.  I found him
+out in his charges about the wine, and the servants' wages at Nice,
+only you wouldn't listen.'
+
+'His little perquisites, my dear child!  Come, nonsense, these foreign
+fellows don't pretend to have the morals you ascribe to the native
+flunkey--generally without foundation either--they are much of a
+muchness as to that; but your Frenchman or Italian does it more neatly,
+and is a dozen times better servant than the other is.'
+
+'But--'
+
+'Oh, ay!  I know you don't like him.  But he knows his manners to you,
+I hope?' said Mr. Egremont, with a suddenness that made her wish she
+could truthfully say he did not.
+
+'Yes, he always is--is respectful, but somehow I see it is under
+protest.'
+
+Mr. Egremont laughed.  'Rivals--yes, I see; why, you don't consider the
+sore trial of having a full-grown mistress turned in upon him! Look
+here, you keep the keys already, but the new fellow at the farm and all
+the rest of them shall account to you for everything--Gregorio and all.
+Won't that satisfy you?'
+
+''Tis not only the money, but I think Gregorio is a bad--not a
+good--man.'
+
+'Ho, ho! she wants to advertise for a pious footman and coachman! eh?
+No, I thank you, my dear Edda, I agree with--who was it who said,
+"Volez moi, mais sans m'ennuyer."'
+
+The Rectory likewise had hoped for Gregorio's dismissal, and there were
+grave looks when Alice had to confess that nothing would move her
+husband against him.  The Canon even lashed himself up to say, 'I tell
+you how it is, Alwyn, you'll never do any good with your household,
+while you keep that fellow.'
+
+'I am not aware what description of good you expect me to do with it,
+Will,' coolly answered the elder brother in a disconcerting tone.
+
+Poor Alice, on her side, thought of the Little Master, and then
+wondered if it was uncharitable to do so.  For she knew it had become
+war to the knife with Gregorio!  Whether his master told him, or
+whether it were his own evil conscience, or the wonderful intuition of
+servants, he certainly knew of the pressure for his dismissal, and he
+visited it on her as much as he durst.
+
+Outwardly deferential, he could thwart and annoy her in a hundred ways,
+from making love to the housemaids to making evil suggestions to his
+master, yet never giving her any overt cause of complaint.  He could
+worry and sting her under the politest exterior, and he knew very well
+that the most effectual form of annoyance was the persuading his master
+that any discomfort or lassitude was to be removed by some form of
+narcotic.  This would have the further advantage of stupefying Mr.
+Egremont, and making him more ready to lapse under the old influence;
+while the duration and strength of the new one was already a surprise
+to Gregorio.
+
+But there was no doubt that Mrs. Egremont had profited by her year of
+training.  She looked tired, and less youthful and pretty, but she had
+gained in grace and importance as well as in style, and was much more
+really the mistress of Bridgefield.  Her shyness had passed away, and
+she knew now to take her place in society, though still she was
+somewhat silent.  And her husband depended upon her entirely for all
+his correspondence, for much of his occupation and amusement, and even
+for the regulation of his affairs.  In the household, Gregorio was
+little more than his personal attendant, and she had the general
+management, even of the other men-servants.  The Canoness might well
+say it had turned out better than she expected.
+
+And Nuttie had become more womanly, and had acquired the indefinable
+polish given by a London season.  She had learnt the art of
+conversation, and could make herself agreeable to her uncle, or to any
+one else who came in her way.  Even May allowed that she had something
+in her, and cultivated her more than before; but, on the other hand,
+even the Rectory could perceive that there was now an absolute
+alienation between her and her father, and what might before have been
+fear had become dislike.  If she had to refer to him, especially if her
+plans for herself or her mother were crossed, there was always a tone
+of bitterness or of sarcasm about her; and her greater boldness and
+freedom of speech would occasionally manifest itself towards him.  This
+was not indeed often, since not only did his cool contempt make her
+come off the worst in the encounters, but the extreme distress they
+gave to her mother made her refrain whenever her temper, or what she
+thought her conscience, would let her; but still there was always a
+danger which kept poor Alice on thorns whenever there was a possible
+difference of schemes or opinions.
+
+Mrs. William Egremont was seriously considering of representing to
+Ursula that her conduct was bad taste, bad policy, and, moreover, was
+doing her mother's spirits and health serious harm; but it was a
+delicate matter in which to meddle, and the good lady could not make up
+her mind how far to surrender her brother-in-law's character and allow
+a partial justification to Ursula.  She was a cautious woman, and
+waited and watched her opportunities.
+
+In the beginning of October Mr. and Mrs. Egremont were invited to a
+great shooting party at Sir James Jerningham's.  The invitation did not
+include Ursula.  Perhaps she had never dawned on their hostess's
+imagination; perhaps it was that Lady Jerningham was well known to
+dislike girls, or any one who might absorb young men's attention. At
+any rate the omission was a cause of thankfulness to the party
+concerned, and she did not neglect to worry her mother by a protest
+against keeping such company as would be met at Waldicotes.
+
+Alice smiled a little faintly and said, 'I don't think it hurts me, my
+dear; I don't understand half of what they talk about, and they are
+always kind to me.'
+
+'I don't think you ought to go among them or countenance them.'
+
+'My dear child,'--and the colour rose--'I don't feel as if I had a
+right to set myself above any one.'
+
+'Mother!'
+
+'People might have said just the same of me.'
+
+'And whose fault was that?' muttered Nuttie under her breath, but Mrs.
+Egremont would not hear.  She only pleaded, as perhaps mother ought not
+to have done with child.
+
+'You know, Nuttie, it is not for my own pleasure, but your father's
+eyesight makes him dislike to go anywhere without me now; and I really
+should be uneasy about him.'
+
+'Yes; he is all you care for,' said Nuttie.  'You sacrifice everything
+you used to think essential, just to his will and pleasure.'
+
+'Oh, Nuttie, I hope not; I don't think I do!'
+
+'If I thought it was doing him any good I should not so much mind,'
+went on the girl; 'but he is just the same, and I am always thinking of
+"As the husband is, the wife is--"'
+
+'Hush! hush!  You have no right to think in that way of your father. I
+will not hear it.  I have let you say too much already, Nuttie.' Then
+after a pause she added, gently and wistfully, 'You have been better
+taught, and are clearer headed than ever I was, my Nuttie, and it is
+quite right that you should hate what seems evil to you.  I can only go
+on trying to do what seems my duty from day to day.  I know,' she added
+with rising tears, 'that the sin and folly of my younger days worked a
+difficult position for us both; but we can only act according to our
+lights, and pray God to direct us; and please--please bear with me, my
+dear one, if the same course does not always seem right to us both.'
+
+Nuttie had never heard her say anything so fully showing that she
+realised these difficulties, and, greatly touched, she asked pardon,
+kissed and caressed her mother.  There was a calm over them for the
+next few days, and Nuttie actually refrained from bitter comments when
+her mother was not allowed to go to evensong on Sunday, on the plea of
+her being tired, but, as the girl believed, in order that she might
+read the newspapers aloud.
+
+She knew that her silence was appreciated by the way her mother kissed
+her and called her a dear, good, considerate girl.
+
+On Monday Mr. and Mrs. Egremont went away at what was a strangely early
+hour for the former, Nuttie spending her days at the Rectory.
+
+On the Tuesday Blanche went with her little sister and the governess on
+a shopping expedition to Redcastle, and in relating her adventures on
+her return, she said, 'Oh, by the bye, I met Annaple in Park's shop!'
+
+'Full of Micklethwayte news, I suppose,' said May.
+
+'Yes, of course.  Did you know, Nuttie, that your aunt was ill?'
+
+'No, indeed, I did not.  What was the matter?'
+
+'Bronchitis, I believe--brown titus, as Betty Butter calls it.'
+
+'Bronchitis!  Oh dear! oh dear!  Are you quite sure, Blanche?'
+
+'Oh yes!  I am quite certain Annaple said Mark told her that Miss
+Headworth was laid up with bronchitis.'
+
+'And nobody has written to us all this week!' sighed Nuttie.
+
+'I should think that a sign there could not be much in it,' observed
+May; 'it may be only a bad cold.'
+
+'But Aunt Ursel had bronchitis four years ago, and was very ill
+indeed,' persisted Nuttie.  'I'm sure it is bronchitis, and that she
+won't let Miss Mary write to us.'
+
+She was in much distress about it, though May privately told her that
+she ought to know Blanche's way better than to trust implicitly to any
+of her reports; and her aunt said much the same thing in more general
+terms, even proposing that if she did not hear the next morning she
+should go over to Lescombe to ascertain what Mark had really said.
+
+This pacified her a little, but on her way home the alarm grew upon
+her, and, moreover, she recollected the opposition that she believed
+that her father was certain to make to either her mother or herself
+going to nurse her aunt.  It flashed upon her that if she were to
+hasten to Micklethwayte on this alarm before there could be a
+prohibition, it would be no disobedience, and perfectly justifiable,
+not to say noble.  Her parents were to return on Thursday evening, and
+she made up her mind that, unless she were fully reassured as to Miss
+Headworth's state, she would go off at once to Micklethwayte before any
+one could gainsay her.  She had plenty of money, and she consulted the
+time-table in the hall before going upstairs.  It only concerned the
+nearest line, but she calculated that if she caught the express, she
+should reach her destination in time to write to her mother at
+Waldicotes, and prevent needless shocks.  Her eagerness for the plan
+grew upon her, so that it seemed like liberation; she could hardly
+sleep for thinking of it, and certainly was not as much disappointed as
+she believed herself when the post came in--a blank.
+
+Martin was away with her mistress, so Nuttie explained matters to the
+upper housemaid, who was very sympathetic, carried down her orders for
+the carriage, procured for her both breakfast and provision for the
+journey, and packed her clothes.  Ursula would fain have been off
+before the Rectory was aware, but the two little girls came up with a
+message about the plans for the day, just as she was beginning an
+explanatory note, and she entrusted to them the information that she
+was so uneasy about Miss Headworth that she had decided on going to see
+for herself.
+
+So in dashed Adela and Rosalind to their mother's room full of
+excitement with the news that Cousin Nuttie was gone off by the train,
+because her aunt was very ill indeed.
+
+'Gone, Adela? are you sure?  Really gone?'
+
+'Oh yes, mamma!  The dogcart was coming round, and she said she wanted
+to catch the 10.05 train, and was very sorry she had not time to write
+a note to you.'
+
+'Was there a letter?  What had she heard?'
+
+'Oh, only that her aunt was so very ill!  She did not tell us--did she,
+Rosie?'
+
+'There was something about being in time to write to Aunt Alice,'
+suggested Adela.
+
+'I am very sorry about this.  I am afraid it will be a great shock to
+Alice,' observed the mother, as she imparted the news at her husband's
+dressing-room door.
+
+'Young girls are so precipitate!' said the Canon.
+
+'Your brother won't like it at all,' the lady continued.
+
+'Not he.  But after all, it is just as well that he was not asked. They
+do owe that poor old lady a good deal, and Alwyn's not the man to see
+it.  I'm not sorry the girl took the matter into her own hands, though
+I couldn't have advised it.'
+
+'Except that it will all fall on Alice.'
+
+'He is very fond of Alice.  She has done more with him than I ever
+thought possible.  Kept him respectable this whole year, and really it
+grows on him.  He makes ever so much more of her now than when he first
+brought her home--and no wonder.  No, no; he won't fall foul of her.'
+
+'Perhaps not; but it is just as bad, or worse, for her if he falls foul
+of her daughter.  Besides, she is very much attached to her aunt.  I
+wish I knew what the account was, or whether she knows anything about
+it.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+URSULA'S RECEPTION.
+
+  'Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.'--SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+It was at half-past seven o'clock that Ursula Egremont's cab stopped at
+St. Ambrose's Road.  She had missed the express train, and had to come
+on by a stopping one.  But here at last she was, with eyes even by
+gaslight full of loving recognition, a hand full of her cab-fare, a
+heart full of throbbing hope and fear, a voice full of anxiety, as she
+inquired of the astonished servant, 'Louisa, Louisa, how is Aunt
+Ursel!' and, without awaiting the reply, she opened the adjoining door.
+There sat, with their evening meal on the table, not only Mary Nugent,
+but Miss Headworth herself.
+
+Nuttie rushed at her, and there was an incoherency of exclamations, the
+first thing that made itself clear to the senses of the traveller
+being, 'Ill, my dear?  No such thing!  Only I had a bad cold, and Mary
+here is only too careful of me.'
+
+'But Mark said you had bronchitis.'
+
+'What could have put that into his head?  He did not write it, surely?'
+
+'He wrote it to Annaple Ruthven, and she told Blanche.'
+
+'Oh!' and Mary Nugent's tone was rather nettling.
+
+'And then it was such a terrible time since we had heard anything,'
+added Nuttie, on the defensive.
+
+'Did not your mother get my letter?' said Miss Headworth.  'I wrote to
+her at--what's the name of that place?  I hope I addressed it right.'
+
+'Oh, but I was not there.  I didn't go with them.'
+
+'Ah, yes, I remember.  Then did not she send you?'
+
+'No, I came off this morning.  I heard this yesterday evening, and I
+determined that nothing should stop me if there was no news by the
+post.'
+
+'Dear child!  But will your father not be displeased?' said Miss
+Headworth.
+
+'He hasn't any right to object,' cried Nuttie, with flashing eyes and a
+look that made Miss Nugent anxious; but at the moment there could be
+little thought save of welcome to the warm-hearted girl.  Louisa was
+already brewing fresh tea, and extemporising additions to the meal, and
+Nuttie was explaining how she hoped to have arrived a couple of hours
+sooner.
+
+'By the bye, I meant to have written to mother for her to have it
+to-morrow before leaving Waldicotes.  Is there time?'
+
+No, the pillar at hand was cleared at seven, and the regular
+post-office could not be reached in time; so they satisfied themselves
+with the knowledge that Mrs. Egremont must have had Aunt Ursel's
+cheerful letter, and Mary recommended telegraphing to the Canon the
+first thing in the morning.  Then they gave themselves up to enjoyment.
+
+'At any rate, I'm here,' said Nuttie, 'and I'll make the most of it.'
+
+And her handsome furs were laid aside, and her boots taken off, and she
+resigned herself to absolute ease and luxury, while Mary poured out the
+tea, and her aunt heaped her plate with eggs and rashers 'such as one
+doesn't get anywhere else,' said Nuttie, declaring herself quite
+voracious, while her aunt fondly admired her growth and improvement,
+and she inquired into the cold, not quite gone yet; and there were
+speculations over what Mark could have got into his head. Mary
+remembered having met him coming to call, and having told him that she
+had persuaded Miss Headworth to keep her bed because her colds were apt
+to be severe, and it was agreed to lay the exaggeration at the door of
+the lovers and Blanche.  Miss Headworth laughed, and said she ought to
+be flattered that an old woman's sore throat should be thought worthy
+of mention by a fine young gentleman like Mr. Mark.  'A very good young
+man he is,' she added.  'You would never have thought how kind he is in
+coming in here to tell me everything he hears about your dear mother,
+Nuttie.'
+
+'He makes himself very useful while Mr. Dutton is away,' added Mary,
+'taking his young men's class and all.'
+
+'Oh! is Mr. Dutton away?'
+
+'Yes; he has had to be in London a great deal of late.  I am afraid he
+may have to live there altogether.'
+
+'What a grievous pity!'
+
+'He won't be anywhere without doing good,' said Miss Headworth, 'but I
+sometimes wish we had his cool good sense here.'
+
+'And how is Mr. Spyers,' asked Nuttie.  She felt shy of asking for
+Gerard Godfrey, or perhaps she thought she ought to be shy of his name,
+and kept hoping that it would come in naturally.
+
+'Mr. Spyers is very well.  Very busy of course, and very much delighted
+with your mother's gifts to the church.  All her own work, isn't it,
+Nuttie?'
+
+'Yes; every bit.  She does lots of embroidery and work of all kinds
+when she is waiting for _him_ or sitting with him, and luckily it has
+never occurred to him to ask what it is for.'
+
+The two ladies knew well what was meant by him, but they would not
+pursue the subject, and proceeded to put Nuttie au courant with St.
+Ambrose affairs--how last year's mission had produced apparently an
+immense effect in the town, and how the improvement had been ebbing
+ever since, but had left various individual gains, and stirred up more
+than one good person who had hitherto thought it enough to save one's
+own soul and let other people alone; how Mr. Spyers was endeavouring to
+bind people together in a guild; how a violent gust of temperance
+orators had come down upon the place, and altogether fascinated and
+carried away Gerard Godfrey.
+
+There was his name at last, and Nuttie was rather gratified to feel
+herself blushing as she asked, 'Ah! poor Gerard--how is he?'
+
+'As good and sincere as ever,' said Miss Nugent, 'but not much wiser.
+He is so excitable and vehement.'
+
+'Yes,' said Miss Headworth.  'I don't understand the kind of thing. In
+my time a steady young clerk used to be contented after hours with
+playing at cricket in the summer, or learning the flute in the
+winter--and a great nuisance it was sometimes, but now Gerard must get
+himself made a sort of half clergyman.'
+
+'A reader,' suggested Mary.
+
+'Minor orders.  Oh, how delightful!' cried Nuttie.
+
+'People, don't half understand it,' added Miss Headworth.  'Mrs.
+Jeffreys will have it that he is no better than a Jesuit, and really I
+did not know what to say, for he talked, to me by the hour about his
+being an external brother to something.'
+
+'Not to the Jesuits, certainly,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Yes, I told her that; but she thinks all monks are Jesuits, you know,
+and that all brothers are monks; and he does wear his cassock--his
+choir cassock, I mean--when he has his service in the iron room at the
+sandpits.  And now he has taken up temperance, and flies about giving
+the pledge, and wanting one to wear bits of blue ribbon.  I told him I
+never did take, and never had taken, more than a little hot wine and
+water when I had a cold, and I couldn't see what good it would do to
+George Jenkins and the poor fellows at the Spread Eagle if I took ever
+so many vows.'
+
+'There's a regular blue-ribbon fever set in,' said Miss Nugent. 'Gerard
+told me I was supporting the cause of intemperance yesterday because I
+was so wicked as to carry the rest of your bottle of port, Miss
+Headworth, to poor Anne Crake.'
+
+'Well! he is a dear boy, and youth wouldn't be youth if it were not
+sometimes rather foolish,' said Miss Headworth, 'and it is better it
+should be for good than evil.'
+
+'Eager in a cause and not for selfishness,' said Mary.  'Poor Gerard, I
+wonder where he will be safely landed!'
+
+So did Nuttie, who had a secret flattering faith in being the cause of
+all the poor young fellow's aberrations, and was conscious of having
+begun the second volume of her life's novel.  She went to bed in the
+elated frame of mind proper to a heroine.  There was a shade over all
+in the absence of dear old Mrs. Nugent, and in Mary's deep mourning,
+but there is more tenderness than poignancy in sorrow for shocks of
+corn gathered in full season, and all was cheerful about her.
+
+She had quite a triumph the next day, as old friends dropped in for the
+chance of seeing her.  The least agreeable encounter was that with
+Mark, who came in on his way to the office, having just received by the
+second post a letter from his father inquiring into Miss Headworth's
+state.  He met Nuttie in the vestibule, with her hat on, and in a great
+hurry, as she wanted to walk with Mary to the School of Art, Gerard
+Godfrey accompanying them as far as the office; and she did not at all
+like the being called to account, and asked what could have possessed
+her to take alarm.
+
+'Why, you wrote yourself!'
+
+'I!'
+
+'To Annaple Ruthven.'
+
+'What am I supposed to have written?'
+
+'That Aunt Ursel was very ill with bronchitis.'
+
+'I'll be bound that Miss Ruthven said no such thing.  You don't pretend
+that you heard it from herself?'
+
+'No; but Blanche did.'
+
+'Blanche!  Oh, that accounts for it!  Though I should have thought you
+knew Blanche by this time.'
+
+'But what did you say?'
+
+'I believe I said I couldn't get a knitting pattern Miss Headworth was
+to send Lady Ronnisglen because she was in bed with a cold.  What you
+and Blanche could contrive to make of a simple thing like that--'
+
+'And Annaple!'
+
+'Well,' but checking himself with a smile, 'we will not fight about
+that.  I only hope it has not brought you into an awkward scrape,
+Nuttie.'
+
+'I can't help that,' she answered with her head rather high.
+
+'You have written and explained?' he said anxiously.
+
+'To my mother, of course.'
+
+'If I were you,' he said, lowering his voice, 'I should write or send a
+special message to your father.'
+
+'I can't see why.  It was a mistake.'
+
+'Yours was a strong measure, and he won't like it.  Be advised, Nuttie.
+Recollect your mother.  The best way would be to go home at once.  I
+could get a day to take you--if you would start this afternoon.'
+
+'Thank you; I'm not going back till I hear,' she said proudly.
+
+Time being up, Mark took his leave hastily, and as he shut the door,
+Nuttie uttered half aloud the words she had scarcely repressed, 'No, I
+thank you, Mr. Mark, I am not going back like a dog in a string.'
+
+'What, was that what he expected of you?' said Gerard Godfrey, whom she
+had not intended to hear her, but who had come out of the sitting-room
+on the sounds of departure.
+
+'He said he would take me home if I could go at once.'
+
+'Wouldn't he have liked it!' exclaimed Gerard.
+
+'It might be the best way,' said Miss Nugent, who had followed young
+Godfrey.
+
+'Now, Miss Mary,' cried Nuttie, 'as if I could shorten my holiday now
+that I have it.'
+
+'And I don't see what business he had to call you to account,' said
+Gerard.  'A stuck-up fellow.'
+
+'Of course all the Egremonts are set against my being here,' said
+Nuttie.
+
+'I thought the Canon offered to bring you last year,' said Mary gently.
+
+'Oh, that was only to Monks Horton!  It would have been simply
+tantalising.'
+
+'Lady Kirkaldy is an excellent person,' said Miss Nugent.
+
+'Is she at home now?' asked Ursula.
+
+'Coming next week, they tell me,' said Gerard.
+
+'He--your cousin--will always be loafing up there now, giving up all
+that he had undertaken, I suppose.'
+
+'Not very likely,' said Mary quietly.
+
+It is a mere Scottish anti-church influence,' said Gerard, turning
+round at the swing-door of his office.  'Why else will Egremont not
+take the pledge?'
+
+Wherewith he disappeared, blue ribbon and all, while Mary smiled,
+though she was vexed; and Nuttie observed, 'Poor Gerard; but I can't
+see why he should be jealous of Mark _now_.'
+
+Mary did not choose to understand what Nuttie implied in her
+simplicity, and made answer, 'He is rather blue ribbon mad.  Besides, I
+am afraid the fact of being a "swell" does not conduce to your cousin's
+popularity among the clerks.'
+
+'Surely he does not give himself airs,' said Ursula, her family
+feelings awaking.
+
+'No; but I fancy he is rather reserved.'
+
+'What's this about giving up what he has undertaken?  What is it?'
+
+'When Mr. Dutton went to London, he asked Mark to take his Sunday
+afternoons with the big lads.  He thought they wanted some one with
+more resources and variety than there is in poor Gerard, who didn't at
+all like being passed over.'
+
+'I never should have thought it of Mark.  He never dreamt of teaching
+anybody at home.'
+
+'Very likely not, but there is an atmosphere at St. Ambrose's.'
+
+'And oh, how glad I am to be in it!  I wonder how long they will let me
+stay!  The dear little mother will try to get me a Sunday here, if she
+dares.  Indeed, I can't hear before Saturday, and then there would
+hardly be time to get home!  Oh, that's jolly!  I'll go to the nursery
+gardens, and get _such_ flowers for the vases!'
+
+Saturday brought Nuttie a letter, but not from her mother--
+
+
+'My Dear Ursula--I write because we are anxious to keep your mother as
+quiet as possible.  It was a serious shock to her to find that you had
+left home, and she naturally supposed that Miss Headworth was in great
+danger.  Your father was greatly displeased, and she has been much
+overcome, and very unwell, but we hope by keeping her perfectly quiet
+that worse consequences may be prevented.  Your father desires you to
+remain where you are for the present, as he will not have her disturbed
+again.  Your mother sends her love both to you and to your aunt, and
+desires me to say that she will write in a day or two, and that she
+thinks you had better not come back till she is better and your
+father's vexation has diminished.
+
+'I wish you had informed us of your intentions, as then we could have
+ascertained the grounds of the report that terrified you so
+strangely.--I remain your affectionate aunt,
+
+                                         JANE M. EGREMONT.'
+
+
+'Poor mother! he has been sneering at us all in his dreadful cynical
+way, and knocked her up into one of her awful headaches,' said Nuttie,
+who felt extremely angered by the grave tone of rebuke in the letter,
+and tossed it over to her aunt without absolutely reading it all.  Miss
+Headworth was a good deal distressed, and anxious to know what Mrs.
+William Egremont meant; but Nuttie positively declared, 'Oh, it is her
+headaches!  You know she always had them more or less, and they have
+grown a great deal worse since she has taken to sitting in that horrid,
+stuffy, perfumy, cigar-ry room, and doesn't take half exercise enough.'
+
+And when Miss Headworth showed herself much concerned about the state
+of things, Nuttie coaxed her, and declared that she should fancy
+herself unwelcome, and have to go and beg a lodging somewhere instead
+of enjoying her reprieve.  And Aunt Ursel was far less impervious to
+coaxing than she used to be when she was the responsible head of a
+boarding house.  She did most thoroughly enjoy the affection of her
+great niece, and could not persuade herself to be angry with her,
+especially when the girl looked up smiling and said, 'If the worst came
+to the worst and he did disinherit me, the thing would only right
+itself.  I always meant to give it back to Mark.'
+
+No great aunt in the world could fail to admire the generous spirit of
+the girl who came back from the great world of luxury, so loving and
+happy in her humble surroundings.  The only sighs were for poor Alice,
+in the hands of a man of whom Miss Headworth knew so much evil.  If she
+were not wretched and a victim--and Nuttie did not think her such--she
+must surely be getting spoilt and worldly.  Her daughter implied fears
+of this kind, yet who could read her letters and think so?
+
+Nuttie was fortunately too much in awe of the Canoness to write all the
+pertnesses that tingled at her fingers' ends, and she sent a proper and
+fairly meek letter, intimating, however, that she was only too happy to
+remain at Micklethwayte.
+
+It was two or three days more before she heard again.
+
+
+'My Own Dear Child--They have let me write at last, and I can say how
+much I like to think of your nestling up to dear Aunt Ursel, and how
+glad I am to find that she was well enough to enjoy you. It is almost
+like being there to hear of you, and the only thing that grieves me is
+that your father was very much vexed at your setting off in that sudden
+way, and at my being so foolish about it.  His eyes have been very bad,
+and he missed me sadly while I was laid up.  We are neither of us very
+strong, and we think--if Aunt Ursel and Mary can keep you for a little
+longer--it will be better for you to stay on with them, as it might be
+as dreary for you as it was last winter, especially as the Rectory folk
+will soon be going into residence.  I will write to them about it and
+persuade them to take something for your board, so as to make it easy
+for them.  And then you can have a fire in your room; you must not
+leave it off now you are used to it.  My dear, I wish you would write a
+little apology to your father.  I ought not to conceal that he is
+really very angry, and I think it would be well if you expressed some
+regret, or if you cannot truthfully do that, asked his pardon for your
+impetuosity; for you know he cannot be expected to realise all that
+dear Aunt Ursel is to us.  You cannot think how kind your Aunt Jane has
+been to me; I did not think she could have been so tender.  This is the
+first letter I ever had to write to you, my own dear child.  I miss you
+every moment, but after all it is better you should be away till your
+father has overlooked this hurried expedition of yours.  I am sure he
+would if you wrote him a real nice letter, telling how you were really
+frightened, and that it was not a mere excuse.  Pray do, and then you
+can come back to your loving little mother.
+
+                                'A. E.'
+
+
+'As if I would or could,' quoth Nuttie to herself.  'Apologise to him
+indeed, for loving the aunt who toiled for us when he deserted us. Poor
+little mother, she can't really expect it of me.  Indeed, I don't think
+she quite knows what she wants, or whether she likes me to be here or
+at Bridgefield!  My belief is that he bullies her less when I am out of
+the way, because she just gives way to him, and does not assert any
+principle.  I've tried to back her up, and it is of no use, and I am
+sure I don't want such a winter as the last.  So I am much better here;
+and as to begging pardon, when I have done nothing wrong, I am sure I
+won't, to please anybody.  I shall tell her that she ought to know me
+better than to expect it!'
+
+But Nuttie did not show the letter either to Aunt Ursel or Mary Nugent;
+nor did she see that in which Alice had satisfied them that it might be
+better that her daughter should pay them a long visit, while Mr.
+Egremont's health required constant attendance, and the Canon's family
+were at Redcastle.  And as her husband was always open-handed, she
+could make Ursula's stay with them advantageous to their slender means,
+without hurting their feelings.
+
+She told them as much as she could, but there was more that no living
+creature might know, namely, the advantage that Gregorio had gained
+over that battlefield, his master, during her days of illness.  The
+first cold weather had brought on pain, and anger and anxiety, nervous
+excitement and sleeplessness, which the valet had taken upon him to
+calm with a narcotic under a new name that at first deceived her till
+she traced its effects, and inquired of Dr. Hammond about it.
+Unwillingly, on her account, he enlightened her, and showed her that,
+though the last year's care had done much to loosen the bonds of the
+subtle and alluring habit, yet that any resumption of it tended to
+plunge its victim into the fatal condition of the confirmed
+opium-eater, giving her every hope at the same time that this
+propensity might be entirely shaken off, and that the improvement in
+Mr. Egremont's health and habits which had set in might be confirmed,
+and raise him above the inclination.
+
+Could she have been rid of Gregorio, she would have felt almost sure of
+victory; but as it was, she believed the man absolutely meant to baffle
+her, partly out of a spiteful rivalry, partly because his master's
+torpid indolence could be used to his own advantage.  She was
+absolutely certain that his sneering tone of remark made her husband
+doubly disinclined to let any religious book be near, or to permit her
+to draw him to any Sunday observance.
+
+The battle must be fought out alone.  The gentle woman could have no
+earthly helper in the struggle.  The Canon and Mark, the only persons
+who could have given her the slightest aid, were both at a distance,
+even if her loyal heart could have brooked confession to them, and she
+only hoped that Nuttie would never know of it.  Only aid from above
+could be with her in the daily, hourly effort of cheerfulness,
+patience, and all the resources of feminine affection, to avert the
+temptation; and she well knew that the presence of the ardent,
+unsubdued, opinionative girl would, alas! only double the difficulties.
+So she acquiesced, at least for the present, in Nuttie's grand
+achievement of having broken away from all the wealth and luxury of
+Bridgefield to return to her simple home and good old aunt.  Mark was a
+good deal vexed, but Nuttie did not care about that, attributing this
+displeasure to Egremont clanship; Mary Nugent was doubtful and anxious,
+and thought it her duty to reconcile herself to her father; but Miss
+Headworth, who, be it remembered, had reason to have the worst
+impressions of Mr. Egremont, rejoiced in her young niece having escaped
+from him for the time, and only sighed over the impossibility of
+Alice's doing the same.  And when Nuttie described, as she constantly
+did, the various pleasures she had enjoyed during the past year, the
+good old lady secretly viewed her as a noble Christian heroine for
+resigning all this in favour of the quiet little home at Micklethwayte,
+though reticent before her, and discussed her excellence whenever she
+was alone with Mary.
+
+Nor would Miss Nugent vex her with contradictions or hints that what
+Nuttie was giving up at present might be a dull house, with her mother
+engrossed by an irritable semi-invalid, and the few gaieties to be
+enjoyed by the help of the Canon's family at Redcastle.  She did ask
+the girl whether Mrs. Egremont, being avowedly not quite well, might
+not need her assistance; but Nuttie vehemently disavowed being of any
+possible use to her father; he never let her read to him! oh no! he
+called her music schoolgirly, a mere infliction; he never spoke to her
+if he could help it, and then it was always with a sort of sneer; she
+believed he could not bear the sight of her, and was ashamed of it, as
+well he might be!  For Mrs. Houghton's disclosures had rankled ever
+since within her, and had been confirmed by her aunt.
+
+'But that is very sad,' said Mary.  'I am so sorry for you.  Ought you
+not to try hard to conquer his distaste?'
+
+'I--why, he cares for nothing good!'
+
+'Nay,' smiling.  'Not for your mother?'
+
+'Oh!  She's pretty, you know; besides, she makes herself a regular
+slave to him, and truckles to him in everything, as I could never do.'
+
+'Perhaps she is overcoming evil with good.'
+
+'I am afraid it is more like being overcome of evil.  No, no, dear Miss
+Mary, don't be shocked.  The dear little mother never would be anything
+but good in her own sweet self, but it is her nature not to stand up
+for anything, you know.  She seems to me just like a Christian woman
+that has been obliged to marry some Paynim knight. And it perfectly
+provokes me to see her quite gratified at his notice, and ready to
+sacrifice anything to him, now I know how he treated her.  If I had
+been in her place, I wouldn't have gone back to him; no, not if he had
+been ready to crown me after I was dead, like Ines de Castro.'
+
+'I don't know that you would have had much choice in that case.'
+
+'My very ghost would have rebelled,' said Nuttie, laughing a little.
+
+And Mary could believe that Mrs. Egremont, with all her love for her
+daughter, might find it a relief not to have to keep the peace between
+the father and child.  'Yet,' she said to herself, 'if Mr. Dutton were
+here, he would have taken her back the first day.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+DISENCHANTMENT.
+
+  'He promised to buy me a bunch of blue ribbons.'
+
+
+St. Ambrose's road was perfectly delightful as long as there was any
+expectation of a speedy recall.  Every day was precious; every meeting
+with an old face was joyful; each interchange of words with Mr. Spyers
+or Gerard Godfrey was hailed as a boon; nothing was regretted but the
+absence of Monsieur and his master, and that the favourite choir boy's
+voice was cracked.
+
+But when there was reason to think that success had been complete, when
+Miss Headworth had been persuaded by Mary that it was wiser on all
+accounts not to mortify Alice by refusing the two guineas a week
+offered for Miss Egremont's expenses; when a couple of boxes of clothes
+and books had arrived, and Ursula found herself settled at
+Micklethwayte till after Christmas, she began first to admit to herself
+that somehow the place was not all that it had once been to her.
+
+Her mother was absent, that was one thing.  Mrs. Nugent was gone, that
+was another.  There was no Monsieur or Mr. Dutton to keep her in awe of
+his precision, even while she laughed at it.  There were no boarders to
+patronise and play with, and her education at the High School was over.
+If she saw a half-clothed child, it was not half so interesting to buy
+an ulster in the next shop, as it was to turn over the family rag-bag,
+knit, sew, and contrive!  Somehow things had a weariness in them, and
+the little excitements did not seem to be the exquisite delights they
+used to be.  After having seen Patience at the Princess's it was not
+easy to avoid criticising a provincial Lady Jane, and it was the like
+with other things of more importance.  Even the ritual of St. Ambrose's
+Church no longer struck her as the ne plus ultra of beauty, and only
+incited her to describe London churches.
+
+She resumed her Sunday-school classes, and though she talked at first
+of their raciness and freedom, she soon longed after the cleanliness,
+respectfulness, and docility of the despised little Bridgefordites, and
+uttered bitter things of Micklethwayte turbulence, declaring--perhaps
+not without truth--that the children had grown much worse in her
+absence.
+
+And as Mr. Godfrey had been superintendent during the latter half of
+the time, this was a cruel stroke.  He wanted to make her reverse her
+opinions.  And they never met without 'Now, Ursula, don't you remember
+Jem Burton putting on Miss Pope's spectacles, and grinning at all the
+class.'
+
+'Yes; and how Mr. Dutton brought him up to beg her pardon.  Now, was
+any notice taken when that horrid boy--I don't know his name--turned
+the hymn they were saying to her into "Tommy, make room for your
+uncle"?'
+
+'Oh, Albert Cox!  It is no use doing anything to him, he would go off
+at once to the Primitives.'
+
+'Let him!'
+
+'I cannot make him a schismatic.'
+
+'I wonder what he is now!'
+
+'Besides, Miss Pope perfectly provokes impertinence.'
+
+'Then I wouldn't give her work she can't do.'
+
+Such an argument as this might be very well at the moment of
+provocation, but it became tedious when recurred to at every meeting.
+Nuttie began to wonder when Monks Horton would be inhabited again, and
+how much notice Lady Kirkaldy would take of her, and she was a good
+deal disappointed when Mark told her that Lord Kirkaldy had been begged
+to undertake a diplomatic mission which would keep them abroad all the
+winter.
+
+There was a certain weariness and want of interest.  It was not exactly
+that there was nothing intellectual going on.  There were the lectures,
+but they were on chemistry, for which Nuttie cared little. There were
+good solid books, and lively ones too, but they seemed passe to one who
+had heard them discussed in town.  Mary and Miss Headworth read and
+talked them over, and perhaps their opinions were quite as wise, and
+Miss Nugent's conversation was equal to that of any of Nuttie's London
+friends, but it was only woman's talk after all--the brilliancy and
+piquancy, the touch and go, she had enjoyed in Lady Kirkaldy's
+drawing-room was lacking.
+
+Mr. Spyers was too much immersed in parish matters to read anything
+secular, and neither he nor Gerard Godfrey seemed ever to talk of
+anything but parish matters.  There was not the slightest interest in
+anything beyond.  Foreign politics, European celebrities,--things in
+which Nuttie had learnt to take warm interest when with the Kirkaldys,
+were nothing to them.  Even Mary wondered at her endeavours to see the
+day's paper, and she never obtained either information or sympathy
+unless she came across Mark.  It seemed to her that Gerard cared less
+for the peace or war of an empire than for a tipsy cobbler taking the
+pledge.  The monotony and narrowness of the world where she had once
+been so happy fretted and wearied her, though she was ashamed of
+herself all the time, and far too proud to allow that she was tired of
+it all.  Aunt Ursel at her best had always been a little dry and grave,
+an authority over the two nieces; and though softened, she was not
+expansive, did not invite confidences, and home was not home without
+the playfellow-mother.
+
+And most especially was she daily tired of Gerard Godfrey!  Had he
+always talked of nothing but 'the colours,' chants, E. C. U., classes,
+and teetotalism?  Whatever she began it always came back to one or
+other of these subjects, and when she impatiently declared that she was
+perfectly sick of hearing of the Use of Sarum, he looked at her as
+guilty of a profanity.
+
+Perhaps it was true that he was narrower than he had been.  He was a
+good, honest, religiously-minded lad, but with no great depth or grasp
+of intellect; Ursula Egremont had been his companion first and then his
+romance, and the atmosphere of the community in which he lived had been
+studious and intelligent.  His expedition to Redcastle had convinced
+him that the young lady lived in a different world, entirely beyond his
+reach, and in the reaction of his hopelessness, he had thrown himself
+into the excitement of the mission, and it had worked on him a zealous
+purpose to dedicate himself totally to a religious life, giving up all
+worldly aims, and employing the small capital he could call his own in
+preparing for the ministry.  Mr. Dutton had insisted that he should
+test his own steadfastness and resolution by another year's work in his
+present situation before he took any steps.
+
+He had submitted, but still viewed himself as dedicated, and so far as
+business hours permitted, gave his services like a clerical pupil to
+St. Ambrose's with the greatest energy, and perhaps somewhat less
+judgment than if Mr. Dutton had been at hand.  Being without natural
+taste for intellectual pursuits, unless drawn into them by his
+surroundings, he had dropped them entirely, and read nothing but the
+ephemeral controversial literature of his party, and not much of that,
+for he was teaching, preaching, exhorting, throughout his spare time;
+while the vicar was in too great need of help to insist on deepening
+the source from which his zealous assistant drew.  As Miss Nugent
+observed, teetotalism was to him what dissipation was to other young
+men.
+
+On this vehemence of purpose descended suddenly Ursula Egremont once
+more; and the human heart could not but be quickened with the idea, not
+entirely unfounded, that it was to him that she had flown back, and
+that her exile proved that she cared for him more than for all the
+delights she had enjoyed as heiress of Bridgefield.  The good youth was
+conscientious to the back-bone, and extremely perplexed between his
+self-dedication and the rights that their implied understanding might
+give to her.  Was she to be the crowning blessing of his life, to be
+saved partly through his affection from worldly trials and temptations,
+and bestowing on him a brilliant lot in which boundless good could be
+effected?  Or was she a syren luring him to abandon his higher and
+better purposes?
+
+The first few days of her stay, the former belief made him feel like
+treading on air, or like the hero of many a magazine story; but as time
+went on this flattering supposition began to fail him, when Nuttie
+showed her weariness of the subjects which, in his exclusiveness, he
+deemed the only ones worthy of a Christian, or rather of a Catholic.
+Both of them had outgrown the lively, aimless chatter and little jests
+that had succeeded the games of childhood, and the growth had been in
+different directions, so that Ursula felt herself untrue to her old
+romance when she became weary of his favourite topics, disappointed by
+his want of sympathy and comprehension, fretted by his petty
+disapprovals, and annoyed by his evident distaste for Mark, to whom she
+turned as to one of her proper world.
+
+At last, after many tossings, Gerard fixed upon a test.  If she endured
+it she would be the veritable maiden of his imagination, and they would
+stand by one another, come what would; if not, he would believe that
+the past had been fancy, not love, or love that had not withstood the
+attractions of fashionable life.  A great temperance meeting was coming
+on, and Gerard, eager at once to fill the room, and to present a goodly
+roll of recruits, watched anxiously for his moment, and came on Nuttie
+with his hands full of bills in huge letters, and his pockets of badges.
+
+'Excellent speakers,' he cried.  'We shall have the hall crowded.
+You'll come, Ursula?'
+
+'I don't know what Miss Mary will do.  I don't think she means it.'
+
+'Oh, if you insist, if we both insist, she will.  Look at the paper--we
+are to have some splendid experiences.'
+
+Nuttie made a face.  'I've heard all about those,' she said.  'That
+man,' pointing to one of the names, 'regularly rants about it; he is
+like a madman.'
+
+'He does go rather far, but it is quite necessary, as you will hear.
+Oh, Nuttie, if you would only be one of us!  I've brought a card!  If
+you would!'
+
+'Why, what's the use, Gerard!  I don't like wine, I never do drink it,
+except a little claret-cup sometimes when I can't get water.'
+
+'Then it would cost you nothing.'
+
+'Yes, it would.  It would make me ridiculous.'
+
+'You used not to heed the sneers of the world.'
+
+'Not for anything worth doing--but this is not.'
+
+'It is the greatest cause of the day!' he cried, in an eager exalted
+manner, which somewhat inclined her to laugh.  'Do away with alcohol
+and you would do away with crime!'
+
+'Thank you for the compliment, Gerard; I never found that the
+infinitesimal drop of alcohol that I suppose there is in a tumbler of
+claret-cup disposed me to commit crimes.'
+
+'Why won't you understand me, Ursula!  Can't you give up that for the
+sake of saving others!'
+
+'I wonder whom it would save.'
+
+'Example saves!  If you put on this'--taking out the badge--'how many
+should you not lead at your home?'
+
+'Just nobody!  Mother and I should have a bad time of it, that's all.'
+
+'And if you endured, what would not your testimony effect in the
+household and village?'
+
+'Nothing!  I have nothing to do with the men-servants, and as to the
+village, it is very sober.  There's only one public house, and that is
+kept by Uncle William's old butler, and is as orderly as can be.'
+
+'Ah! that's the way you all deceive yourselves.  Moderate drinkers are
+ten times more mischievous than regular drunkards.'
+
+'Thank you, Gerard!  And outrageous abstainers are more mischievous
+than either of them, because they make the whole thing so utterly
+foolish and absurd.'  She was really angry now, and so was Gerard.
+
+'Is that your ultimatum?' he asked, in a voice that he strove to render
+calm.
+
+'Certainly; I'm not going to take the pledge.'
+
+Having quarrelled in childhood, made quarrelling now easier, and Gerard
+answered bitterly:
+
+'Very well, I hope you will have no cause to repent it.'
+
+''Tis not the way to make me repent it, to see how it seems to affect
+some people's common sense.  It is just as if all your brains had run
+to water!' said Nuttie, laughing a little; but Gerard was desperately
+serious, and coloured vehemently.
+
+'Very well, Miss Egremont, I understand.  I have had my answer,' he
+said, gathering up his papers and marching out of the room.
+
+She stood still, offended, and not in the least inclined to run after
+him and take back her words.  He, poor fellow, stumbled down the steps,
+and held by the garden rail to collect his senses and compose himself.
+
+'What's the matter, Gerard, are you ill or giddy?' asked Miss Nugent,
+coming up in the winter twilight.
+
+'No, oh no!  Only the dream of my life is over,' he answered, scarce
+knowing what he said.
+
+'You haven't--' cried Mary aghast.
+
+'Oh no,' he said, understanding the blank, 'only she won't take the
+pledge!'
+
+'I don't see how she could or ought,' responded Mary.  'Is that all?'
+
+'I had made it the test,' muttered poor Gerard.  'It is right!  It is
+all over now.  I shall know how to go on my way.  It is best so--I know
+it is--only I did not know whether anything was due to her.'  It was
+almost a sob.
+
+'Dear old Gerard,' said Mary, 'I see you meant to do right.  It is well
+your mind should be settled.  I think you'll find comfort in your good
+work.'
+
+He wrung her hand, and she went in, half amused, for she was fully
+aware of the one-sidedness of the mania for temperance under which he
+acted, yet honouring his high, pure motives, and rejoicing that he had
+found this indirect mode of gauging Nuttie's feelings towards him--that
+is, if he was right about them, and there was no revulsion.
+
+Far from it.  Nuttie was still angry.  'Gerard had been so ridiculous,'
+she said, 'teasing her to take the pledge, and quite incapable of
+understanding her reasons.  I can't think why Gerard has grown so
+stupid.'
+
+'Enthusiasms carry people away,' returned Mary.
+
+'If Mr. Dutton had only stayed, he would have kept Gerard like
+himself,' said Nuttie.
+
+But there was no relenting.  The two young people avoided each other;
+and perhaps Nuttie was secretly relieved that the romance she had
+outgrown no longer entangled her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+A FAILURE.
+
+  'Would I had loved her more!'--Mrs. Hemans.
+
+
+'On the 14th of January, at Bridgefield Egremont, the wife of Alwyn
+Piercefield Egremont, Esquire, a son and heir.'
+
+Ursula had been prepared for this event for about a fortnight by a long
+tender letter from her mother, mourning over the not meeting at
+Christmas, and the long separation, but saying that she had wished to
+spare the long anxiety, and that it had been a trying time which she
+felt herself able to cope with better alone, than even with her dear
+Nuttie, knowing her to be happy and safe with Aunt Ursel.  Now, if all
+went well, they would have a happy meeting, and begin on a new score.
+'If the will of God should be otherwise,' added Alice, 'I am sure I
+need not entreat my Nuttie to do and be all that she can to her father.
+My child, you do not know how sorely he needs such love and tendance
+and prayer as you can give him.  I know you have thought I have set you
+aside--if not better things, for his sake.  Indeed I could not help
+it.'  Then there was something tear-stained and blotted out, and it
+ended with, 'He is beginning to miss your step and voice about the
+house.  I believe he will really be glad to see you, when the bright
+spring days come, and I can kiss my own Nuttie again.'
+
+Nuttie was very much delighted, but a little hurt that her aunt and
+Mary should have been in the secret, and pledged to say nothing to her
+till her mother should write.  She found, moreover, that Miss Headworth
+was extremely anxious and not altogether reassured by Mrs. William
+Egremont's letter of announcement, which filled Nuttie with delight.
+How happy the little mother must be to have a baby in her arms again,
+and though she herself did not profess to have a strong turn for infant
+humanity, it was the greatest possible relief to be no longer an
+heiress, excepting that the renunciation in favour of Mark was no
+longer practicable.
+
+The residence at Redcastle was not over, but the Canoness had come to
+nurse her sister-in-law, and kept up the correspondence.  The son and
+heir was reported to be a perfect specimen, and his father was greatly
+elated and delighted, but the letters showed anxiety about the mother,
+who did not get on as she ought, and seemed to have no power of rally
+about her.  At length came a letter that seemed to burn itself into
+Nuttie's brain--
+
+
+'My Dear Ursula--Your mother is longing to see you.  You had better
+come home directly.  Your aunt saved her before.  Tell her if she will
+come, she shall have my deepest gratitude.  I shall send to meet the
+5.11 train.--Your affectionate father,
+
+                                       A. P. EGREMONT.'
+
+
+Mrs. William Egremont wrote at more length.  Symptoms had set in which
+filled the doctors and nurses with double anxiety.  Advice had been
+sent for from London, and Mr. Egremont was in an uncontrollable state
+of distress.  She had undertaken to summon Ursula home, and to beg Miss
+Headworth to undertake the journey.  She evidently did not know that
+her brother-in-law had written himself, and before they could start a
+telegram terrified them, but proved to contain no fresh tidings, only a
+renewed summons.
+
+Miss Headworth forgot all her resolutions about Mr. Egremont's
+hospitality--her Alice was her only thought, and all the remedies that
+had been found efficacious at Dieppe.  The good lady had a certain
+confidence in her own nursing and experience of Alice, which buoyed her
+up with hope, while Ursula seemed absolutely stunned.  She had never
+thought of such a frightful loss or grief, and her mental senses were
+almost paralysed, so that she went through the journey in a kind of
+surface trance, observing all around her much as usual, looking out for
+the luggage and for the servant who had come to meet them with the
+report 'No change.'  She did the honours of the carriage, and covered
+Miss Headworth with the fur rug.  They wanted it, for they were
+shivering with anxiety.
+
+Canon Egremont came out to the front hall to meet them, and put his
+arms round Nuttie tenderly, saying, 'My poor dear child!' then as he
+saw he had frightened them, 'No, no!  She is alive--conscious they say,
+only so very weak.'  Then with something of his usual urbane grace, he
+held out his hand, 'Miss Headworth, it is very good in you to come.
+You have a great deal to forgive.'
+
+He took them into the tent-room, where tea was standing, interrupting
+himself in the account he was giving to bid Nuttie let her aunt have
+some.  It was plain from his manner that he had given up hope, and in
+another minute in hurried his brother, looking terribly haggard and
+with bloodshot eyes, giving his hand to each, with, 'That's right, Miss
+Headworth, thank you.  Come, let me know what you think of her!'
+
+'Does she know they are come?' said the Canon.  'No?  Then, Alwyn, let
+them have some tea, and take off their things.  I can tell you, the
+nurses will never let them in just off a journey.'
+
+Miss Headworth seconded this, and Mr. Egremont submitted, allowing that
+she had not asked for Nuttie since the morning, and then had smiled and
+squeezed his hand when he said she was coming with her aunt; but he
+walked up and down in direful restlessness, his whole mind apparently
+bent on extracting from Miss Headworth that she had been as ill or
+worse at Dieppe.
+
+Alas! when Mrs. William Egremont came down to fetch Nuttie; there was
+no question that matters were much worse.  The sweet face was perfectly
+white and wasted, and the heavy lids of the dark eyes scarcely lifted
+themselves, but the lips moved into a smile, and the hand closed on
+that of the girl, who stood by her as one frozen into numbness.  There
+was the same recognition when her aunt was brought to her side, the
+poor old lady commanding herself with difficulty, as the loving glance
+quivered over the face.
+
+Time passed on, and she still held Nuttie's hand.  Once, when a little
+revived by some stimulant at her lips, she made an effort and said,
+'Stay with him!  Take care of him!  _Love_ him!  And your little
+brother, my Nuttie!  Promise!'
+
+'I promise,' the girl answered, scarce knowing what she said.
+
+And the eyes closed with an air of peace and rest.
+
+Again when Miss Headworth was doing something to ease her position she
+said, 'Thank you,' and then more vigorously, 'Thank you, dear aunt, for
+all you have been to us.'
+
+There was little more.  She asked Nuttie for 'her hymn,' the evening
+hymn with which mother and daughter used nightly to go to sleep, and
+which, in her strange dreamy way, the girl managed to say.
+
+Then a little murmur and sign passed between the elder ladies, and Mrs.
+William Egremont fetched her husband.  As he opened his book to find
+the commendatory prayer, thinking her past all outward consciousness,
+and grieved by the look of suffering, her eyes again unclosed and her
+lips said, 'Failed.'
+
+'Don't think of that!  God can make failures success.'
+
+There was a half smile, a look of peace.  '_He_ makes up,' she said;
+and those were the last audible words before it was over, and the
+tender spirit was released from its strife, some time later, they only
+knew when by the failure of the clasp on her husband's hand.
+
+Old Miss Headworth did not understand the meaning of that sad word till
+the next forenoon.  Then,--as she sat in the darkened tent-room, crying
+over her letters,--while the stunned and bewildered Nuttie was, under
+her Aunt Jane's direction, attending to the needful arrangements, Canon
+Egremont wandered in upon her in the overflow of confidence of a man
+with a full heart, wanting to talk it all out, communicating the more,
+because she was a discreet woman, and asked no questions.  He had tried
+to see his brother, but Gregorio had not admitted him.  He was aware
+now of the whole state of things.  Dr. Hammond had told him, when first
+beginning to be alarmed for his patient, that the principal cause for
+anxiety was the exhaustion caused by the long strain on her spirits and
+strength consequent on her efforts to wean her husband from his fatal
+propensity.  There had been other 'complications,' as the doctor called
+them, and more immediate causes of danger, but both he and his
+colleague, summoned from London, believed that she would have
+surmounted them if she had had more strength to rally.  But her nurses
+dated the decided turn for the worse from the day when she had gazed up
+into Mr. Egremont's face, and detected the look in his eyes that she
+had learnt too well to understand.
+
+She would fain have lived, and, according to her obedient nature, had
+submitted to all the silence and stillness enforced on her; but she had
+told Dr. Hammond that she must see her brother-in-law before she was
+too far gone.  And the doctor, knowing all, took care it should be
+brought about.
+
+And then she had spoken of her failure in the effort of these years.
+'If I had begun better,' she said, 'it might not have been so with him.'
+
+'My dear, indeed you have nothing to blame yourself for.  You were
+grievously sinned against by us all.  Alwyn was no saint when he drew
+you into it--and you, you have been his good angel, doing all and more
+too,' said the Canon, almost breaking down.
+
+'I tried--but if I had been a better woman--And to leave him to that
+man!'
+
+'Child, child, victories sometimes come this way!' he cried, scarce
+knowing how it was put into his mouth, but glad to see the light in her
+eye.
+
+'Thanks,' she replied.  'No, I ought not to have said that.  I leave
+him to God, and my poor Nuttie.  I want you to tell her, if I can't,
+what she must try to do.  If I had but brought them together more! But
+I tried for the best.'
+
+Then she begged for her last communion, saying, 'I do pray for that
+poor Gregorio.  Isn't that forgiving him?'  And the attempt to exchange
+forgiveness with the Canon for their mutual behaviour at the time of
+her marriage overcame them both so much that they had to leave it not
+half uttered.  Indeed, in speaking of the scene, William Egremont was
+utterly overwhelmed.
+
+'And that's the woman that I treated as a mere outcast!' he cried,
+walking about the little room.  'Oh God, forgive me!  I shall never
+forgive myself.'
+
+Poor Miss Headworth!  In past days she had longed for any amount of
+retribution on Alice's hard-hearted employers, but it was a very
+different thing to witness such grief and self reproach.  He had in
+truth much more developed ideas of duty, both as man and priest, than
+when he had passively left a disagreeable subject to his mother-in-law,
+as lying within a woman's province; and his good heart was suffering
+acutely for the injustice and injury in which he had shared towards one
+now invested with an almost saintly halo.
+
+In the gush of feeling he had certainly revealed more to Miss
+Headworth, than his wife, or even he himself, in his cooler moments,
+would have thought prudent, and he ended by binding her to secrecy; and
+saying that he should only tell his niece what was necessary for her to
+know.
+
+Nuttie was going about, dry-eyed and numbed, glad of any passing
+occupation that would prevent the aching sense of desolation at her
+heart from gaining force to overwhelm her; courting employment, and
+shunning pity and condolence, but she could not escape when her uncle
+took her hand, made her sit down by him, with 'I want to speak to you,
+my dear;' and told her briefly and tenderly what her mother's effort
+had been, and of the message and task she had bequeathed. The poor
+girl's heart fainted within her.
+
+'Oh! but, Uncle William, how can I?  How can I ever?  Mother could do
+things I never could!  He _did_ care for her!  He does not care for me!'
+
+'You must teach him to do so, Nuttie.'
+
+'Oh!' she said, with a hopeless sound.
+
+The Canon did think it very hopeless in his heart, but he persevered,
+as in duty bound.  'I told your dear mother that perhaps you would
+succeed where she thought she had failed, though indeed she had done
+much.  It made her happy.  So, my dear child, you are bound to do your
+best.'
+
+'Yes;' then, after a pause--'But mother could coax him and manage him.
+Mother was with him day and night; she could always get at him. What
+can I do?'
+
+'I think you will find that he depends upon you more,' said the Canon,
+'and it may be made easier to you, if you only set your will to it.'
+
+'If I ought, I'll try,' said poor Nuttie, more humbly perhaps than she
+had ever spoken before, but in utter dejection, and her uncle answered
+her like a child.
+
+'There, that's a good girl.  Nobody can do more.'
+
+For the Canon had one hope.  He had not thought it becoming to speak to
+her of the counter influence, but he could not help thinking it
+possible that if he and his son, backed by doctor and lawyer, made a
+long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether, they might induce his
+brother to part with Gregorio, and this would render Ursula's task far
+less impossible.
+
+He was confirmed in this hope by finding that Mark's arrival was not
+unwelcome to Mr. Egremont, who seemed to have forgotten the
+unpleasantness with which he had regarded the engagement, and only
+remembered that his nephew had been Alice's champion, resuming old
+customs of dependence, making him act as amanuensis, and arraigning the
+destiny that had restored so lovely and charming a creature only to
+snatch her away, leaving nothing but a headstrong girl and a helpless
+baby.
+
+That poor little fellow was all that could be desired at his age, but
+Nuttie felt her beautiful mother almost insulted when the elder ladies
+talked of the wonderful resemblance that the Canoness declared to have
+been quite startling in the earlier hours of his life.  For the
+convenience of one of the sponsors, he was to be christened in the
+afternoon following the funeral, the others being--by his mother's
+special entreaty--his sister and Mark.  Egremont customs were against
+the ladies going to the funeral, so that Nuttie was kept at home, much
+against her will; but after the luncheon she escaped, leaving word with
+her aunts that she was going to walk down to church alone, and they
+were sorry enough for her to let her have her own way, especially as
+her father, having been to the funeral, had shut himself up and left
+all the rest to them.
+
+The Egremont family had a sort of enclosure or pen with iron rails
+round it close to the church wall, where they rested under flat slabs.
+The gate in this was open now, and the new-made grave was one mass of
+white flowers,--wreaths and crosses, snowdrops, hyacinths, camellias,
+and the like,--and at the feet was a flowerpot with growing plants of
+the white hyacinth called in France 'lys de la Vierge.'  These, before
+they became frequent in England, had been grown in Mr. Dutton's
+greenhouse, and having been favourites with Mrs. Egremont, it had come
+to be his custom every spring to bring her the earliest plants that
+bloomed.  Nuttie knew them well, the careful tying up, the neat
+arrangement of moss over the earth, the peculiar trimness of the whole;
+and as she looked, the remembrance of the happy times of old, the sick
+longing for all that was gone, did what nothing had hitherto
+effected--brought an overwhelming gush of tears.
+
+There was no checking them now that they had come.  She fled into
+church on the first sounds of arrival and hid herself in the friendly
+shelter of the great family pew; but she had to come out and take her
+place, though she could hardly utter a word, and it was all that she
+could do to keep from sobbing aloud; she could not hand the babe, and
+the Canon had to take on trust the name 'Alwyn Headworth,' for he could
+not hear the words that were on her trembling lips.
+
+It was soon over; and while the baby and his attendants, with Miss
+Headworth, were being packed into the carriage, and her uncle and aunt
+bowing off the grand god-father, she clutched her cousin's arm, and
+said, 'Mark; where's Mr. Dutton?'
+
+'I--I didn't know he was coming, but now you ask, I believe I saw him
+this morning.'
+
+'I know he is here.'
+
+'Do you want to see him?' said Mark kindly.
+
+'Oh, if I might!'
+
+Then, with a sudden impulse, she looked back into the church, and
+recognised a black figure and slightly bald head bowed down in one of
+the seats.  She pointed him out.  'No doubt he is waiting for us all to
+be gone,' said Mark in a low voice.  'You go into the Rectory, Nuttie;
+there's a fire in the study, and I'll bring him to you there. I'll get
+him to stay the night if I can.'
+
+'Oh, thank you!' and it was a really fervent answer.
+
+Mark waited, and when Mr. Dutton rose, was quite shocked at his
+paleness and the worn look on his face, as of one who had struggled
+hard for resignation and calm.  He started, almost as if a blow had
+been struck him, as Mark uttered his name in the porch, no doubt having
+never meant to be perceived nor to have to speak to any one; but in one
+moment his features had recovered their usual expression of courteous
+readiness.  He bowed his head when Mark told him that Ursula wanted to
+shake hands with him, and came towards the Rectory, but he entirely
+declined the invitation to sleep there, declaring that he must return
+to London that night.
+
+Mark opened the study door, and then went away to secure that the man
+whom he had learnt to esteem very highly should at least have some
+refreshment before he left the house.
+
+Those few steps had given Mr. Dutton time to turn from a mourner to a
+consoler, and when Nuttie came towards him with her hand outstretched,
+and 'Oh, Mr. Dutton, Mr. Dutton!' he took it in both his, and with a
+calm broken voice said, 'God has been very good to us in letting us
+know one like her.'
+
+'But oh! what can we do without her?'
+
+'Ah, Nuttie! that always comes before us.  But I saw your work and your
+comfort just now.'
+
+'Poor little boy!  I shall get to care about him, I know, but as yet I
+can only feel how much rather I would have _her_.'
+
+'No doubt, but it is _her_ work that is left you.'
+
+'Her work?  Yes!  But oh, Mr. Dutton, you don't know how dreadful it
+is!'
+
+He did not know what she meant.  Whether it was simply the burthen on
+any suddenly motherless girl, or any special evil on her father's part,
+but he was soon enlightened, for there was something in this old friend
+that drew out her confidence beyond all others, even when he repressed
+her, and she could not help telling him in a few murmured furtive words
+such as she knew she ought not to utter, and he felt it almost treason
+to hear.  'Opiates! she was always trying to keep my father from them!
+It was too much for her!  My uncle says I must try to do it, and I
+can't.'
+
+'Poor child!' said Mr. Dutton kindly, though cut to the heart at the
+revelation of sweet Alice's trial; 'at least you can strive, and there
+is always a blessing on resolution.'
+
+'Oh, if you knew! and he doesn't like me.  I don't think I've ever been
+nice to him, and that vexed her!  I haven't got her ways.'
+
+'No,' said Mr. Dutton, 'but you will learn others.  Look here, Nuttie.
+You used to be always craving for grand and noble tasks, the more
+difficult the better.  I think you have got one now, more severe than
+ever could have been thought of--and very noble.  What are those lines
+about the task "bequeathed from bleeding sire to son"?  Isn't it like
+that?  You are bound to go on with her work, and the more helpless you
+feel, and the more you throw yourself on God, the more God will help
+you.  He takes the will for the deed, if only you have will enough;
+and, Nuttie, you can pray that you may be able to love and honour him.'
+
+Teacups were brought in, followed by Mark, and interrupted them; and,
+after a short interval, they parted at the park gate, and Ursula walked
+home with Mark, waked from her dull numb trance, with a crushed feeling
+as if she had been bruised all over, and yet with a purpose within her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+FARMS OR UMBRELLAS.
+
+  'He tokin into his handis
+   His londis and his lode.'--CHAUCER.
+
+
+'Mark!  Mark!'  A little figure stood on the gravel road leading
+through Lescombe Park, and lifted up an eager face, as Mark jumped down
+from his horse.  'I made sure you would come over.'
+
+'Yes, but I could not get away earlier.  And I have so much to say to
+you and your mother, Annaple; there's a great proposition to be
+considered.'
+
+'Oh dear! and here is John bearing down upon us.  Never mind.  We'll
+get into the mither's room and be cosy!'
+
+'Well, Mark,' said Sir John's hearty voice, 'I thought you would be
+here.  Come to luncheon?  That's right!  And how is poor Egremont? I
+thought he looked awful at the funeral.'
+
+'He is fairly well, thank you; but it was a terrible shock.'
+
+'I should think so.  To find such a pretty sweet creature just to lose
+her again.  Child likely to live, eh?'
+
+'Oh yes, he is a fine fellow, and has never had anything amiss with
+him.'
+
+'Poor little chap!  Doesn't know what he has lost!  Well, Nannie,' as
+they neared the house, 'do you want a tete-a-tete or to take him in to
+your mother?  Here, I'll take the horse.'
+
+'Come to her at once,' said Annaple; 'she wants to hear all, and
+besides she is expecting me.'
+
+Mark was welcomed by Lady Ronnisglen with inquiries for all concerned,
+and especially for that 'poor girl.  I do pity a young thing who has to
+take a woman's place too soon,' she said.  'It takes too much out of
+her!'
+
+'I should think Ursula had plenty of spirit,' said Annaple.
+
+'I don't know whether spirit is what is wanted,' said Mark.  'Her
+mother prevailed more without it than I am afraid she is likely to do
+with it.'
+
+'Complements answer better than parallels sometimes, but not always,'
+said Lady Ronnisglen.
+
+'Which are we?' asked Annaple demurely.
+
+'Not parallels certainly, for then we should never meet,' responded
+Mark.  'But here is the proposal.  My father and all the rest of us
+have been doing our best to get my uncle to smooth Ursula's way by
+getting rid of that valet of his.'
+
+'The man with the Mephistopheles face?'
+
+'Exactly.  He is a consummate scoundrel, as we all know, and so does my
+uncle himself, but he has been about him these twelve or fourteen
+years, and has got a sort of hold on him--that--that-- It is no use to
+talk of it, but it did not make that dear aunt of mine have an easier
+life.  In fact I should not be a bit surprised if he had been a
+hindrance in the hunting her up.  Well, the fellow thought proper to
+upset some arrangements my mother had made, and then was more insolent
+than I should have thought even he could have been towards her.  I
+suppose he had got into the habit with poor Aunt Alice.  That made a
+fulcrum, and my father went at my uncle with a will.  I never saw my
+father so roused in my life.  I don't mean by the behaviour to his
+wife, but at what he knew of the fellow, and all the harm he had done
+and is doing.  And actually my uncle gave in at last, and consented to
+tell Gregorio to look out for another situation, if he has not
+feathered his nest too well to need one, as I believe he has.'
+
+'Oh, that will make it much easier for Ursula!' cried Annaple.
+
+'If he goes,' put in her mother.
+
+'I think he will.  I really had no notion how much these two years have
+improved my uncle!  To be sure, it would be hard to live with such a
+woman as that without being the better for it!  But he really seems to
+have acquired a certain notion of duty!'
+
+They did not smile at the simple way in which Mark spoke of this vast
+advance, and Lady Ronnisglen said, 'I hope so, for the sake of his
+daughter and that poor little boy.'
+
+'I think that has something to do with it,' said Mark.  'He feels a
+responsibility, and still more, I think he was struck by having a
+creature with him to whom evil was like physical pain.'
+
+'It will work,' said Lady Ronnisglen.
+
+'Then,' went on Mark, 'he took us all by surprise by making me this
+proposal--to take the management of the estate, and become a kind of
+private secretary to him.  You know he gets rheumatism on the optic
+nerve, and is almost blind at times.  He would give me L300 a year, and
+do up the house at the home farm, rent free.  What do you say to that,
+Annaple?'
+
+There was a silence, then Annaple said: 'Give up the umbrellas!  Oh!
+What do you think, Mark?'
+
+'My father wishes it,' said Mark.  'He would, as he had promised to do,
+make over to me my share of my own mother's fortune, and that would, I
+have been reckoning, bring us to just what we had thought of starting
+upon this spring at Micklethwayte.'
+
+'The same now,' said Lady Ronnisglen, after some reckoning, 'but what
+does it lead to?'
+
+'Well--nothing, I am afraid,' said Mark; 'as you know, this is all I
+have to reckon upon.  The younger children will have hardly anything
+from their mother, so that my father's means must chiefly go to them.'
+
+'And this agency is entirely dependent on your satisfying Mr. Egremont?'
+
+'True, but that's a thing only too easily done.  However, as you say,
+this agency has no future, and if that came to an end, I should only
+have to look out for another or take to farming.'
+
+'And ask poor John if that is a good speculation nowadays!' said
+Annaple.
+
+'Fortunes are and have been made on the umbrellas,' said Mark.
+'Greenleaf has a place almost equal to Monks Horton, and Dutton, though
+he makes no show, has realised a considerable amount.'
+
+'Oh yes, let us stick to the umbrellas!' cried Annaple; 'you've made
+the plunge, so it does not signify now, and we should be so much more
+independent out of the way of everybody.'
+
+'You would lose in society,' said Mark, 'excepting, of course, as to
+the Monks Horton people; but they are often away.'
+
+'Begging your pardon, Mark, is there much to lose in this same
+neighbourhood?' laughed Annaple, 'now May will go.'
+
+'It is not so much a question of liking,' added her mother, 'as of what
+is for the best, and where you may wish to be--say ten years hence.'
+
+Looked at in this way, there could be no question but that the umbrella
+company promised to make Mark a richer man in ten years' time than did
+the agency at Bridgefield Egremont.  He had a salary from the office
+already, and if he purchased shares in the partnership with the portion
+his father would resign to him, his income would already equal what he
+would have at Bridgefield, and there was every prospect of its
+increase, both as he became more valuable, and as the business
+continued to prosper.  If the descent in life had been a grievance to
+the ladies, the agency would have been an infinite boon, but having
+swallowed so much, as Annaple said, they might as well do it in
+earnest, and to some purpose.  Perhaps, too, it might be detected that
+under the circumstances Annaple would prefer the living in a small way
+out of reach of her sister's visible compassion.
+
+So the matter was settled, but there was an undercurrent in Mark's mind
+on which he had not entered, namely, that his presence at home might
+make all the difference in that reformation in his uncle's habits which
+Alice had inaugurated, and left in the hands of others. With him at
+hand, there was much more chance of Gregorio's being dispensed with,
+Ursula's authority maintained, little Alwyn well brought up, and the
+estate, tenants, and household properly cared for, and then he smiled
+at his notion of supposing himself of so much importance.  Had he only
+had himself to consider, Mark would have thought his duty plain; but
+when he found Miss Ruthven and her mother so entirely averse, he did
+not deem it right to sacrifice them to the doubtful good of his uncle,
+nor indeed to put the question before them as so much a matter of
+conscience that they should feel bound to consider it in that light.
+He did indeed say, 'Well, that settles it,' in a tone that led Annaple
+to exclaim: 'I do believe you want to drop the umbrellas!'
+
+'No,' he answered, 'it is not that, but my father wished it, and
+thought it would be good for my uncle.'
+
+'No doubt,' said Annaple, 'but he has got a daughter, also a son, and a
+brother, and agents are plentiful, so I can't see why all the family
+should dance attendance on him.'
+
+Lady Ronnisglen, much misdoubting Mr. Egremont's style of society, and
+dreading that Mark might be dragged into it, added her word, feeling on
+her side that it was desirable and just to hinder the family from
+sacrificing Mark's occupation and worldly interest to a capricious old
+roue, who might very possibly throw him over when it would be almost
+impossible to find anything else to do.  Moreover, both she and Annaple
+believed that the real wish was to rescue the name of Egremont from
+association with umbrellas, and they held themselves bound to combat
+what they despised and thought a piece of worldly folly.
+
+So Mark rode home, more glad that the decision was actually made than
+at the course it had taken.  His father was disappointed, but could not
+but allow that it was the more prudent arrangement; and Mr. Egremont
+showed all the annoyance of a man whose good offer has been rejected.
+
+''Tis that little giggling Scotch girl!' he said.  'Well, we are quit
+of her, anyway.  'Tis a pity that Mark entangled himself with her, and
+a mother-in-law into the bargain!  I was a fool to expect to get any
+good out of him!'
+
+This was said to his daughter, with whom he was left alone; for Miss
+Headworth could not bear to accept his hospitality a moment longer than
+needful, and besides had been so much shaken in nerves as to suspect
+that an illness was coming on, and hurried home to be nursed by Mary
+Nugent.  Canon Egremont was obliged to go back to Redcastle to finish
+his residence, and his wife, who had been absent nearly a month from
+her family, thought it really wisest to let the father and daughter be
+thrown upon one another at once, so that Ursula might have the benefit
+of her father's softened mood.
+
+There could be no doubt that he was softened, and that he had derived
+some improvement from the year and a half that his wife had been with
+him.  It might not have lifted him up a step, but it had arrested him
+in his downward course.  Selfish and indolent he was as ever, but there
+had been a restraint on his amusements, and a withdrawal from his worst
+associates, such as the state of his health might continue, above all
+if Gregorio could be dispensed with.  The man himself had become aware
+of the combination against him, and, though reckoning on his master's
+inertness and dependence upon him, knew that a fresh offence might
+complete his overthrow, and therefore took care to be on his good
+behaviour.
+
+Thus Nuttie's task might be somewhat smoothed; but the poor girl felt
+unspeakably desolate as she ate her breakfast all alone with a dull
+post-bag, and still more so when, having seen the housekeeper, who,
+happily for her, was a good and capable woman, and very sorry for her,
+she had to bethink herself what to do in that dreary sitting-room
+during the hour when she had always been most sure of her
+sister-mother's dear company.  How often she had grumbled at being
+called on to practise duets for her father's evening lullaby!  She
+supposed she ought to get something up, and she proceeded to turn over
+and arrange the music with a sort of sick loathing for whatever was
+connected with those days of impatient murmurs, which she would so
+gladly have recalled.  Everything had fallen into disorder, as Blanche
+and May had left it the last time they had played there; and the
+overlooking it, and putting aside the pieces which she could never use
+alone, occupied her till Gregorio, very meek and polite, came with a
+message that Mr. Egremont would be glad if she would come to his room.
+In some dread, some distaste, and yet some pity and some honest
+resolution, she made her way thither.
+
+There he sat, in dressing-gown, smoking-cap, and blue spectacles, with
+the glittering February sunshine carefully excluded.  He looked worse
+and more haggard than when she had seen him at dinner in the evening,
+made up for company, and her compassion increased, especially as he not
+only held out his hand, but seemed to expect her to kiss him, a thing
+she had never done since their first recognition.  It was not pleasant
+in itself, but it betokened full forgiveness, and indeed he had never
+spoken to her in his sneering, exasperating voice since her mournful
+return home.
+
+'Have you seen the boy?' he asked.
+
+'Yes; they are walking him up and down under the south wall,' said
+Nuttie, thankful that she had peeped under the many wraps as he was
+carried across the hall.
+
+'Here!  I want you to read this letter to me.  A man ought to be
+indicted for writing such a hand!'
+
+It was really distinct penmanship, though minute; but, as Nuttie found,
+her father did not like to avow how little available were his eyes.  He
+could write better than he could read, but he kept her over his
+correspondence for the rest of the morning, answering some of the
+letters of condolence for him in her own name, writing those of
+business, and folding and addressing what he himself contrived to
+write.  Her native quickness stood her in good stead, and, being rather
+nervous, she took great pains, and seldom stumbled; indeed, she only
+once incurred an exclamation of impatience at her stupidity or slowness.
+
+She guessed rightly that this forbearance was owing to tender
+persuasions of her mother, and did not guess that a certain fear of
+herself was mingled with other motives.  Her father had grown used to
+woman's ministrations; he needed them for his precious little heir, and
+he knew his daughter moreover for a severe judge, and did not want to
+alienate her and lose her services; so they got on fairly well
+together, and she shared his luncheon, during which a message came up
+about the carriage; and as there had been an application for some
+nursery needment, and moreover black-edged envelopes had run short,
+there was just purpose enough for a drive to the little town.
+
+Then Nuttie read her father to sleep with the newspaper; rushed round
+the garden in the twilight to stretch her young limbs; tried to read a
+little, dressed, dined with her father; finished what he had missed in
+the paper, then offered him music, and was told 'if she pleased,' and
+as she played she mused whether this was to be her life.  It looked
+very dull and desolate, and what was the good of it all?  But there
+were her mother's words, 'Love him!'  How fulfil them?  She could pity
+him now, but oh! how could she love one from whom her whole nature
+recoiled, when she thought of her mother's ruined life? Mr. Dutton too
+had held her new duties up to her as capable of being ennobled.  Noble!
+To read aloud a sporting paper she did not want to understand, to be
+ready to play at cards or billiards, to take that dawdling drive day by
+day, to devote herself to the selfish exactions of burnt-out
+dissipation.  Was this noble?  Her mother had done all this, and never
+even felt it a cross, because of her great love.  It must be Nuttie's
+cross if it was her duty; but could the love and honour possibly come
+though she tried to pray in faith?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE GIGGLING SCOTCH GIRL.
+
+  'For every Lamp that trembled here,
+  And faded in the night,
+  Behold a Star serene and clear
+  Smiles on me from the height.'--B. M.
+
+
+Nuttie was not mistaken in supposing that this first day would be a
+fair sample of her life, though, of course, after the first weeks of
+mourning there were variations; and the return of the Rectory party
+made a good deal of brightening, and relieved her from the necessity of
+finding companionship and conversation for her father on more than half
+her afternoons and evenings.
+
+He required her, however, almost every forenoon, and depended on her
+increasingly, so that all her arrangements had to be made with
+reference to him.  It was bondage, but not as galling in the fact as
+she would have expected if it had been predicted to her a few months
+previously.  In the first place, Mr. Egremont never demanded of her
+what was actually against her conscience, except occasionally giving up
+a Sunday evensong to read the paper to him, and that only when he was
+more unwell than usual.  He was, after all, an English gentleman, and
+did not ask his young daughter to read to him the books which her
+mother had loathed.  Moreover, Gregorio was on his good behaviour,
+perfectly aware that there was a family combination against him, and
+having even received a sort of warning from his master, but by no means
+intending to take it, and therefore abstaining from any kind of offence
+that could furnish a fresh handle against him; and thus for the
+present, Dr. Hammond's regimen was well observed, and Mr. Egremont was
+his better self in consequence, for, under his wife's guardianship, the
+perilous habit had sufficiently lost strength to prevent temper and
+spirits from manifestly suffering from abstinence.
+
+The first time Nuttie found herself obliged to make any very real
+sacrifice to her father's will was on the occasion of Mark's marriage
+at Easter.  Things had arranged themselves very conveniently for him at
+Micklethwayte, though it seemed to Nuttie that she only heard of
+affairs there in a sort of distant dream, while such events were taking
+place as once would have been to her the greatest possible revolutions.
+
+Aunt Ursel reached home safely, but her expectations of illness were
+realised.  She took to her bed on arriving, and though she rose from
+it, there was reason to think she had had a slight stroke, for her
+activity of mind and body were greatly decayed, and she was wholly
+dependent on Mary Nugent for care and comfort.  Mary, remembering the
+consequences of the former alarm, made the best of the old lady's
+condition; and Nuttie, ashamed of having once cried 'wolf,' did not
+realise the true state of the case, nor indeed could she or would she
+have been spared to go to Micklethwayte.
+
+The next news told that Gerard Godfrey, at the end of the year required
+by Mr. Dutton, had resigned his situation, and at the close of his
+quarter's notice was going to prepare for Holy Orders under the
+training of a clergyman who would employ him in his parish, and assist
+him in reading up to the requirements for admission to a theological
+college.  Poor dear old Gerard!  It gave Nuttie a sort of pang of
+self-reproach to own how good and devoted he was, and yet so narrow and
+stupid that she could never have been happy with him.  Was he too good,
+or was he too dull for her?  Had she forsaken him for the world's sake,
+or was it a sound instinct that had extinguished her fancy for him?  No
+one could tell, least of all the parties concerned.  He might be far
+above her in spiritual matters, but he was below her in intellectual
+ones, and though they would always feel for one another that peculiar
+tenderness left by the possibilities of a first love, no doubt the
+quarrel over the blue ribbon had been no real misfortune to either.
+
+The next tidings were still more surprising.  Mr. Dutton was leaving
+the firm.  Though his father had died insolvent, and he had had to
+struggle for himself in early life, he was connected with wealthy
+people, and change and death among these had brought him a fair share
+of riches.  An uncle who had emigrated to Australia at the time of the
+great break up had died without other heirs, leaving him what was the
+more welcome to him that Micklethwayte could never be to him what it
+had been in its golden age.  He had realised enough to enable him to be
+bountiful, and his parting gift to St Ambrose's would complete the
+church; but he himself was winding up the partnership, and withdrawing
+his means from Greenleaf and Co. in order to go out to Australia to
+decide what to do with his new possessions.
+
+Mark Egremont purchased a number of the shares, though, to gratify the
+family, the shelter of the Greenleaf veiled his name under the 'Co.,'
+and another, already in the firm, possessed of a business-like
+appellation, gave designation to the firm as Greenleaf, Goodenough, and
+Co.
+
+Mr. Dutton's well-kept house, with the little conservatory and the
+magnolia, was judged sufficient for present needs, and the lease was
+taken off his hands, so that all was in order for the marriage of Mark
+and Annaple immediately after Easter.
+
+Lady Delmar had resigned herself to the inevitable, and the wedding was
+to take place at Lescombe.  Nuttie, whose chief relaxation was in
+hearing all the pros and cons from May and Blanche, was asked to be one
+of the bridesmaids by Annaple, who had come over to the Rectory in a
+droll inscrutable state of mischief, declaring that she had exasperated
+Janet to the verge of insanity by declaring that she should have little
+umbrellas like those in the Persian inscriptions on her cards, and that
+Mark was to present all the bridesmaids with neat parasols.  If
+crinolines had not been gone out they could have all been dressed
+appropriately.  Now they must wear them closely furled.  All this
+banter was hardly liked by May and Blanche, whose little sisters were
+laughed at again for needing the assurance that they were really to
+wear white and rowan leaves and berries--the Ronnisglen badge.  Nuttie,
+who had drawn much nearer to May, refrained from relating this part of
+the story at home, but was much disappointed when, on telling her
+father of the request, she was answered at once:
+
+'Hein!  The 24th?  You'll be in London, and a very good thing too.'
+
+'Are we to go so soon?'
+
+'Yes.  Didn't I tell you to take that house in Berkshire Road from the
+20th?'
+
+'I did not think we were to start so soon.  Is there any particular
+reason?'
+
+'Yes.  That Scotch girl ought to have known better than to ask you in
+your deep mourning.  I thought women made a great point of such things.'
+
+'Aunt Jane did not seem to think it wrong,' said Nuttie, for she really
+wished much for consent.  Not only had she grown fond both of Mark and
+Annaple, but she had never been a bridesmaid, and she knew that not
+only the Kirkaldys but Mr. Dutton had been invited; she had even
+ventured on offering to lodge some of the overflowing guests of the
+Rectory.
+
+'Their heads are all turned by that poverty-stricken Scotch peerage,'
+returned Mr. Egremont; 'or the Canoness should have more sense of
+respect.'
+
+Nuttie's wishes were so strong that she made one more attempt, 'I need
+not be a bridesmaid.  They would not mind if I wore my black.'
+
+'I should, then!' said her father curtly.  'If they don't understand
+the proprieties of life, I do.  I won't have you have anything to do
+with it.  If you are so set upon gaiety, you'll have enough of weddings
+at fitter times!'
+
+It was the old sneering tone.  Nuttie felt partly confounded, partly
+indignant, and terribly disappointed.  She did care for the sight of
+the wedding--her youthful spirits had rallied enough for that, but far
+more now she grieved at missing the sight of Mr. Dutton, when he was
+going away, she knew not where, and might perhaps come on purpose to
+see her; and it also made her sore and grieved at being accused of
+disregard to her mother.  She was silenced, however, and presently her
+father observed, in the same unpleasant tone, 'Well, if you've digested
+your disappointment, perhaps you'll condescend to write to the agent,
+that I expect the house to be ready on the 21st.'
+
+Nuttie got through her morning's work she hardly knew how, though her
+father was dry and fault-finding all the time.  Her eyes were so full
+of tears when she was released that she hardly saw where she was going,
+and nearly ran against her aunt, who had just walked into the hall.
+Mrs. Egremont was too prudent a woman to let her burst out there with
+her grievance, but made her come into the tent-room before she
+exclaimed, 'He is going to take me away to London; he won't let me go
+to the wedding.'
+
+'I am sorry for your disappointment,' said her aunt quietly, 'but I am
+old-fashioned enough to be glad that such strong respect and feeling
+should be shown for your dear mother.  I wish Annaple had spoken to me
+before asking you, and I would have felt the way.'
+
+'I'm sure it is not want of feeling,' said Nuttie, as her tears broke
+forth.
+
+'I did not say it was,' returned her aunt, 'but different generations
+have different notions of the mode of showing it; and the present
+certainly errs on the side of neglect of such tokens of mourning.  If I
+did not think that Annaple and her mother are really uncomfortable at
+Lescombe, I should have told Mark that it was better taste to wait till
+the summer.'
+
+'If I might only have stayed at home--even if I did not go to the
+wedding,' sighed Nuttie, who had only half listened to the Canoness's
+wisdom.
+
+'Since you do not go, it is much better that you should be out of the
+way,' said Mrs. Egremont.  'Is your father ready to see me?'
+
+So Nuttie had to submit, though she pouted to herself, feeling
+grievously misjudged, first as if she had been wanting in regard to the
+memory of her mother, who had been so fond of Mark, and so rejoiced in
+his happiness; and then that her vexation was treated as mere love of
+gaiety, whereas it really was disappointment at not seeing Mr. Dutton,
+that good, grave, precise old friend, who could not be named in the
+same breath with vanity.  Moreover, she could not help suspecting that
+respect to her mother was after all only a cloak to resentment against
+Mark and his marriage.
+
+However, she bethought herself that her mother had often been
+disappointed and had borne it cheerfully, and after having done what
+Aunt Ursel would have called 'grizzling' in her room for an hour, she
+wrote her note to Miss Ruthven and endeavoured to be as usual, feeling
+keenly that there was no mother now to perceive and gratefully commend
+one of her only too rare efforts for good humour. On other grounds she
+was very sorry to leave Bridgefield.  May had, in her trouble, thawed
+to her, and they were becoming really affectionate and intimate
+companions, by force of propinquity and relationship, as well as of the
+views that May had imbibed from Hugh Condamine.  Moreover Nuttie felt
+her aunt's watch over the baby a great assistance to her own ignorance.
+
+However the Canoness had resigned to the poor little heir the perfect
+and trustworthy nurse, whom Basil had outgrown, and who consented to
+the transfer on condition of having her nursery establishment entirely
+apart from the rest of the household.  Her reasons were known though
+unspoken, namely, that the rejection of one or two valets highly
+recommended had made it plain that there had been no dislodgment of
+Gregorio.  The strong silent objection to him of all good female
+servants was one of the points that told much against him.  Martin and
+the housekeeper just endured him, and stayed on for the present chiefly
+because their dear lady had actually begged them not to desert her
+daughter if they could help it, at least not at first.
+
+Nuttie bound over her cousins to give her a full account of the
+wedding, and both of them wrote to her.  Blanche's letter recorded
+sundry scattered particulars,--as to how well the rowan-trimmed tulle
+dresses looked--how every one was packed into the carriages for the
+long drive--how there had been a triumphal arch erected over the
+Bluepost Bridge itself, and Annaple nearly choked with laughing at the
+appropriateness--how, to her delight, a shower began, and the
+procession out of the church actually cried out for umbrellas--how
+papa, when performing the ceremony, could not recollect that the
+bride's proper name was Annabella, and would dictate it as Anna-Maria,
+Sir John correcting him each time sotto voce--how Basil and little
+Hilda Delmar walked together and 'looked like a couple of ducks,'
+which, it was to be hoped, was to be taken metaphorically--how
+dreadfully hard the ice on the wedding-cake was, so that when Annaple
+tried to cut it the knife slipped and a little white dove flew away and
+hit May, which everyone said was a grand omen that she would be the
+next bride, while of course Annaple was perfectly helpless with mirth.
+Every one said it was the merriest wedding ever seen, for the bride's
+only tears were those of laughter.  What Nuttie really cared for most
+came just at the end, and not much of that. 'Your Mr. Dutton is just
+gone.  He got on famously with Hugh Condamine, and I forgot to tell you
+that he has given Mark such a jolly present, a lovely silver
+coffee-pot, just the one thing they wanted, and Lady Delmar said he
+didn't look near so like a tradesman as she expected.  I see May is
+writing too, but I don't know what you will get out of her, as Hugh
+Condamine came for the day.'
+
+Nuttie, however, had more hopes from May.  Her letter certainly was
+fuller of interest, if shorter.
+
+
+'My Dear Nuttie--Blanche has no doubt told you all the externals.  I
+suppose there never was a brighter wedding, for as Annaple keeps her
+mother with her, there was no real rending asunder of ties.  Indeed I
+almost wish her excitement did not always show itself in laughing, for
+it prevents people from understanding how much there is in her.
+
+
+(Plainly Hugh Condamine had been rather scandalised by the 'giggling
+Scotch girl.')
+
+
+'Dear old Lady Ronnisglen was delightful.  If there were any tears,
+they were hers, and Lady Delmar was very cordial and affectionate. Of
+course Hugh and Mr. Dutton missed much that one would have liked in a
+wedding.  I drove back with them afterwards, and it was very
+interesting to listen to their conversation about church matters. Hugh
+is very much struck with your friend; he had heard a good deal about
+Micklethwayte before, and says that such a lay worker is perfectly
+invaluable.  It is a great pity that he is not going on in the firm, it
+would make it so much nicer for Mark, but he says he has duties towards
+his new property.  I think he was sorry not to find you at home, but he
+plainly never thought it possible you should be at the wedding.  I
+don't know whether I ought to tell you this, but I think you ought to
+know it.  There is a lovely new wreath of Eucharis lilies and
+maiden-hair at dear Aunt Alice's grave, close against the rails at the
+feet, and Hugh told me that he looked out of his window very early
+yesterday morning and saw Mr. Dutton standing there, leaning on the
+rail, with his bare head bowed between his hands.  You can't think how
+it impressed Hugh.  He said he felt reverent towards him all through
+that day, and he was quite angry with Rosalind and Adela for jesting
+because, when the shower began as we were coming out of church, Mr.
+Dutton rushed up with an umbrella, being the only person there who had
+one, I believe.  Hugh says you may be proud of such a friend.  I wish
+you could have seen Hugh.--Your affectionate cousin,
+
+                                             'MARGARET EGREMONT.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THREE YEARS LATER.
+
+  'There's something rotten in the State.'--Hamlet.
+
+
+On an east-windy afternoon in March Mary Nugent emerged from the School
+of Art, her well-worn portfolio under her arm, thinking how many
+successive generations of boys and girls she had drilled through
+'free-hand,' 'perspective,' and even 'life' with an unvarying average
+of failure and very moderate success, and how little talent or
+originality had come to the front, though all might be the better for
+knowing how to use eyes and fingers.
+
+On the whole her interest as well as her diligence did not flag; but a
+sense of weariness and monotony would sometimes come after a recurrence
+of well-known blunders of her pupils, and she missed the sense of going
+home to refreshment and enjoyment which had once invigorated her.  St.
+Ambrose's Road had had its golden age, but the brightness had been
+dimmed ever since that festival at Monks Horton. One after another of
+the happy old society had dropped away.  The vicar had received
+promotion, and she only remained of the former intimates, excepting old
+Miss Headworth, who was no longer a companion, but whom affection
+forbade her to desert in feeble old age.  Had her thoughts of the old
+times conjured up a figure belonging to them?  There was the
+well-brushed hat, the natty silk umbrella, the perfect fit of garments,
+the precise turn-out, nay, the curly lion-shaven poodle, with all his
+fringes, leaping on her in recognition, and there was that slightly
+French flourish of the hat, before--with a bounding heart--she met the
+hand in an English grasp.
+
+'Miss Nugent!'
+
+'Mr. Dutton!'
+
+'I thought I should meet you here!'
+
+'When did you come?'
+
+'Half an hour ago.  I came down with George Greenleaf, left my things
+at the Royal Hotel, and came on to look for you.'
+
+'You will come and spend the evening with us?'
+
+'If you are so good as to ask me.  How is Miss Headworth?'
+
+'Very feeble, very deaf; but she will be delighted to see you.  There
+is no fear of her not remembering you, though she was quite lost when
+Mrs. Egremont came in yesterday.'
+
+'Mrs. Egremont!' he repeated with a little start.
+
+'Mrs. Mark.  Ah! we have got used to the name--the Honourable Mrs.
+Egremont, as the community insist on calling her.  What a sunny
+creature she is!'
+
+'And Miss Egremont, what do you hear of her?'
+
+'She writes long letters, poor child.  I hope she is fairly happy. Are
+you come home for good, or is this only a visit?'
+
+'I have no intention of returning.  I have been winding up my good
+cousin's affairs at Melbourne.'
+
+Mary's heart bounded again with a sense of joy, comfort, and
+protection; but she did not long keep Mr. Dutton to herself, for every
+third person they met gladly greeted him, and they were long in getting
+to St. Ambrose's Road, now dominated by a tall and beautiful spire,
+according to the original design.  They turned and looked in at the
+pillared aisles, stained glass, and handsome reredos.
+
+'Very different from our struggling days,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Yes,' said Mary, with half a sigh.  'There's the new vicar,' as he
+passed with a civil nod.  'He has three curates, and a house of
+Sisters, and works the parish excellently.'
+
+'You don't speak as if you were intimate.'
+
+'No.  His womankind are rather grand--quite out of our beat; and in
+parish work I am only an estimable excrescence.  It is very well that I
+am not wanted, for Miss Headworth requires a good deal of attention,
+and it is only the old Adam that regrets the days of importance.  Ah,
+do you see?'
+
+They were passing Mr. Dutton's old home.  On the tiny strip of lawn in
+front was a slender black figure, with yellow hair, under a tiny black
+hat, dragging about a wooden horse whereon was mounted a sturdy boy of
+two, also yellow-locked and in deep mourning under his Holland blouse.
+
+'Billy-boy is riding to meet his daddy!' was merrily called out both by
+mother and son before they perceived the stranger.
+
+'Mr. Dutton,' said Mary.
+
+Annaple bowed, but did not put out her hand, and such a flush was on
+her face that Miss Nugent said, 'I am sure that is too much for you!'
+
+'Oh no--' she began; but 'Allow me,' said Mr. Dutton, and before she
+could refuse he was galloping round and round the little lawn, the boy
+screaming with delight as Monsieur raced with them.
+
+'So he is come!' she said in a low doubtful voice to Mary.
+
+'Yes.  He has met Mr. Greenleaf in London.  I always think he has the
+contrary to the evil eye.  Whatever he takes in hand rights itself.'
+
+'I'll hope so.  Oh, thank you!  Billy-boy, say thank you!  What a ride
+you have had!'
+
+'Why are they in such deep mourning?' asked Mr. Dutton, after they had
+parted.
+
+'Oh, did you not know? for good old Lady Ronnisglen.  She had a bad
+fall about two years ago, and never left her bed again; and this last
+autumn she sank away.'
+
+'They have had a great deal of trouble, then.  I saw the death of Canon
+Egremont in the Times soon after I went out to Australia.'
+
+'Yes; he had heart disease, and died quite suddenly.  The living is
+given to Mr. Condamine, who married the eldest daughter, and the widow
+is gone to live under the shadow of Redcastle Cathedral.'
+
+Therewith Miss Nugent opened her own door, and Miss Headworth was soon
+made aware of the visitor.  She was greatly changed, and had the
+indescribable stony look that tells of paralysis; and though she knew
+Mr. Dutton, and was delighted to see him, his presence made her expect
+to see Alice and Nuttie come in, though she soon recollected herself
+and shed a few helpless tears.  Then--in another mood--she began to
+display with pride and pleasure the photographs of 'Alice's dear little
+boy.'  She had a whole series of them, from the long-clothed babe on
+his sister's knee to the bright little fellow holding a drum--a very
+beautiful child, with a striking resemblance to his mother, quite
+startling to Mr. Dutton, especially in the last, which was coloured,
+and showed the likeness of eyes and expression.
+
+'Nuttie always sends me one whenever he is taken,' said the old lady.
+'Dear Nuttie!  It is very good for her.  She is quite a little mother
+to him.'
+
+'I was sure it would be so,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Yes,' said Mary, 'he is the great interest and delight of her life.
+Her letters are full of his little sayings and doings.'
+
+'Is she at home now?'
+
+'No; at Brighton.  Her father seems to have taken a dislike to
+Bridgefield since his brother's death, and only goes there for a short
+time in the shooting season.  He has taken a lease of a house in
+London, and spends most of the year there.'
+
+'Ah!' as she showed him the address, 'that is near the old house where
+I used to stay with my grand-aunt.  We thought it altogether in the
+country then, but it is quite absorbed now, and I have dazzling offers
+from building companies for the few acres of ground around it. Have you
+seen her?'
+
+'Oh no; I believe she is quite necessary to her father.  I only hear of
+her through Lady Kirkaldy, who has been very kind to her, but, I am
+sorry to say, is now gone with her Lord to the East.  She says she
+thinks that responsibility has been very good for Nuttie; she is
+gentler and less impetuous, and a good deal softened by her affection
+for the child.'
+
+'She was certain to develop.  I only dreaded what society her father
+might surround her with.'
+
+'Lady Kirkaldy says that all has turned out better than could have been
+expected.  You see, as she says, Mr. Egremont has been used to good
+women in his own family, and would not like to see her in a slangy fast
+set.  All her own gaieties have been under Lady Kirkaldy's wing, or
+that of Mrs. William Egremont's relations, and only in a quiet moderate
+way.  Her father gets his own old set about him, and they have not been
+very choice, but they are mostly elderly men, and gentlemen, and know
+how to behave themselves to her. Indeed, her cousin Blanche, who was
+here in the winter, gave us to understand that Ursula knows how to take
+care of herself, and gets laughed at as rather an old maidish model of
+propriety, if you can believe it of your little Nuttie.'
+
+'I could quite believe in her on the defensive, unprotected as she is.'
+
+'What did that young lady--Miss Blanche--tell us about that gentleman,
+Mary?' asked Miss Headworth, hearing and uttering what Miss Nugent
+hoped had passed unnoticed.
+
+'Oh, I think that was all gossip!' returned Mary, 'and so I am sure did
+the Mark Egremonts.  She said there was one of Mr. Egremont's friends,
+Mr. Clarence Fane, I think she called him, rather younger than the
+others, who, she was pleased to say, seemed smitten with Nuttie, but I
+have heard nothing more about it, and Mrs. Mark scouted the idea,' she
+added in haste, as she saw his expression vary in spite of himself.
+
+'Do you see much of your neighbours?'
+
+'We are both too busy to see much of one another, but we have our
+little talks over the wall.  What a buoyant creature she is.  It seems
+as if playfulness was really a sustaining power in her, helping her to
+get diversion out of much that others might stumble at.  You know
+perhaps that when she arrived the work-people had got up a beautiful
+parasol for her, white, with a deep fringe and spray of rowan.  Little
+Susie Gunner presented her with it, and she was very gracious and nice
+about it.  But then what must Mr. Goodenough do but dub it the
+Annabella sunshade, and blazon it, considerably vulgarised, in all the
+railway stations, and magazines.'
+
+'I know!  I had the misfortune to see it in the station at Melbourne;
+and my mind misgave me from that hour.'
+
+'Her husband was prepared to be very angry, but she fairly laughed him
+out of it, made all sorts of fun out of the affair, declared it her
+only opening to fame, and turned it into a regular joke; so that indeed
+the Greenleafs, who were vexed at the matter, and tried to apologise,
+were quite perplexed in their turn, and not at all sure that the whole
+concern was not being turned into ridicule.'
+
+'I wonder it did not make him cut the connection,' said Mr. Dutton,
+muttering 'I only wish it had.'
+
+'Mrs. Greenleaf is very funny about her, 'added Mary, 'proud of the
+Honourable Mrs. Egremont, as they insist on calling her, yet not quite
+pleased that she should be the junior partner's wife; and decidedly
+resenting her hardly going into society at all, though I really don't
+see how she could; for first there was the Canon's death, and then just
+after the boy was born came Lady Ronnisglen's accident, and for the
+next year and a half there was constant attendance on her.  They fitted
+up a room on the ground floor for her, the one opening into your
+drawing-room, and there they used to sit with her.  I used to hear them
+reading to her and singing to her, and they were always as merry as
+possible, till last autumn, when something brought on erysipelas, and
+she was gone almost before they took alarm.  The good little daughter
+was beaten down then, really ill for a week; but if you can understand
+me, the shock seemed to tell on her chiefly bodily, and though she was
+half broken-hearted when her husband in a great fright brought me up to
+see her, and say whether her sister should be sent for, she still made
+fun of him, and described the impossible advice they would bring on
+themselves.  I had to take care of her while he went away to the
+funeral in Scotland, and then I learnt indeed to like her and see how
+much there is in her besides laughter.'
+
+'Did the old lady leave them anything?'
+
+'I believe she had nothing to leave.  Her jointure was not much, but I
+am sure they miss that, for Mrs. Egremont has parted with her nurse,
+and has only a little girl in her stead, driving out the perambulator
+often herself, to the great scandal of the Greenleafs, though she would
+have one believe it is all for want of occupation.'
+
+'Do you think they have taken any alarm?'
+
+'There's no judging from her joyous surface, but I have thought him
+looking more careworn and anxious than I liked.  Mr. Dutton, don't
+answer if I ought not to ask, but is it true that things are going
+wrong?  I know you have been seeing Mr. Greenleaf, so perhaps you are
+in his confidence and cannot speak.'
+
+'Tell me, what is known or suspected?'
+
+'Just this, that Mr. Goodenough has been the ruin of the concern.  He
+has been quite different ever since his voyage to America.  You were
+gone, old Mr. Greenleaf has been past attending to business ever since
+he had that attack, and George Greenleaf has been playing the country
+squire at Horton Bishop, and not looking after the office work, and Mr.
+Egremont was inexperienced.  One could see, of course, that the whole
+character of the business was changed--much more advertising, much more
+cheap and flashy work--to be even with the times, it was said, but the
+old superior hands were in despair at the materials supplied to them,
+and the scamped work expected.  You should have heard old Thorpe
+mourning for you, and moralising over the wickedness of this world.
+His wife told me she really thought he would go melancholy mad if he
+did not leave the factory, and he has done so.  They have saved enough
+to set up a nice little shop at Monks Horton.'
+
+'I must go and see them!  Good old Thorpe!  I ought never to have put
+those poor young things into the firm when I ceased to have any control
+over it.  I shall never forgive myself--'
+
+'Nothing could seem safer then!  No one could have guessed that young
+Mr. Greenleaf would be so careless without his father to keep him up to
+the mark, nor that Mr. Goodenough should alter so much.  Is it very
+bad?  Is there worse behind?  Speculation, I suppose--'
+
+'Of course.  I do not see to the bottom of it yet; poor George seemed
+to reckon on me for an advance, but I am afraid this is more than a
+mere temporary depression, such as may be tided over, and that all that
+can be looked to is trying to save honourable names by an utter break
+up, which may rid them of that--that--no, I won't call him a scoundrel.
+I thought highly of him once, and no doubt he never realised what he
+was doing.'
+
+Before the evening was far advanced Mark Egremont knocked at the door,
+and courteously asked whether Mr. Dutton could be spared to him for a
+little while.  Mary Nugent replied that she was just going to help Miss
+Headworth to bed, and that the parlour was at their service for a
+private interview, but Mark answered, 'My wife is anxious to hear.  She
+knows all that I do, and is quite prepared to hear whatever Mr. Dutton
+may not object to saying before her.'
+
+So they bade good-night to Mary, and went on together to the next
+house, Mr. Dutton saying 'You have much to forgive me, Mr. Egremont; I
+feel as if I had deserted the ship just as I had induced you to embark
+in it.'
+
+'You did not guess how ill it would be steered without you,' returned
+Mark, with a sigh.  'Do not fear to speak out before my wife, even if
+we are sinking.  She will hear it bravely, and smile to the last.'
+
+The room which Mr. Dutton entered was not like the cabin of a sinking
+ship, nor, as in his own time, like the well-ordered apartment of a
+bachelor of taste.  Indeed, the house was a great puzzle to Monsieur,
+who entered by invitation, knowing his way perfectly, thinking himself
+at home after all his travels, and then missing his own particular mat,
+and sniffing round at the furniture.  It was of the modified aesthetic
+date, but arranged more with a view to comfort than anything else, and
+by the light of the shaded lamp and bright fire was pre-eminently
+home-like, with the three chairs placed round the hearth, and
+bright-haired Annaple rising up from the lowest with her knitting to
+greet Mr. Dutton, and find a comfortable lair for Monsieur.
+
+'Miss Nugent says that you set everything right that you do but look
+at, Mr. Dutton,' she said; 'so we are prepared to receive you as a good
+genius to help us out of our tangle.'
+
+Mr. Dutton was afraid that the tangle was far past unwinding, and of
+course the details, so far as yet known, were discussed.  There was, in
+truth, nothing for which Mark could be blamed.  He had diligently
+attended to his office-work, which was mere routine, and, conscious of
+his own inexperience, and trusting to the senior partners, he had only
+become anxious at the end of the year, when he perceived Goodenough's
+avoidance of a settlement of accounts, and detected shuffling.  He had
+not understood enough of the previous business to be aware of the
+deterioration of the manner of dealing with it, though he did think it
+scarcely what he expected.  If he had erred, it was in acting too much
+as a wheel in the machinery, keeping his thoughts and heart in his own
+happy little home, and not throwing himself into the spirit of the
+business, or the ways of those concerned in it, so that he had been in
+no degree a controlling power.  He had allowed his quality of gentleman
+to keep him an outsider, instead of using it to raise the general level
+of the transactions, so that the whole had gone down in the hands of
+the unscrupulous Goodenough.
+
+Annaple listened and knitted quietly while the affairs were explained
+on either hand.  Mark had had one serious talk with George Greenleaf,
+and both had had a stormy scene with Goodenough.  Then Mr. Dutton had
+telegraphed his arrival, and Greenleaf had met him in London, with
+hopes, bred of long and implicit trust, that his sagacity and perhaps
+his wealth would carry the old house through the crisis.
+
+But Mr. Dutton, though reserving his judgment till the books should
+have been thoroughly examined and the liabilities completely
+understood, was evidently inclined to believe that things had gone too
+far, and that the names of Greenleaf and Egremont could only be
+preserved from actual dishonour by going into liquidation, dissolving
+partnership, and thus getting quit of Goodenough.
+
+Mark listened resignedly, Annaple with an intelligence that made Mr.
+Dutton think her the more clearheaded of the two, though still she
+could not refrain from her little jokes.  'I'm sure I should not mind
+how liquid we became if we could only run off clear of Goodenough,' she
+said.
+
+'You know what it means?' said her husband.
+
+'Oh yes, I know what it means.  It is the fine word for being sold up.
+Well, Mark, never mind, we are young and strong, and it will not be a
+bit the worse for the Billy-boy in the end to begin at the bottom of
+everything.'
+
+'I hope--may I ask--is everything embarked in the poor old firm?' said
+Mr. Dutton with some hesitation.
+
+'All that is mine,' said Mark, with his elbow on the table and his chin
+on his hand.
+
+'But I've got a hundred a year, charged on poor old Ronnisglen's
+estate,' said Annaple.  'All the others gave theirs up when they
+married, and I wanted to do so, but my dear mother would not let me;
+she said I had better try how I got on first.  Think of that, Mark, a
+hundred a year!  Why, old Gunner or Thorpe would think themselves
+rolling in riches if they only heard that they had a hundred a year!'
+
+'You won't find it go far!'
+
+'Yes, I shall, for I shall make you live on porridge, with now and then
+a sheep's head for a treat!  Besides, there will be something to do.
+It will be working up again, you know.  But seriously, Mr. Dutton, I
+have some things here of my dear mother's that really belong to
+Ronnisglen, and I was only keeping till he comes home. Should not they
+be got out of the way?'
+
+'My dear, we are not come to that yet!  I hope it may be averted!'
+cried Mark.
+
+But Mr. Dutton agreed with the young wife that it would be much better
+to send these things away before their going could excite suspicion.
+There was only a tiny silver saucepan, valued as a gift of 'Queen'
+Clementina to an ancestress, also a silver teapot and some old point,
+and some not very valuable jewellery, all well able to go into a small
+box, which Mr. Dutton undertook to deposit with Lord Ronnisglen's
+bankers.  He was struck with the scrupulous veracity with which Annaple
+decided between what had become her own property and the heirlooms,
+though what she claimed might probably be sacrificed to the creditors.
+
+Mark could hardly endure to see what made the crisis so terribly real.
+'That I should have brought you to this!' he said to his wife, when
+their visitor had at length bidden them good-night.
+
+'If we begin at that work,' said Annaple, 'it was I who brought you! I
+have often thought since it was rather selfish not to have consented to
+your helping poor Ursula with her heavy handful of a father!  It was
+all money grubbing and grabbing, you see, and if we had thought more of
+our neighbour than ourselves we might have been luxuriating at the Home
+Farm, or even if your uncle had quarrelled with you, he would not have
+devoured your substance.  I have thought so often, ever since I began
+to see this coming.'
+
+'My dear child, you don't mean that you have seen this coming!'
+
+'My prophetic soul!  Why, Mark, you have as good as inferred it over
+and over again.  I've felt like scratching that Badenough whenever I
+met him in the street.  I must indulge myself by calling him so for
+once in strict privacy.'
+
+'You have guessed it all the time, while I only thought how unconscious
+you were.'
+
+'Not to say stupid, considering all you told me.  Besides, what would
+have been the use of howling and moaning and being dismal before the
+time?  For my part, I could clap my hands even now at getting rid of
+Goodenough, and his jaunty, gracious air!  Come, Mark, it won't be so
+bad after all, you'll see.'
+
+'Nothing can be "so bad," while you are what you are, my Nan.'
+
+'That's right.  While we have each other and the Billy-boy, nothing
+matters much.  There's plenty of work in us both, and that good man
+will find it for us; or if he doesn't, we'll get a yellow van, and knit
+stockings, and sell them round the country.  How jolly that would be!
+Imagine Janet's face.  There, that's right,' as her mimicry evoked a
+smile, 'I should be ashamed to be unhappy about this, when our good
+name is saved, and when there is a blessing on the poor,' she added in
+a lower voice, tenderly kissing her husband's weary brow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+THE BOY OF EGREMONT.
+
+  'And the boy that walked beside me,
+  He could not understand
+  Why, closer in mine, ah, closer,
+  I press'd his warm soft hand.'--LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+The agony of a firm like Greenleaf, Goodenough, and Co. could not be a
+rapid thing, and Mr. Dutton lived between London and Micklethwayte for
+several weeks, having much to endure on all sides.  The senior partners
+thought it an almost malicious and decidedly ungrateful thing in him
+not to throw in his means, or at any rate, offer his guarantee to tide
+them over their difficulties.  Goodenough's tergiversations and
+concealments needed a practised hand and acute head to unravel them,
+and often deceived Mr. Greenleaf himself; and when, for a time, he was
+convinced that the whole state was so rotten that a crash was
+inevitable, his wife's lamentations and complaints of Mr. Dutton would
+undo the whole, and it was as if he were doing them an injury that the
+pair accepted the comfortable prospect he was able to offer them in
+Australia.
+
+He would have made the like proposal to the Egremonts, but found that
+Mark held himself bound by his promise to his father not to emigrate,
+and thought of some kind of office-work.  Before trying to procure this
+for him, however, Mr. Dutton intended to see his uncle, and try whether
+the agency, once rejected, could still be obtained for him. Learning
+from Miss Nugent that the Egremonts were in town, he went up thither
+with the purpose of asking for an interview.
+
+There was a new church in the immediate neighbourhood of his house in a
+state of growth and development congenial to the St. Ambrose trained
+mind, and here Mr. Dutton, after old Micklethwayte custom, was
+attending the early matins, when, in the alternate verses of the psalm,
+he heard a fresh young voice that seemed to renew those days gone by,
+and looking across the central aisle his eyes met a pair of dark ones
+which gave a sudden glitter of gladness at the encounter. That was all
+he saw or cared to see.  He did not take in the finished completeness
+of the very plain dark dress and hat, nor the womanly air of the little
+figure, until they clasped hands in the porch, and in the old tones
+Nuttie exclaimed:  'I've been hoping you would come to London.  How is
+Monsieur?'
+
+'In high health, thank you, the darling of the steamer both going and
+coming.  I hope your charges are well?'
+
+'My father is tolerable, just as usual, and my little Alwyn is getting
+more delicious every day.  He will be so delighted to see Monsieur.  I
+have told him so many stories about him!'
+
+'Do you think I may call on Mr. Egremont?'
+
+'Oh do!  He is ready to be called on between two and three, and we
+always have Wynnie downstairs then, so that you will see him too. And
+you have been at Micklethwayte.  I am afraid you found a great change
+in Aunt Ursel.'
+
+'Yes; but she is very peaceful and happy.'
+
+'And I have to leave her altogether to dear excellent Miss Nugent. It
+seems very, very wrong, but I cannot help it!  And how about Mark and
+Annaple?'
+
+'I think she is the bravest woman I ever met.'
+
+'Then things are really going badly with the dear old firm?'
+
+'I am hoping to talk to Mr. Egremont about it.'
+
+'Ah!'
+
+Nuttie paused.  Towards Mr. Dutton she always had a stronger impulse of
+confidence than towards any one else she had ever met; but she felt
+that he might think it unbecoming to say that she had perceived a
+certain dislike on her father's part towards Mark ever since the
+rejection of the agency and the marriage, which perhaps was regarded as
+a rejection of herself.  He had a habit of dependence on Mark, which
+resulted in personal liking, when in actual contact, but in absence the
+distaste and offence always revived, fostered, no doubt, by Gregorio;
+and Canon Egremont's death had broken the link which had brought them
+together.  However, for his brother's sake, and for the sake of the
+name, the head of the family might be willing to do something.  It was
+one of Nuttie's difficulties that she never could calculate on the way
+her father would take any matter.  Whether for better or for worse, he
+always seemed to decide in diametrical opposition to her expectation.
+And, as she was certainly less impetuous and more dutiful, she parted
+with Mr. Dutton at her own door without any such hint.
+
+These three years had been discipline such as the tenderest, wisest
+hand could not have given her, though it had been insensible.  She had
+been obliged to attend to her father and watch over her little brother,
+and though neither task had seemed congenial to her disposition, the
+honest endeavour to do them rightly had produced the affection born of
+solicitude towards her father, and the strong warm tenderness of the
+true mother-sister towards little Alwyn.
+
+Ursula Egremont was one of those natures to which responsibility is the
+best training.  If she had had any one to guard or restrain her, she
+might have gone to the utmost limits before she yielded to the curb.
+As it was, she had to take care of herself, to bear and forbear with
+her father, to walk warily with her household, and to be very guarded
+with the society into which she was thrown from time to time.  It was
+no sudden change, but one brought about by experience. An outbreak of
+impatience or temper towards her father was sure to be followed by his
+galling sneer, or by some mortification to her desires; any act of
+mismanagement towards the servants brought its own punishment; and if
+she was tempted by girlish spirits to relax the quiet, stiff courtesy
+which she observed towards her father's guests, there followed jests,
+or semi-patronage, or a tone of conversation that offended her, and
+made her repent it.  Happily, Mr. Egremont did not wish her to be
+otherwise.  One day, when she had been betrayed into rattling and
+giggling, he spoke to her afterwards with a cutting irony which
+bitterly angered her at the moment, and which she never forgot.  Each
+irksome duty, each privation, each disappointment, each recurrence of
+the sweeping sense of desolation and loneliness had had one effect--it
+had sent her to her knees.  She had no one else to go to.  She turned
+to her Father in heaven. Sometimes, indeed, it was in murmuring and
+complaint at her lot, but still it was to Him and Him alone, and
+repentance sooner or later came to aid her, while refreshments sprang
+up around her--little successes, small achievements, pleasant hours,
+tokens that her father was pleased or satisfied, and above all, the
+growing charms of little Alwyn.
+
+The special grievance, Gregorio's influence, had scarcely dwelt on her
+at first as it had done on her mother.  The man had been very cautious
+for some time, knowing that his continuance in his situation was in the
+utmost jeopardy, and Mr. Egremont had, in the freshness of his grief
+for his wife, abstained from relapsing into the habits from which she
+had weaned him.  When, however, the Canon was dead, and his son at a
+distance, Gregorio began to feel more secure, and in the restless
+sorrow of his master over the blow that had taken away an only brother,
+he administered soothing drugs under another name, so that Ursula, in
+her inexperience, did not detect what was going on, and still fancied
+that the habit had been renounced.  All she did know was that it was
+entirely useless for her to attempt to exert any authority over the
+valet, and that the only way to escape insolently polite disobedience
+was to let him alone.  Moreover, plans to which her father had agreed,
+when broached by her, had often been overthrown after his valet had
+been with him.  It was a life full of care and disappointment, yet
+there was a certain spring of trust that kept Ursula's youth from being
+dimmed, and enabled her to get a fair share of happiness out of it,
+though she was very sorry not to be more at Bridgefield, where she
+could have worked with all her heart with May Condamine.  Moreover,
+Lady Kirkaldy's absence from London was a great loss to her, for there
+was no one who was so kind or so available in taking her into society;
+and Nuttie, though mistress of her father's house, was not yet
+twenty-two, and strongly felt that she must keep within careful bounds,
+and not attempt to be her own chaperon.
+
+But the very sight of her old friend, and the knowledge that he was in
+the neighbourhood, filled her heart with gladness, and seemed like a
+compensation for everything.  Mr. Egremont was in a gracious mood, and
+readily consented to see Mr. Dutton--the friend who had been so
+pleasant and helpful at Paris--and Nuttie gave her private instructions
+to the footman to insure his admittance.
+
+His card was brought in just as the father and daughter were finishing
+luncheon, and he was received in Mr. Egremont's sitting-room, where the
+first civilities had hardly passed before the door was opened, and in
+trotted the golden-haired boy, so beautiful a child that it would have
+been impossible not to look at him with delight, even for those to whom
+his dark eyes and sweet smile did not recall those that had once been
+so dear.
+
+Mr. Egremont's voice took a fresh tone: 'Ah! here he comes, the old
+fellow'--and he held out his hands; but the boy was intent on his own
+purpose.
+
+'Where's black doggie?' he asked in a silver-bell of a little voice,
+but lisping a good deal; 'Wyn got penny for him.'
+
+'Wynnie must be a good boy.  Kiss papa first, and Mr. Dutton,'
+remonstrated the sister; and Alwyn obeyed so far as to submit to his
+father's embrace, and then raising those velvety eyes to the visitor's
+face, he repeated: 'Where black doggie?  Wyn want to see him buy bun.'
+
+'There! your fame has preceded you,' said Mr. Egremont, 'or rather your
+dog's.'
+
+'You shall see him,' said Mr. Dutton, taking the pretty boy almost
+reverently on his knee, 'but he is at home now.  I could not leave him
+out on the street, and I did not know if I might bring him in.'
+
+'Oh, Mr. Dutton! as if Monsieur would not be welcome,' cried the Nuttie
+of old times.  'I only wish I had stipulated for him, dear old fellow.'
+
+'Wyn want to see him,' reiterated the child.
+
+'May I take him to see the performance?' said Mr. Dutton.  'I live only
+at the corner of Berkshire Road, and there's a dairy just opposite
+where Monsieur has been allowed to keep up his accomplishment.'
+
+Alwyn's legs, arms, and voice, were all excitement and entreaty; and
+Mr. Egremont himself proposed that they should all come and witness the
+feat; so Nuttie, in great glee, climbed the stairs with her little
+brother to get ready; and when she came down again, found the gentlemen
+deep, not in Mark Egremont's umbrellas, but in the gas and smoke
+grievances which had arisen since the lease of the house had been
+taken, and in which sympathy might be expected from a fellow-inhabitant
+of the district.  Little Alwyn was, however, plainly the lord of the
+ascendant, and unused to see anything else attended to in his presence.
+He took possession of Mr. Dutton's hand, and his tongue went fast, nor
+did his father or sister seem to desire any better music.  They reached
+an old-walled garden, with lilac and laburnum and horse-chestnut
+blossoming above, and showing a mass of greenery through the iron
+railing that surmounted, the low wall on the street side, where Mr.
+Dutton halted and took out his key.
+
+'Is this yours?' exclaimed Nuttie, 'I have so often wondered whose it
+could be.'
+
+'Yes, it was a country-house when I was of the age of this little man,
+though you might not think it.'
+
+'The increase of London had not been on that side,' said Mr. Egremont.
+'This must be a very valuable property!'
+
+And Nuttie perceived that such an inheritance made Mr. Dutton much more
+in his eyes than an ex-umbrella-monger; but no sooner was the tall iron
+gate opened than Monsieur, beautifully shaved, with all his curly tufts
+in perfection, came bounding to meet his master, and Alwyn had his arms
+round the neck in a moment.  Monsieur had in his time been introduced
+to too many children not to understand the situation, and respond
+politely; and he also recognised Ursula, and gave unmistakable proofs
+of being glad to see her.
+
+Then the halfpenny was presented to him.  He wagged his queer tail,
+smiled with his intelligent brown eyes, took it between his teeth, and
+trotted across the street in the most business-like way, the others
+following, but detaining the boy from keeping too close. They found the
+creature sitting upright, tapping the floor with his tail, the centre
+of rapturous admiration to all the customers already in the dairy shop.
+He received his bun, and demurely dropping on his front legs, walked
+back with it to his master, and crossed the road with it uneaten,
+rather to Alwyn's disappointment, but Mr. Dutton said he would probably
+dispose of it in some hiding-place in the garden until his evening
+appetite came on.  It was well he was a dog of moderation, for there
+was great temptation to repeat the entertainment more than was
+wholesome for him.
+
+'There, Wynnie,' said Nuttie in a voice of monition, 'Monsieur doesn't
+eat all his goodies at once, he keeps them for bedtime.'
+
+It might be perceived that the over-supply of sweets was a matter of
+anxiety to the elder sister.  To the nurse, who waited in readiness,
+Alwyn was consigned for his walk, while his father and sister accepted
+Mr. Dutton's invitation to look round his domain.  It would have been
+small in the country, but it was extensive for the locality, and there
+was a perfect order and trimness about the shaven lawn, the little
+fountain in the midst, the flower-beds gay with pansies,
+forget-me-nots, and other early beauties, and the freshly-rolled gravel
+paths, that made Nuttie exclaim: 'Ah! I should have known this for
+yours anywhere.'
+
+'I have not had much to do to it,' he said.  'My old aunts had it well
+kept up, even when they could only see it from their windows. Their old
+gardener still lives in the cottage behind the tool-house, though he is
+too infirm for anything but being wheeled about in the sun in their
+Bath-chair.'
+
+'You keep a large amount lying idle by retaining it as it is,' said Mr.
+Egremont.
+
+'True, but it is well to preserve an oasis here and there.'
+
+Nuttie knew well that it was not for himself alone, and as they entered
+the little conservatory, and her eye fell on the row of white
+hyacinths, the very scent carried her back to the old times, and her
+eyes grew moist while Mr. Dutton was cutting a bouquet for her in
+accordance with well-known tastes.
+
+'I shall put them in my room.  It will feel like home,' she said, and
+then she saw that she had said what her father did not like; for he was
+always sensitive as to any reference to her early life.
+
+Mr. Dutton, however, took this opportunity of saying that he had been
+backwards and forwards to Micklethwayte several times this spring.
+
+'I hope you are well out of the concern there,' said Mr. Egremont.
+
+'Thank you, sir; I have no share in it at present.'
+
+'So much the better!'
+
+'But I am very anxious about my friends.'
+
+'Ah!'  But Mr. Egremont's attention was drawn off at the entrance of
+the house by a new-fashioned stove of which Mr. Dutton did the honours,
+conducting father and daughter into the drawing-room, where obvious
+traces of the old ladies remained, and thence into his own
+sitting-room, smelling pleasantly of Russia leather, and recalling that
+into which Nuttie had been wont, before her schooldays, to climb by the
+window, and become entranced by the illustrations of a wonderful old
+edition of Telemaque, picked up at Paris.
+
+Mr. Dutton made them sit and rest, for this had been a good deal of
+exercise for Mr. Egremont; coffee was brought in, having been ordered
+on their arrival, and therewith Mr. Dutton entered on an exposition of
+the affairs of Greenleaf and Goodenough, which was listened to with a
+good deal of interest, though Nuttie could not quite detect whether it
+were altogether friendly interests in Mark's misfortunes, or if there
+were not a certain triumph in the young man having run into trouble by
+rejecting his offer.
+
+Mr. Dutton explained that his present object was to induce the friends
+of the family to prevent annoyance by preserving the furniture and
+personals at a valuation; and Mr. Egremont readily agreed to contribute
+to doing this, though he said the sisters and stepmother were well able
+also to do their share.
+
+'And then to give the young people a fresh start,' added Mr. Dutton.
+
+'There are some men who are always wanting fresh starts,' said Mr.
+Egremont, 'just as there are some vessels that are always unlucky. And
+if you observe, it is just those men who are in the greatest haste to
+hang an expensive wife and family round their necks.'
+
+'I don't think poor Annaple can be accused of being expensive, papa,'
+said Nuttie.  'Only think, when Wynnie has two nurses always after him,
+her Willie has only the fraction of a little maid, who does all sorts
+of work besides.'
+
+'Yes, I never saw more resolute and cheerful exertion than Mrs. Mark
+Egremont's,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'She owes him something,' said Mr. Egremont, 'for she has been the ruin
+of him.'
+
+'Of his worldly prospects in one sense,' said Mr. Dutton quietly; while
+Nuttie felt how much better and wiser an answer it was than the
+indignant denial that trembled on her tongue.  'There can be no doubt
+that they made a grievous mistake in their choice, and I unfortunately
+was concerned in leading them into it; but no one can see how they meet
+their troubles without great respect and admiration, and I am
+especially bound to seek for some new opening for them.  I have little
+doubt that some office work might be found for him in London, but they
+are essentially country people, and it would be much better for them if
+he could have some agency.  I suppose the situation you offered him
+before, sir, is filled up?'
+
+'Not really,' cried Nuttie.  'We have only a very common sort of
+uneducated bailiff, who would be much better with some one over him.
+You said so, papa.'
+
+'Did he request you to apply to me?' said Mr. Egremont sharply, looking
+at Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Neither he nor she has the least idea of my intention; I only thought,
+sir, you might be willing to consider how best to assist a nephew, who
+has certainly not been wanting either in industry or economy, and who
+bears your name.'
+
+'Well, I will think it over,' said Mr. Egremont, rising to take leave.
+
+The carriage had been bidden to await them at the door for their daily
+drive, and as Mr. Egremont leant back with the furs disposed over him
+he observed: 'That's a man who knows how to take care of himself.  I
+wonder where he gets his coffee, I've not drunk any like it since I was
+at Nice.'  And Nuttie, though well knowing that Mr. Dutton's love of
+perfection was not self-indulgence, was content to accept this as high
+approbation, and a good augury for Mark and Annaple.  Indeed, with Mr.
+Dutton settled near, and with the prospect of a daily walk from church
+with him, she felt such a complete content and trust as she had not
+known since she had been uprooted from Micklethwayte.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+A BRAVE HEART.
+
+  'One furnace many times the good and bad may hold,
+  Yet what consumes the chaff will only cleanse the gold.'
+                                     Archbishop TRENCH.
+
+
+Never was there a truer verse than that which tells us that in seeking
+duty we find pleasure by the way, and in seeking pleasure we meet pain.
+It might be varied to apply to our anticipations of enjoyment or the
+reverse.  Ursula had embraced her lot as a necessity, and found it
+enlivened by a good many sunshiny hours; and when she looked upon Mr.
+Dutton's neighbourhood as a continual source of delight and
+satisfaction, she found that it gave rise to a continual course of
+small disappointments.
+
+In the first place, he did not walk home from church with her every
+morning.  She looked for him in vain, even when she knew he was in
+town.  He only appeared there on Sundays, and at intervals when he had
+some especial reason for speaking to her.  At first she thought he must
+have grown lazy or out of health to have thus dropped his old
+Micklethwayte habits, but after a time she discovered by accident that
+he frequented another church, open at a still earlier hour and a little
+farther off, and she was forced to come to the conclusion that he acted
+out of his characteristic precise scrupulosity, which would not
+consider it as correct for her to walk home every day with him. She
+chafed, and derided 'the dear old man' a little in her own mind, then
+ended with a sigh.  Was there any one who cared so much about what was
+proper for her?  And, after all, was he really older than Mr. Clarence
+Fane, whom everybody in her father's set called Clarence, or even
+Clare, and treated as the boy of the party, so that she had taken it as
+quite natural that he should be paired off with her.  It was quite a
+discovery!
+
+There was another and more serious disappointment.  Mr. Egremont had
+not seemed disinclined to consider the giving the agency to Mark, and
+Nuttie had begun to think with great satisfaction of May Condamine's
+delight in welcoming him, and of the good influence that would be
+brought to bear on the dependents, when suddenly there came a coolness.
+She could trace the moment, and was sure that it was, when Gregorio
+became aware of what was intended.  He had reason to dread Mark as an
+enemy, and was likely to wish to keep him at a distance; and it had
+been Ursula's great hope that an absolute promise might have been given
+before he heard of the plan; but Mr. Egremont was always slow to make
+up his mind, except when driven by a sudden impulse, and had never
+actually said that the post should be offered to his nephew.  Nuttie
+only detected the turn of the tide by the want of cordiality, the hums
+and haws, and by and by the resumption of the unkind ironical tone when
+Mark and Annaple were mentioned; and at last, when she had been reading
+to him a letter from Mrs. William Egremont full of anxiety for the
+young people, and yet of trust in his kindness to them, he exclaimed,
+'You've not been writing to her about this absurd proposal?'
+
+'I have not mentioned any proposal at all.  What do you mean?'
+
+'Why, this ridiculous idea about the agency.  As if I was going to put
+my affairs into the hands of a man who has made such a mull of his own.'
+
+'But that was not Mark's fault, papa.  He was junior, you know, and had
+no power over that Goodenough.'
+
+'He ought, then!  Never sail with an unlucky captain.  No, no, Mark's
+honourable lady would not let him take the agency when he might have
+had it, and I am not going to let them live upon me now that they have
+nothing of their own.'
+
+'Oh, papa, but you almost promised!'
+
+'Almost!' he repeated with his ironical tone; 'that's a word capable of
+a good deal of stretching.  This is what you and that umbrella fellow
+have made out of my not giving him a direct refusal on the spot.  He
+may meddle with Mark's affairs if he chooses, but not with mine.'
+
+Nuttie had learnt a certain amount of wisdom, and knew that to argue a
+point only made her father more determined, so she merely answered,
+'Very well;' adding in a meek voice, 'Their furniture, poor things!'
+
+'Oh ay.  Their umbrella friend is making a collection for them.  Yes, I
+believe I said I would contribute.'
+
+Hot blood surged up within Nuttie at the contemptuous tone, and she bit
+her lip to keep down the answer, for she knew Mr. Dutton intended to
+call the next afternoon for her father's ultimatum before going down to
+Micklethwayte, where the crisis was fast approaching, and she had so
+much faith in his powers that she dreaded to forestall him by an
+imprudent word.  Alas, Gregorio must have been on his guard, for,
+though Nuttie was sure she heard her friend's ring at the usual time,
+no entrance followed.  She went up to put on her habit to ride with her
+father, and when she came down Mr. Egremont held out a card with the
+name 'Philip Dutton,' and the pencilled request below to be allowed to
+see Mr. Egremont later in the day.
+
+'He has been denied!' exclaimed she in consternation.
+
+'Hein!  Before we go out, sit down and write a note for me.'  And he
+dictated--
+
+     'Dear Sir--I will not trouble you to call again this
+      afternoon, as I have decided on reflection that there
+      is no employment on my estate suited to my nephew,
+      Mark Egremont.
+
+     'As I understand that you are raising a family
+      subscription for rescuing his furniture from the
+      creditors, I enclose a cheque for L50 for the purpose.
+
+                                           --I remain--'
+
+
+'Yours--what--papa?--' asked Ursula, with a trembling voice, full of
+tears.
+
+'Yours, etc., of course.  Quite intimate enough for an
+ex-umbrella-monger. Here, give it to me, and I'll sign it while you
+fill up the cheque for me.'
+
+That such should be the first letter that Nuttie ever addressed to Mr.
+Dutton, since the round-hand one in 'which Miss Ursula wished Mr. Duton
+to have the onner of a tee with me on my birthday, and I am your
+affected little Nuttie'!
+
+She hoped to explain and lament the next morning, after church.  He
+would surely come to talk it over with her; but he only returned a
+civil note with his receipt, and she did not see him again before his
+departure.  She was greatly vexed; she had wanted so much to tell him
+how it was, and then came an inward consciousness that she would
+probably have told him a great deal too much.
+
+Was it that tiresome prudence of his again that would think for her and
+prevent impulsive and indignant disclosures?  It made her bring down
+her foot sharply on the pavement with vexation as she suspected that he
+thought her so foolish, and then again her heart warmed with the
+perception of self-denying care for her.  She trusted to that same
+prudence for no delusive hopes having been given to Mark and his wife.
+
+She did so justly.  Mr. Dutton had thought the matter far too uncertain
+to be set before them.  The Canoness's vague hopes had been the fruit
+of a hint imprudently dropped by Nuttie herself in a letter to Blanche.
+She had said more to Miss Nugent, but Mary was a nonconductor.  Mr.
+Dutton's heart sank as he looked at the houses, and he had some
+thoughts of going to her first for intelligence, but Annaple had spied
+him, and ran out to the gate to welcome him.
+
+'Oh, Mr. Dutton, I'm so glad!  Mark will be delighted.'
+
+'Is he at home?'
+
+'Oh no, at the office, wading through seas of papers with Mr.
+Greenleaf, but he will come home to eat in a quarter of an hour.  So
+come in;' then, as her boy's merry voice and a gruffer one were heard,
+'That's the bailiff.  He is Willie's devoted slave.'
+
+'I hoped to have been in time to have saved you that.'
+
+'Well, I'm convinced that among the much maligned races are bailiffs. I
+wonder what I could get by an article on prejudice against classes! I
+was thinking how much beer I should have to lay in for this one, and
+behold he is a teetotaller, and besides that amateur nurse-maid,
+parlour-maid, kitchen-maid, etc. etc.--'
+
+'What bailiff could withstand Mrs. Egremont?  Perhaps you have tamed
+him?'
+
+'Not I.  The cook did that.  Indeed I believe there's a nice little
+idyll going on in the kitchen, and besides he wore the blue ribbon, and
+was already a devoted follower of young Mr. Godfrey!'
+
+'However, if the valuation is ready, I hope you may be relieved from
+him, if you won't be too much concerned at the parting!'
+
+'Mrs. Egremont told us that our people are very good to us,' said
+Annaple, 'and don't mean to send us out with nothing but a pack at our
+backs.  It is very kind in them and in you, Mr. Dutton, to take the
+trouble of it!  No, I'll not worry you with thanks.  The great point
+is, hope for something for Mark to do.  That will keep up his spirits
+best!  Poor Mr. Greenleaf is so melancholy that it is all I can do to
+keep him up to the mark.'
+
+'I have been making inquiries, and I have three possible openings, but
+I hardly like to lay them before you.'
+
+'Oh, we are not particular about gentility!  It is work we want, and if
+it was anything where I could help that would be all the better! I'm
+sure I only wonder there are so many as three.  I think it is
+somebody's doing.  Ah! there's Mark,' and she flew out to meet him.
+'Mark!' she said, on the little path, 'here's the good genius, with
+three chances in his pocket.  Keep him to luncheon.  I've got plenty.
+Poor old man, how hot you look!  Go and cool in the drawing-room, while
+I wash my son's face.'
+
+And she disappeared into the back regions, while Mark, the smile she
+had called up vanishing from his face, came into the drawing-room, and
+held out a cordial, thankful hand to his friend, whose chief
+intelligence was soon communicated.  'Yes,' said Mark, when he heard
+the amount entrusted by the family to Mr. Dutton, 'that will save all
+my wife's poor little household gods.  Not that I should call them so,
+for I am sure she does not worship them.  I don't know what would
+become of me if she were like poor Mrs. Greenleaf, who went into
+hysterics when the bailiff arrived, and has kept her room ever since. I
+sometimes feel as if nothing could hurt us while Annaple remains what
+she is.'
+
+Mr. Dutton did not wonder that he said so, when she came in leading her
+little son, with his sunny hair newly brushed and shining, and carrying
+a little bouquet for the guest of one La Marque rosebud and three
+lilies of the valley.
+
+'Take it to Mr. Dutton, Billy-boy; I think he knows how the flowers
+came into the garden.  You shall have daddy's button-hole to take to
+him next.  There, Mark, it is a pansy of most smiling countenance, such
+as should beam on you through your accounts.  I declare, there's that
+paragon of a Mr. Jones helping Bessy to bring in dinner!  Isn't it very
+kind to provide a man-servant for us?'
+
+It might be rattle, and it might be inconsequent, but it was much
+pleasanter than hysterics.  Billy-boy was small enough to require a
+good deal of attention at dinner, especially as he was more disposed to
+open big blue eyes at the stranger, than to make use of his spoon, and
+Annaple seemed chiefly engrossed with him, though a quick keen word at
+the right moment showed that she was aware of all that was going on, as
+Mark and Mr. Dutton discussed the present situation and future measures.
+
+It was quite true that a man concerned in a failure was in great danger
+of being left out of the race for employment, and Mr. Dutton did not
+think it needful to mention the force of the arguments he was using to
+back his recommendation of Mark Egremont.  The possibilities he had
+heard of were a clerkship at a shipping agent's, another at a warehouse
+in their own line, and a desk at an insurance office.  This sounded
+best, but had the smallest salary to begin with, and locality had to be
+taken into account.  Mr. Dutton's plan was, that as soon as Mark was no
+longer necessary for what Annaple was pleased to call the fall of the
+sere and withered leaf, the pair should come to stay with him, so that
+Mark could see his possible employers, and Annaple consider of the
+situations.  They accepted this gratefully, Mark only proposing that
+she should go either to his stepmother or her own relations to avoid
+the final crisis.
+
+'As if I would!' she exclaimed.  'What sort of a little recreant goose
+do you take me for?'
+
+'I take you for a gallant little woman, ready to stand in the breach,'
+said Mark.
+
+'Ah, don't flatter yourself!  There is a thing I have not got courage
+to face--without necessity, and that's Janet's triumphant pity.  Mr.
+Dutton lives rather too near your uncle, but he is a man, and he can't
+be so bad.'
+
+This of course did not pass till Mr. Dutton had gone in to greet the
+ladies next door, to promise to tell them of their child at length when
+the business hours of the day should be over.
+
+Shall it be told?  There was something in his tone--perfectly
+indefinable, with which he spoke of 'Miss Egremont,' that was like the
+old wistfully reverential voice in which he used to mention 'Mrs.
+Egremont.'  It smote Mary Nugent's quiet heart with a pang.  Was it
+that the alteration from the old kindly fatherliness of regard to
+'little Nuttie' revealed that any dim undefined hope of Mary's own must
+be extinguished for ever; or was it that she grieved that he should
+again be wasting his heart upon the impracticable?
+
+A little of both, perhaps, but Mary was as ready as ever to sympathise,
+and to rejoice in hearing that the impetuous child had grown into the
+forbearing dutiful woman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+A FRESH START.
+
+
+'Did you say that Mark and his wife were come to Springfield House?'
+
+'They come the day after to-morrow,' answered Ursula.  'Mark could not
+finish up the business sooner.'
+
+'Well, I suppose we must have them to dinner for once.  He has made a
+fool of himself, but I won't have the Canoness complaining that I take
+no notice of him; and it is easier done while he is there than when he
+has got into some hole in the City--that is if he ever gets anything to
+do.'
+
+'Mr. Dutton has several situations in view for him.'
+
+'In view.  That's a large order.  Or does it mean living on Dutton and
+doing something nominal?  I should think Dutton too old and sharp a
+hand for that, though he is quartering them on himself.'
+
+'I believe there is nothing Mr. Dutton would like better, if he thought
+it right for them, but I am quite sure Mark and Annaple would not
+consent.'
+
+'Ha, ha!' and Mr. Egremont laughed.  'Their nose is not brought to the
+grindstone yet!  Say Saturday, then, Ursula.'
+
+'Am I to ask Mr. Dutton?'
+
+'Of course; I'm not going to have a tete-a-tete with Master Mark.'
+
+So Ursula had the satisfaction of writing a more agreeable note to Mr.
+Dutton than her last, and her invitation was accepted, but to her
+vexation Mr. Egremont further guarded himself from anything
+confidential by verbally asking Mr. Clarence Fane on that very day, and
+as that gentleman was a baronet's son, she knew she should fall to his
+lot at dinner, and though she was glad when this was the case at their
+ordinary parties, it was a misfortune on the present occasion.  She had
+not seen Annaple since her marriage, except at the family gathering on
+the Canon's death, when she was very much absorbed by the requirements
+of the stricken household; and Nuttie expected to see her in the same
+subdued condition.  All Mr. Dutton had said or Mary Nugent had written
+about her courage and cheerfulness had given the impression of
+'patience smiling at grief,' and in a very compassionate mood she
+started for a forenoon call at Springfield House; but, early as it was,
+nobody was at home, unless it might be the little boy, whose voice she
+thought she heard while waiting at the gate.
+
+She was out driving with her father afterwards in the long summer
+evening, and only found Mark's card on returning just in time to dress.
+It was a bright glaring day, and she was sitting by the window, rather
+inattentively listening to Mr. Fane's criticism of a new performance at
+one of the theatres, when she heard the bell, and there entered the
+slight, bright creature who might still have been taken for a mere
+girl.  The refined though pronounced features, the transparent
+complexion, crispy yellow hair and merry eyes, were as sunbeam-like as
+at the Rectory garden-party almost five years ago, and the black dress
+only marked the contrast, and made the slenderness of the figure more
+evident.
+
+Mark looked older, and wrung his cousin's hand with a pressure of
+gratitude and feeling, but Annaple's was a light little gay kiss, and
+there was an entire unconsciousness about her of the role of poor
+relation.  She made an easy little acknowledgment of the introduction
+of Mr. Fane, and, as Mr. Egremont appeared the next moment, exchanged
+greetings with him in a lively ordinary fashion.
+
+This was just what he liked.  He only wanted to forget what was
+unpleasant, and, giggling Scotch girl as she was, he was relieved to
+find that she could not only show well-bred interest in the surface
+matters of the time, but put in bright flashes of eagerness and
+originality, well seconded by Mr. Dutton.  Mr. Fane was always a
+professor of small talk, and Nuttie had learnt to use the current
+change of society, so that though Mark was somewhat silent, the dinner
+was exceedingly pleasant and lively; and, as Mr. Fane remarked
+afterwards, he had been asked to enliven a doleful feast to ruined
+kindred, he could only say he wished prosperity always made people so
+agreeable.
+
+'This is all high spirit and self-respect,' thought Nuttie.  'Annaple
+is talking as I am, from the teeth outwards.  I shall have it out with
+her when we go upstairs!  At any rate my father is pleased with her!'
+
+Nuttie made the signal to move as soon as she could, and as they went
+upstairs, put her arm round the slim waist and gave a sympathetic
+pressure, but the voice that addressed her had still the cheery ring
+that she fancied had been only assumed.
+
+'I'm sorry I missed you, but we set out early and made a day of it; and
+oh! we've been into such funny places as I never dreamt of!  You didn't
+see my boy?'
+
+'No.  I thought I heard him.  I must see him to-morrow.'
+
+'And I must see yours.  May it not be a pleasure to-night?  I've no
+doubt you go and gloat over him at night.'
+
+'Well, I do generally run up after dinner; but after your day, I can't
+think of dragging you up all these stairs.'
+
+'Oh, that's nothing!  Only you see it is jollier to have my Billy-boy
+in the next room.'
+
+They were mounting all the time, and were received in the day nursery
+by the old Rectory nurse, much increased in dignity, but inclined to be
+pathetic as she inquired after 'Mr. Mark,' while Annaple, like a little
+insensible being, answered with provoking complacency as to his perfect
+health, and begged Mrs. Poole to bring Master Alwyn to play in the
+garden at Springfield with her Willie.  In fact there was a general
+invitation already to Alwyn to play there, but his attendants so much
+preferred the society of their congeners in the parks that they did not
+avail themselves of it nearly as often as Ursula wished.
+
+Little Alwyn asleep was, of course, a beautiful sight, with a precious
+old headless rabbit pressed tight to his cheek; Annaple's face grew
+tender as she looked at the motherless creature; and she admired him to
+any extent except saying that he excelled her own. Being more than a
+year the elder, there could be no rivalry as to accomplishments; but as
+soon as they were out of the nursery hush, Annaple laughed her way down
+again with tales of Billy-boy's wonder at his first experiences of
+travelling.  They sat down among the plants in the balcony, as far from
+the lamps as possible, and talked themselves into intimacy over
+Micklethwayte.  There are two Eden homes in people's lives, one that of
+later childhood, the other the first of wedded happiness, and St.
+Ambrose Road had the same halo to both of these; for both had been
+uprooted from it against their will; the chief difference being that
+Ursula could cast longing, lingering looks behind, while Annaple held
+herself resolutely steeled against sentiment, and would only turn it
+off by something absurd.  Nothing was absolutely settled yet; Mark had
+been presenting himself at offices, and she had been seeing rooms and
+lodgings.
+
+'The insurance office sounds the best, and would be the least shock to
+our belongings,' said Annaple; 'but it seems to lead to nothing. He
+would not get on unless we had capital to invest, and even if we had
+any, you wouldn't catch us doing that again!'
+
+'Does Mr. Dutton advise that?'
+
+'No, he only thought we should like it better; but we are quite past
+caring for people's feelings in the matter.  They couldn't pity us
+worse than they do.  I incline to Stubbs and Co.  One of them was once
+in the Greenleaf office, and has a regard for anything from thence;
+besides Mark would have something to do besides desk work. He would
+have to judge of samples, and see to the taking in and storing of
+goods.  He does know something about that, and I'm sure it would agree
+with him better than an unmitigated high stool, with his nose to a
+desk.'
+
+'I should like it better.'
+
+'That's right!  Now I have got some one to say so.  Besides, rising is
+possible, if one gets very useful.  I mean to be Mrs. Alderman, if not
+my Lady Mayoress, before we have done.  Then they have a great big
+almost deserted set of rooms over the warehouse, where we might live
+and look after the place.'
+
+'Oh! but should you like that?'
+
+'Mr. Dutton wants us to live out in some of the suburban places, where
+it seems there is a perfect population of clerks' families in
+semi-detached houses.  He says we should save Mark's railway fare,
+rent, and all in doctors' bills.  But people, children and all, do live
+and thrive in the City; and I think Mark's health will be better looked
+after if I am there to give him his midday bite and sup, and brush him
+up, than if he is left to cater for himself; and as to exercise for the
+Billy-boy, 'tis not so far to the Thames Embankment. The only things
+that stagger me are the blacks!  I don't know whether life is long
+enough to be after the blacks all day long, but perhaps I shall get
+used to them!'
+
+'Well, I think that would be worse.'
+
+'Perhaps it would; and at any rate, if the blacks do beat me, we could
+move.  Think, no rent, nor rates, nor taxes--that is an inducement to
+swallow--no--to contend with, any number of blackamoors, isn't it? even
+if they settle on the tip of Billy-boy's nose.'
+
+'I could come to see you better there than out in a suburb,' said
+Nuttie.  'But what do these rooms look out upon?'
+
+'On one side into their own court, on the other into Wulstan Street--a
+quiet place on the whole--all walls and warehouses; and there's an
+excellent parish church, Mr. Underwood's; so I think we might do worse.'
+
+Nuttie was very sorry that the gentlemen came up, and Mr. Fane wandered
+out and began asking whether they were going to the rose show.  Somehow
+on that evening she became conscious that Annaple looked at her and Mr.
+Fane rather curiously; and when they met again the next day, and having
+grown intimate over the introduction of the two little boys, were
+driving out together, there were questions about whether she saw much
+of him.
+
+'Oh, I don't know!  He is the nicest, on the whole, of papa's friends;
+he can talk of something besides'--Nuttie paused over her
+'besides,'--'horseyness, and all that sort of thing--he is not so like
+an old satyr as some of them are; and so he is a resource.'
+
+'I see.  And you meet him elsewhere, don't you, in general society?'
+
+'I don't go out much now that Lady Kirkaldy is not in town; but he
+always seems to turn up everywhere that one goes.'
+
+'Ursula, I'm very glad of that tone of yours.  I was afraid--'
+
+'Afraid of what?' cried Nuttie in a defiant tone.
+
+'That you liked him, and he is not really nice, Nuttie.  Mark knows all
+about him; and so did I when I lived with the Delmars.'
+
+Nuttie laughed rather bitterly.  'Thank you, Annaple.  As if I could
+care for that man--or he for me, for that matter!  I know but too
+well,' she added gravely, 'that nobody nice is ever intimate at home.'
+
+'I beg your pardon.  I would not have worried you about it, only I
+think you must take care, Nuttie, for Blanche mentioned it to us last
+winter.'
+
+'Blanche is an arrant gossip!  If she saw a grandfather and great
+grandmother gossiping she would say they were going to be married.'
+
+'Yes, as Mark says, one always swallows Blanche with a qualification.'
+
+'You may be quite sure, Annaple, that nothing like that will ever be
+true about me!  Why, what would ever become of my poor little Wyn if I
+was so horrid as to want to go and marry?'
+
+She said it with an ineffable tone of contempt, just like the original
+Nuttie, who seemed to be recalled by association with Annaple.
+
+That sojourn of Mark and his wife at Springfield House was a bright
+spot in that summer.  If it had been only that Annaple's presence gave
+the free entree to such an island of old Micklethwayte, it would have
+been a great pleasure to her; but there was besides the happiness of
+confidence and unrestraint in their society, a restful enjoyment only
+to be appreciated by living the guarded life of constraint that was
+hers.  She was so seldom thrown among people whom she could admire and
+look up to.  Annaple told her husband of Nuttie's vehement repudiation
+of any intention of marriage.  'I am sure she meant it,' she observed,
+'it was only a little too strong. I wonder if that poor youth who came
+to her first ball, and helped to pick us out of the hole in Bluepost
+Bridge, had anything to do with it.'
+
+Annaple had an opportunity of judging.  Mr. Dutton would not have
+brought about a meeting which might be painful and unsettling to both;
+but one afternoon, when Nuttie was 'off duty' with her father, and had
+come in to share Annaple's five o'clock tea, Gerard Godfrey, looking
+the curate from head to foot, made his appearance, having come up from
+the far east, about some call on Mr. Dutton's purse.
+
+The two shook hands with pleased surprise, and a little heightening of
+colour, but that was all.  Nuttie had been out to luncheon, and was
+dressed 'like a mere fashionable young lady' in his eyes; and when,
+after the classes and clubs and schools of his district had been
+discussed, he asked, 'And I suppose you are taking part in everything
+here?'
+
+'No, that I can't!'
+
+'Indeed!  I know Porlock, the second curate here very well, and he
+tells me that his vicar has a wonderful faculty of finding appropriate
+work for every one.  Of course you know him?'
+
+'No, I don't;' said Nuttie.
+
+'Miss Egremont has her appropriate work,' said Mr. Dutton, and the
+deacon felt himself pushed into his old position at Micklethwayte. He
+knew the clergy of the district very well, and how persistently either
+Mr. Egremont, or perhaps Gregorio, prevented their gaining admittance
+at his house; and he guessed, but did not know, that Nuttie could not
+have got into personal intercourse with them without flat disobedience.
+
+Annaple threw herself into the breach, and talked of St. Wulstan's; and
+the encounter ended, leaving the sense of having drifted entirely away
+from one another, and being perfectly heart whole, though on the one
+hand Ursula's feeling was of respect and honour; and Gerard's had a
+considerable element of pity and disapprobation.
+
+'No!' said Annaple when they were gone, 'he will not cry like the
+kloarek in the Breton ballad who wetted three great missals through
+with his tears at his first mass.  He is very good, I am sure, but he
+is a bit of a prig!'
+
+'It is very hard to youth to be good without priggishness,' said Mr.
+Dutton.  'Self-assertion is necessary, and it may easily be carried too
+far.'
+
+'Buttresses are useful, but they are not beauties,' rejoined Annaple.
+
+The warehouse arrangement was finally adopted, and after the three
+weeks necessary for the cleaning and fitting of their floor, and the
+bringing in of their furniture, Mark and Annaple began what she termed
+'Life among the Blacks.'
+
+Nuttie had great designs of constantly seeing Annaple, sending her
+supplies from the gardens and preserves at Bridgefield, taking her out
+for drives, and cultivating a friendship between Alwyn and Willie, who
+had taken to each other very kindly on the whole.  They could not
+exactly understand each other's language, and had great fights from
+time to time over toys, for though there was a year between them they
+were nearly equal in strength; but they cared for each other's company
+more than for anything else, were always asking to go to one another,
+and roared when the time of parting came; at least Alwyn did so
+unreservedly, for Nuttie had begun to perceive with compunction that
+Billy-boy was much the most under control, and could try to be good at
+his mother's word, without other bribe than her kiss and smile.  Ah!
+but he had a mother!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+NUTTIE'S PROSPECTS.
+
+  'Three hundred pounds and possibilities.'--Merry Wives of Windsor.
+
+
+Again Nuttie's plans were doomed to be frustrated.  It did not prove to
+be half so easy to befriend Mr. and Mrs. Mark Egremont as she expected,
+at the distance of half London apart, and with no special turn for
+being patronised on their side.
+
+Her father took a fancy for almost daily drives with her in the park,
+because then he could have Alwyn with him; and the little fellow's
+chatter had become his chief amusement.  Or if she had the carriage to
+herself, there was sure to be something needful to be done which made
+it impossible to go into the city to take up and set down Mrs. Mark
+Egremont; and to leave her to make her way home would be no kindness.
+So Nuttie only accomplished a visit once before going out of town, and
+that was by her own exertions--by underground railway and cab.  Then
+she found all going prosperously; the blacks not half so obnoxious as
+had been expected (of course not, thought Nuttie, in the middle of the
+summer); the look-out over the yard very amusing to Billy-boy; and the
+large old-fashioned pannelled rooms, so cool and airy that Annaple was
+quite delighted with them, and contemned the idea of needing a holiday.
+She had made them very pretty and pleasant with her Micklethwayte
+furniture, whose only fault was being on too small a scale for these
+larger spaces, but that had been remedied by piecing, and making what
+had been used for two serve for one.
+
+The kitchen was on the same floor, close at hand, which was well, for
+Annaple did a good deal there, having only one young maid for the
+rougher work.  She had taken lessons in the School of Cookery, and
+practised a good deal even at Micklethwayte, and she was proud of her
+skill and economy.  Mark came in for his mid-day refreshment, and
+looked greatly brightened, as if the worst had come and was by no means
+so bad as he expected.  All the time he had been at Mr. Dutton's he had
+been depressed and anxious, but now, with his boy on his knee, he was
+merrier than Nuttie had ever known him.  As to exercise, there were
+delightful evening walks, sometimes early marketings in the long summer
+mornings before business began--and altogether it seemed, as Nuttie
+told her father afterwards, as if she had had a glimpse into a little
+City Arcadia.
+
+'Hein!' said he, 'how long will it last?'
+
+And Nuttie was carried away to Cowes, where he had been persuaded to
+recur to his old favourite sport of yachting.  She would have rather
+liked this if Clarence Fane had not been there too, and continually
+haunting them.  She had been distrustful of him ever since Annaple's
+warning, and it became a continual worry to the motherless girl to
+decide whether his civil attentions really meant anything, or whether
+she were only foolish and ridiculous in not accepting them as freely
+and simply as before.
+
+Of one thing she became sure, namely, that Gregorio was doing whatever
+in him lay to bring them together.
+
+In this seaside temporary abode, great part of the London establishment
+was left behind, and Gregorio condescended to act the part of butler,
+with only a single man-servant under him, and thus he had much more
+opportunity of regulating the admission of visitors than at home; and
+he certainly often turned Mr. Fane in upon her, when she had intended
+that gentleman to be excluded, and contrived to turn a deaf or
+uncomprehending ear when she desired that there should be no admission
+of visitors unless her father was absolutely ready for them; and also
+there were times when he must have suggested an invitation to dinner,
+or a joining in a sail.  No doubt Gregorio would have been delighted to
+see her married, and to be thus free from any counter influence over
+his master; but as she said to herself, 'Catch me!  Even if I cared a
+rush for the man, I could not do it.  I don't do my poor father much
+good, but as to leaving poor little Alwyn in his clutches--I must be
+perfectly demented with love even to think of it.'
+
+There was a desire on the valet's part to coax and court little Alwyn
+of which she felt somewhat jealous.  The boy was naturally the pet of
+every one in the household, but he was much less out of Gregorio's
+reach in the present confined quarters, and she could not bear to see
+him lifted up in the valet's arms, allowed to play with his watch, held
+to look at distant sails on board the yacht, or even fed with sweet
+biscuits or chocolate creams.
+
+The Rectory nursery had gone on a strict regimen and nurse was as angry
+as Nuttie herself; but there was no preventing it, for his father was
+not above cupboard love, and never resisted the entreaties that were
+always excited by the sight of dainties, only laughing when Nuttie
+remonstrated, or even saying, 'Never mind sister, Wynnie, she's got
+Mrs. Teachem's cap on,' and making the child laugh by pretending to
+smuggle in papers of sweets by stealth, apart from the severe eyes of
+sister or nurse.
+
+That cut Nuttie to the heart.  To speak of the evils for which
+self-indulgence was a preparation would only make her father sneer at
+her for a second Hannah More.  It was a language he did not understand;
+and as to the physical unwholesomeness, he simply did not choose to
+believe it.  She almost wished Alwyn would for once be sick enough to
+frighten him, but that never happened, nor would he accept nurse's
+statement of the boy being out of order.
+
+Poor little Alwyn, he was less and less of an unmixed joy to her as he
+was growing out of the bounds of babyhood, and her notions of
+discipline were thwarted by her father's unbounded indulgence.  To her
+the child was a living soul, to be trained for a responsible position
+here and for the eternal world beyond; to her father he was a
+delightful plaything, never to be vexed, whose very tempers were
+amusing, especially when they teased the serious elder sister.
+
+'Oh father! do you ever think what it will come to?' Nuttie could not
+help saying one day when Mr. Egremont had prevented her from carrying
+him off in disgrace to the nursery for tying the rolls up in dinner
+napkins to enact Punch and Judy, in spite of his own endeavours to
+prevent the consequent desolation of the preparations.
+
+Mr. Egremont shrugged his shoulders, and only observed, 'An excuse for
+a little home tyranny, eh?  No, no, Wyn; we don't want tame little
+muffs here.'
+
+Nuttie was obliged to run out of the room and--it must be
+confessed--dance and stamp out her agony of indignation and misery that
+her father should be bent on ruining his child, for she could not
+understand that all this was simply the instinctive self-indulgence of
+a drugged brain and dulled conscience.
+
+She did, however, get a little support and help during a brief stay in
+the shooting season at Bridgefield.  The Canoness was visiting the
+Condamines at the Rectory, and very soon understood all the state of
+things, more perhaps from her former nurse than from Ursula.  She was
+witness to one of those trying scenes, when Nuttie had been forbidding
+the misuse of a beautiful elaborate book of nursery rhymes, where Alwyn
+thought proper to 'kill' with repeated stabs the old woman of the shoe,
+when preparing to beat her progeny.
+
+Just as she was getting the dagger paper-knife out of his little hand,
+and was diverting the pout on his swelling lip, his father became aware
+of the contest, and immediately the half conquered boy appealed to him.
+'Sister naughty.  Won't let Wynnie kill cross ugly old woman, beating
+poor little children.'
+
+'A fellow feeling! eh, sister?  Kill her away, boy, tear her out! Yes,
+give her to sister, and tell her that's the way to serve sour females!
+I declare, Ursula, she has got something of your expression.'
+
+'Oh Wynnie, Wynnie!' said Nuttie, as he trotted up to her, 'is sister
+cross and ugly?' and she opened her arms to him.
+
+'Sister, Wyn's own sister,' said the child affectionately, letting
+himself be kissed as he saw her grieved.  'She shan't be ugly old
+woman--ugly old woman go in fire.'
+
+So perilously near the flame did he run to burn the old woman that Mr.
+Egremont shouted to her that in spite of all that humbug, she was
+perfectly careless of the child, although if she had withheld him she
+would probably have been blamed for thwarting him.
+
+'Are you quite fair towards Ursula?' the aunt ventured to say when the
+girl had gone to dress for walking down with her to the Rectory. 'It is
+hard on her, and not good for the boy to upset her authority.'
+
+'Eh?  Why, the girl is just a governess manquee, imbued with the spirit
+of all those old women who bred her up.  A nice life the poor child
+would have of it, but for me.'
+
+'I am sure she is devotedly attached to him.'
+
+'Hein!  So she thinks; but trust human nature for loving to wreak
+discipline on the child who has cut her out.'
+
+'That is scarcely just, Alwyn.  She was greatly relieved to be cut out.'
+
+Mr. Egremont laughed at this, and his sister-in-law indignantly added
+with all the authority of a successful parent, 'Anyway, nothing is so
+bad for a child as collision between the authorities in a family.
+Ursula is doing her best to act as a mother to that child, and it will
+be very injurious to him to interfere with her influences.'
+
+'She's a good girl enough--gives very little trouble,' he allowed, 'but
+I'm not going to have the boy sat upon.'
+
+As he spoke the words, Nuttie returned, and as soon as she was out of
+the house and out of hearing she exclaimed, 'Oh, Aunt Jane, you see how
+it is!  How am I to prevent my boy from being utterly ruined?'
+
+'I have been speaking to your father,' said Mrs. Egremont, 'but he does
+not seem to understand.  Men don't.  A child's faults and fancies seem
+such trifles to them that they can't see the harm of indulging them,
+and, besides, they expect to be amused.'
+
+'And is that poor dear little fellow to grow up spoilt?' said Nuttie,
+her eyes hot with unshed tears.
+
+'I hope not, Ursula.  I have great confidence in your influence, for I
+see you are a sensible girl.'  This was astonishing praise from the
+Canoness.  'But you will throw away your chances if you keep up a
+continual opposition to what your father allows.  It will be much less
+hurtful if Alwyn does get too much indulgence, and does a little
+unnecessary mischief, than for him to learn to think you the enemy of
+his pleasures, always wanting to check and punish him.  Oh yes,' as
+Nuttie was going to answer, 'I know it is for his real good, but how is
+that baby to understand that?  Indeed, my dear, I know how it is; I
+have gone through the same sort of thing with Basil.'
+
+'Oh, it could never have been so bad!'
+
+'No, of course not; but I have had to allow what I did not like for the
+child rather than let him see the shadow of difference of opinion
+between us, and I don't think it has done him any harm.  The great
+point is that you should keep that poor little fellow's affection and
+respect, and make him unwilling to vex you.'
+
+'That he is, dear little man.  He is sorry when he sees sister grieved.
+He is always distressed if anything is hurt or pained.  He is really
+tender-hearted.'
+
+'Yes, but boys are boys.  That feeling will fail you if you work it too
+hard, and especially if you show vexation at his pleasures.  Keep that
+for real evils, like falsehood or cruelty.'
+
+'Not for disobedience?'
+
+'The evil of disobedience depends much more upon the authority of an
+order than on the child itself.  If he disobeys you under his father's
+licence, you cannot make much of it.  You have him a good deal to
+yourself?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Then make use of that time to strengthen his principles and sense of
+right and wrong, as well as to secure his affections.  My dear, I never
+saw a girl in a more difficult position than yours, but I see you are
+doing your utmost; only I am afraid the love of sedatives is the same.'
+
+'Oh aunt, I did think he had given it up!'
+
+'You are inexperienced, my dear.  I see it in his eyes.  Well, I'm
+afraid there is no stopping that.'
+
+'Mother--' and Nuttie's voice was choked.
+
+'She did her best, but you have not the same opportunities.  It can't
+be helped with a man of that age.  Mark might have done something, but
+he is out of the question now, poor fellow!'
+
+'Indeed, Aunt Jane, I think Mark and Annaple are some of the happiest
+people I ever saw.  I only wish my poor Alwyn were as forward as their
+Billy, but I'm not even allowed to teach him his letters, because once
+he cried over them.'
+
+'I wish they had anything to fall back upon,' said Mrs. Egremont
+anxiously.  'They are so unwilling to let any one know of their
+difficulties that I feel as if I never knew in what straits they may
+be.  You will be sure to let me know, Ursula, if there is anything that
+I can do for them.'
+
+That conversation was a great comfort and help to Nuttie, who was
+pleased to find herself treated as a real friend by her aunt, and
+perceived the wisdom of her advice.  But the watching over the Mark
+Egremonts was a very difficult matter to accomplish, for when she went
+back to London she was warned that Billy had the whooping cough,
+rendering them unapproachable all the winter, so that she could only
+hear of them through Mr. Dutton, whom she continued to see occasionally
+whenever there was anything to communicate.  Mr. Egremont rather liked
+him, and on meeting him in the street, would ask him casually in to
+dinner, or to make up a rubber, or play piquet, for he excelled in
+these arts, and still more in chess, and an evening with Mr. Dutton was
+quite a red-letter time with Nuttie. It gave her an indefinable sense
+of safety and protection; but it was not always to be had, for her
+friend had many engagements, being one of the active lay church
+workers, and devoting two regular evenings in each week to Gerard
+Godfrey's eastern district, where he kept all the accounts, had a model
+court and evening class, besides hospitably resting tired clergymen and
+their wives in his pleasant quiet house.
+
+In the spring Mr. Egremont was laid up with the worst rheumatic attack
+he had yet had, in consequence of yielding to the imperious will of his
+son, who had insisted on standing in a bleak corner to see the Life
+Guards pass by.  On this occasion Nuttie did not prove herself the
+heaven-born nurse that the true heroine ought to be, but was extremely
+frightened, and altogether dependent on Gregorio, who knew all about
+the symptoms, and when to send for the doctor and a garde-malade.
+Gregorio always talked French to Nuttie when he felt himself in the
+ascendant, as he certainly was at present; but he became much less
+gracious when he heard that Mrs. William Egremont might be expected,
+declaring that madame would only excite his master, and that her
+presence was quite unnecessary.  Her coming had been volunteered, but
+it was a great boon to Ursula, who was thus helped out in many
+perplexities, although Mrs. Egremont was a great deal at her
+step-son's, and neither lady was of much avail in the sick-room, during
+the stress of the illness.  It was never actually dangerous, but there
+was great suffering and much excitement, and for four or five days the
+distress and anxiety were considerable.  After this passed off Ursula
+was surprised to find her company preferred to that of her aunt.  She
+was a better souffre-douleur, was less of a restraint, and was besides
+his regular reader and amanuensis, so that as the force of the attack
+abated, he kept her a good deal in his room during the latter part of
+the day, imparting scraps of intelligence, skimming the papers for him,
+and reading his letters.
+
+There was a lease to be signed, and, as soon as might be, Mr. Bulfinch,
+the Redcastle solicitor, brought it up, and had to be entertained at
+luncheon.  While he was waiting in the drawing-room for Mr. Egremont to
+be made ready for him, he looked with deep interest on the little heir,
+whom Ursula presently led off to the other end of the room to the hoard
+of downstair toys; and an elaborate camp was under construction, when
+by the fireside, the Canoness inquired in a low confidential tone, 'May
+I ask whether you came about a will?'
+
+'No, Mrs. Egremont.  I wish I were.  It is only about the lease of
+Spinneycotes farm.'
+
+'Then there is none?'
+
+'None that I am aware of.  None has ever been drawn up by us. Indeed, I
+was wishing that some influence could be brought to bear which might
+show the expedience of making some arrangement.  Any melancholy event
+is, I trust, far distant, but contingencies should be provided for.'
+
+'Exactly so.  He is recovering now, but these attacks always leave
+effects on the heart, and at his age, with his habits, no one knows
+what may happen.  Of course it would not make much difference to the
+boy.'
+
+'No, the Court of Chancery would appoint the most suitable natural
+guardians.'
+
+'But,' said Mrs. Egremont, 'I am afraid that the personal property when
+divided would not be much of a provision for her.'
+
+'You are right.  The investments are unfortunately and
+disproportionately small.'
+
+'She ought either to have them all, or there should be a charge on the
+estate,' said the Canoness decisively.  'If possible, he must be made
+to move.'
+
+'Oh, don't!' cried Nuttie, jumping up from the floor.  'He mustn't be
+upset on any account.'
+
+'My dear, I had no notion that you heard us!' exclaimed her aunt.  'I
+thought Alwyn was making too much noise with his soldiers.'
+
+'I beg your pardon,' said Nuttie, 'perhaps I should have spoken sooner,
+but indeed he must not be worried and disturbed,' she added, somewhat
+fiercely.
+
+'Don't be afraid, my dear,' said her aunt.  'Mr. Bulfinch knows that
+your father is in no condition to have such matters brought before him.'
+
+'Certainly,' said the old lawyer politely;' and we will trust that Miss
+Egremont's prospects may soon come forward on a more auspicious
+occasion.'
+
+Nuttie could have beaten him, but she was obliged to content herself
+with such a sweeping charge of her Zulus among Alwyn's Englishmen, that
+their general shrieked out in indignation against such a variation of
+the accustomed programme of all their games.
+
+Nuttie thought she had defended her patient sufficiently, but she found
+she had been mistaken, for when her aunt had left them, some days
+later, her father began, 'We are well quit of her.  Those troublesome
+dictatorial women always get worse when they are left widows--taking
+upon them to say what their dear husbands would have said, forsooth.'
+
+'Aunt Jane was very kind to me,' said Ursula, not in the least knowing
+what he was thinking of.
+
+'To you.  Ay, I should think so, taking upon her to lecture me about
+securing a provision for you.'
+
+'Oh!  I hoped--'
+
+'What?' he broke in.  'You knew of it!  You set her on, I suppose.'
+
+'Oh! no, no, father.  She and Mr. Bulfinch began about it, not meaning
+me to hear--about a will, I mean--and I told them I wasn't going to
+have you worried, and I thought I had stopped it altogether.'
+
+'Stop a woman bent on her duty?  Hein!  But you are a good girl, and
+shall come to no loss when we have to make your marriage settlement.'
+
+'You won't have to do that, father!'
+
+'Hein!  What do you keep that poor fellow Clarence Fane dangling in
+attendance on you for?'
+
+'I don't!  I'm sure I don't want him.  I would do anything to keep him
+at a distance!'
+
+'How now!  I thought your Grace condescended to him more than to any
+one else.'
+
+'I don't dislike him unless he has _that_ in his head; but as to
+marrying him!  Oh--h--h,' such a note of horror that elicited a little
+laugh.
+
+'So hot against him, are we?  Who is it then?  Not the umbrella fellow?'
+
+'Father! how can you?' she cried, with a burning flush of indignation.
+He--why--he!  He has always been a sort of uncle, ever since I was a
+little girl.'
+
+'Oh yes, adopted uncles are very devout when young ladies rush out to
+morning prayers at unearthly hours--'
+
+'Father!' with her voice trembling, 'I assure you he doesn't--I mean he
+always goes to St. Michael's, unless he has anything particular to say
+to me.'
+
+'Oh yes, I understand,' and Mr. Egremont indulged in a hearty laugh,
+which almost drove poor Nuttie beside herself.
+
+'Indeed--indeed,' she stammered, in her confusion and suppressed wrath;
+'it is nothing of that sort.  He is a regular old bachelor--he always
+was.'
+
+'At what age do men become old bachelors?  For he seems to me about the
+age of poor Clarry, whom you seem to view as a bugbear.'
+
+'I wish you would not think of such things, father; I have not the
+slightest intention of leaving you and dear little Wynnie!  Nothing
+should tempt me!'
+
+'Nothing?  Hein!  Then you may as well be on your guard, Miss Egremont,
+or we shall have pleadings that you have encouraged them--church and
+world--or both, maybe.  You pious folk take your little diversions and
+flirtations just like your poor sisters whom you shake your heads at,
+never guessing how Gregorio and I have looked out at you and your
+adopted uncle parading the street.'
+
+'I wish Gregorio would mind his own business, and not put such things
+in your head!' burst out Nuttie.
+
+At which Mr. Egremont laughed longer and louder than ever.
+
+Poor Nuttie!  It was terrible discomfiture, not only for the moment,
+but a notion had been planted in her mind that seemed cruel, almost
+profane, and yet which would not be dismissed, and made her heart leap
+with strange bounds at the wild thought, 'Could it be true?' then sink
+again with shame at her own presumptuous folly in entertaining such a
+thought for a moment.
+
+Yet whenever she actually encountered Mr. Dutton her habitual comfort
+and reliance on him revived, and dispelled all the embarrassment which
+at other times she expected to feel in his presence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+SPES NON FRACTA.
+
+
+Summer had quite set in before Mr. Egremont was able to go out for a
+drive, and then he was ordered to Buxton.
+
+Nuttie only once saw her cousins before leaving town, for their little
+boy fulfilled the nursery superstition by whooping till May; and all
+intercourse was prohibited, till he had ceased for a whole week to
+utter a suspicious sound.  Mr. Dutton had insisted on the family
+spending a fortnight at Springfield House for change of air, and it was
+there that Nuttie was permitted to see them, though the children were
+still forbidden to meet.
+
+Annaple looked very thin, but rattled as merrily as ever.  'No one
+could guess,' she said, 'what a delight it was not to know what one was
+to have for dinner?'
+
+'To do more than know, I am afraid,' said Ursula.
+
+'Well, next to the delight of knowing nothing at all about it--and even
+that is only good for a holiday--is the delight of seeing a pudding
+come out smooth and comfortable and unbroken from its basin. "Something
+attempted, something done," you know.  It is quite as good a work of
+art as a water-coloured drawing.'
+
+'Only not quite so permanent.'
+
+'No; it is only one's first pudding that one wants to embalm in a glass
+case for being so good as not to leave its better part behind in the
+basin, or to collapse as soon as it is in the dish.'
+
+'Which my puddings always did in the happy days of old, but then I was
+always hunted ignominiously out of the kitchen and told I wasted good
+food,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Yes, and waste is fearful when Mark and Billy have to eat it all the
+same, like the poor cows with spoilt hay.  I wonder whether your old
+experiences recall the joy of finding trustworthy eggs within your
+price.'
+
+'Ah, I was not housekeeper.  I only remember being in disgrace for
+grumbling when there was no pudding, because the hens would not lay.'
+
+'Though I heard a woman declaring the other day that there ought to be
+a machine for them.  Oh, the scenes that I encounter when I am
+marketing!  If I only could describe them for Punch!  I walked home
+once with our porter's wife, carrying two most brilliant sticks of
+rhubarb, all carmine stalk and gamboge leaf, and expressing a very
+natural opinion that the rhubarb tree must be very showy to look at,
+and curious to know in what kind of fruit the medicine grew.'
+
+'Oh, Annaple! do you go yourself in that way?'
+
+'Mark used to go with me, but, poor old fellow, he has ruinous ideas
+about prices and quantities, and besides, now he is so hard worked-up
+and down all day--he wants a little more of his bed in the morning.'
+
+'And what do you want?'
+
+'I never was a sleepy creature, and I get back in time to dress the
+boy.  I generally find him at high-jinks on his father's bed.  It uses
+up a little superfluous energy before the dressing.'
+
+'But surely you have a servant now?'
+
+'I've come to the conclusion that a workman's wife charing is a better
+institution.  No. 1, a pet of Miss Nugent's, was a nice creature, but
+the London air did for her at once.  No. 2, also from Micklethwayte,
+instantly set up a young man, highly respectable, and ready to marry on
+the spot, as they did, though their united ages don't amount to
+thirty-nine.  No. 3 was a Cockney, and couldn't stay because the
+look-out was so dull; and No. 4 gossiped with her kind when I thought
+her safe in the Temple Gardens with Billy, whereby he caught the
+whooping-cough, and as she also took the liberty of wearing my fur
+cloak, and was not particular as to accuracy, we parted on short
+notice; and I got this woman to come in every day to scrub, help make
+the bed, etc.  It is much less trouble, and the only fault I have to
+find with her is an absolute incapability of discerning blacks.  I
+believe she thinks I have a monomania against them.'
+
+Still Annaple insisted that she did not work half so hard as her
+nieces, Muriel and Janet, in their London season, and that her economy
+was not nearly so trying and difficult as that which Lady Delmar had
+been practising for years in order to afford them a summer there; nor
+was her anxiety to make both ends meet by any means equal to her
+sister's in keeping up appearances, and avoiding detrimentals. The two
+sisters met occasionally, but Lady Delmar was so compassionate and
+patronising that Annaple's spirit recoiled in off-hand levity and
+rattle, and neither regretted the occupation that prevented them from
+seeing much of one another.
+
+
+A year passed by, chiefly spent by Mr. Egremont in the pursuit of
+comparative health, at Buxton, Bagneres, and Biarritz, during which his
+daughter could do little but attend to him and to little Alwyn. The boy
+had been enough left to her and nurse during his father's acute illness
+to have become more amenable.  He was an affectionate child,
+inheriting, with his mother's face, her sweetness and docility of
+nature, and he was old enough to be a good deal impressed with the fact
+that he had made poor papa so ill by teasing him to stand in the cold.
+Mr. Egremont was not at rest without a sight of the child every day, if
+only for a moment, and the helplessness and suffering had awed the
+little fellow a good deal.  It was touching to see him pause when
+galloping about the house when he went past the sick-room, and hush his
+merry voice of his own accord.
+
+And in the journeys, when his father's invalided state would have made
+a fractious or wilful child a serious inconvenience, his good temper
+and contentment were invaluable.  He would sit for hours on his
+sister's lap, listening to whispered oft-told tales, or playing at
+impromptu quiet games; he could go to sleep anywhere, and the wonderful
+discoveries he made at each new place were the amusement of all his
+auditors.  Sister was always his playfellow and companion whenever she
+could be spared from her father, and she had an ever-increasing
+influence over him which she did her best to raise into principle.
+
+Perhaps she never had a happier moment than when she heard how he had
+put his hands behind him and steadily refused when Gregorio had offered
+to regale him at a stall of bonbons forming only a thin crust to
+liqueurs, which unfortunately he had already been taught to like.
+
+'But I told him sister said I mustn't have them,' said Alwyn.  'And
+then he made a face and said something in French about you.  I know
+'twas you, for he said "soeur."  What was it?'
+
+'Never mind, Wynnie dear. We had much better never know.  You were
+sister's own dear steadfast boy, and you shall kiss mother's picture.'
+
+Nuttie had a beautiful coloured photograph of her mother, finished like
+a miniature, which had been taken at Nice, in the time of Alice
+Egremont's most complete and matured beauty.  She had taught Alwyn to
+kiss and greet it every evening before his prayers, and such a kiss was
+his reward when he had shown any special act of goodness, for which, as
+she told him, 'mother would have been pleased with her little son.'
+
+Such another boon was his one Sunday evening at Biarritz, when she
+found that while she was shut up at dinner with her father he had
+voluntarily gone to church with nurse instead of playing on the beach
+with some other English children.  'It was all very long and tiresome,'
+he said, when asked if he liked it.
+
+'Then why did you go, old man?  There was no need to drag you there,'
+said his father.
+
+'She didn't drag me,' said the boy; 'I walked.'
+
+'You need not have walked then, Master Dignity.'
+
+'Poor nursie couldn't go without me,' said Alwyn, 'and sister says
+there's a blessing on those that go.'
+
+'A blessing? eh! and what idea does that little head entertain of a
+blessing?' said Mr. Egremont.
+
+Alwyn lifted his soft brown eyes reverently and said, 'It is something
+good,' speaking, as he always did, in a baby lisp inimitable here.
+
+'Well?'
+
+'And it comes from God.'
+
+'Well, what is it?  Can you see it?'
+
+'No'--he looked in perplexity towards Nuttie, who was in agony all the
+time, lest there should be a scoff that might remain in the child's
+mind.
+
+'Never mind sister.  Can you feel it?'
+
+'Yes;' and the little face lighted with such a reality that the
+incipient mockery turned into wonder on the next question.
+
+'And how does it feel?'
+
+'Oh, so nice!  It makes Wynnie glad here,' and he spread his hands over
+his breast; and gave a little caper like a kid for very gladness.
+
+'There!' said Mr. Egremont, leaning back fairly conquered.  'Any one
+might envy Wynnie!  Goodnight, my boy, blessing and all.  I wonder if
+one felt like that when one was a little shaver,' he pursued, as Alwyn
+went off to his bed.
+
+'I think I did sometimes,' said Nuttie, 'but I never was half as good
+as Wynnie!'
+
+'What?' exclaimed her father.  'You! bred up among the saints.'
+
+'Ah! but I hadn't the same nature.  I never was like--_her_.'
+
+'Well--'tis very pretty now, and I don't know how we could stand a
+young Turk, but you mustn't make a girl of him.'
+
+'There's no fear of that,' said Nuttie.  'He is full of spirit.  That
+old bathing woman calls him "un vrai petit diable d'Anglais," he is so
+venturous.'
+
+Which delighted Mr. Egremont as much as the concession that the boy's
+faith was 'pretty' delighted Ursula.  Indeed, he went a little further,
+for when she came back from her few minutes at Alwyn's bedside he
+proceeded to tell her of the absolute neglect in which his mother, a
+belle of the Almacks days, had left her nursery.  It was the first time
+he had ever hinted at a shadow of perception that anything in his own
+life had been amiss, and Ursula could not but feel a dreamy, hopeful
+wonder whether her sweet little Alwyn could be the destined means of
+doing that in which her mother had failed.  It was at least enough to
+quicken those prayers which had been more dutiful than trustful.
+
+And then her hope sank again when she realised that her father's days
+were spent between the lull of opiate, followed by a certain serenity,
+then in a period of irritability, each being more or less prolonged,
+according to health, weather, or entertainment, and closed again by the
+sedatives in various forms.  It relieved her indeed, but she felt it a
+wickedness to be glad of the calm, and she was aware that the habit was
+making inroads on her father's powers.  Between that and his defect of
+eyesight, he was often much confused, especially about money matters,
+and was more and more dependent.
+
+Would that it had been only upon her, but she was constantly certain
+that Gregorio was taking advantage of his master's helplessness, and
+keeping it up by all means in his power.  Yet what could be done? For
+the valet was absolutely necessary to his comfort, and yet she
+sometimes thought her father half in dread of him, and afraid to
+expostulate about personal neglects, which became more frequent.
+Things, that would have enraged him from others, were only grumbled and
+fretted over, when Gregorio caused him real inconvenience by absence or
+forgetfulness, and made very insufficient apology.  It seemed like a
+bondage; Nuttie thought of her mother's efforts, and blamed herself in
+vain.
+
+It was during this journey that she heard of good Miss Headworth's
+death.  The old lady's mind had long failed, and the actual present
+loss to Nuttie was not great; but it seemed to close a long account of
+gratitude such as she had not thoroughly felt or understood before; and
+the link with Micklethwayte was severed.
+
+For Mark and Annaple prevailed on Mrs. Egremont to install Miss Nugent
+as governess to Rosalind and Adela.  In that capacity Nuttie hoped to
+see a good deal of her; but of course was again disappointed, for her
+father would not hear of returning to Bridgefield.  It was draughty,
+and dull, and desolate, and nothing suited him but London.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+BLACKS IN THE ASCENDANT.
+
+  'Man's work ends with set of sun,
+  Woman's work is never done.'--Proverb.
+
+
+It was far on in May when Ursula found herself again in the
+sitting-room over the warehouse.  Somehow it had not the dainty
+well-cared-for air of erst.  The pretty table ornaments were out of
+sight; the glass over the clock was dim, the hands had stopped; some of
+Annaple's foes, the blacks, had effected a lodgment on the Parian
+figures; the chintzes showed wear and wash, almost grime; the carpet's
+pattern was worn; a basket full of socks was on the sofa; and on the
+table a dress, once belonging to Annaple's trousseau, was laid out,
+converted into its component parts.  The wails of a baby could be heard
+in the distance, and the first person to appear was Master William,
+sturdy and happy in spite of wofully darned knees to his stockings.
+
+'Mother's coming, if baby will stop crying,' he said, 'and lie in her
+cradle.'
+
+'Your little sister!  What's her name?'
+
+'Jane Christian,' said the boy, with a much more distinct enunciation
+than Alwyn, though a year older, had yet acquired.  'She does cry so!
+She won't let mother make my new knickies out of her blue gown!'
+
+Thoughts of the suits that Alwyn was discarding came across Nuttie.
+Could they be offered without offence?  She asked, however, 'Do you
+remember Alwyn--my Wynnie?'
+
+'Wynnie gave me my horse,' cried the boy, unstabling a steed which had
+seen hard service since the presentation.  'Where's Wynnie?'
+
+'He is at home.  You must come and see him,' said Nuttie, who had not
+been allowed to bring him till secure of a clean bill of health. 'But
+see, just outside the door, there's something for Billy.'
+
+She had made her servant bring up the parcels to the passage outside,
+and Billy was soon hugging a magnificent box of soldiers, wherewith he
+pranced off to show them to his mother, leaving the doors open, so that
+Ursula could more decidedly hear the baby's voice, not a healthy
+child's lusty cry, but a poor little feeble wail, interspersed with
+attempts at consolation.  'Come, won't she go to Emily?  Oh, Billy-boy,
+how splendid!  I hope you thanked Cousin Ursula.  Baby Jenny, now can't
+you let any one speak but yourself?  Oh! shall I never teach you that
+"Balow, my babe," is not "bellow, my babe."  That's better!  Now can't
+you let Emily have you, while I go to Cousin Nuttie?'
+
+'Let me come!  Mayn't I?' exclaimed Ursula, invading the room that
+served as kitchen, where Annaple was trying to hush off the child and
+make her over to a little twelve years old maid, who stood in waiting,
+helping Willie meantime to unpack his soldiers, with smothered
+exclamations of delight.
+
+'Oh, Nuttie, how good of you!  Please to excuse the accompaniment.
+There never was such a young lady for self-assertion to make up for
+there being so little of her.'
+
+And Annaple, very thin and tired looking, held up the child, fearfully
+small and pinched for four months old, to be kissed by Nuttie.
+
+'Does she always go on like this?'
+
+''Cept when she is asleep,' said Willie.
+
+'Poor wee lassie,' said Annaple; 'there's great excuse for her, for the
+food has not yet been invented that suits her ladyship.'
+
+'You must come and consult nurse.'
+
+'And how are you all?  I'm glad you are at hand, Nuttie!  Is Mr.
+Egremont better?'
+
+'As well as ever he is--lame and altogether an invalid,--but he has not
+had such bad attacks of pain lately.'
+
+'And his eyes?'
+
+'About the same.  He can write, and tell one card from another, but he
+can't read--or rather it hurts him to do so, and he can't bear a strong
+light.  But, Annaple, how are you?  That child is wearing you to a
+shadow.'
+
+'Oh! I'm quite well--perfectly.  There, I think she is gone off at
+last.  You had better walk her about a little, Emily; she will break
+out again if we try to put her in the cradle.'
+
+And having handed over the child with only a very low murmur, Annaple
+left her combined kitchen and nursery.  She flew at the flowers Nuttie
+had brought like a thirsty person, crying, as she buried her face in
+them, 'Now for beauty!  Now Mark will be refreshed!  Ah! here's a
+pretty pickle for a reception room.'
+
+'Oh, don't put it away!  I could help you; I do so like that kind of
+work.  It is so like old times.'
+
+'It must be put away, thank you, for Mark will be coming in.  And the
+saying about the public washing of garments is specially true of one's
+own husband.  Ways and means are worrying to the masculine mind.'
+
+'I thought it was too early for Mark?'
+
+'He has an appointment to keep at Charing Cross or thereabouts, so I
+made him promise to come in in time to "put a bit in his head," as our
+Irish charwoman says.'
+
+'Then I can take him.  I have the carriage, and I must be at home by
+half-past twelve.  I wish you would come too, Annaple.  There's plenty
+of room.  You could show the baby to nurse, and the boys could have a
+good game.  I would send you back in the evening.  Mark could come on
+after his business is done.'
+
+'Thank you, Nuttie, I can't to-day--for a whole heap of domestic
+reasons; but, if you can get Mark to come, do, it would be so good for
+him.'
+
+'How is Mark?'
+
+'He is well, quite well,' said Annaple; 'and so good and patient. But
+you see, it does take it out of a man when that doleful little noise
+won't stop all night!  We are both acquiring a form of somnambulism,
+but when there's real out-of-door business to be done, it is not like
+proper sleep.'
+
+'Or when there's woman's indoor business, I am afraid,' said Nuttie,
+much concerned at the extreme thinness of Annaple's face and hands, and
+the weary look of her large eyes.
+
+'Oh, one makes that up at odd times!' she answered brightly.  'One
+thing is, this work suits Mark, he feels that he can do it, and he gets
+on well with the men.  They asked him to join in their club, and he was
+so much pleased.  He gets up subjects for them, and I am so glad he has
+such a pleasure and interest to keep him from missing the society he
+was used to.'
+
+'It must be very good for them too.  Mr. Dutton said he really thought
+Mark had kept them from going in for a strike.'
+
+'Besides the glory of the thing,' said Annaple drawing herself up, 'Mr.
+Dobbs thought so too, and raised us ten pounds; which made us able to
+import that little Bridgefield lassie to hold baby--when--when Miss
+Jenny will let her.  He has some law copying to do besides, but I don't
+like that; it burns the candle at both ends, and he does get bad
+headaches sometimes, and goes on all the same.'
+
+'You must both come and see my Wyn.'
+
+'Ah! I had never asked after him.  I suppose he is as pretty as ever,'
+said Annaple, who secretly thought his beauty too girlish compared with
+her sturdy Billy.
+
+'Prettier, I think, as he gets more expression.  We can't persuade
+ourselves to cut his hair, and it looks so lovely on his sailor suit.
+And he is so good.  I could not have believed a child could be so quiet
+and considerate on a journey.  You should have seen him standing by my
+father's knee in the railway carriage, and amusing him with all that
+was to be seen, and stopping at the least hint that he was chattering
+too much.'
+
+'Billy is wonderfully helpful.  Ah--' and Annaple's eyes lighted up as
+the step that had music in't came up the stair; and as Mark came in,
+Nuttie thought him grown older, his hair thinner, his shoulders
+rounded, and his office coat shabby, but she saw something in his
+countenance there had never been before.  Ever since she had known him
+he had worn a certain air of depression, or perhaps more truly of
+failure and perplexity, which kept before her conscious mind the
+Desdichado on Ivanhoe's shield, even when he was a gentleman at ease at
+the luxurious Rectory; but there was now not only the settled air of a
+man who had found his vocation, but something of the self-respect and
+eagerness of one who was doing it well, and feeling himself valued.
+
+'Is baby--' he began.  'Oh, Nuttie!  Are you there?  Mr. Dutton told me
+you were coming.  How is my uncle?'  And the voice was much brisker
+than in the days of lawn-tennis.
+
+'Father, father, look!' cried the boy.
+
+'Why, Billy-boy, you are set up!  Zouaves and chasseurs!  I see where
+they came from.'
+
+During the mixture of greetings and inquiries, admiration of the
+flowers, and the exhibition of Billy's treasures, Annaple glided away,
+and presently placed before him a tray, daintily benapkinned and set
+forth with a little cup of soup.
+
+'Baby is really asleep, and Emily as proud as a Hielandman,' she said.
+'Now eat this, without more ado, for that good Nuttie is going to set
+you down at Charing Cross.'
+
+'This is the way we spoil our husbands, Nuttie,' said Mark. 'Refections
+served up at every turn.'
+
+'Only bones!  The immortal pot au feu,' said Annaple.  'And you are to
+go on after you have interviewed your man of steel, and have tea with
+Nuttie, and pay your respects to your uncle, like a dutiful nephew.'
+
+'No, that I can't, Nannie; I promised Dobbs to go and see a man for
+him, and I must come back as soon as I can after that.'
+
+He looked--as to figure and air--much more like his old self when he
+had changed his coat.  They fed him, almost against his will, with a
+few of the forced strawberries Nuttie had brought.  Billy pressed on
+him wonders from a Paris bonbon box, and Annaple fastened a rose and a
+pink in his button-hole, and came down to the street door with her boy
+to see him off.
+
+'What do you think of her?' was Mark's first inquiry.
+
+'Think!  As Mr. Dutton said long ago, never was braver lady!'
+
+'Never was there a truer word!  I meant as to her health?  As to
+courage, spirits, and temper, there is no question; I never saw them
+fail; but are they not almost too much for the frame?' he asked
+anxiously.
+
+It echoed Nuttie's fear, but she tried to frame a cheerful answer. 'She
+is very thin, but she seems well.'
+
+'She never complains, but I am sure her strength is not what it was.
+She cannot walk out as she did at first.  Indeed, she gets no real rest
+day nor night, and there's no relieving her!'
+
+'She says you don't get much rest either.'
+
+'More than my share,' said Mark.  'The poor little thing never sleeps
+except in someone's arms, and if awake, is not content for a moment
+except in her mother's.'
+
+'And that has been going on four months?'
+
+'Three.  Ever since we brought her back from Redcastle.  I have nearly
+determined to move into some suburb when I get a rise at Michaelmas,
+unless she improves.'
+
+'Nurse might suggest something.'
+
+'Or at any rate tell us what to think.  We showed her to a doctor, and
+all he could propose was some kind of food, which was no more
+successful than the rest.  Did you look at her, Nuttie?  She is a
+pretty little thing when she is quiet, but she dwindles away--at least
+so it seems to me, though Annaple will not see it, and--and if we are
+not permitted to keep the little one, I dread what the effect may be on
+her.'
+
+Nuttie said something about bravery and goodness, thinking in her heart
+that, if the blow fell, it would be better for all than the perpetual
+suffering of the poor little sickly being.
+
+'Ah! you don't know what her affections are,' said Mark.  'You did not
+see her when she lost her mother, and there had been no strain on her
+powers then.  However, I've no business to croak.  Many a child gets
+over troubles of this kind, and, as Annaple says, little Jenny will be
+all the more to us for what we go through with her.'
+
+The carriage stopped, and Nuttie asked him if it would delay him too
+long if she executed a commission about her father's glasses.  He had
+plenty of time, but she was delayed longer than she expected, and on
+her return was surprised to find that he had dropped asleep.
+
+'Ah! that's what comes of a moment's quiet;' he said, smiling.
+
+'Fine quiet in the roar of Ludgate Hill!'
+
+'To a Cockney 'tis as the mill to the miller!  I like the full stir and
+tide,' he added, looking out upon it.  'I never knew what life was
+before!'
+
+'I should have thought you never knew what hardness and hard work were.'
+
+'That's just it,' he answered, smiling.  'The swing of it is
+exhilaration--very different from being a cumberer of the ground.'
+
+'Oh, Mark, all the privations and anxiety!'
+
+'The privation! that's nothing.  Indeed I am afraid--yes, I am ashamed
+to say--it falls more on my dear wife than myself, but if we can only
+wear through a year or two we shall get a further rise, and my poor
+Annaple may get out of this drudgery.  Please God, she and the little
+one can stand it for a time, and I think she has a spring within her
+that will;' then, as he saw tears in his cousin's eyes, he added,
+'Don't be unhappy about it, Nuttie; I have had it in my mind ever so
+long to tell you that the finding you at Micklethwayte was the best
+thing that ever happened to me!'
+
+Yes, so far as character went, Ursula could believe that it had been
+so.  He was twice the man he would have been without the incentive to
+work, and the constant exercise of patience and cheerfulness; but her
+heart was heavy with apprehension that the weight of the trial might be
+too heavy.  To her eyes the baby's life seemed extremely doubtful, and
+Annaple looked so fragile that the increase of her burthens, any
+saddening of the heart, might destroy her elasticity, and crush her
+outright; while even Mark seemed to her to be toiling so close within
+the limits of his powers that a straw might break the camel's back!
+
+She longed to talk to Mr. Dutton about them, but she found herself
+doomed to a day that perhaps Annaple would have thought more trying
+than her harrowed life.  She was a little later than she had intended,
+and her father had been waiting impatiently to have a note read to him,
+so he growled at her impatience to run after 'that Scotch girl.'  And
+the note happened to be of an irritating nature; moreover, the cutlets
+at luncheon were said to be akin to indiarubber, and there was the
+wrong flavour in the sauce.  Ursula let that cook do what she pleased
+without remonstrance.
+
+Even Alwyn did not afford as much satisfaction as usual, for the boy
+was in high spirits and wanted to blow a little trumpet, which was more
+than his father could stand.  He was very good when this was silenced,
+but he then began to rush round the room daring his sister to catch the
+wild colt as he went by.  This had likewise to be stopped, with the
+murmur that Ursula spoilt the child.
+
+She tried to compose matters by turning out the old toys in the
+ottoman, but Alwyn had outgrown most of them, and did not care for any
+except a certain wooden donkey, minus one ear and a leg, which went by
+the name of Sambo, and had absorbed a good deal of his affection.  He
+had with difficulty been consoled for Sambo being left behind, and now
+turned over everything with considerable clatter in search of him.
+Alas!  Sambo could nowhere be found in the room, and Alwyn dashed off
+to inquire of all the household after him.  His father meanwhile
+growled at the child's noise, and went on trying the glasses Nuttie had
+brought, and pronouncing each pair in turn useless, vowing that it was
+no use to send her anywhere.
+
+Upon this, back came Alwyn, terribly distressed and indignant, for he
+had extracted from the housemaid left in charge, who was as cross as
+she was trustworthy, 'What! that old broken thing, Master Egremont? I
+threw it on the fire!  I'd never have thought a young gentleman of your
+age would have cared for such rubbish as that.'
+
+'You are a wicked cruel woman,' returned Alwyn, with flashing eyes; 'I
+shall tell papa and sister of you.'
+
+And in he flew, sobbing with grief and wrath for the dear Sambo,
+feeling as if it had been a live donkey burnt to death, and hiding his
+face on his sister's breast for consolation.
+
+'Come, come, Wyn,' said his father, who did not brook interruption;
+'here's half a sovereign to go and buy a new donkey.'
+
+'It won't be Sambo,' said Alwyn ruefully.
+
+'But you should thank papa,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Thank you, papa,' he said, with quivering lip, 'but I don't want a new
+one.  Oh Sambo, Sambo! burnt!' and he climbed on Nuttie's lap, hid his
+face against her and cried, but her comfortings were broken off by,
+'How can you encourage the child in being so foolish?  Have done, Wyn;
+don't be such a baby!  Go out with nurse and buy what you like, but I
+can't have crying here.'
+
+He tried to stop in sheer amazement, but the ground swell of sob could
+not be controlled.  Nuttie was going to lead him away, and console him
+with more imaginative sympathy than could be expected from the maids,
+but her father sharply called her back.  He wanted her himself, and
+indeed there was no question which was the worse spoilt child.  He
+might idolise Alwyn, but not so as to clash with his own comforts.  The
+glasses being unsuccessful, Nuttie proposed to drive back to Ludgate
+Hill for him to choose for himself, but he would not hear of going into
+the heat of the City, and growled at her for thinking of such a thing.
+
+They took an aimless drive instead in the park, and Nuttie was nearly
+baked while the carriage was stopped for her father to have a long talk
+over the prospects of the Derby day with one of his most unpleasant
+associates, who stood leaning over the door on the shady side of the
+carriage, no one recking how little protection she derived from her
+small fringed parasol.
+
+She came home tired out, and thankful that her father went to rest in
+his own room.  She climbed to the nursery, thinking to share Alwyn's
+tea and comfort him, but she found only nurse there.  Nurse had a bad
+foot, and dreaded hot pavement, so she had sent Master Alwyn out with
+her subordinate, a country girl, to play in Mr. Dutton's garden till it
+should be cool enough to go and make his purchase, and a message had
+since arrived that he was going to drink tea there, and Mr. Dutton
+would take him out.
+
+His sister envied him the green shades, and had just done her best to
+cool the back drawing-room and rest herself with a book, when Mr. Fane
+was announced.  He talked pleasantly enough, and lingered and lingered,
+no doubt intending to be asked to dinner, but she was equally
+determined to do no such thing.  She had heard enough of races for one
+day, she thought, and at last he took his leave, only just before she
+dressed for dinner.
+
+'I thought Fane was here,' said Mr. Egremont as he came in; no doubt
+told by Gregorio.
+
+'He has been, but he is gone.'
+
+'You didn't ask him to stay and dine?'
+
+'I did not know you wished it.'
+
+'You might have known that I should have liked to see him.  I suppose
+you think your sweet self society enough for any man?'
+
+'I am sorry--'
+
+'I'm sick of hearing you are sorry!  I believe there's nothing you like
+so well as doing an ungracious thing to a friend of mine.'
+
+Nuttie had learnt to hold her tongue on such occasions.
+
+Dinner was nearly over, and her father had been grumbling again at
+having no one to take a hand at cards with him, when the door opened a
+little way, and Alwyn's pretty glowing face looked in.  He was come to
+say good-night rather later than usual, and he ran up to his sister
+with a little bouquet of yellow banksia and forget-me-nots. 'Mithter
+Button'--so Alwyn called him--'sent you this.  He said you would like
+it, 'cause it came from one that grew at Mittletwait.  And oh, look,
+look!'
+
+He was hugging a little ship, which he proudly exhibited, while his
+father's brow had darkened at the message.  'Did you buy that?' asked
+his sister.
+
+'Yes, Mr. Button went with me, and we sailed it.  We sailed it by the
+fountain in Mr. Button's garden, And we made a storm!'
+
+He danced about with glee, and Mr. Egremont observed, 'A dear purchase
+for ten shillings.  Did it cost all that, Wyn?'
+
+'They gived me a big silver half-crown, and I gived that to a little
+boy what came to speak to Mr. Button, and had his toes through his
+boots, and he was so glad.'
+
+'Your money is not for beggars, Wyn.'
+
+'The little boy was not a beggar, papa.  He came with a newspaper to
+Mr. Button, and he is so good to his poor sick mother,' said Alwyn.
+'See, see, sister!' turning the prow of his small vessel towards her,
+and showing a word on it in pencil which he required her to spell out.
+It was Ursula.
+
+'Oh Wynnie!' she said, duly flattered, 'did Mr. Dutton do that?'
+
+'He held my hand, and I did!' cried Alwyn, triumphantly, 'and he will
+paint it on Saturday.  Then it will dry all Sunday, and not come off,
+so it will be the Ursula for ever and always.'
+
+Here nurse claimed her charge; and when the goodnights were over, and a
+murmur recommenced, Nuttie suggested that if Mr. Dutton was at home
+perhaps he would come in and make up the game, but she encountered the
+old humour.  'I'll tell you what, Ursula, I'll not have that umbrella
+fellow encouraged about the house, and if that child is to be made the
+medium of communication, I'll put a stop to it.'
+
+The words were spoken just as Gregorio had entered the room with a
+handkerchief of his master's.  Nuttie, colouring deeply at the insult,
+met his triumphant eyes, bit her lips, and deigned no word of reply.
+
+An undefined but very slight odour, that told her of opium smoke,
+pervaded the stairs that night.  It was the only refuge from
+fretfulness; but her heart ached for her father, herself, and most of
+all for her little brother.  And was she to be cut off from her only
+counsellor?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+THE LOST HEIR.
+
+  'Seemed to the boy some comrade gay
+  Led him forth to the woods to play.'--SCOTT.
+
+
+Though it was the Derby day, Mr. Egremont's racing days were over, and
+he only took his daughter with him in quest of the spectacles he
+wanted.  When they came back, Nuttie mounted to the nursery, but no
+little brother met her on the stairs, and she found nurse in deep
+displeasure with her subordinate.
+
+'I sent him out with Ellen to play in the garden at Springfield, and
+swim his ship, where he couldn't come to no harm,' said nurse; 'being
+that my foot is that bad I can't walk the length of the street; and
+what does the girl do but lets that there Gregorio take the dear child
+and go--goodness knows where--without her.'
+
+'I'm sure, ma'am,' said the girl crying, 'I would never have done it,
+but Mr. Gregory said as how 'twas his papa's wish.'
+
+'What was?' said Nuttie.
+
+'That he shouldn't never go and play at Mr. Dutton's again,' said Ellen.
+
+'I told her she was to take her orders off me, and no one else,'
+returned nurse, 'except, of course, you, Miss Egremont, as has the
+right.'
+
+'Quite so; you should have told Mr. Gregorio so, Ellen.'
+
+'I did, ma'am, but he said those was Mr. Egremont's orders; and he
+said,' cried the girl, unable to withstand the pleasure of repeating
+something disagreeable, 'that Mr. Egremont wouldn't have no messengers
+between you and a low tradesman fellow, as made umbrellas, and wanted
+to insinuate himself in here.'
+
+'That's quite enough, Ellen; I don't want to hear any impertinences.
+Perhaps you did not understand his foreign accent.  Did he say where he
+was going?'
+
+'I think he said he'd take him to the Serpentine to sail his ship,'
+said Ellen, disposed to carry on asseverations of the correctness of
+her report, but nurse ordered her off the scene, and proceeded, as a
+confidential servant, 'The girl had no call to repeat it; but there's
+not a doubt of it he did say something of the sort.  There's not one of
+us but knows he is dead against Mr. Dutton, because he tried to get
+master to get to sleep without that nasty opium smoke of his.'
+
+There was bitter feud between nurse and valet, and Nuttie could have
+exchanged with her many a lament, but she contented herself with
+saying, 'I wish he would let Master Alwyn alone.  It is high time they
+should come in.'
+
+'The child will be tired to death, and all dirt!  His nice new sailor
+suit too!  Going grubbing about at the Serpentine with no one knows
+who, as isn't fit for a young gentleman,' moaned nurse.
+
+This, however, was the worst fear she entertained, and it was with a
+certain malicious satisfaction that she heard her master's bell for
+Gregorio.
+
+Nuttie descended to explain, and whereas the need was not very urgent,
+and she looked distressed and angered at the valet, her father received
+her complaint with, 'Well, the boy is getting too big to be tied for
+ever to a nursery-maid.  It will do him good to go about with a man.'
+
+But as dressing-time came on, and still neither Gregorio nor Alwyn
+appeared, Mr. Egremont became impatient, and declared that the valet
+had no business to keep the child out so long; indeed, he would sooner
+have taken alarm but for Nuttie's manifest agony of anxiety, starting
+and rushing to listen at every ring at the bell or sound of wheels near
+at hand.  At last, at eight o'clock, there was a peal of the servants'
+bell, and the footman who answered it turned round to the anxious
+crowd: 'Mr. Gregory!  He just asked if the child was come home, and
+went off like lightning.'
+
+'The villain!  He's lost him!' shrieked nurse, with a wild scream. 'Run
+after him, James!  Catch him up!' suggested the butler at the same
+moment.  'Make him tell where he saw him last!'
+
+James was not a genius, but the hall boy, an alert young fellow, had
+already dashed down the steps in pursuit, and came up with the valet so
+as to delay him till the other servants stood round, and Gregorio
+turned back with them, pale, breathless, evidently terribly dismayed
+and unwilling to face his master, who stood at the top of the steps,
+white with alarm and wrath.
+
+'Sir,' cried Gregorio, with a stammering of mixed languages, 'I have
+been searching everywhere!  I was going to give notice to the police.
+Je ferai tout!  Je le trouverai.'
+
+'Where did you lose him?' demanded Mr. Egremont in a hoarse voice, such
+as Nuttie had never heard.
+
+'In the Park, near the bridge over the Serpentine.  I was speaking for
+a few moments to a friend.  Bah!  Il etait parti.  Mais je le
+trouverai.  Parker, he seeks too.  Fear not, sir, I shall find him.'
+
+'Find him, you scoundrel, or never dare to see me again!  I've borne
+with your insolences long, and now you've brought them to a height. Go,
+I say, find my boy!' exclaimed Mr. Egremont, with a fierce oath and
+passionate gesture, and Gregorio vanished again.
+
+'Bring the carriage--no, call a cab;' commanded Mr. Egremont, snatching
+up his hat.  'Who is this Parker?'
+
+The servants hesitated, but the butler said he believed the man to be a
+friend of Gregorio's employed at one of the clubs.  Nuttie meanwhile
+begging her father not to go without her, flew upstairs to put on her
+hat, and coming down at full speed found that Mr. Dutton, passing by
+and seeing the open door and the terrified servants on the steps, had
+turned in to ask what was the matter, and was hearing in no measured
+terms from Mr. Egremont how the child had been taken away from his
+nurse and lost in the Park while that scamp Gregorio was chattering to
+some good-for-nothing friend.
+
+To Nuttie's great relief, Mr. Dutton offered to go with the father to
+assist in the search, and the coachman, far too anxious and excited to
+let his master go without him in a cab, contrived to bring up the
+carriage.  Some of the servants were ordered off to the various police
+offices.  Poor nurse, who was nearly distracted, started in a hansom on
+her own account, persuaded that she should see and recognise traces of
+her darling at the scene of his loss, and she almost raced the
+carriage, which was bound for the same spot.
+
+Sluggish natures like Mr. Egremont's can sometimes be roused to great
+violence, and then pour forth the long pent-up accumulations kept back
+by indolence and indifference.  His only occupation during the rapid
+drive was to vituperate his valet, the curse of his life, he said.  To
+hear him talk, it would have seemed as if Gregorio had been the tyrant
+who had kept him in bondage all these years, fully aware of his
+falsehood, peculation, and other rascality, but as unable to break the
+yoke as if he had been in truth the slave of anything but his own evil
+habit and helpless acquiescence.
+
+Would it last if Gregorio made his appearance at that instant with
+Alwyn in his hand?  Or even, as Mr. Dutton confidently predicted, a
+policeman might bring the boy home, before many hours were passed. The
+chief doubt here was that Alwyn's defective pronunciation, which had
+been rather foolishly encouraged, might make it difficult to understand
+his mode  of saying his own name, or even that of the street, if he
+knew it perfectly; but the year he had been absent from London had
+prevented him from acquiring the curious ready local instinct of the
+true town child, and he had been so much guarded and watched that he
+was likely to be utterly at a loss when left alone; and Nuttie was
+wretched at the thought of his terror and loneliness, even while Mr.
+Dutton told her of speedy recoveries of lost children through kind
+people or the police.
+
+They found all the officials of the Park already aware and on the
+alert, and quite certain of the impossibility of nurse's prime dread
+that the boy had fallen into the water unseen by any one and been
+drowned.  She was even ready to look into every bush, in case he had
+been frightened and hidden himself; and nothing would satisfy her but
+to stay making these researches, when her master had decided on
+endeavouring to find 'Parker' at the club, and to ascertain from him
+particulars of time and place.
+
+He was found there.  The dinner-hour had brought him back, he being a
+man in authority there, very well dressed and deferential, declaring
+himself immensely distressed at the occurrence, and at having accosted
+Gregorio and attracted his attention.  It was about four o'clock, he
+thought, and he described the exact spot where the little boy had been
+sailing his vessel fastened to a string.  They might have been talking
+twenty minutes or half an hour when Gregorio missed his charge, and
+since that time both had been doing all in their power to find him,
+until half-past seven, when he had to return to his club, and Gregorio
+went to see whether the child had been taken home.
+
+By this time Mr. Egremont looked so utterly exhausted, that Mr. Dutton
+availed himself of the hope that the boy might be found safe at home to
+take him back; but alas! nothing had been heard there.
+
+The poor man was in a restless, unmanageable state of excitement,
+almost as terrifying to his daughter as the distress that occasioned
+it.  He swallowed a tumblerful of claret, but would not eat nor go to
+bed; and indeed, Gregorio alone having had the personal charge of him,
+latterly sleeping in his dressing-room, none of the other servants knew
+what to do for him.  Mr. Dutton agreed with her that it would be better
+to send for his doctor, as probably he ought to have a sedative, and
+neither would take the responsibility of giving it; while he himself
+declared he neither would nor could rest till he had his boy again.
+
+The doctor was dining out, and they had two terrible hours; while Mr.
+Egremont paced to the windows; threw himself on the sofa; denounced
+Gregorio; or, for a change, all the system of police which had made no
+discovery; and Ursula for letting the boy be so helpless.  Mr. Dutton
+sometimes diverted his attention for a few minutes, and hoped he would
+doze, but the least sound brought him to his feet again, and the only
+congenial occupation was the composition of a description of poor
+little Alwyn's person and dress, which set Nuttie crying so
+uncontrollably, that she had to run out of the room.
+
+Dr. Brownlow came at last, and was very kind and helpful, taking the
+command, and insisting that Mr. Egremont should go to bed, and take the
+dose which he mixed.  Broadbent, the butler, was to take Gregorio's
+place, but he was a ponderous man, without much tact, and unused to the
+valet's office.  'I might just as well have a rhinoceros about me,'
+said Mr. Egremont, in a fit of irritation; and it ended, Nuttie hardly
+knew how, in Mr. Dutton's going upstairs to smooth matters.  He came
+down after a time and said: 'I am not satisfied to leave him alone or
+to Broadbent; I have his consent to my sleeping in the dressing-room.
+I am just going home to fetch my things.  Let me find you gone when I
+come back.  You will hear no more to-night.  Even if he is found, they
+will keep him till morning.'
+
+'It is of no use; I can't sleep.'
+
+'Even if you don't, the mere restful position will make you fitter for
+the morrow.  Will you promise me to undress and really go to bed?'
+
+'Oh yes! if you say I must,' said Nuttie drearily; following an
+instinct of obedience.
+
+'And remember,' he said, 'though I do not say it will be so, this may
+be deliverance from bondage.'
+
+'But what a terrible deliverance!'
+
+'Bonds are not burst without something terrible.  No; don't be
+frightened.  Remember there is safekeeping for that sweet little
+fellow, wherever he may be.'
+
+'Oh, Mr. Dutton, if I could pray for him; but the turmoil seems to have
+driven away all such things!  My boy, my boy, where is he now? Who has
+heard him say his little prayers?'
+
+'His Heavenly Father has; of that we may be secure.  You will feel it
+in the quiet of your own room.  Good-night.'
+
+'And I shall know you are praying, better than I can,' murmured Nuttie,
+as she returned his good-night, and crept up to her chamber.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+FETTERS RENT.
+
+  'The gods are just, and of our pleasant sins
+  Make whips to scourge us.'--King Lear.
+
+
+There was no real sleep for Ursula that short summer night.  She saw
+the early dawn, listened to the distant roll of market-carts, and
+wondered when it would be reasonable to be afoot, and ready to hear, if
+aught there was to hear.  At any hour after seven, surely the finders
+would have mercy and bring the welcome news.  And just before seven she
+fell asleep, deeply, soundly, and never woke till past eight, but that
+was just enough to revive the power of hope, and give the sense of a
+new day.  But there was nothing to hear--no news.  She found Mr. Dutton
+in the dining-room.  He had had to administer another draught to her
+father, and had left him in a sleep which would probably last for some
+time.  If she would go and sit in the outer room, after her breakfast,
+he would go out to obtain intelligence.
+
+'You must have some breakfast,' she said, ringing the bell, and
+wistfully looking over the blinds; then exclaiming: 'Oh, there's Mark!
+Has he heard anything?' and out she darted, opening the door before he
+rang.  'Mark! have you found him?'
+
+'Yes,' he said gravely, looking utterly amazed as she clasped her
+hands, and seemed ready to fling herself on his neck with joy.  'I came
+because it will be a great shock to my uncle.'
+
+'Then it is so!  Nurse was right,' said Nuttie, turning deadly pale,
+and standing as if before a firing platoon.  'Tell me, Mark, where did
+they find him?'
+
+'At the Faringdon Station.  I was sent for to identify him.'
+
+'Stay,' said Mr. Dutton, as there was a wild horrified look in Nuttie's
+eyes.  'Do you mean little Alwyn?'
+
+'Little Alwyn!  No, certainly not.  What of him?'
+
+'Gregorio managed to lose him in the park yesterday,' put in Mr. Dutton.
+
+'That accounts for it, then,' said Mark.  'No, it was Gregorio himself,
+poor man.  He was knocked down by the engine, and killed on the spot,
+just by the station, at eleven o'clock last night.  Our name was found
+on him, and I was sent for early this morning.  There was no doubt
+about it, so I came on here at once to let my uncle know, little
+thinking--'
+
+'Oh, it is dreadful!' cried Nuttie, sinking into a chair.  'Do you
+remember, my father told him never to see his face again unless he
+found Alwyn?'
+
+Broadbent came in at the moment with the coffee-pot, and stood
+suspended, as he was told what had happened, Mark adding the detail:
+'He was crossing the line in front of the engine.'
+
+'Yes, sir,' said the butler.  'It is an awful dispensation.  No doubt
+he knew it was all up with him.  You may not be aware, sir, of the
+subject of his conversation in the park.  Mr. Parker had just seen a
+telegram of the result of the Derby, and he had heavy bets on Lady
+Edina.  I am afraid, sir, there can be no doubt that he found a
+voluntary grave.'
+
+'We will not talk of that.  We cannot judge,' said Mark, shuddering. 'I
+said I would send some one from here to arrange what was to be done
+after the inquest.'
+
+Broadbent immediately undertook to go, if his master did not require
+him, and this was thought advisable, as his services were certainly not
+acceptable to Mr. Egremont.  Mark had thought himself likely to be
+detained and had provided for his absence, and the awe-stricken trio
+were consulting together over the breakfast-table, eating mechanically,
+from the very exhaustion of agitation, when the door opened, and Mr.
+Egremont in his dressing-gown was among them, exclaiming: 'You are
+keeping it from me.'  He had been wakened by the whispers and rushes of
+the excited maids, had rung his bell in vain, dressed himself as best
+he could after so many years of dependence, and stumbled downstairs,
+where, as with his daughter, it was something like a relief to know
+that hope was not extinguished in Alwyn's case.  But Mr. Egremont was
+in a very trembling, broken condition, and much overcome by his valet's
+end after so many years of intimate association.  Certainly, if either
+of the others had so parted with the man, it would have been a horror
+in the recollection, but he did not seem to dwell on it; and, indeed,
+attention was distracted by every sound at the door, since each might
+bring news of the missing child.
+
+One of these tantalising rings proved to be a policeman with poor
+Gregorio's keys, and a demand for an investigation into any papers he
+might have left which would show his state of mind.  Mr. Egremont was
+very much annoyed, declaring that he would have no stranger meddle with
+them, and that he saw no use in such prying.  What difference could it
+make to any living creature?  However, when he found there was no help
+for it, he said he must do it himself. Nuttie offered to help, but was
+sharply, strongly refused.  Mark alone might and should help.
+
+Then Mr. Dutton volunteered to go and explain matters to Mr. Dobbs, so
+as to get freedom for Mark for at least the remainder of the day. He
+would call at the police offices and see what was doing in the search,
+put forward the advertisements, and obtain that the Serpentine should
+be dragged, for he saw that only that measure would remove one great
+terror from these anxious hearts.
+
+'And,' he said to Mark, 'with your permission, I will bring back Mrs.
+Egremont and the children if they will do me the honour to become my
+guests.  She will be a comfort to Miss Egremont, and then you will be
+at hand in the evening.'
+
+Mark could only be thankful, and presently addressed himself to the
+investigation, which his uncle insisted should be made in his own
+presence, though the opiate kept him for the most part dozing in an
+arm-chair, only rousing up now and then by some noise at the front
+door, or putting queries, the replies to which startled him more and
+more, as he grew more wakeful and Mark proceeded.
+
+All, except a few unimportant bills and a betting-book, was locked into
+a dressing-case that had once belonged to Mr. Egremont, and had tricks
+of secret drawers that only he could explain.  It was full of papers,
+and they were a strange revelation that Mr. Egremont might well wish to
+withhold from his daughter.  They went very far back, and of course did
+not come out in order of chronology, nor would Mark have understood
+them but for exclamations and comments here and there from his uncle.
+
+Everything seemed to be there,--the old passport and certificate to
+Gregorio Savelli, when he left his Savoyard home to be a waiter at a
+hotel; a few letters in Italian, probably from his parents, which Mark
+could not read, but which soon ceased; the counter-signed character
+with which he had entered General Egremont's service; and then came a
+note or two signed A. P. E., which Mr. Egremont regarded with great
+annoyance, though they only consisted of such phrases as 'Back on
+Wednesday.  Find an excuse,' or in French, 'Envoyez moi la petite
+boite!'  'Que la porte soit ouverte apres minuit.'
+
+'That was the way,' groaned Mr. Egremont.  'The scoundrel! he kept all
+those to be able to show me up to the General if he chose!  I was a
+young man then, Mark, not the straitlaced lad you've always been. And
+the General!  A bad old dog he was, went far beyond what I ever did,
+but for all that he had no notion of any one going any way but his own,
+and wanted to rein me in as tight as if he had been an epitome of all
+the virtues.  And Gregorio seemed a good-natured young fellow then, and
+made things easy for me, though no doubt he meant to have me in his
+hands, in case I tried to shake him off.'
+
+Another discovery affected him far more.  It was of a letter in Alice's
+handwriting, addressed to Captain Egremont, in the yacht Ninon--poste
+restante, Madeira.  He had never seen it, never known of its existence;
+Gregorio had gone to inquire for the letters, and had suppressed it.
+Mr. Egremont had wondered how he had become aware of the marriage.  His
+knowledge had from that time been used as a means of enforcing the need
+of a good understanding with the heir.  Mr. Egremont was much moved by
+the sight of the letter, and its date, from Dieppe, about six months
+after he had left his young wife there. He made Mark give it to him
+unread, handled it tenderly, struggled to read the delicate pointed
+writing to himself, but soon deferred the attempt, observing, 'There,
+there, I can't stand it now!  But you see, Mark,' he added after an
+interval, 'I was not altogether the heartless brute you thought me.'
+
+Mark, as he told his wife afterwards, could not help thinking of the
+old preamble to indictments, 'By the temptation of the devil.'
+
+And by and by, out of a pocket-book bearing the date of the General's
+death, came a copy of the certificate of the baptism of Ursula Alice,
+daughter of Alwyn Piercefield and Alice Egremont, together with that
+address which Miss Headworth had left at Dieppe to gratify Alice's
+forlorn idea of a possible rescue, and which Gregorio had asseverated
+to be non-existent.
+
+Doubtless he infinitely preferred his master's wandering bachelor life
+to the resumption of marriage ties, and thus he had contrived to keep
+Mr. Egremont from meeting the Houghtons at Florence.  At the same time
+the uncertainty as to Alice's fate had prevented any other marriage.
+Gregorio had taken care that, if Mr. Egremont had been villain enough
+to make such an attempt, he should know that his secret could be
+brought to light.
+
+Compared with all this wickedness, the proofs of fraud and dishonesty
+were entirely unimportant.  Gambling had evidently been a passion with
+the valet, and peculation had followed, and Mark could have traced out
+the full tide before the reinstatement of Mrs. Egremont in her home,
+the gradual ebb during her reign, the diminished restraint under her
+daughter.  The other servants had formerly been implicated, but, except
+a young groom and footman, Mark thought the present set quite free from
+the taint, and was glad to acquit Broadbent.  But the last telegrams
+and the betting-book in the unhappy man's pocket confirmed Parker's
+evidence that of late he had staked almost madly, and had risked sums
+far beyond any means he could raise upon the horse which had failed.
+The bailiff at Bridgefield had, it had long been guessed, played into
+his hands, but to what an extent Mark only now discovered.
+
+The result was that what he had learnt in the Park had so astounded him
+that his inattention to the child had not been wonderful.  He had--as
+Parker testified--sought the little fellow vehemently, and had he been
+successful, he might yet have made some effort, trusting to his
+master's toleration; but the loss and reproach had made him an
+absolutely desperate man.  Was it blind flight or self-destruction?
+That he had money about him, having cashed a cheque of his master's,
+favoured the first idea, and no one would too curiously inquire whether
+Mr. Egremont was aware of the amount.
+
+It was only too true that, as he had said, Gregorio Savelli had been
+the curse of his life, having become one of the whips left by pleasant
+vices, and the breaking of the yoke had been not only at a terrible
+price, but, to a man in his half-blind and invalid condition, the
+actual loss of the person on whom he had depended was a privation.  Dr.
+Brownlow, however, knew of a good man-servant just set at liberty by
+the death of an invalid master, and promised to send him on trial.
+
+It was a day of agitations and disappointments, a sample of many that
+were to follow.  There was not a sound of a bell that did not make
+anxious hearts throb.  And oh! how many were spent on vain reports, on
+mere calls of sympathy by acquaintance whom the father and sister could
+not see, and on notes of inquiry or condolence that Nuttie had to
+answer.
+
+Annaple came and was a great help and support to her.  Poor nurse,
+oblivious of her bad foot, or perhaps, willing to wreak vengeance on it
+as the cause of all the mischief, had insisted on continuing her search
+in the morning under all the thorns and rhododendrons where she thought
+the dear lamb might have hidden and cried himself to sleep, and at last
+had been brought home in a cab quite worn out and despairing.  But the
+screaming baby proved to be a much better comforter to her than any
+amount of reasonable argument.  To soothe it, to understand what ailed
+it, to find suitable food for it, was an occupation which made the
+suspense less intolerable.  The very handling of an infant would have
+been congenial; and a sickly crying one was only too interesting.
+Willie was too near her darling's age to be a welcome sight, but he was
+already a prime pet with the servants at Springfield; and Annaple,
+secure that her children were in safe and experienced hands, and
+overflowing with motherly sympathy for the grievous loss, was ready to
+devote herself to Nuttie, whether by talk, by letter writing, or by
+seeing inquiring friends.  She did not expect to be of any use to Mr.
+Egremont, who had always held aloof from and disliked 'the giggling
+Scotch girl,' but who came drearily wandering at an unexpected time
+into the room where she was sitting with his daughter, and presently
+was involved in their conversation.  Whether it was the absence of the
+poor familiar, or that Annaple was no longer a giggling girl, but a
+brave, cheerful wife and mother, it was certain that he found the same
+comfort and support in her presence as did Nuttie.  When fits of
+restless misery and despair pressed hardest upon him, it was soon
+perceived that Annaple's cheerful tact enabled her to deal with him as
+no one else could do.  There was the restraint of courtesy towards her,
+such as had worn out towards his daughter, and besides her sanguine
+optimist spirit never became so depressed as did poor Nuttie's.  Mark
+went by day to his work, but came back to dine at his uncle's, hear the
+reports, and do what he could for him; and meantime Annaple spent the
+chief part of the day in aiding Nuttie and Mr. Egremont, while her baby
+really showed signs of improvement in nurse's keeping.  And so the days
+went on, while every endeavour was made to trace the child, but with no
+result but bitter disappointment.  Twice, strayed children, younger
+than Alwyn--one even a girl--were brought as the lost boy, and the
+advertisements bore fruit in more than one harassing and heartless
+correspondence with wretches who professed to be ready to restore the
+child, on promises of absolute secrecy, and sums of money sent
+beforehand, with all sorts of precautions against interference from the
+police.
+
+The first of these created great excitement, and the pursuit was
+committed to Mr. Dutton.  When it proved abortive, Mr. Egremont's
+disappointment and anger were great, and he could not be persuaded that
+all was not the fault of Mr. Dutton's suspicion and precaution in
+holding back the money, nor could any one persuade him that it was mere
+imposture.  When another ill-written enigmatical letter arrived, he
+insisted that it was from the same quarter, and made Broadbent conduct
+the negotiations, with the result that after considerable sums had been
+paid in circuitous fashions, the butler was directed to a railway arch
+where the child would be deposited, and where he found a drab-coloured
+brat of whom he disposed at the nearest police station, after which he
+came home savagely disgusted.
+
+Nuttie was not much less so at what she felt as a slight to Mr. Dutton
+as well as at the failure.  'When you are doing so much for us.  We
+deserve that you should do nothing more,' she said with tears shining
+in her eyes.
+
+'Do not talk in that way,' he answered.  'You know my feeling for the
+dear little fellow himself, and--'
+
+'Oh yes,' interrupted Nuttie, 'I do trust to that!  Nobody--not the
+most indifferent person, but must long to save him.  Yes, I know it was
+doing you a wicked injustice to fancy that you could take offence in
+that way at a father in such trouble.  Please forgive me, Mr. Dutton.'
+
+'As if I had anything to forgive.  As if there were anything on earth
+that could come before the endeavour to recover him,' said Mr. Dutton,
+too much moved for his usual precision of speech.
+
+'Yes; he is _her_ child,' said Nuttie, with a trembling tearful smile.
+
+'_Her_ child!  Yes, and even if he were not, he is _your_ brother,'
+said Mr. Dutton; then hastily gathering himself up, as if he had said
+too much, he rose to take leave, adding as their hands clasped,
+'Remember, as long as I live, you may count upon me.'
+
+'Oh, I know, I know!  There's nobody like you, but I don't know what I
+say in this awful suspense.  If I had only seen him lying white and
+cold and peaceful, it would have been far better than to think of him
+pining and miserable among wicked people, who would try to bring him up
+like themselves.  Mother's own little boy!'
+
+'It will not be allowed, it will not be allowed,' cried Mr. Dutton.
+'God's Providence is still over him.'
+
+'And there are prayers, I know--at our church and Mr. Godfrey's-and all
+ours, but oh! it takes a great deal of faith to lean on them.  I wonder
+if you would, Annaple, if it were Willy?'
+
+'We will not ask Mrs. Egremont,' said Mr. Dutton, as Annaple made a
+gesture of something like doubt.
+
+'It is almost as bad,' said she, coming up and putting her arm round
+Nuttie.  'But indeed, Mr. Dutton, she does trust, only it is very, very
+sore, for her,--as it is for us all.'
+
+'You are her great comfort,' said Mr. Dutton, as he shook hands with
+her.
+
+'He could hardly help thanking me,' said Annaple to her husband
+afterwards.  'Mr. Egremont may well call him an adopted uncle.  I
+should say he was a good deal more, poor man.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+THE HULL OF THE URSULA.
+
+
+Ten days had passed, and Mark and Annaple were thinking that they ought
+to return to ordinary life, and leave the bereaved ones to endeavour to
+construct their life afresh under the dreadful wearing uncertainty of
+their darling's fate.  Still they were detained by urgent entreaties
+from father and daughter, who both dreaded their departure as
+additional desolation, and as closing the door of hope. And certainly,
+even this rest was good for Annaple; and her baby, for whom nurse had
+discovered a better system, had really not cried more for a whole day
+than 'befitted a rational child,' said the mother, as she walked back
+to Springfield with her husband in the summer night, after dinner, on
+the day that Broadbent's negotiations had failed.
+
+'Nurse will break her heart at parting with her,' said Mark.  'I wish
+we could afford to have her.'
+
+'Afford, indeed!  Her wages are about a quarter of your salary, sir!
+And after all, 'tis not the nurse that guards the child, as we have
+seen only too plainly.'
+
+'Do you think he is alive, Nan?'
+
+'I begin to think not.  He is not so young but that he could make
+himself known, and those advertisements are so widely spread.  I am
+sure poor Nuttie would be more at rest if she could give up hope.'
+
+'I did not tell you before, Nan, but Dutton was going to-day to look at
+a poor little unclaimed child's body that had been found in the Thames.
+He knew him better than I, so he went.'
+
+'He would have come if--' said Annaple.
+
+'Assuredly.  He meant to fetch nurse if he had any doubt, but
+afterwards he was going to his court about his rents.  He always does
+that on Saturday evenings.'
+
+Mr. Dutton himself opened his door to the pair.
+
+'Well,' said Mark.
+
+'Certainly not.  The poor child was evidently much younger, and had red
+hair.  But look here,' and he held out a battered something, black with
+a white stripe.  Mark understood nothing, but Annaple exclaimed, 'Is it
+his ship?'
+
+'Yes, I could swear to it, for see,' and he pointed to some grimed,
+almost effaced, but still legible capitals, which, however, scarcely
+any one but himself could have read as "Ursula."  'I guided his hand to
+make those the evening before he was lost,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Dear little man!  And where did you find it?'
+
+'Where I never thought of doing so!  On the bed of a little crippled
+boy in the next court to mine.  He is rather a friend of mine, and I
+turned in to take him some strawberries.  I found him hugging this.'
+
+'How did he get it?'
+
+'Our "Liz" brought it to him.  Our "Liz" is a very wild specimen, who
+has spent her life in eluding the school board officer till she is too
+old for his clutches; but she has a soft spot in her heart for her
+little brother, and I believe another for Gerard Godfrey.  We must be
+very cautious, and not excite any alarm, or we shall be baffled
+altogether.  I am not sure that I did quite prudently in giving little
+Alf a fresh boat in exchange for this; but I could not help bringing it
+home.'
+
+'You did not see the girl?'
+
+'No.  Those girls wander long and late on these hot nights, and I do
+not think I could have got anything out of her.  I have been to Gerard
+Godfrey, and the next step must be left to him.'
+
+'The next question is whether you will tell those poor things at No.
+5,' said Mark.
+
+Mr. Dutton hesitated.  'I should have no doubt of giving Miss Egremont
+the comfort of knowing that there was a possible clue, but if her
+father insisted on setting on the police, there would be very little
+more hope of success.  I am afraid it will be more prudent to wait till
+we know what Godfrey says.  He hopes to see the girl to-morrow evening
+at his mission class, but of course she is a very uncertain attendant
+there.  No, I cannot trust myself.'
+
+Annaple was forced to brook withholding the hope from the fainting
+hearts all the ensuing Sunday, which was a specially trying day, as
+Nuttie pined for her dear little companion with the pictures, stories,
+and hymns that he had always enjoyed, and made pretty childish remarks
+about, such as she began to treasure as memorable.
+
+As soon as he could, early on Monday morning, Mr. Dutton repaired to
+Gerard Godfrey's lodgings, and found that the young clergyman had
+succeeded in seeing the girl, and had examined her so as not to put the
+wild creature on her guard, and make her use the weapons of falsehood
+towards one who had never been looked on as an ally of the police.  It
+appeared that she had brought home the ship, or rather its hull, from
+one of the lowest of lodging houses, where she had employment as
+something between charwoman and errand girl.  She had found it on what
+passed for a bed in its present condition, one morning, when going to
+make the extremely slight arrangements that the terrible lair, which
+served as a common bedroom, underwent, and had secreted it as a prize
+for her little brother.
+
+At first she had been stolid, and affected utter ignorance as to how it
+got there, but Mr. Godfrey had entreated her as a friend to try to
+discover; and had with all his heart made a pathetic description of the
+girl (he durst not say lady) who had always been a mother to her little
+brother, and now had lost him, and was in terrible uncertainty as to
+his fate.  That came home to Lizzie's feelings, and she let out what
+she had seen or picked up in the way of gossip,--that the ship had been
+left behind by its owner, whether boy or girl Liz was uncertain, for it
+had long fair hair, wore a petticoat, and had been dosed with gin and
+something else when carried away.  They said it had made noise enough
+when brought there by Funny Frank and Julia. They were performing folk,
+who had come in after the Derby day to have a spree, and to pick up
+another kid to do fairies and such like, because the last they had had
+hurt his back and had to be left in the workhouse.  Yes, she had heard
+tell that they had got the child from Mother Bet, of whom Gerard had a
+vague idea as one of the horrible hags, who not only beg themselves,
+but provide outfits for beggars, including infants, to excite
+compassion.  Either she or one of her crew had picked up the child and
+disposed of his clothes; and then finding him too old and intelligent
+to be safely used for begging purposes, she had sold or hired him out
+to these acrobatic performers, who had gone off into that vague and
+unknown region, the country.  Liz had no notion what was their real
+name, nor where they would go, only that they attended races and fairs;
+and as soon as the actual pleasure of communicating information was
+over, she was seized with a panic, implored Mr. Godfrey to make no use
+of her information, and explained that the people of the house were
+quite capable of killing her, if they suspected her of betraying any of
+their transactions.  It was impossible to bring any authorities to bear
+on the quest; and Mr. Dutton held it wisest only to write a note
+telling Mr. Egremont that he had obtained evidence that the child was
+living, and that he was going in pursuit, but thought it safer to say
+no more at present.  He gave the note to Mark at his office.  'I cannot
+trust myself to see your cousin,' he said.  'I might be tempted to say
+more than was consistent with Godfrey's honour towards his informant.'
+
+'I think you are right,' said Mark.  'You had better leave me with only
+indefinite knowledge, for I shall be hard pressed.  Do you not go home
+first?'
+
+'Yes, I go to pack up a few things and fetch Monsieur.  A run in the
+country will do him good, and he may be a valuable auxiliary.  I shall
+find no one at Springfield at this hour.'
+
+'What is your plan?'
+
+'I shall venture so far as to apply to the police for the names of the
+usual attendants at races and fairs, and for some idea of their
+ordinary rounds.  I have no doubt that these are known at the chief
+offices.  For the rest, I must use my eyes.  But tell your cousin that,
+with God's blessing, I hope to bring him back to her.'
+
+'He will,' said Ursula, when Mark gave her the message, and from that
+moment she was calmer.  She did not fret Mark with questions even as
+much as Annaple did, she tried to prevent her father from raging at the
+scant information, and she even endeavoured to employ herself with some
+of her ordinary occupations, though all the time she kept up the
+ceaseless watch.  'Mr. Dutton would not have said that without good
+hope,' she averred, 'and I trust to him.'
+
+Yet when four, five, six, eight, days had passed with no tidings, the
+heart sickness grew almost more than she could bear, though she still
+answered with spirit when her father again took to abusing the
+umbrella-fellow for choosing to keep all in his own hands.
+
+Even Annaple could not help saying to her husband that a precise, prim,
+old bachelor was the very last person for a hunt in slums and the like.
+The very sight of him would put the people on their guard. 'And think
+of his fine words,' she added.  'I wish I could go!  If I started with
+a shawl over my head, yoked to a barrel-organ, I should have a far
+better chance than he will.  I declare, Mark, if he does not succeed
+we'll do it.  We'll hire an organ, whereon you shall play.  Ah! you
+shake your head.  A musical education is not required, and I know I
+shall do something desperate soon, if that dear little boy is not
+found.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+NUTTIE'S KNIGHT.
+
+  'The night came on and the bairnies grat,
+  Their minnie aneath the mools heard that.'
+
+
+'LYNDHURST, 4th July.--Philip Dutton to Miss Egremont.  Found.
+Waterloo, 6.15.'
+
+
+'I knew he would,' said Nuttie, with a strange quietness, but as she
+tried to read it to her father her voice choked, and she had to hand it
+to Annaple.  But for the first time in her life she went up and
+voluntarily kissed her father's forehead.  And perhaps it was for the
+first time in his life that the exclamation broke from him, 'Thank God!'
+
+Perhaps it was well that the telegram had not come earlier in the day,
+for Mr. Egremont was very restless, showing himself much shaken in
+nerves and spirits before the time for driving to the station, which he
+greatly antedated.  Nuttie could hardly keep him in the carriage, and
+indeed had to persuade him to return thither, when he had once sprung
+out on the arrival of a wrong train.
+
+And after all, when the train did come, his blue spectacles were
+directed to the row of doors at the other end, and Nuttie was anxiously
+trying to save him from being jostled, when a voice said 'Here!' and
+close beside them stood Mr. Dutton, with a little boy by his side who
+looked up in her face and said 'Sister!'  It was said in a dreamy,
+almost puzzled way, not with the ecstatic joy Nuttie had figured to
+herself; and there was something passive in the mode of his hearing his
+father's 'My boy, my boy!'  Instinctively all turned to the harbour of
+the carriage; Mr. Dutton lifted Alwyn in, and as Nuttie received him, a
+pang shot across her, as she felt how light, how bony the little frame
+had become in these three weeks.
+
+'Come in!  Come back with us!  Tell us all!' said Mr. Egremont, as Mr.
+Dutton was about to help him in.
+
+'My dog,' said Mr. Dutton, while Alwyn looked up from nestling in
+Nuttie's lap to say, 'Mithter Button come!  And Mothu!'
+
+'We have room for him,' said Mr. Egremont graciously.  'Here, poor
+fellow.'
+
+'He has the right,' said Mr. Dutton, 'for he was the real finder.'
+
+And Monsieur, curly and shiny, occupied with great dignity the back
+seat beside his master, while Alwyn, in a silent but dreamy content, as
+if he only half understood where he was, rested against his sister's
+bosom with his hands in his father's.
+
+'Come, old chap,' said his father cheerily, 'tell us all about it.'
+
+But Alwyn only shuddered a little, raised his eyelids slightly, and
+gave a tiny faint smile.
+
+'I think he is very much tired,' said Mr. Dutton.  'There was a good
+deal to be done to make him presentable this morning.  You must forgive
+me for sacrificing his curls, there was nothing else to be done with
+them.'
+
+'Ah!' and Nuttie looked again.  The boy was in a new, rather coarse,
+ready-made, sailor suit that hung loosely upon his little limbs, his
+hair was short, and he was very pale, the delicate rosy flush quite
+gone, and with it the round outline of the soft cheek; and there were
+purple marks under the languid eyes.  She bent down and kissed him,
+saying, 'Was Mr. Button nurse to you, Wynnie?'
+
+He smiled again and murmured, 'Mr. Button made me boy again.'
+
+After a question and answer or two as to main facts of place and time
+of the discovery, Mr. Dutton told his story.  'I did not effect much
+with my inquiries after the circuses.  All I heard of were of too
+superior an order for kidnapping practices.  However, I thought the
+only way would be to haunt fairs and races, and look at their
+camp-followers.  At a place in Hertfordshire I saw a performance
+advertised with several children as fairies, so I went to see it.  I
+was soon satisfied that Alwyn was not there; but it struck me that I
+had known the face of the prime hero, a fine handsome supple fellow,
+who was called in the programme Herr Adalbert Steinfuggen, or some such
+name.  Well, it seemed that he knew me, for as I struggled out after a
+considerable interval, I heard myself accosted, "Mr. Dutton! Sir,
+surely I have the honour of speaking to Mr. Dutton of Micklethwayte?"
+I assure you he was the very pink of politeness.  Do you remember, Miss
+Egremont, Abel Stone?'
+
+'Oh, Abel Stone!  He was a choir boy at Micklethwayte, I remember! He
+was very handsome, and had a splendid voice; but he was a real monkey
+for mischief, and nobody could manage him but mother.  She was always
+pleading that he should not be turned out, and at last he ran away.'
+
+'Yes; he went off with a circus, and there he found his vocation, rose
+and throve, married the prima-donna, and is part owner.  He seems very
+respectable, and was so friendly and affectionate that I ventured to
+consult him; when, on hearing whom I was seeking, he became warmly
+interested, and gave me just the information I wanted. He said he had
+little doubt that Funny Frank was a clown called Brag, with whom he had
+had words some years back for misusing the children. He said he did not
+hold with harshness to the little ones in teaching them to do the
+feats, which certainly were wonderful.  If they were frightened, they
+were nervous and met with accidents; but make much of them, and they
+thought it all fun, and took a pride and pleasure in their
+performances.  However this Brag, though a clever fellow, could not be
+hindered from bullying, and at last he went off with a girl of the
+troupe and set up on their own account.  Stone, or whatever he pleases
+to call himself, had met them several times, but he spoke of them with
+great contempt as "low," and they did not frequent the same places as
+he does.  However, he referred to one of his men, and found that they
+had been at Epsom on the Derby day, and moreover, that there was a
+report of them having lately narrowly escaped being in a scrape about a
+child who had been injured.  There was no scruple as to advising me
+where to look for them, or as to the best means of detection.  Stone
+was very indignant, and made me understand that all his young people
+were either to the manner born, or willingly hired out by their
+parents.  I saw them in private life, and they looked happy and
+well-fed, but that was no guarantee for Funny Frank.  Well, I followed
+him up without success, trying each place Stone had set down for me,
+till I came last night to Lyndhurst, a very pretty place in the New
+Forest, where there is to be a fair to-morrow, beginning this
+afternoon.  Stone advised me to look about before the affair opened,
+while unpacking and arranging was going on. Well, after all, it was
+very simple.  I strolled out with my dog round the field where the vans
+and booths were getting into order. There was what I thought a little
+girl in a faded red petticoat sitting on the steps at the bottom of a
+yellow van with her head on her hands.'
+
+'That was me,' said Alwyn, lighting up.  'And Mothu came and kissed
+Fan!'
+
+'Yes,' said Mr. Dutton; 'I verily believe we might have missed one
+another, but Monsieur ran up to him and, as I was actually whistling
+him off, I heard a little voice say, "Mothu!  Mothu!" and saw they
+were--well, embracing one another, and then came "Mithter Button,
+Mithter Button, oh, take me home!'"
+
+Eager caressing hands were held out to Monsieur, who jumped off the
+seat to receive the pats and laudations lavished on his curly round
+pate, and had to be reduced to order before Mr. Dutton could answer the
+question whether he had any further difficulty or danger.
+
+'I took him up in my arms, and a handsome truculent-looking woman burst
+out on me, demanding what I was about with her child.  To which I
+answered that she knew very well he was no such thing.  Her man came
+swaggering up, declaring impudently that I had better be off--but I
+believe he saw that the people who came round would not take his part,
+for he gave in much more easily than I expected.  I explained as loud
+as I could that this was a gentleman's son who had been stolen from his
+nurse in the Park.  The man began to protest that they had found him
+deserted, and taken him with them out of charity, requesting to be paid
+for his keep.  So I thought it better to give them a sovereign at once,
+so as to have no further trouble, and get him away as fast as I could.
+The woman came after me, making further demands, but the sight of a
+policeman in the distance turned her back.  I went up to him and
+explained.  I found he knew all about the loss and the reward, and
+looked regretfully at my prize.  We went back to the hotel, where I set
+Alwyn to rights as well as I could, sent out for some clothes, such as
+the place would produce, and which at least, as he says, made a boy of
+him again.  I'm afraid the process was rather trying from such
+unaccustomed hands, though he was very good, and he has been asleep
+almost all the way home, and, his senses all as in a dream bound up.'
+
+The heaviness--whether weariness or content, still continued.  Alwyn
+seemed to find it too much trouble to talk, and only gave little
+smiles, more like his mother than himself.  He clung quite desperately
+to his sister when Mark offered to lift him from the carriage, but
+nurse was close behind, and it was good to see the little arms
+stretched out, and the head laid on her shoulder, the hand put up to
+stroke her cheek, and the lips whispering 'Wyn's own nursie.'  The
+jubilant greeting and triumphant procession with which he was borne
+upstairs seemed almost to oppress him.  He appeared almost as if he was
+afraid of wakening from a happy dream, and his lively merriment seemed
+all gone; there were only beams of recognition and gladness at 'Wyn's
+own nursery, Wyn's own pretty cup,' touching it as if to make sure that
+it was real, and pleased to see the twisted crusts, his special treat.
+
+But he could not eat much of them, and soon laid his head down, as one
+weary, with the exhaustion of content; and nurse, who had allowed that
+Mr. Dutton had, considering all things, done much for the outward
+restoration of the daintiness of her recovered child, was impatient to
+give him the hot bath and night's rest that was to bring back the
+bright joyous Alwyn.  So Nuttie only lingered for those evening prayers
+she had yearned after so sorely.  When she held his mother's picture to
+him to be kissed, he raised his eyes to her and said: 'Will she come to
+me at night now?'
+
+'Who, my darling?'
+
+'She, mother dear.'
+
+'Here's her picture, dear boy.'
+
+'Not only the picture--she came out of it, when I cried, up on the
+nasty-smelling bundle in the van all in the dark.'
+
+'She came?'
+
+'Yes, she came, and made it so nice, and hushed me.  I wasn't afraid to
+go to by-by when she came.  And she sang.  Sister, can't you sing like
+that?'
+
+'Not here, I'm afraid, dear, dear boy,' she whispered, holding him so
+tight that he gave a little cry of 'It hurts.'  Then came the prayers,
+not a word forgotten, and the little voice joined in her murmured
+thanksgiving for bringing him home.
+
+She was much moved and awe-stricken at these words of her little
+brother; but she had to dress in haste for dinner, listening the while
+to her maid's rejoinings and vituperations of the wretches who had
+maltreated the child.
+
+When she came down she found no one in the drawing-room but Mr. Dutton,
+whom her father had asked to the happiest meal that had perhaps ever
+been eaten in that house.
+
+She went towards him with winged steps in her white dress: 'Oh! Mr.
+Dutton, we have not said half enough to you, but we never, never can.'
+
+He gave a curious, trembling half smile, as she held out her hands to
+him, and said: 'The joy is great in itself,' speaking in a very low
+voice.
+
+'Oh! I am so glad that you did it,' cried Ursula.  'It would not have
+been half so sweet to owe it to any one else.'
+
+'Miss Egremont, do you know what you are saying?' he exclaimed.
+
+'Don't call me Miss Egremont!  You never used to.  Why should you?'
+
+'I have not dared--' he began.
+
+'Dared!  Don't you know you always were our own Mr. Dutton--best,
+wisest friend of all, and now more than ever.'
+
+'Stay,' he said, 'I cannot allow you in your fervour to say such things
+to me, unaware of the strength of feeling you are stirring within me.'
+
+'You! you!  Mr. Dutton!' cried Nuttie, with a moment's recoil.  'You
+don't mean that you care for _me_.'
+
+'I know it is preposterous--' he began.
+
+'Preposterous!  Yes, that you should care one bit for silly, foolish,
+naughty, self-willed me.  Oh, Mr. Dutton, you can't mean it!'
+
+'Indeed, I would have kept silence, and not disturbed you with my
+presumption, if--'
+
+'Hush!' she cried.  'Why, it makes me so glad and so proud, I don't
+know what to do.  I didn't think anybody was good enough for
+you--unless it was dear, dear mother--and that it should be me.'
+
+'It is true,' he said gravely, 'my younger days were spent in a vain
+dream of that angel, then when all that was ended, I thought such
+things were not for me; but the old feeling has wakened, it seems to me
+in greater force than ever, though I meant to have kept it in control--'
+
+'Oh, I am glad you didn't!  It seems as if the world swam round with
+wonder and happiness,' and she held his hand as if to steady herself,
+starting however as Annaple opened the door saying, 'We've been sending
+telegrams with the good news.'
+
+Then an arch light came into her bright eyes, but the others were
+behind her, and she said no more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+FOUND AND TAKEN.
+
+  'The angels of the gateway
+    Bent softly to the child,
+  And stretched glad hands to take him
+    To the kingdom undefiled.'--B. M.
+
+
+'Come up and see him,' said Nuttie, as the dining-room door was shut.
+'I must feast my eyes on him.'
+
+Annaple replied by throwing an arm round her and looking into her eyes,
+kissing her on each cheek, and then, as they reached the landing in the
+summer twilight, waltzing round and round that narrow space with her.
+
+'You ridiculous person!' said Nuttie.  'Do you mean that you saw!'
+
+'Of course I did; I've seen ever so long--'
+
+'Nonsense!  That's impossible--'
+
+'Impossible to owls and bats perhaps, but to nothing else not to see
+that there was one sole and single hero in the world to you, and that
+to him there was one single being in the world; and that being the
+case---'
+
+'But, Annaple, you can't guess what he has always been to me.'
+
+'Oh! don't I know?--a sort of Archbishop of Canterbury and George
+Heriot rolled into one.  So much the more reason, my dear, I don't know
+when I've been so glad in my life than that your good times should be
+coming.'
+
+'They are come in knowing this!  It is only too wonderful,' said
+Nuttie, as they stood together among the plants in the little
+conservatory on the way upstairs.  'I always thought it insulting to
+him when they teased me about him.'
+
+'They did, did they?'
+
+'My father, incited by poor Gregorio.  Oh, Annaple! don't let any one
+guess till we know how my father will take it.  What is it, Ellen?' as
+the nursery-maid appeared on the stairs.
+
+'If you please, ma'am, Mrs. Poole would be glad if you are coming up to
+the nursery.'
+
+They both hastened up and nurse came out to meet them in the day
+nursery, making a sign to Ellen to take her place by the cot, and
+withholding the two ladies.  She made them come as far off as possible,
+and then said that she was not at all satisfied about Master Alwyn.
+There had been the same drowsiness and disinclination to speak, and
+when she had undressed and washed him, he had seemed tender all over,
+and cried out and moaned as if her touch hurt him, especially on one
+side where, she felt convinced, there was some injury; but when she
+asked about it his eyes grew frightened and bewildered, and he only
+cried in a feeble sort of way, as if sobs gave him pain.
+
+She had soothed him, and he had gone into his own bed with the same
+gentle languid gladness, but had presently begun moaning, and imploring
+in his sleep, wakening with screams and entreaties, 'Oh, I'll do it!
+I'll try!' and she thought him very feverish.  Would it not be better
+that a doctor should see him?
+
+Nurse was always an alarmist, and Nuttie could not help thinking that
+to wake the child to see a stranger to-night would only add to his
+terror and distress, while Annaple declared her entire belief that
+though no doubt the poor little fellow had been cruelly knocked about
+and bruised, a night's rest would probably restore his bright self, and
+make all that was past only like a bad dream.  There was no judging
+to-night, and sleep was wonderful reparation to those little beings.
+
+Then however the moans and murmurs began again, and now the awakening
+cry.  They started forward, and as Nuttie came to the cot-side the
+child threw himself into her bosom with, 'Sister!  Sister!  It is
+sister!' but his eyes grew round with terror at sight of Annaple, and
+clinging tightly to Nuttie he gasped, 'Send her away! don't let her
+touch me!  Fan's not here!'
+
+To tell him she was Cousin Annaple, Billy's mamma, had no effect; he
+did not seem able to understand, and she could only retire--nurse being
+thus convinced that to let him see another stranger to-night would only
+do further harm.  Nuttie and nurse succeeded in reassuring him that he
+was safe at home and with them, and in hushing him off into what they
+hoped would be a quiet wholesome sleep in spite of the hot sultry
+night, on which Annaple laid a good deal of the blame of his
+restlessness and feverishness.
+
+Nuttie only came down for a short time before the visitors went away;
+and then she wrote a note to Dr. Brownlow, which Mark promised to leave
+as he went to the city in the morning, Mr. Egremont, in his present
+relief, pooh-poohing all fears, and backing up Annaple's belief in the
+powers of 'tired nature's soft restorer'; but Mr. Dutton looked grave
+and said that he had remarked the extreme tenderness, but had hoped
+that much was due to his own inexperience in handling little children.
+The parting clasp of the hand had a world of meaning in it, and Nuttie
+openly said that she hoped to tell him after matins at St. Michael's
+how the boy was.  But she could not be there.  When she went upstairs
+at night the half-delirious terrors had returned, and there was another
+difficult soothing and comforting before the child slept again.  Nurse
+fancied the unwonted presence might disturb him, and insisted on her
+going to her own room.
+
+When she returned in the morning it was to find that since daylight he
+had been more quietly asleep; but there was a worn sunken look about
+his face, and she could not be satisfied to leave him alone while the
+nurses stirred about and breakfasted.
+
+He awoke smiling and happy; he looked about and said gladly, 'Wyn at
+home!  Wyn's own nursery,' but he did not want to get up; 'Wyn so
+tired,' he said, speaking of himself in the baby form that he had for
+several months discarded, but he said his pretty 'thank you,' and took
+delight in breakfasting in his cot, though still in a subdued way, and
+showing great reluctance to move or be touched.
+
+Nuttie was sent for to report of him to his father, who would not hear
+for a moment of anxiety, declaring that the boy would be quite well if
+they let him alone, he only wanted rest, and insisting on following out
+his intention of seeing a police superintendent to demand whether the
+kidnapping rascals could not be prosecuted.
+
+Neither by Nuttie nor nurse could much be extracted from the poor
+little fellow himself about his adventures.  He could not bear to think
+of them, and there was a mist of confusion over his mind, partly from
+weakness, partly, they also thought, from the drugged spirits with
+which he had been more than once dosed.  He dimly remembered missing
+Gregorio in the park, and that he had tried to find his way home alone,
+but some one, a big boy, he thought, had said he would show him the
+way, took hold of his hand, dragged him, he knew not where, into
+dreadful dirt and stench, and apparently had silenced him with a blow
+before stripping him.  But it was all very indistinct, he could not
+tell how Mother Bet got hold of him, and the being dressed in the rags
+of a girl had somehow loosed his hold of his own identity.  He did not
+seem at all certain that the poor little dirty petticoated thing who
+had wakened in a horrible cellar, or in a dark jolting van who had been
+dubbed Fan, who had been forced by the stick to dance and twist and
+compelled to drink burning, choking stuff, was the same with Alwyn in
+his sailor suit or in his white cot.
+
+It was Dr. Brownlow who at once detected that there had been much of
+this dosing, and drew forth the fact.  It had probably been done
+whenever it was expedient that he should be hidden, or unable to make
+any appeal to outsiders.  Alwyn was quite himself by day, and showed no
+unreasonable fear or shyness, but he begged not to be touched, and
+though he tried to be good and manly, could not keep from cries and
+screams when the doctor examined him.
+
+Then it came out.  'It's where he kicked me.'
+
+'Who?'
+
+'That man--master, she said I must call him.  He kicked poor little Fan
+with his great heavy big boots--'cause Fan would say Wyn's prayers.'
+
+'Who was Fan?' asked the puzzled doctor.
+
+'Himself,' whispered Nuttie.  'Alas! himself!'
+
+'Wyn was Fan,' said Alwyn.  'Fan's gone now!'
+
+'And did the man kick poor little Fan,' repeated the doctor--'here?'
+
+'Oh don't--don't!  It hurts so.  Master said he would have none of
+that, and he kicked with his big boot.  Oh!  Fan couldn't dance one bit
+after that.'
+
+He could not tell how long ago this had been.  He seemed to have lost
+all reckoning of days, and probably felt as if ages had past in Funny
+Frank's van, but Dr. Brownlow thought the injury could not be above two
+or three days old, and probably it accounted for there having been no
+more obstructions put in the way of removing the child, since he had
+ceased to be of use, and the discovery of the injury might have brought
+the perpetrator into trouble.  Indeed, as it was, Mr. Egremont caused
+the police to be written to, demanding the arrest of the man and woman
+Brag, but they had already decamped, and were never traced, which was
+decidedly a relief to those who dreaded all that a prosecution would
+have involved.
+
+And Dr. Brownlow became very grave over the injury.  He said it was a
+surgical case, and he should like to have another opinion, enjoining
+that the child should be kept in bed, and as quiet as possible, till he
+could bring his friend in the afternoon, which was no difficult matter,
+for Alwyn seemed to have no desire for anything but rest and the sight
+of his friends and his treasures, which were laid beside him to be
+gently handled and stroked but not played with.  Mothu and Mithter
+Button were among the friends he craved for, but he showed no desire to
+see Billy-boy, and it was thought best to keep that young gentleman's
+rampant strength at a distance.
+
+The chief difficulty was with his father, who declared they were all
+croaking, and that the boy would be as well as ever to-morrow.  He went
+and sat by the cot, and talked merrily of the pony that Alwyn was to
+ride, and the yachting they would have in the summer; and the little
+fellow smiled and was pleased, but went to sleep in the midst. Then Mr.
+Egremont went out, taking Annaple with him, because Nuttie would not go
+till the doctors' visit was over, though he declared that they were
+certain not to come till long after her return from the drive.  He
+actually went to the dealer's, and had pony after pony paraded before
+the carriage, choosing a charming toy Shetland at last, subject to its
+behaviour with the coachman's little boy, while Annaple hopefully
+agreed with him that Alwyn would be on its back in another week.
+
+He still maintained his opinion, outwardly at least, when he was met on
+his return by Nuttie with a pale, almost thunderstruck face.  Dr.
+Brownlow had called her from trying to soothe away the fright and
+suffering of the examination, to break to her that both he and his
+colleague thought very seriously of the injury and its consequences,
+and deemed it very doubtful whether the poor little fellow could be
+pulled through.
+
+Mr. Egremont was again angry, declared that she had misunderstood, and
+made the worst of it; that Dr. Brownlow was a conceited young ass; that
+his friend played into his hands; with other amenities of the same
+kind, to which she listened with mingled irritation and pity for his
+unreasonableness, and even at the sympathy which he found in Annaple's
+hopeful nature.
+
+The young mother never dreaded nor expected what she could not bear to
+think possible, such as the death-warrant of that beautiful child,
+while Nuttie's nature always expected the worst, and indeed had read
+the doom in the doctor's eyes and voice rather than in his words.  So
+Annaple backed Mr. Egremont up when he made his daughter write to
+desire Dr. Brownlow to call in the first advice in London; and among
+them they made so sure that this would be effective that they actually
+raised Nuttie's hopes so as to buoy her through the feverish early
+hours of the night when the pain was aggravated, the terrors returned,
+the boy was tormented by his duality with Fan, and the past miseries
+were acted over again.  Even nurse and sister did not suffice, and
+Mithter Button had to be fetched by Mark before he could feel quite
+secure that he was Alwyn and not Fan.  Indeed, in these light-headed
+moments, a better notion was gained of what he must have endured than
+in the day-time, when all seemed put aside or forgotten. After a time
+he became capable of being soothed by hymns, though still asking why
+his sister could not sing like that vision of his mother which had
+comforted him in his previous miseries, and craving for her return.
+Then at last he fell quietly asleep, and Nuttie was left with a few
+sustaining words and a pressure from Mr. Dutton's hand.
+
+Alas! the new consultation could only ratify the first opinion.  The
+injury need not have been necessarily fatal, though dangerous to any
+young child, and here it had been aggravated by previous ill-treatment,
+and by the doses of spirits that had been forced down, besides which,
+Alwyn was naturally delicate, and--though the doctors would not say so
+to father or sister--there were hereditary predispositions that gave
+him the less chance of battling through.
+
+Yet Mr. Egremont concluded his purchase of the pony, and insisted that
+Alwyn should be carried to the window to see it; and Alwyn's smile was
+almost enough to break Nuttie's heart, but his head drooped on nurse's
+shoulder, he hardly lifted his heavy eyelids, and begged for 'by-by'
+again.  Even Annaple burst into tears at the sight, ran out of the room
+with her sobs, and never augured recovery again, though still she
+strove to cheer and while away the poor father's piteous hours by
+making the most of every sign that the child was happy and not
+suffering much.
+
+That he would be viewed as a 'pale placid martyr' was his sister's
+chief comfort.  His replies as to the manner of the hurt, as well as
+his light-headed wanderings, had made it more and more evident that the
+man Brag's brutality had been excited by his persisting in kneeling
+down to say his prayers aloud--the only way he knew how to say them.
+Indeed there was a recurring anxiety night and morning to kneel, which
+had to be reasoned away, even when he was too weak to make the attempt,
+and was only appeased by 'Sister' kneeling by his side, holding his
+hands, and repeating the little prayers with him. It was of his own
+accord that he added: 'And forgive those people, and make them good.'
+Annaple burst into tears again and almost scolded when she heard of it.
+'Oh dear! oh dear! now I know he won't get well!  I'm glad Billy isn't
+so horribly good!  Nuttie, Nuttie, don't!  You know I don't mean it.
+Only I just can't bear it.  He is the sweetest little fellow in the
+world!  And oh! the cruelty of it.'
+
+'Yes,' said Nuttie in her dreary calmness; 'he is too sweet and lovely
+and beautiful and good to be anywhere but safe with mother.'
+
+For it was more apparent that they could not keep him.  It did not last
+long; there were a couple of piteous days of restless pain and
+distress, and then came the more fatal lull and absence of suffering, a
+drowsiness in which the little fellow sank gradually away, lying with a
+strange calm beauty on his face, and smiling feebly when he now and
+then lifted his eyes to rest them on sister or nurse.  His father could
+not bear the sight.  It filled him more with angry compassion than with
+the tender reverence and hushed awe with which Ursula watched her
+darling slipping as it were from her hold.  So Mr. Egremont wandered
+wretchedly about the lower rooms, while Mark and Annaple tried their
+best for him through the long summer evening, darkening into night.  By
+and by Alwyn lifted his hand, turned his head, opened his lips, and
+whispered, 'Hark, sister, she is singing.' The look of exceeding joy
+beamed more and more over the pinched little face.  'She's come again,'
+he said; and once more, 'Come to take Wyn to the dear Lord.'  After
+that there were very few more long breaths before little Alwyn
+Egremont's spirit was gone to that unseen world, and only the fair
+little frame left with that wondrous look of delighted recognition on
+the face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+THE UMBRELLA MAN.
+
+
+Little Alwyn was laid to rest beside his mother in a beautiful summer
+noontide.  His father was not in a state to attend the funeral, and was
+left under the care of Annaple, his own choice among those who offered
+to stay and minister to him.  It was his own wish that his daughter
+should be to the last with her little brother.  He had even said to her
+that she had been a good sister, and his boy had been very fond of her,
+and he would not keep her away on any account.
+
+And, with a man's preference for a young and kindly woman, he chose
+Annaple to be with him rather than Mr. Dutton, remembering likewise
+that but for him the boy would have died in some workhouse, unknown and
+unclaimed, or among the wretches who had caused his death.  So Nuttie
+had the comfort of Mr. Dutton's going down with her, as well as Mark,
+and poor broken-down nurse, but not a word referring to the confession
+of that happy evening had passed between them during the mournful
+fortnight which had since elapsed.
+
+May Condamine and her husband had made all as fair and consoling as
+they could.  There were white-robed children to bear the boy from the
+churchyard gate, choristers sang hymns, the grave was lined with moss
+and daisies, and white roses decked the little coffin and the mound.
+There was as much of welcome and even of triumph as befitted the
+innocent child, whose death had in it the element of testimony to the
+truth.  And Nuttie felt it, or would feel it by and by, when her spirit
+felt less as if some precious thing had been torn up by the roots--to
+be safe and waiting for her elsewhere, indeed, but that did not solace
+the yearning longing for the merry loving child; nor the aching pity
+for the crushed blighted creature whom she had watched suffering and
+dying.  It was far beyond her power as yet to acquiesce in her aunt's
+consolation that it was happier for the child himself, than if he was
+to grow up to temptation from without, and with an unsound
+constitution, with dangerous hereditary proclivities.  She could
+believe it in faith, nay, she had already experienced the difficulties
+her father had thrown in her way of dealing with him, she tried to be
+resigned, but the good sense of the Canoness was too much for her.
+
+It was a day of more haste than suited the ideal of such a time, for
+Mr. Egremont could not be left for a night; so there was only time for
+a luncheon, with little jerks of talk, and then for an hour spent in
+short private interviews.  Mrs. Egremont obtained from poor Nurse Poole
+all the details, and, moreover, her opinion of Mr. Mark's baby, in
+whom, it having been born under her auspices, she took a special
+interest.
+
+Nuttie meantime was pacing the shady walk with her dear old friend Miss
+Nugent, feeling it strange that her heart did not leap up at the bare
+presence of one she loved so much, yet conscious of the soothing of her
+sympathy.  And Mary, watching her all through, had been struck with the
+increased sweetness and nobleness her countenance had acquired during
+these years of discipline.  More of her mother's expression had come
+than could have been thought possible in features of such a different
+mould, formed for so much more strength and energy.  They had not met
+since Nuttie had been summoned home to her mother's deathbed, and their
+time was chiefly spent on reminiscences alike of the old sorrow and the
+new; but, when the time for parting was nearly come, Mary said
+affectionately, 'And you, my dear?'
+
+'Oh, I am all right,' said Nuttie, and her eyes shone with a light Mary
+did not at the moment understand; 'you need not be anxious for me
+_now_.'
+
+'I suppose that unhappy valet's death makes your task easier,' said
+Mary.
+
+'I think it will,' said Nuttie.  'Poor man!  He was--I can't help
+saying it--the evil genius of the house.  Dear mother knew it,
+struggled against him, and broke down in the struggle.  It seems so
+strange that what she could not do has been done in such a manner, and
+at such a price!  I wonder whether she knew it when she welcomed her
+boy!'
+
+'Her influence will aid you still,' said Mary, 'and you have Mr. Dutton
+to help you too.  I was so glad to find he was so near you.'
+
+'Oh, Mr. Dutton!' exclaimed Ursula, in a strange tone that sent a
+thrill through Mary, though she knew not why; but at that moment they
+were interrupted, very inopportunely, by Mr. Bulfinch, who could not go
+away without asking Miss Egremont whether she thought her father could
+see him on business if he came up to town the next day.  She thought
+that such an interview would rouse her father and do him good, advising
+him to call on the chance.
+
+Mark's tete-a-tete had been with his sister May, to whom he had much to
+tell of his wife and her gallant patience and energy, and how curious
+it was that now the incubus that had weighed on his uncle's household
+was removed, the prejudice had melted away, and he had grown so fond of
+her that, next to Ursula, she was his best comforter.
+
+'I hope that will lead to more,' said May.
+
+'I don't see how,' said Mark.  The more we rely only on a blessing on
+our own exertions the better.'
+
+'Even when Annaple works within an inch of her life?'
+
+'Now that she is on a right tack about the baby, that will be easier.
+Yes, May, I do feel sometimes that I have brought her down to drudgery
+and narrowness and want of variety such as was never meant for her, but
+she will never let me think so.  She says that it is living in
+realities, and that it makes her happier than toiling after society, or
+rather after the world, and I do believe it is true!  I'm sure it is
+with me.'
+
+'But such work as yours, Mark.'
+
+'Nonsense, May; I enjoy it.  I did not when I was in the Greenleaf
+firm, with an undeveloped sense that Goodenough was not to be trusted,
+and we were drifting to the bad, yet too green to understand or hinder
+it; but this I thoroughly like.  What does one want but honest
+effective work, with some power of dealing with and helping those good
+fellows, the hands, to see the right and help themselves?'
+
+May sighed.  'And yet, now that poor child is gone, I feel all the more
+how hard it is that you should be put out of the rights of your name.'
+
+'I never had any rights.  It was the bane of my life to be supposed to
+have them.  Nothing but this could have made a man of me.'
+
+'And don't you have regrets for your boy?'
+
+'I don't think I have--provided we can give him an education--such as I
+failed to make proper use of, or Annaple might be luxuriating at Pera
+at this moment.'
+
+'Well!' said May, pausing as she looked up the vista of trees at the
+great house; 'I can't bear it to go out of the old name.'
+
+'Names may be taken!'
+
+'You don't mean that there's any chance of--Oh! not that horrid Mr.
+Fane?'
+
+'Certainly not.'
+
+'Oh!' as a trim black figure appeared walking down the open space.
+'That man!'
+
+'I am not authorised to tell any one so, May.'
+
+'Yes, I understand.  The wretch, he is taking stock of the place
+already!'
+
+'For shame.  May, no one has deserved so well of them.'
+
+'I don't care, he got you into that horrid concern.'
+
+'And got me out of it, and found my work for me.  I tell you, May, it
+is the best thing that could possibly happen to your parish, or the
+estate, or my poor uncle either!  And you will soon come to a better
+mind.'
+
+'Never, while he is to get into your place!  Turn back before he comes
+within hailing distance.'
+
+Before Mark could do anything towards bringing his sister to a better
+mind he was seized on by his stepmother to propound a scheme she had
+hatched, namely that, as a mutual benefit, Nurse Poole should be
+allowed the consolation of bringing her chief comforter, his little
+daughter, down with her on the visit Mrs. Egremont had invited her to
+pay at Redcastle.  He was very grateful, though doubtful whether
+Annaple would accept the offer, for she was missing her children's
+company, though they were only at Springfield House, and she had been
+with them part of every day.  And, sad as this month had been, it had
+been such a rest from sheer physical toil that she had gained almost as
+much by it as the little one.
+
+There was a general assembly and coffee-drinking in the verandah,--Mr.
+Condamine, Blanche, and her two young sisters were all there,--and May
+had to be duly civil to Mr. Dutton, though he came back with some
+water-lilies that he had fished out of the lake for Nuttie, and she
+thought it taking possession.  Then the Londoners set forth for the
+station, and there Mark, having perhaps had a hint from his wife, saw
+Nuttie and Mr. Dutton safely bestowed by Broadbent in an empty
+carriage, and then discovered a desire to smoke, and left them to
+themselves.
+
+They had not been alone together for more than a second since the
+evening of Alwyn's return, and there was a great shyness between them,
+which lasted till the first station was past without any irruption of
+newcomers.  Nothing had been said but a few comments on the
+arrangements and the attendants, but probably both were trying to begin
+to speak, and at last it was Ursula who crossed over so that her face
+could not be seen, and said in an odd tone--
+
+'Mr. Dutton--'
+
+'Yes,' and he turned, instantly on the alert.
+
+'Did you mean it--what I thought you meant that evening?'
+
+'Can you doubt it?' he said earnestly.  'But even then I was surprised
+into the avowal, and I would have held it back if possible, if I had
+guessed what was going to happen.'
+
+'Ah! but then I should not have had that drop of comfort through it
+all,' and she laid hold of his hand, which returned the pressure
+strongly, but he sedulously guarded both words and tone as he said:
+
+'Listen, Ursula, before you speak again.  How dear you must always be
+to me, I cannot tell you, but when I then spoke, it was with the sense
+that on every account, I should meet with strong opposition from your
+father and family.  And now your position is altered, so that the
+unsuitability is doubled.  I am not a young man, remember, and my
+thoughts must be for you above all, I want you to consider whether, in
+the present state of affairs, you would not do better to look on what
+then passed as unsaid, or only as the ebullition of gratitude towards
+your old friend.  Let me go abroad, and give you full opportunity
+for--for some fresh beginning likely to be fitter for you--'
+
+'Mr. Dutton, how can you say such horrid things?  As if a dukedom would
+make any difference.'
+
+'Yes,' he said, turning towards her.  'If it is only the old-friend
+feeling, then it is better dropped, but if your heart is in it, child,
+then we go on, come what may.  It is due to you.'
+
+She raised her face towards him now, and he gave a grave kiss to her
+forehead.  She drew a long breath, and said after a little pause, 'And
+now I have something to say.  One does think of such things even in
+these sad times, and you can help me.  I am so glad it is you, because
+I know you will, and be rejoiced to do so.  You know when Mark found us
+out first, dear mother and I always felt that it was a great pity he
+should not have the estate he had been brought up to expect.  I believe
+dear mother thought it would have been the right thing for me to marry
+him, but I always did mean to give it back to him, even when I didn't
+like him.  Well, then, you know it all seemed settled otherwise, but
+now, it is so lucky you spoke to me while that dear little fellow was
+with us, because now you will help me to persuade my father that it is
+the only satisfactory thing to do to let it go in the male line to Mark
+and his Willy.'
+
+'I see!  I see!' said Mr. Dutton eagerly.  'It would be an infinite
+relief if it could be carried out.'
+
+'I believe my father would like it,' said Nuttie.  'He cares for the
+name; and now no one prevents it; he is fond of Mark, and still more of
+Annaple!  And you!  Oh, Mr. Dutton, if he will only take it in the
+right way, I think you will make me able to do what it grieved dear
+mother never to have brought about for my poor father.'
+
+'My whole self is yours to aid you,' he said.  'You know of course that
+I could not ask you to detach yourself from one to whom you are so
+necessary.  If he will permit us, we will watch over him together as
+doing her work.'
+
+'Thank you,' was all Nuttie's lips could utter, though her hand said
+much more.
+
+And before they reached London they had arranged something of a plan of
+action for propitiating Mr. Egremont, and bringing the future prospects
+to be available so as to save Annaple from being worked to death in the
+meantime.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+ANNAPLE'S AMBITION FALLEN.
+
+
+'Well, how did you get on, Annaple?'
+
+'Oh! very well, poor old man, on the whole, though it made one pity him
+doubly that he chose to make as if he forgot everything, and you were
+all gone on a picnic, taking me out for a long drive in the
+afternoon--where we were least likely to meet any one--that I will say
+for him.'
+
+'Forgetting is not the best for him.'
+
+'As if he could forget!  But he was very nice and friendly, and put on
+his best, most courteous self.  I think he looks on me rather as a
+protector from the solemn Mr. Edsall.'
+
+'Surely Edsall treats him well.  He was excellently recommended.  You
+know I saw his master's daughter.'
+
+'Oh! only _too_ well.  He takes the management of him as if he were
+three years old, or a lunatic.  He simply _will_ not be offended any
+more than if he had to do with a baby.'
+
+'What should offend him?'
+
+'That Mr. Egremont greatly resents being allowed nothing but by what
+Edsall calls medical sanction.  He is too blind, you know, to venture
+to pour out anything for himself, and besides, Edsall has all the drugs
+under lock and key, and is coolness itself about any amount of
+objurgations, such as I fancy go on sometimes.'
+
+'Do you think he will stand it?'
+
+'Who?  Your uncle?  Yes, I think he will.  This man really makes him
+more comfortable than poor Gregorio did.'
+
+'Yes; Nuttie said she was sure that there was neglect, if not bullying
+latterly.  But he must miss Gregorio terribly.  They had been together
+for at least five-and-twenty or thirty years, and had plenty of gossip
+together.'
+
+'Whereas the present paternal despotism and appalling dignity and
+gravity will keep him more dependent on his right congeners.'
+
+'If they are of the right sort, that's all.'
+
+'He has been making me read him a whole heap of letters; indeed, as you
+know, I have been doing that all along, when he could not get Nuttie.
+There were some from Mr. Bulfinch.  Do you know that bailiff of his
+must be next door to a swindler?'
+
+'Bulfinch is coming up to see him to-morrow.'
+
+'And, Mark, do you know, he has been putting out feelers as if to
+discover whether we would do--what he asked us to do five years ago.'
+
+'Would you?'
+
+'If it were not for the children, and--and sometimes the extreme pinch,
+I should say it was more like _life_ to work yourself up as a City
+man,' said Annaple.  'If you were the Squire, with all his
+opportunities, it would be a different thing, but there's no outlet
+there, and I have often admired the wisdom of the Apocryphal saying,
+"Make not thyself an underling to a foolish man."'
+
+'Well, it is lucky you think so, Nannie, for though Dutton is certainly
+not a foolish man, he will not want an underling.  And what do you say
+to my mother's proposal of having poor Poole to stay at Redcastle, and
+borrowing baby to comfort her till she goes out again.
+
+'I hate it,' said Annaple energetically.  'It is very horrid, but it is
+awfully good of the Canoness; and I suppose we shall have to let it
+come to pass, and miss all that most charming time of babyhood which is
+coming.  But most likely it will quite set the little woman up, and be
+a real kindness to poor Poole.'
+
+'If we could only keep her for good.'
+
+'Yes, and then our children would not be half so much our own.  I do
+want to be away with them in our own quarters.  I wonder when Nuttie
+can spare us, but I should like to see her through the great crisis
+with her father.'
+
+That crisis was to involve more than Annaple in the least expected.
+Nuttie found that the momentous confession could not possibly take
+place before the interview with Mr. Bulfinch, at which her presence was
+needed to help her father with his papers.  The principal concern was
+to show the full enormity of the bailiff, and decide upon the steps to
+be taken, the solicitor being anxious for a prosecution, while a
+certain tenderness for poor Gregorio's memory, or perhaps for the
+exposure of his own carelessness, made Mr. Egremont reluctant. There
+was also a proposal, brought forward with much diffidence from Mr.
+Condamine's mother, to rent Bridgefield House, but on this, as well as
+respecting a successor to the bailiff, Mr. Egremont was to give his
+answer the next day, when Mr. Bulfinch would call again.
+
+Nuttie was thankful for the business that had filled up the hour after
+luncheon, when Alwyn used to play in the drawing-room and delight his
+father; but she was feeling desperate to have the crisis over, and
+resolved to speak when she went out driving with him.  It was he,
+however, who began.  'I sounded Mark's wife yesterday, Ursula.  She is
+a nice little thing enough, and a good wife in her way.'
+
+'A very good wife.'
+
+'Except when she persuaded him to turn up his nose at the agency. D'ye
+think he would take it now, since he has tasted the sweets of his
+umbrella business?' then, as Nuttie paused, taken by surprise; 'Five
+hundred a year and the Home Farm would be better than, what is it, a
+hundred and fifty and a floor over a warehouse!  I don't like to see
+old Will's son wearing himself out there, and the lad is a good honest
+lad, with business habits, who would do justice to you after I am gone.'
+
+'Father,' said Nuttie, trembling with the effort, 'I want you to do
+something better than that.  I want you to let Mark take the agency
+with a view to himself--not me.  Let him be as he would have been if he
+had never hunted us up at Micklethwayte, and put me in his place.'
+
+'Eh!' said Mr. Egremont.  'It is not entailed--worse luck; if it had
+been, I should not have been bound to dance attendance at the heels of
+such an old sinner as the General.'
+
+'No, but it ought to go to the heir male, and keep in the old name.
+Think--there have been Egremonts at Bridgefield for four hundred years!'
+
+'Very pretty talk, but how will it be with you, Miss.  We shall have
+Fane, and I don't know how many more, coming after the scent of
+Bridgefield now,' he said with a heavy sigh, ending with a bitter 'Hang
+them all!'
+
+'And welcome,' said Nuttie, answering the thought rather than the
+words.  'Father, I wanted to tell you--'
+
+'You don't mean that any one has been after you at such a time as
+this!' he cried.
+
+'It was before--I mean it was the evening when we were all so glad,
+before we began to be afraid.'
+
+'The umbrella man!  By Jove!'
+
+'And now,' went on Nuttie, in spite of the explosion, 'he would hardly
+have ventured to go on with it but for this--I mean,' as her father
+gave a little laugh of his unpleasant sort, 'he said it would be the
+greatest possible relief, and make it all right for the property to go
+to the heir male.'
+
+'Hein!  You think so, do you?  See how it will be when I come to talk
+to him!  A shrewd fellow like that who got out of the Micklethwayte
+concern just in time.  Catch him giving up a place like that, though he
+may humbug you.'
+
+'Then you will see him, father?'
+
+'If you turn him in on me, I can't help it.  Bless me! umbrellas
+everywhere!  And here you mean to turn me over to the mercies of that
+solemn idiot, Edsall.  I should have been better off with poor
+Gregorio.'
+
+'No, father; Mr. Dutton would not take me from you.  We would both try
+all we could to make you comfortable.'
+
+'Convert the old reprobate?  Is that his dodge?'
+
+'Don't, father,' for the sneering tone returned.
+
+'Come now,' he added in a much more fatherly manner, for her voice had
+struck him.  'You don't mean that a well-looking girl like you, who
+could have her pick of all the swells in town, can really be smitten
+with a priggish old retired umbrella-monger like that.  Why, he might
+be your father.'
+
+'He has been getting younger ever since I knew him,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Well.  He plays as good a game of whist as any man in England,'
+muttered Mr. Egremont, leaving his daughter in actual doubt whether he
+meant this as a recommendation, or as expressing a distrust of him, as
+one likely to play his cards to the best advantage.  She had to remain
+in doubt, for they overtook Clarence Fane, who came and spoke to them
+in a very friendly and solicitous manner, and showed himself willing to
+accept a lift in the carriage.  Mr. Egremont, willing to escape from
+perplexities as well as to endeavour to drive away if possible the
+oppression of his grief, invited him in, and he had some gossip to
+impart, which at first seemed to amuse the hearer after this time of
+seclusion, but the sick and sore heart soon wearied of it, and long
+before the drive was over, Mr. Egremont was as much bored as his
+daughter had been from the first.
+
+When Mr. Fane got out, he paused a moment to hold Ursula's hand in a
+tender manner, while he told her that he had not ventured to intrude
+(he had left a card of inquiry every day), but that if ever he could be
+of the least use in amusing Mr. Egremont, he was at her service, and
+would give up any engagement.
+
+'Hein! my fine fellow!  No doubt you would!' said Mr. Egremont, when
+his daughter had uttered her cold thanks, and they had driven on.  'I
+see your little game, but it is soon to begin it.  We may as well let
+them know that she is booked before the running begins.'
+
+It was a remarkable intimation of his acceptance of her engagement, but
+Ursula was contented to take it as such, and be thankful.
+
+Mr. Dutton had his interview as soon as Mr. Egremont had rested after
+his drive, and the result was satisfactory.
+
+No doubt much was due to the Egremont indolence and want of energy,
+which always preferred to let things take their course.  And now that
+Gregorio was no longer present to amuse, and take all trouble off his
+hands, Mr. Egremont could hardly have borne to part with his daughter;
+and, despite of umbrellas and religion, was not sorry to have a
+perfectly trustworthy son-in-law in the house, able to play at cards
+with him, manage his household, and obviate all trouble about suitors
+for the heiress.  Moreover, his better feelings were stirred by
+gratitude on his poor little son's account, and he knew very well that
+a more brilliant match for his daughter would not have secured for his
+old age the care and attention he could rely upon here.  He was obliged
+likewise to believe in the disinterestedness, which disclaimed all
+desire for the estate, as involving cares and duties for which there
+had been no training; and he was actually glad to keep the property in
+the direct line.  The old liking for Mark, and sense of the hardship of
+his exclusion, revived, strengthened now by regard for Annaple;
+together with the present relief from care obtained by making him
+manager of the estate.
+
+When once brought to a point, Mr. Egremont was always sudden and
+impetuous, chiefly for the sake of having it over and being unmolested
+and at rest again.  So that very evening, while Nuttie only ventured on
+sharing with Annaple the glad tidings that Mr. Dutton was accepted, and
+in his marvellous goodness, undertook to make his home with her father.
+Mark was almost stunned by the news, confirmed to him by Mr. Dutton as
+well as his uncle, that he was to be acknowledged as heir of
+Bridgefield Egremont, and in the meantime manage the estate with an
+income suitable to an oldest son.
+
+Presently he came upstairs by himself, and beckoned to Nuttie, rather
+to the alarm of his wife.
+
+'Ursula,' he said, and took both her hands, 'I cannot have you do this
+for me.'
+
+'Can't you, Mark?  You can't prevent it, you see.  And don't you know
+it is the beginning of all my happiness?'
+
+'But indeed, I cannot feel it right.  It is a strained sense of
+justice.  Come and tell her so, Nannie.'
+
+'What?' said Annaple coming forward.
+
+They both paused a moment, then Nuttie said, 'Only that the estate
+ought to go in the male line.'
+
+'Oh, is that all?' said Annaple, 'I was afraid Mr. Egremont had a fit!'
+
+'Ah!  Don't you see what it means,' said Mark.  'They want it to be as
+if there were an entail--to begin treating me as an eldest son at once.
+It is Ursula's doing, putting herself out of the succession.'
+
+'I always hated being an heiress,' said Nuttie.
+
+'It would be more dreadful than ever now.  Annaple, do be sensible!
+Don't you see it is the only right thing to do?'
+
+'Billy!' was the one word Annaple said.
+
+'Yes, Billy and Jenny and all,' said Nuttie, 'before you've all died of
+your horrid place--Oh! you haven't heard that part of it.  Of course
+Mark will have to go down to Bridgefield and look after the place, and
+live like a gentleman.'
+
+'Eight hundred a year,' murmured Mark, 'and the house at the Home Farm.'
+
+'Oh! dear,' gasped Annaple, 'I wanted you to be Lord Mayor, and now
+you'll only be a stupid old country squire.  No, no, Nuttie,
+it's--it's--it's the sort of thing that one only laughs at because
+otherwise one would have to do the other thing!'
+
+And she gripped Nuttie tight round the waist, and laid her head on her
+shoulder, shaking with a few little sobs, which might be one thing or
+the other.
+
+'It will save her youth, perhaps her life,' whispered Mark, lifting
+Nuttie's hand to his lips for a moment, and then vanishing, while
+Annaple recovered enough to say, 'I'm tougher than that, sir.  But
+little Jenny!  Oh, Nuttie, I believe it has come in time.  I've known
+all along that one straw more might break the camel's back.  We've been
+very happy, but I am glad it is over before Mark got worn down before
+his time.  Grinding is very wholesome, but one may have too much; and I
+haven't Mark's scruples, Nuttie dear, for I do think the place is more
+in his line than yours or Mr. Dutton's.'
+
+'Yes,' said Ursula, 'you see he was always happy there, and I never
+was.'
+
+The next thing was for Mr. Dutton and Ursula to keep Mr. Egremont up to
+the point of making his long deferred will; nor did they find this so
+difficult as they expected, for having once made up his mind, he wished
+to have the matter concluded, and he gave his instructions to Bulfinch
+the next day.  Of course Mark had to give full notice to his employers;
+but the allowance was to begin at once, so that Annaple only went back
+to the warehouse to pack up, since she was to occupy No. 5, while Mr.
+Egremont and his daughter were going under Mr. Dutton's escort to the
+baths in Dauphine, an entirely new resort, free from the associations
+he dreaded, for he could not yet bear the sight of little Willy--the
+rival 'boy of Egremont.'  But the will was safely signed before he
+went, to the great relief of Nuttie, who, according to the experience
+of fiction, could hardly believe his life safe till what she called
+justice had been done.
+
+After all Mr. Egremont became so dependent on Mr. Dutton, during this
+journey, that he did not like the separation at its close, and pressed
+on the marriage even sooner than either of the lovers felt quite
+reverent towards the recent sorrow.  He insisted on Bulfinch having the
+settlements ready for them on their return, and only let them wait long
+enough to keep their residence, before there was a very quiet wedding
+in their parish church, with the cousins for bridesmaids.  Then Mark
+and Annaple took care of Mr. Egremont for the fortnight while Mr.
+Dutton showed his wife his old haunts in France, returning to
+Springfield House, where there was plenty of room for Mr. Egremont to
+make his home with them.
+
+Said Annaple to Miss Nugent, 'I never saw Nuttie so youthful and
+bright.  She is more like a girl than I ever saw her since the first.'
+
+'Yes,' said Mary, 'she has some one to rest on now.'
+
+Mr. Egremont lived between three and four years, more contented and
+peaceful than he had ever been, though frequently suffering, and
+sometimes giving way to temper and impatience.  But Mr. Dutton
+understood how to manage on these occasions, and without giving up his
+own extensive usefulness, could give him such care, attention, and
+amusement as beguiled his discomforts, and made his daughter's task an
+easier one.
+
+How far the sluggish enfeebled nature was capable of a touch of better
+things, or whether his low spirits were repentance, no one could judge.
+At any rate sneers had ended, and when he was laid beside his wife and
+boy at Bridgefield, Ursula stood by the grave with a far more tender
+and hopeful feeling than she could have thought possible when he had
+rent her away from her old home. She looked up at her husband and said,
+'Is not her work done?'
+
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Nuttie's Father, by Charlotte M. Yonge
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Nuttie's Father
+by Charlotte M. Yonge
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+Title: Nuttie's Father
+
+Author: Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+Release Date: May, 2003  [Etext #4053]
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+Edition: 10
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Nuttie's Father
+by Charlotte M. Yonge
+******This file should be named 7nutt10.txt or 7nutt10.zip******
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+
+
+Nuttie's Father
+
+by Charlotte M Yonge
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+ST. AMBROSE'S CHOIR.
+
+
+
+
+'For be it known
+ That their saint's honour is their own.'--SCOTT.
+
+
+The town of Micklethwayte was rising and thriving.  There were
+salubrious springs which an enterprising doctor had lately brought
+into notice.  The firm of Greenleaf and Dutton manufactured umbrellas
+in large quantities, from the stout weather-proof family roof down to
+the daintiest fringed toy of a parasol.  There were a Guild Hall and
+a handsome Corn Market.  There was a Modern School for the boys, and
+a High School for the girls, and a School of Art, and a School of
+Cookery, and National Schools, and a British School, and a Board
+School, also churches of every height, chapels of every denomination,
+and iron mission rooms budding out in hopes to be replaced by
+churches.
+
+Like one of the animals which zoologists call radiated, the town was
+constantly stretching out fresh arms along country roads, all living
+and working, and gradually absorbing the open spaces between.  One of
+these arms was known as St. Ambrose's Road, in right of the church,
+an incomplete structure in yellow brick, consisting of a handsome
+chancel, the stump of a tower, and one aisle just weather-tight and
+usable, but, by its very aspect, begging for the completion of the
+beautiful design that was suspended above the alms-box.
+
+It was the evening of a summer day which had been very hot.  The
+choir practice was just over, and the boys came out trooping and
+chattering; very small ones they were; for as soon as they began to
+sing tolerably they were sure to try to get into the choir of the old
+church, which had a foundation that fed, clothed, taught, and finally
+apprenticed them.  So, though the little fellows were clad in
+surplices and cassocks, and sat in the chancel for correctness sake,
+there was a space round the harmonium reserved for the more
+trustworthy band of girls and young women who came forth next,
+followed by four or five mechanics.
+
+Behind came the nucleus of the choir--a slim, fair-haired youth of
+twenty; a neat, precise, well-trimmed man, closely shaven, with
+stooping shoulders, at least fifteen years older, with a black poodle
+at his heels, as well shorn as his master, newly risen from lying
+outside the church door; a gentle, somewhat drooping lady in black,
+not yet middle-aged and very pretty; a small eager, unformed, black-
+eyed girl, who could hardly keep back her words for the outside of
+the church door; a tall self-possessed handsome woman, with a fine
+classical cast of features; and lastly, a brown-faced, wiry
+hardworking clergyman, without an atom of superfluous flesh, but with
+an air of great energy.
+
+'Oh! vicar, where are we to go?' was the question so eager to break
+forth.
+
+'Not to the Crystal Palace, Nuttie.  The funds won't bear it.  Mr.
+Dutton says we must spend as little as possible on locomotion.'
+
+'I'm sure I don't care for the Crystal Palace.  A trumpery tinsel
+place, all shams.'
+
+'Hush, hush, my dear, not so loud,' said the quiet lady; but Nuttie
+only wriggled her shoulders, though her voice was a trifle lowered.
+'If it were the British Museum now, or Westminster Abbey.'
+
+'Or the Alps,' chimed in a quieter voice, 'or the Ufizzi.'
+
+'Now, Mr. Dutton, that's not what I want.  Our people aren't ready
+for that, but what they have let it be real.  Miss Mary, don't you
+see what I mean?'
+
+'Rather better than Miss Egremont herself,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Well,' said the vicar, interposing in the wordy war, 'Mrs.
+Greenleaf's children have scarlatina, so we can't go to Horton
+Bishop.  The choice seems to be between South Beach and Monks
+Horton.'
+
+'That's no harm,' cried Nuttie; 'Mrs. Greenleaf is so patronising!'
+
+'And both that and South Beach are so stale,' said the youth.
+
+'As if the dear sea could ever be stale,' cried the young girl.
+
+'I thought Monks Horton was forbidden ground,' said Miss Mary.
+
+'So it was with the last regime', said the vicar; 'but now the new
+people are come I expect great things from them.  I hear they are
+very friendly.'
+
+'I expect nothing from them,' said Nuttie so sententiously that all
+her hearers laughed and asked 'her exquisite reason,' as Mr. Dutton
+put it.
+
+'Lady Kirkaldy and a whole lot of them came into the School of Art.'
+
+'And didn't appreciate "Head of Antinous by Miss Ursula Egremont,"'
+was the cry that interrupted her, but she went on with dignity
+unruffled--'Anything so foolish and inane as their whole talk and all
+their observations I never heard.  "I don't like this style," one of
+them said.  "Such ugly useless things!  I never see anything pretty
+and neatly finished such as we used to do."'  The girl gave it in a
+tone of mimicry of the nonchalant voice, adding, with fresh
+imitation, "'And another did not approve of drawing from the life--
+models might be such strange people."'
+
+'My ears were not equally open to their profanities,' said Miss Mary.
+'I confess that I was struck by the good breeding and courtesy of the
+leader of the party, who, I think, was Lady Kirkaldy herself.'
+
+'I saw!  I thought she was patronising you, and my blood boiled!'
+cried Nuttie.
+
+'Will boiling blood endure a picnic in the park of so much ignorance,
+folly, and patronage?' asked Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Oh, indeed, Mr. Dutton, Nuttie never said that,' exclaimed gentle
+Mrs. Egremont.
+
+'Whether it is fully worth the doing is the question,' said the
+vicar.
+
+'Grass and shade do not despise,' said Miss Mary.
+
+'There surely must be some ecclesiastical remains,' said the young
+man.
+
+'And there is a river,' added the vicar.
+
+'I shall get a stickleback for my aquarium,' cried Nuttie.  'We shall
+make some discoveries for the Scientific Society.  I shall note down
+every individual creature I see!  I say! you are sure it is not a
+sham waterfall or Temple of Tivoli?'
+
+'It would please the choir boys and G. F. S. girls quite as much, if
+not more, in that case,' said Miss Mary; 'but you need not expect
+that, Nuttie.  Landscape-gardening is gone by.'
+
+'Even with the county people?' said Nuttie.
+
+'By at least half a century,' said Mr. Dutton, 'with all deference to
+this young lady's experience.'
+
+'It was out of their own mouths,' cried the girl defiantly.  'That's
+all I know about county people, and so I hope it will be.'
+
+'Come in, my dear, you are talking very fast,' interposed Mrs.
+Egremont, with some pain in the soft sweet voice, which, if it had
+been a little stronger, would have been the best in the choir.
+
+These houses in St. Ambrose's Road were semi-detached.  The pair
+which the party had reached had their entrances at the angles, with a
+narrow gravel path leading by a tiny grass plat to each.  One, which
+was covered with a rich pall of purple clematis, was the home of Mrs.
+Egremont, her aunt, and Nuttie; the other, adorned with a Gloire de
+Dijon rose in second bloom, was the abode of Mary Nugent, with her
+mother, the widow of a naval captain.  Farther on, with adjoining
+gardens, was another couple of houses, in one of which lived Mr.
+Dutton; in the other lodged the youth, Gerard Godfrey, together with
+the partner of the principal medical man.  The opposite neighbours
+were a master of the Modern School and a scholar.  Indeed, the saying
+of the vicar, the Rev. Francis Spyers, was, and St. Ambrose's Road
+was proud of it, that it was a professional place.  Every one had
+something to do either with schools or umbrellas, scarcely excepting
+the doctor and the solicitor, for the former attended the pupils and
+the latter supplied them.  Mr. Dutton was a partner in the umbrella
+factory, and lived, as the younger folk said, as the old bachelor of
+the Road.  Had he not a housekeeper, a poodle, and a cat; and was not
+his house, with lovely sill boxes full of flowers in the windows, the
+neatest of the neat; and did not the tiny conservatory over his
+dining-room window always produce the flowers most needed for the
+altar vases, and likewise bouquets for the tables of favoured ladies.
+Why, the very daisies never durst lift their heads on his little
+lawn, which even bore a French looking-glass globe in the centre.
+Miss Nugent, or Miss Mary as every one still called her, as her elder
+sister's marriage was recent, was assistant teacher at the School of
+Art, and gave private drawing lessons, so as to supplement the
+pension on which her mother lived.  They also received girls as
+boarders attending the High School.
+
+So did Miss Headworth, who had all her life been one of those people
+who seem condemned to toil to make up for the errors or disasters of
+others.  First she helped to educate a brother, and soon he had died
+to leave an orphan daughter to be bred up at her cost.  The girl had
+married from her first situation; but had almost immediately lost her
+husband at sea, and on this her aunt had settled at Micklethwayte to
+make a home for her and her child, at first taking pupils, but when
+the High School was set up, changing these into boarders; while Mrs.
+Egremont went as daily governess to the children of a family of
+somewhat higher pretensions.  Little Ursula, or Nuttie, as she was
+called, according to the local contraction, was like the child of all
+the party, and after climbing up through the High School to the last
+form, hoped, after passing the Cambridge examination, to become a
+teacher there in another year.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+MONKS HORTON.
+
+
+
+
+'And we will all the pleasures prove,
+By shallow rivers, by whose falls
+Melodious birds sing madrigals.'--Old Ballad.
+
+
+It was holiday-time, and liberties were taken such as were not
+permissible, when they might have afforded a bad precedent to the
+boarders.  Therefore, when two afternoons later Mary Nugent,
+returning from district visiting, came out into her garden behind the
+house, she was not scandalised to see a pair of little black feet
+under a holland skirt resting on a laurel branch, and going a few
+steps more she beheld a big shady hat, and a pair of little hands
+busy with a pencil and a blank book; as Ursula sat on the low wall
+between the gardens, shaded by the laburnum which facilitated the
+ascent on her own side.
+
+'Oh Miss Mary!  Delicious!  Come up here!  You don't know how
+charming this is.'
+
+She moved aside so as to leave the ascent--by an inverted flower-pot
+and a laurel branch--open to her friend, thus knocking down one of
+the pile of books which she had taken to the top of the wall.  Miss
+Nugent picked it up, 'Marie Stuart!  Is this your way of studying
+her?'
+
+'Now, you know 'tis holiday time, and volunteer work; besides, she
+was waiting for you, and I could not help doing this.'  She held out
+a hand, which was scarcely needed, and Mary sprang lightly to share
+her perch upon the wall.  'Look here!'
+
+'Am I to guess the subject as in the game of historic outlines,' said
+Miss Nugent, as the book was laid on her lap.  'It looks like a
+modern--no, a mediaeval--edition of Marcus Curtius about to leap into
+the capital opening for a young man, only with his dogs instead of
+his horse.  That hound seems very rationally to object.'
+
+'Now don't!  Guess in earnest.'
+
+'A compliment to your name.  The Boy of Egremont, poor fellow, just
+about to bound across the strid.'
+
+'Exactly!  I always feel sure that my father must have done something
+like this.'
+
+'Was it so heroic?' said Miss Mary. 'You know it was for the
+hundredth time, and he had no reason to expect any special danger.'
+
+'Oh, but his mother was waiting, and he had to go.  Now, I'll tell
+you how it must have been with my father.  You know he sailed away in
+a yacht before I was born, and poor mother never saw him again; but I
+know what happened.  There was a ship on fire like the Birkenhead,
+and the little yacht went near to pick up the people, and my father
+called out, like Sir Humphrey Gilbert--
+
+
+          "Do not fear, Heaven is as near
+           By water as by land."
+
+
+And the little yacht was so close when the great ship blew up that it
+got sucked down in the whirlpool, and rescuers and all died a noble
+death together!'
+
+'Has your mother been telling you?' asked Miss Mary.
+
+'Oh no! she never mentions him.  She does not know.  No one does; but
+I am quite sure he died nobly, with no one to tell the tale, only the
+angels to look on, and that makes it all the finer.  Or just suppose
+he was on a desert island all the time, and came back again to find
+us!  I sometimes think he is.'
+
+'What?  When you are _quite sure_ of the other theory?'
+
+'I mean I am quite sure while I am thinking about it, or reading
+Robinson Crusoe, or the Swiss Family.'
+
+'Oh!'
+
+'Miss Mary, has no one ever told you anything about my father?'
+
+'No one.'
+
+'They never tell me.  Mother cries, and aunt Ursula puts on her
+"there's-an-end-of-it look."  Do you think there is anything they are
+waiting to tell me till I am older?'
+
+'If there were, I am sure you had better not try to find it out
+beforehand.'
+
+'You don't think I would do anything of _that sort?_  But I thought
+you might know.  Do you remember their first settling here?'
+
+'Scarcely.  I was a very small child then.'
+
+Miss Nugent had a few vague recollections which she did not think it
+expedient to mention.  A dim remembrance rose before her of
+mysterious whisperings about that beautiful young widow, and that it
+had been said that the rector of the Old Church had declared himself
+to know the ladies well, and had heartily recommended them.  She
+thought it wiser only to speak of having been one of their first
+scholars, telling of the awe Miss Headworth inspired; but the
+pleasure it was to bring a lesson to pretty Mrs. Egremont, who always
+rewarded a good one with a kiss, 'and she was so nice to kiss--yes,
+and is.'
+
+'Aunt Ursel and mother both were governesses,' continued the girl,
+'and yet they don't want me to go out.  They had rather I was a
+teacher at the High School.'
+
+'They don't want to trust their Little Bear out in the world.'
+
+'I think it is more than that,' said the girl.  'I can't help
+thinking that he--my father--must have been some one rather grand,
+with such a beautiful name as Alwyn Piercefield Egremont.  Yes; I
+know it was that, for I saw my baptismal certificate when I stood for
+the scholarship; it was Dieppe,--Ursula Alice, daughter of Alwyn
+Piercefield and Alice Elizabeth Egremont, May 15, 1860.  James
+Everett--I think he was the chaplain at Dieppe.'
+
+Mary Nugent thought it the wisest way to laugh and say: 'You, of all
+people in the world, to want to make out a connection with the
+aristocracy!'
+
+'True love is different,' said Ursula.  'He must have been cast off
+by his family for her sake, and have chosen poverty--
+
+
+     "To make the croon a pund, my Alwyn gaed to sea,
+      And the croon and the pund, they were baith for me."'
+
+
+Miss Mary did not think a yacht a likely place for the conversion of
+a croon into a pound, and the utter silence of mother and aunt did
+not seem to her satisfactory; but she feared either to damp the
+youthful enthusiasm for the lost father, or to foster curiosity that
+might lead to some painful discovery, so she took refuge in an
+inarticulate sound.
+
+'I think Mr. Dutton knows,' proceeded Nuttie.
+
+'You don't mean to ask him?'
+
+'Catch me!  I know how he would look at me.'
+
+'Slang!  A forfeit!'
+
+'Oh, it's holiday time, and the boarders can't hear.  There's Mr.
+Dutton's door!'
+
+This might in one way be a relief to Miss Nugent, but she did not
+like being caught upon the wall, and therefore made a rapid descent,
+though not without a moment's entanglement of skirt, which delayed
+her long enough to show where she had been, as Mr. Dutton was at the
+same moment advancing to his own wall on the opposite side of the
+Nugent garden.  Perhaps he would have pretended to see nothing but
+for Nuttie's cry of glee.
+
+'You wicked elf,' said Miss Mary, 'to inveigle people into
+predicaments, and then go shouting ho! ho! ho! like Robin Goodfellow
+himself.'
+
+'You should have kept your elevation and dignity like me,' retorted
+Ursula; 'and then you would have had the pleasure of seeing Mr.
+Dutton climbing his wall and coming to our feet.'
+
+'Mischievous elves deserve no good news,' said Mr. Dutton, who was by
+no means so venerable that the crossing the wall was any effort or
+compromise of dignity, and who had by this time joined Mary on her
+grass plat.
+
+'Oh, what is it!  Are we to go to Monks Horton?' cried Nuttie.
+
+'Here is a gracious permission from Lord Kirkaldy, the only
+stipulations being that no vestiges of the meal, such as sandwich
+papers or gooseberry skins, be left on the grass; and that nobody
+does any mischief,' he added in an awful tone of personality.  'So if
+I see anybody rooting up holly trees I shall be bound to interfere.'
+
+'Now, Mr. Dutton, it was only a baby holly in a chink.'
+
+'Only a holly tree!  Just like the giant's daughter when she only
+carried off waggon, peasant, oxen, and all in her pinafore.'
+
+'It is not longer than my finger now!'
+
+'Well, remember, mischief either wanton or scientific is forbidden.
+You are to set an example to the choir-boys.'
+
+'Scientific mischief is a fatal thing to rare plants,' said Mary.
+
+'If I'm not to touch anything, I may as well stay at home,' pouted
+Nuttie.
+
+'You may gather as many buttercups and daisies as the sweet child
+pleases,' said Mr. Dutton; whereupon she threatened to throw her
+books at his head.
+
+Miss Nugent asked how they were to go, and Mr. Dutton explained that
+there was only a quarter of a mile's walk from the station; that
+return tickets would be furnished at a tariff of fourpence a head;
+and that there would be trains at 1.15 and 7.30.
+
+'How hungry the children will be.'
+
+'They will eat all the way.  That's the worst of this sort of outing.
+They eat to live and live to eat.'
+
+'At least they don't eat at church,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Not since the peppermint day, when Mr. Spyers suspended Dickie
+Drake,' put in Mary.
+
+And the Spa Terrace Church people said it was incense.'
+
+'No.  Nuttie!'
+
+'Indeed they did.  Louisa Barnet attacked us about it at school, and
+I said I wished it had been.  Only they mustn't eat peppermint in the
+train, for it makes mother quite ill.'
+
+'Do you mean that Mrs. Egremont will come?' exclaimed Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Oh yes, she shall.  It is not too far, and it will be very good for
+her.  I shall make her.'
+
+'There's young England's filial duty!' said Mary.
+
+'Why, I know what is good for her, and she always does as "I wish."'
+
+'Beneficent despotism!' said Mr. Dutton.  'May I ask if Miss
+Headworth is an equally obedient subject.'
+
+'Oh! Aunt Ursel is very seldom tiresome.'
+
+'Nuttie! Nuttie! my dear,' and a head with the snows of more than
+half a century appeared on the other side of the wall, under a cap
+and parasol.  'I am sorry to interrupt you, but it is cool enough for
+your mother to go into the town, and I wish you to go with her.'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+HEIR HUNTING.
+
+
+
+
+'And she put on her gown of green,
+ And left her mother at sixteen,
+      To marry Peter Bell!'--WORDSWORTH.
+
+
+In the shrubberies of Monks Horton were walking a lady somewhat past
+middle age, but full of activity and vigour, with one of those bright
+faces that never grow old, and with her a young man, a few years over
+twenty, with a grave and almost careworn countenance.
+
+More and more confidential waxed the conversation, for the lady was
+making fresh acquaintance with a nephew seldom seen since he had been
+her pet and darling as almost a baby, and he was experiencing the
+inexpressible charm of tone and manner that recalled the young mother
+he had lost in early boyhood.
+
+'Then your mind is made up,' she said; 'you are quite right to decide
+on having a profession; but how does your father take it?'
+
+'He is quite convinced that to repeat my uncle's life, dangling on as
+heir, would be the most fatal mistake.'
+
+'Assuredly, and all the legal knowledge you acquire is so much in
+favour of your usefulness as the squire.'
+
+'If I ever am the squire, of which I have my doubts.'
+
+'You expect Mr. Egremont to marry?'
+
+'Not a future marriage, but one in the past.'
+
+'A private marriage!  Do you suspect it?'
+
+'I don't suspect it--I know it.  I have been hoping to talk the
+matter over with you.  Do you remember our first governess, Miss
+Headworth?'
+
+'My dear Mark, did I not lose at Pera the charms of your infancy?'
+
+'Then neither my mother nor my grandmother ever wrote to you about
+her?'
+
+'I do remember that it struck me that immunity from governesses was a
+compensation for the lack of daughters.'
+
+'Can you tell me no details,' said Mark anxiously.  'Have you no
+letters?  It was about the time when Blanche was born, when we were
+living at Raxley.'
+
+'I am sorry to say that our roving life prevented my keeping old
+letters.  I have often regretted it.  Let me see, there was one who
+boxed May's ears.'
+
+'That was long after.  I think it was that woman's barbarity that
+made my father marry again, and a very good thing that was.  It was
+wretched before.  Miss Headworth was in my own mother's time.'
+
+'I begin to remember something happening that your mother seemed
+unable to write about, and your grandmother said that she had been
+greatly upset by "that miserable affair," but I was never exactly
+told what it had been.'
+
+'Miss Headworth came when I was four or five years old.  Edda, as we
+used to call her in May's language, was the first person who gave me
+a sense of beauty.  She had dark eyes and a lovely complexion.  I
+remember in after times being silenced for saying, "not so pretty as
+my Edda."  I was extremely fond of her, enough to have my small
+jealousy excited when my uncle joined us in our walks, and
+monopolised her, turning May and me over to play with his dog!'
+
+'But, Mark, Mr. Egremont is some years older than your father.  He
+could not have been a young man at that time.'
+
+'So much the worse.  Most likely he seemed to her quite paternal.
+The next thing I recollect was our being in the Isle of Wight, we two
+children, with Miss Headworth and the German nurse, and our being
+told of our new sister.  Uncle Alwyn and his yacht were there, and we
+went on board once or twice.  Then matters became confused with me, I
+recollect a confusion, papa and grandmamma suddenly arriving,
+everybody seeming to us to have become very cross, our dear Miss
+Headworth nowhere to be found, our attendants being changed, and our
+being forbidden to speak of her again.  I certainly never thought of
+the matter till a month ago.  You know my uncle's eyes have been much
+affected by his illness, and he has made a good deal of use of me.
+He has got a valet, a fellow of no particular country, more Savoyard
+than anything else, I fancy.  He is a legacy, like other evils, from
+the old General, and seems a sort of necessity to my uncle's
+existence.  Gregorio they call him.  He was plainly used to absolute
+government, and viewed the coming down amongst us as an assertion of
+liberty much against his will.  We could see that he was awfully
+jealous of my father and me, and would do anything to keep us out;
+but providentially he can't write English decently, though he can
+speak any language you please.  Well, the man and I came into
+collision about a scamp of a groom who was doing intolerable mischief
+in the village, and whom they put it on me to get discharged.  On
+that occasion Mr. Gregorio grew insolent, and intimated to me that I
+need not make so sure of the succession.  He knew that which might
+make the Chanoine and me change our note.  Well, my father is always
+for avoiding rows; he said it was an unmeaning threat, it was of no
+use to complain of Gregorio, and we must digest his insolence.  But
+just after, Uncle Alwyn sent me to hunt up a paper that was missing,
+and in searching a writing-case I came upon an unmistakable marriage
+certificate between Alwyn Piercefield Egremont and Alice Headworth,
+and then the dim recollections I told you of began to return.'
+
+'What did you do?'
+
+'I thought I had better consult my father, expecting to hear that she
+was dead, and that no further notice need be taken of the matter.
+But he was greatly disturbed to hear of the certificate, and would
+hardly believe me.  He said that some friend of my grandmother had
+written her word of goings on at Freshwater between his brother and
+the young governess, and that they went off at once to put a stop to
+it, but found us left with the German maid, who declared that Miss
+Headworth had gone off with Mr. Egremont in the yacht.  No more was
+heard of my uncle for six weeks, and when he came back there was a
+great row with the old General, but he absolutely denied being
+married.  I am afraid that was all the old sinner wished, and they
+went off together in the yacht to the West Indies, where it was
+burnt; but they, as you know, never came to England again, going
+straight off to the Mediterranean, having their headquarters at
+Sorrento, and cruising about till the General's death ten years ago.'
+
+'Yes, I once met them at Florence, and thought them two weary
+pitiable men.  One looked at the General as a curious relic of the
+old buck of the Regency days, and compassionated his nephew for
+having had his life spoilt by dangling after the old man.  It was a
+warning indeed, and I am glad you have profited by it, Mark.'
+
+'He came back, after the old man died, to club life in London, and
+seldom has been near the old place; indeed, it has been let till
+recently, and he wants to let it again, but it is altogether too
+dilapidated for that without repairs.  So he came down to see about
+it, and was taken ill there.  But to return to what my father told
+me. He was shocked to hear of the certificate, for he had implicitly
+believed his brother's denial of the marriage, and he said Miss
+Headworth was so childish and simple that she might easily have been
+taken in by a sham ceremony.  He said that he now saw he had done
+very wrong in letting his mother-in-law take all the letters about
+"that unhappy business" off his hands without looking at them, but he
+was much engrossed by my mother's illness, and, as he said, it never
+occurred to him as a duty to trace out what became of the poor thing,
+and see that she was provided for safely.  You know Mrs. Egremont
+says laissez faire is our family failing, and that our first thought
+is how _not_ to do it.'
+
+'Yes, utter repudiation of such cases was the line taken by the last
+generation; and I am afraid my mother would be very severe.'
+
+'Another thing that actuated my father was the fear of getting his
+brother into trouble with General Egremont, as he himself would have
+been the one to profit by it.  So I do not wonder so much at his
+letting the whole drop without inquiry, and never even looking at the
+letters, which there certainly were.  I could not get him to begin
+upon it with my uncle, but Mrs. Egremont was strongly on my side in
+thinking that such a thing ought to be looked into, and as I had
+found the paper it would be best that I should speak.  Besides that
+there was no enduring that Gregorio should be pretending to hold us
+in terror by such hints.'
+
+'Well, and has there been a wife and family in a cottage all this
+time?'
+
+'Aunt Margaret, he has never seen or heard of her since he left her
+at Dieppe!  Would you believe it, he thinks himself a victim?  He
+never meant more than to amuse himself with the pretty little
+governess; and he took on board a Mr. and Mrs. Houghton to do
+propriety, shady sort of people I imagine, but that she did not
+know.'
+
+'I have heard of them,' said Lady Kirkaldy, significantly.
+
+'She must have been a kind friend to the poor girl,' said Mark.  'On
+some report that Lady de Lyonnais was coming down on her, wrathful
+and terrible, the poor foolish girl let herself be persuaded to be
+carried off in the yacht, but there Mrs. Houghton watched over her
+like a dragon.  She made them put in at some little place in Jersey,
+put in the banns, all unknown to my uncle, and got them married.
+Each was trying to outwit the other, while Miss Headworth herself was
+quite innocent and unconscious, and, I don't know whether to call it
+an excuse for Uncle Alwyn or not, but to this hour he is not sure
+whether it was a legal marriage, and my father believes it was not,
+looking on it as a youthful indiscretion.  He put her in lodgings at
+Dieppe, under Mrs. Houghton's protection, while he returned home on a
+peremptory summons from the General.  He found the old man in such a
+state of body and mind as he tries to persuade me was an excuse for
+denying the whole thing, and from that time he represents himself as
+bound hand and foot by the General's tyranny.  He meant to have kept
+the secret, given her an allowance, and run over from time to time to
+see her, but he only could get there once before the voyage to the
+West Indies.  The whole affair was, as he said, complicated by his
+debts, those debts that the estate has never paid off.  The General
+probably distrusted him, for he curtailed his allowance, and scarcely
+let him out of sight; and he--he submitted for the sake of his
+prospects, and thinking the old man much nearer his end than he
+proved to be.  I declare as I listened, it came near to hearing him
+say he had sold his soul to Satan!  From the day he sailed in the
+Ninon he has never written, never attempted any communication with
+the woman whose life he had wrecked, except one inquiry at Dieppe,
+and that was through Gregorio.'
+
+'What! the valet?'
+
+Yes.  I believe I seemed surprised at such a medium being employed,
+for Uncle Alwyn explained that the man had got hold of the secret
+somehow--servants always know everything--and being a foreigner he
+was likely to be able to trace her out.
+
+'I daresay he profited by the knowledge to keep Alwyn in bondage
+during the old man's lifetime.'
+
+'I have no doubt of it, and he expected to play the same game with
+me.  The fellow reminds me, whenever I look at him, of a sort of
+incarnate familiar demon.  When I asked my uncle whether he could
+guess what had become of her, he held up his hands with a hideous
+French grimace.  I could have taken him by the throat.'
+
+'Nay, one must pity him.  The morals of George IV.'s set had been
+handed on to him by the General,' said Lady Kirkaldy, rejoicing in
+the genuine indignation of the young face, free from all taint of
+vice, if somewhat rigid.  'And what now?'
+
+'He assured me that he could make all secure to my father and me, as
+if that were the important point; but finally he perceived that we
+had no right to stand still without endeavouring to discover whether
+there be a nearer heir, and my father made him consent to my making
+the search, grinning at its Quixotism all the time.'
+
+'Have you done anything?'
+
+'Yes.  I have been to Jersey, seen the register--July 20, 1859--and
+an old French-speaking clerk, who perfectly recollected the party
+coming from the yacht, and spoke of her as tres belle.  I have also
+ascertained that there is no doubt of the validity of the marriage.
+Then, deeply mistrusting Master Gregorio, I went on to Dieppe, where
+I entirely failed to find any one who knew or remembered anything
+about them--there is such a shifting population of English visitors
+and residents, and it was so long ago.  I elicited from my uncle that
+she had an aunt, he thought, of the same name as herself; but my
+father cannot remember who recommended her, or anything that can be a
+clue.  Has any one looked over my grandmother's letters?'
+
+'I think not.  My brother spoke of keeping them till I came to
+London.  That might give a chance, or the Houghtons might know about
+her.  I think my husband could get them hunted up.  They are sure to
+be at some continental resort.'
+
+'What's that?' as a sound of singing was heard.
+
+'"Auld Langsyne."  The natives are picnicking in the ravine below
+there.  They used to be rigidly excluded, but we can't stand that;
+and this is the first experiment of admitting them on condition that
+they don't make themselves obnoxious.'
+
+'Which they can't help.'
+
+'We have yet to see if this is worse than an Austrian or Italian
+festival.  See, we can look down from behind this yew tree.  It
+really is a pretty sight from this distance.'
+
+'There's the cleric heading his little boys and their cricket, and
+there are the tuneful party in the fern on the opposite side.  They
+have rather good voices, unless they gain by distance.'
+
+'And there's a girl botanising by the river.'
+
+'Sentimentalising over forget-me-nots, more likely.'
+
+'My dear Mark, for a specimen of young England, you are greatly
+behindhand in perception of progress!'
+
+'Ah! you are used to foreigners, Aunt Margaret.  You have never
+fathomed English vulgarity.'
+
+'It would serve you right to send you to carry the invitation to go
+round the gardens and houses.'
+
+'Do you mean it, aunt?'
+
+'Mean it?  Don't you see your uncle advancing down the road--there--
+accosting the clergyman--what's his name--either Towers or Spires--
+something ecclesiastical I know.  We only waited to reconnoitre and
+see whether the numbers were unmanageable.'
+
+'And yet he does not want to sit for Micklethwayte?'
+
+'So you think no one can be neighbourly except for electioneering!
+O Mark, I must take you in hand.'
+
+'Meantime the host is collecting.  I abscond.  Which is the least
+showy part of the establishment?'
+
+'I recommend the coal cellar--'and, as he went off--'poor boy, he is
+a dear good fellow, but how little he knows how to be laughed at!'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+A NAME.
+
+
+
+
+'Sigh no more lady, lady sigh no more,
+   Men were deceivers ever,
+ One foot on sea and one on land--
+   To one thing constant never.'--Old Ballad.
+
+
+'So you have ventured out again,' said Lady Kirkaldy, as her nephew
+strolled up to her afternoon tea-table under a great cedar tree:
+
+'The coast being clear, and only distant shouts being heard in the
+ravine--
+
+
+          '" Like an army defeated
+             The choir retreated;
+             And now doth fare well
+             In the valley's soft swell,"'
+
+
+said the aunt.
+
+'At least you have survived; or is this the reaction,' said the
+nephew, putting on a languid air.
+
+'There were some very nice people among them, on whom the pictures
+were by no means thrown away.  What would you say, Mark, if I told
+you that I strongly suspect that I have seen your lost aunt?'
+
+'Nonsense!' cried Mark, as emphatically as disrespectfully.
+
+'I am not joking in the least,' said Lady Kirkaldy, looking up at
+him.  'I heard the name of Egremont, and made out that it belonged to
+a very lady-like pretty-looking woman in gray and white; she seemed
+to be trying to check and tame a bright girl of eighteen or so, who
+was in a perfect state of rapture over the Vandykes.  I managed to
+ask the clergyman who the lady was, and he told me she was a Mrs.
+Egremont, who lives with her aunt, a Miss Headworth, who boards girls
+for the High School; very worthy people, he added.'
+
+'Headworth?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'But if it were, she would have known your name.'
+
+'Hardly.  The title had not come in those days; and if she heard of
+us at all it would be as Kerrs.  I ventured further to put out a
+feeler by asking whether he knew what her husband had been, and he
+said he believed he had been lost at sea, but he, Mr. Spyers I mean,
+had only been at Micklethwayte three or four years, and had merely
+known her as a widow.'
+
+'I suppose it is worth following up,' said Mark, rather reluctantly.
+'I wish I had seen her.  I think I should know Miss Headworth again,
+and she would hardly know me.'
+
+'You see what comes of absconding.'
+
+'After all, it was best,' said Mark.  'Supposing her to be the real
+woman, which I don't expect, it might have been awkward if she had
+heard my name!  How can we ascertain the history of this person
+without committing ourselves?'
+
+Lord Kirkaldy, an able man, who had been for many years a
+diplomatist, here joined the party, and the whole story was laid
+before him.  He was new to Micklethwayte, having succeeded a somewhat
+distant kinsman, and did not know enough of the place to be able to
+fix on any one to whom to apply for information; but the result of
+the consultation was that Lady Kirkaldy should go alone to call on
+Miss Headworth, and explain that she was come to inquire about a
+young lady of the same name, who had once been governess to the
+children of her sister, Lady Adelaide Egremont.  Mark was rather a
+study to his uncle and aunt all the evening.  He was as upright and
+honourable as the day, and not only acted on high principle, but had
+a tender feeling to the beautiful playfellow governess, no doubt
+enhanced by painful experiences of successors chosen for their utter
+dissimilarity to her.  Still it was evidently rather flat to find
+himself probably so near the tangible goal of his romantic search;
+and the existence of a first cousin had been startling to him, though
+his distaste was more to the taking her from second-rate folk in a
+country town than to the overthrow of his own heirship.  At least so
+he manifestly and honestly believed, and knowing it to be one of
+those faiths that make themselves facts, the Kirkaldys did not
+disturb him in it, nor commiserate him for a loss which they thought
+the best thing possible for him.
+
+Miss Headworth was accustomed to receive visitors anent boarders, so
+when Lady Kirkaldy's card was brought to her, the first impression
+was that some such arrangement was to be made.  She was sitting in
+her pretty little drawing-room alone, for Nuttie and her mother had
+gone out for a walk with Miss Nugent.
+
+The room, opening on the garden, and cool with blinds, had a certain
+homely grace about the faded furniture.  The drawings on the walls
+were good, the work quaint and tasteful.  There was a grand vase of
+foxgloves before the empty grate, and some Marshal Nial roses in a
+glass on the table.  The old lady herself--with alert black eyes and
+a sweet expression--rose from her chair in the window to receive her
+guest.
+
+Lady Kirkaldy felt reassured as to the refinement of the
+surroundings, and liked the gentle but self-possessed tones of the
+old lady.  She noticed the foxgloves.
+
+'Yes,' said Miss Headworth, 'they are the fruits of yesterday's
+expedition.  My two children, as I call them, brought them home in
+triumph.  I cannot tell you what pleasure Lord Kirkaldy's kindness
+gave them--and many more.'
+
+'I am glad,' said the lady, while she said to herself, 'now for it,'
+and sat forward.  'It struck me,' she said, 'on hearing your name
+that you might be related to--to a young lady who lived a good while
+ago in the family of my sister, Lady Adelaide Egremont.'
+
+A strange look came into Miss Headworth's eyes, her lips trembled,
+she clutched tightly the arm of her chair, but then cast a puzzled
+glance at her visitor.
+
+'Perhaps if you heard of me then,' said the latter, 'it was as Lady
+Margaret Kerr.'
+
+'Yes,' said Miss Headworth, then pausing, she collected herself and
+said in an anxious voice,  'Do I understand that your ladyship is
+come to inquire for my niece, being aware of the circumstances.'
+
+'I only became aware of them yesterday,' said Lady Kirkaldy.  'I was
+in Turkey at the time, and no particulars were given to me; but my
+nephew, Mark Egremont, your niece's old pupil, came to consult us,
+having just discovered among his uncle's papers evidence of the
+marriage, of which of course he had been ignorant.'
+
+'Then,' exclaimed Miss Headworth, holding her hands tightly clasped,
+'Shall I really see justice done at last to my poor child?'
+
+'It is young Mark's most earnest wish and his father--'Lady Kirkaldy
+hesitated for a word, and Miss Headworth put in:
+
+'His father!  Why would he never even acknowledge either Alice's
+letters or mine?  We wrote several times both to him and Lady
+Adelaide, and never received any reply, except one short one,
+desiring he might not be troubled on such a subject.  It was cruel!
+Alice said it was not in his writing.  She had done very wrong, and
+the family might well be offended, but a poor child like her, just
+eighteen, might have been treated with some pity.'
+
+'My sister was in declining health.  He was very much engrossed.  He
+left the matter to--to others,' said Lady Kirkaldy.  'He is very
+sorry now that he acquiesced in what was then thought right.  He did
+not then know that there had been a marriage.'
+
+'I should have thought in that case a clergyman would have been bound
+to show the more compassion.'
+
+Lady Kirkaldy knew that the cruel silence had been chiefly the work
+of the stem Puritan pitilessness of her mother, so she passed this
+over, saying, 'We are all very anxious to atone, as far as possible,
+for what is past, but we know little or nothing, only what my nephew
+Mark has been able to gather.'
+
+'Little Mark!  Alice always talked of him with great affection.  How
+pleased she will be to hear of his remembering her.'
+
+'Would you object to telling me what you know of this history?' said
+Lady Kirkaldy.  'I am afraid it is very painful to you, but I think
+we should understand it clearly.  Please speak to me as a friend, as
+woman to woman.'
+
+'Your ladyship is very kind,' said the poor old lady.  'I have only
+mentioned the subject once since we came to settle here, seventeen
+years ago, but such things one cannot forget.  If you will excuse me,
+I have some dates that will assist my accuracy.'
+
+She hurried away, and came back in a few moments, having evidently
+dried some tears, perhaps of thankfulness, but she paused as if
+reluctant to begin.
+
+'I think your niece had no nearer relation than yourself,' said Lady
+Kirkaldy, anxious to set her off and at ease.
+
+'Oh no, or she never would have been so treated.  She was an orphan.
+My poor brother was a curate.  He married--as young men will--on
+insufficient means, his strength gave way, and he died of diphtheria
+when this poor child was only two years old.  Indeed, two little ones
+died at the same time, and the mother married again and went to
+Shanghai.  She did not long live there, poor thing, and little Alice
+was sent home to me.  I thought I did my best for her by keeping her
+at a good school.  I have often wished that I had given up my
+situation, and become an assistant there, so as to have her more
+under my own eyes; but I fancied it important to receive a salary out
+of which I could save.  I am wearying your ladyship, but I can't but
+dwell on the excuses for my poor child.'
+
+'Indeed I wish to hear all the details,' was the sincere and gentle
+answer.
+
+'I had her with me generally in the holidays, and I confess I was
+absolutely alarmed to see how pretty the child was growing, knowing
+how great a disadvantage it often is.  She was always a good girl,
+not naturally so studious as could be wished, but docile, merry,
+gentle, a favourite with every one, and peculiarly innocent and
+childish.  I wished her to remain a few years longer as teacher, but
+it so happened that Lady Adelaide Egremont, coming to consult the
+head of the establishment about a nursery-governess, saw Alice, and
+was so much struck with her sweet face, which was all sunshine then,
+as to insist on engaging her.'
+
+'Ah! my dear sister, I remember her enthusiastic letter about her
+pretty governess, and her boy's affection for her, an affection that
+has lasted--'
+
+'It seemed so safe.  A clergyman's family in the country, and so kind
+a lady at the head, that, though Alice had been educated for a
+superior governess, it appeared the best beginning she could have.
+And she was very happy, and met with great kindness.  Only,
+unfortunately, Lady Adelaide was delicate, and for many weeks
+entirely confined to the sofa.  Mr. Egremont's elder brother was much
+there.  He seemed to my poor inexperienced child quite elderly, and
+his attentions like those of--of an old uncle--she told me
+afterwards--'
+
+'He must really have been over forty--'
+
+'No doubt my poor Alice was unguarded.  We know what a merry, happy,
+childish girl may be, but I never heard that her conduct was even
+censured while she remained at Baxley, though I find that Captain
+Egremont used to join them in their walks, under pretext of playing
+with the children.  Then she was sent to Freshwater with the two
+eldest children during Lady Adelaide's confinement, and there, most
+unjustifiably, Captain Egremont continually visited them from his
+yacht, and offered to take them out in it.  Alice knew she ought not
+to go without a married lady on board, and he brought a Mr. and Mrs.
+Houghton to call, who were very kind and caressing to her and the
+children, so that she thought all was right.  Oh! Lady Kirkaldy, I
+don't mean to defend her, I daresay she was very giddy and silly, she
+reproaches herself, poor dear, but I do say that a wicked advantage
+was taken of her innocence and ignorance.  She says that she had
+begun to grow a little uneasy at the way people looked when Captain
+Egremont joined them on the beach; and the nurse, a German, said
+something that she could not understand.  On the 1st of July--yes--
+but I have the date here--came a telegram to the hotel to have rooms
+for Lady de Lyonnais and Mr. Egremont ready by the evening.  The
+whole place knew it, and some meddling person burst on Alice with the
+news, roughly and coarsely given, that they were coming to call her
+to account for her goings on.  Captain Egremont found her crying in
+the utmost terror, and--she really hardly knew what he said to her--
+she thinks he offered to shelter her on board the Ninon, from Lady de
+Lyonnais' first wrath while he and Mrs. Houghton explained matters;
+but she cannot tell, for she lost her senses with fright, only knew
+that he was kind and sweet to her in her distress, and thought only
+of escaping.  Well, I don't excuse her.  Of course it was the most
+terrible and fatal thing she could have done, and--' The good old
+lady was quite overcome, and Lady Kirkaldy had tears in her eyes as
+she said,
+
+'It was frightful folly--but she was guarded.'
+
+'Yes, her innocence was guarded, thank God,' said Miss Headworth
+fervently.  'You see she did know that Mr. and Mrs. Houghton were on
+board, and Mrs. Houghton was a truly kind protector who deserved her
+confidence, though, poor lady, she admitted to me that her own
+conduct had not been-strictly correct.'
+
+'How long was it before you heard of her?'
+
+'There was a dreadful letter from Mr. Egremont enclosing what was due
+of her salary, and then I heard no more for seven months.  I went to
+the Isle of Wight and made all inquiries, but the nurse and children
+had gone away immediately, and I could obtain no trace of them.'
+
+'Then she--your niece, never wrote.'
+
+'She was afraid, poor dear.  She had never been at her ease with me.
+Her mother had taught her to think me strict and harsh, and she had
+never opened to me in those days.  Besides, he had forbidden her.  At
+last, however, in January, came a letter from this Mrs. Houghton,
+telling me that my Alice was very unwell at Dieppe, that nothing had
+been heard of her husband, Captain Egremont, to whom she had been
+married on the 20th of July at St. Philippe, in Jersey, and that she
+herself was obliged to leave the place almost immediately; but she
+would, if possible, wait till my arrival, as Mrs. Egremont was not in
+a condition to be left alone.  My dear friends, with whom I was then
+living, were as kind as possible, and set me free to go.  I was there
+in three days, and truly the dear, beautiful, merry girl I had parted
+with only a year before was a sad piteous sight.  Mrs. Houghton
+seemed broken-hearted at leaving her, thinking there was little
+chance of her living; but Mr. Houghton, who, I am afraid, was a
+professed gambler, had got into some scrape, and was gone to Paris,
+where she had to follow him.  She told me all about it, and how, when
+Captain Egremont fancied that a marriage in the Channel Islands was
+one he could play fast and loose with, she had taken care that the
+formalities should be such as to make all secure.  Foolish and wrong
+as poor Alice had been, she had awakened all the best side of that
+poor woman's nature, and no mother could have been more careful and
+tender.  She gave me the certificate--here it is--and assured me that
+it would hold good.  I have shown it to a lawyer, and he said the
+same; but when I sent a copy to Mr. Egremont, my letter was returned
+unopened.'
+
+'Captain Egremont had denied the marriage, and they believed him,'
+said Lady Kirkaldy.  'It is hard to believe that he could be so
+heartless, but he was in bondage to the old General Egremont, and
+dreaded losing his inheritance.'
+
+'So he told them in his one visit to Dieppe.  He said he must keep
+his marriage secret, but promised an allowance, on condition that
+Alice would live quietly at Dieppe, and not communicate with any one
+of her own family or his.  He had left (pounds)100 with her, but that was
+nearly gone, and she had never heard from him.  It had preyed on her,
+and she was so ill that I never expected, any more than Mrs.
+Houghton, to see her recover.  I stayed there with her; she could not
+be moved, even if she would have consented, when she was continually
+expecting him; but at last--four days after her little girl was born--
+came the news of the Ninon having been burnt, with all on board,
+three months before.  Do you know, strange to say, though I had
+feared so much to tell her, she began to revive from that time.  The
+suspense and watching were over.  She saw that he had not deserted
+her, and believed that he had loved her to the last.  She cried a
+great deal, but it was in a peaceful, natural way.  I wrote then, as
+I had already written, to Lady Adelaide and to Mr. Egremont, but was
+not answered.'
+
+'I can account for that,' said Lady Kirkaldy.  'My sister had been
+ordered to Madeira in the autumn, and there they remained till her
+death in May.  All the letters were sent to my mother, and she did
+not think fit to forward, or open, any bearing on the subject.  In
+the meantime Mr. Egremont was presented to the family living, and on
+his return moved to Bridgefield Egremont.  And you came here?'
+
+'Of course I could not part with my poor Alice again.  Mr. and Mrs.
+Fordyce, whose daughter I had long ago educated, had always kept up a
+correspondence with me, and, knowing all the story, proposed to me to
+come here.  He was then rector of the old church, and by their help
+and recommendation, with such capital as I had, we were able to begin
+a little school; and though that has had to give way to the High
+School, what with boarders, and with Alice's employment as daily
+governess, we have, I am thankful to say, gone on very well and
+comfortably, and my dear child has recovered her cheerfulness, though
+she can never be quite what--I think she was meant to be,' said the
+old lady, with a sad smile, 'though perhaps she is something better.'
+
+'Do you think she was absolutely convinced of his death?'
+
+'Do you mean that he is alive?' exclaimed Miss Headworth in dismay.
+'Oh! he is a wickeder man than even I supposed, to have forsaken her
+all these years.  Is my poor child in his power?  Must her peace, now
+she has attained it, be disturbed?'
+
+'There is a great deal to take into consideration,' said Lady
+Kirkaldy.  'I had better tell you how this visit of mine came about,
+and explain some matters about the Egremont family.'
+
+She then told how Captain Egremont, after a brief service in the Life
+Guards, had been made to retire, that the old General, whose heir he
+was, might keep him in attendance on him.  Already self-indulgent and
+extravagant, the idleness of the life he led with the worn-out old
+roue had deadened his better feelings, and habituated him to
+dissipation, while his debts, his expensive habits, and his dread of
+losing the inheritance, had bound him over to the General.  Both had
+been saved from the fire in the Ninon, whence they were picked up by
+a Chilian vessel, and they had been long in communicating with home.
+The General hated England, and was in broken health.  He had spent
+the remaining years of his life at various continental resorts, where
+he could enjoy a warm climate, combined with facilities for high
+play.
+
+When at length, he died, Captain Egremont had continued the life to
+which he had become accustomed, and had of late manifested an
+expectation that his nephew Mark should play the same part by him as
+he had done by the General, but the youth, bred in a very different
+tone, would on no account thus surrender himself to an evil bondage.
+Indeed he felt all the severity of youthful virtue, and had little
+toleration for his uncle's ways of thinking; though, when the old man
+had come home ill, dejected, and half blind, he had allowed himself
+to be made useful on business matters.  And thus he had discovered
+the marriage, and had taken up the cause with the ardour stimulated
+by a chivalrous feeling for the beautiful vision of his childhood,
+whose sudden disappearance had ended his brightest days.
+
+'I suppose it is right and generous of the young man,' said Miss
+Headworth.  'But since the--the man is alive, I wish my poor Alice
+could have been left at peace!'
+
+'You forget that her daughter has rights which must be taken into
+consideration.'
+
+'Little Nuttie!  Dear child!  I should so far like her to be provided
+for, so far as that she need not go out in the world to earn her own
+livelihood.  But no! better be as we are than accept anything from
+that man!'
+
+'I quite understand and respect your feeling, Miss Headworth,'
+returned the lady; 'but may I return to my question whether you think
+your niece has any doubt of her husband being dead.'
+
+Miss Headworth considered.  'Since you ask me, I think she has kept
+the possibility of the life before her.  We have never mentioned the
+subject, and, as I said, the belief in his death ended a great
+suspense and sense of wounded affection.  She began soon and
+vigorously to turn her attention to the support of her child, and has
+found a fair measure of happiness; but at the same time she has
+shrunk from all notice and society, more than would be natural in so
+very young a widow and so attractive, more than I should have
+expected from her original character.  And once, when she did
+apprehend symptoms of admiration, she insisted that I should tell the
+history, enough, as she said, to make it plain that it was
+impossible.  There was one night too, when she had scarlatina, and
+was a little lightheaded, only four years ago, when she talked a good
+deal about his coming back; but that might have been only the old
+impression on her brain, of that long watching at Dieppe.  He--
+Captain Egremont, does not yet know where she is?'
+
+'No, certainly not.  But I fear he must.'
+
+'I suppose he ought,' sighed Miss Headworth; 'but in the meantime,
+till we know what line he takes, surely she need not be unsettled by
+the knowledge of his existence.'
+
+'By no means.  You had better act as you think best about that.  But
+you will not object to my nephew, her old pupil, Mark, coming to see
+her?  I will make him promise not to enter upon the subject.'
+
+Miss Headworth had only time to make a sign of reluctant acquiescence
+when the door opened and mother and daughter came in.  Nuttie first,
+eager as usual and open-mouthed, unaware that any one was there, for
+Lady Kirkaldy, wishing to avoid talk and observation, had left her
+carriage at the livery stables, and walked to St. Ambrose Road.  The
+girl, whom in a moment she classed as small, dark, and oddly like May
+Egremont, stopped short at sight of a stranger; the mother would have
+retreated but for Miss Headworth's nervous call 'Alice, my dear, here
+is Lady Kirkaldy.'
+
+Very lovely was Lady Kirkaldy's impression as she saw a slender
+figure in a dark gray linen dress, and a face of refined, though not
+intellectual, beauty and sweetness, under a large straw hat with a
+good deal of white gauziness about it, and the curtsey was full of
+natural grace.
+
+'You do not know me,' said Lady Kirkaldy, taking her hand, 'but I am
+aunt to some former pupils of yours, one of whom, Mark Egremont, is
+very anxious to come and see you.'
+
+'Mark!  My dear little Mark,' and her face lighted up.  'How very
+kind of him.  But he is not little Mark now.'
+
+'He is not a very big Mark either.  Most of the Egremonts are small.
+I see your daughter takes after them,' said Lady Kirkaldy, shaking
+hands with Ursula, who looked at her in unmitigated amazement.
+
+Alice faltered something about Lady Adelaide.
+
+'My dear sister fell into a decline, and died while the three
+children were still babies.  Poor things, I believe they had a sad
+time till their father married a Miss Condamine, who has been an
+excellent stepmother to them.  I have been to see them, but Mark was
+not then at home, so he has come to me at Monks Horton.  When will he
+find you at home?  Or may I bring him in at once.  He was to meet me
+at Micklethwayte.'
+
+'I should like very much to see him,' was the answer.  And Miss
+Headworth was obliged to say something about her ladyship taking a
+cup of tea.  Lady Kirkaldy, knowing that Mark was on the watch, set
+off in search of him, and found him, as she expected, pacing the
+pavement in front of the church.  There was no great distance in
+which to utter her explanations and cautions, warning him of her
+promise that the intelligence of the husband's being alive was to be
+withheld for a fitter time, but he promised dutifully, and his aunt
+then took him in with her.
+
+The recognition of her claims was a less stunning shock to Alice
+Egremont than to her aunt.  Shielded by her illness, as well as by
+her simplicity and ignorance, she had never been aware of her aunt's
+attempted correspondence with the Egremonts, nor of their deafness to
+appeals made on her behalf.  Far less had it ever occurred to her
+that the validity of her marriage could be denied, and the heinous
+error of her elopement seemed to her quite sufficient to account for
+her having been so entirely cast off by the family.  The idea that as
+wife or widow she had any claims on them, or that Ursula might have
+rights above those of Mark, had not come into her mind, which,
+indeed, at the moment was chiefly occupied by the doubt whether the
+milk was come in, and by ordering in the best teacups, presented by
+the boarders.
+
+Thus she was in the passage when Mark entered, and his exclamation
+instantly was 'Oh, Edda, dear old Edda!  You aren't a bit altered!'
+and he put his head under her hat and kissed her, adding, as she
+seemed rather startled, 'You are my aunt, you know; and where's my
+cousin?  You are Ursula?'
+
+He advanced upon Nuttie, took her by the hand and kissed her forehead
+before she was aware, but she flashed at him with her black eyes, and
+looked stiff and defiant.  She had no notion of kisses to herself,
+still less to her pretty mother whom she protected with a half proud,
+half jealous fondness.  How could the man presume to call her by that
+foolish name?  However, that single effusion had exhausted Mark's
+powers of cordiality, or else Nuttie's stiffness froze him.  They
+were all embarrassed, and had reason to be grateful to Lady
+Kirkaldy's practised powers as a diplomate's wife.  She made the
+most of Mrs. Egremont's shy spasmodic inquiries, and Mark's jerks of
+information, such as that they were all living at Bridgefield
+Egremont, now, that his sister May was very like his new cousin, that
+Blanche was come out and was very like his mother, etc. etc.  Every
+one was more at ease when Lady Kirkaldy carried the conversation off
+to yesterday's entertainment, hoping no one had been overtired, and
+the like.  Mrs. Egremont lighted up a little and began telling some
+of the expressions of delight she had heard, and in the midst,
+Nuttie, waking from her trance of stiff displeasure, came plump in
+with 'Oh! and there's a water-soldier, a real Stratiotes aculeatus in
+your lake.  May we get it?  Mr. Dutton didn't think we ought, but it
+would be such a prize!'
+
+'Ursula means a rare water-plant,' said Mrs. Egremont gently, seeing
+that Lady Kirkaldy had no notion of the treasure she possessed.  'She
+and some of her friends are very eager botanists.'
+
+'I am sure you may,' said the lady, amused.
+
+'Thank you!  Then, O mother!  Miss Mary and I will go.  And we'll
+wait till after office hours, and then Gerard Godfrey can come and
+fish it out for us!  Oh, thank you.  He wants the pattern of the
+Abbot's cross for an illumination, and he can get some ferns for the
+church.'
+
+Soon after this ebullition, Lady Kirkaldy carried off her nephew, and
+his first utterance outside the door was 'A woman like that will be
+the salvation of my uncle.'
+
+'Firstly, if you can bring them together,' said his aunt; 'and
+secondly, if there is stuff enough in that pretty creature.'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+SUSPENSE.
+
+
+
+
+'Where shall the traitor rest
+ He, the deceiver?'--SCOTT.
+
+
+Poor Miss Headworth's peace of mind was utterly destroyed.  That the
+niece whom she had nursed back to life and happiness, and brought to
+love her as a mother, should be at the mercy of a man whom she looked
+on as a heartless profligate, was dreadful to her beyond measure.
+And it involved Ursula's young life likewise?  Could it be a duty,
+after these eighteen years, to return to him?  What legal rights had
+he to enforce the resumption of the wife he had deserted.  'I will
+consult Mr. Dutton,' said the old lady to herself; 'Mr. Dutton is the
+only person who knows the particulars.  He will give me the best
+advice.'
+
+And while Miss Headworth, over her evening toilette, was coming to
+this resolution in one bedroom, Nuttie, in another, was standing
+aghast at her mother's agitation, and receiving a confession which
+filled her with astonishment.
+
+'I can't think why that gentleman should go and be so affectionate
+all on a sudden, 'quoth Nuttie;' if he is my cousin, and so fond of
+you, why couldn't he have come to see us before?'
+
+'Oh, Nuttie, dear, you don't understand why it is so good of him!  My
+dear, now this has come, I must tell you--you must hear--the sad
+thing your mother did.  Yes, my dear, I was their governess--and--and
+I did not--In short, my dear, I eloped.'
+
+'You, mother!  Oh what fun!' cried the girl in the utter extremity of
+wonder.
+
+'Nuttie!' exclaimed Mrs. Egremont, in a tone of horror and
+indignation--nay, of apprehension.
+
+'O mother--I didn't mean that!  But I can't get to believe it.  You,
+little mother mine, you that are so timid and bashful and quiet.
+That you--you should have done such a thing.'
+
+'Nuttie, my dear, can't you understand that such a thing would make
+me quiet?  I am always feeling when I see people, or they bring their
+daughters here.  "If they only knew--"'
+
+'No, no, no!  They would still see you were the sweetest dear.  But
+tell me all about it.  How very much in love you must have been!'
+said Nuttie, a magnificent vision of a young sailor with curly hair
+and open throat rising before her.
+
+'I think I was more frightened than in love,' faintly said Mrs.
+Egremont.  'At least I didn't know it was love, I thought he was only
+kind to me.'
+
+'But you liked it?' said Ursula magisterially.
+
+'I liked it, oh, I liked it!  It gave me a feeling such as nothing
+else ever did, but I never thought of its being love, he was so much
+older.'
+
+'Older!' exclaimed Nuttie, much taken aback.  'Oh! as old as Mr.
+Dutton?'
+
+'Mr. Dutton is thirty-six, I think.  Yes, he was older than that.'
+
+'Mother, how could you?'  For to be older than Mr: Dutton seemed to
+the youthful fancy to be near decrepitude; but she added, 'I suppose
+he was very noble, and had done great things.'
+
+'He was the grandest gentleman I ever saw, and had such, a manner,'
+said the mother, passing over the latter suggestion.  'Anyway, I
+never thought what it all meant--all alone with the children as I
+was--till I found people looking at me, and laughing at me, and then
+I heard Lady de Lyonnais and Mr. Egremont were coming down, very
+angry, to send me away.  I ought, I know it now, to have waited, for
+they would have written to my aunt.  But I was horribly frightened,
+and I couldn't bear to think of never seeing him again, and he came
+and comforted me, and said he would take me to Mrs. Houghton, the
+kind lady who was staying in the Ninon, and they would make it all
+square for me--and then--oh! it was very sweet--but I never knew that
+we were sailing away to Jersey to be married!  I knew it was very
+dreadful without any one's leave, but it was so noble of him to take
+the poor little governess and defend her, and it wasn't as if my
+mother had been alive.  I didn't know Aunt Ursel then as I did
+afterwards.  And Mrs. Houghton said there was nothing else to be
+done.'
+
+'O don't leave off, mother.  Do tell me.  How long did you have him?'
+
+'Six weeks then--and afterwards one fortnight at Dieppe.  He was not
+free.  He had an old uncle, General Egremont, who was sick and hot-
+tempered, and he was obliged to keep everything secret from him, and
+therefore from everybody else.  And so I was to live at Dieppe, while
+he went out to take care of his uncle, and you know--you know--'
+
+'Yes, I know, dear mother.  But I am sure he was saving somebody
+else, and it was a noble death!  And I know how Aunt Ursel came to
+Dieppe, and how I--your own little Frenchwoman--came to take care of
+you.  And haven't we been jolly without any of these fine relations
+that never looked after you all this time?  Besides, you know he is
+very likely to be on a lonely coral island, and will come home yet.
+I often think he is.'
+
+'My dear child, I have been happier than I deserved,' said Alice
+Egremont, drying her eyes.  'But oh! Nuttie, I hope you will be a
+wiser woman than your mother.'
+
+'Come, don't go on in that way!  Why, I've such advantages!  I've
+Miss Mary, and Aunt Ursel, and Mr. Spyers, and Mr. Dutton, and you,
+you poor little thing, had nobody!  One good thing is, we shall get
+the water-soldier.  Mr. Dutton needn't come, for he's like a cat, and
+won't soil his boots, but Gerard is dying to get another look at the
+old ruin.  He can't make up his mind about the cross on one of the
+stone-coffin lids, so he'll be delighted to come, and he'll get it
+out of the pond for us.  I wonder when we can go.  To-night is choir
+practice, and to-morrow is cutting-out day.'
+
+Miss Headworth was not sorry that the small sociabilities of the
+friends did not leave her alone with her niece all that evening, or
+the next day, when there was a grand cutting-out for the working
+party,--an operation always performed in the holidays.  Miss
+Headworth had of late years been excused from it, and it gave her the
+opportunity she wanted of a consultation with Mr. Dutton.  He was her
+prime adviser in everything, from her investments (such as they were)
+to the eccentricities of her timepieces; and as the cuckoo-clock had
+that night cuckooed all the hours round in succession, no one thought
+it wonderful that she should send a twisted note entreating him to
+call as early as he could in the afternoon.  Of course Nuttie's
+chatter had proclaimed the extraordinary visitors, and it needed not
+the old lady's dash under "on an anxious affair" to bring him to her
+little drawing-room as soon as he could quit his desk.  Perhaps he
+hastened his work with a hope in his heart which he durst not
+express, but the agitation on the usually placid face forbade him to
+entertain it for an instant, and he only said, 'So our expedition has
+led to unforeseen consequences, Miss Headworth.'  And then she
+answered under her breath, as if afraid of being overheard: 'Mr.
+Dutton, my poor child does not know it yet, but the man is alive!'
+
+Mr. Dutton compressed his lips.  It was the greater shock, for he had
+actually made inquiries at the Yacht Club, but the officials there
+either had not been made aware of the reappearance of the two
+Egremonts, or they did not think it worth while to look beyond the
+record which declared that all hands had perished, and the connection
+of the uncle and nephew with the Yacht Club had not been renewed.
+Presently he said, 'Then hers was a right instinct.  There is reason
+to be thankful.'
+
+Miss Headworth was too full of her own anxieties to heed his causes
+for thankfulness.  She told what she had heard from Lady Kirkaldy and
+from Mark Egremont, and asked counsel whether it could be Alice's
+duty to return to the man who had deserted her, or even to accept
+anything from him.  There was an impetuous and indignant spirit at
+the bottom of the old lady's heart, in spite of the subdued life she
+had led for so many years, and she hardly brooked the measured
+considerate manner in which her adviser declared that all depended on
+circumstances, and the manner in which Captain Egremont made the
+first move.  At present no one was acting but young Mark, and, as Mr.
+Dutton observed, it was not a matter in which a man was very likely
+to submit to a nephew's dictation.
+
+There was certainly no need for Mrs. Egremont to _force_ her presence
+on him.  But Mr. Dutton did think that for her own sake and her
+child's there ought to be full recognition of their rights, and that
+this should be proved by their maintenance.
+
+'I imagine that Ursula may probably be a considerable heiress, and
+her lights must not be sacrificed.'
+
+'Poor little girl!  Will it be for her happiness?  I doubt it
+greatly!'
+
+'Of that I suppose we have no right to judge,' said Mr. Dutton,
+somewhat tremulously. 'Justice is what we have to look to, and to
+allow Nuttie to be passed over would be permitting a slur to be cast
+on her and her mother.'
+
+'I see that,' said Miss Headworth, with an effort.  'I suppose I am
+after all a selfish, faithless old woman, and it is not in my hands
+after all.  But I must prepare my poor Alice for what may be coming.'
+
+'If any terms are offered to her, she had better put the matter into
+a lawyer's hands.  Dobson would be a safe man to deal with.'
+
+Miss Headworth was amazed that he--who had helped her in many a
+little question bordering on law--should not proffer his aid now in
+this greatest stress.  He was a resolute, self-controlled man, and
+she never guessed at the feeling that made him judge himself to be no
+fitting champion for Alice Egremont against her husband.  Ever since,
+ten years ago, he had learnt that his beautiful neighbour did not
+regard herself so certainly a widow as to venture to open her heart
+to any other love, he had lived patiently on, content to serve her as
+a trustworthy friend, and never betraying the secret hope so long
+cherished and now entirely crushed.
+
+He was relieved to escape from the interview, and the poor old lady
+remained a little more certain as to her duty perhaps, but with a
+certainty that only made her more unhappy, and she was so restless
+and nervous that, in the middle of the evening's reading of
+Archbishop Trench's Lectures on History, Alice suddenly broke off in
+the very middle of a sentence and exclaimed, 'Aunt Ursel! you are
+keeping something from me.'
+
+Miss Headworth made a faint attempt by saying something about
+presently, and glancing with her eyes to indicate that it was to be
+reserved till after Nuttie's bedtime, but the young lady comprehended
+the signs and exclaimed, 'Never mind me, Aunt Ursel,--I know all
+about mother; she told me last night.'
+
+'It is!' broke in Mrs. Egremont, who had been watching her aunt's
+face.  'You have heard of _him_.'
+
+'Oh, my father!  You really have!' cried Nuttie.  'Then he really was
+on the desert island all this time; I was quite sure of it.  How
+delightful!'  She jumped up and looked at the door, as if she
+expected to see him appear that instant, clad in skins like Robinson
+Crusoe, but her aunt's nervous agitation found vent in a sharp
+reproof: 'Nuttie, hold your tongue, and don't be such a foolish
+child, or I shall send you out of the room this instant!'
+
+'But aunt?' gasped Alice, unable to bear the suspense.
+
+'Yes, my poor dear child.  Captain Egremont with the General got off
+with some of the crew in a boat when the Ninon was burnt.  He spent a
+good many years abroad with the old man, but he has now inherited the
+family place, and is living there.'  Miss Headworth felt as if she
+had fired a cannon and looked to see the effect.
+
+'Ah, if we could have stayed at Dieppe!' said Mrs. Egremont.  'But we
+did write back to say where we could be heard of.'
+
+'That was of no use.  Mark found no traces of us when he went
+thither.'
+
+'Did he send Mark?'
+
+'No.  My dear Alice, I must not conceal from you that this is all Mr.
+Mark Egremont's doing.  He seems to have been helping his uncle with
+his papers when he came on the evidence of your marriage, and,
+remembering you as he does, he forced the confession of it from the
+captain, and of his own accord set forth to discover what had become
+of you and to see justice done to you.'
+
+'Dear little Mark!' said she; 'he always was such an affectionate
+little boy.'
+
+'And now, my dear, you must consider how you will receive any
+advances on his part.'
+
+'Oh, Aunt Ursel, don't!  I can't talk now.  Please let me go to bed.
+Nuttie, dear, you need not come yet.'
+
+The desire for solitude, in which to realise what she had heard, was
+overpowering, and she fled away in the summer twilight, leaving
+Nuttie with wide open eyes, looking after her vanished hero and
+desert island.
+
+'My poor Alice!' sighed the old lady.
+
+'Aunt Ursel!' exclaimed Nuttie, 'was--I mean--is my father a good or
+a bad man?'
+
+'My dear, should a daughter ask such a question?'
+
+'Aunt Ursel, I can't help it.  I think I ought to know all about it,'
+said Nuttie gravely, putting away her childishness and sitting down
+by her aunt.  'I did not think so much of it when mother told me they
+eloped, because, though I know it was very wrong, people do do odd
+things sometimes when they are very much in love (she said it in a
+superior patronising tone that would have amused Miss Headworth very
+much at any other time); and it has not spoilt mother for being the
+dearest, sweetest, best thing in the world, and, besides, they had
+neither of them any fathers or mothers to disobey.  But, then, when I
+found he was so old, and that he kept it a secret, and must have told
+stories only for the sake of money (uttered with extreme contempt), I
+didn't like it.  And if he left her as Theseus left Ariadne, or Sir
+Lancelot left Elaine, I--I don't think it is nice.  Do you think he
+only pretended to be lost in the Ninon to get rid of her, or that he
+could not find her?'
+
+'The Ninon was really reported lost with all on board,' said Miss
+Headworth.  'That was ascertained.  He was saved by a Chilian ship,
+and seems to have been a good while making his way back to Europe.  I
+had taken care that our address should be known at Dieppe, but it is
+quite possible that he may not have applied to the right people, or
+that they may not have preserved my letter, so that we cannot feel
+sore that he was to blame.'
+
+'If he had been worth anything at all, he would have moved heaven and
+earth to find her!' cried Nuttie; 'and you said yourself it was all
+_that_ Mark's doing!'
+
+'He seems to be a very upright and generous young man, that Mr. Mark
+Egremont,' said Miss Headworth, a whole romance as to Nuttie's future
+destiny sweeping across her mind in an instant, with a mental
+dispensation to first cousins in such a case.  'I think you will find
+him a staunch champion even against his own interests.'
+
+Perceptions came across Nuttie.  'Oh, then I am a sort of lost
+heiress, like people in a story!  I see!  But, Aunt Ursel, what do
+you think will happen?'
+
+'My dear child, I cannot guess in the least.  Perhaps the Egremont
+property will not concern you, and only go to male heirs.  That would
+be the best thing, since in any case you must be sufficiently
+provided for.  Your father must do that.'
+
+'But about mother?'
+
+'A proper provision must be insisted on for her,' said Miss
+Headworth.  'It is no use, however, to speculate on the future.  We
+cannot guess how Mr. Mark Egremont's communication will be received,
+or whether any wish will be expressed for your mother's rejoining
+your father.  In such a case the terms must be distinctly understood,
+and I have full trust both in Mr. Mark and in Lady Kirkaldy as her
+champions to see that justice is done to you both.'
+
+'I'm sure he doesn't deserve that mother should go to him.'
+
+'Nor do I expect that he will wish it, or that it would be proper;
+but he is bound to give her a handsome maintenance, and I think most
+probably you will be asked to stay with your uncle and cousins,' said
+Miss Headworth, figuring to herself a kind of Newstead Abbey or some
+such scene of constant orgies at Bridgefield Egremont.
+
+'I shall accept nothing from the family that does not include
+mother,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Dear child, I foresee many trials, but you must be her protector.'
+
+'That I will,' said Nuttie; and in the gallant purpose she went to
+bed, to find her mother either asleep or feigning slumber with tears
+on her cheek.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+THE WATER-SOLDIER.
+
+
+
+
+'Presumptuous maid, with looks intent,
+ Again she stretched, again she bent,
+ Nor knew the gulf between.'--GRAY.
+
+
+It all seemed like a dream to Ursula, perhaps likewise to her mother,
+when they rose to the routine of daily life with the ordinary
+interests of the day before them.  There was a latent unwillingness
+in Mrs. Egremont's mind to discuss the subject with either aunt or
+daughter; and when the post brought no letter, Ursula, after a
+moment's sense of flatness, was relieved, and returned to her eager
+desire to hurry after the water-soldier.  It was feasible that very
+afternoon.  Mary Nugent came in with the intelligence.
+
+'And can Gerard come? or we shall only look at it.'
+
+'Yes, Gerard can come, and so will Mr. Dutton,' said Mary, who,
+standing about half-way between Mrs. Egremont and her daughter, did
+not think herself quite a sufficient chaperon.
+
+'He will look on like a hen at her ducklings,' said Nuttie.  'It is
+cruel to take him, poor man!'
+
+'Meantime, Nuttie, do you like an hour of "Marie Stuart?"'
+
+'Oh, thank you!'  But she whispered, 'Aunt Ursel, may I tell her?'
+
+'Ask your mother, my dear.'
+
+Leave was given, half reluctantly, and with a prohibition against
+mentioning the subject to any one else, but both mother and aunt had
+confidence in Mary Nugent's wisdom and discretion, so the two friends
+sat on the wall together, and Ursula poured out her heart.  Poor
+little girl! she was greatly discomfited at the vanishing of her
+noble vision of the heroic self-devoted father, and ready on the
+other hand to believe him a villain, like Bertram Risingham, or 'the
+Pirate,' being possessed by this idea on account of his West Indian
+voyages.  At any rate, she was determined not to be accepted or
+acknowledged without her mother, and was already rehearsing
+magnanimous letters of refusal.
+
+Miss Mary listened and wondered, feeling sometimes as if this were as
+much a romance as the little yacht going down with the burning ship;
+and then came back the recollection that there was a real fact that
+Nuttie had a father, and that it was entirely uncertain what part he
+might take, or what the girl might be called on to do.  Considering
+anxiously these bearings of the question, she scarcely heard what she
+was required to assent to, in one of Nuttie's eager, 'Don't you think
+so?'
+
+'My dear Nuttie,' she said, rousing herself, 'what I do think is that
+it will all probably turn out exactly contrariwise to our
+imaginations, so I believe it would be wisest to build up as few
+fancies as possible, but only to pray that you may have a right
+judgment in all things, and have strength to do what is right,
+whatever you may see that to be.'
+
+'And of course that will be to stick by mother.'
+
+'There can be little doubt of that, but the how?  No, dear, do not
+let us devise all sorts of _hows_ when we have nothing to go upon.
+That would be of no use, and only perplex you when the time comes.
+It would be much better to "do the nexte thinge," and read our "Marie
+Stuart."'
+
+Nuttie pouted a little, but submitted, though she now and then broke
+into a translation with 'You know mother will never stand up for
+herself,' or 'They think I shall be asked to stay with the Egremonts,
+but I must work up for the exam.'
+
+However, the school habit of concentrating her attention prevailed,
+and the study quieted Nuttie's excitement.  The expedition took place
+as arranged.  There was a train which stopped so that the party could
+go down by it, and the distance was not too great for walking back.
+
+Mr. Dutton met them on the platform, well armed with his neat silk
+umbrella, and his black poodle, Monsieur, trotting solemnly after
+him.  Gerard Godfrey bore materials for an exact transcript of the
+Abbot's monumental cross, his head being full of church architecture,
+while Nuttie carried a long green tin case, or vasculum as she chose
+to call it, with her three vowels, U A E, and the stars of the Little
+Bear conspicuously painted on it in white.
+
+'You did not venture on that the other day,' said Mr. Dutton.  'How
+much of the park do you mean to carry away in it?'
+
+'Let me take it,' said Gerard politely.
+
+'No, thank you.  You'd leave it behind, while you were pottering over
+the mouldings.'
+
+'You are much more likely to leave it behind yourself.'
+
+'What--with my soldier, my Stratiotes, in it?  I think I see myself.'
+
+'Give it to me,' said Gerard.  'Of course I can't see you carrying a
+great thing like that.'
+
+'Can't you, indeed?'
+
+'Gently, gently, my dear,' said Miss Mary, as the young people seemed
+very near a skirmish, and the train was sweeping up.  Then there was
+another small scuffle, for Nuttie had set her heart on the third
+class; but Mr. Dutton had taken second-class tickets, and was about
+to hand them into a carriage whence there had just emerged a very
+supercilious black-moustached valet, who was pulling out a leather-
+covered dressing-case, while Gerard was consoling Nuttie by telling
+her that Monsieur never deigned to go third class.
+
+'It is a smoking carriage,' said Miss Nugent, on the step.  'Pah! how
+it smells,' as she jumped back.
+
+'Beautiful backy--a perfect nosegay,' said Gerard.
+
+'Trust that fellow for having the best.'
+
+'His master's, no doubt,' suggested Mr. Dutton.
+
+'You'd better go in it, to enjoy his reversion,' said Nuttie.
+
+'And where's my escort, then?'
+
+'Oh, I'm sure we don't want you.'
+
+'Nuttie, my dear,' expostulated Miss Nugent, dragging her into the
+next carriage.
+
+'You may enjoy the fragrance still,' said Nuttie when seated.  'Do
+you see--there's the man's master; he has stood him up against that
+post, with his cigar, to wait while he gets out the luggage.  I
+daresay you can get a whiff if you lean out far enough.'
+
+'I say! that figure is a study!' said Gerard.  'What is it that he is
+so like?'
+
+'Oh! I know,' said Nuttie.  'It is Lord Frederick Verisopht, and the
+bad gentlefolks in the pictures to the old numbers of Dickens that
+you have got, Miss Mary.  Now, isn't he?  Look! only Lord Frederick
+wasn't fat.'
+
+Nuttie was in a state of excitement that made her peculiarly
+unmanageable, and Miss Nugent was very grateful to Mr. Dutton for his
+sharp though general admonition against staring, while, under pretext
+of disposing of the umbrella and the vasculum, he stood up, so as to
+block the window till they were starting.
+
+There was no one else to observe them but a demure old lady, and in
+ten minutes' time they were in open space, where high spirits might
+work themselves off, though the battle over the botanical case was
+ended by Miss Nugent, who strongly held that ladies should carry
+their own extra encumbrances, and slung it with a scarf over Nuttie's
+shoulders in a knowing knapsack fashion.
+
+The two young people had known one another all their lives, for
+Gerard was the son of a medical man who had lived next door to Miss
+Headworth when the children were young.  The father was dead, and the
+family had left the place, but this son had remained at school, and
+afterwards had been put into the office at the umbrella factory under
+charge of Mr. Dutton, whose godson he was, and who treated him as a
+nephew.  He was a good-hearted, steady young fellow, with his whole
+interest in ecclesiastical details, wearing a tie in accordance with
+'the colours,' and absorbed in church music and decorations, while
+his recreations were almost all in accordance therewith.
+
+There was plenty of merriment, as he drew and measured at the very
+scanty ruins, which were little more than a few fragments of wall,
+overgrown luxuriantly with ivy and clematis, but enclosing some fine
+old coffin-lids with floriated crosses, interesting to those who
+cared for architecture and church history, as Mr. Dutton tried to
+make the children do, so that their ecclesiastical feelings might be
+less narrow, and stand on a surer foundation than present interest, a
+slightly aggressive feeling of contempt for all the other town
+churches, and a pleasing sense of being persecuted.
+
+They fought over the floriations and mouldings with great zest, and
+each maintained a date with youthful vigour--both being, as Mr.
+Dutton by and by showed them, long before the foundation.  The pond
+had been left to the last with a view to the wellbeing of the water-
+soldier on the return.  Here the difficulties of the capture were
+great, for the nearest plant flourished too far from the bank to be
+reached with comfort, and besides, the sharp-pointed leaves to which
+it owes its name were not to be approached with casual grasps.
+
+'Oh Monsieur, I wish you were a Beau,' sighed Nuttie.  'Why, are you
+too stupid to go and get it?'
+
+'It is a proof of his superior intelligence,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'But really it is too ridiculous--too provoking--to have come all
+this way and not get it,' cried the tantalised Nuttie.  'Oh, Gerard,
+are you taking off your boots and stockings?  You duck!'
+
+'Just what I wish I was,' said the youth, rolling up his trousers.
+
+But even the paddling in did not answer.  Mr. Dutton called out
+anxiously, 'Take care, Gerard, the bottom may be soft,' and came down
+to the very verge just in time to hold out his hand, and prevent an
+utterly disastrous fall, for Gerard, in spite of his bare feet, sank
+at once into mud, and on the first attempt to take a step forward,
+found his foot slipping away from under him, and would in another
+instant have tumbled backwards into the slush and weeds.  He
+scrambled back, his hat falling off into the reeds, and splashing Mr.
+Dutton all over, while Monsieur began to bark 'with astonishment at
+seeing his master in such a plight,' declared the ladies, who stood
+convulsed with cruel laughter.
+
+'Isn't it dreadful?' exclaimed Ursula.
+
+'Well!  It might have been worse,' gravely said Mr. Dutton, wiping
+off the more obnoxious of his splashes with his pocket handkerchief.
+
+'Oh I didn't mean you, but the water-soldier,' said Nuttie.  'To have
+come five miles for it in vain!'
+
+'I don't know what to suggest,' added Gerard.  'Even if the ladies
+were to retire--'
+
+'No, no,' interposed Mr. Dutton, ''tis no swimming ground, and I
+forbid the expedient.  You would only be entangled in the weeds.'
+
+'Behold!' exclaimed Mary, who had been prowling about the banks, and
+now held up in triumph one of the poles with a bill-hook at the end
+used for cutting weed.
+
+'Bravo, Miss Nugent!' cried Gerard.
+
+'Female wit has circumvented the water-soldier,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Don't cry out too soon,' returned Mary; 'the soldier may float off
+and escape you yet.'
+
+However, the capture was safely accomplished, without even a dip
+under water to destroy the beauty of the white flowers.  With these,
+and a few waterlilies secured by Gerard for the morrow's altar vases,
+the party set out on their homeward walk, through plantations of
+whispering firs, the low sun tingeing the trunks with ruddy light;
+across heathery commons, where crimson heath abounded, and the
+delicate blush-coloured wax-belled species was a prize; by cornfields
+in ear hanging out their dainty stamens; along hedges full of
+exquisite plumes of feathering or nodding grass, of which Nuttie made
+bouquets and botanical studies, and Gerard stored for harvest
+decorations.  They ran and danced on together with Monsieur at their
+heels, while the elders watched them with some sadness and anxiety.
+Free-masonry had soon made both Mary and Mr. Dutton aware of each
+other's initiation, and they had discussed the matter in all its
+bearings, agreed that the man was a scoundrel, and the woman an
+angel, even if she had once been weak, and that she ought to be very
+resolute with him if he came to terms.  And then they looked after
+their young companions, and Mr. Dutton said, 'Poor children, what is
+before them?'
+
+'It is well they are both so young,' answered Mary.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+THAT MAN.
+
+
+
+
+'It is the last time--'tis the last!'--SCOTT.
+
+
+Sundays were the ever-recurring centres of work and interests to the
+little circle in St. Ambrose's Road.  To them the church services and
+the various classes and schools were the great objects and
+excitements of the week.  A certain measure of hopeful effort and
+varying success is what gives zest to life, and the purer and higher
+the aim, and the more unmixed the motives, the greater the happiness
+achieved by the 'something attempted, something done.'
+
+Setting apart actual spiritual devotion, the altar vases, purchased
+by a contribution of careful savings, and adorned with the Monks
+Horton lilies, backed by ferns from the same quarter; the surplices
+made by the ladies themselves, the chants they had practised, the
+hymns they had taught, could not but be much more interesting to them
+than if they had been mere lookers on.  Every cross on the markers,
+every flower on the altar cloth was the work of one or other of them;
+everything in the church was an achievement, and choir boys, school
+children, Bible classes, every member of the regular congregation,
+had some special interest; nay, every irregular member or visitor
+might be a convert in time--if not a present sympathiser, and at the
+very least might swell the offertory that was destined to so many
+needs of the struggling district.
+
+Thus it was with some curiosity mingled with self-reproach that
+Nuttie, while singing her Benedictus among the tuneful shop-girls, to
+whom she was bound to set an example, became aware of yesterday's
+first-class traveller lounging, as far as the rows of chairs would
+permit, in the aisle, and, as she thought, staring hard at her
+mother.  It was well that Mrs. Egremont's invariable custom was never
+to lift her eyes from her book or her harmonium, or she surely must
+have been disconcerted, her daughter thought, by the eyes that must
+have found her out, under her little black net bonnet and veil, as
+the most beautiful woman in church,--as she certainly was,--even that
+fine good-for-nothing gentleman thinking so.  Nuttie would add his
+glances to the glories of her lovely mother!
+
+And she did so, with triumph in her tone of reprobation, as she
+trotted off, after the early dinner, to her share of Sunday-school
+work as usual under Miss Nugent's wing.  It began with a children's
+service, and then ensued, in rooms at the factory, lent by Mr.
+Dutton, the teaching that was to supply the omissions of the Board
+School; the establishment of a voluntary one being the next ambition
+of St. Ambrose's.
+
+Coming home from their labours, in the fervent discussion of their
+scholars, and exchanging remarks and greetings with the other
+teachers of various calibres, the friends reached their own road, and
+there, to their amazement, beheld Miss Headworth.
+
+'Yes, it really is!' cried Nuttie.  'We can't be too late?  No--
+there's no bell!  Aunt Ursel!  What has brought you out?  What's the
+matter?  Where's mother?'
+
+'In the house.  My dear,' catching hold of her, and speaking
+breathlessly, 'I came out to prepare you.  He is come--your father--'
+
+'Where?' cried Nuttie, rather wildly.
+
+'He is in the drawing-room with your mother.  I said I would send
+you.'  Poor Miss Headworth gasped with agitation.  'Oh! where's Mr.
+Dutton--not that anything can be done--'
+
+'Is it _that man_?' asked Nuttie, and getting no answer, 'I know it
+is!  Oh Aunt Ursel, how could you leave her with him?  I must go and
+protect her.  Gerard--come.  No, go and fetch Mr. Dutton.'
+
+'Hush! hush, Nuttie,' cried her aunt, grasping her.  'You know
+nothing about it.  Wait here till I can tell you.'
+
+'Come in here, dear Miss Headworth,' said Mary, gently drawing her
+arm into hers, for the poor old lady could hardly stand for
+trembling, and bidding Gerard open the door of her own house with the
+latch-key.
+
+She took them into the dining-room, so as not to disturb her mother,
+sent Gerard off after Mr. Dutton in the very uttermost astonishment
+and bewilderment, and set Miss Headworth down in an easy-chair, where
+she recovered herself, under Mary's soothing care, enough to tell her
+story in spite of Nuttie's exclamations.  'Wait! wait, Nuttie!  You
+mustn't burst in on them so!  No, you need not be afraid.  Don't be a
+silly child!  He won't hurt her!  Oh no!  They are quite delighted to
+meet.'
+
+'Delighted to meet?' said Nuttie, as if transfixed.
+
+'Yes,' said her aunt.  'Oh yes, I always knew the poor child cared
+for him and tried to believe in him all along.  He only had to say
+the word.'
+
+'I wouldn't,' cried the girl, her eyes flashing.  'Why didn't you ask
+him how he could desert her and leave her?'
+
+'My dear! how can one come between husband and wife?  Oh, my poor
+Alice!'
+
+'How was it, how did they meet, dear Miss Headworth?' asked Mary,
+administering the wine she had been pouring out.
+
+'You hadn't been gone half an hour, Alice was reading to me, and I
+was just dozing, when in came Louisa.  "A gentleman to see Mrs.
+Egremont," she said, and there he was just behind.  We rose up--she
+did not know him at once, but he just said "Edda, my little Edda,
+sweeter than ever, I knew you at once," or something of that sort,
+and she gave one little cry of "I knew you would come," and sprang
+right into his arms.  I--well, I meant to make him understand how he
+had treated her, but just as I began "Sir"--he came at me with his
+hand outstretched--'
+
+'You didn't take it, aunt, I hope?' cried Nuttie.
+
+'My dear, when you see him, you will know how impossible it is.  He
+_has_ that high-bred manner it is as if he were conferring a favour.
+"Miss Headworth, I conclude," said he, "a lady to whom I owe more
+than I can express."  Just as if I had done it for his sake.'  Miss
+Nugent felt this open expression dangerous on account of the
+daughter, and she looked her consternation at Mr. Dutton, who had
+quietly entered, ruthlessly shutting Gerard Godfrey out with only
+such a word of explanation as could be given on the way.
+
+'Then he comes with--with favourable intentions,' said Mary, putting
+as much admonition as she could into her voice.
+
+'Oh! no doubt of that,' said Miss Headworth, drawing herself
+together.  'He spoke of the long separation,--said he had never been
+able to find her, till the strange chance of his nephew stumbling on
+her at Abbots Norton.'
+
+'That is--possib--probably true,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'It can't be,' broke in Nuttie.  'He never troubled himself about it
+till his nephew found the papers.  You said so, Aunt Ursel!  He is a
+dreadful traitor of a man, just like Marmion, or Theseus, or
+Lancelot, and now he is telling lies about it!  Don't look at me.
+Aunt Ursel, they are lies, and I _will_ say it, and he took in poor
+dear mother once, and now he is taking her in again, and I can't bear
+that he should be my father!'
+
+It was so entirely true, yet so shocking to hear from her mouth, that
+all three stood aghast, as she stood with heaving chest, crimson
+cheeks, and big tears in her eyes.  Miss Headworth only muttered,
+'Oh, my poor child, you mustn't!'
+
+Mr. Dutton prevented another passionate outburst by his tone of
+grave, gentle authority.  'Listen a moment, Ursula,' he said.  'It is
+unhappily true that this man has acted in an unjustifiable way
+towards your mother and yourself.  But there are, no doubt, many more
+excuses for him than you know of, and as I found a few years ago that
+the people at Dieppe had lost the address that had been left with
+them, he must have found no traces of your mother there.  You cannot
+understand the difficulties that may have been in his way.  And there
+is no use, quite the contrary, in making the worst of him.  He has
+found your mother out, and it seems that he claims her
+affectionately, and she forgives and welcomes him--out of the sweet
+tenderness of her heart.'
+
+'She may--but I can't,' murmured Nuttie.
+
+'That is not a fit thing for a daughter, nor a Christian, to say,'
+Mr. Dutton sternly said.
+
+''Tis not for myself--'tis for her,--'objected Nuttie.
+
+'That's nonsense; a mere excuse,' he returned.  'You have nothing at
+all to forgive, since he did not know you were in existence.  And as
+to your mother, whom you say you put first, what greater grief or
+pain can you give her than by showing enmity and resentment against
+her husband, when she, the really injured person, loves and
+forgives?'
+
+'He's a bad man.  If she goes back to him, I know he will make her
+unhappy--'
+
+'You don't know any such thing, but you do know that your opposition
+will make her unhappy.  Remember, there's no choice in the matter.
+He has legal rights over you both, and since he shows himself ready
+(as I understand from Miss Headworth that he is) to give her and you
+your proper position, you have nothing to do but to be thankful.  I
+think myself that it is a great subject of thankfulness that your
+mother can return so freely without any bitterness.  It is the
+blessing of such as she--'
+
+Nuttie stood pouting, but more thoughtful and less violent, as she
+said, 'How can I be thankful?  I don't want position or anything.  I
+only want him to let my--my own mother, and aunt, and me alone.'
+
+'Child, you are talking of what you do not understand.  You must not
+waste any more time in argument.  Your mother has sent for you, and
+it is your duty to go and let her introduce you to your father.  I
+have little doubt that you will find him very unlike all your
+imagination represents him, but let that be as it may, the fifth
+Commandment does not say, "Honour only thy good father," but, "Honour
+thy father."  Come now, put on your gloves--get her hat right, if you
+please, Miss Mary.  There--now, come along, be a reasonable creature,
+and a good girl, and do not give unnecessary pain and vexation to
+your mother.'  He gave her his arm, and led her away.
+
+'Well done, Mr. Dutton!' exclaimed Miss Nugent.
+
+'Poor Mr. Dutton!'  All Aunt Ursel's discretion could not suppress
+that sigh, but Mary prudently let it pass unnoticed, only honouring
+in her heart the unselfishness and self-restraint of the man whose
+long, patient, unspoken hopes had just received a death-blow.
+
+'Oh, Mary!  I never thought it would have been like this!' cried the
+poor old lady.  'I ought not to have spoken as I did before the
+child, but I was so taken by surprise!  Alice turned to him just as
+if he had been the most faithful, loving husband in the world.  She
+is believing every word he says.'
+
+'It is very happy for her that she can,' pleaded Mary.
+
+'So it is, yes, but--when one knows what he is, and what she is!  Oh,
+Mr. Dutton, is the poor child gone in?'
+
+'Yes, I saw her safe into the room.  She was very near running off up
+the stairs,' said Mr. Dutton.  'But I daresay she is fascinated by
+this time.  That sort of man has great power over women.'
+
+'Nuttie is hardly a woman yet,' said Miss Nugent.
+
+'No, but there must be a strong reaction, when she sees something
+unlike her compound of Marmion and Theseus.'
+
+'I suppose there is no question but that they must go with him!' said
+Miss Headworth wistfully.
+
+'Assuredly.  You say he--this Egremont--was affectionate,' said Mr.
+Dutton quietly, but Mary saw his fingers white with his tight
+clenching of the bar of the chair.
+
+'Oh yes, warmly affectionate, delighted to find her prettier than
+ever, poor dear; I suppose he meant it.  Heaven forgive me, if I am
+judging him too hardly, but I verily believe he went to church to
+reconnoitre, and see whether she pleased his fancy--'
+
+'And do you understand,' added Mr. Dutton, 'that he is prepared to do
+her full justice, and introduce her to his family and friends as his
+wife, on equal terms?  Otherwise, even if she were unwilling to stand
+up for herself, it would be the duty of her friends to make some
+stipulations.'
+
+'I am pretty sure that he does,' said the aunt; 'I did not stay long
+when I saw that I was not wanted, but I heard him say something about
+his having a home for her now, and her cutting out the Redcastle
+ladies.'
+
+'Besides, there is the nephew, Mr. Mark Egremont,' said Mary.  'He
+will take care of her.'
+
+'Yes,' said Mr. Dutton.  'It appears to be all right.  At any rate,
+there can be no grounds for interference on our part.'
+
+Mr. Dutton took his leave with these words, wringing Miss Headworth's
+hand in mute sympathy, and she, poor old lady, when he was gone,
+fairly collapsed into bitter weeping over the uncertain future of
+those whom she had loved as her own children, and who now must leave
+her desolate.  Mary did her best with comfort and sympathy, and
+presently took her to share her griefs and fears with gentle old Mrs.
+Nugent.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+THE FATHER.
+
+
+
+
+'I do think this lady
+ To be my child.'-King Lear.
+
+
+Nuttie, in her fresh holland Sunday dress, worked in crewels with
+wild strawberries by her mother's hands, and with a white-trimmed
+straw hat, was almost shoved into the little drawing-room by Mr.
+Dutton, though he was himself invisible.
+
+Her eyes were in such a daze of tears that she hardly saw more at
+first than that some one was there with her mother on the sofa.  'Ah,
+there she is!' she heard her mother cry, and both rose.  Her mother's
+arm was round her waist, her hand was put into another, Mrs.
+Egremont's voice, tremulous with exceeding delight, said, 'Our child,
+our Ursula, our Nuttie!  Oh, this is what I have longed for all these
+years!  Oh, thanks, thanks!' and her hands left her daughter to be
+clasped and uplifted for a moment in fervent thanksgiving, while
+Nuttie's hand was held, and a strange hairy kiss, redolent of
+tobacco-smoking, was on her forehead--a masculine one, such as she
+had never known, except her cousin Mark's, since the old rector died,
+and she had grown too big for Mr. Dutton's embraces.  It was more
+strange than delightful, and yet she felt the polish of the tone that
+said, 'We make acquaintance somewhat late, Ursula, but better late
+than never.'
+
+She looked up at this new father, and understood instantly what she
+had heard of his being a grand gentleman.  There was a high-bred look
+about him, an entire ease and perfect manner that made everything he
+did or said seem like gracious condescension, and took away the power
+of questioning it at the moment.  He was not above the middle size,
+and was becoming unwieldy; but there was something imposing and even
+graceful in his deportment, and his bald narrow forehead looked
+aristocratic, set off between side tufts of white hair, white
+whiskers, and moustaches waxed into sharp points, Victor Emmanuel
+fashion, and a round white curly beard.  His eyes were dark, and
+looked dull, with yellow unwholesome corners, and his skin was not of
+a pleasant colour, but still, with all Nuttie's intentions of
+regarding him with horror, she was subdued, partly by the grand
+breeding and air of distinction, and partly by the current of
+sympathy from her mother's look of perfect happiness and exultation.
+She could not help feeling it a favour, almost an undeserved favour,
+that so great a personage should say, 'A complete Egremont, I see.
+She has altogether the family face.'
+
+'I am so glad you think so,' returned her mother.
+
+'On the whole it is well, but she might have done better to resemble
+you, Edda,' he said caressingly; 'but perhaps that would have been
+too much for the Earlsforth natives.  William's girls will have
+enough to endure without a double eclipse!' and he laughed.
+
+'I--I don't want--' faltered the mother.
+
+'You don't want, no, but you can't help it,' he said, evidently with
+a proud delight in her beauty.  'Now that I have seen the child,' he
+added, 'I will make my way back to the hotel.'
+
+'Will you--won't you stay to tea or dinner?' said his wife, beginning
+with an imploring tone which hesitated as she reviewed possible chops
+and her aunt's dismay.
+
+'Thank you, I have ordered dinner at the hotel,' he answered, 'and
+Gregorio is waiting for me with a cab.  No doubt you will wish to
+make arrangements with Madame--the old lady--and I will not trouble
+her further to-night.  I will send down Gregorio to-morrow morning,
+to tell you what I arrange.  An afternoon train, probably, as we
+shall go no farther than London.  You say Lady Kirkaldy called on
+you.  We might return her visit before starting, but I will let you
+know when I have looked at the trains.  My compliments to Miss
+Headworth.  Good evening, sweetest.'  He held his wife in a fond
+embrace, kissing her brow and cheeks and letting her cling to him,
+then added, 'Good evening, little one,' with a good-natured careless
+gesture with which Nuttie was quite content, for she had a certain
+loathing of the caresses that so charmed her mother.  And yet the
+command to make ready had been given with such easy authority that
+the idea of resisting it had never even entered her mind, though she
+stood still while her mother went out to the door with him and
+watched him to the last.
+
+Coming back, she threw her arms round her daughter, kissed her again
+and again, and, with showers of the glad tears long repressed, cried,
+'Oh, my Nuttie, my child, what joy!  How shall I be thankful enough!
+Your father, your dear father!  Now it is all right.'  Little
+sentences of ecstasy such as these, interspersed with caresses, all
+in the incoherence of overpowering delight, full of an absolute faith
+that the lost husband had loved her and been pining for her all these
+years, but that he had been unable to trace her, and was as happy as
+she was in the reunion.
+
+The girl was somewhat bewildered, but she was carried along by this
+flood of exceeding joy and gladness.  The Marmion and Theseus images
+had been dispelled by the reality, and, with Mr. Dutton's sharp
+reproof fresh upon her, she felt herself to have been doing a great
+injustice to her father; believed all that her mother did, and found
+herself the object of a romantic recognition--if not the beggar girl
+become a princess, at any rate, the little school-teacher a county
+lady!  And she had never seen her mother so wildly, overpoweringly
+happy with joy.  That made her, too, feel that something grand and
+glorious had happened.
+
+'What are we going to do?' she asked, as the vehemence of Mrs.
+Egremont's emotion began to work itself off.
+
+'Home!  He takes us to his home!  _His_ home!' repeated her mother,
+in a trance of joy, as the yearnings of her widowed heart now were
+fulfilled.
+
+'Oh, but Aunt Ursel!'
+
+'Poor Aunt Ursel!  Oh, Nuttie, Nuttie, I had almost forgotten!  How
+could I?' and there was a shower of tears of compunction.  'But he
+said he owed everything to her!  She will come with us!  Or if she
+doesn't live with us, we will make her live close by in a dear little
+cottage.  Where is she?  When did she go?  I never saw her go.'
+
+The sound of the front door was heard, for the visitor had been
+watched away and Miss Headworth was returning to her own house to be
+there received with another fervent gush of happiness, much more
+trying to her, poor thing, than to Nuttie.
+
+There was evensong imminent, and the most needful act at the moment
+was to compose the harmonium-player sufficiently for her to take her
+part.  Miss Headworth was really glad of the necessity, since it put
+off the discussion, and made a reason for silencing Nuttie until all
+should be more recovered from the first agitation.  Alice Egremont
+herself was glad to carry her gratitude and thankfulness to the
+Throne of Grace, and in her voluntary, and all her psalms, there was
+an exulting strain that no one had thought the instrument capable of
+producing, and that went to the heart of more than one of her
+hearers.  No one who knew her could doubt that hers was simply
+innocent exultation in the recovery of him whom she so entirely loved
+and confided in.  But there could not but be terrible doubts whether
+he were worthy of that trust, and what the new page in her life would
+be.
+
+Miss Headworth had said they would not talk till after church, but
+there was no deferring the matter then.  She was prepared, however,
+when her niece came up to her in a tender deprecating manner, saying,
+'Aunt Ursel, dear Aunt Ursel, it does seem very ungrateful, but--'
+
+'He is going to take you away?  Yes, I saw that.  And it ought to be,
+my dear.  You know where?'
+
+'Yes; to London first, to be fitted out, and then to his own home.
+To Bridgefield Egremont.  I shall have to see Mr. Egremont,' and her
+voice sank with shame.  'But Mark will be good to me, and why should
+I care when I have him.'
+
+'It is quite right. I am glad it should be so,' firmly said the old
+lady.
+
+'And yet to leave you so suddenly.'
+
+'That can't be helped.'
+
+'And it will only be for a little while,' she added, 'till you can
+make arrangements to come to us.  My dear husband says he owes you
+everything.  So you must be with us, or close to us.'
+
+'My dear, it's very dear and good of you to think of it, but I must
+be independent.'  She put it in those words, unwilling again to speak
+unguardedly before Nuttie.
+
+'Oh, dear auntie, indeed you must!  Think what you are to us, and
+what you have done for us.  We can't go away to be happy and
+prosperous and leave you behind.  Can we, Nuttie?  Come and help me
+to get her to promise.  Do--do dearest auntie,' and she began the
+coaxing and caressing natural to her, but Nuttie did not join in it,
+and Miss Headworth shook her head and said gravely--
+
+'Don't, Alice.  It is of no use.  I tell you once for all that my
+mind is made up.'
+
+Alice, knowing by long experience that, when her aunt spoke in that
+tone, persuasion was useless, desisted, but looked at her in
+consternation, with eyes swimming in tears.  Nuttie understood her a
+little better, and felt the prickings of distrust again.
+
+'But, aunt, dear aunt, how can we leave you?  What will you do with
+all the boarders,' went on Mrs. Egremont.
+
+'I shall see my way, my dear.  Do not think about that.  It is a
+great thing to see you and this child receive justice.'
+
+'And only think, after all the hard things that have been said of
+him, that we should meet first at church!  He would not wait and send
+letters and messages by Mark.  You see he came down himself the first
+moment.  I always knew he would.  Only I am so sorry for him, that he
+should have lost all those sweet years when Nuttie was a tiny child.
+She must do all she can to make up to him.'
+
+'Oh dear!' broke out Nuttie.  'It is so strange!  It will be all so
+strange!'
+
+'It will be a very new life,' said her aunt, rather didactically;
+'but you must do your best to be a good daughter, and to fill your
+new position, and I have no doubt you will enjoy it.'
+
+'If I could but take all with me!' said Nuttie.  'Oh dear! whatever
+will you do, Aunt Ursel?  Oh mother, the choir!  Who will play the
+harmonium? and who will lead the girls? and whatever will Mr. Spyers
+do? and who will take my class?  Mother, couldn't we stay a little
+longer to set things going here?'
+
+'It is nice of you to have thought of it, my dear,' said Mrs.
+Egremont, 'but your father would not like to stay on here.'
+
+'But mightn't I stay, just a few days, mother, to wish everybody
+good-bye?  Mr. Dutton, and Miss Mary, and Gerard, and all the girls?'
+
+There was some consolation in this plan, and the three women rested
+on it that night, Mrs. Egremont recovering composure enough to write
+three or four needful notes, explaining her sudden departure.  The
+aunt could not talk of a future she so much dreaded for her nieces,
+losing in it the thought of her own loneliness; Alice kept back her
+own loving, tender, undoubting joy with a curious sense that it was
+hard and ungrateful towards the aunt; but it was impossible to think
+of that, and Nuttie was in many moods.
+
+Eager anticipation of the new unseen world beyond, exultation in
+finding herself somebody, sympathy with her mother's happiness, all
+had their share, but they made her all the wilder, because they were
+far from unmixed.  The instinctive dislike of Mr. Egremont's
+countenance, and doubt of his plausible story, which had vanished
+before his presence, and her mother's faith, returned upon her from
+time to time, caught perhaps from her aunt's tone and looks.  Then
+her aunt had been like a mother to her--her own mother much more like
+a sister, and the quitting her was a wrench not compensated for as in
+Mrs. Egremont's case by a more absorbing affection.  Moreover, Nuttie
+felt sure that poor Gerard Godfrey would break his heart.  As the
+mother and daughter for the last time lay down together in the room
+that had been theirs through the seventeen years of the girl's life,
+Alice fell asleep with a look of exquisite peace and content on her
+face, feeling her long term of trial crowned by unlooked-for joy,
+while Ursula, though respecting her slumbers too much to move, lay
+with wide-open eyes, now speculating on the strange future, now
+grieving over those she left--Aunt Ursel, Gerard, Mary, and all such;
+the schemes from which she was snatched, and then again consoling
+herself with the hope that, since she was going to be rich, she could
+at once give all that was wanted--the white altar cloth, the brass
+pitcher--nay, perhaps finish the church and build the school!  For
+had not some one said something about her position?  Oh yes, she had
+not thought of it before, but, since she was the elder brother's
+daughter, she must be the heiress!  There was no doubt a grand
+beautiful story before her; she would withstand all sorts of
+fascinations, wicked baronets and earls innumerable, and come back
+and take Gerard by the hand, and say, 'Pride was quelled and love was
+free.'  Not that Gerard had ever uttered a word tending in that
+direction since he had been seven years old, but that would make it
+all the prettier; they would both be silently constant, till the time
+came, perhaps when she was of age.  Mother would like it, though
+_that_ father would certainly be horrid.  And how nice it would be to
+give Gerard everything, and they would go all over the Continent, and
+see pictures, and buy them, and see all the cathedrals and all the
+mountains.  But perhaps, since Mark Egremont had really been so
+generous in hunting up the cousin who was displacing him, she was
+bound in duty to marry him; perhaps he reckoned on her doing so.  She
+would be generous in her turn, give up all the wealth to him, and
+return to do and be everything to Micklethwayte.  How they would
+admire and bless her.  And oh! she was going to London to-morrow--
+London, which she so much wished to see--Westminster Abbey, British
+Museum, All Saints, National Gallery, no end of new dresses.
+
+Half-waking, half-dreaming, she spent the night which seemed long
+enough, and the light hours of the summer morning seemed still
+longer, before she could call it a reasonable time for getting up.
+Her splashings  awoke her mother, who lay smiling for a few moments,
+realising and giving thanks for her great joy, then bestirred herself
+with the recollection of all that had to be done on this busy morning
+before any summons from her husband could arrive.
+
+Combining packing and dressing, like the essentially unmethodical
+little woman she was, Mrs. Egremont still had all her beautiful silky
+brown hair about her shoulders when the bell of St. Ambrose's was
+heard giving its thin tinkling summons to matins at half-past seven.
+She was disappointed; she meant to have gone for this last time, but
+there was no help for it, and Nuttie set off by herself.
+
+Gerard Godfrey was at his own door.  He was not one of the regular
+attendants at the short service, being of that modern species that
+holds itself superior to 'Cranmer's prayers,' but on this morning he
+hastened up to her with outstretched hand.
+
+'And you are going away!' he said.
+
+'I hope to get leave to stay a few days after mother,' she said.
+
+'To prolong the torment?' he said.
+
+'To wish everybody good-bye.  It is a great piece of my life that is
+come to an end, and I can't bear to break it off so short.'
+
+'And if you feel so, who are going to wealth and pleasure, what must
+it be to those who are left behind?'
+
+'Oh!' said Nuttie, 'some one will be raised up.  That's what they
+always say. '
+
+'I shall go into a brotherhood,' observed Gerard desperately.
+
+'Oh, don't,' began Nuttie, much gratified, but at that moment Miss
+Nugent came out at her door, and Mr. Spyers, who was some way in
+advance, looked round and waited for them to come up.  He held out
+his hands to her and said, 'Well, Nuttie, my child, you are going to
+begin a new life.'
+
+'Oh dear!  I wish I could have both!' cried Nuttie, not very
+relevantly as far as the words
+went.
+
+'Scheiden und weiden thut weh!' quoted Mary.
+
+'If his place was only Monks Horton.  What will Aunt Ursel do?'
+
+'I think perhaps she may be induced to join us,' said Mary.  'We mean
+to do our best to persuade her.'
+
+'And there's the choir!  And my class, and the harmonium,' went on
+Nuttie, while Gerard walked on disconsolately.
+
+'Micklethwayte has existed without you, Nuttie,' said Mr. Spyers,
+taking her on with him alone.  'Perhaps it will be able to do so
+again.  My dear, you had better look on.  There will be plenty for
+you to learn and to do where you are going, and you will be sure to
+find much to enjoy, and also something to bear.  I should like to
+remind you that the best means of going on well in this new world
+will be to keep self down and to have the strong desire that only
+love can give to be submissive, and to do what is right both to God
+and your father and mother.  May I give you a text to take with you?
+"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right."'
+
+They were at the door and there was no time for an answer, but
+Nuttie, as she took her place, was partly touched and partly fretted
+at the admonition.
+
+The question as to her remaining a day or two after her mother was
+soon disposed of.  Mrs. Egremont sent a pretty little note to make
+the request, but the elegant valet who appeared at ten o'clock
+brought a verbal message that his master wished Mrs. and Miss
+Egremont to be ready by two o'clock to join him in calling on Lady
+Kirkaldy at Monks Horton, and that if their luggage was ready by four
+o'clock, he (Gregorio) would take charge of it, as they were all to
+go up to town by the 4.40 train.
+
+'Did he have my note?' faltered Alice, stimulated by the imploring
+glances of aunt and daughter, but anticipating the answer.
+
+'Yes, madame, but he wishes that Miss Egremont should accompany you
+immediately.'
+
+'Of course,' was Alice's comment, 'now that he has found his child,
+he cannot bear to part with her.'
+
+And all through the farewells that almost rent the gentle Alice's
+heart in two, she was haunted by the terror that she or her daughter
+should have red eyes to vex her husband.  As to Mr. Dutton, he had
+only come in with Gerard in a great hurry just after breakfast, said
+there was much to do to-day at the office, as they were going to take
+stock, and they should neither of them have time to come home to
+luncheon.  He shook the hands of mother and daughter heartily,
+promised to 'look after' Miss Headworth, and bore off in his train
+young Gerard, looking the picture of woe, and muttering 'I believe he
+has got it up on purpose;' while mother and daughter thought it very
+odd, and rather unkind.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+NEW PLUMES.
+
+
+
+
+'And ye sall walk in silk attire,
+ And siller hae to spare.'--Old Ballad.
+
+
+The very best open fly and pair of horses, being the equipage most
+like a private carriage possessed by the Royal Hotel, came to the
+door with Mr. Egremont seated in it, at a few minutes after two
+o'clock, and found Alice in her only black silk, with a rose in her
+bonnet, and a tie to match on her neck, hastily procured as signs of
+her wifehood.
+
+She had swallowed her tears, and Nuttie was not a crying person, but
+was perfectly scarlet on her usually brown cheeks.  Her father
+muttered some civility about back seats, but it was plain that it was
+only in words, and she never thought of anything but looking back,
+with her last wave to her aunt and the two maids, one crying at the
+gate, the other at the door.
+
+'There,' said Mr. Egremont, as they drove away, 'that is over!'
+
+'My dear aunt,' said his wife.  'Who can express her goodness to me?'
+
+'Cela va sans dire,' was the reply.  'But these are connections that
+happily Ursula is young enough to forget and leave behind.'
+
+'I shall never forget!' began Nuttie, but she saw her father
+composing himself in his corner without paying the slightest heed to
+what she was saying, and she encountered a warning and alarmed glance
+from her mother, so she was forced to content herself with uttering
+silent vows of perpetual recollection as she passed each well-known
+object,--the unfinished church, with Mr. Spyers at the door talking
+to old Bellman; the Town Hall, whose concerts, lectures, and S. P. G.
+meetings had been her chief gaiety and excitement; the School of Art,
+where Lady Kirkaldy's appearance now seemed to her to have been like
+that of a bird of omen; past the shops in the High Street, with a
+little exultation at the thought of past desires which they had
+excited.  Long could she have rattled away, her hopes contradicting
+her regrets, and her regrets qualifying her anticipations, but she
+saw that her mother was nervous about every word and gesture, and
+fairly looked dismayed when she exclaimed, 'Oh, mother, there's Etta
+Smith; how surprised she will be!' bowing and smiling with all her
+might.
+
+There was a look of bare toleration on Mr. Egremont's face, as if he
+endured because it would soon be over, as Nuttie bowed several times,
+and his wife, though less quick to catch people's eyes, sometimes
+also made her recognition.  When the streets were past and Nuttie had
+aimed her last nods at the nursery parties out walking on the road,
+she became aware that those cold, lack-lustre, and yet sharply
+critical eyes of her father were scanning her all over.
+
+'She has been educated?' he presently said to his wife.
+
+'Oh yes,' was the eager answer.  'She is in the highest form at the
+High School, and has to go up for the Senior Local Examination.  Miss
+Belper makes sure that she will get a first class.'
+
+Mr. Egremont gave a little wave of the hand, as dismissing something
+superfluous, and said, 'I hope she has some accomplishments.'
+
+'She has done very fairly in French and German--'
+
+'And Latin,' put in Ursula.
+
+'And she has had several prizes at the School of Art.'
+
+'And music?  That's the only thing of any value in society,' he said
+impatiently, and Mrs. Egremont said more timidly, 'She has learnt
+music regularly.'
+
+'But I don't care about it,' broke in Nuttie.  'I haven't mother's
+ear nor her voice.  I learnt the science in case I should have to
+teach, and they make me practise.  I don't mind classical music, but
+I can't stand rubbish, and I think it is waste of time.'
+
+Mr. Egremont looked fairly amused, as at the outspoken folly of an
+enfant terrible, but he only said, either to his wife or to himself,
+'A little polish, and then she may be fairly presentable. '
+
+'We have taken great pains with her,' answered the gentle mother,
+evidently taking this as a great compliment, while the daughter was
+tingling with indignation.  She, bred up by mother, and aunt, and
+Mary Nugent, to be barely presentable.  Was not their society at
+Micklethwayte equal in good manners to any, and superior, far
+superior, in goodness and intelligence to these stupid fashionable
+people, who undervalued all her real useful acquirements, and cared
+for nothing but trumpery music.
+
+The carriage entered the park, and Nuttie saw lake and woods from a
+fresh point of view.  The owners were both at home, and Nuttie found
+herself walking behind her parents into a cheerful apartment, half
+library, half morning-room.  Mrs. Egremont was by far the most shy
+and shrinking of the party, but it was an occasion that showed her
+husband's complete tact and savoir favre.  He knew perfectly well
+that the Kirkaldys knew all about it, and he therefore took the
+initiative.  'You are surprised to see us,' he said, as he gave his
+hand, 'but we could not leave the country without coming to thank
+Lady Kirkaldy for her kindness in assisting in following up the clue
+to Mrs. Egremont's residence.'
+
+'I am very happy,' said Lady Kirkaldy, while all were being seated.
+
+'I think it was here that my nephew Mark first met one whom, child as
+he was, he could not but remember.'
+
+'I don't think you met him here,' said Lady Kirkaldy to Mrs.
+Egremont; 'but he heard the name and was struck by it.'
+
+'Dear Mark!' was the response.  'He was so kind.'
+
+'He is a dear good boy,' chimed in my lady.
+
+'Yes,' said her lord, 'an excellent good fellow with plenty of
+brains.'
+
+'As he well knows,' said Mr. Egremont.  'Oh yes; I quite agree with
+all you say of him!  One ought to be thankful for the possession of a
+rare specimen.'
+
+It was in the tone in which Falstaff discussed that sober boy, Lord
+John of Lancaster.  Lord Kirkaldy asked if the visitors were going to
+remain long in the neighbourhood.
+
+'We are due in London to-night,' replied Mr. Egremont.  'We shall
+spend a day or two there, and then go home.  Alice,' he added, though
+his wife had never heard him call her so before, 'Lady Kirkaldy knows
+your inexperience.  Perhaps she would be good enough to give you some
+addresses that might be useful.'
+
+'I shall be delighted,' said the lady, cordially looking at the
+blushing Mrs. Egremont.
+
+'Dressmaker, and all the rest of it,' said Mr. Egremont.  'You know
+better than she does what she will require, and a little advice will
+be invaluable.  Above all, if you could tell her how to pick up a
+maid.'
+
+Lady Kirkaldy proposed to take the mother and daughter up to her
+dressing-room, where she kept her book of addresses to London
+tradesmen; and Mr. Egremont only begged that they would remember the
+4.40 train.  Then Lord Kirkaldy was left to entertain him, while the
+ladies went up the broad staircase to the pleasant room, which had a
+mingled look of refinement and usefulness which struck Nuttie at
+once.  Lady Kirkaldy, as soon as the door was shut, took her visitor
+by the hand, kissed her forehead, and said, 'You must let me tell you
+how glad I am.'
+
+The crystal veil at once spread over Alice's eyes.
+
+'Oh, thank you. Lady Kirkaldy!  I am _so_ happy, and yet I am so
+afraid.  Please tell me what we shall _do_ so that we may not vex
+him, so high bred and fastidious as he is?'
+
+'Be yourself!  That's all, my dear,' said Lady Kirkaldy tenderly.
+'Don't be afraid.  You are quite incapable of doing anything that
+could distress the most fastidious taste.'
+
+It was perfectly true of the mother, perhaps less so of the daughter;
+but Lady Kirkaldy only thought of her as a mere girl, who could
+easily be modelled by her surroundings.  The kind hostess applied
+herself to giving the addresses of the people she thought likely to
+be most useful in the complete outfit which she saw would be
+necessary, explaining to which establishments she applied with
+confidence if she needed to complete her wardrobe in haste, feeling
+certain that nothing would be sent her that she disliked, and giving
+leave to use her name.  She soon saw that the mother was a little
+dazed, while Ursula's eyes grew rounder at the unlimited vista of
+fine clothes, and she assented, and asked questions as to the
+details.  As to a maid, Lady Kirkaldy would write to a person who
+would call on Mrs. Egremont at the hotel in London, and who might be
+what was wanted; and in conclusion, Lady Kirkaldy, with some
+diffidence, begged to be written to--'if--if,' she said, 'there
+happened to be any difficulty about which you might not like to
+consult Mrs. William Egremont.'  Nuttie hardly knew whether to be
+grateful or not, for she did not believe in any standard above that
+of Micklethwayte, and she was almost angry at her mother's grateful
+answer--'Oh, thank you!  I should be so grateful!  I am so afraid of
+annoying him by what he may think small, ignorant, country-town ways!
+You will understand--'
+
+Lady Kirkaldy did understand, and she dreaded what might be before
+the sweet little yielding woman, not from want of breeding so much as
+from the long-indulged selfishness of her husband; but she encouraged
+her as much as possible, and promised all possible counsel, bringing
+her downstairs again just in time.
+
+'Pretty little soul!' said Lord Kirkaldy, as the fly clattered away.
+'I wonder whether Mark has done her a kindness!'
+
+'It is just what she is, a pretty, nay, a beautiful soul, full of
+tenderness and forgiveness and affection and humility, only I doubt
+whether there is any force or resolution to hold her own.  You smile!
+Well, perhaps the less of that she has the better she may get on with
+him.  Did he say anything about her?'
+
+'No; I think he wants to ignore that they have not spent the last
+twenty years together.'
+
+'That may be the best way for all parties.  Do you think he will
+behave well to her?'
+
+'No man could well do otherwise to such a sweet little thing,' said
+Lord Kirkaldy; 'especially as she will be his most obedient slave,
+and will make herself necessary to him.  It is much better luck than
+he deserves; but I pity her when she comes to make her way with yon
+ladies!'
+
+'I wish I was there!  I know she will let herself be trodden on!
+However, there's Mark to stand up for her, and William Egremont will
+do whatever he thinks right and just.  I wish I knew how his wife
+will take it!'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+BRIDGEFIELD EGREMONT.
+
+
+
+
+'Let us see these handsome houses
+ Where the wealthy nobles dwell.'--TENNYSON.
+
+
+'Mother, mother!' cried two young people, bursting open the door of
+the pretty dining-room of Bridgefield Rectory, where the grown-up
+part of the family were lingering over a late breakfast.
+
+'Gently, gently, children,' said the dignified lady at the head of
+the table.  'Don't disturb papa.'
+
+'But we really have something to say, mother!' said the elder girl,
+'and Fraulein said you ought to know.  Uncle Alwyn is come home, and
+Mrs. Egremont.  And please, are we to call her Aunt Egremont, or Aunt
+Alwyn, or what?'
+
+The desired sensation was produced.  Canon Egremont put down his
+newspaper.  The two elder sisters looked from one to the other in
+unmitigated astonishment.  Mark briefly made answer to the final
+question, 'Aunt Alice,' and Mrs. Egremont said gravely, 'How did you
+hear this, Rosalind?  You know I always forbid you to gossip.'
+
+'We didn't gossip, mother.  We went up to the gardens to get some
+mulberries for our half-holiday feast; and Ronaldson came out and
+told us we must ask leave first, for the ladies were come.  The
+Squire came home at nine o'clock last night, and Mrs. Egremont and
+all, and only sent a telegram two hours before to have the rooms got
+ready.'
+
+'Has Uncle Alwyn gone and got himself married?' exclaimed one of the
+young ladies, in utter amazement.
+
+'Not just now, Blanche,' said her father.  'It is an old story now.
+Your uncle married this lady, who had been governess to May and Mark,
+many years ago, and from--circumstances in which she was not at all
+to blame, he lost sight of her while he was abroad with old General
+Egremont.  Mark met her about a fortnight ago, and this has led to
+your uncle's going in quest of her, though he has certainly been more
+sudden in his proceedings than I expected.'
+
+The mother here succeeded in sending Rosalind and Adela, with their
+wondering eyes, off the scene, and she would much have liked to send
+her two stepdaughters after them, but one-and-twenty and eighteen
+could not so readily be ordered off as twelve and ten; and Mark, who
+had been prohibited from uttering a word to his sisters, was eagerly
+examining Margaret whether she remembered their Edda; but she had
+been only three years old at the time of the adventures in the Isle
+of Wight, and remembered nothing distinctly but the aspect of one of
+the sailors in the yacht.
+
+'Well,' said Mrs. Egremont, 'this has come very suddenly upon us.  It
+would have been more for her own dignity if she had held out a little
+before coming so easily to terms, after the way in which she has been
+treated.'
+
+'When you see her, mother, you will understand,' said Mark.
+
+'Shall we have to be intimate with her?' asked May.
+
+'I desire that she should be treated as a relation,' said the Canon
+decidedly.  'There is nothing against her character,' and, as his
+wife was about to interrupt,--'nothing but an indiscretion to which
+she was almost driven many years ago.  She was cruelly treated, and I
+for one am heartily sorry for having let myself be guided by others.'
+
+Mrs. William Egremont felt somewhat complacent, for she knew he meant
+Lady de Lyonnais, and there certainly had been no love lost between
+her and her step-children's grandmother; but she was a sensible
+woman, and forbore to speak, though there was a mental reservation
+that intimacy would a good deal depend upon circumstances.  Blanche
+cried out that it was a perfect romance, and May gravely said, 'But
+is she a lady?'
+
+'A perfect lady,' said Mark.  'Aunt Margaret says so.'
+
+'One knows what a perfect lady means,' returned May.
+
+'Come, May,' said Mrs. Egremont, 'do not let us begin with a
+prejudice.  By all accounts the poor thing has conducted herself with
+perfect respectability all this time.  What did you tell me, Mark?
+She has been living with an aunt, keeping a school at Micklethwayte.'
+
+ Not quite,' said Mark.  'She has been acting as a daily governess.
+She seemed to be on friendly terms with the clerical folk.  I came
+across the name at a school feast, or something of the kind, which
+came off in the Kirkaldys' park.'
+
+'Oh, then, I know exactly the sort of person!' returned May, pursing
+up her lips.
+
+Mark laughed and said, 'I wonder whether it is too soon to go up and
+see them.  I wonder what my uncle thinks of his daughter.'
+
+'What!  You don't mean to say there is a daughter?' cried May.
+
+'Even so.  And exactly like you too, Miss May.'
+
+'Then you are cut out, Mark!'
+
+'You are cut out, I think, May.  You'll have to give her all your
+Miss Egremont cards.'
+
+'No,' said the young lady; 'mother made me have my Christian name
+printed.  She said all but the daughters of the head of the family
+ought to have it so.  I'm glad of it.'
+
+'How old is she?' asked Blanche.
+
+'About a year younger than you.'
+
+'I think it is very interesting,' said Blanche.  'How wonderful it
+must all be to her!  I will go up with you, Mark, as soon as I can
+get ready.'
+
+'You had better wait till later in the day, Blanche,' said the
+mother.  She knew the meeting was inevitable, but she preferred
+having it under her own eye, if she could not reconnoitre.
+
+She was a just and sensible woman, who felt reparation due to the
+newly-discovered sister-in-law, and that harmony, or at least the
+appearance of it, must be preserved; but she was also exclusive and
+fastidious by nature, and did not look forward to the needful
+intercourse with much satisfaction either on her own account or that
+of her family.
+
+She told Mark to say that she should come to see Mrs. Egremont after
+luncheon, since he was determined to go at once, and moreover to drag
+his father with him.  Canon Egremont was a good and upright man,
+according to his lights, which were rather those of a well-beneficed
+clergyman of the first than of the last half of the century,
+intensified perhaps that the passive voice was the strongest in him.
+All the country knew that Canon Egremont could be relied on to give a
+prudent, scholarly judgment, and to be kind and liberal, when once
+induced to stir mind or body--but how to do that was the problem.  He
+had not been a young man at the time of his first marriage, and was
+only a few years' junior to his brother, though he had the fresh,
+wholesome look of a man who kept regular hours and lived much in the
+air.
+
+Alice knew him at once, and thought eighteen years had made little
+change, as, at Nuttie's call to her, she looked from the window and
+saw the handsome, dignified, gray-haired, close-shaven rosy face, and
+the clerical garb unchanged in favour of long coats and high
+waistcoats.
+
+The mother and daughter were exploring the house together.  Mr.
+Egremont had made it known that he preferred having his breakfast
+alone, and not being disturbed in the forenoon.  So the two ladies
+had breakfasted together at nine, the earliest hour at which they
+could prevail on the household to give them a meal.  Indeed Nuttie
+had slept till nearly that time, for between excitement and noise,
+her London slumbers had been broken; and her endeavour to keep
+Micklethwayte hours had resulted in a long, weary, hungry time in the
+sitting-room of the hotel, with nothing to do, when the gaze from the
+window palled on her, but to write to her aunt and Mary Nugent.  The
+rest of the day had been spent in driving about in a brougham with
+her mother shopping, and this she could not but enjoy exceedingly,
+more than did the timid Mrs. Egremont, who could not but feel herself
+weighted with responsibility; and never having had to spend at the
+utmost more than ten pounds at a time, felt bewildered at the cheques
+put into her hands, and then was alarmed to find them melting away
+faster than she expected.
+
+There was a very late dinner, after which Mr. Egremont, on the first
+day, made his wife play bezique with him.  She enjoyed it, as a
+tender reminiscence of the yachting days; but Nuttie found herself de
+trop, and was reduced to the book she had contrived to purchase on
+her travels.  The second night Mr. Egremont had picked up two
+friends, not yet gone out of town, whose talk was of horses and of
+yachts, quite incomprehensible to the ladies.  They were very
+attentive to Mrs. Egremont, whom they evidently admired, one so
+visibly as to call up a blush; but they disregarded the daughter as a
+schoolgirl.  Happily they appeared no more after the dinner; but
+Nuttie's first exclamation of astonished disgust was silenced at once
+by her mother with unusual determination, 'You must not speak so of
+your father's friends.'
+
+'Not when--'
+
+'Not at all,' interrupted Mrs. Egremont.
+
+The only sense of promotion to greatness that Ursula had yet enjoyed
+was in these fine clothes, and the maid whom Lady Kirkaldy had
+recommended, a grave and severe-looking person, of whom both stood
+somewhat in awe.  The arrival at Bridgefield had been too late for
+anything to be taken in but a general impression of space and
+dreariness, and the inevitable dinner of many courses, after which
+Nuttie was so tired out that her mother sent her to bed.
+
+Since the waking she had made some acquaintance with the house.
+There was no show of domestics, no curtseying housekeeper to parade
+the new mistress over the house; Mr. Egremont had told his wife that
+she must fill up the establishment as she pleased, but that there was
+an admirable cook downstairs, and he would not have her interfered
+with--she suited his tastes as no one else did, and she must be left
+to deal with the provisions and her own underlings.  There was a
+stable establishment, and a footman had been hired in town, but there
+was besides only one untidy-looking housemaid, who began by giving
+warning; and Alice and Nuttie had roamed about without meeting any
+one from the big wainscotted dining-room with faded crimson curtains
+and family portraits, the older grimy, the younger chalky, to the two
+drawing-rooms, whose gilding and pale blue damask had been preserved
+by pinafores of brown holland; the library, which looked and smelt as
+if Mr. Egremont was in the habit of sitting there, and a big
+billiard-room, all opening into a shivery-feeling hall, with
+Scagliola columns and a few dirty statues between them; then upstairs
+to a possible morning-room, looking out over a garden lawn, where
+mowing was going on in haste, and suites of dreary shut-up fusty
+bedrooms.  Nuttie, who had notions of choosing her own bower, could
+not make up her mind which looked the least inviting.  It did not
+seem as if girls could ever have laughed together, or children
+clattered up and down the stairs.  Mrs. Egremont begged her to keep
+possession for the present at least of the chamber where the grim
+housemaid had chosen to put her, and which had the advantage of being
+aired.
+
+The two windows looked out over the park, and thence it was that
+while Morris, the maid, was unpacking and putting away the new
+purchases, and Nuttie was standing, scarcely realising that such
+pretty hats and bonnets could be her very own, when her mother beheld
+the Canon and Mark advancing up the drive.  It was with a great start
+that she called Ursula to come down directly with her, as no one
+would know where to find them, hastily washing the hands that had
+picked up a sense of dustiness during the exploration, and taking a
+comprehensive glance in the cheval glass, which showed her some one
+she felt entirely unfamiliar to her in a dainty summer costume of
+pale gray silk picked out with a mysterious shade of pink.  Ursula
+too thought Miss Egremont's outer woman more like a Chelsea
+shepherdess than Nuttie's true self, as she tripped along in her
+buckled shoes and the sea green stockings that had been sent home
+with her skirt.  With crimson cheeks and a throbbing heart, Alice was
+only just at the foot of the stairs when the newcomers had made their
+way in, and the kind Canon, ignoring all that was past, held out his
+hands saying, 'Well, my dear, I am glad to see you here,' kissing
+Mrs. Egremont on each cheek.  'And so this is your daughter.  How do
+you do, my dear--Ursula?  Isn't that your name?'  And Ursula had
+again to submit to a kiss, much more savoury and kindly than her
+father's, though very stubbly.  And oh! her uncle's dress was like
+that of no one she had ever seen except the rector of the old church,
+the object of unlimited contempt to the adherents of St. Ambrose's.
+
+As to Mark, he only kissed his aunt, and shook hands with her, while
+his father ran on with an unusual loquacity that was a proof of
+nervousness in him.
+
+'Mrs. Egremont--Jane, I mean--will be here after luncheon.  She
+thought you would like to get settled in first.  How is Alwyn?  Is he
+down yet?'
+
+'I will see,' in a trembling voice.
+
+'Oh no, never mind, Alwyn hates to be disturbed till he has made
+himself up in the morning.  My call is on you, you know.  Where are
+you sitting?'
+
+'I don't quite know.  In the drawing-room, I suppose.'
+
+The Canon, knowing the house much better than she did, opened a door
+into a third drawing-room she had not yet seen, a pretty little room,
+fitted up with fluted silk, like a tent, somewhat faded but not much
+the worse for that, and opening into a conservatory, which seemed to
+have little in it but some veteran orange trees.  Nuttie, however,
+exclaimed with pleasure at the nicest room she had seen, and Mark
+began unfastening the glass door that led into it.  Meantime Alice,
+with burning cheeks and liquid eyes, nerved her voice to say, 'Oh,
+sir--Mr. Egremont--please forgive me!  I know now how wrong I was.'
+
+'Nonsense, my dear.  Bygones are bygones.  You were far more sinned
+against than sinning, and have much to forgive me.  There, my dear,
+we will say no more about it, nor think of it either.  I am only too
+thankful that poor Alwyn should have some one to look after him.'
+
+Alice, who had dreaded nothing more than the meeting with her former
+master, was infinitely relieved and grateful for this kindness.  She
+had ejaculated, 'Oh, you are so good!' in the midst, and now at the
+mention of her husband, she exclaimed, 'Oh! do you think he is ill?
+I can't help being afraid he is, but he will not tell me, and does
+not like to be asked.'
+
+'Poor fellow, he has damaged his health a good deal,' was the answer.
+'He had a sharp attack in the spring, but he has pretty well got over
+it, and Raikes told me there was no reason for uneasiness, provided
+he would be careful; and that will be a much easier matter now.  I
+should not wonder if we saw him with quite a renewed youth.'
+
+So the Canon and Mrs. Egremont were getting on pretty well together,
+but there was much more stiffness and less cordiality between the two
+cousins, although Mark got the window open into the conservatory, and
+showed Nuttie the way into the garden, advising her to ask Ronaldson,
+the gardener, to fill the conservatory with flowers.  The pavilion,
+as this little room was called, always seemed to have more capacities
+for being lived in than any other room in the house.  It had been
+fitted up when such things were the fashion for the shortlived bride
+of 'our great uncle.'
+
+'The colour must have been awful then,' said Mark, looking up at it,
+'enough to set one's teeth on edge; but it has faded into something
+quite orthodox--much better than could be manufactured for you.'
+
+Mark had evidently some ideas of art, and was besides inclined to do
+the honours to the stranger; but Nuttie was not going to encourage
+him or anybody else to make up to her, while she had that look of
+Gerard Godfrey's in her mind's eye.  So she made small answer, and he
+felt rebuffed, but supposed her shy, and wondered when he could go
+back to her mother, who was so much more attractive.
+
+Presently his father went off to storm the den of the master of the
+house, and there was a pleasant quarter of an hour, during which the
+three went out through the conservatory, and Mark showed the ins-and-
+outs of the garden, found out Ronaldson, and congratulated him on
+having some one at last to appreciate his flowers, begging him to
+make the conservatory beautiful.  And Mrs. Egremont's smile was so
+effective that the Scot forthwith took out his knife and presented
+her with the most precious of the roses within his reach.
+
+Moreover Mark told the names and ages of all his sisters, whole and
+half.  He was the only son, except a little fellow in the nursery.
+And he exhorted his aunt not to be afraid of his step-mother, who was
+a most excellent person, he declared, but who never liked to see any
+one afraid of her.
+
+There was something a little alarming in this, but on the whole the
+visit was very pleasant and encouraging to Mrs. Egremont; and she
+began rejoicing over the kindness as soon as the Canon had summoned
+his son, and they had gone away together.
+
+'I am sure you must be delighted with your uncle and cousin, my
+dear,' she said.
+
+'He's not a bit my notion of a priest,' returned Nuttie.  'And I
+don't believe he has any daily prayers!'
+
+'He is old-fashioned, my dear.'
+
+'One of the stodgey old clergymen in books,' observed Nuttie.  'I
+didn't think there were any of that sort left.'
+
+'Oh, my dear, pray don't take fancies into your head!  He is a very,
+very good man, and has been most kind to me, far more than I deserve,
+and he is your uncle, Nuttie.  I do so hope you will get on well with
+your cousins.'
+
+Here a gong, a perfectly unknown sound to Nuttie, made itself heard,
+and rather astonished her by the concluding roar.  The two ladies
+came out into the hall as Mr. Egremont was crossing it.  He made an
+inclination of the head, and uttered a sort of good morning to his
+daughter, but she was perfectly content to have no closer salutation.
+Having a healthy noonday appetite, her chief wish was at the moment
+that those beautiful little cutlets, arranged in a crown form, were
+not so very tiny; or that, with two men-servants looking on, it were
+possible to attain to a second help, but she had already learnt that
+Gregorio would not hear her, and that any attempt to obtain more food
+frightened her mother.
+
+'So his reverence has been to see you,' observed Mr. Egremont.
+'William, if you like it better.'
+
+'Oh yes, and he was kindness itself!'
+
+'And how did Master Mark look at finding I could dispense with his
+assistance?'
+
+'I think he is very glad.'
+
+Mr. Egremont laughed.  'You are a simple woman, Edda!  The pose of
+virtuous hero was to have been full compensation for all that it
+might cost him!  And no doubt he looks for the reward of virtue
+likewise.'
+
+Wherewith he looked full at Ursula, who, to her extreme vexation,
+felt herself blushing up to the ears.  She fidgeted on her chair, and
+began a most untrue 'I'm sure--' for, indeed, the poor girl was sure
+of nothing, but that her father's manner was most uncomfortable to
+her.  His laugh choked whatever she might have said, which perhaps
+was well, and her mother's cheeks glowed as much as hers did.
+
+'Did the Canoness--Jane, I mean--come up?' Mr. Egremont went on.
+
+'Mrs. Egremont?  No; she sent word that she is coming after
+luncheon.'
+
+'Hm!  Then I shall ride out and leave you to her majesty.  Now look
+you, Alice, you are to be very careful with William's wife.  She is a
+Condamine, you know, and thinks no end of herself, and your position
+among the women-folk of the county depends more on how she takes you
+up than anything else.  But that doesn't mean that you are to let her
+give herself airs and domineer over you.  Remember you are the elder
+brother's wife--Mrs. Egremont of Bridgefield Egremont--and she is
+nothing but a parson's wife, and I won't have her meddling in my
+house.  Only don't you be absurd and offend her, for she can do more
+for or against you in society than any one else--more's the pity!'
+
+'Oh! won't you stay and help me receive her?' exclaimed the poor
+lady, utterly confused by these contrary directions.
+
+'Not I!  I can't abide the woman! nor she me!'  He added, after a
+moment, 'You will do better without me.'
+
+So he went out for his ride, and Ursula asked, 'Oh, mother! what will
+you do?'
+
+'The best I can, my dear.  They are good people, and are sure to be
+kinder than I deserve.'
+
+Nuttie was learning that her mother would never so much as hear, far
+less answer, a remark on her husband.  It was beginning to make a
+sore in the young heart that a barrier was thus rising, where there
+once had been as perfect oneness and confidence as could exist
+between two natures so dissimilar, though hitherto the unlikeness had
+never made itself felt.
+
+Mrs, Egremont turned the conversation to the establishing themselves
+in the pavilion, whither she proceeded to import some fancy-work that
+she had bought in London, and sent Nuttie to Ronaldson, who was
+arranging calceolarias, begonias, and geraniums in the conservatory,
+to beg for some cut-flowers for a great dusty-looking vase in the
+centre of the table.
+
+These were being arranged when Mrs. William Egremont and Miss Blanche
+Egremont were ushered in, and there were the regular kindred
+embraces, after which Alice and Nuttie were aware of a very handsome,
+dignified-looking lady, well though simply dressed in what was
+evidently her home costume, with a large shady hat and feather, her
+whole air curiously fitting the imposing nickname of the Canoness.
+Blanche was a slight, delicate-looking, rather pretty girl in a lawn-
+tennis dress.  The visitor took the part of treating the newcomers as
+well-established relations.
+
+'We would not inundate you all at once,' she said, 'but the children
+are all very eager to see their cousin.  I wish you would come down
+to the Rectory with me.  My ponies are at the door.  I would drive
+you, and Ursula might walk with Blanche.'  And, as Alice hesitated
+for a moment, considering how this might agree with the complicated
+instructions that she had received, she added, 'Never mind Alwyn.  I
+saw him going off just before I came up, and he told William he was
+going to look at some horses at Hale's, so he is disposed of for a
+good many hours.'
+
+Alice decided that her husband would probably wish her to comply, and
+she rejoiced to turn her daughter in among the cousins, so hats,
+gloves, and parasols were fetched, and the two mothers drove away
+with the two sleek little toy ponies.  By which it may be perceived
+that Mrs. William Egremont's first impressions were favourable.
+
+'It is the shortest way through the gardens,' said Blanche.  'Have
+you been through them yet?'
+
+'Mark walked about with us a little.'
+
+'You'll improve them ever so much.  There are great capabilities.
+Look, you could have four tennis courts on this one lawn.  We wanted
+to have a garden-party up here last year, and father said we might,
+but mother thought Uncle Alwyn might think it a liberty; but now
+you'll have some delicious ones?  Of course you play lawn-tennis?'
+
+'I have seen it a very few times,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Oh, we must teach you!  Fancy living without lawn-tennis!' said
+Blanche.  'I always wonder what people did without it.  Only'--with
+an effort at antiquarianism--'I believe they had croquet.'
+
+'Aunt Ursula says there weren't garden-parties before croquet came
+in.'
+
+'How dreadful, Ursula!  Your name's Ursula, isn't it?  Haven't you
+some jolly little name to go by?'
+
+'Nuttie.'
+
+'Nuttie!  That's scrumptious!  I'll call you Nuttie, and you may call
+me Pussycat.'
+
+'That's not so nice as Blanche.'
+
+'Mother won't have me called so when strangers are there, but you
+aren't a stranger, you know.  You must tell me all about yourself,
+and how you came never to learn tennis!'
+
+'I had something else to do,' said Nuttie, with dignity.
+
+'Oh, you were in the schoolroom!  I forgot.  Poor little Nuts!'
+
+'At school,' said Ursula.
+
+'Ah, I remember!  But you're out now, aren't you?  I've been out
+since this spring.  Mother won't let us come out till we are
+eighteen, isn't it horrid?  And we were so worked there!  I can tell
+you a finishing governess is an awful institution!  Poor little Rosie
+and Adey will be in for one by and by.  At present they've only got a
+jolly little Fraulein that they can do anything they please with.'
+
+'Oh, I wonder if she would tell me of some German books!'
+
+'You don't mean that you want to read German!' and Blanche stood
+still, and looked at her cousin in astonishment.
+
+'Why, what else is the use of learning it?'
+
+'Oh, I don't know.  Every one does.  If one went abroad or to court,
+you know,' said Blanche vaguely; but Ursula had now a fresh subject
+of interest; for, on emerging from the shrubbery, they came in sight
+of a picturesque but not very architectural church, which had the
+smallest proportion of wall and the largest of roof, and a pretty
+oriel-windowed schoolhouse covered with clematis.  Nuttie rushed into
+inquiries about services and schools, and was aghast at hearing of
+mere Sundays and saints' days.
+
+'Oh no! father isn't a bit Ritualistic.  I wish he was, it would be
+so much prettier; and then he always advertises for curates of
+moderate views, and they are so stupid.  You never saw such a stick
+as we have got now, Mr. Edwards; and his wife isn't a lady, I'm
+sure.'
+
+Then as to schools, it was an absolute amazement to Nuttie to find
+that the same plans were in force as had prevailed when her uncle had
+come to the living and built that pretty house--nay, were kept up at
+his sole expense, because he liked old-fashioned simplicity, and did
+not choose to be worried with Government inspection.
+
+'And,' said Blanche, 'every one says our girls work ever so much
+better, and make nicer servants than those that are crammed with all
+sorts of nonsense not fit for them.'
+
+As to the Sunday school.  Mother and the curate take care of that.
+I'm sure, if you like it, you can have my class, for I always have a
+headache there, and very often I can't go.  Only May pegs away at it,
+and she won't let me have the boys, who are the only jolly ones,
+because she says I spoil them.  But you must be my friend--mind,
+Nuttie, not May's, for we are nearer the same age.  When is your
+birthday?  You must put it down in my book!'
+
+Nuttie, who had tolerable experience of making acquaintance with new
+girls, was divided between a sense of Blanche's emptiness, and the
+warmth excited by her friendliness, as well as of astonishment at all
+she heard and saw.
+
+Crossing the straggling, meandering village street, the cousins
+entered the grounds of the Rectory, an irregular but well-kept
+building of the soft stone of the country, all the garden front of it
+a deep verandah that was kept open in summer, but closed with glass
+frames in the winter--flower-beds lying before it, and beyond a lawn
+where the young folk were playing at the inevitable lawn-tennis.
+
+Margaret was not so pretty as Blanche, but had a more sensible face,
+and her welcome to Ursula was civil but reserved.  Rosalind and Adela
+were bright little things, in quite a different style from their
+half-sisters, much lighter in complexion and promising to be
+handsomer women.  They looked full of eagerness and curiosity at the
+new cousin, whom Blanche set down on a bank, and proceeded to
+instruct in the mysteries of the all-important game by comments and
+criticisms on the players.
+
+As soon as Mark and Adela had come out conquerors, Ursula was called
+on to take her first lesson.  May resigned her racket, saying she had
+something to do, and walked off the field, and carrying off with her
+Adela, who, as Blanche said, 'had a spine,' and was ordered to lie
+down for an hour every afternoon.  The cheerfulness with which she
+went spoke well for the training of the family.
+
+Nuttie was light-footed and dexterous handed, and accustomed to
+active amusements, so that, under the tuition of her cousins, she
+became a promising pupil, and thawed rapidly, even towards Mark.
+
+She was in the midst of her game when the two mothers came out, for
+the drive had been extended all round the park, under pretext of
+showing it to its new mistress, but really to give the Canoness an
+opportunity of judging of her in a tete-a-tete.  Yet that sensible
+woman had asked no alarming questions on the past, still less had
+offered any advice that could seem like interference.  She had only
+named localities, mentioned neighbours, and made little
+communications about the ways of the place such as might elicit
+remarks; and, as Alice's voice betrayed less and less constraint, she
+ventured on speaking of their daughters, so as to draw forth some
+account of how Ursula might have been educated.
+
+And of this, Alice was ready and eager to talk, telling how clever
+and how industrious Nuttie had always been, and how great an
+advantage Miss Nugent's kindness was, and how she was hoping to go up
+for the Cambridge examination; then, detecting some doubt in her
+companion's manner, she said, 'It would be a great disappointment to
+her not to do so now.  Do you think she had better not?'
+
+'I don't think she will find time to go on with the preparation!
+And, to tell the truth, I don't think we are quite ripe for such
+things in this county.  We are rather backward, and Ursula, coming in
+fresh upon us, might find it a disadvantage to be thought much
+cleverer than other people.'
+
+'Ah!  I was not quite sure whether her father would like it.'
+
+'I do not think he would.  I am sure that if my little Rose were to
+take it into her head, I should have hard work to get her father's
+consent, though no doubt the world will have progressed by the time
+she is old enough.'
+
+'That settles it,' said Alice.  'Thank you, Mrs. Egremont.  I own,'
+she added presently, 'that I do somewhat regret that it cannot be,
+for I thought that a motive for keeping up her studies would be
+helpful to my child;--I do not mean for the sake of the studies, but
+of the--the balance in all this change and novelty.'
+
+'You are quite right, I have felt it myself,' said her sister-in-law.
+'Perhaps something could be done by essay societies.  May belongs to
+one, and if Ursula is an intellectual girl, perhaps you could keep
+her up to some regular employment in the morning.  I succeeded in
+doing so when May came out, but I can accomplish nothing regular but
+music with Blanche; and an hour's steady practice a day is better
+than nothing.'
+
+The drive was on the whole a success, and so was the tea-drinking in
+the verandah, where Aunt Alice and little five-years old Basil became
+fast friends and mutual admirers; the Canon strolled out and was
+installed in the big, cushioned basket-chair that crackled under his
+weight; Blanche recounted Nuttie's successes, and her own tennis
+engagements for the week; Mark lay on a rug and teased her, and her
+dachshund; Nuttie listened to the family chatter as if it were a
+play, and May dispensed the cups, and looked grave and severe.
+
+'Well?' said the Canon anxiously, when Mark, Blanche, and little
+Basil had insisted on escorting the guests home, and he and his wife
+were for a few minutes tete-a-tete.
+
+'It might have been much worse,' said the lady.  'She is a good
+little innocent thing, and has more good sense than I expected.
+Governessy, that's all, but she will shake out of that.'
+
+'Of course she will.  It's the best thing imaginable for Alwyn!'
+
+His wife kept back the words, 'A hundred times too good for Alwyn!'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+LAWN-TENNIS.
+
+
+
+
+'Madam, the guests are come, supper served up,
+ My young lady asked for!'--Romeo and Juliet.
+
+
+A garden-party, Mrs. William Egremont decided, would be the best mode
+of testifying her approbation of her sister-in-law, and introducing
+the newcomers to the neighbourhood.  So the invitations were sent
+forth for an early day of the coming week.
+
+From how many points of view was Mrs. William Egremont's garden-party
+regarded, and how different!  There was Basil, to whom it meant
+wearing his velvet suit and eating as many ices as mother would
+allow.  To Blanche, it was an occasion for triumph on the tennis
+ground for herself, and for hopes for her pupil; and Ursula herself
+looked forward to it and practised for it like a knight for his first
+encounter in the lists, her sole care being to distinguish herself
+with her racket.  To her mother, it was an ordeal, where she trusted
+not to be a mortification to her husband and his family; while to the
+hostess, it was a not unwelcome occasion of exercising honest
+diplomacy and tact, not without a sense of magnanimity.  To May, it
+was a bore to be endured with dutiful philosophy; to her good-natured
+father an occasion for hospitality, where he trusted that his brother
+would appear, and appear to advantage, and was ready even to bribe
+him thereto with that wonderful claret that Alwyn had always envied,
+and declared to be wasted on a parson.  And Mark, perhaps he viewed
+the occasion with different eyes from any one else.  At any rate,
+even the denizens of Bridgefield mustered there with as many minds as
+Scott ascribes to the combatants of Bannockburn, and there were
+probably as many other circles of feeling more or less intersecting
+one another among the more distant guests, most of them, however,
+with the same feeling of curiosity as to what this newly-discovered
+wife and daughter of Alwyn Egremont might be like.
+
+Externally, in her rich black silk, trimmed with point lace, and her
+little straw-coloured bonnet with its tuft of feathery grass and blue
+cornflower, she was so charming that her daughter danced round her,
+crying, 'O mammy, mammy, if they could but see you at home'--then, at
+a look: 'Well then--Aunt Ursel, and Miss Mary, and Mr. Dutton!'
+
+Nuttie was very much pleased with her own pretty tennis dress; but
+she had no personal vanity for herself, only for her mother.  The
+knowledge that she was no beauty was no grievance to her youthful
+spirits; but when her father surveyed them in the hall, she looked
+for his verdict for her mother as if their relations were reversed.
+
+'Ha!  Well, you certainly are a pretty creature, Edda,' he said
+graciously.  'You'll pass muster!  You want nothing but style.  And,
+hang it! you'll do just as well without it, if the Canoness will only
+do you justice.  Faces like that weren't given for nothing.'
+
+She blushed incarnadine and accepted one of his kisses with a
+pleasure, at which Nuttie wondered, her motherly affection prompting
+her to murmur in his ear--
+
+'And Ursula?'
+
+'She'll not cut you out; but she is Egremont enough to do very
+fairly.  Going already?'
+
+'If you would come with us,' she said wistfully, to the horror of
+Nuttie, who was burning to be at the beginning of all the matches.
+
+'I? oh no!  I promised old Will to look in, but that won't be till
+late in the day, or I shall have to go handing all the dowagers into
+the dining-room to tea.'
+
+'Then I think we had better go on.  They asked us to come early, so
+as to see people arrive and know who they are.'
+
+_They_ was a useful pronoun to Alice, who felt it a liberty to call
+her grand-looking sister-in-law, Jane--was too well-bred to term her
+Mrs. William.
+
+The mother and daughter crossed the gardens, Nuttie chattering all
+the way about the tennis tactics she had picked up from Blanche,
+while her mother answered her somewhat mechanically, wondering, as
+her eye fell on the square squat gray church tower, what had become
+of the earnest devotion to church work and intellectual pursuits that
+used to characterise the girl.  True, always both mother and daughter
+had hitherto kept up their church-going, and even their Sunday-school
+habits, nor had any hindrance come in their way, Mr. Egremont
+apparently acquiescing in what he never shared.  But these things
+seemed, in Ursula's mind, to have sunk out of the proportion they
+held at Bridgefield, no longer to be the spirit of a life, but mere
+Sunday duties and occupations.
+
+Was this wicked world getting a hold of the poor child?  Which was
+duty? which was the world?  This was the thought that perplexed
+Alice, too simple as yet to perceive that Ursula's former absorption
+had been in the interests that surrounded her and her companions,
+exactly as they were at present, and that the real being had yet to
+work itself out.
+
+For herself, Alice did not think at all.  She was rejoicing in her
+restored husband, and his evident affection.  Her duty towards him
+was in her eyes plain.  She saw, of course, that he had no religion,
+but she accepted the fact like that of bad weather; she loved him,
+and she loved her daughter; she said her prayers with all her heart
+for them, she hoped, and she did her best, without trying to go below
+the surface.
+
+There was the Rectory gate wide open.  There was Basil rushing up to
+greet his dear Aunt Alice, there were all the windows and doors of
+the Rectory open, and the nearer slopes covered with chairs and seats
+of all dimensions, some under trees, some umbelliferous, and glowing
+Afghan rugs, or spotted skins spread for those who preferred the
+ground.  There was Blanche flitting about wild with excitement, and
+pouncing on Nuttie to admire her outfit, and reiterate instructions;
+there were the two younger girls altering the position of chairs
+according to their mother's directions; there were actually two
+guests--not very alarming ones, only the curate and his wife, both
+rather gaunt, bony people.  He was button-holing the Canon, and she
+was trying to do the same by the Canoness about some parish casualty.
+The Canon hoped to escape in the welcome to his sister-in-law and
+niece, but he was immediately secured again, while his wife found it
+requisite to hurry off else where, leaving Mrs. Edwards to tell her
+story to Mrs. Egremont.  In point of fact, Alice really liked the
+good lady, was quite at ease with her, and felt parish concerns a
+natural element, so that she gave full heed and attention to the
+cruelty of Mrs. Parkins' depriving Betsy Butter (with an old father
+and mother to support) of her family washing, on the ground of a
+missing pocket handkerchief, the which Mrs. Edwards believed to have
+been abstracted by the favourite pickle of Miss Blanche's class, if
+only a confession could be elicited from him when undefended by his
+furious mother.  Mrs. Egremont was listening with actual interest and
+sympathy to the history of Betsy Butter's struggles, and was
+inquiring the way to her cottage, when she was called off to be
+introduced to the arrivals who were beginning to flood the lawn.  She
+presently saw May, who had just come down, walking up and down with
+Mrs. Edwards, evidently hearing the story of the handkerchief.  She
+thought it had been Nuttie for a moment.  There was a general
+resemblance between the cousins that made them be mistaken for one
+another several times in the course of the day, since their dresses,
+though not alike, were of the same make and style.
+
+Thus it was that as Nuttie was sitting on the grass in earnest
+contemplation of Blanche's play, a hand was familiarly laid on her
+shoulder, and a voice said,  'I haven't seen that horrid girl yet!'
+
+After so many introductions, Nuttie had little idea whom she knew, or
+whom she did not know.  She looked up and saw a small person in light
+blue, with the delicate features, transparent skin, and blue eyes
+that accompany yellow hair, with an indescribable glitter of mirth
+and joyousness about the whole creature, as if she were part and
+parcel of the sunbeam in which she stood,
+
+'What horrid girl?' said Nuttie.
+
+'The interloper, the newly-discovered savage, come to upset--Ah!'--
+with a little shriek--'It isn't May!  I beg your pardon.'
+
+'I'm May's cousin,' said Nuttie, 'Ursula Egremont.'
+
+'Oh, oh!' and therewith the fact burst on both girls at once.  They
+stood still a moment in dismay, then the stranger went into a fit of
+laughter.  'Oh, I beg your pardon!  I can't help it!  It is so
+funny!'
+
+Nuttie was almost infected, though somewhat hurt.  'Who said I was
+horrid?' she asked.
+
+'Nobody!  Nobody but me--Annaple Ruthven--and they'll all tell you,
+May and all, that I'm always putting my foot in it.  And I never
+meant that you were horrid--you yourself--you know--only--'
+
+'Only nobody wanted us here,' said Nuttie; 'but we could not help
+it.'
+
+'Of course not.  It was shocking, just my way.  Please forgive me!'
+and she looked most pleading.  Nuttie held out her hand with
+something about 'No one could mind;' and therewith Annaple cried,
+'Oh, if you don't mind, we can have our laugh out!' and the rippling
+laughter did set Nuttie off at once.  The peal was not over when May
+herself was upon them demanding what was the joke.
+
+'Oh, there she is!  The real May!  Why,' said Annaple, kissing her,
+'only think here I've been and gone and thought this was you, and
+inquired about--What was it?--the awful monster--the chimera dire--
+that Mark had routed up--'
+
+'No; you didn't say that,' said Nuttie, half provoked.
+
+'Never mind what I said.  Don't repeat it.  I only wish myself and
+every one else to forget it.  Now it is swept to the winds by a good
+wholesome giggling.  But what business have you two to be so
+inconveniently alike?  You are as bad as the twin Leslies!'
+
+'There's an old foremother on the staircase in white satin who left
+her looks to us both,' said May.
+
+'You'll have to wear badges,' said Annaple.  'You know the Leslies
+were so troublesome that one had to be shipped off to the East Indies
+and the other to the West.'
+
+'They married, that's all,' said May, seeing Nuttie looking
+mystified; and at that moment, Blanche's side coming out victorious,
+Nuttie descended into the arena to congratulate and be asked to form
+part of the next set.
+
+'Well, that was a scrape!' said Annaple; 'but she wasn't bad about
+it!  I must do something to make up for it somehow--get Janet to
+invite her, but really Janet is in such a state of mind that I am
+mildness itself compared with her.  She would not have come, only
+John was curious, and declared he should go whether we did or not.'
+
+'Ah!' said May, 'I saw him, like the rest of mankind, at madame's
+feet.'
+
+'Oh! is she of that sort?'
+
+'No,' said May, 'not at all.  Mother and father too both think she is
+good to the backbone; but she is very pretty, with just the inane
+soft sweetness that men rave about--innocent really.  All accounts of
+her are excellent, and she has nice parish ways, and will be as
+helpful as Uncle Alwyn will let her.'
+
+'But she couldn't always have been nice?'
+
+'Well, I verily believe it was all Uncle Alwyn's and grandmamma's
+fault.  I know Mark thinks so.'
+
+'When the women of a family acquit a woman it goes for something,'
+said Annaple.  'That's not original, my dear, I heard old Lady
+Grosmede say so to Janet when she was deliberating over the
+invitation, "For a good deal more than Mr. Mark's, at any rate.'"
+
+'Mark is very fond of her--the mother, I mean.  He says when he was a
+little fellow her loss was worse to him than even our mother's.'
+
+'Do you remember the catastrophe?'
+
+'Not a bit.  Only when she is petting Basil it strikes me that I have
+heard the tones before.  I only remember the time of misery under the
+crosspatches grandmamma got for us.'
+
+'Well, it was a splendid cutting of his own throat in Mark,' said
+Annaple, 'so it ought to turn out well.'
+
+'I don't know how it is to turn out for Mark,' answered May.  'Oh,
+here he comes!'
+
+'Will you come into this set, Annaple?' he asked.  'They want another
+couple,' and, as she accepted,  'How do you get on with May's
+double?'
+
+'I pity May for having such a double.'
+
+'Don't encourage her by misplaced pity.'
+
+'It's abominable altogether!  I want to fly at somebody!'
+
+'Exhaust your feelings on your racket, and reflect that you see a man
+released from bondage.'
+
+'Is that philosophy or high-faluting?' she said in a teasing tone as
+the game began.
+
+The Ruthvens had very blue blood in their veins, but as there were
+nine of the present generation, they possessed little beyond their
+long pedigree; even the head of the family, Lord Ronnisglen, being
+forced to live as a soldier, leaving his castle to grouse shooters.
+His seven brothers had fared mostly in distant lands as they could,
+and his mother had found a home, together with her youngest child, at
+Lescombe, where her eldest was the wife of Sir John Delmar.  Lady
+Ronnisglen was an invalid, confined to the house, and Lady Delmar had
+daughters fast treading on the heels of Annabella, so christened, but
+always called Annaple after the old Scottish queens, her ancestors.
+She had been May Egremont's chief friend ever since her importation
+at twelve years old, and the intimacy had been promoted by her mother
+and sister.  Indeed, the neighbourhood had looked on with some
+amusement at the competition ascribed to Lady Delmar and to the
+wealthy parvenu, Mrs. West, for the heir-presumptive of Bridgefield
+Egremont.
+
+Annaple's lightness and dexterity rendered her the best of the lady
+tennis-players, and the less practised Ursula found herself defeated
+in the match, in spite of a partner whose play was superior to
+Mark's, and with whom she shyly walked off to eat ices.
+
+'I see,' said Annaple, 'it is a country-town edition of May.  I
+shan't blunder between them again.'
+
+'She will polish,' said Mark, 'but she is not equal to her mother.'
+
+'Whom I have not seen yet.  Ah, there's Mr. Egremont!  Why, he looks
+quite renovated!'
+
+'Well he may be!'
+
+'But Mark, not to hurt your feelings, he must have behaved
+atrociously.'
+
+'I'm not going to deny it,' said Mark.
+
+'I always did think he looked like it,' said Annaple.
+
+'When have you seen him before?'
+
+'Only once, but it was my admirable sagacity, you understand?  I
+always see all the villains in books just on his model.  Oh, but
+who's that?  How very pretty!  You don't mean it is she!  Well, she
+might be the heroine of anything!'
+
+'Isn't she lovely?'
+
+'And has she been keeping school like Patience on a monument all
+these years?  It doesn't seem to have much damaged her damask cheek!'
+
+'It was only daily governessing.  She looks much better than when I
+first saw her; and as to the damask--why, that's deepened by the
+introduction to old Lady Grosmede that is impending.'
+
+'She is being walked up to the old Spanish duck with the red rag
+round her leg to receive her fiat.  What a thing it is to be a
+bearded Dowager, and rule one's neighbourhood!'
+
+'I think she approves.  She has made room for her by her side.  Is
+she going to catechise her?'
+
+Annaple made an absurd sound of mingled pity and disgust.
+
+'Not that she--my aunt, I mean--need be afraid.  The shame is all on
+the other side.'
+
+'And I think Lady Grosmede has too much sense to think the worse of
+her for having worked for herself,' added Annaple.  'If it was not
+for mother I should long to begin!'
+
+'You?  It's a longing well known to me!--but you!'
+
+'Exactly!  As the Irishman felt blue moulded for want of a bating, so
+do I feel fagged out for want of an honest day's work.'
+
+'If one only knew what to turn to,' said Mark so wearily that Annaple
+exclaimed,
+
+'We seem to be in the frozen-out state of mind, and might walk up and
+down singing "I've got no work to do,"'--to which she gave the well
+known intonation.
+
+'Too true,' said he, joining in the hum.
+
+'But I thought you were by way of reading law.'
+
+'One must see more than only "by way of" in these days to do any
+good.'
+
+At that moment Basil ran up with a message that Lady Delmar was ready
+to go home.
+
+They walked slowly up the terrace and Mark paused as they came near
+Mrs. Egremont to say, 'Aunt Alice, here is Miss Ruthven, May's great
+friend.'
+
+Annaple met a pleasant smile, and they shook hands, exchanging an
+observation or two, while a little way off Lady Grosmede was nodding
+her strong old face at Lady Delmar, and saying, 'Tell your mother
+I'll soon come and see her, my dear.  That's a nice little innocent
+body, lady-like, and thoroughly presentable.  Alwyn Egremont might
+have done worse.'
+
+'The only wonder is he did not!' returned Lady Delmar.  'They make
+the best of it here.'
+
+'Very good taste of them.  But, now I've seen her, I don't believe
+there's anything behind.  Very hard upon the poor young man, though
+it was all his doing, his mother says.  I congratulate you that it
+had not gone any farther in that quarter.'
+
+'Oh, dear no!  Never dreamt of it.  She is May's friend, that's all.'
+
+Nevertheless Lady Delmar made a second descent in person to hurry
+Annaple away.
+
+'Isn't it disgusting?' said May, catching her stepmother's smile.
+
+'You will see a good deal more of the same kind,' said the Canoness;
+'I am afraid more mortification is in store for Mark than he guesses.
+I wish that girl were more like her mother.'
+
+'Mamma! a girl brought up among umbrella-makers!  Just fancy!  Why,
+she has just nothing in her!'
+
+'Don't set Mark against her, May; he might do worse.'
+
+'Her head is a mere tennis ball,' said May, drawing her own higher
+than ever, 'and no one would know her from a shop girl.'
+
+'She is young enough,' said the Canoness.  'Don't class me with Lady
+Delmar, May--I only say--if--and that I don't think you realise the
+change Mark will feel.'
+
+'Better so than sell himself,' muttered May.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+OUT OF WORK.
+
+
+
+
+'I'm seeking the fruit that's nae growing.'--Ballad.
+
+
+Society recognised the newcomers.  Lady Grosmede's card appeared the
+next day, and was followed by showers of others, and everybody asked
+everybody 'Have you seen Mrs. Egremont?'
+
+It was well for Alice's happiness even at home that she was a
+success.  When Alwyn Egremont had been lashed by his nephew's
+indignant integrity into tardy recognition of the wife of his youth,
+it had been as if he had been forced to pick up a flower which he had
+thrown away.  He had considerable doubts whether it would answer.
+First, he reconnoitred, intending, if he found a homely or faded
+being, to pension her off; but this had been prevented by her
+undeniable beauty and grace, bringing up a rush of such tender
+associations as he was capable of.  Yet even then, her position
+depended on the impression she might make on those about him, on her
+own power of self-assertion, and on her contributing to his comfort
+or pleasure.
+
+Of self-assertion Alice had none, only a gentle dignity in her
+simplicity, and she was so absolutely devoted to him that he found
+his house far more pleasant and agreeable for her presence and
+unfailing attention, though still his estimation of her was
+influenced more than he owned to himself by that of the world in
+general, and the Rectory in particular.
+
+And the Rectory did its part well.  The Canon was not only charmed
+with the gentle lady, but felt an atonement due to her; and his wife,
+without ever breathing into any ears, save his, the mysterious
+adjective 'governessy,' praised her right and left, confiding to all
+inquirers the romance of the burnt yacht, the lost bride, and the
+happy meeting under Lady Kirkaldy's auspices, with the perfect
+respectability of the intermediate career, while such was the
+universal esteem for, and trust in herself and the Canon, that she
+was fully believed; and people only whispered that probably Alwyn
+Egremont had been excused for the desertion more than he deserved.
+
+The subject of all this gossip troubled herself about it infinitely
+less than did the good Canoness.  In effect she did not know enough
+of the world to think about it at all.  Her cares were of a different
+order, chiefly caused by tenderness of conscience, and solicitude to
+keep the peace between the two beings whom she best loved.
+
+Two things were in her favour in this latter respect, one that they
+saw very little of each other, since Mr. Egremont seldom emerged from
+his own rooms till after luncheon; and the other that Ursula's brains
+ran to little but lawn-tennis for the ensuing weeks.  To hold a
+champion's place at the tournaments, neck and neck with her cousin
+Blanche, and defeat Miss Ruthven, and that veteran player, Miss
+Basset, was her foremost ambition, and the two cousins would have
+practised morning, noon, and night if their mothers would have let
+them.  There need have been no fear of Ursula's rebellion about the
+Cambridge honours, she never seemed even to think of them, and would
+have had no time in the more important competition of rackets.
+Indeed, it was almost treated as a hardship that the pair were
+forbidden to rush together before twelve o'clock, and that Ursula's
+mother insisted on rational home occupation until that time, setting
+the example herself by letter-writing, needlework, and sharing in the
+music which was a penance to the girl, only enforced by that strong
+sense of protecting affection which forbade rebellion.  But Alice
+could hope that their performances were pleasant to her husband in
+the evening, if only to sleep by, and so she persisted in preparing
+for them.
+
+Nuttie's rage for tennis, and apparent forgetfulness of her old life
+and aspirations, might be disappointing, but it conduced to make her
+mother's task easier than if she had been her original, critical, and
+protesting self.  In the new and brilliant surroundings she troubled
+herself much less than could have been expected at the failure of her
+father, his house, nay, and of the parish itself, in coming up to the
+St. Ambrose standard.  How much was owing to mere novelty and
+intoxication, how much to a yet unanalysed disappointment, how much
+to May's having thrown her upon the more frivolous Blanche, could not
+be guessed.  The effect was unsatisfactory to her mother, but a
+certain relief, for Nuttie's aid would have been only mischievous in
+the household difficulties that weighed on the anxious conscience.
+Good servants would not stay at Bridgefield Hall for unexplained
+causes, which their mistress believed to be connected with Gregorio,
+or with the treasure of a cook-housekeeper over whom she was
+forbidden to exercise any authority, and who therefore entirely
+neglected all meals which the master did not share with the ladies.
+Fortunately, Mr. Egremont came in one day at their luncheon and found
+nothing there but semi-raw beef, upon which there was an explosion;
+and being by this time convinced that his wife both would and could
+minister to his comfort, her dominion was established in the female
+department, though, as long as Gregorio continued paramount with his
+master, and the stables remained in their former state, it was
+impossible to bring matters up to the decorous standard of the
+Rectory, and if ever his mistress gave an order he did not approve,
+Gregorio overruled it as her ignorance.  In fact, he treated both the
+ladies with a contemptuous sort of civility.  Meantime Mr. Egremont
+was generally caressing and admiring in his ways towards his wife,
+with only occasional bursts of temper when anything annoyed him.  He
+was proud of her, gave her a liberal allowance, and only refused to
+be troubled; and she was really happy in his affection, for which she
+felt a gratitude only too humble in the eyes of her daughter.
+
+They had parties.  Blanche's ambition of tennis courts all over the
+lawn was fulfilled, and sundry dinners, which were crosses to Alice,
+who had neither faculty nor training for a leader and hostess,
+suffered much from the menu, more from the pairing of her guests,
+more again in catching her chief lady's eye after, and most of all
+from her husband's scowls and subsequent growls and their
+consequence, for Ursula broke out, 'It is not fair to blame my
+mother.  How should she have all the savoir-faire, or what you may
+call it, of Aunt Jane, when she has had no practice?'
+
+'Perhaps, Mrs. Egremont,' he retorted with extreme suavity, 'you will
+also attend to your daughter's manners.'  Otherwise he took little
+notice of Ursula, viewing her perhaps, as did the neighbourhood, as a
+poor imitation of May, without her style, or it may be with a sense
+that her tongue might become inconvenient if not repressed.  When he
+began to collect sporting guests of his own calibre in the shooting
+season, the Canoness quietly advised her sister-in-law to regard them
+as gentlemen's parties, and send Ursula down to spend the evening
+with her cousins; and to this no objection was made.  Mr. Egremont
+wanted his beautiful wife at the head of his table, and his guests
+never comported themselves unsuitably before her; but nobody wanted
+the unformed girl, and she and Blanche were always happy together.
+
+The chief restraint was when Mark was at home, and that was not
+always.  He made sundry visits and expeditions, and was altogether in
+an uncomfortable condition of reaction and perplexity as to his
+future.  He was a good and conscientious fellow, and had never been
+actually idle, but had taken education and life with the easiness of
+the prospective heir to a large property; and though he had acquitted
+himself creditably, it was with no view of making his powers
+marketable.  Though he had been entered at the Temple, it was chiefly
+in order to occupy himself respectably, and to have a nominal
+profession, so as not to be wholly dependent on his uncle; and all
+that he had acquired was the conviction that it would be half a
+lifetime, if not a whole one, before the law would afford him a
+maintenance.
+
+His father wished him to take Holy Orders with a view to the
+reversion of the Rectory, but Mark's estimate of clerical duty and
+vocation was just such as to make him shrink from them.  He was
+three-and-twenty, an awkward age for all those examinations that
+stand as lions in the face of youth intended for almost any sort of
+service, and seldom or never to be gagged by interest.  For one
+indeed, he went up and failed, and in such a manner as to convince
+him that cramming had more to do than general culture with success.
+
+He had a certain consciousness that most people thought another way
+open to him, most decidedly his gentle aunt, and perhaps even his
+parents.  The matter came prominently before him one day at luncheon,
+when, some parochial affairs being on hand and Mr. Egremont out for
+the day, Alice, whose free forenoons enabled her to take a share in
+church and parish affairs, was there, as well as the curate and his
+wife.
+
+These good people were in great commotion about a wedding about to
+take place between a young farmer and his delicate first cousin, the
+only survivor of a consumptive family.
+
+'"Proputty, proputty,"' quoted the Canon.  'James Johnson is what
+they call a warm man.'
+
+'It is a sin and a shame,' said Mrs. Edwards.  'What can they expect?
+George Johnson looks strong enough now, but they tell me his brother
+undoubtedly died of decline, though they called it inflammation; but
+there was tubercular disease.'
+
+'I am afraid it is strong in the family,' said the Canoness, 'they
+all have those clear complexions; but I do believe George is heartily
+in love with poor little Emily.'
+
+'First cousins ought to be in the table of degrees,' said Mr.
+Edwards.
+
+'It is always a question whether the multiplying of prohibitions
+without absolute necessity is expedient,' said the Canon.
+
+He spoke quite dispassionately, but the excellent couple were not
+remarkable for tact.  Mrs. Edwards gave her husband such a glance of
+warning and consternation as violently inclined May to laugh, and he
+obediently and hesitatingly began, 'Oh yes, sir, I beg your pardon.
+Of course there may be instances,' thereby bringing an intense glow
+of carnation into Alice's cheeks, while the Canon, ready for the
+occasion, replied, 'And George Johnson considers himself one of them.
+He will repair the old moat house, I suppose.'
+
+And his wife, though she would rather have beaten Mrs. Edwards,
+demanded how many blankets would be wanted that winter.
+
+The effect of this little episode was that Mark announced to his
+father that evening his strong desire to emigrate, an intention which
+the Canon combated with all his might.  He was apparently a hale and
+hearty man, but he had had one or two attacks of illness that made
+him doubt whether he would be long-lived; and not only could he not
+bear to have his eldest son out of reach, but he dreaded leaving his
+family to such a head as his brother.  Mark scarcely thought the
+reasons valid, considering the rapidity of communication with Canada,
+but it was not possible to withstand the entreaties of a father with
+tears in his eyes; and though he could not bring himself to consent
+to preparing to be his father's curate, he promised to do nothing
+that would remove him to another quarter of the world, and in two or
+three days more, started for Monks Horton to see what advice his
+uncle and aunt there could give him; indeed, Lord Kirkaldy's
+influence was reckoned on by his family almost as a sure card in the
+diplomatic line.
+
+The Kirkaldys were very fond of Mark, and had an odd feeling of being
+accountable for the discovery which had changed his prospects.  They
+would have done anything for him that they could, but all Lord
+Kirkaldy's interest was at the foreign office, or with his fellow-
+diplomates, and here he soon found an insuperable bar.  Mark's
+education had stood still from the time of Miss Headworth's flight
+till his father's second marriage, his energies having been solely
+devoted to struggles with the grim varieties of governess purveyed by
+his grandmother, and he had thus missed all chance of foundation of
+foreign languages, and when once at school, he had shared in the
+average English boy's contempt and aversion for the French masters
+who outscreamed a whole class.
+
+In consequence, Lord Kirkaldy, an accurate and elegant scholar in
+European tongues, besides speaking them with the cosmopolitan ease of
+an ambassador's son, was horrified, not only at Mark's pronunciation,
+but at his attempts at letter-writing and translation, made with all
+the good will in the world, but fit for nothing but to furnish the
+good stories which the kind uncle refrained from telling any one but
+his wife.  Unluckily, too, a Piedmontese family, some of them not
+strong in their English, were on a visit at Monks Horton, and the
+dialect in which the old marquis and Mark tried at times to
+interchange ideas about pheasants was something fearful.  And as in
+the course of a week Mark showed no signs of improvement in
+vernacular French or Italian, Lord Kirkaldy's conscience would let
+him give no other advice than that his nephew should stick to English
+law living still on the allowance his father gave him, and hoping for
+one of the chance appointments open to an English barrister of good
+family and fair ability.
+
+Of course Mark had gone at once to carry tidings of 'Aunt Alice,' as
+he scrupulously called her, to old Miss Headworth, whom his aunt had
+continued to visit at intervals.  That good lady had given up her
+boarders, having realised enough to provide for her own old age, and
+she had joined forces with the Nugents, Mary being very thankful to
+have her companionship for Mrs. Nugent, who was growing too blind and
+feeble to be satisfactorily left alone all day.
+
+Mark delighted the old ladies by his visits and accounts of their
+darling's success and popularity, which he could paint so brightly
+that they could not help exulting, even though there might be secret
+misgivings as to the endurance of these palmy days.  He was a great
+hero in their eyes, and they had too good taste to oppress him with
+their admiration, so that he really was more at ease in their little
+drawing-room than anywhere at Monks Horton, whither the Italians
+could penetrate.  The marchesino spoke English very well, but that
+was all the worse for Mark, since it gave such a sense of
+inferiority.  He was an intelligent man too, bent on being acquainted
+with English industries of all kinds; and thus it was that a party
+was organised to see the umbrella factory.  It was conducted by Mr.
+Dutton, with whom Lord Kirkaldy, between charities and public
+business, had become acquainted.
+
+To Mark's secret shame, this manufacturer spoke French perfectly, and
+even got into such a lively conversation with the old marquis about
+Cavour, that Lord Kirkaldy begged him to come to dinner and continue
+it.  They were all surprised, not only by the details of the
+manufacture and the multitude of artizans, male and female, whom it
+employed, but by the number of warehouse-clerks whom they found at
+work, and who, it appeared, were in correspondence with agencies and
+depots in London and all the principal towns in the kingdom.  Gerard
+Godfrey was there,--casting looks askance at the young Egremont, whom
+he regarded as a kind of robber.
+
+The marchesino asked from what class these young men were taken, and
+Mr. Dutton made reply that most of them were sons of professional
+men.  If they could obtain a small capital and take shares in the
+business they were encouraged to do so, and rose to the headship of
+the agencies, obtaining a fair income.
+
+'And you don't exact an examination,' said Mark.
+
+'Except in handwriting and book-keeping,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Poor Mark, you look for your bugbear everywhere!' sighed his aunt.
+
+They went over the Institute, coffee-rooms, eating-rooms, and
+lodging-houses, by which the umbrella firm strove to keep their hands
+respectable and contented, and were highly pleased with all, most
+especially with Mr. Dutton, who, though his name did not come
+prominently forward, had been the prime mover and contriver of all
+these things, and might have been a wealthier man if he had not
+undertaken expenses which he could not charge upon the company.
+
+Gerard Godfrey came in to Mrs. Nugent's that evening in the lowest
+spirits.  He had a sister married to a curate in the same county with
+Bridgefield, and she had sent him a local paper which 'understood
+that a marriage was arranged between Mark de Lyonnais Egremont,
+Esquire, and Ursula, daughter of Alwyn Piercefield Egremont, Esquire,
+of Bridgefield Egremont,' and he could not help coming to display it
+to Miss Headworth in all its impertinence and prematurity.
+
+'Indeed he said nothing to me about it,' said Miss Headworth, 'and I
+think he would if it had been true.'
+
+'No doubt he intends it, and is trying to recommend himself through
+you,' said Gerard.
+
+'I should not think he needed that,' returned Aunt Ursel, 'though I
+should be very glad, I am sure.  He is an excellent young man, and it
+is quite the obvious thing.'
+
+'People don't always do the obvious thing,' put in Mary Nugent.
+
+'Certainly it didn't look like it,' said Miss Headworth,' when he
+told us about the great annual Hunt Ball at Redcastle that Nuttie and
+his sister Blanche are to come out at; he said he did not intend to
+go home for it if he could help it.'
+
+'Struggling against fate,' said Miss Nugent.
+
+'The puppy!' burst out Gerard.
+
+Having ascertained the particulars of this same Hunt Ball, Gerard
+became possessed with a vehement desire to visit his sister, and so
+earnestly solicited a few days' leave of absence that it was granted
+to him.  'Poor boy, he may settle down when he has ascertained
+what an ass he is,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Ah!' said Mary.  'I thought he was very bad when I saw he had not
+changed the green markers for St. Luke's Day.'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+DETRIMENTALS.
+
+
+
+
+'That tongue of yours at times wags more than charity allows;
+ And if you're strong, be merciful, great woman of three cows.'
+                                                      J. O. MANGAN.
+
+
+Nine miles was a severe distance through country lanes in November to
+go to a ball; but the Redcastle Hunt Ball was the ball of the year,
+uniting all the county magnates; and young ladies were hardly
+reckoned as 'come out' till they had appeared there.  Mrs. Egremont's
+position would hardly be established till she had been presented to
+the notabilities who lived beyond calling intercourse; and her
+husband prepared himself to be victimised with an amount of grumbling
+that was intended to impress her with the magnitude of the sacrifice,
+but which only made her offer to forego the gaiety, and be told that
+she would never have any common sense.
+
+So their carriage led the way, and was followed by the Rectory
+waggonette containing the ladies and Mark, who had been decisively
+summoned home, since his stepmother disliked public balls without a
+gentleman in attendance, and his father was not to be detached from
+his fireside.
+
+And in a group near the door, got up as elaborately as his powers
+could accomplish, stood Gerard Godfrey.  He knew nobody there except
+a family in his sister's parish, who had good-naturedly given him a
+seat in their fly, and having fulfilled his duty by asking the
+daughter to dance, he had nothing to disturb him in watching for the
+cynosure whose attraction had led him into these unknown regions,
+and, as he remembered with a qualm, on the eve of St. Britius.
+However, with such a purpose, one might surely grant oneself a
+dispensation from the vigil of a black letter saint.
+
+There at length he beheld the entrance.  There was the ogre himself,
+high bred, almost handsome, as long as he was not too closely
+scrutinised, and on his arm the well-known figure, metamorphosed by
+delicately-tinted satin sheen and pearls, and still more by the
+gentle blushing gladness on the fair cheeks and the soft eyes that
+used to droop.  Then followed a stately form in mulberry moire and
+point lace, leaning on Gerard's more especial abhorrence,--'that
+puppy,' who had been the author of all the mischief; and behind them
+three girls, one in black, the other two in white, and, what was
+provoking, he really could not decide which was Ursula.  The
+carefully-dressed hair and stylish evening dress and equipments had
+altogether transformed the little homely schoolgirl, so that, though
+he was sure that she was not the fair-haired damsel with pale blue
+flowers, he did not know how to decide between the white and daisies
+and the black and grasses.  Indeed, he thought the two whites most
+likely to be sisters, and all the more when the black lace halted to
+exchange greetings with some one, and her face put on an expression
+so familiar to him, that he started forward and tried to catch her
+eye; but in vain, and he suffered agonies of doubt whether she had
+been perverted by greatness.
+
+It was some comfort that, when presently a rush of waiters floated
+by, she was not with her cousin; but to provoke him still more, as
+the daisies neared him, he beheld for a moment in the whirl the queer
+smile, half-frightened, half-exultant, which he had seen on Nuttie's
+face when swinging sky-high!
+
+When the pause came and people walked about, the black lady stood
+talking so near him that he ventured at last on a step forward and an
+eager 'Miss Egremont,' but, as she turned, he found himself obliged
+to say, 'I beg your pardon.'
+
+'Did you mean my cousin.  We often get mistaken for each other,' said
+May civilly.
+
+He brightened.  'I beg your pardon,' he said, 'I knew her at
+Micklethwayte.  I am here--quite by accident.  Mrs. Elmore was so
+good as to bring me.'
+
+May was rather entertained.  'There's my cousin,' she said, 'Lord
+Philip Molyneux is asking her to dance,' and she left him most
+unnecessarily infuriated with Lord Philip Molyneux.
+
+A steward introduced him to a dull-looking girl, but fortune favoured
+him, for this time he did catch the real Nuttie's eye, and all
+herself, as soon as the dance was over, she came up with outstretched
+hands, 'Oh Gerard! to think of your being here!  Come to mother!'
+
+And, beautiful and radiant, Mrs. Egremont was greeting him, and there
+were ten minutes of delicious exchange of news.  But 'pleasures are
+as poppies fled,' Nuttie had no dance to spare, her card was full,
+and she had not learnt fashionable effrontery enough to play tricks
+with engagements, and just then Mr. Egremont descended on them--'I
+wish to introduce you to the Duchess,' he said to his wife; and on
+the way he demanded--'Who is that young cub?'
+
+'Gerard Godfrey--an old neighbour.'
+
+'I thought I had seen him racketing about there with Ursula.  I'll
+not have those umbrella fellows coming about!'
+
+'Does he really make umbrellas, Nuttie?' asked Blanche, catching her
+hand.
+
+'No such thing!' said Nuttie hotly, 'he is in the office.  His father
+was a surgeon; his sisters married clergymen!'
+
+'And he came here to meet you,' said Annaple Ruthven.  'Poor fellow,
+what a shame it is!  Can't you give him one turn!
+
+'Oh dear!  I'm engaged all through!  To Mark this time.'
+
+'Give him one of the extras!  Throw Mark over to me!  No,' as she
+looked at the faces of the two girls, 'I suppose that wouldn't do,
+but I'm free this time--I'm not the fashion.  Introduce me; I'll do
+my best as consolation.'
+
+Nuttie had just performed the feat, with great shyness, when Mark
+appeared, having been sent in quest of his cousin, when her father
+perceived that she had hung back.
+
+Poor Gerard led off Miss Ruthven the more gloomily, and could not
+help sighing out, 'I suppose that is an engagement!'
+
+'Oh! you believe that impertinent gossip in the paper,' returned
+Annaple.  'I wonder they don't contradict it; but perhaps they treat
+it with magnificent scorn.'
+
+'No doubt they know that it is only premature.'
+
+'If _they_ means the elders, I daresay they wish it, but we aren't in
+France or Italy.'
+
+'Then you don't think, Miss Ruthven, that it will come off?'
+
+'I don't see the slightest present prospect,' said Annaple, unable to
+resist the kindly impulse of giving immediate pleasure, though she
+knew the prospect might be even slighter for her partner.
+
+However, he 'footed it' all the more lightly and joyously for the
+assurance, and the good-natured maiden afterwards made him conduct
+her to the tea-room, whither Mark and Nuttie were also tending, and
+there all four contrived to get mixed up together; and Nuttie had
+time to hear of Monsieur's new accomplishment of going home for Mr.
+Dutton's luncheon and bringing it in a basket to the office, before
+fate again descended; Mr. Egremont, who had been at the far end of
+the room among some congeners, who preferred stronger refreshment,
+suddenly heard her laugh, stepped up, and, with a look of thunder
+towards her, observed in a low voice, 'Mark, you will oblige me by
+taking your cousin back to her mother.'
+
+'The gray tyrant father,' murmured Annaple in sympathy.  'That being
+the case, I may as well go back in that direction also.'
+
+This resulted in finding Lady Delmar and the two Mrs. Egremonts
+together, comparing notes about the two different roads to Redcastle
+from their several homes.
+
+Lady Delmar was declaring that her coachman was the most obstinate
+man in existence, and that her husband believed in him to any extent.
+
+'Which way did you come?' she asked.
+
+'By Bankside Lane,' said the Canoness.
+
+'Over Bluepost Bridge!  There, Janet,' said Annaple.
+
+'So much the worse.  I know we shall come to grief over Bluepost
+Bridge, and now there will be treble weight to break it down.  I
+dreamt it, I tell you, and there's second sight in the family.'
+
+'Yes, but you should tell what you did dream, Janet,' said her
+sister.  'She thought Robinson, the coachman, was waltzing with her
+over it, and they went into a hole and stuck fast, while the red-flag
+traction engineman prodded her with an umbrella till she was all over
+blood.  Now, if it had been anything rational, I should have thought
+something of her second sight!  I tell her 'twas suggested by--
+
+
+         "London Bridge is broken down,
+          Dance o'er my lady Lee!"'
+
+
+'Well, I am quite certain those traction-engines will break it some
+time or other,' said Lady Delmar.  'I am always trying to get John to
+bring it before the magistrates, but he only laughs at me, and
+nothing will induce Robinson to go the other way, because they have
+just been mending the road on Lescombe Hill!  Annaple, my dear, I
+can't allow you another waltz; Mark must excuse you--I am going.  It
+is half-past two, and the carriage was ordered at two!  Robinson will
+be in a worse temper than ever if we keep him waiting.'
+
+She bore her sister off to the cloak-room, and there, nearly an hour
+later, the Egremonts found them still waiting the pleasure of the
+implacable Robinson; but what was that in consideration of having
+kept her sister from such a detrimental as poor Mark had become?  So
+muttered Mr. Egremont, in the satisfaction of having himself, with
+gentlemanly severity, intimated the insuperable gulf between Miss
+Egremont of Bridgefield and the Man of Umbrellas.
+
+Moreover, his sister-in-law took care that he should hear that the
+Duchess of Redcastle had pronounced his wife sweetly pretty and lady-
+like, and talked of inviting them for a visit of a few nights.
+
+'A bore,' observed he ungratefully, ''tis as dull as ditchwater.'
+But, in truth, though the Canon's family, when in residence, were
+intimate with the ducal family, Alwyn Egremont had never been at the
+castle since the days of his earliest youth, and he was not quite
+prepared to owe his toleration there to his wife's charms, or the
+Canoness's patronage of her.
+
+And innocent Alice only knew that everybody had been very kind to
+her, and it was only a pity that her husband did not like her to
+notice poor Gerard Godfrey.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+GOING AGEE.
+
+
+
+
+'Gin ye were a brig as auld as me.'--BURNS.
+
+
+'What's the matter?' exclaimed Mrs. Egremont, waking from a doze,--
+'that bridge?'
+
+'Bridge!  Don't be such a fool!  We aren't near it yet.'
+
+The servant, his face looking blurred through the window, came to
+explain that the delay was caused by an agricultural engine, which
+had chosen this unlucky night, or morning, to travel from one farm to
+another.  There was a long delay, while the monster could be heard
+coughing frightfully before it could be backed with its spiky
+companion into a field so as to let the carriages pass by; and
+meantime Mr. Egremont was betrayed into uttering ejaculations which
+made poor Nuttie round her eyes in the dark as she sat by his feet on
+the back seat, and Alice try to bury her ears in her hood in the
+corner.
+
+On they went at last, for about a mile, and then came another sudden
+stop--another fierce growl from Mr. Egremont, another apparition of
+the servant at the window, saying, in his alert deferential manner,
+'Sir, the bridge have broke under a carriage in front.  Lady
+Delmar's, sir.  The horse is plunging terrible.'
+
+The door was torn open, and all three, regardless of ball costumes,
+precipitated themselves out.
+
+The moon was up, and they saw the Rectory carriage safe on the road
+before them, but on the bridge beyond was a struggling mass, dimly
+illuminated by a single carriage lamp. Mr. Egremont and the groom
+hurried forward where Mark and the Rectory coachman were already
+rendering what help they could.  May standing at the horses' heads,
+and her mother trying to wrap everybody up, since stay in their
+carriages they could not.  Transferring the horses to Nuttie, the two
+sisters hurried on towards the scene of action, but Blanche's white
+satin boots did not carry her far, and she turned on meeting her
+uncle.  He spoke with a briskness and alacrity that made him like
+another man in this emergency, as he assured the anxious ladies that
+their friends were safe, but that they could not be extricated till
+the carriage was lifted from the hole into which it had sunk amid
+bricks, stones, and broken timbers.  He sent his own coachman to
+assist, as being the stronger man, and, mounting the box, turned and
+drove off in quest of further help, at a wayside cottage, or from the
+attendants on the engine, whose weight had probably done the
+mischief, and prepared the trap for the next comer.
+
+As May came near, her brother made her available by putting the lamp
+into her hand, bidding her hold it so as to light those who were
+endeavouring to release the horse, which had cleared the portion of
+the bridge before the break-down under the brougham, and now lay on
+the road, its struggles quelled by a servant at its head.  Nearly the
+whole of the hind wheels and most of the door had disappeared on one
+side, and, though more was visible on the other, it was impossible to
+open the door, as a mass of rubbish lay on it.  Annaple was on this
+side, and her voice was heard calling to May in fits of the laughter
+which is perhaps near akin to screams--
+
+
+         '"London bridge is broken down,
+           Dance o'er my lady Lee!"
+
+
+Janet will go in for second-sight ever after.  Yes, she's all right,
+except a scratch from the glass, and that I'm sitting on her more or
+less.  How are they getting on?'  'The horse is all but out.  Not
+hurt, they think.  Here's another man come to help--a gentleman--my
+dear, it is your partner, Nuttie's umbrella man.'  'Oh, making it
+complete--hopes, Janet--I'm sorry, but I can't help squashing you!
+I can't help subsiding on you!  What is it now?' as the lamp-light
+vanished.
+
+'They are looking for something to make levers of,' returned May;
+'these wooden rails are too rotten.'
+
+'Can't they get us through the window?' sighed a muffled voice.
+
+'Not unless we could be elongated, like the Hope of the Katzekopfs.'
+
+'We shall manage now,' cried Mark; 'we have found some iron bars to
+the hatch down there.  But you must prepare for a shock or two before
+you can be set free.'
+
+The two gentlemen and three servants strove and struggled, hoisted
+and pushed, to the tune of suppressed sounds, half of sobs, half of
+laughter, till at last the carriage was heaved up sufficiently to be
+dragged backwards beyond the hole; but even then it would not stand,
+for the wheels on the undermost side were crushed, neither could
+either door be readily opened, one being smashed in, and the other
+jammed fast.  Annaple, however, still tried to keep up her own
+spirits and her sister's, observing that she now knew how to
+sympathise with Johnnie's tin soldiers in their box turned upside
+down.
+
+Two sturdy labourers here made their appearance, having been roused
+in the cottage and brought back by Mr. Egremont, and at last one door
+was forced open by main force, and the ladies emerged, Annaple,
+helping her sister, beginning some droll thanks, but pausing as she
+perceived that Lady Delmar's dress was covered with blood.
+
+'My dear Janet.  This is worse than I guessed.  Why did you not
+speak?'
+
+'It is not much,' said the poor lady, rather faintly.  'My neck--'
+
+The elder ladies came about her, and seated her on cushions, where,
+by the light of May's lamp, Alice, who had been to an ambulance class
+at Micklethwayte, detected the extent of the cut, extracted a
+fragment of glass, and staunched the bleeding with handkerchiefs and
+strips of the girls' tulle skirts, but she advised her patient to be
+driven at once to a surgeon to secure that no morsel of glass
+remained.  Mr. Egremont, gratified to see his wife come to the front,
+undertook to drive her back to Redcastle.  Indeed, they must return
+thither to cross by the higher bridge.  'You will go with me,'
+entreated Lady Delmar, holding Alice's hand; and the one hastily
+consigning Nuttie to her aunt's care, the other giving injunctions
+not to alarm her mother to Annaple, who had declared her intention of
+walking home, the two ladies went off under Mr. Egremont's escort.
+
+Just then it was discovered that the Delmar coachman, Robinson, had
+all this time been lying insensible, not dead, for he moaned, but
+apparently with a broken leg, if nothing worse.  Indeed, the men had
+known it all along, but, until the ladies had been rescued, nothing
+had been possible but to put his cushion under his head and his rug
+over him.  The ladies were much shocked, and Mrs. William Egremont
+decided that he must be laid at the bottom of the waggonette, and
+that she would take him straight to the hospital.
+
+They were only a mile and a half from Lescombe, and it was pronounced
+safe to cross on foot by the remains of the bridge, so that Annaple,
+who had a pair of fur boots, had already decided on going home on
+foot.  The other girls wanted to accompany her, and, as May and
+Nuttie both had overshoes, they were permitted to do so, and desired
+to go to bed, and wait to be picked up by the waggonette, which must
+return to Bridgefield by the Lescombe road.  Blanche, having a
+delicate throat, was sentenced to go with her stepmother.  Mark
+undertook to ride the horse through the river, and escort the three
+girls, and Gerard Godfrey also joined them.  The place where he was
+staying lay a couple of miles beyond Lescombe, and when Mrs. Elmore's
+fly had been met and turned back by Mr. Egremont, he had jumped off
+to render assistance, and had done so effectively enough to win
+Mark's gratitude.
+
+It was by this time about half-past five, as was ascertained by the
+light of the waning moon, the carriage-lamp having burnt out.  It was
+a fine frosty morning, and the moon was still powerful enough to
+reveal the droll figures of the girls.  May had a fur cloak, with the
+hood tied over her head by Mrs. Egremont's lace shawl; Nuttie had a
+huge white cloud over her head, and a light blue opera cloak; Annaple
+had 'rowed herself in a plaidie' like the Scotch girl she was, and
+her eyes flashed out merrily from its dark folds.  They all disdained
+the gentlemen's self-denying offers of their ulsters, and only Nuttie
+consented to have the carriage-rug added to her trappings, and
+ingeniously tied on cloak-fashion with her sash by Gerard.  He and
+Mark piloted the three ladies over the narrow border of the hole,
+which looked a very black open gulf.  Annaple had thanked the men,
+and bidden them come to Lescombe the next day to be paid for their
+assistance.  Then they all stood to watch Mark ride through the
+river, at the shallowest place, indicated both by her and the
+labourers.  It was perfectly fordable, so Annaple's were mock heroics
+when she quoted--
+
+
+         'Never heavier man and horse
+          Stemmed a midnight torrent's force.'
+
+
+And Nuttie responded in a few seconds--
+
+
+         'Yet through good heart and our Ladye's grace
+          Full soon he gained the landing place.'
+
+
+They were both in high spirits, admiring each other's droll
+appearance, and speculating on the ghosts they might appear to any
+one who chanced to look out of window.  Annaple walked at the horse's
+head, calling him poor old Robin Hood, and caressing him, while
+Gerard and Nuttie kept together.
+
+May began to repent of her determination to walk; Lescombe seemed
+very far off, and she had an instinct that she was an awkward fifth
+wheel.  Either because Robin Hood walked too fast for her weary
+limbs, or because she felt it a greater duty to chaperon Nuttie than
+Annaple, she fell back on the couple in the rear, and was rather
+surprised at the tenor of their conversation.
+
+This 'umbrella man' was telling of his vicar's delight in the
+beautiful chalice veil that had been sent by Mrs. Egremont, and
+Nuttie was communicating, as a secret she ought not to tell, that
+mother was working a set of stoles, and hoped to have the white ones
+ready by the dedication anniversary; also that there was a box being
+filled for the St. Ambrose Christmas tree.  They were trying to get
+something nice for each of the choir boys and of the old women; and
+therewith, to May's surprise, this youth, whom she regarded as a sort
+of shopman, fell into full narration of all the events of a highly-
+worked parish,--all about the choral festival, and the guilds, and
+the choir, and the temperance work.  A great deal of it was a strange
+language to May, but she half-disapproved of it, as entirely unlike
+the 'soberness' of Bridgefield ways, and like the Redcastle vicar,
+whom her father commonly called 'that madman.'  Still, she had a
+practical soul for parish work, and could appreciate the earnestness
+that manifested itself, and the exertions made for people of the
+classes whom she had always supposed too bad or else too well off to
+come under clerical supervision.  And her aunt and cousin and this
+young man all evidently had their hearts in it!  For Nuttie--though
+her new world had put the old one apparently aside--had plunged into
+all the old interests, and asked questions eagerly, and listened to
+their answers, as if Micklethwayte news was water to the thirsty.
+The two were too happy to meet, and, it must be confessed, had not
+quite manners enough, to feel it needful to include in their
+conversation the weary figure that plodded along at a little distance
+from them, hardly attending to the details of their chatter, yet
+deriving new notions from it of the former life of Ursula and her
+mother, matters which she had hitherto thought beneath her attention,
+except so far as to be thankful that they had emerged from it so
+presentable.  That it was a more actively religious, and perhaps a
+more intellectual one than her own, she had thought impossible, where
+everything must be second-rate.  And yet, when her attention had
+wandered from an account of Mr. Dutton's dealings with a refractory
+choir boy bent on going to the races, she found a discussion going on
+about some past lectures upon astronomy, and Nuttie vehemently
+regretting the not attending two courses promised for the coming
+winter upon electricity and on Italian art, and mournfully observing,
+'We never go to anything sensible here.'
+
+May at first thought, 'Impertinent little thing,' and felt affronted,
+but then owned to herself that it was all too true.  Otherwise there
+was hardly anything said about the contrast with Nuttie's present
+life; Gerard knew already that the church atmosphere was very
+different, and with the rector's daughter within earshot, he could
+not utter his commiseration, nor Nuttie her regrets.
+
+Once there was a general start, and the whole five came together at
+the sight of a spectrally black apparition, with a huge tufted head
+on high, bearing down over a low hedge upon them.  Nobody screamed
+except Nuttie, but everybody started, though the next moment it was
+plain that they were only chimney-sweepers on their way.
+
+'Retribution for our desire to act ghosts!' said Annaple, when the
+sable forms had been warned of the broken bridge.  'Poor May, you are
+awfully tired!  Shouldn't you like a lift in their cart?'
+
+'Or I could put you up on Robin Hood,' said Mark.
+
+'Thank you, I don't think I could stick on.  Is it much farther?'
+
+'Only up the hill and across the park,' said Annaple, still cheerily.
+
+'Take my arm, old woman,' said Mark, and then there was a pause,
+before Annaple said in an odd voice, 'You may tell her, Mark.'
+
+'Oh, Annaple!  Mark! is it so?' cried May joyously, but under her
+breath; and with a glance to see how near the other couple were.
+
+'Yes,' said Annaple between crying and laughing.  'Poor Janet, she'll
+think we have taken a frightfully mean advantage of her, but I am
+sure I never dreamt of such a thing; and the queer thing is, that
+Mark says she put it into his head!'
+
+'No, no,' said Mark; 'you know better than that--'
+
+'Why, you told me you only found it out when she began to trample on
+the fallen--'
+
+'I told you I had only understood my own heart.'
+
+'And I said very much the same--she made me so angry you see.'
+
+'I can't but admire your motives!' said May, exceedingly rejoiced all
+the time, and ready to have embraced them both, if it had not been
+for the spectators behind.  'In fact, it was opposition you both
+wanted.  I wonder how long you would have gone on not finding it out,
+if all had been smooth?'
+
+'The worst of it is,' said Annaple, 'that I'm afraid it is a very bad
+thing for Mark.'
+
+'Not a bit of it,' retorted he.  'It is the only thing that could
+have put life into my work, or made me care to find any!  And find it
+I will now!  Must we let the whole world in to know before I have
+found it, Annaple?'
+
+'I could not but tell my mother,' said Annaple.  'It would come out
+in spite of me, even if I wished to keep it back.'
+
+'Oh yes!  Lady Ronnisglen is a different thing,' said Mark.  'Just as
+May here is--'
+
+'And she will say nothing, I know, till we are ready--my dear old
+minnie,' said Annaple.  'Only, Mark, do pray have something definite
+to hinder Janet with if there are any symptoms of hawking her
+commodity about.'
+
+'I _will_,' said Mark.  'If we could only emigrate!'
+
+'Ah, if we could!' said Annaple.  'Ronald is doing so well in New
+Zealand, but I don't think my mother could spare me.  She could not
+come out, and she must be with me, wherever I am.  You know--don't
+you--that I am seven years younger than Alick.  I was a regular
+surprise, and the old nurse at Ronnisglen said 'Depend upon it, my
+Leddy, she is given to be the comfort of your old age.'  And I have
+always made up my mind never to leave her.  I don't think she would
+get on with Janet or any of them without me, so you'll have to take
+her too, Mark.'
+
+'With all my heart,' he answered.  'And, indeed, I have promised my
+father not to emigrate.  I must, and will, find work at hand, and
+wake a home for you both!'
+
+'But you will tell papa at once?' said May.  'It will hurt him if you
+do not.'
+
+'You are right, May; I knew it when Annaple spoke of her mother, but
+there is no need that it should go further.'
+
+The intelligence had lightened the way a good deal, and they were at
+the lodge gates by this time.  Gerard began rather ruefully to take
+leave; but Annaple, in large-hearted happiness and gratitude, begged
+him to come and rest at the house, and wait for daylight, and this he
+was only too glad to do, especially as May's secession had made the
+conversation a little more personal.
+
+Nuttie was in a certain way realising for the first time what her
+mother's loyalty had checked her in expressing, even if the tumult of
+novelties had given her full time to dwell on it.
+
+'Everybody outside is kind,' she said to Gerard; 'they are nice in a
+way, and good, but oh! they are centuries behind in church matters
+and feeling, just like the old rector.'
+
+'I gathered that; I am very sorry for you.  Is there no one fit to be
+a guide?'
+
+'I don't know,' said Nuttie.  'I didn't think--I must, somehow,
+before Lent.'
+
+'There is Advent close at hand,' he said gravely.  'If you could only
+be at our mission services, we hope to get Father Smith!'
+
+'Oh, if only I could!  But mother never likes to talk about those
+kind of things.  She says our duty is to my father.'
+
+'Not the foremost.'
+
+'No, she would not say that.  But oh, Gerard! if he should be making
+her worldly!'
+
+'It must be your work to hinder it,' he said, looking at her
+affectionately.
+
+'Oh, Gerard! but I'm afraid I'm getting so myself.  I have thought a
+great deal about lawn-tennis, and dress, and this ball,' said Nuttie.
+'Somehow it has never quite felt real, but as if I were out on a
+visit.'
+
+'You are in it, but not of it,' said Gerard admiringly.
+
+'No, I'm not so good as that!  I like it all--almost all.  I thought
+I liked it better till you came and brought a real true breath of
+Micklethwayte.  Oh! if I could only see Monsieur's dear curly head
+and bright eyes!'
+
+This had been the tenor of the talk, and these were the actual last
+words before the whole five--just in the first streaks of dawn--
+coalesced before the front door, to be admitted by a sleepy servant;
+Mark tied up the horse for a moment, while Annaple sent the man to
+waken Sir John Delmar, and say there had been a slight accident, but
+no one was much hurt; and, as they all entered the warm, dimly-
+lighted hall, they were keenly sensible that they had been dancing or
+walking all night.
+
+Rest in the chairs which stood round the big hearth and smouldering
+wood-fire was so extremely comfortable, as they all dropped down,
+that nobody moved or spoke, or knew how long it was before there was
+a voice on the stairs--'Eh? what's this, Annaple?  An accident?
+Where's Janet?' and a tall burly figure, candle in hand, in a
+dressing-gown and slippers, was added to the group.
+
+'Janet will be at home presently, I hope,' said Annaple, 'but she got
+a cut with some broken glass, and we sent her round by Dr. Raymond's
+to get it set to rights.  Oh, John! we came to grief on Bluepost
+Bridge after all, and I'm afraid Robinson has got his leg broken!'
+
+Sir John was a good-natured heavy man, whose clever wife thought for
+him in all that did not regard horses, dogs, and game.  He looked
+perfectly astounded, and required to have all told him over again
+before he could fully take it in.  Then he uttered a suppressed
+malediction on engines, insisted that all his impromptu guests should
+immediately eat, drink, and sleep, and declared his intention of
+going off at once to Redcastle to see about his wife.
+
+The two gentlemen were committed to the charge of the butler, and
+Annaple took Nuttie and May to her sister's dressing-room, where she
+knew she should find fire and tea, and though they protested that it
+was not worth while, she made them undress and lie down in a room
+prepared for them in the meantime.  It was a state chamber, with a
+big bed, far away from the entrance, shuttered and curtained up, and
+with double doors, excluding all noise.  The two cousins lay down,
+Nuttie dead asleep almost before her head touched the pillow, while
+May was aching all over, declaring herself far too much tired and
+excited to sleep; and, besides that it was not worth while, for she
+should be called for in a very short time.  And she remained
+conscious of a great dread of being roused, so that when she heard
+her cousin moving about the room, she insisted that they had scarcely
+lain down, whereupon Nuttie laughed, declared that she had heard a
+great clock strike twelve before she moved, and showed daylight
+coming in through the shutters.
+
+'We can't lie here any longer, I suppose,' said May, sitting up
+wearily; 'and yet what can we put on?  It makes one shiver to think
+of going down to luncheon in a ball dress!'
+
+'Besides, mine is all torn to pieces to make bandages,' said Nuttie.
+'I must put on the underskirt and my cloak again.'
+
+'Or Annaple might lend us something.  I must get out somehow to know
+how poor Lady Delmar is, and what has become of everybody.  Ring,
+Ursula, please, and lie down till somebody comes.'
+
+The bell was answered by a maid, who told them that my lady had been
+brought home by Mr. and Mrs. Egremont about an hour after their
+arrival.  She was as well as could be expected, and there was no
+cause for anxiety.  Mr. and Mrs. Egremont had then gone on to
+Bridgefield, leaving word that Mrs. William Egremont and Miss Blanche
+were sleeping at Redcastle, having sent home for their own dresses
+and the young ladies', and would call for the rest of their party on
+the way.  Indeed, a box for the Miss Egremonts had been deposited by
+the Canon from the pony-carriage an hour ago, and was already in the
+dressing-room; but Miss Ruthven would not have them disturbed.  Miss
+Ruthven,--oh yes, she was up, she had not been in bed at all.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+A CASTLE OF UMBRELLAS.
+
+
+
+
+No, Annaple Ruthven could not have slept, even if she had had time.
+Her first care had been to receive her sister, who had been met at
+the entrance of Redcastle by her husband.  There had been profuse
+offers of hospitality to Mr. and Mrs. Egremont, the latter of whom
+looked tired out, and offers of sending messengers to Bridgefield;
+but Mr. Egremont would not hear of them, and every one suspected that
+he would not incur the chance of rising without Gregorio and all his
+appliances.
+
+By the time they were disposed of, and Lady Delmar safe in bed, it
+was time to repair to her mother's room, so as to prevent her from
+being alarmed.  Lady Ronnisglen was English born.  She was not by any
+means the typical dowager.  Her invalid condition was chiefly owing
+to an accident, which had rendered her almost incapable of walking,
+and she was also extremely susceptible of cold, and therefore hardly
+ever went out; but there was so much youth and life about her at
+sixty-three that she and Annaple often seemed like companion sisters,
+and her shrewd, keen, managing eldest-born like their mother.
+
+Annaple lay down beside her on her bed in the morning twilight, and
+gave her the history of the accident in playful terms indeed.
+Annaple could never help that, but there was something in her voice
+that made Lady Ronnisglen say, when satisfied about Janet's hurt,
+'You've more to say, Nannie dear.'
+
+'Yes, minnie mine, I walked home with Mark Egremont.'
+
+'And--?'
+
+'Yes, minnie.  He is going to work and make a home--a real, true,
+homely home for you and me.'
+
+'My child, my child, you have not hung the old woman about the poor
+boy's neck!'
+
+'As if I would have had him if he did not love her, and make a mother
+of her!'
+
+'But what is he going to do, Nan?  This is a very different thing
+from--'
+
+'Very different from Janet's notions!' and they both laughed, the
+mother adding to the mirth by saying--
+
+'Poor Janet, congratulating herself that no harm had been done, and
+that you had never taken to one another!'
+
+'Did she really now?'
+
+'Oh yes, only yesterday, and I bade her not crow too soon, for I
+thought I saw symptoms--'
+
+'You dear darling minnie!  Think of that!  Before we either of us
+knew it, and when he is worth ever so much than he was before!  Not
+but that I am enraged when people say he has acted nobly, just as if
+there had been anything else for him to do!'
+
+'I own that I am glad he has proved himself.  I was afraid he would
+be dragged in the way of his uncle.  Don't be furious, Nannie.  Not
+at all into evil, but into loitering; and I should like to know what
+are his prospects now.'
+
+'Well, mother, I don't think he has any.  But he means to have.  And
+not a word is to be said to anybody except you and his father and May
+till he has looked over the top of the wall, and seen his way.  We
+need not bring Janet down on us till then.'
+
+'I must see him, my dear.  Let me see him before he goes away.  He
+always has been a very dear lad, a thoroughly excellent right-minded
+fellow.  Only I must know what he means to do, and whether there is
+any reasonable chance of employment or fixed purpose.'
+
+Lady Ronnisglen's maid here arrived with her matutinal cup of tea;
+and Annaple, beginning to perceive that she was very stiff, went off
+in hopes that her morning toilette would deceive her hardworked
+little frame into believing it had had a proper night's rest.
+
+She was quite ready to appear at the breakfast table, though her
+eldest niece, a long-haired, long-limbed girl, considerably the
+bigger of the two, was only too happy to preside over the cups.  All
+the four young people were in the greatest state of excitement,
+welcoming, as the heroes of the night, Mark and Mr. Godfrey, and
+clamouring to be allowed to walk down after breakfast with their
+father and the gentlemen to see the scene of the catastrophe and the
+remains of the carriage and the bridge.
+
+Sir John made a courteous reference to the governess, but there was a
+general sense that the cat was away, and presently there was a rush
+upstairs to prepare for the walk.  Annaple had time in the course of
+all the bustle, while the colour came back to her cheeks for a
+moment, to tell Mark that her mother had been all that was good, and
+wanted to see him.
+
+He must manage to stay till after eleven o'clock; she could not be
+ready before.  Then he might come to her sitting-room, which, as well
+as her bedroom, was on the ground floor.
+
+Mark had to work off his anxiety by an inspection of the scene of the
+disaster and a circumstantial explanation of the details to the young
+Delmars, who crowded round him and Mr. Godfrey, half awed, half
+delighted, and indeed the youngest--a considerable tomboy--had nearly
+given the latter the opportunity of becoming a double hero by
+tumbling through the broken rail, but he caught her in time, and she
+only incurred from Sir John such a scolding as a great fright will
+produce from the easiest of fathers.
+
+Afterwards Mark put Gerard on the way to his brother-in-law's living,
+asking him on the road so many questions about the umbrella business
+that the youth was not quite sure how to take it, and doubted whether
+the young swell supposed that he could talk of nothing else; but his
+petulance was mitigated when he was asked, 'Supposing a person wished
+to enter the business, to whom should he apply?'
+
+'Do you know any one who wishes for anything of the kind?' he asked.
+'Are you making inquiries for any one?' and on a hesitating
+affirmation, 'Because I know there is an opening for a man with
+capital just at present.  Dutton won't advertise--'tis so risky; and
+he wants some knowledge of a person's antecedents, and whether he is
+likely to go into it in a liberal, gentlemanly spirit, with good
+principles, you see, such as would not upset all we are doing for the
+hands.'
+
+'What amount of capital do you mean?'
+
+'Oh, from five hundred to a thousand!  Or more would not come amiss.
+If I only had it!  What it would be to conduct an affair like that on
+true principles!  But luck is against me every way.'
+
+Mark was at the sitting-room door as the four quarters began to
+strike in preparation for eleven, but Lady Ronnisglen had been in her
+chair for nearly half-an-hour, having been rapid and nervous enough
+to hurry even the imperturbable maid, whom Annaple thought incapable
+of being hastened.  She was a little slight woman, with delicate
+features and pale complexion, such as time deals with gently, and her
+once yellow hair now softened with silver was turned back in bands
+beneath the simple net cap that suited her so well.  There was a soft
+yet sparkling look about her as she held out her hands and exclaimed,
+'Ah, Master Mark, what mischief have you been doing?'
+
+Mark came and knelt on one knee beside her and said: 'Will you let me
+work for you both, Lady Ronnisglen?  I will do my best to find some.'
+
+'Ah! that is the point, my dear boy.  I should have asked and wished
+for definite work, if you had come to me before that discovery of
+yours; and now it is a mere matter of necessity.'
+
+'Yes,' said Mark; then, with some hesitation, he added: 'Lady
+Ronnisglen, do you care whether I take to what people call a
+gentleman's profession?  I could, of course, go on till I am called
+to the bar, and then wait for something to turn up; but that would be
+waiting indeed!  Then in other directions I've taken things easy, you
+see, till I'm too old for examinations.  I failed in the only one
+that was still open to me.  Lord Kirkaldy tried me for foreign office
+work, and was appalled at my blunders.  I'm not fit for a parson.'
+
+'I should have thought you were.'
+
+'Not I,' said Mark.  'I'm not up to the mark there.  I couldn't say
+honestly that I was called to it.  I wish I could, for it would be
+the easiest way out of it; but I looked at the service, and I can't.
+There--that's a nice confession to come to you with!  I can't think
+how I can have been so impudent.'
+
+'Mark, you are a dear good lad.  I respect and honour you ever so
+much more than before all this showed what stuff was in you!  But the
+question is, What's to be done?  My child is verily the "penniless
+lass with a high pedigree," for she has not a poor thousand to call
+her own.'
+
+'And I have no right to anything in my father's lifetime, though I
+have no doubt he would give me up my share of my mother's portion--
+about (pounds)3000.  Now this is what has occurred to me: In the place where
+I found my uncle's wife--Micklethwayte, close to Monks Horton--
+there's a great umbrella factory, with agencies everywhere.  There
+are superior people belonging to it.  I've seen some of them, and
+I've been talking to the young fellow who helped us last night, who
+is in the office.  I find that to go into the thing with such capital
+as I might hope for, would bring in a much larger and speedier return
+than I could hope for any other way, if only my belongings would set
+aside their feelings.  And you see there are the Kirkaldys close by
+to secure her good society.'
+
+Lady Ronnisglen put out her transparent-looking, black-mittened hand,
+and gave a little dainty pat to his arm.  'I like to see a man in
+earnest,' said she.  Her little Skye terrier was seized with jealousy
+at her gesture, and came nuzzling in between with his black nose.
+'Mull objects!' she said, smiling; but then, with a graver look, 'And
+so will your father.'
+
+'At first,' said Mark; 'but I think he will give way when he has had
+time to look at the matter, and sees how good you are.  That will
+make all the difference.'
+
+So Annaple, who had been banished for a little while, was allowed to
+return, and mother, daughter, and lover built themselves a little
+castle of umbrellas, and bestowed a little arch commiseration on poor
+Lady Delmar; who, it was agreed, need know nothing until something
+definite was arranged, since Annaple was clearly accountable to no
+one except her mother.  She would certainly think the latter part of
+her dream only too well realised, and consider that an unfair
+advantage had been taken of her seclusion in her own room.  In spite
+of all loyal efforts to the contrary, Mark, if he had been in a frame
+of mind to draw conclusions, would have perceived that the prospect
+of escaping from the beneficent rule of Lescombe was by no means
+unpleasant to Lady Ronnisglen.  The books that lay within her reach
+would hardly have found a welcome anywhere else in the house.  Sir
+John was not brilliant, and his wife had turned her native wits to
+the practical rather than the intellectual line, and had quite enough
+to think of in keeping up the dignities of Lescombe with a large
+family amid agricultural difficulties.
+
+Annaple remembered at last that she ought to go and look after her
+guests, assisted therein by the pleasure of giving May a hearty kiss
+and light squeeze, with a murmur that 'all was right.'
+
+She brought them downstairs just as the gong was sounding, and the
+rush of girls descending from the schoolroom, and Lady Ronnisglen
+being wheeled across the hall in her chair.  Nuttie, who had expected
+to see a gray, passive, silent old lady like Mrs. Nugent, was quite
+amazed at the bright, lively face and voice that greeted the son-in-
+law and grandchildren, May and herself, congratulating these two on
+having been so well employed all the morning, and observing that she
+was afraid her Nannie could not give so good an account of herself.
+
+'Well,' said Sir John, 'I am sure she looks as if she found plodding
+along the lanes as wholesome as sleeping in her bed!  Nan Apple-
+cheeks, eh?'
+
+Whereupon Annaple's cheeks glowed all the more into resemblance of
+the baby-name which she had long ceased to deserve; but May could see
+the darkness under her eyes, betraying that it was only excitement
+that drove away fatigue.
+
+Sir John had not gone far in his circumstantial description of the
+injuries to his unfortunate carriage when the Canon arrived, with his
+wife and Blanche.  Mark would have given worlds in his impatience to
+have matters settled between the two parents then and there; but Lady
+Ronnisglen had already warned him that this would not be possible,
+and assured him that it would be much wiser to prepare his father
+beforehand.
+
+Then he fixed his hopes on a solitary drive with his father back in
+the pony carriage, but he found himself told off to take that home,
+and had to content himself with May as a companion.  Nor was his
+sister's mode of receiving the umbrella plan reassuring.  She had
+smiled too often with her stepmother over Nuttie's having been
+brought up among umbrellas to be ready to accept the same lot for her
+brother and her friend, and she was quite sure that her father would
+never consent.  'An Egremont an umbrella-maker! how horrible!  Just
+fancy seeing Dutton, Egremont and Co. on the handle of one's
+umbrella!'
+
+'Well, you need not patronise us,' said Mark.
+
+'But is it possible that Lady Ronnisglen did not object?' said May.
+
+ She seemed to think it preferable to driving pigs in the Texas, like
+her son Malcolm.'
+
+'Yes, but then that _was_ the Texas.'
+
+'Oh May, May, I did not think you were such a goose!'
+
+'I should have thought the folly was in not being patient.  Stick to
+your profession, and something must come in time.'
+
+'Ay, and how many men do you think are sticking to it in that hope?
+No, May, 'tis not real patience to wear out the best years of my life
+and hers in idleness, waiting for something not beneath an Egremont
+to do!'
+
+'But is there nothing to do better than that?'
+
+'Find it for me, May.'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+INFRA DIG.
+
+
+
+
+'Till every penny which she told,
+ Creative Fancy turned to gold.'--B. LLOYD.
+
+
+The Blueposts Bridge had produced a good deal of effect.  Ursula
+Egremont in special seemed to herself to have been awakened from a
+strange dream, and to have resumed her real nature and affections.
+She felt as if she would give all her partners at the ball for one
+shake of Monsieur's fringed paws; her heart yearned after Aunt Ursel
+and Miss Mary; she longed after the chants of the choir; and when she
+thought of the effort poor Gerard Godfrey had made to see her, she
+felt him a hero, and herself a recreant heroine, who had well-nigh
+been betrayed into frivolity and desertion of him, and she registered
+secret resolutions of constancy.
+
+She burned to pour out to her mother all the Micklethwayte tidings,
+and all her longings to be there; but when the Rectory party set her
+down at the door, the footman, with a look of grave importance,
+announced that Mr. Egremont was very unwell.  'Mr. Gregory thinks he
+has taken a chill from the effect of exposure, sir, and Dr. Hamilton
+has been sent for.'
+
+The Canon and his wife both got out on this intelligence, and Mrs.
+Egremont was summoned to see them.  She came, looking more frightened
+than they thought the occasion demanded, for she was appalled by the
+severe pain in the head and eyes; but they comforted her by assuring
+her that her husband had suffered in the same manner in the spring,
+and she saw how well he had recovered; and then telling Nuttie to
+bring word what the doctor's report was, and then spend the evening
+at the Rectory, they departed, while poor Nuttie only had one kiss,
+one inquiry whether she were rested, before her mother fled back to
+the patient.
+
+Nor did she see her again till after the doctor's visit, and then it
+was only to desire her to tell her uncle that the attack was
+pronounced to be a return of the illness of last spring, and that it
+would be expedient to go abroad for the winter.
+
+Go abroad!  It had always been a vision of delight to Nuttie, and she
+could not be greatly concerned at the occasion of it; but she did not
+find the Rectory in a condition to converse and sympathise.  Blanche
+was lying down with a bad headache.  The Edwardses and a whole party
+of semi-genteel parish visitors had come in to inquire about the
+accident, and had to be entertained with afternoon tea; and May,
+though helping her stepmother to do her devoir towards them, seemed
+more preoccupied than ever.
+
+As indeed she was, for she knew that Mark was putting his fate to the
+touch with his father in the study.
+
+The Canon heard the proposal with utter consternation and dismay at
+the perverseness of the two young people, who might have been engaged
+any time these two years with the full approbation of their families,
+and now chose the very moment when every one was rejoicing at their
+freedom.
+
+'When a young man has got into a pickle,' he said, 'the first thing
+is to want to be married!'
+
+'Exactly so, sir, to give him a motive for getting out of the pickle.
+'
+
+'Umbrellas!  I should like to hear what your grandfather would have
+said!'
+
+'These are not my grandfather's days, sir.'
+
+'No indeed!  There was nothing to do but to give a hint to old Lord
+de Lyonnais, and he could get you put into any berth you chose.
+Interest was interest in those days!  I don't see why Kirkaldy can't
+do the same.'
+
+'Not unless I had foreign languages at my tongue's end.'
+
+Whereat the Canon groaned, and Mark had to work again through all the
+difficulties in the way of the more liberal professions; and the
+upshot was that his father agreed to drive over to Lescombe the next
+day and see Lady Ronnisglen.  He certainly had always implicitly
+trusted his son's veracity, but he evidently thought that there must
+have been much warping of the imagination to make the young man
+believe the old Scottish peeress to have consented to her daughter's
+marrying into an umbrella factory.
+
+Nuttie was surprised and gratified that both Mark and May put her
+through an examination on the habits of Micklethwayte and the
+position of Mr. Godfrey, which she thought was entirely due to the
+favourable impression Gerard had produced, and she felt
+proportionably proud of him when Mark pronounced him a very nice
+gentlemanly young fellow.  She could not think why her uncle, with
+more testiness than she had ever seen in that good-natured dignitary,
+ordered May not to stand chattering there, but to give them some
+music.
+
+The Canon drove to Lescombe the next day under pretext of inquiring
+after Lady Delmar, and then almost forgot to do so, after he had
+ascertained that she was a prisoner to her dressing-room, and that
+Sir John was out shooting.  The result of his interview filled him
+with astonishment.  Lady Ronnisglen having had a large proportion of
+sons to put out in life on very small means had learnt not to be
+fastidious, and held that the gentleman might ennoble the vocation
+instead of the vocation debasing the gentleman.  Moreover, in her
+secret soul she felt that her daughter Janet's manoeuvres were far
+more truly degrading than any form of honest labour; and it was very
+sore to her to have no power of preventing them, ridicule, protest,
+or discouragement being all alike treated as the dear mother's old-
+world unpractical romance.  It galled her likewise that she could
+perceive the determination that Annaple Ruthven should be disposed of
+before Muriel Delmar came on the scene; and the retiring to ever so
+small a home of their own had been discussed between mother and
+daughter, and only put aside because of the pain it would give their
+honest-hearted host and their hostess, who really loved them.
+
+Thus she did her best to persuade her old friend that there were few
+openings for a man of his son's age, and that if the Micklethwayte
+business were all that Mark imagined, it was not beneath the
+attention even of a well-born gentleman in these modern days, and
+would involve less delay than any other plan, except emigration,
+which was equally dreaded by each parent.  Delay there must be, not
+only in order to ascertain the facts respecting the firm, but to
+prove whether Mark had any aptitude for the business before involving
+any capital in it.  However, every other alternative would involve
+much longer and more doubtful waiting.  And altogether the Canon felt
+that if a person of Lady Ronnisglen's rank did not object, he had
+scarcely a right to do so.  However, both alike reserved consent
+until full inquiry should have been made.
+
+The Canon wrote to Lord Kirkaldy, and in the meantime wanted to
+gather what information he could from his sister-in-law; but he found
+her absolutely engrossed as her husband's nurse, and scarcely
+permitted to snatch a meal outside the darkened room.  He groaned and
+grumbled at his brother's selfishness, and declared that her health
+would be damaged, while his shrewder lady declared that nothing would
+be so good for her as to let Alwyn find her indispensable to his
+comfort, even beyond Gregorio.
+
+This absorption of her mother fell hard on Ursula, especially when
+the first two days' alarm was over, and her mother was still kept an
+entire prisoner, as companion rather than nurse.  As before, the
+rheumatic attack fastened upon the head and eyes, causing lengthened
+suffering, and teaching Mr. Egremont that he had never had so gentle,
+so skilful, so loving, or altogether so pleasant a slave as his wife,
+the only person except Gregorio whom, in his irritable state, he
+would tolerate about him.
+
+His brother could not be entirely kept out, but was never made
+welcome, more especially when he took upon himself to remonstrate on
+Alice's being deprived of air, exercise, and rest.  He got no thanks;
+Mr. Egremont snarled, and Alice protested that she was never tired,
+and needed nothing.  The Rectory party were, excepting the schoolroom
+girls, engaged to make visits from home before going into residence
+at Redcastle, and were to begin with Monks Horton.  They offered to
+escort Ursula to see her great aunt at Micklethwayte--Oh joy of
+joys!--but when the Canon made the proposition in his brother's room,
+Mr. Egremont cut it short with 'I'm not going to have her running
+after those umbrella-mongers.'
+
+The Canon's heart sank within him at the tone, and he was really very
+sorry for his niece, who was likely to have a fortnight or three
+weeks of comparative solitude before her father was ready to set out
+on the journey.
+
+'Can't she help you, in reading to her father--or anything?' he asked
+Alice, who had come out with him into the anteroom to express her
+warm thanks for the kind proposal.
+
+She shook her head.  'He would not like it, nor I, for her.'
+
+'I should think not!' exclaimed the Canon, as his eye fell on the
+title of a yellow French book on the table.  'I have heard of this!
+Does he make you read such as this to him, Alice?'
+
+'Nothing else seems to amuse him,' she said.  'Do you, think I ought
+not?  I don't understand much of that kind of modern French, but
+Nuttie knows it better.'
+
+'Not _that kind_, I hope,' said the Canon hastily.  No, no, my dear,'
+as he saw her colour mantling, 'small blame to you.  You have only to
+do the best you can with him, poor fellow!  Then we'll take anything
+for you.  We've said nothing to Nuttie, Jane said I had better ask
+you first.'
+
+'Oh, that was kind!  I am glad she is spared the disappointment.'
+
+Not that she was.  For when she learnt her cousins' destination, she
+entreated to go with them, and had to be told that the proposal had
+been made and refused.
+
+There is no denying that she behaved very ill.  It was the first real
+sharp collision of wills.  She had differed from, and disapproved of,
+her father all along, but what had been required of her had generally
+been pleasant to one side at least of her nature; but here she was
+condemned to the dulness of the lonely outsider to a sick room, when
+her whole soul was leaping back to the delights of her dear old home
+at Micklethwayte,
+
+She made her mother's brief meal with her such a misery of protests
+and insistences on pleadings with her father that poor Alice was fain
+to rejoice when the servants' presence silenced her, and fairly fled
+from her when the last dish was carried out.
+
+"When they met again Nuttie demanded, 'Have you spoken to my father?'
+
+'I told you, my dear, it would be of no use?'
+
+'You promised.'
+
+'No, Nuttie, I did not.'
+
+'I'm sure I understood you to say you would if you could.'
+
+'It was your hopes, my dear child.  He is quite determined.'
+
+'And you leave him so.  Mother, I can't understand your submitting to
+show such cruel ingratitude!'
+
+Nuttie was very angry, though she was shocked at the burning colour
+and hot tears that she beheld as, half choked, her mother said: 'Oh,
+my dear, my dear, do not speak so!  You know--you know it is not in
+my heart, but my first duty, and yours too, is to your father.'
+
+'Whatever he tells us?' demanded Nuttie, still hot and angry.
+
+'I did not say that,' returned her mother gently, 'but you know,
+Nuttie, Aunt Ursel herself would say that it is our duty to abide by
+his decision here.'
+
+'But you could speak to him,' still argued Nuttie, 'what's the use of
+his being so fond of you if he won't do anything you want?'
+
+'Hush! hush, Nuttie! you know that is not a right way of speaking.  I
+cannot worry him now he is ill.  You don't know what that dreadful
+pain is!'
+
+Happily Nuttie did refrain from saying, 'No doubt it makes him very
+cross;' but she muttered, 'And so we are to be cut off for ever from
+Aunt Ursel, and Miss Mary, and--and--every thing good--and nice--and
+catholic?'
+
+'I hope not, indeed, I hope not.  Only he wants us to get the good
+society manners and tone--like your cousins, you know.  You are young
+enough for it, and a real Egremont, you know Nuttie, and when you
+have learnt it, he will trust you there,' said the mother, making a
+very mild version of his speech about the umbrella-mongers.
+
+'Yes, he wants to make me worldly, so that I should not care, but
+that he never shall do, whatever you may let him do to you.'
+
+His bell rang sharply, and away hurried Alice, leaving her daughter
+with a miserably sore and impatient heart, and the consciousness of
+having harshly wounded the mother whom she had meant to protect.  And
+there was no hugging and kissing to make up for it possible.  They
+would not meet till dinner-time, and Nuttie's mood of stormy
+repentance had cooled before that time into longing to be more tender
+than usual towards her mother, but how was that possible during the
+awful household ceremony of many courses, with three solemn men-
+servants ministering to them?
+
+And poor Alice jumped up at the end, and ran away as if afraid of
+fresh objurgations, so that all Nuttie could do was to rush headlong
+after her, catch her on the landing, kiss her face all over, and
+exclaim, 'Oh, mother, mother, I was dreadfully cross!'
+
+'There, there!  I knew you would be sorry, dear, dear child, I know
+it is very hard, but let me go.  He wants me!'
+
+And a very forlorn and deplorable person was left behind, feeling as
+if her father, after carrying her away from everything else that she
+loved, had ended by robbing her of her mother.
+
+She stood on the handsome staircase, and contrasted it with the
+little cosy entrance at her aunt's.  She felt how she hated all these
+fine surroundings, and how very good and unworldly she was for so
+doing.  Only, was it good to have been so violent towards her mother?
+
+The Rectory folks were dining out, so she could only have recourse to
+Mudie's box to try to drive dull care away.
+
+A few days more and they were gone.  Though Mr. Egremont was
+gradually mending, he still required his wife to be in constant
+attendance.  In point of fact Alice could not, and in her loyalty
+would not, tell her dignified brother-in-law, far less her daughter,
+of the hint that the doctor had given her, namely, that her husband
+was lapsing into the constant use of opiates, founded at first on the
+needs of his malady, but growing into a perilous habit, which
+accounted for his shutting himself up all the forenoon.
+
+While under medical treatment it was possible to allowance him, and
+keep him under orders, but Dr. Hamilton warned her not to allow the
+quantity to be exceeded or the drugs to be resorted to after his
+recovery, speaking seriously of the consequences of indulgence.  He
+spoke as a duty, but as he looked at the gentle, timid woman, he saw
+little hope of her doing any good!
+
+Poor Alice was appalled.  All she could do was to betake herself to
+'the little weapon called All-Prayer,' and therewith to use all
+vigilance and all her arts of coaxing and cheering away weariness and
+languor, beguiling sleeplessness, soothing pain by any other means.
+She had just enough success to prevent her from utterly despairing,
+and to keep her always on the strain, and at her own cost, for Mr.
+Egremont was far more irritable when he was without the narcotic, and
+the serenity it produced was an absolute relief.  She soon found too
+that Gregorio was a contrary power.  Once, when he had suggested the
+dose, and she had replied by citing the physician's commands, Mr.
+Egremont had muttered an imprecation on doctors, and she had caught a
+horrible grin of hatred on the man's face, which seemed to her almost
+diabolical.  She had prevailed then, but the next time her absence
+was at all prolonged, she found that the opiate had been taken, and
+her dread of quitting her post increased, though she did not by any
+means always succeed.  Sometimes she was good-humouredly set aside,
+sometimes roughly told to mind her own business; but she could not
+relinquish the struggle, and whenever she did succeed in preventing
+the indulgence she felt a hopefulness that--in spite of himself and
+Gregorio, she might yet save him.
+
+Another hint she had from both the Canon and his wife.  When they
+asked what place was chosen, Mr. Egremont said he had made Alice
+write to inquire of the houses to be had at various resorts--Mentone,
+Nice, Cannes, and the like.  She was struck by the ardour with which
+they both began to praise Nice, Genoa, Sorrento, any place in
+preference to Mentone, which her husband seemed to know and like the
+best.
+
+And when she went downstairs with them the Canon held her hand a
+moment, and said, 'Anywhere but Mentone, my dear.'
+
+She looked bewildered for a moment, and the Canoness added, 'Look in
+the guide-books.'
+
+Then she remembered Monte Carlo, and for a moment it was to her as
+shocking a warning as if she had been bidden to keep her husband out
+of the temptation of thieving.
+
+She resolved, however, to do her best, feeling immediately that again
+it was a pull of her influence against Gregorio's.  Fortune favoured
+her so far that the villa favoured by Mr. Egremont was not to be had,
+only the side of the bay he disliked, and that a pleasant villa
+offered at Nice.
+
+Should she close with it?  Well--was there great haste?  Gregorio
+knew a good many people at Mentone, and could ascertain in his own
+way if they could get the right side of the bay by going to the hotel
+and waiting.  Alice, however, pressed the matter--represented the
+danger of falling between two stools, pleaded personal preference,
+and whereas Mr. Egremont was too lazy for resistance to any
+persuasion, she obtained permission to engage the Nice villa.  The
+next day Gregorio announced that he had heard that the proprietor of
+Villa Francaleone at Mentone was giving up hopes of his usual
+tenants, and an offer might secure it.
+
+'Villa Eugenie at Nice is taken,' said Alice, and she received one of
+those deadly black looks, which were always like a stab.
+
+Of all this Nuttie knew nothing.  She was a good deal thrown with the
+schoolroom party and with the curate's wife for companionship.  Now
+Mrs. Edwards did not approve of even the canonical Egremonts, having
+an ideal far beyond the ritual of Bridgefield; and she was delighted
+to find how entirely Miss Egremont sympathised with her.
+
+Nuttie described St. Ambrose's as a paradise of church observances
+and parish management, everything becoming embellished and all
+shortcomings forgotten in the loving mists of distance.  The
+harmonium was never out of tune; the choir-boys were only just
+naughty enough to show how wisely Mr. Spyers dealt with them; the
+surplices, one would think, never needed washing; Mr. Dutton and
+Gerard Godfrey were paragons of lay helpers, and district visitors
+never were troublesome.  Mrs. Edwards listened with open ears, and
+together they bewailed the impracticability of moving the Canon to
+raising Bridgefield to anything approaching to such a standard; while
+Nuttie absolutely cultivated her home sickness.
+
+According to promise Blanche wrote to her from Monks Horton, and told
+her thus much--'We have been all over your umbrella place.  It was
+very curious.  Then we called upon Miss Headworth, who was quite
+well, and was pleased to hear of you.'
+
+Blanche was famous for never putting into a letter what her
+correspondent wanted to hear, but her stepmother wrote a much longer
+and more interesting letter to Mrs. Egremont.
+
+'You will be glad to hear that we found your aunt quite well.  I
+suppose it is not in the nature of things that you should not be
+missed; but I should think your place as well supplied as could be
+hoped by that very handsome and superior Miss Nugent, with whom she
+lives.  I had a good deal of conversation with both; for you will be
+surprised to hear that the Canon has consented to Mark's making the
+experiment of working for a year in Greenleaf and Dutton's office,
+with a view to entering the firm in future.  I was very anxious to
+understand from such true ladies what the position would be socially.
+I longed to talk it over with you beforehand; but Alwyn could never
+spare you, and it was not a subject to be broached without ample time
+for discussion.  We felt that though the Kirkaldys could tell us
+much, it was only from the outside, whereas Miss Headworth could
+speak from within.  The decision is of course a blow to his father,
+and will be still more so to the De Lyonnais family, but they have
+never done anything to entitle them to have a voice in the matter,
+and the Kirkaldys agree with us that, though not a path of
+distinction, it is one of honourable prosperity; and with this, if
+Mark is content, we have no right to object, since his mind is set on
+present happiness rather than ambition.'
+
+It was a letter gratifying to Alice in its confidential tone, as well
+as in the evident approval of those surroundings which she loved so
+well.  She read it to her husband, as she was desired to give him a
+message that the Canon had not written out of consideration for his
+eyes.  He laughed the laugh that always jarred on her.  'So Master
+Mark has got his nose to the grindstone, has he?' was his first
+exclamation, and, after some cogitation, 'The fellow wants to be
+married, depend on it!'
+
+'Do you think so?' returned Alice wistfully.
+
+'Think!  Why, you may see it in Jane's letter!  I wonder who it is!
+The little yellow Ruthven girl, most likely!  The boy is fool enough
+for anything!  I thought he would have mended his fortunes with
+Ursula, but he's too proud to stomach that, I suppose!'
+
+'I did wish that!' said Alice.  'It would have set everything
+straight, and it would have been so nice for her.'
+
+'You should have cut out your daughter after your own pattern,' he
+answered; 'not let her be such a raw insignificant little spitfire.
+'Tis a pity.  I don't want the estate to go out of the name, though I
+won't leave it to an interfering prig like Mark unless he chooses to
+take my daughter with it!'
+
+The latter part of this amiable speech was muttered and scarcely
+heard or attended to by Alice in her struggle to conceal the grief
+she felt at the uncompromising opinion of her child.  Nuttie might
+outgrow being raw, but there seemed less rather than more prospect of
+a better understanding with her father.  About a week later Mark made
+his appearance, timing it happily when his uncle was making his
+toilette, so that his aunt was taking a turn on the sunny terrace
+with Nuttie when the young man came hurrying up the garden.
+
+'Mark!  What?  Are you come home?'
+
+'Not the others.  They are at Mr. Condamine's, I came last night--by
+way of Lescombe.  Edda, dear, it is all right!  Oh, I forgot you did
+not know!  There was no seeing you before we went away.  Ah! by the
+by, how is my uncle?'
+
+'Much better, except that using his eyes brings on the pain.  'What
+is it, Mark?  Ah! I can guess,' she said, aided no doubt by that
+conjecture of her husband's.
+
+'Yes, yes, yes!' he answered, with a rapidity quite unlike himself.
+'Why, Nuttie, how mystified you look!'
+
+'I'm sure I don't wonder at any one being glad to live at dear old
+Micklethwayte,' said Nuttie slowly.  'But, somehow, I didn't think it
+of you, Mark.'
+
+'My dear, that's not all!' said her mother.
+
+'Oh!' cried Nuttie, with a prolonged intonation.  'Is it?--Oh, Mark!
+did you _do it_ that night when you led the horse home?'
+
+'Even so, Nuttie!  And, Aunt Alice, Lady Ronnisglen is the best and
+bravest of old ladies, and the wisest.  Nobody objects but Lady
+Delmar, and she declares she shall not consider it an engagement till
+Ronnisglen has been written to in Nepaul, as if he had anything to do
+with it; but that matters the less, since they all insist on our
+waiting till I've had a year's trial at the office!  I suppose they
+could not be expected to do otherwise, but it is a pity, for I'm
+afraid Lady Delmar will lead Annaple and her mother a life of it.'
+
+'Dear Mark, I am delighted that it is all going so well.'
+
+'I knew you would be!  I told them I must tell _you_, though it is
+not to go any farther.'
+
+So that hope of Mark's restoration to the inheritance faded from
+Alice, and yet she could not be concerned for him.  She had never
+seen him in such good spirits, for the sense of failure and
+disappointment had always been upon him; and the definite prospect of
+occupation, gilded by his hopes of Annaple, seemed to make a new man
+of him.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+AN OLD FRIEND.
+
+
+
+
+'My heart untravelled still returns to thee.'--GOLDSMITH.
+
+
+To go abroad!  Such had been the fairy castle of Nuttie's life.  She
+had dreamed of Swiss mountains, Italian pictures, Rheinland castles,
+a perpetual panorama of delight, and here she was in one of the great
+hotels of Paris, as little likely to see the lions of that city as
+she had been to see those of London.
+
+The party were halting for two days there because the dentist, on
+whom Mr. Egremont's fine show of teeth depended, practised there; but
+Nuttie spent great part of the day alone in the sitting-room, and her
+hand-bag and her mother's, with all their books and little comforts,
+had been lost in the agony of landing.  Her mother's attendance was
+required all the morning, or what was worse, she expected that it
+would be, and though Nuttie's persistence dragged out the staid,
+silent English maid, who had never been abroad before, to walk in the
+Tuilleries gardens, which they could see from their windows, both
+felt half-scared the whole time.  Nuttie was quite unused to finding
+her own way unprotected, and Martin was frightened, cross, and
+miserable about the bags, which, she averred, had been left by
+Gregorio's fault.  She so hated Gregorio that only a sort of
+adoration which she entertained for Mrs. Egremont  would have induced
+her to come tete-a-tete with him, and perhaps he was visiting his
+disappointment about Mentone on her.  In the afternoon nothing was
+achieved but a drive in the Bois de Boulogne, when it was at once
+made evident that Mr. Egremont would tolerate no questions nor
+exclamations.
+
+His mouth was in no condition for eating in public, and he therefore
+decreed that his wife and daughter should dine at the table d'hote,
+while he was served alone by Gregorio.  This was a great boon to
+Nuttie, and to her mother it recalled bridal days long past at
+Dieppe; but what was their astonishment when on entering the room
+they beheld the familiar face of Mr. Dutton!  It was possible for him
+to place himself between them, and there is no describing the sense
+of rest and protection his presence imparted to them, more especially
+to Nuttie.
+
+He had come over, as he did from time to time, on business connected
+with the materials he used, and he was beguiled into telling them of
+his views of Mark, whom he had put in the way of learning the
+preliminaries needful to an accountant.  He had a deep distrust of
+the business capacities and perseverance of young gentlemen of
+family, especially with a countess-aunt in the neighbourhood, and
+quoted Lord Eldon's saying that to make a good lawyer of one, it was
+needful for him to have spent both his own and his wife's fortune to
+begin with, but he allowed that young Mr. Egremont was a very
+favourable specimen, and was resolutely applying himself to his work,
+and that he himself felt it due to him to give all the assistance
+possible.
+
+Miss Headworth, he could not deny, had aged, but far less than Mrs.
+Nugent in the past year, and it really was a great comfort to Miss
+Mary to have the old ladies together.  He told too how the mission,
+now lately over, had stirred the Micklethwayte folk into strong
+excitement, and how good works had been undertaken, evil habits
+renounced, reconciliations effected, religious services frequented.
+Would it last?  Nobody, he said, had taken it up so zealously as
+Gerard Godfrey, who seemed as if he would fain throw everything up,
+and spend his whole life in some direct service as a home missionary
+or something of the kind.  'He is a good fellow,' said Mr. Dutton,
+'and it is quite genuine, but I made him wait at least a year, that
+he may be sure that this is not only a passing impulse.'
+
+Nuttie thought that she knew what was the impulse that had actuated
+him, and felt a pleasant elation and self-consciousness even while
+she repressed a sigh of pity for herself and for him.  Altogether the
+dip into the Micklethwayte world was delightful, but when Mr. Dutton
+began to ask Nuttie what she had seen, she burst out with, 'Nothing--
+nothing but just a walk and a drive in the Bois de Boulogne;' and her
+mother explained that 'in Mr. Egremont's state of health,' etc.
+
+'I wonder,' asked Mr. Dutton, 'if I might be allowed--'
+
+Nuttie's eyes sparkled with ecstasy.
+
+It ended in her mother, who had been wondering how Mr. Egremont could
+be amused all the long evening, arranging that Mr. Dutton should come
+in an hour's time to call on him, on the chance of being admitted,
+and that then the offer might be made when she had prepared him for
+it, advising Nuttie to wait in her own room.  She was beginning to
+learn how to steer between her husband and her daughter, and she did
+not guess that her old friend was sacrificing one of the best French
+plays for the chance.
+
+It turned out well; Mr. Egremont was conscious of a want of variety.
+He demanded whether it was the young fellow, and being satisfied on
+that part, observed in almost a good-humoured tone, 'So, we are in
+for umbrellas, we may as well go in for the whole firm!' caused the
+lights to be lowered under pretext of his eyes--to conceal the lack
+of teeth--did not absolutely refuse to let Nuttie take advantage of
+the escort, and when Mr. Dutton did come to the anteroom of the
+apartment, he was received with full courtesy, though Gregorio looked
+unutterable contempt.  Mr. Dutton was a man who could talk, and had
+seen a good deal of the world at different times.  Mr. Egremont could
+appreciate intelligent conversation, so that they got on wonderfully
+well together, over subjects that would have been a mere weariness to
+Nuttie but for the exceeding satisfaction of hearing a Micklethwayte
+voice.  At last Mr. Dutton said something about offering his escort
+to the ladies, or to Miss Egremont, who used, he said in a paternal
+way, to be a little playfellow of his; Mr. Egremont really smiled,
+and said, 'Ay, ay, the child is young enough to run after sights.
+Well, thank you, if you are so good as to take the trouble, they will
+be very grateful to you, or if her mother cannot go with her, there's
+the maid.'
+
+Nuttie thought she had never known him so amiable, and hardly durst
+believe her good fortune would not turn the wheel before morning.
+And it so far did that her mother found, or thought she found, that
+it would not do to be out of call, and sent the silent Martin in her
+stead.  But Mr. Dutton had set telegraphs to work and recovered the
+bags, which Gregorio had professed to give up in despair.
+
+A wonderful amount of lionising was contrived by Mr. Dutton, who had
+lived a few years at Paris in early youth, and had made himself
+acquainted alike with what was most worth seeing, and the best ways
+and means of seeing it, so that as little time as possible was wasted
+on the unimportant.  It was one of the white days of Nuttie's life,
+wanting nothing but her mother's participation in the sight of the
+St. Michael of the Louvre, of the Sainte Chapelle, of the vistas in
+Notre Dame, and of poor Marie Antoinette's cell,--all that they had
+longed to see together.
+
+She had meant to tell Mr. Dutton that it was all her father's
+selfishness, but somehow she could not say so, there was something
+about him that hindered all unbefitting outbreaks of vexation.
+
+And thus, when she mentioned her disappointment at not being allowed
+to go to Micklethwayte with her uncle, he answered, 'You could not of
+course be spared with your father so unwell.'
+
+'Oh, he never let me come near him!  I wasn't of the slightest use to
+him!'
+
+'Mrs. Egremont would have missed you.'
+
+'Really he never gave her time.  He perfectly devours her, body and
+soul.  Oh dear, no!  'Twas for no good I was kept there, but just
+pride and ingratitude, though mother tried to call it being afraid
+for my manners and my style.'
+
+'In which, if you lapse into such talk, you fully justify the
+precaution.  I was just thinking what a young lady you had grown
+into,' he answered in a tone of banter, under which, however, she
+felt a rebuke; and while directing her attention to the Pantheon, he
+took care to get within hearing again of Martin.
+
+And in looking at these things, he carried her so far below the
+surface.  St. Michael was not so much Raffaelle's triumph of art as
+the eternal victory over sin; the Sainte Chapelle, spite of all its
+modern unsanctified gaudiness, was redolent of St. Louis; and the
+cell of the slaughtered queen was as a martyr's shrine, trod with
+reverence.  There were associations with every turn, and Nuttie might
+have spent years at Paris with another companion without imbibing so
+many impressions as on this December day, when she came home so full
+of happy chatter that the guests at the table d'hote glanced with
+amusement at the eager girl as much as with admiration at the
+beautiful mother.  Mr. Dutton had been invited to come and take
+coffee and spend the evening with them again, but Mr. Egremont's
+affairs with the dentist had been  completed, and he had picked up,
+or, more strictly speaking, Gregorio had hunted up for him, a couple
+of French acquaintances, who appeared before long and engrossed him
+entirely.
+
+Mr. Dutton sat between the two ladies on a stiff dark-green sofa on
+the opposite side of the room, and under cover of the eager, half-
+shrieking, gesticulating talk of the Frenchmen they had a quiet low-
+toned conversation, like old times, Alice said.  'More than old
+times,' Nuttie added, and perhaps the others both agreed with her.
+
+When the two Englishwomen started at some of the loud French tones,
+almost imagining they were full of rage and fury, their friend smiled
+and said that such had been his first notion on coming abroad.
+
+'You have been a great deal abroad?' Mrs. Egremont asked; 'you seem
+quite at home in Paris.'
+
+'Oh, mamma, he showed me where the school was that he went to, and
+the house where he lived!  Up such an immense way!'
+
+Mr. Dutton was drawn on to tell more of his former life than ever had
+been known to them.  His father, a wine merchant, had died a bankrupt
+when he was ten years old, and a relation, engaged in the same
+business at Paris, had offered to give him a few years of foreign
+schooling, and then make him useful in the business.
+
+His excellent mother had come with him, and they had lived together
+on very small means, high up in a many-storied lodging-house, while
+he daily attended the Lycie.  His reminiscences were very happy of
+those days of cheerful contrivance, of her eager desire to make the
+tiny appartement a home to her boy, of their pleasant Sundays and
+holidays, and the life that in this manner was peculiarly guarded by
+her influence, and the sense of being all she had upon earth.  He had
+scarcely ever spoken of her before, and he dwelt on her now with a
+tenderness that showed how she had been the guiding spirit of his
+life.
+
+At fifteen he was taken into the office at Marseilles, and she went
+thither with him, but the climate did not agree with her; she
+drooped, and, moreover, he discovered that the business was not
+conducted in the honourable manner he had supposed.  After a few
+months of weighing his obligations to his kinsman against these
+instincts, the question was solved by his cousin's retiring.  He
+resolved to take his mother back to England at any loss, and falling
+in with one of the partners of the umbrella firm in quest of French
+silk, he was engaged as foreign correspondent, and brought his mother
+to Micklethwayte, but not in time to restore her health, and he had
+been left alone in the world just as he came of age, when a small
+legacy came to him from his cousin, too late for her to profit by it.
+It had been invested in the business, and he had thus gradually risen
+to his present position.  Mrs. Egremont was amazed to hear that his
+mother had only been dead so short a time before she had herself come
+to Micklethwayte; and fairly apologised for the surprise she could
+not help betraying at finding how youthful he had then been, and
+Nuttie exclaimed, in her original unguarded fashion:
+
+'Why, Mr. Dutton, I always thought you were an old bachelor!'
+
+'Nuttie, my dear!' said her mother in a note of warning, but Mr.
+Dutton laughed and said:
+
+'Not so far wrong!  They tell me I never was a young man.'
+
+'You had always to be everything to your mother,' said Mrs. Egremont
+softly.
+
+'Yes,' he said, 'and a very blessed thing it was for me.'
+
+'Ah! you don't regret now all that you must have always been giving
+up for her,' returned Alice.
+
+'No, indeed.  Only that I did not give up more.'
+
+'That is always the way.'
+
+'It is indeed.  One little knows the whips that a little self-will
+prepares.'
+
+Nuttie thought he said it for her admonition, and observed, 'But she
+was good,' only, however, in a mumble, that the other two thought it
+inexpedient to notice, though it made both hearts ache for her, even
+Alice's--with an additional pang of self-reproach that she herself
+was not good enough to help her daughter better.
+
+Neither of them guessed at the effect that a glimpse of the lovely
+young seeming widow had had on the already grave self-restrained
+young man in the home lately made lonely, how she had been his secret
+object for years, and how, when her history was revealed to him, he
+had still hoped on for a certainty which had come at last as so fatal
+a shock and overthrow to all his dreams.
+
+A life of self-restraint and self-conquest had rendered it safe for
+him to thoroughly enjoy the brief intercourse, which had come about
+by the accident of his having come to dine at the Hotel de Louvre, to
+meet a friend who had failed him.
+
+These were two completely happy hours to all the three, and when they
+said 'good-night' there was a sense of soothing and invigoration on
+Alice's mind; and on Nuttie's that patience and dutifulness were the
+best modes of doing justice to her Micklethwayte training, although
+he had scarcely said a word of direct rebuke or counsel.
+
+While Mr. Dutton sped home to tell Miss Headworth that Mrs. Egremont
+looked lovelier than ever, and was--yes she was--more of an angel,
+that her husband had been very pleasant, much better than he
+expected, and, indeed, might come to anything good under such
+influence; and as to little Nuttie--she was developing fast, and had
+a brave constant heart, altogether at Micklethwayte.  But that
+servant who was acting as courier was an insolent scoundrel, who was
+evidently cheating them to the last degree.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+A FRIEND IN NEED.
+
+
+
+
+'True courage often is in frightened eyes.'--
+                                 Thoughts and Verses.
+
+
+All the preliminaries of the sojourn at Nice had been settled in
+correspondence, and the Egremont family had nothing to do, after
+arriving at the station, but to drive up to Villa Eugenie, whose
+flower-wreathed balconies were like a vision of beauty.  Servants had
+been hired through agencies known to Mr. Egremont, and Gregorio
+looked very black at his mistress keeping the reins in her hand, and
+tried to make her feel herself inefficient.
+
+It was not an eventful or very interesting part of Ursula's life.
+She was almost wild with the novelty and beauty of the South at
+first, but except for what she could thus see, there was little
+variety.  The mould of the day was as much as possible after the
+Bridgefield fashion, except that there were no cousins at the
+Rectory, no parish interests, very little society, as far as the
+ladies were concerned.  Mr. Egremont had old acquaintance and
+associates with whom he spent afternoons and evenings, after his own
+fashion, but they were not people to whom he wished to introduce his
+wife and daughter.
+
+And the superior English habitues of Nice, the families who formed
+the regular society, knew Mr. Egremont's reputation sufficiently to
+feel by no means disposed to be cordial to the fair wife and grown-up
+daughter whom he so unexpectedly produced on the scene.  It had been
+different at home, where he had county standing, and the Canon and
+Canoness answered for the newcomers; but here, where all sorts of
+strange people came to the surface, the respectable felt it needful
+to be very cautious, and though of course one or two ladies had been
+asked to call through the intervention of Lady Kirkaldy or of Mrs.
+William Egremont, and had been assured on their authority that it was
+'all right,' their attentions were clogged by doubt, and by
+reluctance to involve their mankind in intimacy with the head of the
+family.  Thus very little of the proverbial gaiety of Nice offered
+itself to Nuttie and her mother, and, except by a clerical family who
+knew Mr. Spyers, they were kept at a distance, which Mr. Egremont
+perceived and resented by permitting no advances.  The climate suited
+him so well that, to his wife's great relief, he seemed to have
+dropped his inclination for sedatives; but his eyes would not bear
+much, and she felt bound to be always on the alert, able to amuse him
+and hinder his feeling it dull.  Gregorio highly disapproved of the
+house and servants, and was always giving hints that Mentone would
+agree far better with his master; but every day that Mr. Egremont
+seemed sufficiently amused at Nice was so much gain, and she had this
+in her favour, that he was always indolent and hard to move.
+Moreover, between his master's levee and late dinner Gregorio was
+hardly ever to be found.  No doubt he knew the way to Monte Carlo
+well enough, and perhaps preferred that the family should be farther
+off, for he soon ceased to show himself discontented with their
+present abode.  Once when his absence was inconvenient, Mr. Egremont
+abused him roundly as a good-for-nothing gambler, but when Alice
+hoped that he might be called to a reckoning, the wrath had subsided
+with the immediate vexation, and as usual she was told 'All those
+fellows were alike.'
+
+The foreign servants were not to be induced to give the early-rising
+ladies more than a roll and cup of coffee, and Nuttie felt ravenous
+till she learned to lay in a stock of biscuits, and, with Martin's
+connivance, made tea on her own account, and sustained her mother for
+the morning's walk before the summons to Mr. Egremont.
+
+He always wanted his wife much earlier in the day, during his hours
+of deshabille, and letting her write his letters and read the papers
+to him.  She was pleased with this advance, but it gave Nuttie a
+great deal more solitude, which was sometimes judiciously spent, but
+it was very hard not to be desultory in spite of learning lessons in
+French, Italian, and drawing.
+
+Later in the day came the drive or the visit to the public gardens
+when the band was playing, but this became less frequent as Mr.
+Egremont observed the cold civility shown to his wife, and as he
+likewise grew stronger and made more engagements of his own.  Then
+Nuttie had happy afternoons of driving, donkey-riding, or walking
+with her mother, sketching, botanising, admiring, and laying up
+stores for the long descriptive letters that delighted the party in
+St. Ambrose's Road, drinking in all the charm of the scenery, and
+entering into it intelligently.  They spent a good many evenings
+alone together likewise, and it could not but give Alice a pang to
+see the gladness her daughter did not repress when this was the case,
+even though to herself it meant relaxation of the perpetual vigilance
+she had to exert when the father and daughter were together to avert
+collisions.  They were certainly not coming nearer to one another,
+though Nuttie was behaving very well and submissively on the whole,
+and seldom showing symptoms of rebellion.  This went on through the
+early part of their stay, but latterly there was a growing sense upon
+the girl that she and her mother were avoided by some young ladies to
+whom they had been introduced, and whom they saw regularly at the
+daily services at St. Michael's Church.  They were pleasant-looking
+girls, with whom Nuttie longed to fraternise, and she was mortified
+at never being allowed to get beyond a few frigidly civil words in
+the street, more especially when she came upon sketching parties and
+picnics in which she was never included.
+
+It was all very well for her mother to answer her murmurs and
+wonderings with 'You know people are very exclusive, my dear.'
+Nuttie began to guess that her father and her name were the real
+reason, and her eyes were further opened later in the spring when Mr.
+Egremont, who had recovered unusual health and vigour, took his
+ladies to Mentone to spend a day or two in the newer beauties there.
+Alice had her misgivings, but the visit was avowedly to show the
+place to her, and she could not reasonably object.  He was in unusual
+good humour, and even tolerated their ecstasies at the scenery and
+the flowers, dined at the table d'hote and found acquaintance,
+enjoyed himself, and in the forenoon, while Nuttie was out wondering
+and admiring, and going as far as she could drag Martin, he expressed
+to his wife that she would be astonished at the gardens and the music
+of Monte Carlo.
+
+There, however, Alice made a stand.  'Thank you, it is very kind, but
+if you please, I should not like to take Ursula to Monte Carlo, or to
+go there myself,' she said in an apologetic tone.
+
+He laughed.  'What! you are afraid of making the little one a
+confirmed gambler?'
+
+'You know I am not, but--'
+
+'You think the little prig will be contaminated, eh?'
+
+'Well, I think it will be happier for her if she never sees anything--
+of the kind.'
+
+'You little foolish Edda, as if her eyes or ears need see anything
+but flowers and music and good company.'
+
+'I know that, but I had so much rather not.  It was a sweet face and
+caressing voice that implored, and he still was good humoured.
+
+'Well, well, I don't want to drag you, old lady, against your will,
+though I fancy you would be rather surprised at the real aspect of
+the abode of iniquity your fancy depicts.'
+
+'Oh, thank you, thank you so much!'
+
+'What an absurd little woman it is!  I wonder if you would thank me
+as heartily supposing I cleared a round thousand and gave you--say a
+diamond necklace?'
+
+'I am sure I should not!'
+
+'No, I don't believe you would.  That restless little conscience of
+yours would be up on end.  After all, I don't know that you are the
+worse for it, when it looks so prettily out of your brown eyes.  I
+wonder what you expect to see?  The ruined gamester shooting himself
+on every path, eh?'
+
+'No, no; I don't suppose I should see anything horrid or even
+disagreeable.  I know it is all very beautiful; but then every person
+who goes for the innocent pleasures' sake only helps to keep up the
+whole thing--evil and all.'
+
+'And what would the old women of all sorts here and at Nice do
+without such a choice temple of scandal to whet their teeth upon?
+Well, I suppose you and your precious daughter can take care of
+yourselves.  There are the gardens, or you can tell Gregorio to order
+you a carriage.'
+
+'Then you are going?'
+
+'Yes, I promised Grafton.  Don't be afraid, Mistress Edda, I'm not
+going to stake Bridgefield and reduce you to beggary.  I'm an old
+hand, and was a cool one in my worst days, and whatever I get I'll
+hand over to appease you.'
+
+That was all she could obtain, and she secretly hoped there would be
+no winnings to perplex her.  Thankful that she had not made him angry
+by the resistance for which she had prepared herself with secret
+prayer ever since the Mentone scheme had been proposed, she placed
+herself at Nuttie's disposition for the rest of the day.
+
+They had a charming donkey-ride, and, still unsatiated with beauty,
+Ursula made her mother come out again to wonder at the trees in the
+public gardens.  Rather tired, they were sitting on a shaded bench,
+when a voice close to them exclaimed, 'It is; yes, it must be; 'tis
+the voice--yes, and the face prettier than ever.  Little Alice--ah!
+you don't know me.  Time has been kinder to you than to me.'
+
+'Oh!  I know you now!  I beg your pardon,' cried Alice, recognising
+in the thin nutcracker parchment visage and shabbily-dressed figure
+the remnant of the brilliant aquiline countenance and gay attire of
+eighteen years ago.  'Mrs. Houghton!  I am so glad to have met you,
+you were so kind to me.  And here she is.'
+
+'What! is this the child?  Bless me, what a proof how time goes!
+Young lady, you'll excuse my not knowing you.  You were a very
+inconvenient personage not quite born when I last met your mother.
+What a likeness!  I could have known her for Alwyn Egremont's
+daughter anywhere!'
+
+'Yes, they all say she is a thorough Egremont.'
+
+'Then it is all right.  I saw Alwyn Egremont, Esquire, and family
+among the arrivals at Nice, but I hardly durst expect that it was
+you.  It seemed too good to be true, though I took care the knot
+should be tied faster than my gentleman suspected.'
+
+'Oh, please!' cried Alice deprecatingly, at first not apprehending
+the force of the words, having never known the gulf from which Mrs.
+Houghton had saved her, and that lady, seeing that the girl was
+listening with all her ears, thought of little pitchers and
+restrained her reminiscences, asking with real warm interest, 'And
+how was it?  How did you meet him again?'
+
+'He came and found me out,' said Alice, with satisfaction in her
+voice.
+
+'Indeed!  Not at Dieppe; for he was en garcon when I nearly came
+across him ten years ago at Florence.'
+
+'Oh no!  He inquired at Dieppe, but they had lost the address my aunt
+left.'
+
+'Indeed!  I should not have thought it of old Madame Leroux, she
+seemed so thoroughly interested in la pauvre petite.  What did you
+do?  Your aunt wrote to me when your troubles were safely over, and
+she thought him lost in the poor Ninon, that she meant to settle in a
+place with an awfully long Yorkshire name.'
+
+'Micklethwayte; yes, we lived there, and got on very well.  We had
+boarders, and I had some dear little pupils; but last year Mark
+Egremont--you remember dear little Mark--was in the neighbourhood,
+and hearing my name, he told his uncle, who had been seeking us ever
+since.  And he came, Mr. Egremont, and took us home, and oh, the
+family have been so kind!'
+
+'What?  The parson, and that awful old she-lion of a grandmother,
+whose very name scared you out of your wits?'
+
+'She is dead, and so is dear good Lady Adelaide.  Canon Egremont is
+kindness itself.  It was all the old lady's doing, and he knew
+nothing about it.  He was gone to Madeira with Lady Adelaide and got
+none of our letters, and he never knew that his brother was married
+to me.'
+
+'Trust Alwyn for that,' Mrs. Houghton muttered.  'Well, all's well
+that ends well, and I hope he feels due gratitude to me for doing him
+a good turn against his will.  I tried to get at him at Florence to
+find out what he had done with you, but unluckily I was ill, and had
+to send through poor Houghton, and he mismanaged it of course, though
+I actually wrote down that barbarous address, Mickle something, on a
+card.  I believe he only got as far as the man instead of the
+master.'
+
+'Ah!  I wanted to ask for Captain Houghton,' said Alice, glad to lead
+the conversation away from revelations of which she had an
+instinctive dread.
+
+'Gone, my dear! two years ago.  Poor fellow! it was low fever, but
+quite as much want of luck, I shall always believe,' she said.
+
+'Oh, I am sorry!  He was so kind to me!' said Alice, squeezing her
+hand, and looking up with sweet tender commiseration.
+
+'There, there, don't, you pretty creature!' said Mrs. Houghton,
+putting her hand across her eyes.  'I declare, you've almost made me
+cry--which I've not done--well, hardly, since I parted with you at
+Dieppe, thinking you a sweet little flower plucked and thrown away to
+die, though I had done my best to bind it to him.  What care I took
+not to let Houghton disabuse him about Jersey marriages!'
+
+There is a difference between hearing and hearkening, and Alice
+Egremont's loving and unsuspecting heart was so entirely closed
+against evil thoughts of her husband, and so fully occupied with her
+old friend's condition, that she never took in the signification of
+all this, while Nuttie, being essentially of a far more shrewd and
+less confiding nature, and already imbued with extreme distrust of
+her father, was taking in all these revelations with an open-eyed,
+silent horror of conviction that her old impressions of the likeness
+to Marmion or Theseus had been perfectly correct.  It was all under
+her hat, however, and the elder ladies never thought of her, Alice
+bringing back the conversation to Mrs. Houghton herself.  'Oh, my
+dear, I drag on as I can.  I've got a fragment of our old income, and
+when that's run too low, I go up to Monte Carlo--I always had the
+lucky hand, you know, and 'tis only restitution after all!  I'm sick
+of it all though, and sometimes think I'll take my good sister Anne's
+offers and go home.'
+
+'Oh do, do!' cried Alice.
+
+'But,' went on the poor woman, 'humble pie goes against me, and think
+what an amount would be before me--heigh ho!--after nearly five-and-
+twenty years; yes, five-and-twenty years it is--since Houghton, poor
+fellow, told me I was too bright and winsome for a little country
+lawyer's house in a poky street.  What would they think of me now?'
+and she laughed with a sound that was painful to hear.  'Well,
+Sycorax had done one good deed, and when I look at you, queening it
+there, I feel that so have I.'
+
+'You were very good to me, I know; but oh, if you would go home to
+your sister!'
+
+'My dear, you little know what you ask!  Anne!  Why, she is the prime
+district lady, or whatever you call it, of Dockforth.  Think what it
+would be to her to have this battered old vaurien thrown on her
+hands, to be the stock subject for all the righteous tongues.
+Besides,' as she coughed, 'the English climate would make an end of
+me outright.  I'm in a bad way enough here, where I can sit among the
+lemon trees half the days in the winter, but the English fireside in
+a stuffy parlour--' and she shuddered.
+
+That shiver reminded all that it was getting late, too late for Mrs.
+Houghton to be out of doors, and near the time when Mr. Egremont was
+to meet his ladies at the hotel.  Alice begged for Mrs. Houghton's
+address, and it was given with a short ironical laugh at her promise
+to call again if possible.  'Ay, if possible,' the poor woman
+repeated.  'I understand!  No, no,' as Alice was about to kiss her.
+'I won't have it done.'
+
+'There's no one in sight.'
+
+'As if that made a difference!  Alice, child, you are as innocent as
+the little dove that flew aboard the Ninon.  How have you done it?
+Get along with you!  No kisses to such as me!  I don't know whether
+it breaks my heart, or binds it up to look at the face of you.
+Anyway, I can't bear it.'
+
+She hurried away, and made some steps from them.  A terrible paroxysm
+of coughing came on, and Mrs. Egremont hurried towards her, but she
+waved back all help, shook her head, and insisted on going home.
+Alice kept her in sight, till she dived into a small side street.
+
+'Mother,' said Nuttie.  Then there was a pause.  'Mother, did you
+know all this?'
+
+'Don't talk of it, Nuttie.  It is not a thing to be talked about to
+any one or by any one.  I wish you had not been there.'
+
+'But, mother, this once!  Did you know?'
+
+'I knew that I knew not what I did when I went on board that yacht,
+but that God's kind providence was over me in a way that I little
+deserved.  That is all I care to know, and, Ursula, I will have not
+another word about it.  No, I will not hear it.'
+
+'I was only going to ask whether you would tell my father.'
+
+'Certainly; but not before you.'
+
+The tone of decision was unwonted, and Nuttie knew she must abide by
+it, but the last shreds of filial respect towards Mr. Egremont were
+torn away by what Mrs. Houghton had implied, and the girl dashed up
+and down her bedroom muttering to herself, 'Oh, why have I such a
+father?  And she, she will not see it, she is wilfully blind!  Why
+not break with him and go home to dear Aunt Ursel and Gerard and Mr.
+Dutton at once, instead of this horrid, horrid grandeur?  Oh, if I
+could fling all these fine things in his face, and have done with him
+for ever.  Some day I will, when I am of age, and Gerard has won his
+way.'
+
+Meantime Alice, in some trepidation, but with resolution at the
+bottom, had told her husband of the meeting with Mrs. Houghton, of
+her widowhood, sickness, and poverty.
+
+He did not like the intelligence of their meeting, and hoped no one
+had seen it; then, when reassured on this score, he hummed a little
+and exclaimed, 'Poor old Flossy Houghton!  I don't wonder!  They went
+the pace!  Well, what do you want?  Twenty pounds for her!  Why,
+'twill all be at Monte Carlo in three days' time.'
+
+'It is very good of you, but I want more than that.  She is so ill
+and wretched, you know. '
+
+'I can't have you visiting her, if that's what you mean.  Why, after
+all the pains I've been at to get you on your proper level at home,
+here's my Lady Louisa and all her crew, in their confounded
+insolence, fighting shy of you, and you can't give them a better
+colour for it than by running after a woman like that--divorced to
+begin with, and known at every gambling table in Europe.'
+
+'I know that, Alwyn, dear Alwyn' (it was very seldom that she called
+him so, and she put her clasped hands on his shoulder); 'but I am
+sure she is dying, and she was so good to me, I can't bear doing
+nothing for her.'
+
+'Well, there's twenty--fifty, if you like.'
+
+'Thank you, thank you, but you know I never meant to visit her--like--
+like society; only to go sometimes privately and--'
+
+'And how about your daughter?'
+
+'I would not take her on any account.  What I want to do is this.
+Mrs. Houghton spoke of her sister, a kind good woman in England, who
+would take her home, and love her, if only she could bring herself to
+go.  Now, I think I could persuade her to write, or let me write to
+the sister--and if only the two were together again!  It is very
+dreadful to think of her dying alone, in the way she is going on!'
+
+'What, little saint, you want to try your hand on her?  I should say
+she was too tough an old sinner for you.'
+
+'Oh, Alwyn! her heart was very near, though she tried to keep it
+back.  I do not want to--to do what you mean--only to get her to let
+her sister come.  I'm sure that would do the rest.'
+
+'If any sister does more than you, you little witch,' he said.
+
+Alice pressed him no more then, but a day or two later, when she knew
+he had an engagement, she arranged to dispose of Nuttie with the
+clergyman's wife, and then begged permission to go by train to
+Mentone, and come back in the evening.  He did not like it--no more
+did she--for she was perfectly unaccustomed to travelling alone, but
+there was a deep sense of sacred duty upon her, only strengthened by
+her unwillingness to realise how much she owed to Mrs. Houghton.
+
+She telegraphed that she was coming, and found her friend more
+touched than she chose to allow at the fact of her visit, declaring
+that she must have wonderful power over Alwyn Egremont, if she knew
+how to use it; indeed, the whole tone was of what Alice felt
+flattery, intended to turn away anything more serious.  Poor woman,
+she was as careful of doing no injury to her young friend's
+reputation as Mr. Egremont could have desired.  Alice had come
+resolved that she should have one good meal, but she would not hear
+of eating anywhere in public where either could be recognised, and
+the food was brought to a private room in the hotel.  To her lodgings
+she still would not take Alice, nor would she give her sister's
+address.  Except for a genuine shower of tears when Alice insisted on
+kissing her there seemed no ground gained.
+
+But Alice went again on her husband's next visit to Mentone.  He was,
+to a certain degree, interested in her endeavours, and really wished
+the poor woman to be under the charge of her relations, instead of
+dying a miserable lonely death among strangers.
+
+This time Alice had to seek her friend in the dreary quatrieme of the
+tall house with the dirty stone stairs. It was a doleful empty room,
+where, with a mannish-looking dressing-gown and a torn lace scarf
+tied hood-fashion over her scanty hair, Mrs. Houghton sat over a pan
+of charcoal oppressive to Alice's English lungs.
+
+'Come again!' she cried.  'Well, I really shall begin to think that
+angels and ministers of grace exist off the stage!  You pretty thing!
+Let me look at you.  Where did you get that delicious little bonnet?'
+
+'Why, it is perfectly plain!'
+
+'So it is!  'Tis only the face that is in it.  Now if some folks put
+this on--sister Anne, for example, what dowdies they would be.  Poor
+old Anne, you must know she had a turn for finery, only she never
+knew how to gratify it.  To see the contortions of her crinolines was
+the delight of all the grammar school.  It was a regular comedy for
+them to see her get into our pew edgeways, and once unconsciously she
+carried off a gentleman's hat on her train.'
+
+So she went on talking, coughing at intervals, and generally using a
+half-mocking tone, as if defying the tenderness that awoke in spite
+of her, but always of her original home, and especially of her
+sister.  Alice ventured to ask whether they often heard from one
+another.
+
+'Good soul, she always writes at Christmas and on my birthday.  I
+know as well as possible that I shall find a letter poste restante
+wherever she heard of me last, and that she hasn't done--I'm ashamed
+to say for how long--really, I think not since I let her know that I
+couldn't stand Ivy Lodge, Dockforth, at any price, when she wrote to
+Monaco on seeing poor Houghton's death in the paper.'
+
+There was a good deal of rambling talk of this kind, to which Alice
+listened tenderly and compassionately, making no attempt at
+persuasion, only doing what was possible for the poor lady's comfort.
+She had procured on her way some fruit and jelly, and some good
+English tea, at which Mrs. Houghton laughed, saying, 'Time was, I
+called it cat-lap!  Somehow it will seem the elixir of life now,
+redolent, even milkless, of the days when we were young.'
+
+Then she revealed something of her long, suffering, almost ghastly
+nights, and Alice gently told how her old friend, Mrs. Nugent,
+suffered from sleeplessness, and kept a store of soothing psalms and
+hymns in her memory.  There was a little laugh.  'That's for you good
+folk.  I haven't such a thing about me!  Come, Par exemple!' and
+Alice repeated the first thing she could remember, the verse
+beginning 'God, who madest earth and heaven.'
+
+'That's one of your charms, is it?  Well, it would not be too much
+for me if my poor old memory would hold it.  Say it again.'
+
+Alice generally had about her a tiny prayer-book with 'Hymns, Ancient
+and Modern,' attached.  It had been a gift from Mary Nugent, and she
+was fond of it, but the opportunity was not to be lost, and she took
+it out, saying she would bring a larger one and reclaim it.  And, as
+she was finally taking leave, she said with a throbbing heart, 'Do
+you know that you have betrayed your sister's address?  I shall write
+to her now.'
+
+'If you do--!' cried Mrs. Houghton, in a tone like threatening
+deprecation, but with a little of her strange banter in it besides.
+Alice's mind had been made up to do the thing, and she had not felt
+it honest not to give due warning of her intentions.  Even now she
+was not certain of the lady's surname, but she trusted to her
+husband's knowledge of Mrs. Houghton's previous history; and not in
+vain.  Mr. Egremont amused himself with a little ridicule at his
+wife's quixotry, and demanded whether Flossy Houghton was a promising
+convert; but confessed himself very glad that the poor thing should
+be off their hands, declaring that it was quite time her own people
+looked after her, and happily he recollected her maiden name.  So the
+letter was written, after numerous attempts at expressing it
+suitably, explaining Mrs. Houghton's illness and the yearnings she
+was too proud and ashamed to express to her sister, and was answered
+at once by a few short words of earnest gratitude, and an assurance
+that Miss Reade was preparing to start at once.  Could Mrs. Egremont
+meet her and prepare her sister?
+
+To Alice's disappointment this could not be.  Mr. Egremont had
+invited some friends to the villa, and would not spare her.  She
+could only send a note, assuring Miss Reade that she believed that
+preparation would do more harm than good, and she waited and watched
+anxiously.  A card came by the post in Mrs. Houghton's scrawled
+writing.  'Naughty little wretch!' was all it said, but thence she
+gathered hope.
+
+The spring was advancing, and Mr. Egremont was in haste to be gone,
+but Alice obtained one more run to Mentone, and once more climbed up
+the dark and dirty stairs to the room, where the well-known voice
+answered her tap, 'Come in!  Ah, there she is, the wicked little
+angel!'
+
+A substantial little roly-poly business-like little woman hurried
+forward with tearful eyes and outstretched hands.  'Oh, Mrs.
+Egremont! can I ever thank you enough?'
+
+'You can't, Anne, so don't try.  It will be a relief to all parties,'
+interposed Mrs. Houghton.  'Sentiment is not permitted here.'
+
+Nevertheless she hugged Alice almost convulsively.  She was sitting
+in a comfortable arm-chair, one about which Mrs. Egremont knew
+something, and the whole aspect of the room had changed indescribably
+for the better, as much indeed as Mrs. Houghton's own personal array,
+which had no longer the desolate neglected look of old.
+
+A little stool was close to her chair, as if the two sisters could
+not bear to be far apart, and the look of love and content in their
+eyes as they turned to one another was perfect joy to Alice.  She had
+no longer any doubt that Anne Reade, who had found the wanderer yet a
+great way off, would yet bring her back to the home, spiritually if
+not outwardly.
+
+Mrs. Houghton spoke, of better rooms when the winter visitors had
+fled, Anne spoke of her being able to return to Dockforth.  Whether
+that would ever be seemed entirely doubtful to Alice's eyes,
+especially as the patient's inclination was evidently otherwise.
+There was nothing to be done but to leave the sisters together,
+obtaining Miss Reade's ready promise to write, and putting into her
+hands a sum of money which could be sincerely called 'only a debt of
+gratitude from my husband and me,' and which would smooth the way
+either to remaining or returning to England.
+
+Nor was there any return.  Ere many weeks had passed Mrs. Egremont
+heard from Miss Reade how a fresh cold had made it impossible to
+move, and summer heat had brought on low fever, which had destroyed
+the feeble strength, but not till 'childhood's star' had again
+arisen, and a deeply and truly repentant woman had passed away,
+saved, as it seemed, through that one effort on behalf of the young
+girl whose innocence she had protected.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+THE VORTEX.
+
+
+
+
+'With one black shadow at her feet.'--TENNYSON.
+
+
+The rebuffs that society had bestowed on his wife and daughter at
+Nice had rendered Mr. Egremont the more determined on producing them
+in London and establishing their position.  He secured a furnished
+house in Westburnia before leaving Nice, and, travelling leisurely
+home without visiting Bridgefield, he took possession the second week
+in May.
+
+There had not been much correspondence with the Rectory, and on the
+first forenoon, as Mrs. Egremont and Nuttie were trying to enliven
+the drawing-room with the flowers sent up to meet them, they were
+surprised by the entrance of Blanche, full of kisses and welcomes.
+
+'Oh! didn't you know?  I'm with the Kirkaldys just round the corner.
+Aunt Margaret has undertaken to do the part of a noble aunt by me.'
+
+'Then you are here for the season?  And May?'
+
+'May wouldn't come, except just for a week to see the pictures, and
+lay in a stock of talk.  She's grown more parochial than ever, and we
+believe it is all Hugh Condamine.  Oh! I forgot you were gone before
+we came home last autumn.  He is mamma's nephew, you know, and was
+ordained last year to the curacy of the next parish to his father's
+place.  If the Edwardses only would take themselves off, we would
+have him at home, and then we should have flowers on the altar, and
+all sorts of jolly things.  Papa would stand ever so much more from
+him than from the old Edwardses.'
+
+'But is he engaged to May, then?'
+
+'Well, no, not exactly.  I believe he does not think it right till he
+has done preparing for priest's orders.  He's ever so strict, you
+know, and he hasn't got much either; but he means it.  Lucy, his
+sister, you know, told me all about it, and that altogether the
+elders had settled it was better for both that he should attend to
+his preparation, and May should not bind herself, though they really
+understand one another, and so she won't come to London.'
+
+'Oh, that's very good of her!' cried Nuttie; 'but why won't they let
+them settle their minds and be engaged?'
+
+'People are always tiresome,' said Blanche; 'and I do believe the
+living is at the bottom of it, at least Lucy thought so.  I mean
+everybody wants to wait--all the old ones, I mean--not Hugh or May,
+of course--to know whether Mark will stick to the umbrellas, or turn
+back and be a clergyman, because, then, of course, he would have the
+living; and if he doesn't, they want to be certain whether Uncle
+Alwyn, or you, Nuttie, would promise it to Hugh if he married May!'
+
+'Me!' exclaimed Nuttie.
+
+'My dear, I don't like to hear you talk of such things,' said Mrs.
+Egremont gently.
+
+'Oh yes, I know--it's all very dreadful.  I was only telling you what
+is in the old people's heads, and what would settle it, and make it
+all right with them.'
+
+'And how is Mark?  Is Miss Ruthven in London?' asked Mrs. Egremont,
+glad to turn away the conversation from the contingencies of which
+Blanche spoke with the hardness of youth, as yet not realising
+sorrow.
+
+'I daresay you know nearly as much of Mark as we do, now the
+Kirkaldys are up here.  All his letters go to Lescombe.  Oh no,
+Annaple is not in London.  The Delmars can't afford it, you know,
+though I believe my lady would have made a stretch if Annaple hadn't
+been bespoke--but now she reserves herself for Muriel.'
+
+Alice looked with some discomfort at the soft fair-haired creature
+who was uttering all this worldly jargon in a tone that would have
+been flippant if it had not been so childish.  She asked if Lord.
+Ronnisglen had written.
+
+'Oh yes, long ago.  Lady Delmar had tried to make him nasty about it,
+but he wouldn't be, so that's all right; and Mark seems to get on
+very well, though it must be horridly dull for him now the Kirkaldys
+are away, and he can't spend all his Sundays at Monks Horton.'
+
+'He will get more into the spirit of the place,' said Nuttie, whereat
+Blanche shrugged her shoulders a little, and exclaimed:
+
+'You've got out of it at any rate, Nuttie!'
+
+'I hope not!'
+
+'Well, then, the look of it!  I never saw any one so improved!  Isn't
+she, Aunt Alice?  She's grown, I declare!  Yes'--measuring herself
+against her cousin--'I was a leetle bit taller when you came, and now
+you've got above me! and what a duck of a way of doing your hair!
+You must show me!  I must tell May there's no fear of your being
+taken for one another now; Aunt Margaret will be quite surprised.'
+
+It was true that Ursula had developed a good deal during the last
+year, and, under the experienced hands of Martin, had lost her
+schoolgirl air, and turned into a young lady capable of becoming the
+Paris outfit which her father had enjoined.  Without positive beauty,
+she was a pleasing, intelligent, animated girl, with the reputation
+of being an heiress, with a romance in the background, and there was
+nothing to prevent her from being a success.  The family connections,
+with Lady Kirkaldy to set the example, had determined on giving full
+support to Mrs. Egremont, and, as of course every one liked to look
+at so lovely a face, the way of both was smoothed in a manner that
+delighted her husband when they encountered any of those who had
+looked coldly on her at Nice.
+
+He would have had her presented, but her own reluctance and the
+united counsels of Lady Kirkaldy and the Canoness prevailed on him to
+drop the idea; and then there was a fight with Ursula, who declared
+that she would not go to court if her mother did not; but she was
+overruled at last by that mother's tears at her defiance; and let
+herself be presented, together with Blanche, by Lady Kirkaldy.
+
+To Ursula it was altogether a strange time, full of the same kind of
+reckless swing and sense of intoxication that had possessed her at
+Bridgefield.  Not that there was an excessive amount of actual
+gaiety.  Hot rooms and late hours were soon found not to agree with
+Mrs. Egremont.  She looked faded and languid after evening parties;
+and, as her husband really cared more to have her ready to wait upon
+him and amuse him than for anything else, he did not insist on her
+going out more than might be needful to establish her position, or
+when it suited him to show her off.  The other purposes were quite as
+well served by letting Ursula go out with Lady Kirkaldy, who was
+warmly interested in mother and daughter, glad of a companion for
+Blanche, and still more glad of a companion for herself.  For she was
+not slow to discover that exhibitions, which were merely fashionable
+gapeseed to her niece, were to Nuttie real delights, viewed
+intelligently, and eliciting comments and questions that Lady
+Kirkaldy and even her husband enjoyed in their fresh interest, but
+which were unendurable weariness to Blanche, unless she had some one
+to chatter with.  Lectures and lessons, which the aunt hoped to
+render palatable by their being shared by the two cousins, only
+served to show the difference between a trained and eager, and an
+untrained and idle, nature.  With the foreign society to be met at
+Lord Kirkaldy's, Blanche was less at a loss than her brother, and
+could get on by the help of nods and becks and wreathed smiles; but
+Nuttie, fresh from her winter abroad, could really talk, and was
+often in request as a useful person to help in entertaining.  She
+thus saw some of the choicest society in London, and, in addition,
+had as much of the youthful gaiety as Lady Kirkaldy thought wholesome
+for the two girls.  Also there were those ecclesiastical delights and
+privileges which had been heard of at Micklethwayte, and were within
+reach, greatly enjoyed by Mrs. Egremont whenever she could share
+them, though her daughter chafed at her treating all except the chief
+service on Sunday as more indulgence than duty.
+
+Nuttie was strong, with that spring of energy which unbroken health
+and a quiet life lays up, and, in her own phrase, she went in for
+everything, from early services to late balls, thinking all right
+because it was seldom that her day did not begin with matins or
+Celebration, and because she was not taken to more than two balls a
+week, and conversed at times with superior people, or looked at those
+with world-famed names.  Possibly the whirl was greater than if it
+had been mere gaiety, for then the brain would not have participated
+in it.  Church functions, with the scurry to go at all, or to obtain
+a seat, fine music, grand sermons, religious meetings, entertainments
+for the poor, lectures, lessons, exhibitions, rides, drives, kettle-
+drums, garden-parties, concerts, theatres, operas, balls, chattering,
+laughing, discussing, reading up current subjects, enjoying
+attention, excitement as to what should be done and how,--one thing
+drove out another in perpetual succession, and the one thing she
+never did or could do was to sit still and think!  Rest was simply
+dreamless sleep, generally under the spell of a strong will to wake
+at the appointed hour for church.  The short intervals of being alone
+with her mother were spent in pouring out histories of her doings,
+which were received with a sympathy that doubled their pleasure,
+excepting when Nuttie thought proper to grumble and scold at her
+mother's not coming to some Church festival at an hour when she
+thought Mr. Egremont might want her.
+
+Of him Nuttie saw very little.  He did not want her, and cared little
+what she did, as long as she was under the wing of Lady Kirkaldy,
+whose patronage was a triumphant refutation of all doubts.  He went
+his own way, and had his own club, his own associates, and, with his
+wife always at his beck and call, troubled himself very little about
+anything else.
+
+Alice spent a good deal of time alone, chiefly in waiting his
+pleasure; but she had her own quiet occupations, her books, her
+needlework, her housekeeping, and letter-writing, and was peacefully
+happy as long as she did not displease Nuttie.  There were no
+collisions between father and daughter, and the household
+arrangements satisfied that fastidious taste.  She was proud of
+Ursula's successes, but very thankful not to be dragged out to share
+them, though she was much less shy, and more able on occasion to take
+her place.
+
+One pain she had.  Good old Mrs. Nugent was rapidly decaying, and she
+shared with all her loving heart in the grief this was to Mary and to
+Miss Headworth, and longed to help them in their nursing.  She would
+not grieve Nuttie by dwelling constantly on the bad accounts, and the
+girl hardly attended to them in the tumult of occupations; and so at
+last, when the final tidings came in the second week in July, they
+were an absolute shock to Nuttie, and affected her as the first grief
+sometimes does.  Mrs. Nugent was really the first person of her own
+intimate knowledge who had died, and in the excited state in which
+she was, the idea of the contrast between her own occupations and
+Mary's was so dreadful to her that she wept most bitterly, with the
+sobs of childhood, such as she really did not know how to restrain.
+
+It was an unfortunate day, for it was one of the few on which Mr.
+Egremont wanted to take out his ladies.  There was to be a great
+garden-party at Richmond, given by one of his former set, who had
+lately whitewashed himself by marrying a very fast and fashionable
+lady.  Nuttie had heard strong opinions on the subject at Lord
+Kirkaldy's; but her father was quite elated at being in a position to
+countenance his old friends.  Alice, in the midst of her sorrow,
+recollected this with consternation.
+
+'My dear, my dear, hush!  You must stop yourself!  Remember we have
+to go out.'
+
+'Go--out,' cried Nuttie, her sobs arrested by very horror.  'You
+wouldn't go--!'
+
+'I am afraid your father would be very much vexed--'
+
+'Let him!  It is a horrid wicked place to go to at all; and now--when
+dear, dear old Mrs. Nugent is lying there--and--'
+
+The crying grew violent again, and in the midst in walked Mr.
+Egremont with an astonished 'What is all this?'
+
+'We have lost one of our dear kind old friends at Micklethwayte,'
+said Alice, going towards him; 'dear old Mrs. Nugent,' and she lifted
+up her tear-stained face, which he caressed a little and said, 'Poor
+old body;' but then, at a sob, 'Can't you stop Ursula from making
+such a row and disfiguring herself?  You must pick up your looks,
+Edda, for I mean you to make a sensation at Jerningham's.'
+
+'Oh, Alwyn, if you could let us stay at home!  Mrs. Nugent was so
+good to us, and it does seem unkind--' The tears were in her eyes
+again.
+
+'Nonsense!' he said impatiently.  'I promised Jerningham, and it is
+absurd to have you shutting yourself up for every old woman at
+Micklethwayte.'
+
+Thereupon Ursula wiped away her tears, and stood up wrathful before
+him.  'I am not going,' she said.
+
+'Oh, indeed!' he returned in a tone that made her still more angry.
+'Hein'! a French ejaculation which he had the habit of uttering in a
+most exasperating manner.
+
+'No,' she said.  'It is scarcely a place to which we even ought to be
+asked to go, and certainly not when--'
+
+'Do you hear that, Mrs. Egremont?' he asked.
+
+'Oh, Nuttie, Nuttie, dear!' she implored; 'don't.'
+
+'No, mother,' said Nuttie, with flashing eyes; 'if you care so little
+for your best friends as to let yourself be dragged out among all
+sorts of gay, wicked people when your dear friend is lying dead, I'm
+sure I shan't go with you.'
+
+Her father laughed a little.  'A pretty figure you are, to make a
+favour of accompanying us!'
+
+'Oh, go away, go away, Nuttie,' entreated her mother.  'You don't
+know what you are saying. '
+
+'I do know,' said Nuttie, exasperated perhaps by the contrast in the
+mirror opposite between her own swelled, disfigured face, and the
+soft tender one of her mother with the liquid eyes.  'I know how much
+you care for the dear friends who took care of us when we
+were forsaken!'
+
+And with this shaft she marched out of the room, while her father
+again laughed, and said, 'Have they been training her for the tragic
+stage?  Never mind, Edda, the little vixen will come to her senses
+upstairs, and be begging to go.'
+
+ I don't think she will,' said Alice sadly; 'she is not that sort of
+stuff, and she was very fond of Mrs. Nugent.  Oh, Alwyn! if you could
+let us off.'
+
+'Not after that explosion, certainly,' he said.  'Besides, I promised
+Jerningham, and such an excuse would never hold water.  She is not
+even a relation.'
+
+'No, but she was very good to me.'
+
+'The more reason why you should not stay at home and be hipped.
+Never mind that silly girl.  She will be all right by and by.'
+
+On the contrary, she did not come down to luncheon, and when, about
+an hour later, Alice, after writing a few tender loving words to the
+mourners, went up to her daughter's room, it was to find a limp and
+deplorable figure lying across the bed, and to be greeted with a
+fresh outburst of sobs and inarticulate exclamations.
+
+'Oh, Nuttie, dear, this will not do!  It is not right.  Dear good
+Mrs. Nugent herself would tell you that this is not the way any one
+so good and so suffering should be grieved for.  Think--'
+
+'Oh, I know all that!' cried Nuttie, impatiently; 'but she--she was
+the dearest--and nobody cares for her but me.  Not even you--'
+
+Again Alice tried to debate the point, and urge on her the duties of
+moderation, self-control, and obedience, but the poor gentle mother
+was at a great disadvantage.
+
+In the first place, she respected and almost envied her daughter's
+resistance, and really did not know whether it was timidity or
+principle that made it her instinct to act otherwise; in the next,
+Ursula could always talk her down; and, in the third, she was, and
+greatly she reproached herself for that same, in great dread of
+setting herself off into tears that might become hysterical if she
+once gave way to them.  And what would be her husband's feelings if
+she too collapsed and became unpresentable.
+
+So, having once convinced herself that even if Nuttie had been a
+consenting party, no amount of cold water and eau-de-cologne would
+bring those bloodshot eyes, swollen lids, and mottled cheeks to be
+fit to be seen, she fled as fast as possible from the gasps of barbed
+reproaches which put her own composure in peril, and dressed with the
+heaviest of hearts, coupled with the utmost solicitude to look her
+best.  If she had not thought it absolutely wrong, she would even
+have followed Martin's suggestion, and put on a soupcon of rouge; but
+by the time she was summoned to the carriage the feverishness of her
+effort at self-control had done the work, and her husband had paid
+her the compliment of observing that she looked pretty enough for
+two.
+
+Nuttie heard them drive off, with a burst of fresh misery of
+indignation against her mother--now as a slave and a victim--now as
+forgetting her old home.  It was chiefly in mutterings; she had
+pretty well used up her tears, for, unconsciously perhaps, she had
+worked them up as a defensive weapon against being carried to the
+party; and now that the danger was over, her head throbbed, her eyes
+burnt, and her throat ached too much for her to wish to cry any more.
+She had not felt physically like this, since the day, seven years
+ago, when she and Mildred Sharpe had been found suspiciously toying
+with the key of the arithmetic, and had been debarred from trying for
+the prize.  Then she felt debased and guilty; now she felt, or ought
+to feel, like a heroine maintaining the right.
+
+She got up and set herself to rights as well as she could.  Martin,
+who had been allowed to know that she had lost an old friend, petted
+and pitied her, and brought her a substantial meal with her tea,
+after which she set out to evensong at the church at the end of the
+square, well veiled under a shady hat, and with a conviction that
+something ought to happen.
+
+Nothing did, however, happen; she met no one whom she knew, the
+psalms were not particularly appropriate, and her attention wandered
+away to the scene at home.  She did not come back, as she was sure
+she ought to have done, soothed, exhilarated, and refreshed, but
+rather in a rasped state of mind, and a conscience making a vehement
+struggle to believe itself in the right--a matter in which she
+thoroughly succeeded.
+
+She wrote a long letter to Mary Nugent, and shed some softer tears
+over it, then she built a few castles on her future escape from the
+power of her father; and then she picked up Reata, and became
+absorbed in it, regretting only the weakness of her eyes, and the
+darkening of the summer evening.
+
+She was still reading when the others came home.  Her mother kissed
+her, but looked so languid and tired-out that Nuttie was shocked, and
+Martin declared that she ought not to go down to dinner.
+
+A tete-a-tete dinner between father and daughter was too dreadful to
+Alice's imagination to be permitted, so she dressed and went down,
+looking like a ghost.  Mr. Egremont scowled at Nuttie, Nuttie scowled
+at him, each considering it the fault of the other, and when at last
+it was over, Alice gave up the struggle, and went off to bed, leaving
+a contrite message that her headache would be better to-morrow.
+
+'All your accursed folly and obstinacy,' observed Mr. Egremont, when
+Nuttie, with a tone of monition gave him the message.
+
+'I should call it the consequence of being dragged out with a sore
+heart,' returned Nuttie--a little speech she had prepared ever since
+she had seen how knocked up her mother was.
+
+'Then I should recommend keeping your ideas to yourself,' he
+answered, looking at her in his annihilating manner.
+
+She was put down. She thought afterwards of a hundred things that she
+could have said to him, but she was crushed for the present, and when
+he went out she could only betake herself to Reata, and forget all
+about it as much as she could.
+
+When she went upstairs, at the end of the third volume, Martin was on
+the watch, and would not let her go into the room.
+
+'I have been at hand, ma'am, without her guessing it, and I am happy
+to say her tears has had a free course when she was in bed.  Yes,
+ma'am, suppressed grief is always dangerous.'
+
+Mrs. Egremont was still prostrate with fatigue and headache the next
+day, and Nuttie had all the quiet luxuriating in reminiscences she
+desired.  Her father was vexed and angry, and kept out of the way,
+but it must be confessed that Nuttie's spirits had so much risen by
+the afternoon that it was a sore concession to consistency when she
+found herself not expected at Blanche's last little afternoon dance
+at Lady Kirkaldy's!
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+
+
+'If I cannot once or twice in a quarter bear out a knave against
+ an honest man, I have but very little credit with your Worship.'
+                                               II. King Henry IV.
+
+
+
+Another cause besides Ursula's recalcitrance and her mother's ailment
+contributed to disturb Mr. Egremont, and bring him home.  His agent,
+by name Bulfinch, a solicitor at Redcastle, came to him with
+irrefragable proofs of gross peculation on the part of the bailiff
+who managed the home farm which supplied the house and stables, and
+showed him that it was necessary to make a thorough investigation and
+change of system.
+
+In point of fact, Mr. Egremont greatly preferred being moderately
+cheated to exerting himself to investigate, but this was going beyond
+moderation, and the explosion had been too public to be passed over.
+So he came home and sat by, while his wife and Mr. Bulfinch did the
+work for him, and made it evident to him that the frauds had been of
+long standing, and carried on with the connivance of the coachman, of
+Gregorio,--who had before Mrs. Egremont's arrival acted as house
+steward,--and of the former cook.  Indeed, it was the housekeeper
+whom Mrs. Egremont had left in charge, whose refusal to connive had
+brought about the discovery.
+
+Gregorio's share in all was sufficiently evident, and Alice's heart
+leapt with hope.  Her husband would be wholly her own if his evil
+genius were once departed, but Mr. Egremont would not see it.  He had
+no objection to sacrifice the coachman and all his underlings, with
+the bailiff and his entire family, and felt none of the pity that
+Alice had for the pretty, silly, half-educated daughters; but as to
+the valet--Pooh! pooh! the poor fellow had been out of the way all
+this time--whatever he had done had been in the dark, ages long ago,
+before Bridgefield knew its mistress; he was a foreigner, and that
+was enough to prevent him from forgathering with the English.  It was
+all their English prejudice.
+
+'I can show you facts and figures, sir,' said Mr. Bulfinch.
+
+'I daresay, a year or more old.  Why, I was an unprotected carcase
+then--a mere prey--the fellow only did after his kind.'
+
+Alice held her tongue then, but made an effort in private.  'Indeed,
+I don't think you know; I am afraid Gregorio is not altered.  I found
+him out in his charges about the wine, and the servants' wages at
+Nice, only you wouldn't listen.'
+
+'His little perquisites, my dear child!  Come, nonsense, these
+foreign fellows don't pretend to have the morals you ascribe to the
+native flunkey--generally without foundation either--they are much of
+a muchness as to that; but your Frenchman or Italian does it more
+neatly, and is a dozen times better servant than the other is.'
+
+'But--'
+
+'Oh, ay!  I know you don't like him.  But he knows his manners to
+you, I hope?' said Mr. Egremont, with a suddenness that made her wish
+she could truthfully say he did not.
+
+'Yes, he always is--is respectful, but somehow I see it is under
+protest.'
+
+Mr. Egremont laughed.  'Rivals--yes, I see; why, you don't consider
+the sore trial of having a full-grown mistress turned in upon him!
+Look here, you keep the keys already, but the new fellow at the farm
+and all the rest of them shall account to you for everything--
+Gregorio and all.  Won't that satisfy you?'
+
+''Tis not only the money, but I think Gregorio is a bad--not a good--
+man.'
+
+'Ho, ho! she wants to advertise for a pious footman and coachman! eh?
+No, I thank you, my dear Edda, I agree with--who was it who said,
+"Volez moi, mais sans m'ennuyer."'
+
+The Rectory likewise had hoped for Gregorio's dismissal, and there
+were grave looks when Alice had to confess that nothing would move
+her husband against him.  The Canon even lashed himself up to say,
+'I tell you how it is, Alwyn, you'll never do any good with your
+household, while you keep that fellow.'
+
+'I am not aware what description of good you expect me to do with it,
+Will,' coolly answered the elder brother in a disconcerting tone.
+
+Poor Alice, on her side, thought of the Little Master, and then
+wondered if it was uncharitable to do so.  For she knew it had become
+war to the knife with Gregorio!  Whether his master told him, or
+whether it were his own evil conscience, or the wonderful intuition
+of servants, he certainly knew of the pressure for his dismissal, and
+he visited it on her as much as he durst.
+
+Outwardly deferential, he could thwart and annoy her in a hundred
+ways, from making love to the housemaids to making evil suggestions
+to his master, yet never giving her any overt cause of complaint.  He
+could worry and sting her under the politest exterior, and he knew
+very well that the most effectual form of annoyance was the
+persuading his master that any discomfort or lassitude was to be
+removed by some form of narcotic.  This would have the further
+advantage of stupefying Mr. Egremont, and making him more ready to
+lapse under the old influence; while the duration and strength of the
+new one was already a surprise to Gregorio.
+
+But there was no doubt that Mrs. Egremont had profited by her year of
+training.  She looked tired, and less youthful and pretty, but she
+had gained in grace and importance as well as in style, and was much
+more really the mistress of Bridgefield.  Her shyness had passed
+away, and she knew now to take her place in society, though still she
+was somewhat silent.  And her husband depended upon her entirely for
+all his correspondence, for much of his occupation and amusement, and
+even for the regulation of his affairs.  In the household, Gregorio
+was little more than his personal attendant, and she had the general
+management, even of the other men-servants.  The Canoness might well
+say it had turned out better than she expected.
+
+And Nuttie had become more womanly, and had acquired the indefinable
+polish given by a London season.  She had learnt the art of
+conversation, and could make herself agreeable to her uncle, or to
+any one else who came in her way.  Even May allowed that she had
+something in her, and cultivated her more than before; but, on the
+other hand, even the Rectory could perceive that there was now an
+absolute alienation between her and her father, and what might before
+have been fear had become dislike.  If she had to refer to him,
+especially if her plans for herself or her mother were crossed, there
+was always a tone of bitterness or of sarcasm about her; and her
+greater boldness and freedom of speech would occasionally manifest
+itself towards him.  This was not indeed often, since not only did
+his cool contempt make her come off the worst in the encounters, but
+the extreme distress they gave to her mother made her refrain
+whenever her temper, or what she thought her conscience, would let
+her; but still there was always a danger which kept poor Alice on
+thorns whenever there was a possible difference of schemes or
+opinions.
+
+Mrs. William Egremont was seriously considering of representing to
+Ursula that her conduct was bad taste, bad policy, and, moreover, was
+doing her mother's spirits and health serious harm; but it was a
+delicate matter in which to meddle, and the good lady could not make
+up her mind how far to surrender her brother-in-law's character and
+allow a partial justification to Ursula.  She was a cautious woman,
+and waited and watched her opportunities.
+
+In the beginning of October Mr. and Mrs. Egremont were invited to a
+great shooting party at Sir James Jerningham's.  The invitation did
+not include Ursula.  Perhaps she had never dawned on their hostess's
+imagination; perhaps it was that Lady Jerningham was well known to
+dislike girls, or any one who might absorb young men's attention.
+At any rate the omission was a cause of thankfulness to the party
+concerned, and she did not neglect to worry her mother by a protest
+against keeping such company as would be met at Waldicotes.
+
+Alice smiled a little faintly and said, 'I don't think it hurts me,
+my dear; I don't understand half of what they talk about, and they
+are always kind to me.'
+
+'I don't think you ought to go among them or countenance them.'
+
+'My dear child,'--and the colour rose--'I don't feel as if I had a
+right to set myself above any one.'
+
+'Mother!'
+
+'People might have said just the same of me.'
+
+'And whose fault was that?' muttered Nuttie under her breath, but
+Mrs. Egremont would not hear.  She only pleaded, as perhaps mother
+ought not to have done with child.
+
+'You know, Nuttie, it is not for my own pleasure, but your father's
+eyesight makes him dislike to go anywhere without me now; and I
+really should be uneasy about him.'
+
+'Yes; he is all you care for,' said Nuttie.  'You sacrifice
+everything you used to think essential, just to his will and
+pleasure.'
+
+'Oh, Nuttie, I hope not; I don't think I do!'
+
+'If I thought it was doing him any good I should not so much mind,'
+went on the girl; 'but he is just the same, and I am always thinking
+of "As the husband is, the wife is--"'
+
+'Hush! hush!  You have no right to think in that way of your father.
+I will not hear it.  I have let you say too much already, Nuttie.'
+Then after a pause she added, gently and wistfully, 'You have been
+better taught, and are clearer headed than ever I was, my Nuttie, and
+it is quite right that you should hate what seems evil to you.  I can
+only go on trying to do what seems my duty from day to day.  I know,'
+she added with rising tears, 'that the sin and folly of my younger
+days worked a difficult position for us both; but we can only act
+according to our lights, and pray God to direct us; and please--
+please bear with me, my dear one, if the same course does not always
+seem right to us both.'
+
+Nuttie had never heard her say anything so fully showing that she
+realised these difficulties, and, greatly touched, she asked pardon,
+kissed and caressed her mother.  There was a calm over them for the
+next few days, and Nuttie actually refrained from bitter comments
+when her mother was not allowed to go to evensong on Sunday, on the
+plea of her being tired, but, as the girl believed, in order that she
+might read the newspapers aloud.
+
+She knew that her silence was appreciated by the way her mother
+kissed her and called her a dear, good, considerate girl.
+
+On Monday Mr. and Mrs. Egremont went away at what was a strangely
+early hour for the former, Nuttie spending her days at the Rectory.
+
+On the Tuesday Blanche went with her little sister and the governess
+on a shopping expedition to Redcastle, and in relating her adventures
+on her return, she said, 'Oh, by the bye, I met Annaple in Park's
+shop!'
+
+'Full of Micklethwayte news, I suppose,' said May.
+
+'Yes, of course.  Did you know, Nuttie, that your aunt was ill?'
+
+'No, indeed, I did not.  What was the matter?'
+
+'Bronchitis, I believe--brown titus, as Betty Butter calls it.'
+
+'Bronchitis!  Oh dear! oh dear!  Are you quite sure, Blanche?'
+
+'Oh yes!  I am quite certain Annaple said Mark told her that Miss
+Headworth was laid up with bronchitis.'
+
+'And nobody has written to us all this week!' sighed Nuttie.
+
+'I should think that a sign there could not be much in it,' observed
+May; 'it may be only a bad cold.'
+
+'But Aunt Ursel had bronchitis four years ago, and was very ill
+indeed,' persisted Nuttie.  'I'm sure it is bronchitis, and that she
+won't let Miss Mary write to us.'
+
+She was in much distress about it, though May privately told her that
+she ought to know Blanche's way better than to trust implicitly to
+any of her reports; and her aunt said much the same thing in more
+general terms, even proposing that if she did not hear the next
+morning she should go over to Lescombe to ascertain what Mark had
+really said.
+
+This pacified her a little, but on her way home the alarm grew upon
+her, and, moreover, she recollected the opposition that she believed
+that her father was certain to make to either her mother or herself
+going to nurse her aunt.  It flashed upon her that if she were to
+hasten to Micklethwayte on this alarm before there could be a
+prohibition, it would be no disobedience, and perfectly justifiable,
+not to say noble.  Her parents were to return on Thursday evening,
+and she made up her mind that, unless she were fully reassured as to
+Miss Headworth's state, she would go off at once to Micklethwayte
+before any one could gainsay her.  She had plenty of money, and she
+consulted the time-table in the hall before going upstairs.  It only
+concerned the nearest line, but she calculated that if she caught the
+express, she should reach her destination in time to write to her
+mother at Waldicotes, and prevent needless shocks.  Her eagerness for
+the plan grew upon her, so that it seemed like liberation; she could
+hardly sleep for thinking of it, and certainly was not as much
+disappointed as she believed herself when the post came in--a blank.
+
+Martin was away with her mistress, so Nuttie explained matters to the
+upper housemaid, who was very sympathetic, carried down her orders
+for the carriage, procured for her both breakfast and provision for
+the journey, and packed her clothes.  Ursula would fain have been off
+before the Rectory was aware, but the two little girls came up with a
+message about the plans for the day, just as she was beginning an
+explanatory note, and she entrusted to them the information that she
+was so uneasy about Miss Headworth that she had decided on going to
+see for herself.
+
+So in dashed Adela and Rosalind to their mother's room full of
+excitement with the news that Cousin Nuttie was gone off by the
+train, because her aunt was very ill indeed.
+
+'Gone, Adela? are you sure?  Really gone?'
+
+'Oh yes, mamma!  The dogcart was coming round, and she said she
+wanted to catch the 10.05 train, and was very sorry she had not time
+to write a note to you.'
+
+'Was there a letter?  What had she heard?'
+
+'Oh, only that her aunt was so very ill!  She did not tell us--did
+she, Rosie?'
+
+'There was something about being in time to write to Aunt Alice,'
+suggested Adela.
+
+'I am very sorry about this.  I am afraid it will be a great shock to
+Alice,' observed the mother, as she imparted the news at her
+husband's dressing-room door.
+
+'Young girls are so precipitate!' said the Canon.
+
+'Your brother won't like it at all,' the lady continued.
+
+'Not he.  But after all, it is just as well that he was not asked.
+They do owe that poor old lady a good deal, and Alwyn's not the man
+to see it.  I'm not sorry the girl took the matter into her own
+hands, though I couldn't have advised it.'
+
+'Except that it will all fall on Alice.'
+
+'He is very fond of Alice.  She has done more with him than I ever
+thought possible.  Kept him respectable this whole year, and really
+it grows on him.  He makes ever so much more of her now than when he
+first brought her home--and no wonder.  No, no; he won't fall foul of
+her.'
+
+'Perhaps not; but it is just as bad, or worse, for her if he falls
+foul of her daughter.  Besides, she is very much attached to her
+aunt.  I wish I knew what the account was, or whether she knows
+anything about it.'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+URSULA'S RECEPTION.
+
+
+
+
+'Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.'--SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+It was at half-past seven o'clock that Ursula Egremont's cab stopped
+at St. Ambrose's Road.  She had missed the express train, and had to
+come on by a stopping one.  But here at last she was, with eyes even
+by gaslight full of loving recognition, a hand full of her cab-fare,
+a heart full of throbbing hope and fear, a voice full of anxiety, as
+she inquired of the astonished servant, 'Louisa, Louisa, how is Aunt
+Ursel!' and, without awaiting the reply, she opened the adjoining
+door.  There sat, with their evening meal on the table, not only Mary
+Nugent, but Miss Headworth herself.
+
+Nuttie rushed at her, and there was an incoherency of exclamations,
+the first thing that made itself clear to the senses of the traveller
+being, 'Ill, my dear?  No such thing!  Only I had a bad cold, and
+Mary here is only too careful of me.'
+
+'But Mark said you had bronchitis.'
+
+'What could have put that into his head?  He did not write it,
+surely?'
+
+'He wrote it to Annaple Ruthven, and she told Blanche.'
+
+'Oh!' and Mary Nugent's tone was rather nettling.
+
+'And then it was such a terrible time since we had heard anything,'
+added Nuttie, on the defensive.
+
+'Did not your mother get my letter?' said Miss Headworth.  'I wrote
+to her at--what's the name of that place?  I hope I addressed it
+right.'
+
+'Oh, but I was not there.  I didn't go with them.'
+
+'Ah, yes, I remember.  Then did not she send you?'
+
+'No, I came off this morning.  I heard this yesterday evening, and I
+determined that nothing should stop me if there was no news by the
+post.'
+
+'Dear child!  But will your father not be displeased?' said Miss
+Headworth.
+
+'He hasn't any right to object,' cried Nuttie, with flashing eyes and
+a look that made Miss Nugent anxious; but at the moment there could
+be little thought save of welcome to the warm-hearted girl.  Louisa
+was already brewing fresh tea, and extemporising additions to the
+meal, and Nuttie was explaining how she hoped to have arrived a
+couple of hours sooner.
+
+'By the bye, I meant to have written to mother for her to have it to-
+morrow before leaving Waldicotes.  Is there time?'
+
+No, the pillar at hand was cleared at seven, and the regular post-
+office could not be reached in time; so they satisfied themselves
+with the knowledge that Mrs. Egremont must have had Aunt Ursel's
+cheerful letter, and Mary recommended telegraphing to the Canon the
+first thing in the morning.  Then they gave themselves up to
+enjoyment.
+
+'At any rate, I'm here,' said Nuttie, 'and I'll make the most of it.'
+
+And her handsome furs were laid aside, and her boots taken off, and
+she resigned herself to absolute ease and luxury, while Mary poured
+out the tea, and her aunt heaped her plate with eggs and rashers
+'such as one doesn't get anywhere else,' said Nuttie, declaring
+herself quite voracious, while her aunt fondly admired her growth and
+improvement, and she inquired into the cold, not quite gone yet; and
+there were speculations over what Mark could have got into his head.
+Mary remembered having met him coming to call, and having told him
+that she had persuaded Miss Headworth to keep her bed because her
+colds were apt to be severe, and it was agreed to lay the
+exaggeration at the door of the lovers and Blanche.  Miss Headworth
+laughed, and said she ought to be flattered that an old woman's sore
+throat should be thought worthy of mention by a fine young gentleman
+like Mr. Mark.  'A very good young man he is,' she added.  'You would
+never have thought how kind he is in coming in here to tell me
+everything he hears about your dear mother, Nuttie.'
+
+'He makes himself very useful while Mr. Dutton is away,' added Mary,
+'taking his young men's class and all.'
+
+'Oh! is Mr. Dutton away?'
+
+'Yes; he has had to be in London a great deal of late.  I am afraid
+he may have to live there altogether.'
+
+'What a grievous pity!'
+
+'He won't be anywhere without doing good,' said Miss Headworth, 'but
+I sometimes wish we had his cool good sense here.'
+
+'And how is Mr. Spyers,' asked Nuttie.  She felt shy of asking for
+Gerard Godfrey, or perhaps she thought she ought to be shy of his
+name, and kept hoping that it would come in naturally.
+
+'Mr. Spyers is very well.  Very busy of course, and very much
+delighted with your mother's gifts to the church.  All her own work,
+isn't it, Nuttie?'
+
+'Yes; every bit.  She does lots of embroidery and work of all kinds
+when she is waiting for _him_ or sitting with him, and luckily it has
+never occurred to him to ask what it is for.'
+
+The two ladies knew well what was meant by him, but they would not
+pursue the subject, and proceeded to put Nuttie au courant with St.
+Ambrose affairs--how last year's mission had produced apparently an
+immense effect in the town, and how the improvement had been ebbing
+ever since, but had left various individual gains, and stirred up
+more than one good person who had hitherto thought it enough to save
+one's own soul and let other people alone; how Mr. Spyers was
+endeavouring to bind people together in a guild; how a violent gust
+of temperance orators had come down upon the place, and altogether
+fascinated and carried away Gerard Godfrey.
+
+There was his name at last, and Nuttie was rather gratified to feel
+herself blushing as she asked, 'Ah! poor Gerard--how is he?'
+
+'As good and sincere as ever,' said Miss Nugent, 'but not much wiser.
+He is so excitable and vehement.'
+
+'Yes,' said Miss Headworth.  'I don't understand the kind of thing.
+In my time a steady young clerk used to be contented after hours with
+playing at cricket in the summer, or learning the flute in the
+winter--and a great nuisance it was sometimes, but now Gerard must
+get himself made a sort of half clergyman.'
+
+'A reader,' suggested Mary.
+
+'Minor orders.  Oh, how delightful!' cried Nuttie.
+
+'People, don't half understand it,' added Miss Headworth.  'Mrs.
+Jeffreys will have it that he is no better than a Jesuit, and really
+I did not know what to say, for he talked, to me by the hour about
+his being an external brother to something.'
+
+'Not to the Jesuits, certainly,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Yes, I told her that; but she thinks all monks are Jesuits, you
+know, and that all brothers are monks; and he does wear his cassock--
+his choir cassock, I mean--when he has his service in the iron room
+at the sandpits.  And now he has taken up temperance, and flies about
+giving the pledge, and wanting one to wear bits of blue ribbon.  I
+told him I never did take, and never had taken, more than a little
+hot wine and water when I had a cold, and I couldn't see what good it
+would do to George Jenkins and the poor fellows at the Spread Eagle
+if I took ever so many vows.'
+
+'There's a regular blue-ribbon fever set in,' said Miss Nugent.
+'Gerard told me I was supporting the cause of intemperance yesterday
+because I was so wicked as to carry the rest of your bottle of port,
+Miss Headworth, to poor Anne Crake.'
+
+'Well! he is a dear boy, and youth wouldn't be youth if it were not
+sometimes rather foolish,' said Miss Headworth, 'and it is better it
+should be for good than evil.'
+
+'Eager in a cause and not for selfishness,' said Mary.  'Poor Gerard,
+I wonder where he will be safely landed!'
+
+So did Nuttie, who had a secret flattering faith in being the cause
+of all the poor young fellow's aberrations, and was conscious of
+having begun the second volume of her life's novel.  She went to bed
+in the elated frame of mind proper to a heroine.  There was a shade
+over all in the absence of dear old Mrs. Nugent, and in Mary's deep
+mourning, but there is more tenderness than poignancy in sorrow for
+shocks of corn gathered in full season, and all was cheerful about
+her.
+
+She had quite a triumph the next day, as old friends dropped in for
+the chance of seeing her.  The least agreeable encounter was that
+with Mark, who came in on his way to the office, having just received
+by the second post a letter from his father inquiring into Miss
+Headworth's state.  He met Nuttie in the vestibule, with her hat on,
+and in a great hurry, as she wanted to walk with Mary to the School
+of Art, Gerard Godfrey accompanying them as far as the office; and
+she did not at all like the being called to account, and asked what
+could have possessed her to take alarm.
+
+'Why, you wrote yourself!'
+
+'I!'
+
+'To Annaple Ruthven.'
+
+'What am I supposed to have written?'
+
+'That Aunt Ursel was very ill with bronchitis.'
+
+'I'll be bound that Miss Ruthven said no such thing.  You don't
+pretend that you heard it from herself?'
+
+'No; but Blanche did.'
+
+'Blanche!  Oh, that accounts for it!  Though I should have thought
+you knew Blanche by this time.'
+
+'But what did you say?'
+
+'I believe I said I couldn't get a knitting pattern Miss Headworth
+was to send Lady Ronnisglen because she was in bed with a cold.  What
+you and Blanche could contrive to make of a simple thing like that--'
+
+'And Annaple!'
+
+'Well,' but checking himself with a smile, 'we will not fight about
+that.  I only hope it has not brought you into an awkward scrape,
+Nuttie.'
+
+'I can't help that,' she answered with her head rather high.
+
+'You have written and explained?' he said anxiously.
+
+'To my mother, of course.'
+
+'If I were you,' he said, lowering his voice, 'I should write or send
+a special message to your father.'
+
+'I can't see why.  It was a mistake.'
+
+'Yours was a strong measure, and he won't like it.  Be advised,
+Nuttie.  Recollect your mother.  The best way would be to go home at
+once.  I could get a day to take you--if you would start this
+afternoon.'
+
+'Thank you; I'm not going back till I hear,' she said proudly.
+
+Time being up, Mark took his leave hastily, and as he shut the door,
+Nuttie uttered half aloud the words she had scarcely repressed, 'No,
+I thank you, Mr. Mark, I am not going back like a dog in a string.'
+
+'What, was that what he expected of you?' said Gerard Godfrey, whom
+she had not intended to hear her, but who had come out of the
+sitting-room on the sounds of departure.
+
+'He said he would take me home if I could go at once.'
+
+'Wouldn't he have liked it!' exclaimed Gerard.
+
+'It might be the best way,' said Miss Nugent, who had followed young
+Godfrey.
+
+'Now, Miss Mary,' cried Nuttie, 'as if I could shorten my holiday now
+that I have it.'
+
+'And I don't see what business he had to call you to account,' said
+Gerard.  'A stuck-up fellow.'
+
+'Of course all the Egremonts are set against my being here,' said
+Nuttie.
+
+'I thought the Canon offered to bring you last year,' said Mary
+gently.
+
+'Oh, that was only to Monks Horton!  It would have been simply
+tantalising.'
+
+'Lady Kirkaldy is an excellent person,' said Miss Nugent.
+
+'Is she at home now?' asked Ursula.
+
+'Coming next week, they tell me,' said Gerard.
+
+'He--your cousin--will always be loafing up there now, giving up all
+that he had undertaken, I suppose.'
+
+'Not very likely,' said Mary quietly.
+
+It is a mere Scottish anti-church influence,' said Gerard, turning
+round at the swing-door of his office.  'Why else will Egremont not
+take the pledge?'
+
+Wherewith he disappeared, blue ribbon and all, while Mary smiled,
+though she was vexed; and Nuttie observed, 'Poor Gerard; but I can't
+see why he should be jealous of Mark _now_.'
+
+Mary did not choose to understand what Nuttie implied in her
+simplicity, and made answer, 'He is rather blue ribbon mad.  Besides,
+I am afraid the fact of being a "swell" does not conduce to your
+cousin's popularity among the clerks.'
+
+'Surely he does not give himself airs,' said Ursula, her family
+feelings awaking.
+
+'No; but I fancy he is rather reserved.'
+
+'What's this about giving up what he has undertaken?  What is it?'
+
+'When Mr. Dutton went to London, he asked Mark to take his Sunday
+afternoons with the big lads.  He thought they wanted some one with
+more resources and variety than there is in poor Gerard, who didn't
+at all like being passed over.'
+
+'I never should have thought it of Mark.  He never dreamt of teaching
+anybody at home.'
+
+'Very likely not, but there is an atmosphere at St. Ambrose's.'
+
+'And oh, how glad I am to be in it!  I wonder how long they will let
+me stay!  The dear little mother will try to get me a Sunday here, if
+she dares.  Indeed, I can't hear before Saturday, and then there
+would hardly be time to get home!  Oh, that's jolly!  I'll go to the
+nursery gardens, and get _such_ flowers for the vases!'
+
+Saturday brought Nuttie a letter, but not from her mother--
+
+
+'My Dear Ursula--I write because we are anxious to keep your mother
+as quiet as possible.  It was a serious shock to her to find that you
+had left home, and she naturally supposed that Miss Headworth was in
+great danger.  Your father was greatly displeased, and she has been
+much overcome, and very unwell, but we hope by keeping her perfectly
+quiet that worse consequences may be prevented.  Your father desires
+you to remain where you are for the present, as he will not have her
+disturbed again.  Your mother sends her love both to you and to your
+aunt, and desires me to say that she will write in a day or two, and
+that she thinks you had better not come back till she is better and
+your father's vexation has diminished.
+
+'I wish you had informed us of your intentions, as then we could have
+ascertained the grounds of the report that terrified you so
+strangely.--I remain your affectionate aunt,
+                                         JANE M. EGREMONT.'
+
+
+'Poor mother! he has been sneering at us all in his dreadful cynical
+way, and knocked her up into one of her awful headaches,' said
+Nuttie, who felt extremely angered by the grave tone of rebuke in the
+letter, and tossed it over to her aunt without absolutely reading it
+all.  Miss Headworth was a good deal distressed, and anxious to know
+what Mrs. William Egremont meant; but Nuttie positively declared,
+'Oh, it is her headaches!  You know she always had them more or less,
+and they have grown a great deal worse since she has taken to sitting
+in that horrid, stuffy, perfumy, cigar-ry room, and doesn't take half
+exercise enough.'
+
+And when Miss Headworth showed herself much concerned about the state
+of things, Nuttie coaxed her, and declared that she should fancy
+herself unwelcome, and have to go and beg a lodging somewhere instead
+of enjoying her reprieve.  And Aunt Ursel was far less impervious to
+coaxing than she used to be when she was the responsible head of a
+boarding house.  She did most thoroughly enjoy the affection of her
+great niece, and could not persuade herself to be angry with her,
+especially when the girl looked up smiling and said, 'If the worst
+came to the worst and he did disinherit me, the thing would only
+right itself.  I always meant to give it back to Mark.'
+
+No great aunt in the world could fail to admire the generous spirit
+of the girl who came back from the great world of luxury, so loving
+and happy in her humble surroundings.  The only sighs were for poor
+Alice, in the hands of a man of whom Miss Headworth knew so much
+evil.  If she were not wretched and a victim--and Nuttie did not
+think her such--she must surely be getting spoilt and worldly.  Her
+daughter implied fears of this kind, yet who could read her letters
+and think so?
+
+Nuttie was fortunately too much in awe of the Canoness to write all
+the pertnesses that tingled at her fingers' ends, and she sent a
+proper and fairly meek letter, intimating, however, that she was only
+too happy to remain at Micklethwayte.
+
+It was two or three days more before she heard again.
+
+
+'My Own Dear Child--They have let me write at last, and I can say how
+much I like to think of your nestling up to dear Aunt Ursel, and how
+glad I am to find that she was well enough to enjoy you. It is almost
+like being there to hear of you, and the only thing that grieves me
+is that your father was very much vexed at your setting off in that
+sudden way, and at my being so foolish about it.  His eyes have been
+very bad, and he missed me sadly while I was laid up.  We are neither
+of us very strong, and we think--if Aunt Ursel and Mary can keep you
+for a little longer--it will be better for you to stay on with them,
+as it might be as dreary for you as it was last winter, especially as
+the Rectory folk will soon be going into residence.  I will write to
+them about it and persuade them to take something for your board, so
+as to make it easy for them.  And then you can have a fire in your
+room; you must not leave it off now you are used to it.  My dear, I
+wish you would write a little apology to your father.  I ought not to
+conceal that he is really very angry, and I think it would be well if
+you expressed some regret, or if you cannot truthfully do that, asked
+his pardon for your impetuosity; for you know he cannot be expected
+to realise all that dear Aunt Ursel is to us.  You cannot think how
+kind your Aunt Jane has been to me; I did not think she could have
+been so tender.  This is the first letter I ever had to write to you,
+my own dear child.  I miss you every moment, but after all it is
+better you should be away till your father has overlooked this
+hurried expedition of yours.  I am sure he would if you wrote him a
+real nice letter, telling how you were really frightened, and that it
+was not a mere excuse.  Pray do, and then you can come back to your
+loving little mother.
+                                'A. E.'
+
+
+'As if I would or could,' quoth Nuttie to herself.  'Apologise to him
+indeed, for loving the aunt who toiled for us when he deserted us.
+Poor little mother, she can't really expect it of me.  Indeed, I
+don't think she quite knows what she wants, or whether she likes me
+to be here or at Bridgefield!  My belief is that he bullies her less
+when I am out of the way, because she just gives way to him, and does
+not assert any principle.  I've tried to back her up, and it is of no
+use, and I am sure I don't want such a winter as the last.  So I am
+much better here; and as to begging pardon, when I have done nothing
+wrong, I am sure I won't, to please anybody.  I shall tell her that
+she ought to know me better than to expect it!'
+
+But Nuttie did not show the letter either to Aunt Ursel or Mary
+Nugent; nor did she see that in which Alice had satisfied them that
+it might be better that her daughter should pay them a long visit,
+while Mr. Egremont's health required constant attendance, and the
+Canon's family were at Redcastle.  And as her husband was always
+open-handed, she could make Ursula's stay with them advantageous to
+their slender means, without hurting their feelings.
+
+She told them as much as she could, but there was more that no living
+creature might know, namely, the advantage that Gregorio had gained
+over that battlefield, his master, during her days of illness.  The
+first cold weather had brought on pain, and anger and anxiety,
+nervous excitement and sleeplessness, which the valet had taken upon
+him to calm with a narcotic under a new name that at first deceived
+her till she traced its effects, and inquired of Dr. Hammond about
+it.  Unwillingly, on her account, he enlightened her, and showed her
+that, though the last year's care had done much to loosen the bonds
+of the subtle and alluring habit, yet that any resumption of it
+tended to plunge its victim into the fatal condition of the confirmed
+opium-eater, giving her every hope at the same time that this
+propensity might be entirely shaken off, and that the improvement in
+Mr. Egremont's health and habits which had set in might be confirmed,
+and raise him above the inclination.
+
+Could she have been rid of Gregorio, she would have felt almost sure
+of victory; but as it was, she believed the man absolutely meant to
+baffle her, partly out of a spiteful rivalry, partly because his
+master's torpid indolence could be used to his own advantage.  She
+was absolutely certain that his sneering tone of remark made her
+husband doubly disinclined to let any religious book be near, or to
+permit her to draw him to any Sunday observance.
+
+The battle must be fought out alone.  The gentle woman could have no
+earthly helper in the struggle.  The Canon and Mark, the only persons
+who could have given her the slightest aid, were both at a distance,
+even if her loyal heart could have brooked confession to them, and
+she only hoped that Nuttie would never know of it.  Only aid from
+above could be with her in the daily, hourly effort of cheerfulness,
+patience, and all the resources of feminine affection, to avert the
+temptation; and she well knew that the presence of the ardent,
+unsubdued, opinionative girl would, alas! only double the
+difficulties.  So she acquiesced, at least for the present, in
+Nuttie's grand achievement of having broken away from all the wealth
+and luxury of Bridgefield to return to her simple home and good old
+aunt.  Mark was a good deal vexed, but Nuttie did not care about
+that, attributing this displeasure to Egremont clanship; Mary Nugent
+was doubtful and anxious, and thought it her duty to reconcile
+herself to her father; but Miss Headworth, who, be it remembered, had
+reason to have the worst impressions of Mr. Egremont, rejoiced in her
+young niece having escaped from him for the time, and only sighed
+over the impossibility of Alice's doing the same.  And when Nuttie
+described, as she constantly did, the various pleasures she had
+enjoyed during the past year, the good old lady secretly viewed her
+as a noble Christian heroine for resigning all this in favour of the
+quiet little home at Micklethwayte, though reticent before her, and
+discussed her excellence whenever she was alone with Mary.
+
+Nor would Miss Nugent vex her with contradictions or hints that what
+Nuttie was giving up at present might be a dull house, with her
+mother engrossed by an irritable semi-invalid, and the few gaieties
+to be enjoyed by the help of the Canon's family at Redcastle.  She
+did ask the girl whether Mrs. Egremont, being avowedly not quite
+well, might not need her assistance; but Nuttie vehemently disavowed
+being of any possible use to her father; he never let her read to
+him! oh no! he called her music schoolgirly, a mere infliction; he
+never spoke to her if he could help it, and then it was always with a
+sort of sneer; she believed he could not bear the sight of her, and
+was ashamed of it, as well he might be!  For Mrs. Houghton's
+disclosures had rankled ever since within her, and had been confirmed
+by her aunt.
+
+'But that is very sad,' said Mary.  'I am so sorry for you.  Ought
+you not to try hard to conquer his distaste?'
+
+'I--why, he cares for nothing good!'
+
+'Nay,' smiling.  'Not for your mother?'
+
+'Oh!  She's pretty, you know; besides, she makes herself a regular
+slave to him, and truckles to him in everything, as I could never
+do.'
+
+'Perhaps she is overcoming evil with good.'
+
+'I am afraid it is more like being overcome of evil.  No, no, dear
+Miss Mary, don't be shocked.  The dear little mother never would be
+anything but good in her own sweet self, but it is her nature not to
+stand up for anything, you know.  She seems to me just like a
+Christian woman that has been obliged to marry some Paynim knight.
+And it perfectly provokes me to see her quite gratified at his
+notice, and ready to sacrifice anything to him, now I know how he
+treated her.  If I had been in her place, I wouldn't have gone back
+to him; no, not if he had been ready to crown me after I was dead,
+like Ines de Castro.'
+
+'I don't know that you would have had much choice in that case.'
+
+'My very ghost would have rebelled,' said Nuttie, laughing a little.
+
+And Mary could believe that Mrs. Egremont, with all her love for her
+daughter, might find it a relief not to have to keep the peace
+between the father and child.  'Yet,' she said to herself, 'if Mr.
+Dutton were here, he would have taken her back the first day.'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+DISENCHANTMENT.
+
+
+
+
+'He promised to buy me a bunch of blue ribbons.'
+
+
+St. Ambrose's road was perfectly delightful as long as there was any
+expectation of a speedy recall.  Every day was precious; every
+meeting with an old face was joyful; each interchange of words with
+Mr. Spyers or Gerard Godfrey was hailed as a boon; nothing was
+regretted but the absence of Monsieur and his master, and that the
+favourite choir boy's voice was cracked.
+
+But when there was reason to think that success had been complete,
+when Miss Headworth had been persuaded by Mary that it was wiser on
+all accounts not to mortify Alice by refusing the two guineas a week
+offered for Miss Egremont's expenses; when a couple of boxes of
+clothes and books had arrived, and Ursula found herself settled at
+Micklethwayte till after Christmas, she began first to admit to
+herself that somehow the place was not all that it had once been to
+her.
+
+Her mother was absent, that was one thing.  Mrs. Nugent was gone,
+that was another.  There was no Monsieur or Mr. Dutton to keep her in
+awe of his precision, even while she laughed at it.  There were no
+boarders to patronise and play with, and her education at the High
+School was over.  If she saw a half-clothed child, it was not half so
+interesting to buy an ulster in the next shop, as it was to turn over
+the family rag-bag, knit, sew, and contrive!  Somehow things had a
+weariness in them, and the little excitements did not seem to be the
+exquisite delights they used to be.  After having seen Patience at
+the Princess's it was not easy to avoid criticising a provincial Lady
+Jane, and it was the like with other things of more importance.  Even
+the ritual of St. Ambrose's Church no longer struck her as the ne
+plus ultra of beauty, and only incited her to describe London
+churches.
+
+She resumed her Sunday-school classes, and though she talked at first
+of their raciness and freedom, she soon longed after the cleanliness,
+respectfulness, and docility of the despised little Bridgefordites,
+and uttered bitter things of Micklethwayte turbulence, declaring--
+perhaps not without truth--that the children had grown much worse in
+her absence.
+
+And as Mr. Godfrey had been superintendent during the latter half of
+the time, this was a cruel stroke.  He wanted to make her reverse her
+opinions.  And they never met without 'Now, Ursula, don't you
+remember Jem Burton putting on Miss Pope's spectacles, and grinning
+at all the class.'
+
+'Yes; and how Mr. Dutton brought him up to beg her pardon.  Now, was
+any notice taken when that horrid boy--I don't know his name--turned
+the hymn they were saying to her into "Tommy, make room for your
+uncle"?'
+
+'Oh, Albert Cox!  It is no use doing anything to him, he would go off
+at once to the Primitives.'
+
+'Let him!'
+
+'I cannot make him a schismatic.'
+
+'I wonder what he is now!'
+
+'Besides, Miss Pope perfectly provokes impertinence.'
+
+'Then I wouldn't give her work she can't do.'
+
+Such an argument as this might be very well at the moment of
+provocation, but it became tedious when recurred to at every meeting.
+Nuttie began to wonder when Monks Horton would be inhabited again,
+and how much notice Lady Kirkaldy would take of her, and she was a
+good deal disappointed when Mark told her that Lord Kirkaldy had been
+begged to undertake a diplomatic mission which would keep them abroad
+all the winter.
+
+There was a certain weariness and want of interest.  It was not
+exactly that there was nothing intellectual going on.  There were the
+lectures, but they were on chemistry, for which Nuttie cared little.
+There were good solid books, and lively ones too, but they seemed
+passe to one who had heard them discussed in town.  Mary and Miss
+Headworth read and talked them over, and perhaps their opinions were
+quite as wise, and Miss Nugent's conversation was equal to that of
+any of Nuttie's London friends, but it was only woman's talk after
+all--the brilliancy and piquancy, the touch and go, she had enjoyed
+in Lady Kirkaldy's drawing-room was lacking.
+
+Mr. Spyers was too much immersed in parish matters to read anything
+secular, and neither he nor Gerard Godfrey seemed ever to talk of
+anything but parish matters.  There was not the slightest interest in
+anything beyond.  Foreign politics, European celebrities,--things in
+which Nuttie had learnt to take warm interest when with the
+Kirkaldys, were nothing to them.  Even Mary wondered at her
+endeavours to see the day's paper, and she never obtained either
+information or sympathy unless she came across Mark.  It seemed to
+her that Gerard cared less for the peace or war of an empire than for
+a tipsy cobbler taking the pledge.  The monotony and narrowness of
+the world where she had once been so happy fretted and wearied her,
+though she was ashamed of herself all the time, and far too proud to
+allow that she was tired of it all.  Aunt Ursel at her best had
+always been a little dry and grave, an authority over the two nieces;
+and though softened, she was not expansive, did not invite
+confidences, and home was not home without the playfellow-mother.
+
+And most especially was she daily tired of Gerard Godfrey!  Had he
+always talked of nothing but 'the colours,' chants, E. C. U.,
+classes, and teetotalism?  Whatever she began it always came back to
+one or other of these subjects, and when she impatiently declared
+that she was perfectly sick of hearing of the Use of Sarum, he looked
+at her as guilty of a profanity.
+
+Perhaps it was true that he was narrower than he had been.  He was a
+good, honest, religiously-minded lad, but with no great depth or
+grasp of intellect; Ursula Egremont had been his companion first and
+then his romance, and the atmosphere of the community in which he
+lived had been studious and intelligent.  His expedition to Redcastle
+had convinced him that the young lady lived in a different world,
+entirely beyond his reach, and in the reaction of his hopelessness,
+he had thrown himself into the excitement of the mission, and it had
+worked on him a zealous purpose to dedicate himself totally to a
+religious life, giving up all worldly aims, and employing the small
+capital he could call his own in preparing for the ministry.  Mr.
+Dutton had insisted that he should test his own steadfastness and
+resolution by another year's work in his present situation before he
+took any steps.
+
+He had submitted, but still viewed himself as dedicated, and so far
+as business hours permitted, gave his services like a clerical pupil
+to St. Ambrose's with the greatest energy, and perhaps somewhat less
+judgment than if Mr. Dutton had been at hand.  Being without natural
+taste for intellectual pursuits, unless drawn into them by his
+surroundings, he had dropped them entirely, and read nothing but the
+ephemeral controversial literature of his party, and not much of
+that, for he was teaching, preaching, exhorting, throughout his spare
+time; while the vicar was in too great need of help to insist on
+deepening the source from which his zealous assistant drew.  As Miss
+Nugent observed, teetotalism was to him what dissipation was to other
+young men.
+
+On this vehemence of purpose descended suddenly Ursula Egremont once
+more; and the human heart could not but be quickened with the idea,
+not entirely unfounded, that it was to him that she had flown back,
+and that her exile proved that she cared for him more than for all
+the delights she had enjoyed as heiress of Bridgefield.  The good
+youth was conscientious to the back-bone, and extremely perplexed
+between his self-dedication and the rights that their implied
+understanding might give to her.  Was she to be the crowning blessing
+of his life, to be saved partly through his affection from worldly
+trials and temptations, and bestowing on him a brilliant lot in which
+boundless good could be effected?  Or was she a syren luring him to
+abandon his higher and better purposes?
+
+The first few days of her stay, the former belief made him feel like
+treading on air, or like the hero of many a magazine story; but as
+time went on this flattering supposition began to fail him, when
+Nuttie showed her weariness of the subjects which, in his
+exclusiveness, he deemed the only ones worthy of a Christian, or
+rather of a Catholic.  Both of them had outgrown the lively, aimless
+chatter and little jests that had succeeded the games of childhood,
+and the growth had been in different directions, so that Ursula felt
+herself untrue to her old romance when she became weary of his
+favourite topics, disappointed by his want of sympathy and
+comprehension, fretted by his petty disapprovals, and annoyed by his
+evident distaste for Mark, to whom she turned as to one of her proper
+world.
+
+At last, after many tossings, Gerard fixed upon a test.  If she
+endured it she would be the veritable maiden of his imagination, and
+they would stand by one another, come what would; if not, he would
+believe that the past had been fancy, not love, or love that had not
+withstood the attractions of fashionable life.  A great temperance
+meeting was coming on, and Gerard, eager at once to fill the room,
+and to present a goodly roll of recruits, watched anxiously for his
+moment, and came on Nuttie with his hands full of bills in huge
+letters, and his pockets of badges.
+
+'Excellent speakers,' he cried.  'We shall have the hall crowded.
+You'll come, Ursula?'
+
+'I don't know what Miss Mary will do.  I don't think she means it.'
+
+'Oh, if you insist, if we both insist, she will.  Look at the paper--
+we are to have some splendid experiences.'
+
+Nuttie made a face.  'I've heard all about those,' she said.  'That
+man,' pointing to one of the names, 'regularly rants about it; he is
+like a madman.'
+
+'He does go rather far, but it is quite necessary, as you will hear.
+Oh, Nuttie, if you would only be one of us!  I've brought a card!  If
+you would!'
+
+'Why, what's the use, Gerard!  I don't like wine, I never do drink
+it, except a little claret-cup sometimes when I can't get water.'
+
+'Then it would cost you nothing.'
+
+'Yes, it would.  It would make me ridiculous.'
+
+'You used not to heed the sneers of the world.'
+
+'Not for anything worth doing--but this is not.'
+
+'It is the greatest cause of the day!' he cried, in an eager exalted
+manner, which somewhat inclined her to laugh.  'Do away with alcohol
+and you would do away with crime!'
+
+'Thank you for the compliment, Gerard; I never found that the
+infinitesimal drop of alcohol that I suppose there is in a tumbler of
+claret-cup disposed me to commit crimes.'
+
+'Why won't you understand me, Ursula!  Can't you give up that for the
+sake of saving others!'
+
+'I wonder whom it would save.'
+
+'Example saves!  If you put on this'--taking out the badge--'how many
+should you not lead at your home?'
+
+'Just nobody!  Mother and I should have a bad time of it, that's
+all.'
+
+'And if you endured, what would not your testimony effect in the
+household and village?'
+
+'Nothing!  I have nothing to do with the men-servants, and as to the
+village, it is very sober.  There's only one public house, and that
+is kept by Uncle William's old butler, and is as orderly as can be.'
+
+'Ah! that's the way you all deceive yourselves.  Moderate drinkers
+are ten times more mischievous than regular drunkards.'
+
+'Thank you, Gerard!  And outrageous abstainers are more mischievous
+than either of them, because they make the whole thing so utterly
+foolish and absurd.'  She was really angry now, and so was Gerard.
+
+'Is that your ultimatum?' he asked, in a voice that he strove to
+render calm.
+
+'Certainly; I'm not going to take the pledge.'
+
+Having quarrelled in childhood, made quarrelling now easier, and
+Gerard answered bitterly:
+
+'Very well, I hope you will have no cause to repent it.'
+
+''Tis not the way to make me repent it, to see how it seems to affect
+some people's common sense.  It is just as if all your brains had run
+to water!' said Nuttie, laughing a little; but Gerard was desperately
+serious, and coloured vehemently.
+
+'Very well, Miss Egremont, I understand.  I have had my answer,' he
+said, gathering up his papers and marching out of the room.
+
+She stood still, offended, and not in the least inclined to run after
+him and take back her words.  He, poor fellow, stumbled down the
+steps, and held by the garden rail to collect his senses and compose
+himself.
+
+'What's the matter, Gerard, are you ill or giddy?' asked Miss Nugent,
+coming up in the winter twilight.
+
+'No, oh no!  Only the dream of my life is over,' he answered, scarce
+knowing what he said.
+
+'You haven't--' cried Mary aghast.
+
+'Oh no,' he said, understanding the blank, 'only she won't take the
+pledge!'
+
+'I don't see how she could or ought,' responded Mary.  'Is that all?'
+
+'I had made it the test,' muttered poor Gerard.  'It is right!  It is
+all over now.  I shall know how to go on my way.  It is best so--I
+know it is--only I did not know whether anything was due to her.'  It
+was almost a sob.
+
+'Dear old Gerard,' said Mary, 'I see you meant to do right.  It is
+well your mind should be settled.  I think you'll find comfort in
+your good work.'
+
+He wrung her hand, and she went in, half amused, for she was fully
+aware of the one-sidedness of the mania for temperance under which he
+acted, yet honouring his high, pure motives, and rejoicing that he
+had found this indirect mode of gauging Nuttie's feelings towards
+him--that is, if he was right about them, and there was no revulsion.
+
+Far from it.  Nuttie was still angry.  'Gerard had been so
+ridiculous,' she said, 'teasing her to take the pledge, and quite
+incapable of understanding her reasons.  I can't think why Gerard has
+grown so stupid.'
+
+'Enthusiasms carry people away,' returned Mary.
+
+'If Mr. Dutton had only stayed, he would have kept Gerard like
+himself,' said Nuttie.
+
+But there was no relenting.  The two young people avoided each other;
+and perhaps Nuttie was secretly relieved that the romance she had
+outgrown no longer entangled her.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+A FAILURE.
+
+
+
+
+'Would I had loved her more!'--Mrs. Hemans.
+
+
+'On the 14th of January, at Bridgefield Egremont, the wife of Alwyn
+Piercefield Egremont, Esquire, a son and heir.'
+
+Ursula had been prepared for this event for about a fortnight by a
+long tender letter from her mother, mourning over the not meeting at
+Christmas, and the long separation, but saying that she had wished to
+spare the long anxiety, and that it had been a trying time which she
+felt herself able to cope with better alone, than even with her dear
+Nuttie, knowing her to be happy and safe with Aunt Ursel.  Now, if
+all went well, they would have a happy meeting, and begin on a new
+score.  'If the will of God should be otherwise,' added Alice, 'I am
+sure I need not entreat my Nuttie to do and be all that she can to
+her father.  My child, you do not know how sorely he needs such love
+and tendance and prayer as you can give him.  I know you have thought
+I have set you aside--if not better things, for his sake.  Indeed I
+could not help it.'  Then there was something tear-stained and
+blotted out, and it ended with, 'He is beginning to miss your step
+and voice about the house.  I believe he will really be glad to see
+you, when the bright spring days come, and I can kiss my own Nuttie
+again.'
+
+Nuttie was very much delighted, but a little hurt that her aunt and
+Mary should have been in the secret, and pledged to say nothing to
+her till her mother should write.  She found, moreover, that Miss
+Headworth was extremely anxious and not altogether reassured by Mrs.
+William Egremont's letter of announcement, which filled Nuttie with
+delight.  How happy the little mother must be to have a baby in her
+arms again, and though she herself did not profess to have a strong
+turn for infant humanity, it was the greatest possible relief to be
+no longer an heiress, excepting that the renunciation in favour of
+Mark was no longer practicable.
+
+The residence at Redcastle was not over, but the Canoness had come to
+nurse her sister-in-law, and kept up the correspondence.  The son and
+heir was reported to be a perfect specimen, and his father was
+greatly elated and delighted, but the letters showed anxiety about
+the mother, who did not get on as she ought, and seemed to have no
+power of rally about her.  At length came a letter that seemed to
+burn itself into Nuttie's brain--
+
+
+'My Dear Ursula--Your mother is longing to see you.  You had better
+come home directly.  Your aunt saved her before.  Tell her if she
+will come, she shall have my deepest gratitude.  I shall send to meet
+the 5.11 train.--Your affectionate father,
+                                       A. P. EGREMONT.'
+
+
+Mrs. William Egremont wrote at more length.  Symptoms had set in
+which filled the doctors and nurses with double anxiety.  Advice had
+been sent for from London, and Mr. Egremont was in an uncontrollable
+state of distress.  She had undertaken to summon Ursula home, and to
+beg Miss Headworth to undertake the journey.  She evidently did not
+know that her brother-in-law had written himself, and before they
+could start a telegram terrified them, but proved to contain no fresh
+tidings, only a renewed summons.
+
+Miss Headworth forgot all her resolutions about Mr. Egremont's
+hospitality--her Alice was her only thought, and all the remedies
+that had been found efficacious at Dieppe.  The good lady had a
+certain confidence in her own nursing and experience of Alice, which
+buoyed her up with hope, while Ursula seemed absolutely stunned.  She
+had never thought of such a frightful loss or grief, and her mental
+senses were almost paralysed, so that she went through the journey in
+a kind of surface trance, observing all around her much as usual,
+looking out for the luggage and for the servant who had come to meet
+them with the report 'No change.'  She did the honours of the
+carriage, and covered Miss Headworth with the fur rug.  They wanted
+it, for they were shivering with anxiety.
+
+Canon Egremont came out to the front hall to meet them, and put his
+arms round Nuttie tenderly, saying, 'My poor dear child!' then as he
+saw he had frightened them, 'No, no!  She is alive--conscious they
+say, only so very weak.'  Then with something of his usual urbane
+grace, he held out his hand, 'Miss Headworth, it is very good in you
+to come.  You have a great deal to forgive.'
+
+He took them into the tent-room, where tea was standing, interrupting
+himself in the account he was giving to bid Nuttie let her aunt have
+some.  It was plain from his manner that he had given up hope, and in
+another minute in hurried his brother, looking terribly haggard and
+with bloodshot eyes, giving his hand to each, with, 'That's right,
+Miss Headworth, thank you.  Come, let me know what you think of her!'
+
+'Does she know they are come?' said the Canon.  'No?  Then, Alwyn,
+let them have some tea, and take off their things.  I can tell you,
+the nurses will never let them in just off a journey.'
+
+Miss Headworth seconded this, and Mr. Egremont submitted, allowing
+that she had not asked for Nuttie since the morning, and then had
+smiled and squeezed his hand when he said she was coming with her
+aunt; but he walked up and down in direful restlessness, his whole
+mind apparently bent on extracting from Miss Headworth that she had
+been as ill or worse at Dieppe.
+
+Alas! when Mrs. William Egremont came down to fetch Nuttie; there was
+no question that matters were much worse.  The sweet face was
+perfectly white and wasted, and the heavy lids of the dark eyes
+scarcely lifted themselves, but the lips moved into a smile, and the
+hand closed on that of the girl, who stood by her as one frozen into
+numbness.  There was the same recognition when her aunt was brought
+to her side, the poor old lady commanding herself with difficulty, as
+the loving glance quivered over the face.
+
+Time passed on, and she still held Nuttie's hand.  Once, when a
+little revived by some stimulant at her lips, she made an effort and
+said, 'Stay with him!  Take care of him!  _Love_ him!  And your
+little brother, my Nuttie!  Promise!'
+
+'I promise,' the girl answered, scarce knowing what she said.
+
+And the eyes closed with an air of peace and rest.
+
+Again when Miss Headworth was doing something to ease her position
+she said, 'Thank you,' and then more vigorously, 'Thank you, dear
+aunt, for all you have been to us.'
+
+There was little more.  She asked Nuttie for 'her hymn,' the evening
+hymn with which mother and daughter used nightly to go to sleep, and
+which, in her strange dreamy way, the girl managed to say.
+
+Then a little murmur and sign passed between the elder ladies, and
+Mrs. William Egremont fetched her husband.  As he opened his book to
+find the commendatory prayer, thinking her past all outward
+consciousness, and grieved by the look of suffering, her eyes again
+unclosed and her lips said, 'Failed.'
+
+'Don't think of that!  God can make failures success.'
+
+There was a half smile, a look of peace.  '_He_ makes up,' she said;
+and those were the last audible words before it was over, and the
+tender spirit was released from its strife, some time later, they
+only knew when by the failure of the clasp on her husband's hand.
+
+Old Miss Headworth did not understand the meaning of that sad word
+till the next forenoon.  Then,--as she sat in the darkened tent-room,
+crying over her letters,--while the stunned and bewildered Nuttie
+was, under her Aunt Jane's direction, attending to the needful
+arrangements, Canon Egremont wandered in upon her in the overflow of
+confidence of a man with a full heart, wanting to talk it all out,
+communicating the more, because she was a discreet woman, and asked
+no questions.  He had tried to see his brother, but Gregorio had not
+admitted him.  He was aware now of the whole state of things.  Dr.
+Hammond had told him, when first beginning to be alarmed for his
+patient, that the principal cause for anxiety was the exhaustion
+caused by the long strain on her spirits and strength consequent on
+her efforts to wean her husband from his fatal propensity.  There had
+been other 'complications,' as the doctor called them, and more
+immediate causes of danger, but both he and his colleague, summoned
+from London, believed that she would have surmounted them if she had
+had more strength to rally.  But her nurses dated the decided turn
+for the worse from the day when she had gazed up into Mr. Egremont's
+face, and detected the look in his eyes that she had learnt too well
+to understand.
+
+She would fain have lived, and, according to her obedient nature, had
+submitted to all the silence and stillness enforced on her; but she
+had told Dr. Hammond that she must see her brother-in-law before she
+was too far gone.  And the doctor, knowing all, took care it should
+be brought about.
+
+And then she had spoken of her failure in the effort of these years.
+'If I had begun better,' she said, 'it might not have been so with
+him.'
+
+'My dear, indeed you have nothing to blame yourself for.  You were
+grievously sinned against by us all.  Alwyn was no saint when he drew
+you into it--and you, you have been his good angel, doing all and
+more too,' said the Canon, almost breaking down.
+
+'I tried--but if I had been a better woman--And to leave him to that
+man!'
+
+'Child, child, victories sometimes come this way!' he cried, scarce
+knowing how it was put into his mouth, but glad to see the light in
+her eye.
+
+'Thanks,' she replied.  'No, I ought not to have said that.  I leave
+him to God, and my poor Nuttie.  I want you to tell her, if I can't,
+what she must try to do.  If I had but brought them together more!
+But I tried for the best.'
+
+Then she begged for her last communion, saying, 'I do pray for that
+poor Gregorio.  Isn't that forgiving him?'  And the attempt to
+exchange forgiveness with the Canon for their mutual behaviour at the
+time of her marriage overcame them both so much that they had to
+leave it not half uttered.  Indeed, in speaking of the scene, William
+Egremont was utterly overwhelmed.
+
+'And that's the woman that I treated as a mere outcast!' he cried,
+walking about the little room.  'Oh God, forgive me!  I shall never
+forgive myself.'
+
+Poor Miss Headworth!  In past days she had longed for any amount of
+retribution on Alice's hard-hearted employers, but it was a very
+different thing to witness such grief and self reproach.  He had in
+truth much more developed ideas of duty, both as man and priest, than
+when he had passively left a disagreeable subject to his mother-in-
+law, as lying within a woman's province; and his good heart was
+suffering acutely for the injustice and injury in which he had shared
+towards one now invested with an almost saintly halo.
+
+In the gush of feeling he had certainly revealed more to Miss
+Headworth, than his wife, or even he himself, in his cooler moments,
+would have thought prudent, and he ended by binding her to secrecy;
+and saying that he should only tell his niece what was necessary for
+her to know.
+
+Nuttie was going about, dry-eyed and numbed, glad of any passing
+occupation that would prevent the aching sense of desolation at her
+heart from gaining force to overwhelm her; courting employment, and
+shunning pity and condolence, but she could not escape when her uncle
+took her hand, made her sit down by him, with 'I want to speak to
+you, my dear;' and told her briefly and tenderly what her mother's
+effort had been, and of the message and task she had bequeathed.
+The poor girl's heart fainted within her.
+
+'Oh! but, Uncle William, how can I?  How can I ever?  Mother could do
+things I never could!  He _did_ care for her!  He does not care for
+me!'
+
+'You must teach him to do so, Nuttie.'
+
+'Oh!' she said, with a hopeless sound.
+
+The Canon did think it very hopeless in his heart, but he persevered,
+as in duty bound.  'I told your dear mother that perhaps you would
+succeed where she thought she had failed, though indeed she had done
+much.  It made her happy.  So, my dear child, you are bound to do
+your best.'
+
+'Yes;' then, after a pause--'But mother could coax him and manage
+him.  Mother was with him day and night; she could always get at him.
+What can I do?'
+
+'I think you will find that he depends upon you more,' said the
+Canon, 'and it may be made easier to you, if you only set your will
+to it.'
+
+'If I ought, I'll try,' said poor Nuttie, more humbly perhaps than
+she had ever spoken before, but in utter dejection, and her uncle
+answered her like a child.
+
+'There, that's a good girl.  Nobody can do more.'
+
+For the Canon had one hope.  He had not thought it becoming to speak
+to her of the counter influence, but he could not help thinking it
+possible that if he and his son, backed by doctor and lawyer, made a
+long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether, they might induce
+his brother to part with Gregorio, and this would render Ursula's
+task far less impossible.
+
+He was confirmed in this hope by finding that Mark's arrival was not
+unwelcome to Mr. Egremont, who seemed to have forgotten the
+unpleasantness with which he had regarded the engagement, and only
+remembered that his nephew had been Alice's champion, resuming old
+customs of dependence, making him act as amanuensis, and arraigning
+the destiny that had restored so lovely and charming a creature only
+to snatch her away, leaving nothing but a headstrong girl and a
+helpless baby.
+
+That poor little fellow was all that could be desired at his age, but
+Nuttie felt her beautiful mother almost insulted when the elder
+ladies talked of the wonderful resemblance that the Canoness declared
+to have been quite startling in the earlier hours of his life.  For
+the convenience of one of the sponsors, he was to be christened in
+the afternoon following the funeral, the others being--by his
+mother's special entreaty--his sister and Mark.  Egremont customs
+were against the ladies going to the funeral, so that Nuttie was kept
+at home, much against her will; but after the luncheon she escaped,
+leaving word with her aunts that she was going to walk down to church
+alone, and they were sorry enough for her to let her have her own
+way, especially as her father, having been to the funeral, had shut
+himself up and left all the rest to them.
+
+The Egremont family had a sort of enclosure or pen with iron rails
+round it close to the church wall, where they rested under flat
+slabs.  The gate in this was open now, and the new-made grave was one
+mass of white flowers,--wreaths and crosses, snowdrops, hyacinths,
+camellias, and the like,--and at the feet was a flowerpot with
+growing plants of the white hyacinth called in France 'lys de la
+Vierge.'  These, before they became frequent in England, had been
+grown in Mr. Dutton's greenhouse, and having been favourites with
+Mrs. Egremont, it had come to be his custom every spring to bring her
+the earliest plants that bloomed.  Nuttie knew them well, the careful
+tying up, the neat arrangement of moss over the earth, the peculiar
+trimness of the whole; and as she looked, the remembrance of the
+happy times of old, the sick longing for all that was gone, did what
+nothing had hitherto effected--brought an overwhelming gush of tears.
+
+There was no checking them now that they had come.  She fled into
+church on the first sounds of arrival and hid herself in the friendly
+shelter of the great family pew; but she had to come out and take her
+place, though she could hardly utter a word, and it was all that she
+could do to keep from sobbing aloud; she could not hand the babe, and
+the Canon had to take on trust the name 'Alwyn Headworth,' for he
+could not hear the words that were on her trembling lips.
+
+It was soon over; and while the baby and his attendants, with Miss
+Headworth, were being packed into the carriage, and her uncle and
+aunt bowing off the grand god-father, she clutched her cousin's arm,
+and said, 'Mark; where's Mr. Dutton?'
+
+'I--I didn't know he was coming, but now you ask, I believe I saw him
+this morning.'
+
+'I know he is here.'
+
+'Do you want to see him?' said Mark kindly.
+
+'Oh, if I might!'
+
+Then, with a sudden impulse, she looked back into the church, and
+recognised a black figure and slightly bald head bowed down in one of
+the seats.  She pointed him out.  'No doubt he is waiting for us all
+to be gone,' said Mark in a low voice.  'You go into the Rectory,
+Nuttie; there's a fire in the study, and I'll bring him to you there.
+I'll get him to stay the night if I can.'
+
+'Oh, thank you!' and it was a really fervent answer.
+
+Mark waited, and when Mr. Dutton rose, was quite shocked at his
+paleness and the worn look on his face, as of one who had struggled
+hard for resignation and calm.  He started, almost as if a blow had
+been struck him, as Mark uttered his name in the porch, no doubt
+having never meant to be perceived nor to have to speak to any one;
+but in one moment his features had recovered their usual expression
+of courteous readiness.  He bowed his head when Mark told him that
+Ursula wanted to shake hands with him, and came towards the Rectory,
+but he entirely declined the invitation to sleep there, declaring
+that he must return to London that night.
+
+Mark opened the study door, and then went away to secure that the man
+whom he had learnt to esteem very highly should at least have some
+refreshment before he left the house.
+
+Those few steps had given Mr. Dutton time to turn from a mourner to a
+consoler, and when Nuttie came towards him with her hand
+outstretched, and 'Oh, Mr. Dutton, Mr. Dutton!' he took it in both
+his, and with a calm broken voice said, 'God has been very good to us
+in letting us know one like her.'
+
+'But oh! what can we do without her?'
+
+'Ah, Nuttie! that always comes before us.  But I saw your work and
+your comfort just now.'
+
+'Poor little boy!  I shall get to care about him, I know, but as yet
+I can only feel how much rather I would have _her_.'
+
+'No doubt, but it is _her_ work that is left you.'
+
+'Her work?  Yes!  But oh, Mr. Dutton, you don't know how dreadful it
+is!'
+
+He did not know what she meant.  Whether it was simply the burthen on
+any suddenly motherless girl, or any special evil on her father's
+part, but he was soon enlightened, for there was something in this
+old friend that drew out her confidence beyond all others, even when
+he repressed her, and she could not help telling him in a few
+murmured furtive words such as she knew she ought not to utter, and
+he felt it almost treason to hear.  'Opiates! she was always trying
+to keep my father from them!  It was too much for her!  My uncle says
+I must try to do it, and I can't.'
+
+'Poor child!' said Mr. Dutton kindly, though cut to the heart at the
+revelation of sweet Alice's trial; 'at least you can strive, and
+there is always a blessing on resolution.'
+
+'Oh, if you knew! and he doesn't like me.  I don't think I've ever
+been nice to him, and that vexed her!  I haven't got her ways.'
+
+'No,' said Mr. Dutton, 'but you will learn others.  Look here,
+Nuttie.  You used to be always craving for grand and noble tasks, the
+more difficult the better.  I think you have got one now, more severe
+than ever could have been thought of--and very noble.  What are those
+lines about the task "bequeathed from bleeding sire to son"?  Isn't
+it like that?  You are bound to go on with her work, and the more
+helpless you feel, and the more you throw yourself on God, the more
+God will help you.  He takes the will for the deed, if only you have
+will enough; and, Nuttie, you can pray that you may be able to love
+and honour him.'
+
+Teacups were brought in, followed by Mark, and interrupted them; and,
+after a short interval, they parted at the park gate, and Ursula
+walked home with Mark, waked from her dull numb trance, with a
+crushed feeling as if she had been bruised all over, and yet with a
+purpose within her.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+FARMS OR UMBRELLAS.
+
+
+
+
+'He tokin into his handis
+ His londis and his lode.'--CHAUCER.
+
+
+'Mark!  Mark!'  A little figure stood on the gravel road leading
+through Lescombe Park, and lifted up an eager face, as Mark jumped
+down from his horse.  'I made sure you would come over.'
+
+'Yes, but I could not get away earlier.  And I have so much to say to
+you and your mother, Annaple; there's a great proposition to be
+considered.'
+
+'Oh dear! and here is John bearing down upon us.  Never mind.  We'll
+get into the mither's room and be cosy!'
+
+'Well, Mark,' said Sir John's hearty voice, 'I thought you would be
+here.  Come to luncheon?  That's right!  And how is poor Egremont?
+I thought he looked awful at the funeral.'
+
+'He is fairly well, thank you; but it was a terrible shock.'
+
+'I should think so.  To find such a pretty sweet creature just to
+lose her again.  Child likely to live, eh?'
+
+'Oh yes, he is a fine fellow, and has never had anything amiss with
+him.'
+
+'Poor little chap!  Doesn't know what he has lost!  Well, Nannie,' as
+they neared the house, 'do you want a tete-a-tete or to take him in
+to your mother?  Here, I'll take the horse.'
+
+'Come to her at once,' said Annaple; 'she wants to hear all, and
+besides she is expecting me.'
+
+Mark was welcomed by Lady Ronnisglen with inquiries for all
+concerned, and especially for that 'poor girl.  I do pity a young
+thing who has to take a woman's place too soon,' she said.  'It takes
+too much out of her!'
+
+'I should think Ursula had plenty of spirit,' said Annaple.
+
+'I don't know whether spirit is what is wanted,' said Mark.  'Her
+mother prevailed more without it than I am afraid she is likely to do
+with it.'
+
+'Complements answer better than parallels sometimes, but not always,'
+said Lady Ronnisglen.
+
+'Which are we?' asked Annaple demurely.
+
+'Not parallels certainly, for then we should never meet,' responded
+Mark.  'But here is the proposal.  My father and all the rest of us
+have been doing our best to get my uncle to smooth Ursula's way by
+getting rid of that valet of his.'
+
+'The man with the Mephistopheles face?'
+
+'Exactly.  He is a consummate scoundrel, as we all know, and so does
+my uncle himself, but he has been about him these twelve or fourteen
+years, and has got a sort of hold on him--that--that-- It is no use
+to talk of it, but it did not make that dear aunt of mine have an
+easier life.  In fact I should not be a bit surprised if he had been
+a hindrance in the hunting her up.  Well, the fellow thought proper
+to upset some arrangements my mother had made, and then was more
+insolent than I should have thought even he could have been towards
+her.  I suppose he had got into the habit with poor Aunt Alice.  That
+made a fulcrum, and my father went at my uncle with a will.  I never
+saw my father so roused in my life.  I don't mean by the behaviour to
+his wife, but at what he knew of the fellow, and all the harm he had
+done and is doing.  And actually my uncle gave in at last, and
+consented to tell Gregorio to look out for another situation, if he
+has not feathered his nest too well to need one, as I believe he
+has.'
+
+'Oh, that will make it much easier for Ursula!' cried Annaple.
+
+'If he goes,' put in her mother.
+
+'I think he will.  I really had no notion how much these two years
+have improved my uncle!  To be sure, it would be hard to live with
+such a woman as that without being the better for it!  But he really
+seems to have acquired a certain notion of duty!'
+
+They did not smile at the simple way in which Mark spoke of this vast
+advance, and Lady Ronnisglen said, 'I hope so, for the sake of his
+daughter and that poor little boy.'
+
+'I think that has something to do with it,' said Mark.  'He feels a
+responsibility, and still more, I think he was struck by having a
+creature with him to whom evil was like physical pain.'
+
+'It will work,' said Lady Ronnisglen.
+
+'Then,' went on Mark, 'he took us all by surprise by making me this
+proposal--to take the management of the estate, and become a kind of
+private secretary to him.  You know he gets rheumatism on the optic
+nerve, and is almost blind at times.  He would give me (pounds)300 a year,
+and do up the house at the home farm, rent free.  What do you say to
+that, Annaple?'
+
+There was a silence, then Annaple said: 'Give up the umbrellas!  Oh!
+What do you think, Mark?'
+
+'My father wishes it,' said Mark.  'He would, as he had promised to
+do, make over to me my share of my own mother's fortune, and that
+would, I have been reckoning, bring us to just what we had thought of
+starting upon this spring at Micklethwayte.'
+
+'The same now,' said Lady Ronnisglen, after some reckoning, 'but what
+does it lead to?'
+
+'Well--nothing, I am afraid,' said Mark; 'as you know, this is all I
+have to reckon upon.  The younger children will have hardly anything
+from their mother, so that my father's means must chiefly go to
+them.'
+
+'And this agency is entirely dependent on your satisfying Mr.
+Egremont?'
+
+'True, but that's a thing only too easily done.  However, as you say,
+this agency has no future, and if that came to an end, I should only
+have to look out for another or take to farming.'
+
+'And ask poor John if that is a good speculation nowadays!' said
+Annaple.
+
+'Fortunes are and have been made on the umbrellas,' said Mark.
+'Greenleaf has a place almost equal to Monks Horton, and Dutton,
+though he makes no show, has realised a considerable amount.'
+
+'Oh yes, let us stick to the umbrellas!' cried Annaple; 'you've made
+the plunge, so it does not signify now, and we should be so much more
+independent out of the way of everybody.'
+
+'You would lose in society,' said Mark, 'excepting, of course, as to
+the Monks Horton people; but they are often away.'
+
+'Begging your pardon, Mark, is there much to lose in this same
+neighbourhood?' laughed Annaple, 'now May will go.'
+
+'It is not so much a question of liking,' added her mother, 'as of
+what is for the best, and where you may wish to be--say ten years
+hence.'
+
+Looked at in this way, there could be no question but that the
+umbrella company promised to make Mark a richer man in ten years'
+time than did the agency at Bridgefield Egremont.  He had a salary
+from the office already, and if he purchased shares in the
+partnership with the portion his father would resign to him, his
+income would already equal what he would have at Bridgefield, and
+there was every prospect of its increase, both as he became more
+valuable, and as the business continued to prosper.  If the descent
+in life had been a grievance to the ladies, the agency would have
+been an infinite boon, but having swallowed so much, as Annaple said,
+they might as well do it in earnest, and to some purpose.  Perhaps,
+too, it might be detected that under the circumstances Annaple would
+prefer the living in a small way out of reach of her sister's visible
+compassion.
+
+So the matter was settled, but there was an undercurrent in Mark's
+mind on which he had not entered, namely, that his presence at home
+might make all the difference in that reformation in his uncle's
+habits which Alice had inaugurated, and left in the hands of others.
+With him at hand, there was much more chance of Gregorio's being
+dispensed with, Ursula's authority maintained, little Alwyn well
+brought up, and the estate, tenants, and household properly cared
+for, and then he smiled at his notion of supposing himself of so much
+importance.  Had he only had himself to consider, Mark would have
+thought his duty plain; but when he found Miss Ruthven and her mother
+so entirely averse, he did not deem it right to sacrifice them to the
+doubtful good of his uncle, nor indeed to put the question before
+them as so much a matter of conscience that they should feel bound to
+consider it in that light.  He did indeed say, 'Well, that settles
+it,' in a tone that led Annaple to exclaim: 'I do believe you want to
+drop the umbrellas!'
+
+'No,' he answered, 'it is not that, but my father wished it, and
+thought it would be good for my uncle.'
+
+'No doubt,' said Annaple, 'but he has got a daughter, also a son, and
+a brother, and agents are plentiful, so I can't see why all the
+family should dance attendance on him.'
+
+Lady Ronnisglen, much misdoubting Mr. Egremont's style of society,
+and dreading that Mark might be dragged into it, added her word,
+feeling on her side that it was desirable and just to hinder the
+family from sacrificing Mark's occupation and worldly interest to a
+capricious old roue, who might very possibly throw him over when it
+would be almost impossible to find anything else to do.  Moreover,
+both she and Annaple believed that the real wish was to rescue the
+name of Egremont from association with umbrellas, and they held
+themselves bound to combat what they despised and thought a piece of
+worldly folly.
+
+So Mark rode home, more glad that the decision was actually made than
+at the course it had taken.  His father was disappointed, but could
+not but allow that it was the more prudent arrangement; and Mr.
+Egremont showed all the annoyance of a man whose good offer has been
+rejected.
+
+''Tis that little giggling Scotch girl!' he said.  'Well, we are quit
+of her, anyway.  'Tis a pity that Mark entangled himself with her,
+and a mother-in-law into the bargain!  I was a fool to expect to get
+any good out of him!'
+
+This was said to his daughter, with whom he was left alone; for Miss
+Headworth could not bear to accept his hospitality a moment longer
+than needful, and besides had been so much shaken in nerves as to
+suspect that an illness was coming on, and hurried home to be nursed
+by Mary Nugent.  Canon Egremont was obliged to go back to Redcastle
+to finish his residence, and his wife, who had been absent nearly a
+month from her family, thought it really wisest to let the father and
+daughter be thrown upon one another at once, so that Ursula might
+have the benefit of her father's softened mood.
+
+There could be no doubt that he was softened, and that he had derived
+some improvement from the year and a half that his wife had been with
+him.  It might not have lifted him up a step, but it had arrested him
+in his downward course.  Selfish and indolent he was as ever, but
+there had been a restraint on his amusements, and a withdrawal from
+his worst associates, such as the state of his health might continue,
+above all if Gregorio could be dispensed with.  The man himself had
+become aware of the combination against him, and, though reckoning on
+his master's inertness and dependence upon him, knew that a fresh
+offence might complete his overthrow, and therefore took care to be
+on his good behaviour.
+
+Thus Nuttie's task might be somewhat smoothed; but the poor girl felt
+unspeakably desolate as she ate her breakfast all alone with a dull
+post-bag, and still more so when, having seen the housekeeper, who,
+happily for her, was a good and capable woman, and very sorry for
+her, she had to bethink herself what to do in that dreary sitting-
+room during the hour when she had always been most sure of her
+sister-mother's dear company.  How often she had grumbled at being
+called on to practise duets for her father's evening lullaby!  She
+supposed she ought to get something up, and she proceeded to turn
+over and arrange the music with a sort of sick loathing for whatever
+was connected with those days of impatient murmurs, which she would
+so gladly have recalled.  Everything had fallen into disorder, as
+Blanche and May had left it the last time they had played there; and
+the overlooking it, and putting aside the pieces which she could
+never use alone, occupied her till Gregorio, very meek and polite,
+came with a message that Mr. Egremont would be glad if she would come
+to his room.  In some dread, some distaste, and yet some pity and
+some honest resolution, she made her way thither.
+
+There he sat, in dressing-gown, smoking-cap, and blue spectacles,
+with the glittering February sunshine carefully excluded.  He looked
+worse and more haggard than when she had seen him at dinner in the
+evening, made up for company, and her compassion increased,
+especially as he not only held out his hand, but seemed to expect her
+to kiss him, a thing she had never done since their first
+recognition.  It was not pleasant in itself, but it betokened full
+forgiveness, and indeed he had never spoken to her in his sneering,
+exasperating voice since her mournful return home.
+
+'Have you seen the boy?' he asked.
+
+'Yes; they are walking him up and down under the south wall,' said
+Nuttie, thankful that she had peeped under the many wraps as he was
+carried across the hall.
+
+'Here!  I want you to read this letter to me.  A man ought to be
+indicted for writing such a hand!'
+
+It was really distinct penmanship, though minute; but, as Nuttie
+found, her father did not like to avow how little available were his
+eyes.  He could write better than he could read, but he kept her over
+his correspondence for the rest of the morning, answering some of the
+letters of condolence for him in her own name, writing those of
+business, and folding and addressing what he himself contrived to
+write.  Her native quickness stood her in good stead, and, being
+rather nervous, she took great pains, and seldom stumbled; indeed,
+she only once incurred an exclamation of impatience at her stupidity
+or slowness.
+
+She guessed rightly that this forbearance was owing to tender
+persuasions of her mother, and did not guess that a certain fear of
+herself was mingled with other motives.  Her father had grown used to
+woman's ministrations; he needed them for his precious little heir,
+and he knew his daughter moreover for a severe judge, and did not
+want to alienate her and lose her services; so they got on fairly
+well together, and she shared his luncheon, during which a message
+came up about the carriage; and as there had been an application for
+some nursery needment, and moreover black-edged envelopes had run
+short, there was just purpose enough for a drive to the little town.
+
+Then Nuttie read her father to sleep with the newspaper; rushed round
+the garden in the twilight to stretch her young limbs; tried to read
+a little, dressed, dined with her father; finished what he had missed
+in the paper, then offered him music, and was told 'if she pleased,'
+and as she played she mused whether this was to be her life.  It
+looked very dull and desolate, and what was the good of it all?  But
+there were her mother's words, 'Love him!'  How fulfil them?  She
+could pity him now, but oh! how could she love one from whom her
+whole nature recoiled, when she thought of her mother's ruined life?
+Mr. Dutton too had held her new duties up to her as capable of being
+ennobled.  Noble!  To read aloud a sporting paper she did not want to
+understand, to be ready to play at cards or billiards, to take that
+dawdling drive day by day, to devote herself to the selfish exactions
+of burnt-out dissipation.  Was this noble?  Her mother had done all
+this, and never even felt it a cross, because of her great love.  It
+must be Nuttie's cross if it was her duty; but could the love and
+honour possibly come though she tried to pray in faith?
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+THE GIGGLING SCOTCH GIRL.
+
+
+
+
+'For every Lamp that trembled here,
+ And faded in the night,
+ Behold a Star serene and clear
+ Smiles on me from the height.'--B. M.
+
+
+Nuttie was not mistaken in supposing that this first day would be a
+fair sample of her life, though, of course, after the first weeks of
+mourning there were variations; and the return of the Rectory party
+made a good deal of brightening, and relieved her from the necessity
+of finding companionship and conversation for her father on more than
+half her afternoons and evenings.
+
+He required her, however, almost every forenoon, and depended on her
+increasingly, so that all her arrangements had to be made with
+reference to him.  It was bondage, but not as galling in the fact as
+she would have expected if it had been predicted to her a few months
+previously.  In the first place, Mr. Egremont never demanded of her
+what was actually against her conscience, except occasionally giving
+up a Sunday evensong to read the paper to him, and that only when he
+was more unwell than usual.  He was, after all, an English gentleman,
+and did not ask his young daughter to read to him the books which her
+mother had loathed.  Moreover, Gregorio was on his good behaviour,
+perfectly aware that there was a family combination against him, and
+having even received a sort of warning from his master, but by no
+means intending to take it, and therefore abstaining from any kind of
+offence that could furnish a fresh handle against him; and thus for
+the present, Dr. Hammond's regimen was well observed, and Mr.
+Egremont was his better self in consequence, for, under his wife's
+guardianship, the perilous habit had sufficiently lost strength to
+prevent temper and spirits from manifestly suffering from abstinence.
+
+The first time Nuttie found herself obliged to make any very real
+sacrifice to her father's will was on the occasion of Mark's marriage
+at Easter.  Things had arranged themselves very conveniently for him
+at Micklethwayte, though it seemed to Nuttie that she only heard of
+affairs there in a sort of distant dream, while such events were
+taking place as once would have been to her the greatest possible
+revolutions.
+
+Aunt Ursel reached home safely, but her expectations of illness were
+realised.  She took to her bed on arriving, and though she rose from
+it, there was reason to think she had had a slight stroke, for her
+activity of mind and body were greatly decayed, and she was wholly
+dependent on Mary Nugent for care and comfort.  Mary, remembering
+the consequences of the former alarm, made the best of the old lady's
+condition; and Nuttie, ashamed of having once cried 'wolf,' did not
+realise the true state of the case, nor indeed could she or would she
+have been spared to go to Micklethwayte.
+
+The next news told that Gerard Godfrey, at the end of the year
+required by Mr. Dutton, had resigned his situation, and at the close
+of his quarter's notice was going to prepare for Holy Orders under
+the training of a clergyman who would employ him in his parish, and
+assist him in reading up to the requirements for admission to a
+theological college.  Poor dear old Gerard!  It gave Nuttie a sort of
+pang of self-reproach to own how good and devoted he was, and yet so
+narrow and stupid that she could never have been happy with him.  Was
+he too good, or was he too dull for her?  Had she forsaken him for
+the world's sake, or was it a sound instinct that had extinguished
+her fancy for him?  No one could tell, least of all the parties
+concerned.  He might be far above her in spiritual matters, but he
+was below her in intellectual ones, and though they would always feel
+for one another that peculiar tenderness left by the possibilities of
+a first love, no doubt the quarrel over the blue ribbon had been no
+real misfortune to either.
+
+The next tidings were still more surprising.  Mr. Dutton was leaving
+the firm.  Though his father had died insolvent, and he had had to
+struggle for himself in early life, he was connected with wealthy
+people, and change and death among these had brought him a fair share
+of riches.  An uncle who had emigrated to Australia at the time of
+the great break up had died without other heirs, leaving him what was
+the more welcome to him that Micklethwayte could never be to him what
+it had been in its golden age.  He had realised enough to enable him
+to be bountiful, and his parting gift to St Ambrose's would complete
+the church; but he himself was winding up the partnership, and
+withdrawing his means from Greenleaf and Co. in order to go out to
+Australia to decide what to do with his new possessions.
+
+Mark Egremont purchased a number of the shares, though, to gratify
+the family, the shelter of the Greenleaf veiled his name under the
+'Co.,' and another, already in the firm, possessed of a business-like
+appellation, gave designation to the firm as Greenleaf, Goodenough,
+and Co.
+
+Mr. Dutton's well-kept house, with the little conservatory and the
+magnolia, was judged sufficient for present needs, and the lease was
+taken off his hands, so that all was in order for the marriage of
+Mark and Annaple immediately after Easter.
+
+Lady Delmar had resigned herself to the inevitable, and the wedding
+was to take place at Lescombe.  Nuttie, whose chief relaxation was in
+hearing all the pros and cons from May and Blanche, was asked to be
+one of the bridesmaids by Annaple, who had come over to the Rectory
+in a droll inscrutable state of mischief, declaring that she had
+exasperated Janet to the verge of insanity by declaring that she
+should have little umbrellas like those in the Persian inscriptions
+on her cards, and that Mark was to present all the bridesmaids with
+neat parasols.  If crinolines had not been gone out they could have
+all been dressed appropriately.  Now they must wear them closely
+furled.  All this banter was hardly liked by May and Blanche, whose
+little sisters were laughed at again for needing the assurance that
+they were really to wear white and rowan leaves and berries--the
+Ronnisglen badge.  Nuttie, who had drawn much nearer to May,
+refrained from relating this part of the story at home, but was much
+disappointed when, on telling her father of the request, she was
+answered at once:
+
+'Hein!  The 24th?  You'll be in London, and a very good thing too.'
+
+'Are we to go so soon?'
+
+'Yes.  Didn't I tell you to take that house in Berkshire Road from
+the 20th?'
+
+'I did not think we were to start so soon.  Is there any particular
+reason?'
+
+'Yes.  That Scotch girl ought to have known better than to ask you in
+your deep mourning.  I thought women made a great point of such
+things.'
+
+'Aunt Jane did not seem to think it wrong,' said Nuttie, for she
+really wished much for consent.  Not only had she grown fond both of
+Mark and Annaple, but she had never been a bridesmaid, and she knew
+that not only the Kirkaldys but Mr. Dutton had been invited; she had
+even ventured on offering to lodge some of the overflowing guests of
+the Rectory.
+
+'Their heads are all turned by that poverty-stricken Scotch peerage,'
+returned Mr. Egremont; 'or the Canoness should have more sense of
+respect.'
+
+Nuttie's wishes were so strong that she made one more attempt, 'I
+need not be a bridesmaid.  They would not mind if I wore my black.'
+
+'I should, then!' said her father curtly.  'If they don't understand
+the proprieties of life, I do.  I won't have you have anything to do
+with it.  If you are so set upon gaiety, you'll have enough of
+weddings at fitter times!'
+
+It was the old sneering tone.  Nuttie felt partly confounded, partly
+indignant, and terribly disappointed.  She did care for the sight of
+the wedding--her youthful spirits had rallied enough for that, but
+far more now she grieved at missing the sight of Mr. Dutton, when he
+was going away, she knew not where, and might perhaps come on purpose
+to see her; and it also made her sore and grieved at being accused of
+disregard to her mother.  She was silenced, however, and presently
+her father observed, in the same unpleasant tone, 'Well, if you've
+digested your disappointment, perhaps you'll condescend to write to
+the agent, that I expect the house to be ready on the 21st.'
+
+Nuttie got through her morning's work she hardly knew how, though her
+father was dry and fault-finding all the time.  Her eyes were so full
+of tears when she was released that she hardly saw where she was
+going, and nearly ran against her aunt, who had just walked into the
+hall.  Mrs. Egremont was too prudent a woman to let her burst out
+there with her grievance, but made her come into the tent-room before
+she exclaimed, 'He is going to take me away to London; he won't let
+me go to the wedding.'
+
+'I am sorry for your disappointment,' said her aunt quietly, 'but I
+am old-fashioned enough to be glad that such strong respect and
+feeling should be shown for your dear mother.  I wish Annaple had
+spoken to me before asking you, and I would have felt the way.'
+
+'I'm sure it is not want of feeling,' said Nuttie, as her tears broke
+forth.
+
+'I did not say it was,' returned her aunt, 'but different generations
+have different notions of the mode of showing it; and the present
+certainly errs on the side of neglect of such tokens of mourning.  If
+I did not think that Annaple and her mother are really uncomfortable
+at Lescombe, I should have told Mark that it was better taste to wait
+till the summer.'
+
+'If I might only have stayed at home--even if I did not go to the
+wedding,' sighed Nuttie, who had only half listened to the Canoness's
+wisdom.
+
+'Since you do not go, it is much better that you should be out of the
+way,' said Mrs. Egremont.  'Is your father ready to see me?'
+
+So Nuttie had to submit, though she pouted to herself, feeling
+grievously misjudged, first as if she had been wanting in regard to
+the memory of her mother, who had been so fond of Mark, and so
+rejoiced in his happiness; and then that her vexation was treated as
+mere love of gaiety, whereas it really was disappointment at not
+seeing Mr. Dutton, that good, grave, precise old friend, who could
+not be named in the same breath with vanity.  Moreover, she could not
+help suspecting that respect to her mother was after all only a cloak
+to resentment against Mark and his marriage.
+
+However, she bethought herself that her mother had often been
+disappointed and had borne it cheerfully, and after having done what
+Aunt Ursel would have called 'grizzling' in her room for an hour, she
+wrote her note to Miss Ruthven and endeavoured to be as usual,
+feeling keenly that there was no mother now to perceive and
+gratefully commend one of her only too rare efforts for good humour.
+On other grounds she was very sorry to leave Bridgefield.  May had,
+in her trouble, thawed to her, and they were becoming really
+affectionate and intimate companions, by force of propinquity and
+relationship, as well as of the views that May had imbibed from Hugh
+Condamine.  Moreover Nuttie felt her aunt's watch over the baby a
+great assistance to her own ignorance.
+
+However the Canoness had resigned to the poor little heir the perfect
+and trustworthy nurse, whom Basil had outgrown, and who consented to
+the transfer on condition of having her nursery establishment
+entirely apart from the rest of the household.  Her reasons were
+known though unspoken, namely, that the rejection of one or two
+valets highly recommended had made it plain that there had been no
+dislodgment of Gregorio.  The strong silent objection to him of all
+good female servants was one of the points that told much against
+him.  Martin and the housekeeper just endured him, and stayed on for
+the present chiefly because their dear lady had actually begged them
+not to desert her daughter if they could help it, at least not at
+first.
+
+Nuttie bound over her cousins to give her a full account of the
+wedding, and both of them wrote to her.  Blanche's letter recorded
+sundry scattered particulars,--as to how well the rowan-trimmed tulle
+dresses looked--how every one was packed into the carriages for the
+long drive--how there had been a triumphal arch erected over the
+Bluepost Bridge itself, and Annaple nearly choked with laughing at
+the appropriateness--how, to her delight, a shower began, and the
+procession out of the church actually cried out for umbrellas--how
+papa, when performing the ceremony, could not recollect that the
+bride's proper name was Annabella, and would dictate it as
+Anna-Maria, Sir John correcting him each time sotto voce--how Basil
+and little Hilda Delmar walked together and 'looked like a couple of
+ducks,' which, it was to be hoped, was to be taken metaphorically--
+how dreadfully hard the ice on the wedding-cake was, so that when
+Annaple tried to cut it the knife slipped and a little white dove
+flew away and hit May, which everyone said was a grand omen that she
+would be the next bride, while of course Annaple was perfectly
+helpless with mirth.  Every one said it was the merriest wedding ever
+seen, for the bride's only tears were those of laughter.  What Nuttie
+really cared for most came just at the end, and not much of that.
+'Your Mr. Dutton is just gone.  He got on famously with Hugh
+Condamine, and I forgot to tell you that he has given Mark such a
+jolly present, a lovely silver coffee-pot, just the one thing they
+wanted, and Lady Delmar said he didn't look near so like a tradesman
+as she expected.  I see May is writing too, but I don't know what you
+will get out of her, as Hugh Condamine came for the day.'
+
+Nuttie, however, had more hopes from May.  Her letter certainly was
+fuller of interest, if shorter.
+
+
+'My Dear Nuttie--Blanche has no doubt told you all the externals.  I
+suppose there never was a brighter wedding, for as Annaple keeps her
+mother with her, there was no real rending asunder of ties.  Indeed I
+almost wish her excitement did not always show itself in laughing,
+for it prevents people from understanding how much there is in her.
+
+
+(Plainly Hugh Condamine had been rather scandalised by the 'giggling
+Scotch girl.')
+
+
+'Dear old Lady Ronnisglen was delightful.  If there were any tears,
+they were hers, and Lady Delmar was very cordial and affectionate.
+Of course Hugh and Mr. Dutton missed much that one would have liked
+in a wedding.  I drove back with them afterwards, and it was very
+interesting to listen to their conversation about church matters.
+Hugh is very much struck with your friend; he had heard a good deal
+about Micklethwayte before, and says that such a lay worker is
+perfectly invaluable.  It is a great pity that he is not going on in
+the firm, it would make it so much nicer for Mark, but he says he has
+duties towards his new property.  I think he was sorry not to find
+you at home, but he plainly never thought it possible you should be
+at the wedding.  I don't know whether I ought to tell you this, but I
+think you ought to know it.  There is a lovely new wreath of Eucharis
+lilies and maiden-hair at dear Aunt Alice's grave, close against the
+rails at the feet, and Hugh told me that he looked out of his window
+very early yesterday morning and saw Mr. Dutton standing there,
+leaning on the rail, with his bare head bowed between his hands.  You
+can't think how it impressed Hugh.  He said he felt reverent towards
+him all through that day, and he was quite angry with Rosalind and
+Adela for jesting because, when the shower began as we were coming
+out of church, Mr. Dutton rushed up with an umbrella, being the only
+person there who had one, I believe.  Hugh says you may be proud of
+such a friend.  I wish you could have seen Hugh.--Your affectionate
+cousin,
+                                             'MARGARET EGREMONT.'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+THREE YEARS LATER.
+
+
+
+
+'There's something rotten in the State.'--Hamlet.
+
+
+On an east-windy afternoon in March Mary Nugent emerged from the
+School of Art, her well-worn portfolio under her arm, thinking how
+many successive generations of boys and girls she had drilled through
+'free-hand,' 'perspective,' and even 'life' with an unvarying average
+of failure and very moderate success, and how little talent or
+originality had come to the front, though all might be the better for
+knowing how to use eyes and fingers.
+
+On the whole her interest as well as her diligence did not flag; but
+a sense of weariness and monotony would sometimes come after a
+recurrence of well-known blunders of her pupils, and she missed the
+sense of going home to refreshment and enjoyment which had once
+invigorated her.  St. Ambrose's Road had had its golden age, but the
+brightness had been dimmed ever since that festival at Monks Horton.
+One after another of the happy old society had dropped away.  The
+vicar had received promotion, and she only remained of the former
+intimates, excepting old Miss Headworth, who was no longer a
+companion, but whom affection forbade her to desert in feeble old
+age.  Had her thoughts of the old times conjured up a figure
+belonging to them?  There was the well-brushed hat, the natty silk
+umbrella, the perfect fit of garments, the precise turn-out, nay, the
+curly lion-shaven poodle, with all his fringes, leaping on her in
+recognition, and there was that slightly French flourish of the hat,
+before--with a bounding heart--she met the hand in an English grasp.
+
+'Miss Nugent!'
+
+'Mr. Dutton!'
+
+'I thought I should meet you here!'
+
+'When did you come?'
+
+'Half an hour ago.  I came down with George Greenleaf, left my things
+at the Royal Hotel, and came on to look for you.'
+
+'You will come and spend the evening with us?'
+
+'If you are so good as to ask me.  How is Miss Headworth?'
+
+'Very feeble, very deaf; but she will be delighted to see you.  There
+is no fear of her not remembering you, though she was quite lost when
+Mrs. Egremont came in yesterday.'
+
+'Mrs. Egremont!' he repeated with a little start.
+
+'Mrs. Mark.  Ah! we have got used to the name--the Honourable Mrs.
+Egremont, as the community insist on calling her.  What a sunny
+creature she is!'
+
+'And Miss Egremont, what do you hear of her?'
+
+'She writes long letters, poor child.  I hope she is fairly happy.
+Are you come home for good, or is this only a visit?'
+
+'I have no intention of returning.  I have been winding up my good
+cousin's affairs at Melbourne.'
+
+Mary's heart bounded again with a sense of joy, comfort, and
+protection; but she did not long keep Mr. Dutton to herself, for
+every third person they met gladly greeted him, and they were long in
+getting to St. Ambrose's Road, now dominated by a tall and beautiful
+spire, according to the original design.  They turned and looked in
+at the pillared aisles, stained glass, and handsome reredos.
+
+'Very different from our struggling days,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Yes,' said Mary, with half a sigh.  'There's the new vicar,' as he
+passed with a civil nod.  'He has three curates, and a house of
+Sisters, and works the parish excellently.'
+
+'You don't speak as if you were intimate.'
+
+'No.  His womankind are rather grand--quite out of our beat; and in
+parish work I am only an estimable excrescence.  It is very well that
+I am not wanted, for Miss Headworth requires a good deal of
+attention, and it is only the old Adam that regrets the days of
+importance.  Ah, do you see?'
+
+They were passing Mr. Dutton's old home.  On the tiny strip of lawn
+in front was a slender black figure, with yellow hair, under a tiny
+black hat, dragging about a wooden horse whereon was mounted a sturdy
+boy of two, also yellow-locked and in deep mourning under his Holland
+blouse.
+
+'Billy-boy is riding to meet his daddy!' was merrily called out both
+by mother and son before they perceived the stranger.
+
+'Mr. Dutton,' said Mary.
+
+Annaple bowed, but did not put out her hand, and such a flush was on
+her face that Miss Nugent said, 'I am sure that is too much for you!'
+
+'Oh no--' she began; but 'Allow me,' said Mr. Dutton, and before she
+could refuse he was galloping round and round the little lawn, the
+boy screaming with delight as Monsieur raced with them.
+
+'So he is come!' she said in a low doubtful voice to Mary.
+
+'Yes.  He has met Mr. Greenleaf in London.  I always think he has the
+contrary to the evil eye.  Whatever he takes in hand rights itself.'
+
+'I'll hope so.  Oh, thank you!  Billy-boy, say thank you!  What a
+ride you have had!'
+
+'Why are they in such deep mourning?' asked Mr. Dutton, after they
+had parted.
+
+'Oh, did you not know? for good old Lady Ronnisglen.  She had a bad
+fall about two years ago, and never left her bed again; and this last
+autumn she sank away.'
+
+'They have had a great deal of trouble, then.  I saw the death of
+Canon Egremont in the Times soon after I went out to Australia.'
+
+'Yes; he had heart disease, and died quite suddenly.  The living is
+given to Mr. Condamine, who married the eldest daughter, and the
+widow is gone to live under the shadow of Redcastle Cathedral.'
+
+Therewith Miss Nugent opened her own door, and Miss Headworth was
+soon made aware of the visitor.  She was greatly changed, and had the
+indescribable stony look that tells of paralysis; and though she knew
+Mr. Dutton, and was delighted to see him, his presence made her
+expect to see Alice and Nuttie come in, though she soon recollected
+herself and shed a few helpless tears.  Then--in another mood--she
+began to display with pride and pleasure the photographs of 'Alice's
+dear little boy.'  She had a whole series of them, from the long-
+clothed babe on his sister's knee to the bright little fellow holding
+a drum--a very beautiful child, with a striking resemblance to his
+mother, quite startling to Mr. Dutton, especially in the last, which
+was coloured, and showed the likeness of eyes and expression.
+
+'Nuttie always sends me one whenever he is taken,' said the old lady.
+'Dear Nuttie!  It is very good for her.  She is quite a little mother
+to him.'
+
+'I was sure it would be so,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Yes,' said Mary, 'he is the great interest and delight of her life.
+Her letters are full of his little sayings and doings.'
+
+'Is she at home now?'
+
+'No; at Brighton.  Her father seems to have taken a dislike to
+Bridgefield since his brother's death, and only goes there for a
+short time in the shooting season.  He has taken a lease of a house
+in London, and spends most of the year there.'
+
+'Ah!' as she showed him the address, 'that is near the old house
+where I used to stay with my grand-aunt.  We thought it altogether in
+the country then, but it is quite absorbed now, and I have dazzling
+offers from building companies for the few acres of ground around it.
+Have you seen her?'
+
+'Oh no; I believe she is quite necessary to her father.  I only hear
+of her through Lady Kirkaldy, who has been very kind to her, but, I
+am sorry to say, is now gone with her Lord to the East.  She says she
+thinks that responsibility has been very good for Nuttie; she is
+gentler and less impetuous, and a good deal softened by her affection
+for the child.'
+
+'She was certain to develop.  I only dreaded what society her father
+might surround her with.'
+
+'Lady Kirkaldy says that all has turned out better than could have
+been expected.  You see, as she says, Mr. Egremont has been used to
+good women in his own family, and would not like to see her in a
+slangy fast set.  All her own gaieties have been under Lady
+Kirkaldy's wing, or that of Mrs. William Egremont's relations, and
+only in a quiet moderate way.  Her father gets his own old set about
+him, and they have not been very choice, but they are mostly elderly
+men, and gentlemen, and know how to behave themselves to her.
+Indeed, her cousin Blanche, who was here in the winter, gave us to
+understand that Ursula knows how to take care of herself, and gets
+laughed at as rather an old maidish model of propriety, if you can
+believe it of your little Nuttie.'
+
+'I could quite believe in her on the defensive, unprotected as she
+is.'
+
+'What did that young lady--Miss Blanche--tell us about that
+gentleman, Mary?' asked Miss Headworth, hearing and uttering what
+Miss Nugent hoped had passed unnoticed.
+
+'Oh, I think that was all gossip!' returned Mary, 'and so I am sure
+did the Mark Egremonts.  She said there was one of Mr. Egremont's
+friends, Mr. Clarence Fane, I think she called him, rather younger
+than the others, who, she was pleased to say, seemed smitten with
+Nuttie, but I have heard nothing more about it, and Mrs. Mark scouted
+the idea,' she added in haste, as she saw his expression vary in
+spite of himself.
+
+'Do you see much of your neighbours?'
+
+'We are both too busy to see much of one another, but we have our
+little talks over the wall.  What a buoyant creature she is.  It
+seems as if playfulness was really a sustaining power in her, helping
+her to get diversion out of much that others might stumble at.  You
+know perhaps that when she arrived the work-people had got up a
+beautiful parasol for her, white, with a deep fringe and spray of
+rowan.  Little Susie Gunner presented her with it, and she was very
+gracious and nice about it.  But then what must Mr. Goodenough do but
+dub it the Annabella sunshade, and blazon it, considerably
+vulgarised, in all the railway stations, and magazines.'
+
+'I know!  I had the misfortune to see it in the station at Melbourne;
+and my mind misgave me from that hour.'
+
+'Her husband was prepared to be very angry, but she fairly laughed
+him out of it, made all sorts of fun out of the affair, declared it
+her only opening to fame, and turned it into a regular joke; so that
+indeed the Greenleafs, who were vexed at the matter, and tried to
+apologise, were quite perplexed in their turn, and not at all sure
+that the whole concern was not being turned into ridicule.'
+
+'I wonder it did not make him cut the connection,' said Mr. Dutton,
+muttering 'I only wish it had.'
+
+'Mrs. Greenleaf is very funny about her, 'added Mary, 'proud of the
+Honourable Mrs. Egremont, as they insist on calling her, yet not
+quite pleased that she should be the junior partner's wife; and
+decidedly resenting her hardly going into society at all, though I
+really don't see how she could; for first there was the Canon's
+death, and then just after the boy was born came Lady Ronnisglen's
+accident, and for the next year and a half there was constant
+attendance on her.  They fitted up a room on the ground floor for
+her, the one opening into your drawing-room, and there they used to
+sit with her.  I used to hear them reading to her and singing to her,
+and they were always as merry as possible, till last autumn, when
+something brought on erysipelas, and she was gone almost before they
+took alarm.  The good little daughter was beaten down then, really
+ill for a week; but if you can understand me, the shock seemed to
+tell on her chiefly bodily, and though she was half broken-hearted
+when her husband in a great fright brought me up to see her, and say
+whether her sister should be sent for, she still made fun of him, and
+described the impossible advice they would bring on themselves.  I
+had to take care of her while he went away to the funeral in
+Scotland, and then I learnt indeed to like her and see how much there
+is in her besides laughter.'
+
+'Did the old lady leave them anything?'
+
+'I believe she had nothing to leave.  Her jointure was not much, but
+I am sure they miss that, for Mrs. Egremont has parted with her
+nurse, and has only a little girl in her stead, driving out the
+perambulator often herself, to the great scandal of the Greenleafs,
+though she would have one believe it is all for want of occupation.'
+
+'Do you think they have taken any alarm?'
+
+'There's no judging from her joyous surface, but I have thought him
+looking more careworn and anxious than I liked.  Mr. Dutton, don't
+answer if I ought not to ask, but is it true that things are going
+wrong?  I know you have been seeing Mr. Greenleaf, so perhaps you are
+in his confidence and cannot speak.'
+
+'Tell me, what is known or suspected?'
+
+'Just this, that Mr. Goodenough has been the ruin of the concern.  He
+has been quite different ever since his voyage to America.  You were
+gone, old Mr. Greenleaf has been past attending to business ever
+since he had that attack, and George Greenleaf has been playing the
+country squire at Horton Bishop, and not looking after the office
+work, and Mr. Egremont was inexperienced.  One could see, of course,
+that the whole character of the business was changed--much more
+advertising, much more cheap and flashy work--to be even with the
+times, it was said, but the old superior hands were in despair at the
+materials supplied to them, and the scamped work expected.  You
+should have heard old Thorpe mourning for you, and moralising over
+the wickedness of this world.  His wife told me she really thought he
+would go melancholy mad if he did not leave the factory, and he has
+done so.  They have saved enough to set up a nice little shop at
+Monks Horton.'
+
+'I must go and see them!  Good old Thorpe!  I ought never to have put
+those poor young things into the firm when I ceased to have any
+control over it.  I shall never forgive myself--'
+
+'Nothing could seem safer then!  No one could have guessed that young
+Mr. Greenleaf would be so careless without his father to keep him up
+to the mark, nor that Mr. Goodenough should alter so much.  Is it
+very bad?  Is there worse behind?  Speculation, I suppose--'
+
+'Of course.  I do not see to the bottom of it yet; poor George seemed
+to reckon on me for an advance, but I am afraid this is more than a
+mere temporary depression, such as may be tided over, and that all
+that can be looked to is trying to save honourable names by an utter
+break up, which may rid them of that--that--no, I won't call him a
+scoundrel.  I thought highly of him once, and no doubt he never
+realised what he was doing.'
+
+Before the evening was far advanced Mark Egremont knocked at the
+door, and courteously asked whether Mr. Dutton could be spared to him
+for a little while.  Mary Nugent replied that she was just going to
+help Miss Headworth to bed, and that the parlour was at their service
+for a private interview, but Mark answered, 'My wife is anxious to
+hear.  She knows all that I do, and is quite prepared to hear
+whatever Mr. Dutton may not object to saying before her.'
+
+So they bade good-night to Mary, and went on together to the next
+house, Mr. Dutton saying 'You have much to forgive me, Mr. Egremont;
+I feel as if I had deserted the ship just as I had induced you to
+embark in it.'
+
+'You did not guess how ill it would be steered without you,' returned
+Mark, with a sigh.  'Do not fear to speak out before my wife, even if
+we are sinking.  She will hear it bravely, and smile to the last.'
+
+The room which Mr. Dutton entered was not like the cabin of a sinking
+ship, nor, as in his own time, like the well-ordered apartment of a
+bachelor of taste.  Indeed, the house was a great puzzle to Monsieur,
+who entered by invitation, knowing his way perfectly, thinking
+himself at home after all his travels, and then missing his own
+particular mat, and sniffing round at the furniture.  It was of the
+modified aesthetic date, but arranged more with a view to comfort
+than anything else, and by the light of the shaded lamp and bright
+fire was pre-eminently home-like, with the three chairs placed round
+the hearth, and bright-haired Annaple rising up from the lowest with
+her knitting to greet Mr. Dutton, and find a comfortable lair for
+Monsieur.
+
+'Miss Nugent says that you set everything right that you do but look
+at, Mr. Dutton,' she said; 'so we are prepared to receive you as a
+good genius to help us out of our tangle.'
+
+Mr. Dutton was afraid that the tangle was far past unwinding, and of
+course the details, so far as yet known, were discussed.  There was,
+in truth, nothing for which Mark could be blamed.  He had diligently
+attended to his office-work, which was mere routine, and, conscious
+of his own inexperience, and trusting to the senior partners, he had
+only become anxious at the end of the year, when he perceived
+Goodenough's avoidance of a settlement of accounts, and detected
+shuffling.  He had not understood enough of the previous business to
+be aware of the deterioration of the manner of dealing with it,
+though he did think it scarcely what he expected.  If he had erred,
+it was in acting too much as a wheel in the machinery, keeping his
+thoughts and heart in his own happy little home, and not throwing
+himself into the spirit of the business, or the ways of those
+concerned in it, so that he had been in no degree a controlling
+power.  He had allowed his quality of gentleman to keep him an
+outsider, instead of using it to raise the general level of the
+transactions, so that the whole had gone down in the hands of the
+unscrupulous Goodenough.
+
+Annaple listened and knitted quietly while the affairs were explained
+on either hand.  Mark had had one serious talk with George Greenleaf,
+and both had had a stormy scene with Goodenough.  Then Mr. Dutton had
+telegraphed his arrival, and Greenleaf had met him in London, with
+hopes, bred of long and implicit trust, that his sagacity and perhaps
+his wealth would carry the old house through the crisis.
+
+But Mr. Dutton, though reserving his judgment till the books should
+have been thoroughly examined and the liabilities completely
+understood, was evidently inclined to believe that things had gone
+too far, and that the names of Greenleaf and Egremont could only be
+preserved from actual dishonour by going into liquidation, dissolving
+partnership, and thus getting quit of Goodenough.
+
+Mark listened resignedly, Annaple with an intelligence that made Mr.
+Dutton think her the more clearheaded of the two, though still she
+could not refrain from her little jokes.  'I'm sure I should not mind
+how liquid we became if we could only run off clear of Goodenough,'
+she said.
+
+'You know what it means?' said her husband.
+
+'Oh yes, I know what it means.  It is the fine word for being sold
+up.  Well, Mark, never mind, we are young and strong, and it will not
+be a bit the worse for the Billy-boy in the end to begin at the
+bottom of everything.'
+
+'I hope--may I ask--is everything embarked in the poor old firm?'
+said Mr. Dutton with some hesitation.
+
+'All that is mine,' said Mark, with his elbow on the table and his
+chin on his hand.
+
+'But I've got a hundred a year, charged on poor old Ronnisglen's
+estate,' said Annaple.  'All the others gave theirs up when they
+married, and I wanted to do so, but my dear mother would not let me;
+she said I had better try how I got on first.  Think of that, Mark, a
+hundred a year!  Why, old Gunner or Thorpe would think themselves
+rolling in riches if they only heard that they had a hundred a year!'
+
+'You won't find it go far!'
+
+'Yes, I shall, for I shall make you live on porridge, with now and
+then a sheep's head for a treat!  Besides, there will be something to
+do.  It will be working up again, you know.  But seriously, Mr.
+Dutton, I have some things here of my dear mother's that really
+belong to Ronnisglen, and I was only keeping till he comes home.
+Should not they be got out of the way?'
+
+'My dear, we are not come to that yet!  I hope it may be averted!'
+cried Mark.
+
+But Mr. Dutton agreed with the young wife that it would be much
+better to send these things away before their going could excite
+suspicion.  There was only a tiny silver saucepan, valued as a gift
+of 'Queen' Clementina to an ancestress, also a silver teapot and some
+old point, and some not very valuable jewellery, all well able to go
+into a small box, which Mr. Dutton undertook to deposit with Lord
+Ronnisglen's bankers.  He was struck with the scrupulous veracity
+with which Annaple decided between what had become her own property
+and the heirlooms, though what she claimed might probably be
+sacrificed to the creditors.
+
+Mark could hardly endure to see what made the crisis so terribly
+real.  'That I should have brought you to this!' he said to his wife,
+when their visitor had at length bidden them good-night.
+
+'If we begin at that work,' said Annaple, 'it was I who brought you!
+I have often thought since it was rather selfish not to have
+consented to your helping poor Ursula with her heavy handful of a
+father!  It was all money grubbing and grabbing, you see, and if we
+had thought more of our neighbour than ourselves we might have been
+luxuriating at the Home Farm, or even if your uncle had quarrelled
+with you, he would not have devoured your substance.  I have thought
+so often, ever since I began to see this coming.'
+
+'My dear child, you don't mean that you have seen this coming!'
+
+'My prophetic soul!  Why, Mark, you have as good as inferred it over
+and over again.  I've felt like scratching that Badenough whenever I
+met him in the street.  I must indulge myself by calling him so for
+once in strict privacy.'
+
+'You have guessed it all the time, while I only thought how
+unconscious you were.'
+
+'Not to say stupid, considering all you told me.  Besides, what would
+have been the use of howling and moaning and being dismal before the
+time?  For my part, I could clap my hands even now at getting rid of
+Goodenough, and his jaunty, gracious air!  Come, Mark, it won't be so
+bad after all, you'll see.'
+
+'Nothing can be "so bad," while you are what you are, my Nan.'
+
+'That's right.  While we have each other and the Billy-boy, nothing
+matters much.  There's plenty of work in us both, and that good man
+will find it for us; or if he doesn't, we'll get a yellow van, and
+knit stockings, and sell them round the country.  How jolly that
+would be!  Imagine Janet's face.  There, that's right,' as her
+mimicry evoked a smile, 'I should be ashamed to be unhappy about
+this, when our good name is saved, and when there is a blessing on
+the poor,' she added in a lower voice, tenderly kissing her husband's
+weary brow.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+THE BOY OF EGREMONT.
+
+
+
+
+'And the boy that walked beside me,
+ He could not understand
+ Why, closer in mine, ah, closer,
+ I press'd his warm soft hand.'--LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+The agony of a firm like Greenleaf, Goodenough, and Co. could not be
+a rapid thing, and Mr. Dutton lived between London and Micklethwayte
+for several weeks, having much to endure on all sides.  The senior
+partners thought it an almost malicious and decidedly ungrateful
+thing in him not to throw in his means, or at any rate, offer his
+guarantee to tide them over their difficulties.  Goodenough's
+tergiversations and concealments needed a practised hand and acute
+head to unravel them, and often deceived Mr. Greenleaf himself; and
+when, for a time, he was convinced that the whole state was so rotten
+that a crash was inevitable, his wife's lamentations and complaints
+of Mr. Dutton would undo the whole, and it was as if he were doing
+them an injury that the pair accepted the comfortable prospect he was
+able to offer them in Australia.
+
+He would have made the like proposal to the Egremonts, but found that
+Mark held himself bound by his promise to his father not to emigrate,
+and thought of some kind of office-work.  Before trying to procure
+this for him, however, Mr. Dutton intended to see his uncle, and try
+whether the agency, once rejected, could still be obtained for him.
+Learning from Miss Nugent that the Egremonts were in town, he went up
+thither with the purpose of asking for an interview.
+
+There was a new church in the immediate neighbourhood of his house in
+a state of growth and development congenial to the St. Ambrose
+trained mind, and here Mr. Dutton, after old Micklethwayte custom,
+was attending the early matins, when, in the alternate verses of the
+psalm, he heard a fresh young voice that seemed to renew those days
+gone by, and looking across the central aisle his eyes met a pair of
+dark ones which gave a sudden glitter of gladness at the encounter.
+That was all he saw or cared to see.  He did not take in the finished
+completeness of the very plain dark dress and hat, nor the womanly
+air of the little figure, until they clasped hands in the porch, and
+in the old tones Nuttie exclaimed:  'I've been hoping you would come
+to London.  How is Monsieur?'
+
+'In high health, thank you, the darling of the steamer both going and
+coming.  I hope your charges are well?'
+
+'My father is tolerable, just as usual, and my little Alwyn is
+getting more delicious every day.  He will be so delighted to see
+Monsieur.  I have told him so many stories about him!'
+
+'Do you think I may call on Mr. Egremont?'
+
+'Oh do!  He is ready to be called on between two and three, and we
+always have Wynnie downstairs then, so that you will see him too.
+And you have been at Micklethwayte.  I am afraid you found a great
+change in Aunt Ursel.'
+
+'Yes; but she is very peaceful and happy.'
+
+'And I have to leave her altogether to dear excellent Miss Nugent.
+It seems very, very wrong, but I cannot help it!  And how about Mark
+and Annaple?'
+
+'I think she is the bravest woman I ever met.'
+
+'Then things are really going badly with the dear old firm?'
+
+'I am hoping to talk to Mr. Egremont about it.'
+
+'Ah!'
+
+Nuttie paused.  Towards Mr. Dutton she always had a stronger impulse
+of confidence than towards any one else she had ever met; but she
+felt that he might think it unbecoming to say that she had perceived
+a certain dislike on her father's part towards Mark ever since the
+rejection of the agency and the marriage, which perhaps was regarded
+as a rejection of herself.  He had a habit of dependence on Mark,
+which resulted in personal liking, when in actual contact, but in
+absence the distaste and offence always revived, fostered, no doubt,
+by Gregorio; and Canon Egremont's death had broken the link which had
+brought them together.  However, for his brother's sake, and for the
+sake of the name, the head of the family might be willing to do
+something.  It was one of Nuttie's difficulties that she never could
+calculate on the way her father would take any matter.  Whether for
+better or for worse, he always seemed to decide in diametrical
+opposition to her expectation.  And, as she was certainly less
+impetuous and more dutiful, she parted with Mr. Dutton at her own
+door without any such hint.
+
+These three years had been discipline such as the tenderest, wisest
+hand could not have given her, though it had been insensible.  She
+had been obliged to attend to her father and watch over her little
+brother, and though neither task had seemed congenial to her
+disposition, the honest endeavour to do them rightly had produced the
+affection born of solicitude towards her father, and the strong warm
+tenderness of the true mother-sister towards little Alwyn.
+
+Ursula Egremont was one of those natures to which responsibility is
+the best training.  If she had had any one to guard or restrain her,
+she might have gone to the utmost limits before she yielded to the
+curb.  As it was, she had to take care of herself, to bear and
+forbear with her father, to walk warily with her household, and to be
+very guarded with the society into which she was thrown from time to
+time.  It was no sudden change, but one brought about by experience.
+An outbreak of impatience or temper towards her father was sure to be
+followed by his galling sneer, or by some mortification to her
+desires; any act of mismanagement towards the servants brought its
+own punishment; and if she was tempted by girlish spirits to relax
+the quiet, stiff courtesy which she observed towards her father's
+guests, there followed jests, or semi-patronage, or a tone of
+conversation that offended her, and made her repent it.  Happily, Mr.
+Egremont did not wish her to be otherwise.  One day, when she had
+been betrayed into rattling and giggling, he spoke to her afterwards
+with a cutting irony which bitterly angered her at the moment, and
+which she never forgot.  Each irksome duty, each privation, each
+disappointment, each recurrence of the sweeping sense of desolation
+and loneliness had had one effect--it had sent her to her knees.  She
+had no one else to go to.  She turned to her Father in heaven.
+Sometimes, indeed, it was in murmuring and complaint at her lot, but
+still it was to Him and Him alone, and repentance sooner or later
+came to aid her, while refreshments sprang up around her--little
+successes, small achievements, pleasant hours, tokens that her father
+was pleased or satisfied, and above all, the growing charms of little
+Alwyn.
+
+The special grievance, Gregorio's influence, had scarcely dwelt on
+her at first as it had done on her mother.  The man had been very
+cautious for some time, knowing that his continuance in his situation
+was in the utmost jeopardy, and Mr. Egremont had, in the freshness of
+his grief for his wife, abstained from relapsing into the habits from
+which she had weaned him.  When, however, the Canon was dead, and his
+son at a distance, Gregorio began to feel more secure, and in the
+restless sorrow of his master over the blow that had taken away an
+only brother, he administered soothing drugs under another name, so
+that Ursula, in her inexperience, did not detect what was going on,
+and still fancied that the habit had been renounced.  All she did
+know was that it was entirely useless for her to attempt to exert any
+authority over the valet, and that the only way to escape insolently
+polite disobedience was to let him alone.  Moreover, plans to which
+her father had agreed, when broached by her, had often been
+overthrown after his valet had been with him.  It was a life full of
+care and disappointment, yet there was a certain spring of trust that
+kept Ursula's youth from being dimmed, and enabled her to get a fair
+share of happiness out of it, though she was very sorry not to be
+more at Bridgefield, where she could have worked with all her heart
+with May Condamine.  Moreover, Lady Kirkaldy's absence from London
+was a great loss to her, for there was no one who was so kind or so
+available in taking her into society; and Nuttie, though mistress of
+her father's house, was not yet twenty-two, and strongly felt that
+she must keep within careful bounds, and not attempt to be her own
+chaperon.
+
+But the very sight of her old friend, and the knowledge that he was
+in the neighbourhood, filled her heart with gladness, and seemed like
+a compensation for everything.  Mr. Egremont was in a gracious mood,
+and readily consented to see Mr. Dutton--the friend who had been so
+pleasant and helpful at Paris--and Nuttie gave her private
+instructions to the footman to insure his admittance.
+
+His card was brought in just as the father and daughter were
+finishing luncheon, and he was received in Mr. Egremont's sitting-
+room, where the first civilities had hardly passed before the door
+was opened, and in trotted the golden-haired boy, so beautiful a
+child that it would have been impossible not to look at him with
+delight, even for those to whom his dark eyes and sweet smile did not
+recall those that had once been so dear.
+
+Mr. Egremont's voice took a fresh tone: 'Ah! here he comes, the old
+fellow'--and he held out his hands; but the boy was intent on his own
+purpose.
+
+'Where's black doggie?' he asked in a silver-bell of a little voice,
+but lisping a good deal; 'Wyn got penny for him.'
+
+'Wynnie must be a good boy.  Kiss papa first, and Mr. Dutton,'
+remonstrated the sister; and Alwyn obeyed so far as to submit to his
+father's embrace, and then raising those velvety eyes to the
+visitor's face, he repeated: 'Where black doggie?  Wyn want to see
+him buy bun.'
+
+'There! your fame has preceded you,' said Mr. Egremont, 'or rather
+your dog's.'
+
+'You shall see him,' said Mr. Dutton, taking the pretty boy almost
+reverently on his knee, 'but he is at home now.  I could not leave
+him out on the street, and I did not know if I might bring him in.'
+
+'Oh, Mr. Dutton! as if Monsieur would not be welcome,' cried the
+Nuttie of old times.  'I only wish I had stipulated for him, dear old
+fellow.'
+
+'Wyn want to see him,' reiterated the child.
+
+'May I take him to see the performance?' said Mr. Dutton.  'I live
+only at the corner of Berkshire Road, and there's a dairy just
+opposite where Monsieur has been allowed to keep up his
+accomplishment.'
+
+Alwyn's legs, arms, and voice, were all excitement and entreaty; and
+Mr. Egremont himself proposed that they should all come and witness
+the feat; so Nuttie, in great glee, climbed the stairs with her
+little brother to get ready; and when she came down again, found the
+gentlemen deep, not in Mark Egremont's umbrellas, but in the gas and
+smoke grievances which had arisen since the lease of the house had
+been taken, and in which sympathy might be expected from a fellow-
+inhabitant of the district.  Little Alwyn was, however, plainly the
+lord of the ascendant, and unused to see anything else attended to in
+his presence.  He took possession of Mr. Dutton's hand, and his
+tongue went fast, nor did his father or sister seem to desire any
+better music.  They reached an old-walled garden, with lilac and
+laburnum and horse-chestnut blossoming above, and showing a mass of
+greenery through the iron railing that surmounted, the low wall on
+the street side, where Mr. Dutton halted and took out his key.
+
+'Is this yours?' exclaimed Nuttie, 'I have so often wondered whose it
+could be.'
+
+'Yes, it was a country-house when I was of the age of this little
+man, though you might not think it.'
+
+'The increase of London had not been on that side,' said Mr.
+Egremont.  'This must be a very valuable property!'
+
+And Nuttie perceived that such an inheritance made Mr. Dutton much
+more in his eyes than an ex-umbrella-monger; but no sooner was the
+tall iron gate opened than Monsieur, beautifully shaved, with all his
+curly tufts in perfection, came bounding to meet his master, and
+Alwyn had his arms round the neck in a moment.  Monsieur had in his
+time been introduced to too many children not to understand the
+situation, and respond politely; and he also recognised Ursula, and
+gave unmistakable proofs of being glad to see her.
+
+Then the halfpenny was presented to him.  He wagged his queer tail,
+smiled with his intelligent brown eyes, took it between his teeth,
+and trotted across the street in the most business-like way, the
+others following, but detaining the boy from keeping too close.
+They found the creature sitting upright, tapping the floor with his
+tail, the centre of rapturous admiration to all the customers already
+in the dairy shop.  He received his bun, and demurely dropping on his
+front legs, walked back with it to his master, and crossed the road
+with it uneaten, rather to Alwyn's disappointment, but Mr. Dutton
+said he would probably dispose of it in some hiding-place in the
+garden until his evening appetite came on.  It was well he was a dog
+of moderation, for there was great temptation to repeat the
+entertainment more than was wholesome for him.
+
+'There, Wynnie,' said Nuttie in a voice of monition, 'Monsieur
+doesn't eat all his goodies at once, he keeps them for bedtime.'
+
+It might be perceived that the over-supply of sweets was a matter of
+anxiety to the elder sister.  To the nurse, who waited in readiness,
+Alwyn was consigned for his walk, while his father and sister
+accepted Mr. Dutton's invitation to look round his domain.  It would
+have been small in the country, but it was extensive for the
+locality, and there was a perfect order and trimness about the shaven
+lawn, the little fountain in the midst, the flower-beds gay with
+pansies, forget-me-nots, and other early beauties, and the freshly-
+rolled gravel paths, that made Nuttie exclaim: 'Ah! I should have
+known this for yours anywhere.'
+
+'I have not had much to do to it,' he said.  'My old aunts had it
+well kept up, even when they could only see it from their windows.
+Their old gardener still lives in the cottage behind the tool-house,
+though he is too infirm for anything but being wheeled about in the
+sun in their Bath-chair.'
+
+'You keep a large amount lying idle by retaining it as it is,' said
+Mr. Egremont.
+
+'True, but it is well to preserve an oasis here and there.'
+
+Nuttie knew well that it was not for himself alone, and as they
+entered the little conservatory, and her eye fell on the row of white
+hyacinths, the very scent carried her back to the old times, and her
+eyes grew moist while Mr. Dutton was cutting a bouquet for her in
+accordance with well-known tastes.
+
+'I shall put them in my room.  It will feel like home,' she said, and
+then she saw that she had said what her father did not like; for he
+was always sensitive as to any reference to her early life.
+
+Mr. Dutton, however, took this opportunity of saying that he had been
+backwards and forwards to Micklethwayte several times this spring.
+
+'I hope you are well out of the concern there,' said Mr. Egremont.
+
+'Thank you, sir; I have no share in it at present.'
+
+'So much the better!'
+
+'But I am very anxious about my friends.'
+
+'Ah!'  But Mr. Egremont's attention was drawn off at the entrance of
+the house by a new-fashioned stove of which Mr. Dutton did the
+honours, conducting father and daughter into the drawing-room, where
+obvious traces of the old ladies remained, and thence into his own
+sitting-room, smelling pleasantly of Russia leather, and recalling
+that into which Nuttie had been wont, before her schooldays, to climb
+by the window, and become entranced by the illustrations of a
+wonderful old edition of Telemaque, picked up at Paris.
+
+Mr. Dutton made them sit and rest, for this had been a good deal of
+exercise for Mr. Egremont; coffee was brought in, having been ordered
+on their arrival, and therewith Mr. Dutton entered on an exposition
+of the affairs of Greenleaf and Goodenough, which was listened to
+with a good deal of interest, though Nuttie could not quite detect
+whether it were altogether friendly interests in Mark's misfortunes,
+or if there were not a certain triumph in the young man having run
+into trouble by rejecting his offer.
+
+Mr. Dutton explained that his present object was to induce the
+friends of the family to prevent annoyance by preserving the
+furniture and personals at a valuation; and Mr. Egremont readily
+agreed to contribute to doing this, though he said the sisters and
+stepmother were well able also to do their share.
+
+'And then to give the young people a fresh start,' added Mr. Dutton.
+
+'There are some men who are always wanting fresh starts,' said Mr.
+Egremont, 'just as there are some vessels that are always unlucky.
+And if you observe, it is just those men who are in the greatest
+haste to hang an expensive wife and family round their necks.'
+
+'I don't think poor Annaple can be accused of being expensive, papa,'
+said Nuttie.  'Only think, when Wynnie has two nurses always after
+him, her Willie has only the fraction of a little maid, who does all
+sorts of work besides.'
+
+'Yes, I never saw more resolute and cheerful exertion than Mrs. Mark
+Egremont's,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'She owes him something,' said Mr. Egremont, 'for she has been the
+ruin of him.'
+
+'Of his worldly prospects in one sense,' said Mr. Dutton quietly;
+while Nuttie felt how much better and wiser an answer it was than the
+indignant denial that trembled on her tongue.  'There can be no doubt
+that they made a grievous mistake in their choice, and I
+unfortunately was concerned in leading them into it; but no one can
+see how they meet their troubles without great respect and
+admiration, and I am especially bound to seek for some new opening
+for them.  I have little doubt that some office work might be found
+for him in London, but they are essentially country people, and it
+would be much better for them if he could have some agency.  I
+suppose the situation you offered him before, sir, is filled up? '
+
+'Not really,' cried Nuttie.  'We have only a very common sort of
+uneducated bailiff, who would be much better with some one over him.
+You said so, papa.'
+
+'Did he request you to apply to me?' said Mr. Egremont sharply,
+looking at Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Neither he nor she has the least idea of my intention; I only
+thought, sir, you might be willing to consider how best to assist a
+nephew, who has certainly not been wanting either in industry or
+economy, and who bears your name.'
+
+'Well, I will think it over,' said Mr. Egremont, rising to take
+leave.
+
+The carriage had been bidden to await them at the door for their
+daily drive, and as Mr. Egremont leant back with the furs disposed
+over him he observed: 'That's a man who knows how to take care of
+himself.  I wonder where he gets his coffee, I've not drunk any like
+it since I was at Nice.'  And Nuttie, though well knowing that Mr.
+Dutton's love of perfection was not self-indulgence, was content to
+accept this as high approbation, and a good augury for Mark and
+Annaple.  Indeed, with Mr. Dutton settled near, and with the prospect
+of a daily walk from church with him, she felt such a complete
+content and trust as she had not known since she had been uprooted
+from Micklethwayte.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+A BRAVE HEART.
+
+
+
+
+'One furnace many times the good and bad may hold,
+ Yet what consumes the chaff will only cleanse the gold.'
+                                     Archbishop TRENCH.
+
+
+Never was there a truer verse than that which tells us that in
+seeking duty we find pleasure by the way, and in seeking pleasure we
+meet pain.  It might be varied to apply to our anticipations of
+enjoyment or the reverse.  Ursula had embraced her lot as a
+necessity, and found it enlivened by a good many sunshiny hours; and
+when she looked upon Mr. Dutton's neighbourhood as a continual source
+of delight and satisfaction, she found that it gave rise to a
+continual course of small disappointments.
+
+In the first place, he did not walk home from church with her every
+morning.  She looked for him in vain, even when she knew he was in
+town.  He only appeared there on Sundays, and at intervals when he
+had some especial reason for speaking to her.  At first she thought
+he must have grown lazy or out of health to have thus dropped his old
+Micklethwayte habits, but after a time she discovered by accident
+that he frequented another church, open at a still earlier hour and a
+little farther off, and she was forced to come to the conclusion that
+he acted out of his characteristic precise scrupulosity, which would
+not consider it as correct for her to walk home every day with him.
+She chafed, and derided 'the dear old man' a little in her own mind,
+then ended with a sigh.  Was there any one who cared so much about
+what was proper for her?  And, after all, was he really older than
+Mr. Clarence Fane, whom everybody in her father's set called
+Clarence, or even Clare, and treated as the boy of the party, so that
+she had taken it as quite natural that he should be paired off with
+her.  It was quite a discovery!
+
+There was another and more serious disappointment.  Mr. Egremont had
+not seemed disinclined to consider the giving the agency to Mark, and
+Nuttie had begun to think with great satisfaction of May Condamine's
+delight in welcoming him, and of the good influence that would be
+brought to bear on the dependents, when suddenly there came a
+coolness.  She could trace the moment, and was sure that it was, when
+Gregorio became aware of what was intended.  He had reason to dread
+Mark as an enemy, and was likely to wish to keep him at a distance;
+and it had been Ursula's great hope that an absolute promise might
+have been given before he heard of the plan; but Mr. Egremont was
+always slow to make up his mind, except when driven by a sudden
+impulse, and had never actually said that the post should be offered
+to his nephew.  Nuttie only detected the turn of the tide by the want
+of cordiality, the hums and haws, and by and by the resumption of the
+unkind ironical tone when Mark and Annaple were mentioned; and at
+last, when she had been reading to him a letter from Mrs. William
+Egremont full of anxiety for the young people, and yet of trust in
+his kindness to them, he exclaimed, 'You've not been writing to her
+about this absurd proposal?'
+
+'I have not mentioned any proposal at all.  What do you mean?'
+
+'Why, this ridiculous idea about the agency.  As if I was going to
+put my affairs into the hands of a man who has made such a mull of
+his own.'
+
+'But that was not Mark's fault, papa.  He was junior, you know, and
+had no power over that Goodenough.'
+
+'He ought, then!  Never sail with an unlucky captain.  No, no, Mark's
+honourable lady would not let him take the agency when he might have
+had it, and I am not going to let them live upon me now that they
+have nothing of their own.'
+
+'Oh, papa, but you almost promised!'
+
+'Almost!' he repeated with his ironical tone; 'that's a word capable
+of a good deal of stretching.  This is what you and that umbrella
+fellow have made out of my not giving him a direct refusal on the
+spot.  He may meddle with Mark's affairs if he chooses, but not with
+mine.'
+
+Nuttie had learnt a certain amount of wisdom, and knew that to argue
+a point only made her father more determined, so she merely answered,
+'Very well;' adding in a meek voice, 'Their furniture, poor things!'
+
+'Oh ay.  Their umbrella friend is making a collection for them.  Yes,
+I believe I said I would contribute.'
+
+Hot blood surged up within Nuttie at the contemptuous tone, and she
+bit her lip to keep down the answer, for she knew Mr, Dutton intended
+to call the next afternoon for her father's ultimatum before going
+down to Micklethwayte, where the crisis was fast approaching, and she
+had so much faith in his powers that she dreaded to forestall him by
+an imprudent word.  Alas, Gregorio must have been on his guard, for,
+though Nuttie was sure she heard her friend's ring at the usual time,
+no entrance followed.  She went up to put on her habit to ride with
+her father, and when she came down Mr. Egremont held out a card with
+the name 'Philip Dutton,' and the pencilled request below to be
+allowed to see Mr. Egremont later in the day.
+
+'He has been denied!' exclaimed she in consternation.
+
+'Hein!  Before we go out, sit down and write a note for me.'  And he
+dictated--
+
+
+     'Dear Sir--I will not trouble you to call again this
+      afternoon, as I have decided on reflection that there
+      is no employment on my estate suited to my nephew,
+      Mark Egremont.
+
+     'As I understand that you are raising a family
+      subscription for rescuing his furniture from the
+      creditors, I enclose a cheque for (pounds)50 for the purpose.
+                                           --I remain--'
+
+
+'Yours--what--papa?--' asked Ursula, with a trembling voice, full of
+tears.
+
+'Yours, etc., of course.  Quite intimate enough for an ex-umbrella-
+monger.  Here, give it to me, and I'll sign it while you fill up the
+cheque for me.'
+
+That such should be the first letter that Nuttie ever addressed to
+Mr. Dutton, since the round-hand one in 'which Miss Ursula wished Mr.
+Duton to have the onner of a tee with me on my birthday, and I am
+your affected little Nuttie'!
+
+She hoped to explain and lament the next morning, after church.  He
+would surely come to talk it over with her; but he only returned a
+civil note with his receipt, and she did not see him again before his
+departure.  She was greatly vexed; she had wanted so much to tell him
+how it was, and then came an inward consciousness that she would
+probably have told him a great deal too much.
+
+Was it that tiresome prudence of his again that would think for her
+and prevent impulsive and indignant disclosures?  It made her bring
+down her foot sharply on the pavement with vexation as she suspected
+that he thought her so foolish, and then again her heart warmed with
+the perception of self-denying care for her.  She trusted to that
+same prudence for no delusive hopes having been given to Mark and his
+wife.
+
+She did so justly.  Mr. Dutton had thought the matter far too
+uncertain to be set before them.  The Canoness's vague hopes had been
+the fruit of a hint imprudently dropped by Nuttie herself in a letter
+to Blanche.  She had said more to Miss Nugent, but Mary was a
+nonconductor.  Mr. Dutton's heart sank as he looked at the houses,
+and he had some thoughts of going to her first for intelligence, but
+Annaple had spied him, and ran out to the gate to welcome him.
+
+'Oh, Mr. Dutton, I'm so glad!  Mark will be delighted.'
+
+'Is he at home?'
+
+'Oh no, at the office, wading through seas of papers with Mr.
+Greenleaf, but he will come home to eat in a quarter of an hour.  So
+come in;' then, as her boy's merry voice and a gruffer one were
+heard, 'That's the bailiff.  He is Willie's devoted slave.'
+
+'I hoped to have been in time to have saved you that.'
+
+'Well, I'm convinced that among the much maligned races are bailiffs.
+I wonder what I could get by an article on prejudice against classes!
+I was thinking how much beer I should have to lay in for this one,
+and behold he is a teetotaller, and besides that amateur nurse-maid,
+parlour-maid, kitchen-maid, etc. etc.--'
+
+'What bailiff could withstand Mrs. Egremont?  Perhaps you have tamed
+him?'
+
+'Not I.  The cook did that.  Indeed I believe there's a nice little
+idyll going on in the kitchen, and besides he wore the blue ribbon,
+and was already a devoted follower of young Mr. Godfrey!'
+
+'However, if the valuation is ready, I hope you may be relieved from
+him, if you won't be too much concerned at the parting!'
+
+'Mrs. Egremont told us that our people are very good to us,' said
+Annaple, 'and don't mean to send us out with nothing but a pack at
+our backs.  It is very kind in them and in you, Mr. Dutton, to take
+the trouble of it!  No, I'll not worry you with thanks.  The great
+point is, hope for something for Mark to do.  That will keep up his
+spirits best!  Poor Mr. Greenleaf is so melancholy that it is all I
+can do to keep him up to the mark.'
+
+'I have been making inquiries, and I have three possible openings,
+but I hardly like to lay them before you.'
+
+'Oh, we are not particular about gentility!  It is work we want, and
+if it was anything where I could help that would be all the better!
+I'm sure I only wonder there are so many as three.  I think it is
+somebody's doing.  Ah! there's Mark,' and she flew out to meet him.
+'Mark!' she said, on the little path, 'here's the good genius, with
+three chances in his pocket.  Keep him to luncheon.  I've got plenty.
+Poor old man, how hot you look!  Go and cool in the drawing-room,
+while I wash my son's face.'
+
+And she disappeared into the back regions, while Mark, the smile she
+had called up vanishing from his face, came into the drawing-room,
+and held out a cordial, thankful hand to his friend, whose chief
+intelligence was soon communicated.  'Yes,' said Mark, when he heard
+the amount entrusted by the family to Mr. Dutton, 'that will save all
+my wife's poor little household gods.  Not that I should call them
+so, for I am sure she does not worship them.  I don't know what would
+become of me if she were like poor Mrs. Greenleaf, who went into
+hysterics when the bailiff arrived, and has kept her room ever since.
+I sometimes feel as if nothing could hurt us while Annaple remains
+what she is.'
+
+Mr. Dutton did not wonder that he said so, when she came in leading
+her little son, with his sunny hair newly brushed and shining, and
+carrying a little bouquet for the guest of one La Marque rosebud and
+three lilies of the valley.
+
+'Take it to Mr. Dutton, Billy-boy; I think he knows how the flowers
+came into the garden.  You shall have daddy's button-hole to take to
+him next.  There, Mark, it is a pansy of most smiling countenance,
+such as should beam on you through your accounts.  I declare, there's
+that paragon of a Mr. Jones helping Bessy to bring in dinner!  Isn't
+it very kind to provide a man-servant for us?'
+
+It might be rattle, and it might be inconsequent, but it was much
+pleasanter than hysterics.  Billy-boy was small enough to require a
+good deal of attention at dinner, especially as he was more disposed
+to open big blue eyes at the stranger, than to make use of his spoon,
+and Annaple seemed chiefly engrossed with him, though a quick keen
+word at the right moment showed that she was aware of all that was
+going on, as Mark and Mr. Dutton discussed the present situation and
+future measures.
+
+It was quite true that a man concerned in a failure was in great
+danger of being left out of the race for employment, and Mr. Dutton
+did not think it needful to mention the force of the arguments he was
+using to back his recommendation of Mark Egremont.  The possibilities
+he had heard of were a clerkship at a shipping agent's, another at a
+warehouse in their own line, and a desk at an insurance office.  This
+sounded best, but had the smallest salary to begin with, and locality
+had to be taken into account.  Mr. Dutton's plan was, that as soon as
+Mark was no longer necessary for what Annaple was pleased to call the
+fall of the sere and withered leaf, the pair should come to stay with
+him, so that Mark could see his possible employers, and Annaple
+consider of the situations.  They accepted this gratefully, Mark only
+proposing that she should go either to his stepmother or her own
+relations to avoid the final crisis.
+
+'As if I would!' she exclaimed.  'What sort of a little recreant
+goose do you take me for?'
+
+'I take you for a gallant little woman, ready to stand in the
+breach,' said Mark.
+
+'Ah, don't flatter yourself!  There is a thing I have not got courage
+to face--without necessity, and that's Janet's triumphant pity.  Mr.
+Dutton lives rather too near your uncle, but he is a man, and he
+can't be so bad.'
+
+This of course did not pass till Mr. Dutton had gone in to greet the
+ladies next door, to promise to tell them of their child at length
+when the business hours of the day should be over.
+
+Shall it be told?  There was something in his tone--perfectly
+indefinable, with which he spoke of 'Miss Egremont,' that was like
+the old wistfully reverential voice in which he used to mention 'Mrs.
+Egremont.'  It smote Mary Nugent's quiet heart with a pang.  Was it
+that the alteration from the old kindly fatherliness of regard to
+'little Nuttie' revealed that any dim undefined hope of Mary's own
+must be extinguished for ever; or was it that she grieved that he
+should again be wasting his heart upon the impracticable?
+
+A little of both, perhaps, but Mary was as ready as ever to
+sympathise, and to rejoice in hearing that the impetuous child had
+grown into the forbearing dutiful woman.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+A FRESH START.
+
+
+
+
+'Did you say that Mark and his wife were come to Springfield House?'
+
+'They come the day after to-morrow,' answered Ursula.  'Mark could
+not finish up the business sooner.'
+
+'Well, I suppose we must have them to dinner for once.  He has made a
+fool of himself, but I won't have the Canoness complaining that I
+take no notice of him; and it is easier done while he is there than
+when he has got into some hole in the City--that is if he ever gets
+anything to do.'
+
+'Mr. Dutton has several situations in view for him.'
+
+'In view.  That's a large order.  Or does it mean living on Dutton
+and doing something nominal?  I should think Dutton too old and sharp
+a hand for that, though he is quartering them on himself.'
+
+'I believe there is nothing Mr. Dutton would like better, if he
+thought it right for them, but I am quite sure Mark and Annaple would
+not consent.'
+
+'Ha, ha!' and Mr. Egremont laughed.  'Their nose is not brought to
+the grindstone yet!  Say Saturday, then, Ursula.'
+
+'Am I to ask Mr. Dutton?'
+
+'Of course; I'm not going to have a tete-a-tete with Master Mark.'
+
+So Ursula had the satisfaction of writing a more agreeable note to
+Mr. Dutton than her last, and her invitation was accepted, but to her
+vexation Mr. Egremont further guarded himself from anything
+confidential by verbally asking Mr. Clarence Fane on that very day,
+and as that gentleman was a baronet's son, she knew she should fall
+to his lot at dinner, and though she was glad when this was the case
+at their ordinary parties, it was a misfortune on the present
+occasion.  She had not seen Annaple since her marriage, except at the
+family gathering on the Canon's death, when she was very much
+absorbed by the requirements of the stricken household; and Nuttie
+expected to see her in the same subdued condition.  All Mr. Dutton
+had said or Mary Nugent had written about her courage and
+cheerfulness had given the impression of 'patience smiling at grief,'
+and in a very compassionate mood she started for a forenoon call at
+Springfield House; but, early as it was, nobody was at home, unless
+it might be the little boy, whose voice she thought she heard while
+waiting at the gate.
+
+She was out driving with her father afterwards in the long summer
+evening, and only found Mark's card on returning just in time to
+dress.  It was a bright glaring day, and she was sitting by the
+window, rather inattentively listening to Mr. Fane's criticism of a
+new performance at one of the theatres, when she heard the bell, and
+there entered the slight, bright creature who might still have been
+taken for a mere girl.  The refined though pronounced features, the
+transparent complexion, crispy yellow hair and merry eyes, were as
+sunbeam-like as at the Rectory garden-party almost five years ago,
+and the black dress only marked the contrast, and made the
+slenderness of the figure more evident.
+
+Mark looked older, and wrung his cousin's hand with a pressure of
+gratitude and feeling, but Annaple's was a light little gay kiss, and
+there was an entire unconsciousness about her of the role of poor
+relation.  She made an easy little acknowledgment of the introduction
+of Mr. Fane, and, as Mr. Egremont appeared the next moment, exchanged
+greetings with him in a lively ordinary fashion.
+
+This was just what he liked.  He only wanted to forget what was
+unpleasant, and, giggling Scotch girl as she was, he was relieved to
+find that she could not only show well-bred interest in the surface
+matters of the time, but put in bright flashes of eagerness and
+originality, well seconded by Mr. Dutton.  Mr. Fane was always a
+professor of small talk, and Nuttie had learnt to use the current
+change of society, so that though Mark was somewhat silent, the
+dinner was exceedingly pleasant and lively; and, as Mr. Fane remarked
+afterwards, he had been asked to enliven a doleful feast to ruined
+kindred, he could only say he wished prosperity always made people so
+agreeable.
+
+'This is all high spirit and self-respect,' thought Nuttie.  'Annaple
+is talking as I am, from the teeth outwards.  I shall have it out
+with her when we go upstairs!  At any rate my father is pleased with
+her!'
+
+Nuttie made the signal to move as soon as she could, and as they went
+upstairs, put her arm round the slim waist and gave a sympathetic
+pressure, but the voice that addressed her had still the cheery ring
+that she fancied had been only assumed.
+
+'I'm sorry I missed you, but we set out early and made a day of it;
+and oh! we've been into such funny places as I never dreamt of!  You
+didn't see my boy?'
+
+'No.  I thought I heard him.  I must see him to-morrow.'
+
+'And I must see yours.  May it not be a pleasure to-night?  I've no
+doubt you go and gloat over him at night.'
+
+'Well, I do generally run up after dinner; but after your day, I
+can't think of dragging you up all these stairs.'
+
+'Oh, that's nothing!  Only you see it is jollier to have my Billy-boy
+in the next room.'
+
+They were mounting all the time, and were received in the day nursery
+by the old Rectory nurse, much increased in dignity, but inclined to
+be pathetic as she inquired after 'Mr. Mark,' while Annaple, like a
+little insensible being, answered with provoking complacency as to
+his perfect health, and begged Mrs. Poole to bring Master Alwyn to
+play in the garden at Springfield with her Willie.  In fact there was
+a general invitation already to Alwyn to play there, but his
+attendants so much preferred the society of their congeners in the
+parks that they did not avail themselves of it nearly as often as
+Ursula wished.
+
+Little Alwyn asleep was, of course, a beautiful sight, with a
+precious old headless rabbit pressed tight to his cheek; Annaple's
+face grew tender as she looked at the motherless creature; and she
+admired him to any extent except saying that he excelled her own.
+Being more than a year the elder, there could be no rivalry as to
+accomplishments; but as soon as they were out of the nursery hush,
+Annaple laughed her way down again with tales of Billy-boy's wonder
+at his first experiences of travelling.  They sat down among the
+plants in the balcony, as far from the lamps as possible, and talked
+themselves into intimacy over Micklethwayte.  There are two Eden
+homes in people's lives, one that of later childhood, the other the
+first of wedded happiness, and St. Ambrose Road had the same halo to
+both of these; for both had been uprooted from it against their will;
+the chief difference being that Ursula could cast longing, lingering
+looks behind, while Annaple held herself resolutely steeled against
+sentiment, and would only turn it off by something absurd.  Nothing
+was absolutely settled yet; Mark had been presenting himself at
+offices, and she had been seeing rooms and lodgings.
+
+'The insurance office sounds the best, and would be the least shock
+to our belongings,' said Annaple; 'but it seems to lead to nothing.
+He would not get on unless we had capital to invest, and even if we
+had any, you wouldn't catch us doing that again!'
+
+'Does Mr. Dutton advise that?'
+
+'No, he only thought we should like it better; but we are quite past
+caring for people's feelings in the matter.  They couldn't pity us
+worse than they do.  I incline to Stubbs and Co.  One of them was
+once in the Greenleaf office, and has a regard for anything from
+thence; besides Mark would have something to do besides desk work.
+He would have to judge of samples, and see to the taking in and
+storing of goods.  He does know something about that, and I'm sure it
+would agree with him better than an unmitigated high stool, with his
+nose to a desk.'
+
+'I should like it better.'
+
+'That's right!  Now I have got some one to say so.  Besides, rising
+is possible, if one gets very useful.  I mean to be Mrs. Alderman, if
+not my Lady Mayoress, before we have done.  Then they have a great
+big almost deserted set of rooms over the warehouse, where we might
+live and look after the place.'
+
+'Oh! but should you like that?'
+
+'Mr. Dutton wants us to live out in some of the suburban places,
+where it seems there is a perfect population of clerks' families in
+semi-detached houses.  He says we should save Mark's railway fare,
+rent, and all in doctors' bills.  But people, children and all, do
+live and thrive in the City; and I think Mark's health will be better
+looked after if I am there to give him his midday bite and sup, and
+brush him up, than if he is left to cater for himself; and as to
+exercise for the Billy-boy, 'tis not so far to the Thames Embankment.
+The only things that stagger me are the blacks!  I don't know whether
+life is long enough to be after the blacks all day long, but perhaps
+I shall get used to them!'
+
+'Well, I think that would be worse.'
+
+'Perhaps it would; and at any rate, if the blacks do beat me, we
+could move.  Think, no rent, nor rates, nor taxes--that is an
+inducement to swallow--no--to contend with, any number of
+blackamoors, isn't it? even if they settle on the tip of Billy-boy's
+nose.'
+
+'I could come to see you better there than out in a suburb,' said
+Nuttie.  'But what do these rooms look out upon?'
+
+'On one side into their own court, on the other into Wulstan Street--
+a quiet place on the whole--all walls and warehouses; and there's an
+excellent parish church, Mr. Underwood's; so I think we might do
+worse.'
+
+Nuttie was very sorry that the gentlemen came up, and Mr. Fane
+wandered out and began asking whether they were going to the rose
+show.  Somehow on that evening she became conscious that Annaple
+looked at her and Mr. Fane rather curiously; and when they met again
+the next day, and having grown intimate over the introduction of the
+two little boys, were driving out together, there were questions
+about whether she saw much of him.
+
+'Oh, I don't know!  He is the nicest, on the whole, of papa's
+friends; he can talk of something besides'--Nuttie paused over her
+'besides,'--'horseyness, and all that sort of thing--he is not so
+like an old satyr as some of them are; and so he is a resource.'
+
+'I see.  And you meet him elsewhere, don't you, in general society?'
+
+'I don't go out much now that Lady Kirkaldy is not in town; but he
+always seems to turn up everywhere that one goes.'
+
+'Ursula, I'm very glad of that tone of yours.  I was afraid--'
+
+'Afraid of what?' cried Nuttie in a defiant tone.
+
+'That you liked him, and he is not really nice, Nuttie.  Mark knows
+all about him; and so did I when I lived with the Delmars.'
+
+Nuttie laughed rather bitterly.  'Thank you, Annaple.  As if I could
+care for that man--or he for me, for that matter!  I know but too
+well,' she added gravely, 'that nobody nice is ever intimate at
+home.'
+
+'I beg your pardon.  I would not have worried you about it, only I
+think you must take care, Nuttie, for Blanche mentioned it to us last
+winter.'
+
+'Blanche is an arrant gossip!  If she saw a grandfather and great
+grandmother gossiping she would say they were going to be married.'
+
+'Yes, as Mark says, one always swallows Blanche with a
+qualification.'
+
+'You may be quite sure, Annaple, that nothing like that will ever be
+true about me!  Why, what would ever become of my poor little Wyn if
+I was so horrid as to want to go and marry?'
+
+She said it with an ineffable tone of contempt, just like the
+original Nuttie, who seemed to be recalled by association with
+Annaple.
+
+That sojourn of Mark and his wife at Springfield House was a bright
+spot in that summer.  If it had been only that Annaple's presence
+gave the free entree to such an island of old Micklethwayte, it would
+have been a great pleasure to her; but there was besides the
+happiness of confidence and unrestraint in their society, a restful
+enjoyment only to be appreciated by living the guarded life of
+constraint that was hers.  She was so seldom thrown among people whom
+she could admire and look up to.  Annaple told her husband of
+Nuttie's vehement repudiation of any intention of marriage.  'I am
+sure she meant it,' she observed, 'it was only a little too strong.
+I wonder if that poor youth who came to her first ball, and helped to
+pick us out of the hole in Bluepost Bridge, had anything to do with
+it.'
+
+Annaple had an opportunity of judging.  Mr. Dutton would not have
+brought about a meeting which might be painful and unsettling to
+both; but one afternoon, when Nuttie was 'off duty' with her father,
+and had come in to share Annaple's five o'clock tea, Gerard Godfrey,
+looking the curate from head to foot, made his appearance, having
+come up from the far east, about some call on Mr. Dutton's purse.
+
+The two shook hands with pleased surprise, and a little heightening
+of colour, but that was all.  Nuttie had been out to luncheon, and
+was dressed 'like a mere fashionable young lady' in his eyes; and
+when, after the classes and clubs and schools of his district had
+been discussed, he asked, 'And I suppose you are taking part in
+everything here?'
+
+'No, that I can't!'
+
+'Indeed!  I know Porlock, the second curate here very well, and he
+tells me that his vicar has a wonderful faculty of finding
+appropriate work for every one.  Of course you know him?'
+
+'No, I don't;' said Nuttie.
+
+'Miss Egremont has her appropriate work,' said Mr. Dutton, and the
+deacon felt himself pushed into his old position at Micklethwayte.
+He knew the clergy of the district very well, and how persistently
+either Mr. Egremont, or perhaps Gregorio, prevented their gaining
+admittance at his house; and he guessed, but did not know, that
+Nuttie could not have got into personal intercourse with them without
+flat disobedience.
+
+Annaple threw herself into the breach, and talked of St. Wulstan's;
+and the encounter ended, leaving the sense of having drifted entirely
+away from one another, and being perfectly heart whole, though on the
+one hand Ursula's feeling was of respect and honour; and Gerard's had
+a considerable element of pity and disapprobation.
+
+'No!' said Annaple when they were gone, 'he will not cry like the
+kloarek in the Breton ballad who wetted three great missals through
+with his tears at his first mass.  He is very good, I am sure, but he
+is a bit of a prig!'
+
+'It is very hard to youth to be good without priggishness,' said Mr.
+Dutton.  'Self-assertion is necessary, and it may easily be carried
+too far.'
+
+'Buttresses are useful, but they are not beauties,' rejoined Annaple.
+
+The warehouse arrangement was finally adopted, and after the three
+weeks necessary for the cleaning and fitting of their floor, and the
+bringing in of their furniture, Mark and Annaple began what she
+termed 'Life among the Blacks.'
+
+Nuttie had great designs of constantly seeing Annaple, sending her
+supplies from the gardens and preserves at Bridgefield, taking her
+out for drives, and cultivating a friendship between Alwyn and
+Willie, who had taken to each other very kindly on the whole.  They
+could not exactly understand each other's language, and had great
+fights from time to time over toys, for though there was a year
+between them they were nearly equal in strength; but they cared for
+each other's company more than for anything else, were always asking
+to go to one another, and roared when the time of parting came; at
+least Alwyn did so unreservedly, for Nuttie had begun to perceive
+with compunction that Billy-boy was much the most under control, and
+could try to be good at his mother's word, without other bribe than
+her kiss and smile.  Ah! but he had a mother!
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+NUTTIE'S PROSPECTS.
+
+
+
+
+'Three hundred pounds and possibilities.'
+                            Merry Wives of Windsor.
+
+
+Again Nuttie's plans were doomed to be frustrated.  It did not prove
+to be half so easy to befriend Mr. and Mrs. Mark Egremont as she
+expected, at the distance of half London apart, and with no special
+turn for being patronised on their side.
+
+Her father took a fancy for almost daily drives with her in the park,
+because then he could have Alwyn with him; and the little fellow's
+chatter had become his chief amusement.  Or if she had the carriage
+to herself, there was sure to be something needful to be done which
+made it impossible to go into the city to take up and set down Mrs.
+Mark Egremont; and to leave her to make her way home would be no
+kindness.  So Nuttie only accomplished a visit once before going out
+of town, and that was by her own exertions--by underground railway
+and cab.  Then she found all going prosperously; the blacks not half
+so obnoxious as had been expected (of course not, thought Nuttie, in
+the middle of the summer); the look-out over the yard very amusing to
+Billy-boy; and the large old-fashioned pannelled rooms, so cool and
+airy that Annaple was quite delighted with them, and contemned the
+idea of needing a holiday.  She had made them very pretty and
+pleasant with her Micklethwayte furniture, whose only fault was being
+on too small a scale for these larger spaces, but that had been
+remedied by piecing, and making what had been used for two serve for
+one.
+
+The kitchen was on the same floor, close at hand, which was well, for
+Annaple did a good deal there, having only one young maid for the
+rougher work.  She had taken lessons in the School of Cookery, and
+practised a good deal even at Micklethwayte, and she was proud of her
+skill and economy.  Mark came in for his mid-day refreshment, and
+looked greatly brightened, as if the worst had come and was by no
+means so bad as he expected.  All the time he had been at Mr.
+Dutton's he had been depressed and anxious, but now, with his boy on
+his knee, he was merrier than Nuttie had ever known him.  As to
+exercise, there were delightful evening walks, sometimes early
+marketings in the long summer mornings before business began--and
+altogether it seemed, as Nuttie told her father afterwards, as if she
+had had a glimpse into a little City Arcadia.
+
+'Hein!' said he, 'how long will it last?'
+
+And Nuttie was carried away to Cowes, where he had been persuaded to
+recur to his old favourite sport of yachting.  She would have rather
+liked this if Clarence Fane had not been there too, and continually
+haunting them.  She had been distrustful of him ever since Annaple's
+warning, and it became a continual worry to the motherless girl to
+decide whether his civil attentions really meant anything, or whether
+she were only foolish and ridiculous in not accepting them as freely
+and simply as before.
+
+Of one thing she became sure, namely, that Gregorio was doing
+whatever in him lay to bring them together.
+
+In this seaside temporary abode, great part of the London
+establishment was left behind, and Gregorio condescended to act the
+part of butler, with only a single man-servant under him, and thus he
+had much more opportunity of regulating the admission of visitors
+than at home; and he certainly often turned Mr. Fane in upon her,
+when she had intended that gentleman to be excluded, and contrived to
+turn a deaf or uncomprehending ear when she desired that there should
+be no admission of visitors unless her father was absolutely ready
+for them; and also there were times when he must have suggested an
+invitation to dinner, or a joining in a sail.  No doubt Gregorio
+would have been delighted to see her married, and to be thus free
+from any counter influence over his master; but as she said to
+herself, 'Catch me!  Even if I cared a rush for the man, I could not
+do it.  I don't do my poor father much good, but as to leaving poor
+little Alwyn in his clutches--I must be perfectly demented with love
+even to think of it.'
+
+There was a desire on the valet's part to coax and court little Alwyn
+of which she felt somewhat jealous.  The boy was naturally the pet of
+every one in the household, but he was much less out of Gregorio's
+reach in the present confined quarters, and she could not bear to see
+him lifted up in the valet's arms, allowed to play with his watch,
+held to look at distant sails on board the yacht, or even fed with
+sweet biscuits or chocolate creams.
+
+The Rectory nursery had gone on a strict regimen and nurse was as
+angry as Nuttie herself; but there was no preventing it, for his
+father was not above cupboard love, and never resisted the entreaties
+that were always excited by the sight of dainties, only laughing when
+Nuttie remonstrated, or even saying, 'Never mind sister, Wynnie,
+she's got Mrs. Teachem's cap on,' and making the child laugh by
+pretending to smuggle in papers of sweets by stealth, apart from the
+severe eyes of sister or nurse.
+
+That cut Nuttie to the heart.  To speak of the evils for which self-
+indulgence was a preparation would only make her father sneer at her
+for a second Hannah More.  It was a language he did not understand;
+and as to the physical unwholesomeness, he simply did not choose to
+believe it.  She almost wished Alwyn would for once be sick enough to
+frighten him, but that never happened, nor would he accept nurse's
+statement of the boy being out of order.
+
+Poor little Alwyn, he was less and less of an unmixed joy to her as
+he was growing out of the bounds of babyhood, and her notions of
+discipline were thwarted by her father's unbounded indulgence.  To
+her the child was a living soul, to be trained for a responsible
+position here and for the eternal world beyond; to her father he was
+a delightful plaything, never to be vexed, whose very tempers were
+amusing, especially when they teased the serious elder sister.
+
+'Oh father! do you ever think what it will come to?' Nuttie could not
+help saying one day when Mr. Egremont had prevented her from carrying
+him off in disgrace to the nursery for tying the rolls up in dinner
+napkins to enact Punch and Judy, in spite of his own endeavours to
+prevent the consequent desolation of the preparations.
+
+Mr. Egremont shrugged his shoulders, and only observed, 'An excuse
+for a little home tyranny, eh?  No, no, Wyn; we don't want tame
+little muffs here.'
+
+Nuttie was obliged to run out of the room and--it must be confessed--
+dance and stamp out her agony of indignation and misery that her
+father should be bent on ruining his child, for she could not
+understand that all this was simply the instinctive self-indulgence
+of a drugged brain and dulled conscience.
+
+She did, however, get a little support and help during a brief stay
+in the shooting season at Bridgefield.  The Canoness was visiting the
+Condamines at the Rectory, and very soon understood all the state of
+things, more perhaps from her former nurse than from Ursula.  She was
+witness to one of those trying scenes, when Nuttie had been
+forbidding the misuse of a beautiful elaborate book of nursery
+rhymes, where Alwyn thought proper to 'kill' with repeated stabs the
+old woman of the shoe, when preparing to beat her progeny.
+
+Just as she was getting the dagger paper-knife out of his little
+hand, and was diverting the pout on his swelling lip, his father
+became aware of the contest, and immediately the half conquered boy
+appealed to him.  'Sister naughty.  Won't let Wynnie kill cross ugly
+old woman, beating poor little children.'
+
+'A fellow feeling! eh, sister?  Kill her away, boy, tear her out!
+Yes, give her to sister, and tell her that's the way to serve sour
+females!  I declare, Ursula, she has got something of your
+expression.'
+
+'Oh Wynnie, Wynnie!' said Nuttie, as he trotted up to her, 'is sister
+cross and ugly?' and she opened her arms to him.
+
+'Sister, Wyn's own sister,' said the child affectionately, letting
+himself be kissed as he saw her grieved.  'She shan't be ugly old
+woman--ugly old woman go in fire.'
+
+So perilously near the flame did he run to burn the old woman that
+Mr. Egremont shouted to her that in spite of all that humbug, she was
+perfectly careless of the child, although if she had withheld him she
+would probably have been blamed for thwarting him.
+
+'Are you quite fair towards Ursula?' the aunt ventured to say when
+the girl had gone to dress for walking down with her to the Rectory.
+'It is hard on her, and not good for the boy to upset her authority.'
+
+'Eh?  Why, the girl is just a governess manquee, imbued with the
+spirit of all those old women who bred her up.  A nice life the poor
+child would have of it, but for me.'
+
+'I am sure she is devotedly attached to him.'
+
+'Hein!  So she thinks; but trust human nature for loving to wreak
+discipline on the child who has cut her out.'
+
+'That is scarcely just, Alwyn.  She was greatly relieved to be cut
+out.'
+
+Mr. Egremont laughed at this, and his sister-in-law indignantly added
+with all the authority of a successful parent, 'Anyway, nothing is so
+bad for a child as collision between the authorities in a family.
+Ursula is doing her best to act as a mother to that child, and it
+will be very injurious to him to interfere with her influences.'
+
+'She's a good girl enough--gives very little trouble,' he allowed,
+'but I'm not going to have the boy sat upon.'
+
+As he spoke the words, Nuttie returned, and as soon as she was out of
+the house and out of hearing she exclaimed, 'Oh, Aunt Jane, you see
+how it is!  How am I to prevent my boy from being utterly ruined?'
+
+'I have been speaking to your father,' said Mrs. Egremont, 'but he
+does not seem to understand.  Men don't.  A child's faults and
+fancies seem such trifles to them that they can't see the harm of
+indulging them, and, besides, they expect to be amused.'
+
+'And is that poor dear little fellow to grow up spoilt?' said Nuttie,
+her eyes hot with unshed tears.
+
+'I hope not, Ursula.  I have great confidence in your influence, for
+I see you are a sensible girl.'  This was astonishing praise from the
+Canoness.  'But you will throw away your chances if you keep up a
+continual opposition to what your father allows.  It will be much
+less hurtful if Alwyn does get too much indulgence, and does a little
+unnecessary mischief, than for him to learn to think you the enemy of
+his pleasures, always wanting to check and punish him.  Oh yes,' as
+Nuttie was going to answer, 'I know it is for his real good, but how
+is that baby to understand that?  Indeed, my dear, I know how it is;
+I have gone through the same sort of thing with Basil.'
+
+'Oh, it could never have been so bad!'
+
+'No, of course not; but I have had to allow what I did not like for
+the child rather than let him see the shadow of difference of opinion
+between us, and I don't think it has done him any harm.  The great
+point is that you should keep that poor little fellow's affection and
+respect, and make him unwilling to vex you.'
+
+'That he is, dear little man.  He is sorry when he sees sister
+grieved.  He is always distressed if anything is hurt or pained.  He
+is really tender-hearted.'
+
+'Yes, but boys are boys.  That feeling will fail you if you work it
+too hard, and especially if you show vexation at his pleasures.  Keep
+that for real evils, like falsehood or cruelty.'
+
+'Not for disobedience?'
+
+'The evil of disobedience depends much more upon the authority of an
+order than on the child itself.  If he disobeys you under his
+father's licence, you cannot make much of it.  You have him a good
+deal to yourself?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Then make use of that time to strengthen his principles and sense of
+right and wrong, as well as to secure his affections.  My dear, I
+never saw a girl in a more difficult position than yours, but I see
+you are doing your utmost; only I am afraid the love of sedatives is
+the same.'
+
+'Oh aunt, I did think he had given it up!'
+
+'You are inexperienced, my dear.  I see it in his eyes.  Well, I'm
+afraid there is no stopping that.'
+
+'Mother--' and Nuttie's voice was choked.
+
+'She did her best, but you have not the same opportunities.  It can't
+be helped with a man of that age.  Mark might have done something,
+but he is out of the question now, poor fellow!'
+
+'Indeed, Aunt Jane, I think Mark and Annaple are some of the happiest
+people I ever saw.  I only wish my poor Alwyn were as forward as
+their Billy, but I'm not even allowed to teach him his letters,
+because once he cried over them.'
+
+'I wish they had anything to fall back upon,' said Mrs. Egremont
+anxiously.  'They are so unwilling to let any one know of their
+difficulties that I feel as if I never knew in what straits they may
+be.  You will be sure to let me know, Ursula, if there is anything
+that I can do for them.'
+
+That conversation was a great comfort and help to Nuttie, who was
+pleased to find herself treated as a real friend by her aunt, and
+perceived the wisdom of her advice.  But the watching over the Mark
+Egremonts was a very difficult matter to accomplish, for when she
+went back to London she was warned that Billy had the whooping cough,
+rendering them unapproachable all the winter, so that she could only
+hear of them through Mr. Dutton, whom she continued to see
+occasionally whenever there was anything to communicate.  Mr.
+Egremont rather liked him, and on meeting him in the street, would
+ask him casually in to dinner, or to make up a rubber, or play
+piquet, for he excelled in these arts, and still more in chess, and
+an evening with Mr. Dutton was quite a red-letter time with Nuttie.
+It gave her an indefinable sense of safety and protection; but it was
+not always to be had, for her friend had many engagements, being one
+of the active lay church workers, and devoting two regular evenings
+in each week to Gerard Godfrey's eastern district, where he kept all
+the accounts, had a model court and evening class, besides hospitably
+resting tired clergymen and their wives in his pleasant quiet house.
+
+In the spring Mr. Egremont was laid up with the worst rheumatic
+attack he had yet had, in consequence of yielding to the imperious
+will of his son, who had insisted on standing in a bleak corner to
+see the Life Guards pass by.  On this occasion Nuttie did not prove
+herself the heaven-born nurse that the true heroine ought to be, but
+was extremely frightened, and altogether dependent on Gregorio, who
+knew all about the symptoms, and when to send for the doctor and a
+garde-malade.  Gregorio always talked French to Nuttie when he felt
+himself in the ascendant, as he certainly was at present; but he
+became much less gracious when he heard that Mrs. William Egremont
+might be expected, declaring that madame would only excite his
+master, and that her presence was quite unnecessary.  Her coming had
+been volunteered, but it was a great boon to Ursula, who was thus
+helped out in many perplexities, although Mrs. Egremont was a great
+deal at her step-son's, and neither lady was of much avail in the
+sick-room, during the stress of the illness.  It was never actually
+dangerous, but there was great suffering and much excitement, and for
+four or five days the distress and anxiety were considerable.  After
+this passed off Ursula was surprised to find her company preferred to
+that of her aunt.  She was a better souffre-douleur, was less of a
+restraint, and was besides his regular reader and amanuensis, so that
+as the force of the attack abated, he kept her a good deal in his
+room during the latter part of the day, imparting scraps of
+intelligence, skimming the papers for him, and reading his letters.
+
+There was a lease to be signed, and, as soon as might be, Mr.
+Bulfinch, the Redcastle solicitor, brought it up, and had to be
+entertained at luncheon.  While he was waiting in the drawing-room
+for Mr. Egremont to be made ready for him, he looked with deep
+interest on the little heir, whom Ursula presently led off to the
+other end of the room to the hoard of downstair toys; and an
+elaborate camp was under construction, when by the fireside, the
+Canoness inquired in a low confidential tone, 'May I ask whether you
+came about a will?'
+
+'No, Mrs. Egremont.  I wish I were.  It is only about the lease of
+Spinneycotes farm.'
+
+'Then there is none?'
+
+'None that I am aware of.  None has ever been drawn up by us.
+Indeed, I was wishing that some influence could be brought to bear
+which might show the expedience of making some arrangement.  Any
+melancholy event is, I trust, far distant, but contingencies should
+be provided for.'
+
+'Exactly so.  He is recovering now, but these attacks always leave
+effects on the heart, and at his age, with his habits, no one knows
+what may happen.  Of course it would not make much difference to the
+boy.'
+
+'No, the Court of Chancery would appoint the most suitable natural
+guardians.'
+
+'But,' said Mrs. Egremont, 'I am afraid that the personal property
+when divided would not be much of a provision for her.'
+
+'You are right.  The investments are unfortunately and
+disproportionately small.'
+
+'She ought either to have them all, or there should be a charge on
+the estate,' said the Canoness decisively.  'If possible, he must be
+made to move.'
+
+'Oh, don't!' cried Nuttie, jumping up from the floor.  'He mustn't be
+upset on any account.'
+
+'My dear, I had no notion that you heard us!' exclaimed her aunt.  'I
+thought Alwyn was making too much noise with his soldiers.'
+
+'I beg your pardon,' said Nuttie, 'perhaps I should have spoken
+sooner, but indeed he must not be worried and disturbed,' she added,
+somewhat fiercely.
+
+'Don't be afraid, my dear,' said her aunt.  'Mr. Bulfinch knows that
+your father is in no condition to have such matters brought before
+him.'
+
+'Certainly,' said the old lawyer politely;' and we will trust that
+Miss Egremont's prospects may soon come forward on a more auspicious
+occasion.'
+
+Nuttie could have beaten him, but she was obliged to content herself
+with such a sweeping charge of her Zulus among Alwyn's Englishmen,
+that their general shrieked out in indignation against such a
+variation of the accustomed programme of all their games.
+
+Nuttie thought she had defended her patient sufficiently, but she
+found she had been mistaken, for when her aunt had left them, some
+days later, her father began, 'We are well quit of her.  Those
+troublesome dictatorial women always get worse when they are left
+widows--taking upon them to say what their dear husbands would have
+said, forsooth.'
+
+'Aunt Jane was very kind to me,' said Ursula, not in the least
+knowing what he was thinking of.
+
+'To you.  Ay, I should think so, taking upon her to lecture me about
+securing a provision for you.'
+
+'Oh!  I hoped--'
+
+'What?' he broke in.  'You knew of it!  You set her on, I suppose.'
+
+'Oh! no, no, father.  She and Mr. Bulfinch began about it, not
+meaning me to hear--about a will, I mean--and I told them I wasn't
+going to have you worried, and I thought I had stopped it
+altogether.'
+
+'Stop a woman bent on her duty?  Hein!  But you are a good girl, and
+shall come to no loss when we have to make your marriage settlement.'
+
+'You won't have to do that, father!'
+
+'Hein!  What do you keep that poor fellow Clarence Fane dangling in
+attendance on you for? '
+
+'I don't!  I'm sure I don't want him.  I would do anything to keep
+him at a distance!'
+
+'How now!  I thought your Grace condescended to him more than to any
+one else.'
+
+'I don't dislike him unless he has _that_ in his head; but as to
+marrying him!  Oh--h--h,' such a note of horror that elicited a
+little laugh.
+
+'So hot against him, are we?  Who is it then?  Not the umbrella
+fellow?'
+
+'Father! how can you?' she cried, with a burning flush of
+indignation.  He--why--he!  He has always been a sort of uncle, ever
+since I was a little girl.'
+
+'Oh yes, adopted uncles are very devout when young ladies rush out to
+morning prayers at unearthly hours--'
+
+'Father!' with her voice trembling, 'I assure you he doesn't--I mean
+he always goes to St. Michael's, unless he has anything particular to
+say to me.'
+
+'Oh yes, I understand,' and Mr. Egremont indulged in a hearty laugh,
+which almost drove poor Nuttie beside herself.
+
+'Indeed--indeed,' she stammered, in her confusion and suppressed
+wrath; 'it is nothing of that sort.  He is a regular old bachelor--he
+always was.'
+
+'At what age do men become old bachelors?  For he seems to me about
+the age of poor Clarry, whom you seem to view as a bugbear.'
+
+'I wish you would not think of such things, father; I have not the
+slightest intention of leaving you and dear little Wynnie!  Nothing
+should tempt me!'
+
+'Nothing?  Hein!  Then you may as well be on your guard, Miss
+Egremont, or we shall have pleadings that you have encouraged them--
+church and world--or both, maybe.  You pious folk take your little
+diversions and flirtations just like your poor sisters whom you shake
+your heads at, never guessing how Gregorio and I have looked out at
+you and your adopted uncle parading the street.'
+
+'I wish Gregorio would mind his own business, and not put such things
+in your head!' burst out Nuttie.
+
+At which Mr. Egremont laughed longer and louder than ever.
+
+Poor Nuttie!  It was terrible discomfiture, not only for the moment,
+but a notion had been planted in her mind that seemed cruel, almost
+profane, and yet which would not be dismissed, and made her heart
+leap with strange bounds at the wild thought, 'Could it be true?'
+then sink again with shame at her own presumptuous folly in
+entertaining such a thought for a moment.
+
+Yet whenever she actually encountered Mr. Dutton her habitual comfort
+and reliance on him revived, and dispelled all the embarrassment
+which at other times she expected to feel in his presence.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+SPES NON FRACTA.
+
+
+
+
+Summer had quite set in before Mr. Egremont was able to go out for a
+drive, and then he was ordered to Buxton.
+
+Nuttie only once saw her cousins before leaving town, for their
+little boy fulfilled the nursery superstition by whooping till May;
+and all intercourse was prohibited, till he had ceased for a whole
+week to utter a suspicious sound.  Mr. Dutton had insisted on the
+family spending a fortnight at Springfield House for change of air,
+and it was there that Nuttie was permitted to see them, though the
+children were still forbidden to meet.
+
+Annaple looked very thin, but rattled as merrily as ever.  'No one
+could guess,' she said, 'what a delight it was not to know what one
+was to have for dinner?'
+
+'To do more than know, I am afraid,' said Ursula.
+
+'Well, next to the delight of knowing nothing at all about it--and
+even that is only good for a holiday--is the delight of seeing a
+pudding come out smooth and comfortable and unbroken from its basin.
+"Something attempted, something done," you know.  It is quite as good
+a work of art as a water-coloured drawing.'
+
+'Only not quite so permanent.'
+
+'No; it is only one's first pudding that one wants to embalm in a
+glass case for being so good as not to leave its better part behind
+in the basin, or to collapse as soon as it is in the dish.'
+
+'Which my puddings always did in the happy days of old, but then I
+was always hunted ignominiously out of the kitchen and told I wasted
+good food,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Yes, and waste is fearful when Mark and Billy have to eat it all the
+same, like the poor cows with spoilt hay.  I wonder whether your old
+experiences recall the joy of finding trustworthy eggs within your
+price.'
+
+'Ah, I was not housekeeper.  I only remember being in disgrace for
+grumbling when there was no pudding, because the hens would not lay.'
+
+'Though I heard a woman declaring the other day that there ought to
+be a machine for them.  Oh, the scenes that I encounter when I am
+marketing!  If I only could describe them for Punch!  I walked home
+once with our porter's wife, carrying two most brilliant sticks of
+rhubarb, all carmine stalk and gamboge leaf, and expressing a very
+natural opinion that the rhubarb tree must be very showy to look at,
+and curious to know in what kind of fruit the medicine grew.'
+
+'Oh, Annaple! do you go yourself in that way?'
+
+'Mark used to go with me, but, poor old fellow, he has ruinous ideas
+about prices and quantities, and besides, now he is so hard worked-up
+and down all day--he wants a little more of his bed in the morning.'
+
+'And what do you want?'
+
+'I never was a sleepy creature, and I get back in time to dress the
+boy.  I generally find him at high-jinks on his father's bed.  It
+uses up a little superfluous energy before the dressing.'
+
+'But surely you have a servant now?'
+
+'I've come to the conclusion that a workman's wife charing is a
+better institution.  No. 1, a pet of Miss Nugent's, was a nice
+creature, but the London air did for her at once.  No. 2, also from
+Micklethwayte, instantly set up a young man, highly respectable, and
+ready to marry on the spot, as they did, though their united ages
+don't amount to thirty-nine.  No. 3 was a Cockney, and couldn't stay
+because the look-out was so dull; and No. 4 gossiped with her kind
+when I thought her safe in the Temple Gardens with Billy, whereby he
+caught the whooping-cough, and as she also took the liberty of
+wearing my fur cloak, and was not particular as to accuracy, we
+parted on short notice; and I got this woman to come in every day to
+scrub, help make the bed, etc.  It is much less trouble, and the only
+fault I have to find with her is an absolute incapability of
+discerning blacks.  I believe she thinks I have a monomania against
+them.'
+
+Still Annaple insisted that she did not work half so hard as her
+nieces, Muriel and Janet, in their London season, and that her
+economy was not nearly so trying and difficult as that which Lady
+Delmar had been practising for years in order to afford them a summer
+there; nor was her anxiety to make both ends meet by any means equal
+to her sister's in keeping up appearances, and avoiding detrimentals.
+The two sisters met occasionally, but Lady Delmar was so
+compassionate and patronising that Annaple's spirit recoiled in off-
+hand levity and rattle, and neither regretted the occupation that
+prevented them from seeing much of one another.
+
+
+A year passed by, chiefly spent by Mr. Egremont in the pursuit of
+comparative health, at Buxton, Bagneres, and Biarritz, during which
+his daughter could do little but attend to him and to little Alwyn.
+The boy had been enough left to her and nurse during his father's
+acute illness to have become more amenable.  He was an affectionate
+child, inheriting, with his mother's face, her sweetness and docility
+of nature, and he was old enough to be a good deal impressed with the
+fact that he had made poor papa so ill by teasing him to stand in the
+cold.  Mr. Egremont was not at rest without a sight of the child
+every day, if only for a moment, and the helplessness and suffering
+had awed the little fellow a good deal.  It was touching to see him
+pause when galloping about the house when he went past the sick-room,
+and hush his merry voice of his own accord.
+
+And in the journeys, when his father's invalided state would have
+made a fractious or wilful child a serious inconvenience, his good
+temper and contentment were invaluable.  He would sit for hours on
+his sister's lap, listening to whispered oft-told tales, or playing
+at impromptu quiet games; he could go to sleep anywhere, and the
+wonderful discoveries he made at each new place were the amusement of
+all his auditors.  Sister was always his playfellow and companion
+whenever she could be spared from her father, and she had an ever-
+increasing influence over him which she did her best to raise into
+principle.
+
+Perhaps she never had a happier moment than when she heard how he had
+put his hands behind him and steadily refused when Gregorio had
+offered to regale him at a stall of bonbons forming only a thin crust
+to liqueurs, which unfortunately he had already been taught to like.
+
+'But I told him sister said I mustn't have them,' said Alwyn.  'And
+then he made a face and said something in French about you.  I know
+'twas you, for he said "soeur."  What was it?'
+
+'Never mind, Wynnie dear. We had much better never know.  You were
+sister's own dear steadfast boy, and you shall kiss mother's
+picture.'
+
+Nuttie had a beautiful coloured photograph of her mother, finished
+like a miniature, which had been taken at Nice, in the time of Alice
+Egremont's most complete and matured beauty.  She had taught Alwyn to
+kiss and greet it every evening before his prayers, and such a kiss
+was his reward when he had shown any special act of goodness, for
+which, as she told him, 'mother would have been pleased with her
+little son.'
+
+Such another boon was his one Sunday evening at Biarritz, when she
+found that while she was shut up at dinner with her father he had
+voluntarily gone to church with nurse instead of playing on the beach
+with some other English children.  'It was all very long and
+tiresome,' he said, when asked if he liked it.
+
+'Then why did you go, old man?  There was no need to drag you there,'
+said his father.
+
+'She didn't drag me,' said the boy; 'I walked.'
+
+'You need not have walked then, Master Dignity.'
+
+'Poor nursie couldn't go without me,' said Alwyn, 'and sister says
+there's a blessing on those that go.'
+
+'A blessing? eh! and what idea does that little head entertain of a
+blessing?' said Mr. Egremont.
+
+Alwyn lifted his soft brown eyes reverently and said, 'It is
+something good,' speaking, as he always did, in a baby lisp
+inimitable here.
+
+'Well?'
+
+'And it comes from God.'
+
+'Well, what is it?  Can you see it?'
+
+'No'--he looked in perplexity towards Nuttie, who was in agony all
+the time, lest there should be a scoff that might remain in the
+child's mind.
+
+'Never mind sister.  Can you feel it?'
+
+'Yes;' and the little face lighted with such a reality that the
+incipient mockery turned into wonder on the next question.
+
+'And how does it feel?'
+
+'Oh, so nice!  It makes Wynnie glad here,' and he spread his hands
+over his breast; and gave a little caper like a kid for very
+gladness.
+
+'There!' said Mr. Egremont, leaning back fairly conquered.  'Any one
+might envy Wynnie!  Goodnight, my boy, blessing and all.  I wonder if
+one felt like that when one was a little shaver,' he pursued, as
+Alwyn went off to his bed.
+
+'I think I did sometimes,' said Nuttie, 'but I never was half as good
+as Wynnie!'
+
+'What?' exclaimed her father.  'You! bred up among the saints.'
+
+'Ah! but I hadn't the same nature.  I never was like--_her_.'
+
+'Well--'tis very pretty now, and I don't know how we could stand a
+young Turk, but you mustn't make a girl of him.'
+
+'There's no fear of that,' said Nuttie.  'He is full of spirit.  That
+old bathing woman calls him "un vrai petit diable d'Anglais," he is
+so venturous.'
+
+Which delighted Mr. Egremont as much as the concession that the boy's
+faith was 'pretty' delighted Ursula.  Indeed, he went a little
+further, for when she came back from her few minutes at Alwyn's
+bedside he proceeded to tell her of the absolute neglect in which his
+mother, a belle of the Almacks days, had left her nursery.  It was
+the first time he had ever hinted at a shadow of perception that
+anything in his own life had been amiss, and Ursula could not but
+feel a dreamy, hopeful wonder whether her sweet little Alwyn could be
+the destined means of doing that in which her mother had failed.  It
+was at least enough to quicken those prayers which had been more
+dutiful than trustful.
+
+And then her hope sank again when she realised that her father's days
+were spent between the lull of opiate, followed by a certain
+serenity, then in a period of irritability, each being more or less
+prolonged, according to health, weather, or entertainment, and closed
+again by the sedatives in various forms.  It relieved her indeed, but
+she felt it a wickedness to be glad of the calm, and she was aware
+that the habit was making inroads on her father's powers.  Between
+that and his defect of eyesight, he was often much confused,
+especially about money matters, and was more and more dependent.
+
+Would that it had been only upon her, but she was constantly certain
+that Gregorio was taking advantage of his master's helplessness, and
+keeping it up by all means in his power.  Yet what could be done?
+For the valet was absolutely necessary to his comfort, and yet she
+sometimes thought her father half in dread of him, and afraid to
+expostulate about personal neglects, which became more frequent.
+Things, that would have enraged him from others, were only grumbled
+and fretted over, when Gregorio caused him real inconvenience by
+absence or forgetfulness, and made very insufficient apology.  It
+seemed like a bondage; Nuttie thought of her mother's efforts, and
+blamed herself in vain.
+
+It was during this journey that she heard of good Miss Headworth's
+death.  The old lady's mind had long failed, and the actual present
+loss to Nuttie was not great; but it seemed to close a long account
+of gratitude such as she had not thoroughly felt or understood
+before; and the link with Micklethwayte was severed.
+
+For Mark and Annaple prevailed on Mrs. Egremont to install Miss
+Nugent as governess to Rosalind and Adela.  In that capacity Nuttie
+hoped to see a good deal of her; but of course was again
+disappointed, for her father would not hear of returning to
+Bridgefield.  It was draughty, and dull, and desolate, and nothing
+suited him but London.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+BLACKS IN THE ASCENDANT.
+
+
+
+
+'Man's work ends with set of sun,
+ Woman's work is never done.'--Proverb.
+
+
+It was far on in May when Ursula found herself again in the sitting-
+room over the warehouse.  Somehow it had not the dainty well-cared-
+for air of erst.  The pretty table ornaments were out of sight; the
+glass over the clock was dim, the hands had stopped; some of
+Annaple's foes, the blacks, had effected a lodgment on the Parian
+figures; the chintzes showed wear and wash, almost grime; the
+carpet's pattern was worn; a basket full of socks was on the sofa;
+and on the table a dress, once belonging to Annaple's trousseau, was
+laid out, converted into its component parts.  The wails of a baby
+could be heard in the distance, and the first person to appear was
+Master William, sturdy and happy in spite of wofully darned knees to
+his stockings.
+
+'Mother's coming, if baby will stop crying,' he said, 'and lie in her
+cradle.'
+
+'Your little sister!  What's her name?'
+
+'Jane Christian,' said the boy, with a much more distinct enunciation
+than Alwyn, though a year older, had yet acquired.  'She does cry so!
+She won't let mother make my new knickies out of her blue gown!'
+
+Thoughts of the suits that Alwyn was discarding came across Nuttie.
+Could they be offered without offence?  She asked, however, 'Do you
+remember Alwyn--my Wynnie?'
+
+'Wynnie gave me my horse,' cried the boy, unstabling a steed which
+had seen hard service since the presentation.  'Where's Wynnie?'
+
+'He is at home.  You must come and see him,' said Nuttie, who had not
+been allowed to bring him till secure of a clean bill of health.
+'But see, just outside the door, there's something for Billy.'
+
+She had made her servant bring up the parcels to the passage outside,
+and Billy was soon hugging a magnificent box of soldiers, wherewith
+he pranced off to show them to his mother, leaving the doors open, so
+that Ursula could more decidedly hear the baby's voice, not a healthy
+child's lusty cry, but a poor little feeble wail, interspersed with
+attempts at consolation.  'Come, won't she go to Emily?  Oh, Billy-
+boy, how splendid!  I hope you thanked Cousin Ursula.  Baby Jenny,
+now can't you let any one speak but yourself?  Oh! shall I never
+teach you that "Balow, my babe," is not "bellow, my babe."  That's
+better!  Now can't you let Emily have you, while I go to Cousin
+Nuttie?'
+
+'Let me come!  Mayn't I?' exclaimed Ursula, invading the room that
+served as kitchen, where Annaple was trying to hush off the child and
+make her over to a little twelve years old maid, who stood in
+waiting, helping Willie meantime to unpack his soldiers, with
+smothered exclamations of delight.
+
+'Oh, Nuttie, how good of you!  Please to excuse the accompaniment.
+There never was such a young lady for self-assertion to make up for
+there being so little of her.'
+
+And Annaple, very thin and tired looking, held up the child,
+fearfully small and pinched for four months old, to be kissed by
+Nuttie.
+
+'Does she always go on like this?'
+
+''Cept when she is asleep,' said Willie.
+
+'Poor wee lassie,' said Annaple; 'there's great excuse for her, for
+the food has not yet been invented that suits her ladyship.'
+
+'You must come and consult nurse.'
+
+'And how are you all?  I'm glad you are at hand, Nuttie!  Is Mr.
+Egremont better?'
+
+'As well as ever he is--lame and altogether an invalid,--but he has
+not had such bad attacks of pain lately.'
+
+'And his eyes?'
+
+'About the same.  He can write, and tell one card from another, but
+he can't read--or rather it hurts him to do so, and he can't bear a
+strong light.  But, Annaple, how are you?  That child is wearing you
+to a shadow.'
+
+'Oh! I'm quite well--perfectly.  There, I think she is gone off at
+last.  You had better walk her about a little, Emily; she will break
+out again if we try to put her in the cradle.'
+
+And having handed over the child with only a very low murmur, Annaple
+left her combined kitchen and nursery.  She flew at the flowers
+Nuttie had brought like a thirsty person, crying, as she buried her
+face in them, 'Now for beauty!  Now Mark will be refreshed!  Ah!
+here's a pretty pickle for a reception room.'
+
+'Oh, don't put it away!  I could help you; I do so like that kind of
+work.  It is so like old times.'
+
+'It must be put away, thank you, for Mark will be coming in.  And the
+saying about the public washing of garments is specially true of
+one's own husband.  Ways and means are worrying to the masculine
+mind.'
+
+'I thought it was too early for Mark?'
+
+'He has an appointment to keep at Charing Cross or thereabouts, so I
+made him promise to come in in time to "put a bit in his head," as
+our Irish charwoman says.'
+
+'Then I can take him.  I have the carriage, and I must be at home by
+half-past twelve.  I wish you would come too, Annaple.  There's
+plenty of room.  You could show the baby to nurse, and the boys could
+have a good game.  I would send you back in the evening.  Mark could
+come on after his business is done.'
+
+'Thank you, Nuttie, I can't to-day--for a whole heap of domestic
+reasons; but, if you can get Mark to come, do, it would be so good
+for him.'
+
+'How is Mark?'
+
+'He is well, quite well,' said Annaple; 'and so good and patient.
+But you see, it does take it out of a man when that doleful little
+noise won't stop all night!  We are both acquiring a form of
+somnambulism, but when there's real out-of-door business to be done,
+it is not like proper sleep.'
+
+'Or when there's woman's indoor business, I am afraid,' said Nuttie,
+much concerned at the extreme thinness of Annaple's face and hands,
+and the weary look of her large eyes.
+
+'Oh, one makes that up at odd times!' she answered brightly.  'One
+thing is, this work suits Mark, he feels that he can do it, and he
+gets on well with the men.  They asked him to join in their club, and
+he was so much pleased.  He gets up subjects for them, and I am so
+glad he has such a pleasure and interest to keep him from missing the
+society he was used to.'
+
+'It must be very good for them too.  Mr. Dutton said he really
+thought Mark had kept them from going in for a strike.'
+
+'Besides the glory of the thing,' said Annaple drawing herself up,
+'Mr. Dobbs thought so too, and raised us ten pounds; which made us
+able to import that little Bridgefield lassie to hold baby--when--
+when Miss Jenny will let her.  He has some law copying to do besides,
+but I don't like that; it burns the candle at both ends, and he does
+get bad headaches sometimes, and goes on all the same.'
+
+'You must both come and see my Wyn.'
+
+'Ah! I had never asked after him.  I suppose he is as pretty as
+ever,' said Annaple, who secretly thought his beauty too girlish
+compared with her sturdy Billy.
+
+'Prettier, I think, as he gets more expression.  We can't persuade
+ourselves to cut his hair, and it looks so lovely on his sailor suit.
+And he is so good.  I could not have believed a child could be so
+quiet and considerate on a journey.  You should have seen him
+standing by my father's knee in the railway carriage, and amusing him
+with all that was to be seen, and stopping at the least hint that he
+was chattering too much.'
+
+'Billy is wonderfully helpful.  Ah--' and Annaple's eyes lighted up
+as the step that had music in't came up the stair; and as Mark came
+in, Nuttie thought him grown older, his hair thinner, his shoulders
+rounded, and his office coat shabby, but she saw something in his
+countenance there had never been before.  Ever since she had known
+him he had worn a certain air of depression, or perhaps more truly of
+failure and perplexity, which kept before her conscious mind the
+Desdichado on Ivanhoe's shield, even when he was a gentleman at ease
+at the luxurious Rectory; but there was now not only the settled air
+of a man who had found his vocation, but something of the self-
+respect and eagerness of one who was doing it well, and feeling
+himself valued.
+
+'Is baby--' he began.  'Oh, Nuttie!  Are you there?  Mr. Dutton told
+me you were coming.  How is my uncle?'  And the voice was much
+brisker than in the days of lawn-tennis.
+
+'Father, father, look!' cried the boy.
+
+'Why, Billy-boy, you are set up!  Zouaves and chasseurs!  I see where
+they came from.'
+
+During the mixture of greetings and inquiries, admiration of the
+flowers, and the exhibition of Billy's treasures, Annaple glided
+away, and presently placed before him a tray, daintily benapkinned
+and set forth with a little cup of soup.
+
+'Baby is really asleep, and Emily as proud as a Hielandman,' she
+said.  'Now eat this, without more ado, for that good Nuttie is going
+to set you down at Charing Cross.'
+
+'This is the way we spoil our husbands, Nuttie,' said Mark.
+'Refections served up at every turn.'
+
+'Only bones!  The immortal pot au feu,' said Annaple.  'And you are
+to go on after you have interviewed your man of steel, and have tea
+with Nuttie, and pay your respects to your uncle, like a dutiful
+nephew.'
+
+'No, that I can't, Nannie; I promised Dobbs to go and see a man for
+him, and I must come back as soon as I can after that.'
+
+He looked--as to figure and air--much more like his old self when he
+had changed his coat.  They fed him, almost against his will, with a
+few of the forced strawberries Nuttie had brought.  Billy pressed on
+him wonders from a Paris bonbon box, and Annaple fastened a rose and
+a pink in his button-hole, and came down to the street door with her
+boy to see him off.
+
+'What do you think of her?' was Mark's first inquiry.
+
+'Think!  As Mr. Dutton said long ago, never was braver lady!'
+
+'Never was there a truer word!  I meant as to her health?  As to
+courage, spirits, and temper, there is no question; I never saw them
+fail; but are they not almost too much for the frame?' he asked
+anxiously.
+
+It echoed Nuttie's fear, but she tried to frame a cheerful answer.
+'She is very thin, but she seems well.'
+
+'She never complains, but I am sure her strength is not what it was.
+She cannot walk out as she did at first.  Indeed, she gets no real
+rest day nor night, and there's no relieving her!'
+
+'She says you don't get much rest either.'
+
+'More than my share,' said Mark.  'The poor little thing never sleeps
+except in someone's arms, and if awake, is not content for a moment
+except in her mother's.'
+
+'And that has been going on four months?'
+
+'Three.  Ever since we brought her back from Redcastle.  I have
+nearly determined to move into some suburb when I get a rise at
+Michaelmas, unless she improves.'
+
+'Nurse might suggest something.'
+
+'Or at any rate tell us what to think.  We showed her to a doctor,
+and all he could propose was some kind of food, which was no more
+successful than the rest.  Did you look at her, Nuttie?  She is a
+pretty little thing when she is quiet, but she dwindles away--at
+least so it seems to me, though Annaple will not see it, and--and if
+we are not permitted to keep the little one, I dread what the effect
+may be on her.'
+
+Nuttie said something about bravery and goodness, thinking in her
+heart that, if the blow fell, it would be better for all than the
+perpetual suffering of the poor little sickly being.
+
+'Ah! you don't know what her affections are,' said Mark.  'You did
+not see her when she lost her mother, and there had been no strain on
+her powers then.  However, I've no business to croak.  Many a child
+gets over troubles of this kind, and, as Annaple says, little Jenny
+will be all the more to us for what we go through with her.'
+
+The carriage stopped, and Nuttie asked him if it would delay him too
+long if she executed a commission about her father's glasses.  He had
+plenty of time, but she was delayed longer than she expected, and on
+her return was surprised to find that he had dropped asleep.
+
+'Ah! that's what comes of a moment's quiet;' he said, smiling.
+
+'Fine quiet in the roar of Ludgate Hill!'
+
+'To a Cockney 'tis as the mill to the miller!  I like the full stir
+and tide,' he added, looking out upon it.  'I never knew what life
+was before!'
+
+'I should have thought you never knew what hardness and hard work
+were.'
+
+'That's just it,' he answered, smiling.  'The swing of it is
+exhilaration--very different from being a cumberer of the ground.'
+
+'Oh, Mark, all the privations and anxiety!'
+
+'The privation! that's nothing.  Indeed I am afraid--yes, I am
+ashamed to say--it falls more on my dear wife than myself, but if we
+can only wear through a year or two we shall get a further rise, and
+my poor Annaple may get out of this drudgery.  Please God, she and
+the little one can stand it for a time, and I think she has a spring
+within her that will;' then, as he saw tears in his cousin's eyes, he
+added, 'Don't be unhappy about it, Nuttie; I have had it in my mind
+ever so long to tell you that the finding you at Micklethwayte was
+the best thing that ever happened to me!'
+
+Yes, so far as character went, Ursula could believe that it had been
+so.  He was twice the man he would have been without the incentive to
+work, and the constant exercise of patience and cheerfulness; but her
+heart was heavy with apprehension that the weight of the trial might
+be too heavy.  To her eyes the baby's life seemed extremely doubtful,
+and Annaple looked so fragile that the increase of her burthens, any
+saddening of the heart, might destroy her elasticity, and crush her
+outright; while even Mark seemed to her to be toiling so close within
+the limits of his powers that a straw might break the camel's back!
+
+She longed to talk to Mr. Dutton about them, but she found herself
+doomed to a day that perhaps Annaple would have thought more trying
+than her harrowed life.  She was a little later than she had
+intended, and her father had been waiting impatiently to have a note
+read to him, so he growled at her impatience to run after 'that
+Scotch girl.'  And the note happened to be of an irritating nature;
+moreover, the cutlets at luncheon were said to be akin to
+indiarubber, and there was the wrong flavour in the sauce.  Ursula
+let that cook do what she pleased without remonstrance.
+
+Even Alwyn did not afford as much satisfaction as usual, for the boy
+was in high spirits and wanted to blow a little trumpet, which was
+more than his father could stand.  He was very good when this was
+silenced, but he then began to rush round the room daring his sister
+to catch the wild colt as he went by.  This had likewise to be
+stopped, with the murmur that Ursula spoilt the child.
+
+She tried to compose matters by turning out the old toys in the
+ottoman, but Alwyn had outgrown most of them, and did not care for
+any except a certain wooden donkey, minus one ear and a leg, which
+went by the name of Sambo, and had absorbed a good deal of his
+affection.  He had with difficulty been consoled for Sambo being left
+behind, and now turned over everything with considerable clatter in
+search of him.  Alas!  Sambo could nowhere be found in the room, and
+Alwyn dashed off to inquire of all the household after him.  His
+father meanwhile growled at the child's noise, and went on trying the
+glasses Nuttie had brought, and pronouncing each pair in turn
+useless, vowing that it was no use to send her anywhere.
+
+Upon this, back came Alwyn, terribly distressed and indignant, for he
+had extracted from the housemaid left in charge, who was as cross as
+she was trustworthy, 'What! that old broken thing, Master Egremont?
+I threw it on the fire!  I'd never have thought a young gentleman of
+your age would have cared for such rubbish as that.'
+
+'You are a wicked cruel woman,' returned Alwyn, with flashing eyes;
+'I shall tell papa and sister of you.'
+
+And in he flew, sobbing with grief and wrath for the dear Sambo,
+feeling as if it had been a live donkey burnt to death, and hiding
+his face on his sister's breast for consolation.
+
+'Come, come, Wyn,' said his father, who did not brook interruption;
+'here's half a sovereign to go and buy a new donkey.'
+
+'It won't be Sambo,' said Alwyn ruefully.
+
+'But you should thank papa,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Thank you, papa,' he said, with quivering lip, 'but I don't want a
+new one.  Oh Sambo, Sambo! burnt!' and he climbed on Nuttie's lap,
+hid his face against her and cried, but her comfortings were broken
+off by, 'How can you encourage the child in being so foolish?  Have
+done, Wyn; don't be such a baby!  Go out with nurse and buy what you
+like, but I can't have crying here.'
+
+He tried to stop in sheer amazement, but the ground swell of sob
+could not be controlled.  Nuttie was going to lead him away, and
+console him with more imaginative sympathy than could be expected
+from the maids, but her father sharply called her back.  He wanted
+her himself, and indeed there was no question which was the worse
+spoilt child.  He might idolise Alwyn, but not so as to clash with
+his own comforts.  The glasses being unsuccessful, Nuttie proposed to
+drive back to Ludgate Hill for him to choose for himself, but he
+would not hear of going into the heat of the City, and growled at her
+for thinking of such a thing.
+
+They took an aimless drive instead in the park, and Nuttie was nearly
+baked while the carriage was stopped for her father to have a long
+talk over the prospects of the Derby day with one of his most
+unpleasant associates, who stood leaning over the door on the shady
+side of the carriage, no one recking how little protection she
+derived from her small fringed parasol.
+
+She came home tired out, and thankful that her father went to rest in
+his own room.  She climbed to the nursery, thinking to share Alwyn's
+tea and comfort him, but she found only nurse there.  Nurse had a bad
+foot, and dreaded hot pavement, so she had sent Master Alwyn out with
+her subordinate, a country girl, to play in Mr. Dutton's garden till
+it should be cool enough to go and make his purchase, and a message
+had since arrived that he was going to drink tea there, and Mr.
+Dutton would take him out.
+
+His sister envied him the green shades, and had just done her best to
+cool the back drawing-room and rest herself with a book, when Mr.
+Fane was announced.  He talked pleasantly enough, and lingered and
+lingered, no doubt intending to be asked to dinner, but she was
+equally determined to do no such thing.  She had heard enough of
+races for one day, she thought, and at last he took his leave, only
+just before she dressed for dinner.
+
+'I thought Fane was here,' said Mr. Egremont as he came in; no doubt
+told by Gregorio.
+
+'He has been, but he is gone.'
+
+'You didn't ask him to stay and dine?'
+
+'I did not know you wished it.'
+
+'You might have known that I should have liked to see him.  I suppose
+you think your sweet self society enough for any man?'
+
+'I am sorry--'
+
+'I'm sick of hearing you are sorry!  I believe there's nothing you
+like so well as doing an ungracious thing to a friend of mine.'
+
+Nuttie had learnt to hold her tongue on such occasions.
+
+Dinner was nearly over, and her father had been grumbling again at
+having no one to take a hand at cards with him, when the door opened
+a little way, and Alwyn's pretty glowing face looked in.  He was come
+to say good-night rather later than usual, and he ran up to his
+sister with a little bouquet of yellow banksia and forget-me-nots.
+'Mithter Button'--so Alwyn called him--'sent you this.  He said you
+would like it, 'cause it came from one that grew at Mittletwait.  And
+oh, look, look!'
+
+He was hugging a little ship, which he proudly exhibited, while his
+father's brow had darkened at the message.  'Did you buy that?' asked
+his sister.
+
+'Yes, Mr. Button went with me, and we sailed it.  We sailed it by the
+fountain in Mr. Button's garden, And we made a storm!'
+
+He danced about with glee, and Mr. Egremont observed, 'A dear
+purchase for ten shillings.  Did it cost all that, Wyn?'
+
+'They gived me a big silver half-crown, and I gived that to a little
+boy what came to speak to Mr. Button, and had his toes through his
+boots, and he was so glad.'
+
+'Your money is not for beggars, Wyn.'
+
+'The little boy was not a beggar, papa.  He came with a newspaper to
+Mr. Button, and he is so good to his poor sick mother,' said Alwyn.
+'See, see, sister!' turning the prow of his small vessel towards her,
+and showing a word on it in pencil which he required her to spell
+out.  It was Ursula.
+
+'Oh Wynnie!' she said, duly flattered, 'did Mr. Dutton do that?'
+
+'He held my hand, and I did!' cried Alwyn, triumphantly, 'and he will
+paint it on Saturday.  Then it will dry all Sunday, and not come off,
+so it will be the Ursula for ever and always.'
+
+Here nurse claimed her charge; and when the goodnights were over, and
+a murmur recommenced, Nuttie suggested that if Mr. Dutton was at home
+perhaps he would come in and make up the game, but she encountered
+the old humour.  'I'll tell you what, Ursula, I'll not have that
+umbrella fellow encouraged about the house, and if that child is to
+be made the medium of communication, I'll put a stop to it.'
+
+The words were spoken just as Gregorio had entered the room with a
+handkerchief of his master's.  Nuttie, colouring deeply at the
+insult, met his triumphant eyes, bit her lips, and deigned no word of
+reply.
+
+An undefined but very slight odour, that told her of opium smoke,
+pervaded the stairs that night.  It was the only refuge from
+fretfulness; but her heart ached for her father, herself, and most of
+all for her little brother.  And was she to be cut off from her only
+counsellor?
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+THE LOST HEIR.
+
+
+
+
+'Seemed to the boy some comrade gay
+ Led him forth to the woods to play.'--SCOTT.
+
+
+Though it was the Derby day, Mr. Egremont's racing days were over,
+and he only took his daughter with him in quest of the spectacles he
+wanted.  When they came back, Nuttie mounted to the nursery, but no
+little brother met her on the stairs, and she found nurse in deep
+displeasure with her subordinate.
+
+'I sent him out with Ellen to play in the garden at Springfield, and
+swim his ship, where he couldn't come to no harm,' said nurse; 'being
+that my foot is that bad I can't walk the length of the street; and
+what does the girl do but lets that there Gregorio take the dear
+child and go--goodness knows where--without her.'
+
+'I'm sure, ma'am,' said the girl crying, 'I would never have done it,
+but Mr. Gregory said as how 'twas his papa's wish.'
+
+'What was?' said Nuttie.
+
+'That he shouldn't never go and play at Mr. Dutton's again,' said
+Ellen.
+
+'I told her she was to take her orders off me, and no one else,'
+returned nurse, 'except, of course, you, Miss Egremont, as has the
+right.'
+
+'Quite so; you should have told Mr. Gregorio so, Ellen.'
+
+'I did, ma'am, but he said those was Mr. Egremont's orders; and he
+said,' cried the girl, unable to withstand the pleasure of repeating
+something disagreeable, 'that Mr. Egremont wouldn't have no
+messengers between you and a low tradesman fellow, as made umbrellas,
+and wanted to insinuate himself in here.'
+
+'That's quite enough, Ellen; I don't want to hear any impertinences.
+Perhaps you did not understand his foreign accent.  Did he say where
+he was going?'
+
+'I think he said he'd take him to the Serpentine to sail his ship,'
+said Ellen, disposed to carry on asseverations of the correctness of
+her report, but nurse ordered her off the scene, and proceeded, as a
+confidential servant, 'The girl had no call to repeat it; but there's
+not a doubt of it he did say something of the sort.  There's not one
+of us but knows he is dead against Mr. Dutton, because he tried to
+get master to get to sleep without that nasty opium smoke of his.'
+
+There was bitter feud between nurse and valet, and Nuttie could have
+exchanged with her many a lament, but she contented herself with
+saying, 'I wish he would let Master Alwyn alone.  It is high time
+they should come in.'
+
+'The child will be tired to death, and all dirt!  His nice new sailor
+suit too!  Going grubbing about at the Serpentine with no one knows
+who, as isn't fit for a young gentleman,' moaned nurse.
+
+This, however, was the worst fear she entertained, and it was with a
+certain malicious satisfaction that she heard her master's bell for
+Gregorio.
+
+Nuttie descended to explain, and whereas the need was not very
+urgent, and she looked distressed and angered at the valet, her
+father received her complaint with, 'Well, the boy is getting too big
+to be tied for ever to a nursery-maid.  It will do him good to go
+about with a man.'
+
+But as dressing-time came on, and still neither Gregorio nor Alwyn
+appeared, Mr. Egremont became impatient, and declared that the valet
+had no business to keep the child out so long; indeed, he would
+sooner have taken alarm but for Nuttie's manifest agony of anxiety,
+starting and rushing to listen at every ring at the bell or sound of
+wheels near at hand.  At last, at eight o'clock, there was a peal of
+the servants' bell, and the footman who answered it turned round to
+the anxious crowd: 'Mr. Gregory!  He just asked if the child was come
+home, and went off like lightning.'
+
+'The villain!  He's lost him!' shrieked nurse, with a wild scream.
+'Run after him, James!  Catch him up!' suggested the butler at the
+same moment.  'Make him tell where he saw him last!'
+
+James was not a genius, but the hall boy, an alert young fellow, had
+already dashed down the steps in pursuit, and came up with the valet
+so as to delay him till the other servants stood round, and Gregorio
+turned back with them, pale, breathless, evidently terribly dismayed
+and unwilling to face his master, who stood at the top of the steps,
+white with alarm and wrath.
+
+'Sir,' cried Gregorio, with a stammering of mixed languages, 'I have
+been searching everywhere!  I was going to give notice to the police.
+Je ferai tout!  Je le trouverai.'
+
+'Where did you lose him?' demanded Mr. Egremont in a hoarse voice,
+such as Nuttie had never heard.
+
+'In the Park, near the bridge over the Serpentine.  I was speaking
+for a few moments to a friend.  Bah!  Il etait parti.  Mais je le
+trouverai.  Parker, he seeks too.  Fear not, sir, I shall find him.'
+
+'Find him, you scoundrel, or never dare to see me again!  I've borne
+with your insolences long, and now you've brought them to a height.
+Go, I say, find my boy!' exclaimed Mr. Egremont, with a fierce oath
+and passionate gesture, and Gregorio vanished again.
+
+'Bring the carriage--no, call a cab;' commanded Mr. Egremont,
+snatching up his hat.  'Who is this Parker?'
+
+The servants hesitated, but the butler said he believed the man to be
+a friend of Gregorio's employed at one of the clubs.  Nuttie
+meanwhile begging her father not to go without her, flew upstairs to
+put on her hat, and coming down at full speed found that Mr. Dutton,
+passing by and seeing the open door and the terrified servants on the
+steps, had turned in to ask what was the matter, and was hearing in
+no measured terms from Mr. Egremont how the child had been taken away
+from his nurse and lost in the Park while that scamp Gregorio was
+chattering to some good-for-nothing friend.
+
+To Nuttie's great relief, Mr. Dutton offered to go with the father to
+assist in the search, and the coachman, far too anxious and excited
+to let his master go without him in a cab, contrived to bring up the
+carriage.  Some of the servants were ordered off to the various
+police offices.  Poor nurse, who was nearly distracted, started in a
+hansom on her own account, persuaded that she should see and
+recognise traces of her darling at the scene of his loss, and she
+almost raced the carriage, which was bound for the same spot.
+
+Sluggish natures like Mr. Egremont's can sometimes be roused to great
+violence, and then pour forth the long pent-up accumulations kept
+back by indolence and indifference.  His only occupation during the
+rapid drive was to vituperate his valet, the curse of his life, he
+said.  To hear him talk, it would have seemed as if Gregorio had been
+the tyrant who had kept him in bondage all these years, fully aware
+of his falsehood, peculation, and other rascality, but as unable to
+break the yoke as if he had been in truth the slave of anything but
+his own evil habit and helpless acquiescence.
+
+Would it last if Gregorio made his appearance at that instant with
+Alwyn in his hand?  Or even, as Mr. Dutton confidently predicted, a
+policeman might bring the boy home, before many hours were passed.
+The chief doubt here was that Alwyn's defective pronunciation, which
+had been rather foolishly encouraged, might make it difficult to
+understand his mode  of saying his own name, or even that of the
+street, if he knew it perfectly; but the year he had been absent from
+London had prevented him from acquiring the curious ready local
+instinct of the true town child, and he had been so much guarded and
+watched that he was likely to be utterly at a loss when left alone;
+and Nuttie was wretched at the thought of his terror and loneliness,
+even while Mr. Dutton told her of speedy recoveries of lost children
+through kind people or the police.
+
+They found all the officials of the Park already aware and on the
+alert, and quite certain of the impossibility of nurse's prime dread
+that the boy had fallen into the water unseen by any one and been
+drowned.  She was even ready to look into every bush, in case he had
+been frightened and hidden himself; and nothing would satisfy her but
+to stay making these researches, when her master had decided on
+endeavouring to find 'Parker' at the club, and to ascertain from him
+particulars of time and place.
+
+He was found there.  The dinner-hour had brought him back, he being a
+man in authority there, very well dressed and deferential, declaring
+himself immensely distressed at the occurrence, and at having
+accosted Gregorio and attracted his attention.  It was about four
+o'clock, he thought, and he described the exact spot where the little
+boy had been sailing his vessel fastened to a string.  They might
+have been talking twenty minutes or half an hour when Gregorio missed
+his charge, and since that time both had been doing all in their
+power to find him, until half-past seven, when he had to return to
+his club, and Gregorio went to see whether the child had been taken
+home.
+
+By this time Mr. Egremont looked so utterly exhausted, that Mr.
+Dutton availed himself of the hope that the boy might be found safe
+at home to take him back; but alas! nothing had been heard there.
+
+The poor man was in a restless, unmanageable state of excitement,
+almost as terrifying to his daughter as the distress that occasioned
+it.  He swallowed a tumblerful of claret, but would not eat nor go to
+bed; and indeed, Gregorio alone having had the personal charge of
+him, latterly sleeping in his dressing-room, none of the other
+servants knew what to do for him.  Mr. Dutton agreed with her that it
+would be better to send for his doctor, as probably he ought to have
+a sedative, and neither would take the responsibility of giving it;
+while he himself declared he neither would nor could rest till he had
+his boy again.
+
+The doctor was dining out, and they had two terrible hours; while Mr.
+Egremont paced to the windows; threw himself on the sofa; denounced
+Gregorio; or, for a change, all the system of police which had made
+no discovery; and Ursula for letting the boy be so helpless.  Mr.
+Dutton sometimes diverted his attention for a few minutes, and hoped
+he would doze, but the least sound brought him to his feet again, and
+the only congenial occupation was the composition of a description of
+poor little Alwyn's person and dress, which set Nuttie crying so
+uncontrollably, that she had to run out of the room.
+
+Dr. Brownlow came at last, and was very kind and helpful, taking the
+command, and insisting that Mr. Egremont should go to bed, and take
+the dose which he mixed.  Broadbent, the butler, was to take
+Gregorio's place, but he was a ponderous man, without much tact, and
+unused to the valet's office.  'I might just as well have a
+rhinoceros about me,' said Mr. Egremont, in a fit of irritation; and
+it ended, Nuttie hardly knew how, in Mr. Dutton's going upstairs to
+smooth matters.  He came down after a time and said: 'I am not
+satisfied to leave him alone or to Broadbent; I have his consent to
+my sleeping in the dressing-room.  I am just going home to fetch my
+things.  Let me find you gone when I come back.  You will hear no
+more to-night.  Even if he is found, they will keep him till
+morning.'
+
+'It is of no use; I can't sleep.'
+
+'Even if you don't, the mere restful position will make you fitter
+for the morrow.  Will you promise me to undress and really go to
+bed?'
+
+'Oh yes! if you say I must,' said Nuttie drearily; following an
+instinct of obedience.
+
+'And remember,' he said, 'though I do not say it will be so, this may
+be deliverance from bondage.'
+
+'But what a terrible deliverance!'
+
+'Bonds are not burst without something terrible.  No; don't be
+frightened.  Remember there is safekeeping for that sweet little
+fellow, wherever he may be.'
+
+'Oh, Mr. Dutton, if I could pray for him; but the turmoil seems to
+have driven away all such things!  My boy, my boy, where is he now?
+Who has heard him say his little prayers?'
+
+'His Heavenly Father has; of that we may be secure.  You will feel it
+in the quiet of your own room.  Good-night.'
+
+'And I shall know you are praying, better than I can,' murmured
+Nuttie, as she returned his good-night, and crept up to her chamber.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+FETTERS RENT.
+
+
+
+
+'The gods are just, and of our pleasant sins
+ Make whips to scourge us.'--King Lear.
+
+
+There was no real sleep for Ursula that short summer night.  She saw
+the early dawn, listened to the distant roll of market-carts, and
+wondered when it would be reasonable to be afoot, and ready to hear,
+if aught there was to hear.  At any hour after seven, surely the
+finders would have mercy and bring the welcome news.  And just before
+seven she fell asleep, deeply, soundly, and never woke till past
+eight, but that was just enough to revive the power of hope, and give
+the sense of a new day.  But there was nothing to hear--no news.  She
+found Mr. Dutton in the dining-room.  He had had to administer
+another draught to her father, and had left him in a sleep which
+would probably last for some time.  If she would go and sit in the
+outer room, after her breakfast, he would go out to obtain
+intelligence.
+
+'You must have some breakfast,' she said, ringing the bell, and
+wistfully looking over the blinds; then exclaiming: 'Oh, there's
+Mark!  Has he heard anything?' and out she darted, opening the door
+before he rang.  'Mark! have you found him?'
+
+'Yes,' he said gravely, looking utterly amazed as she clasped her
+hands, and seemed ready to fling herself on his neck with joy.  'I
+came because it will be a great shock to my uncle.'
+
+'Then it is so!  Nurse was right,' said Nuttie, turning deadly pale,
+and standing as if before a iring platoon.  'Tell me, Mark, where did
+they find him?'
+
+'At the Faringdon Station.  I was sent for to identify him.'
+
+'Stay,' said Mr. Dutton, as there was a wild horrified look in
+Nuttie's eyes.  'Do you mean little Alwyn?'
+
+'Little Alwyn!  No, certainly not.  What of him?'
+
+'Gregorio managed to lose him in the park yesterday,' put in Mr.
+Dutton.
+
+'That accounts for it, then,' said Mark.  'No, it was Gregorio
+himself, poor man.  He was knocked down by the engine, and killed on
+the spot, just by the station, at eleven o'clock last night.  Our
+name was found on him, and I was sent for early this morning.  There
+was no doubt about it, so I came on here at once to let my uncle
+know, little thinking--'
+
+'Oh, it is dreadful!' cried Nuttie, sinking into a chair.  'Do you
+remember, my father told him never to see his face again unless he
+found Alwyn?'
+
+Broadbent came in at the moment with the coffee-pot, and stood
+suspended, as he was told what had happened, Mark adding the detail:
+'He was crossing the line in front of the engine.'
+
+'Yes, sir,' said the butler.  'It is an awful dispensation.  No doubt
+he knew it was all up with him.  You may not be aware, sir, of the
+subject of his conversation in the park.  Mr. Parker had just seen a
+telegram of the result of the Derby, and he had heavy bets on Lady
+Edina.  I am afraid, sir, there can be no doubt that he found a
+voluntary grave.'
+
+'We will not talk of that.  We cannot judge,' said Mark, shuddering.
+'I said I would send some one from here to arrange what was to be
+done after the inquest.'
+
+Broadbent immediately undertook to go, if his master did not require
+him, and this was thought advisable, as his services were certainly
+not acceptable to Mr. Egremont.  Mark had thought himself likely to
+be detained and had provided for his absence, and the awe-stricken
+trio were consulting together over the breakfast-table, eating
+mechanically, from the very exhaustion of agitation, when the door
+opened, and Mr. Egremont in his dressing-gown was among them,
+exclaiming: 'You are keeping it from me.'  He had been wakened by the
+whispers and rushes of the excited maids, had rung his bell in vain,
+dressed himself as best he could after so many years of dependence,
+and stumbled downstairs, where, as with his daughter, it was
+something like a relief to know that hope was not extinguished in
+Alwyn's case.  But Mr. Egremont was in a very trembling, broken
+condition, and much overcome by his valet's end after so many years
+of intimate association.  Certainly, if either of the others had so
+parted with the man, it would have been a horror in the recollection,
+but he did not seem to dwell on it; and, indeed, attention was
+distracted by every sound at the door, since each might bring news of
+the missing child.
+
+One of these tantalising rings proved to be a policeman with poor
+Gregorio's keys, and a demand for an investigation into any papers he
+might have left which would show his state of mind.  Mr. Egremont
+was very much annoyed, declaring that he would have no stranger
+meddle with them, and that he saw no use in such prying.  What
+difference could it make to any living creature?  However, when he
+found there was no help for it, he said he must do it himself.
+Nuttie offered to help, but was sharply, strongly refused.  Mark
+alone might and should help.
+
+Then Mr. Dutton volunteered to go and explain matters to Mr. Dobbs,
+so as to get freedom for Mark for at least the remainder of the day.
+He would call at the police offices and see what was doing in the
+search, put forward the advertisements, and obtain that the
+Serpentine should be dragged, for he saw that only that measure would
+remove one great terror from these anxious hearts.
+
+'And,' he said to Mark, 'with your permission, I will bring back Mrs.
+Egremont and the children if they will do me the honour to become my
+guests.  She will be a comfort to Miss Egremont, and then you will be
+at hand in the evening.'
+
+Mark could only be thankful, and presently addressed himself to the
+investigation, which his uncle insisted should be made in his own
+presence, though the opiate kept him for the most part dozing in an
+arm-chair, only rousing up now and then by some noise at the front
+door, or putting queries, the replies to which startled him more and
+more, as he grew more wakeful and Mark proceeded.
+
+All, except a few unimportant bills and a betting-book, was locked
+into a dressing-case that had once belonged to Mr. Egremont, and had
+tricks of secret drawers that only he could explain.  It was full of
+papers, and they were a strange revelation that Mr. Egremont might
+well wish to withhold from his daughter.  They went very far back,
+and of course did not come out in order of chronology, nor would Mark
+have understood them but for exclamations and comments here and there
+from his uncle.
+
+Everything seemed to be there,--the old passport and certificate to
+Gregorio Savelli, when he left his Savoyard home to be a waiter at a
+hotel; a few letters in Italian, probably from his parents, which
+Mark could not read, but which soon ceased; the counter-signed
+character with which he had entered General Egremont's service; and
+then came a note or two signed A. P. E., which Mr. Egremont regarded
+with great annoyance, though they only consisted of such phrases as
+'Back on Wednesday.  Find an excuse,' or in French, 'Envoyez
+moi la petite boite!'  'Que la porte soit ouverte apres minuit.'
+
+'That was the way,' groaned Mr. Egremont.  'The scoundrel! he kept
+all those to be able to show me up to the General if he chose!  I was
+a young man then, Mark, not the straitlaced lad you've always been.
+And the General!  A bad old dog he was, went far beyond what I ever
+did, but for all that he had no notion of any one going any way but
+his own, and wanted to rein me in as tight as if he had been an
+epitome of all the virtues.  And Gregorio seemed a good-natured young
+fellow then, and made things easy for me, though no doubt he meant to
+have me in his hands, in case I tried to shake him off.'
+
+Another discovery affected him far more.  It was of a letter in
+Alice's handwriting, addressed to Captain Egremont, in the yacht
+Ninon--poste restante, Madeira.  He had never seen it, never known of
+its existence; Gregorio had gone to inquire for the letters, and had
+suppressed it.  Mr. Egremont had wondered how he had become aware of
+the marriage.  His knowledge had from that time been used as a means
+of enforcing the need of a good understanding with the heir.  Mr.
+Egremont was much moved by the sight of the letter, and its date,
+from Dieppe, about six months after he had left his young wife there.
+He made Mark give it to him unread, handled it tenderly, struggled to
+read the delicate pointed writing to himself, but soon deferred the
+attempt, observing, 'There, there, I can't stand it now!  But you
+see, Mark,' he added after an interval, 'I was not altogether the
+heartless brute you thought me.'
+
+Mark, as he told his wife afterwards, could not help thinking of the
+old preamble to indictments, 'By the temptation of the devil.'
+
+And by and by, out of a pocket-book bearing the date of the General's
+death, came a copy of the certificate of the baptism of Ursula Alice,
+daughter of Alwyn Piercefield and Alice Egremont, together with that
+address which Miss Headworth had left at Dieppe to gratify Alice's
+forlorn idea of a possible rescue, and which Gregorio had asseverated
+to be non-existent.
+
+Doubtless he infinitely preferred his master's wandering bachelor
+life to the resumption of marriage ties, and thus he had contrived to
+keep Mr. Egremont from meeting the Houghtons at Florence.  At the
+same time the uncertainty as to Alice's fate had prevented any other
+marriage.  Gregorio had taken care that, if Mr. Egremont had been
+villain enough to make such an attempt, he should know that his
+secret could be brought to light.
+
+Compared with all this wickedness, the proofs of fraud and dishonesty
+were entirely unimportant.  Gambling had evidently been a passion
+with the valet, and peculation had followed, and Mark could have
+traced out the full tide before the reinstatement of Mrs. Egremont in
+her home, the gradual ebb during her reign, the diminished restraint
+under her daughter.  The other servants had formerly been implicated,
+but, except a young groom and footman, Mark thought the present set
+quite free from the taint, and was glad to acquit Broadbent.  But the
+last telegrams and the betting-book in the unhappy man's pocket
+confirmed Parker's evidence that of late he had staked almost madly,
+and had risked sums far beyond any means he could raise upon the
+horse which had failed.  The bailiff at Bridgefield had, it had long
+been guessed, played into his hands, but to what an extent Mark only
+now discovered.
+
+The result was that what he had learnt in the Park had so astounded
+him that his inattention to the child had not been wonderful.  He
+had--as Parker testified--sought the little fellow vehemently, and
+had he been successful, he might yet have made some effort, trusting
+to his master's toleration; but the loss and reproach had made him an
+absolutely desperate man.  Was it blind flight or self-destruction?
+That he had money about him, having cashed a cheque of his master's,
+favoured the first idea, and no one would too curiously inquire
+whether Mr. Egremont was aware of the amount.
+
+It was only too true that, as he had said, Gregorio Savelli had been
+the curse of his life, having become one of the whips left by
+pleasant vices, and the breaking of the yoke had been not only at a
+terrible price, but, to a man in his half-blind and invalid
+condition, the actual loss of the person on whom he had depended was
+a privation.  Dr. Brownlow, however, knew of a good man-servant just
+set at liberty by the death of an invalid master, and promised to
+send him on trial.
+
+It was a day of agitations and disappointments, a sample of many that
+were to follow.  There was not a sound of a bell that did not make
+anxious hearts throb.  And oh! how many were spent on vain reports,
+on mere calls of sympathy by acquaintance whom the father and sister
+could not see, and on notes of inquiry or condolence that Nuttie had
+to answer.
+
+Annaple came and was a great help and support to her.  Poor nurse,
+oblivious of her bad foot, or perhaps, willing to wreak vengeance on
+it as the cause of all the mischief, had insisted on continuing her
+search in the morning under all the thorns and rhododendrons where
+she thought the dear lamb might have hidden and cried himself to
+sleep, and at last had been brought home in a cab quite worn out and
+despairing.  But the screaming baby proved to be a much better
+comforter to her than any amount of reasonable argument.  To soothe
+it, to understand what ailed it, to find suitable food for it, was an
+occupation which made the suspense less intolerable.  The very
+handling of an infant would have been congenial; and a sickly crying
+one was only too interesting.  Willie was too near her darling's age
+to be a welcome sight, but he was already a prime pet with the
+servants at Springfield; and Annaple, secure that her children were
+in safe and experienced hands, and overflowing with motherly sympathy
+for the grievous loss, was ready to devote herself to Nuttie, whether
+by talk, by letter writing, or by seeing inquiring friends.  She did
+not expect to be of any use to Mr. Egremont, who had always held
+aloof from and disliked 'the giggling Scotch girl,' but who came
+drearily wandering at an unexpected time into the room where she was
+sitting with his daughter, and presently was involved in their
+conversation.  Whether it was the absence of the poor familiar, or
+that Annaple was no longer a giggling girl, but a brave, cheerful
+wife and mother, it was certain that he found the same comfort and
+support in her presence as did Nuttie.  When fits of restless misery
+and despair pressed hardest upon him, it was soon perceived that
+Annaple's cheerful tact enabled her to deal with him as no one else
+could do.  There was the restraint of courtesy towards her, such as
+had worn out towards his daughter, and besides her sanguine optimist
+spirit never became so depressed as did poor Nuttie's.  Mark went by
+day to his work, but came back to dine at his uncle's, hear the
+reports, and do what he could for him; and meantime Annaple spent the
+chief part of the day in aiding Nuttie and Mr. Egremont, while her
+baby really showed signs of improvement in nurse's keeping.  And so
+the days went on, while every endeavour was made to trace the child,
+but with no result but bitter disappointment.  Twice, strayed
+children, younger than Alwyn--one even a girl--were brought as the
+lost boy, and the advertisements bore fruit in more than one
+harassing and heartless correspondence with wretches who professed to
+be ready to restore the child, on promises of absolute secrecy, and
+sums of money sent beforehand, with all sorts of precautions against
+interference from the police.
+
+The first of these created great excitement, and the pursuit was
+committed to Mr. Dutton.  When it proved abortive, Mr. Egremont's
+disappointment and anger were great, and he could not be persuaded
+that all was not the fault of Mr. Dutton's suspicion and precaution
+in holding back the money, nor could any one persuade him that it was
+mere imposture.  When another ill-written enigmatical letter arrived,
+he insisted that it was from the same quarter, and made Broadbent
+conduct the negotiations, with the result that after considerable
+sums had been paid in circuitous fashions, the butler was directed to
+a railway arch where the child would be deposited, and where he found
+a drab-coloured brat of whom he disposed at the nearest police
+station, after which he came home savagely disgusted.
+
+Nuttie was not much less so at what she felt as a slight to Mr.
+Dutton as well as at the failure.  'When you are doing so much for
+us.  We deserve that you should do nothing more,' she said with tears
+shining in her eyes.
+
+'Do not talk in that way,' he answered.  'You know my feeling for the
+dear little fellow himself, and--'
+
+'Oh yes,' interrupted Nuttie, 'I do trust to that!  Nobody--not the
+most indifferent person, but must long to save him.  Yes, I know it
+was doing you a wicked injustice to fancy that you could take offence
+in that way at a father in such trouble.  Please forgive me, Mr.
+Dutton.'
+
+'As if I had anything to forgive.  As if there were anything on earth
+that could come before the endeavour to recover him,' said Mr.
+Dutton, too much moved for his usual precision of speech.
+
+'Yes; he is _her_ child,' said Nuttie, with a trembling tearful
+smile.
+
+'_Her_ child!  Yes, and even if he were not, he is _your_ brother,'
+said Mr. Dutton; then hastily gathering himself up, as if he had said
+too much, he rose to take leave, adding as their hands clasped,
+'Remember, as long as I live, you may count upon me.'
+
+
+'Oh, I know, I know!  There's nobody like you, but I don't know what
+I say in this awful suspense.  If I had only seen him lying white and
+cold and peaceful, it would have been far better than to think of him
+pining and miserable among wicked people, who would try to bring him
+up like themselves.  Mother's own little boy!'
+
+'It will not be allowed, it will not be allowed,' cried Mr. Dutton.
+'God's Providence is still over him.'
+
+'And there are prayers, I know--at our church and Mr. Godfrey's-and
+all ours, but oh! it takes a great deal of faith to lean on them.  I
+wonder if you would, Annaple, if it were Willy?'
+
+'We will not ask Mrs. Egremont,' said Mr. Dutton, as Annaple made a
+gesture of something like doubt.
+
+'It is almost as bad,' said she, coming up and putting her arm round
+Nuttie.  'But indeed, Mr. Dutton, she does trust, only it is very,
+very sore, for her,--as it is for us all.'
+
+'You are her great comfort,' said Mr. Dutton, as he shook hands with
+her.
+
+'He could hardly help thanking me,' said Annaple to her husband
+afterwards.  'Mr. Egremont may well call him an adopted uncle.  I
+should say he was a good deal more, poor man.'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+THE HULL OF THE URSULA.
+
+
+
+
+Ten days had passed, and Mark and Annaple were thinking that they
+ought to return to ordinary life, and leave the bereaved ones to
+endeavour to construct their life afresh under the dreadful wearing
+uncertainty of their darling's fate.  Still they were detained by
+urgent entreaties from father and daughter, who both dreaded their
+departure as additional desolation, and as closing the door of hope.
+And certainly, even this rest was good for Annaple; and her baby, for
+whom nurse had discovered a better system, had really not cried more
+for a whole day than 'befitted a rational child,' said the mother, as
+she walked back to Springfield with her husband in the summer night,
+after dinner, on the day that Broadbent's negotiations had failed.
+
+'Nurse will break her heart at parting with her,' said Mark.  'I wish
+we could afford to have her.'
+
+'Afford, indeed!  Her wages are about a quarter of your salary, sir!
+And after all, 'tis not the nurse that guards the child, as we have
+seen only too plainly.'
+
+'Do you think he is alive, Nan?'
+
+'I begin to think not.  He is not so young but that he could make
+himself known, and those advertise ments are so widely spread.  I am
+sure poor Nuttie would be more at rest if she could give up hope.'
+
+'I did not tell you before, Nan, but Dutton was going to-day to look
+at a poor little unclaimed child's body that had been found in the
+Thames.  He knew him better than I, so he went.'
+
+'He would have come if--' said Annaple.
+
+'Assuredly.  He meant to fetch nurse if he had any doubt, but
+afterwards he was going to his court about his rents.  He always does
+that on Saturday evenings.'
+
+Mr. Dutton himself opened his door to the pair.
+
+'Well,' said Mark.
+
+'Certainly not.  The poor child was evidently much younger, and had
+red hair.  But look here,' and he held out a battered something,
+black with a white stripe.  Mark understood nothing, but Annaple
+exclaimed, 'Is it his ship?'
+
+'Yes, I could swear to it, for see,' and he pointed to some grimed,
+almost effaced, but still legible capitals, which, however, scarcely
+any one but himself could have read as "Ursula."  'I guided his hand
+to make those the evening before he was lost,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Dear little man!  And where did you find it?'
+
+'Where I never thought of doing so!  On the bed of a little crippled
+boy in the next court to mine.  He is rather a friend of mine, and I
+turned in to take him some strawberries.  I found him hugging this.'
+
+'How did he get it?'
+
+'Our "Liz" brought it to him.  Our "Liz" is a very wild specimen, who
+has spent her life in eluding the school board officer till she is
+too old for his clutches; but she has a soft spot in her heart for
+her little brother, and I believe another for Gerard Godfrey.  We
+must be very cautious, and not excite any alarm, or we shall be
+baffled altogether.  I am not sure that I did quite prudently in
+giving little Alf a fresh boat in exchange for this; but I could not
+help bringing it home.'
+
+'You did not see the girl?'
+
+'No.  Those girls wander long and late on these hot nights, and I do
+not think I could have got anything out of her.  I have been to
+Gerard Godfrey, and the next step must be left to him.'
+
+'The next question is whether you will tell those poor things at No.
+5,' said Mark.
+
+Mr. Dutton hesitated.  'I should have no doubt of giving Miss
+Egremont the comfort of knowing that there was a possible clue, but
+if her father insisted on setting on the police, there would be very
+little more hope of success.  I am afraid it will be more prudent to
+wait till we know what Godfrey says.  He hopes to see the girl to-
+morrow evening at his mission class, but of course she is a very
+uncertain attendant there.  No, I cannot trust myself.'
+
+Annaple was forced to brook withholding the hope from the fainting
+hearts all the ensuing Sunday, which was a specially trying day, as
+Nuttie pined for her dear little companion with the pictures,
+stories, and hymns that he had always enjoyed, and made pretty
+childish remarks about, such as she began to treasure as memorable.
+
+As soon as he could, early on Monday morning, Mr. Dutton repaired to
+Gerard Godfrey's lodgings, and found that the young clergyman had
+succeeded in seeing the girl, and had examined her so as not to put
+the wild creature on her guard, and make her use the weapons of
+falsehood towards one who had never been looked on as an ally of the
+police.  It appeared that she had brought home the ship, or rather
+its hull, from one of the lowest of lodging houses, where she had
+employment as something between charwoman and errand girl.  She had
+found it on what passed for a bed in its present condition, one
+morning, when going to make the extremely slight arrangements that
+the terrible lair, which served as a common bedroom, underwent, and
+had secreted it as a prize for her little brother.
+
+At first she had been stolid, and affected utter ignorance as to how
+it got there, but Mr. Godfrey had entreated her as a friend to try to
+discover; and had with all his heart made a pathetic description of
+the girl (he durst not say lady) who had always been a mother to her
+little brother, and now had lost him, and was in terrible uncertainty
+as to his fate.  That came home to Lizzie's feelings, and she let out
+what she had seen or picked up in the way of gossip,--that the ship
+had been left behind by its owner, whether boy or girl Liz was
+uncertain, for it had long fair hair, wore a petticoat, and had been
+dosed with gin and something else when carried away.  They said it
+had made noise enough when brought there by Funny Frank and Julia.
+They were performing folk, who had come in after the Derby day to
+have a spree, and to pick up another kid to do fairies and such like,
+because the last they had had hurt his back and had to be left in the
+workhouse.  Yes, she had heard tell that they had got the child from
+Mother Bet, of whom Gerard had a vague idea as one of the horrible
+hags, who not only beg themselves, but provide outfits for beggars,
+including infants, to excite compassion.  Either she or one of her
+crew had picked up the child and disposed of his clothes; and then
+finding him too old and intelligent to be safely used for begging
+purposes, she had sold or hired him out to these acrobatic
+performers, who had gone off into that vague and unknown region, the
+country.  Liz had no notion what was their real name, nor where they
+would go, only that they attended races and fairs; and as soon as the
+actual pleasure of communicating information was over, she was seized
+with a panic, implored Mr. Godfrey to make no use of her information,
+and explained that the people of the house were quite capable of
+killing her, if they suspected her of betraying any of their
+transactions.  It was impossible to bring any authorities to bear on
+the quest; and Mr. Dutton held it wisest only to write a note telling
+Mr. Egremont that he had obtained evidence that the child was living,
+and that he was going in pursuit, but thought it safer to say no more
+at present.  He gave the note to Mark at his office.  'I cannot trust
+myself to see your cousin,' he said.  'I might be tempted to say more
+than was consistent with Godfrey's honour towards his informant.'
+
+'I think you are right,' said Mark.  'You had better leave me with
+only indefinite knowledge, for I shall be hard pressed.  Do you not
+go home first?'
+
+'Yes, I go to pack up a few things and fetch Monsieur.  A run in the
+country will do him good, and he may be a valuable auxiliary.  I
+shall find no one at Springfield at this hour.'
+
+'What is your plan?'
+
+'I shall venture so far as to apply to the police for the names of
+the usual attendants at races and fairs, and for some idea of their
+ordinary rounds.  I have no doubt that these are known at the chief
+offices.  For the rest, I must use my eyes.  But tell your cousin
+that, with God's blessing, I hope to bring him back to her.'
+
+'He will,' said Ursula, when Mark gave her the message, and from that
+moment she was calmer.  She did not fret Mark with questions even as
+much as Annaple did, she tried to prevent her father from raging at
+the scant information, and she even endeavoured to employ herself
+with some of her ordinary occupations, though all the time she kept
+up the ceaseless watch.  'Mr. Dutton would not have said that without
+good hope,' she averred, 'and I trust to him.'
+
+Yet when four, five, six, eight, days had passed with no tidings, the
+heart sickness grew almost more than she could bear, though she still
+answered with spirit when her father again took to abusing the
+umbrella-fellow for choosing to keep all in his own hands.
+
+Even Annaple could not help saying to her husband that a precise,
+prim, old bachelor was the very last person for a hunt in slums and
+the like.  The very sight of him would put the people on their guard.
+'And think of his fine words,' she added.  'I wish I could go!  If I
+started with a shawl over my head, yoked to a barrel-organ, I should
+have a far better chance than he will.  I declare, Mark, if he does
+not succeed we'll do it.  We'll hire an organ, whereon you shall
+play.  Ah! you shake your head.  A musical education is not required,
+and I know I shall do something desperate soon, if that dear little
+boy is not found.'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+NUTTIE'S KNIGHT.
+
+
+
+
+'The night came on and the bairnies grat,
+ Their minnie aneath the mools heard that.'
+
+
+'LYNDHURST, 4th July.--Philip Dutton to Miss Egremont.  Found.
+Waterloo, 6.15.'
+
+
+'I knew he would,' said Nuttie, with a strange quietness, but as she
+tried to read it to her father her voice choked, and she had to hand
+it to Annaple.  But for the first time in her life she went up and
+voluntarily kissed her father's forehead.  And perhaps it was for the
+first time in his life that the exclamation broke from him, 'Thank
+God!'
+
+Perhaps it was well that the telegram had not come earlier in the
+day, for Mr. Egremont was very restless, showing himself much shaken
+in nerves and spirits before the time for driving to the station,
+which he greatly antedated.  Nuttie could hardly keep him in the
+carriage, and indeed had to persuade him to return thither, when he
+had once sprung out on the arrival of a wrong train.
+
+And after all, when the train did come, his blue spectacles were
+directed to the row of doors at the other end, and Nuttie was
+anxiously trying to save him from being jostled, when a voice said
+'Here!' and close beside them stood Mr. Dutton, with a little boy by
+his side who looked up in her face and said 'Sister!'  It was said in
+a dreamy, almost puzzled way, not with the ecstatic joy Nuttie had
+figured to herself; and there was something passive in the mode of
+his hearing his father's 'My boy, my boy!'  Instinctively all turned
+to the harbour of the carriage; Mr. Dutton lifted Alwyn in, and as
+Nuttie received him, a pang shot across her, as she felt how light,
+how bony the little frame had become in these three weeks.
+
+'Come in!  Come back with us!  Tell us all!' said Mr. Egremont, as
+Mr. Dutton was about to help him in.
+
+'My dog,' said Mr. Dutton, while Alwyn looked up from nestling in
+Nuttie's lap to say, 'Mithter Button come!  And Mothu!'
+
+'We have room for him,' said Mr, Egremont graciously.  'Here, poor
+fellow.'
+
+'He has the right,' said Mr. Dutton, 'for he was the real finder.'
+
+And Monsieur, curly and shiny, occupied with great dignity the back
+seat beside his master, while Alwyn, in a silent but dreamy content,
+as if he only half understood where he was, rested against his
+sister's bosom with his hands in his father's.
+
+'Come, old chap,' said his father cheerily, 'tell us all about it.'
+
+But Alwyn only shuddered a little, raised his eyelids slightly, and
+gave a tiny faint smile.
+
+'I think he is very much tired,' said Mr. Dutton.  'There was a good
+deal to be done to make him presentable this morning.  You must
+forgive me for sacrificing his curls, there was nothing else to be
+done with them.'
+
+'Ah!' and Nuttie looked again.  The boy was in a new, rather coarse,
+ready-made, sailor suit that hung loosely upon his little limbs, his
+hair was short, and he was very pale, the delicate rosy flush quite
+gone, and with it the round outline of the soft cheek; and there were
+purple marks under the languid eyes.  She bent down and kissed him,
+saying, 'Was Mr. Button nurse to you, Wynnie?'
+
+He smiled again and murmured, 'Mr. Button made me boy again.'
+
+After a question and answer or two as to main facts of place and time
+of the discovery, Mr. Dutton told his story.  'I did not effect much
+with my inquiries after the circuses.  All I heard of were of too
+superior an order for kidnapping practices.  However, I thought the
+only way would be to haunt fairs and races, and look at their camp-
+followers.  At a place in Hertfordshire I saw a performance
+advertised with several children as fairies, so I went to see it.  I
+was soon satisfied that Alwyn was not there; but it struck me that I
+had known the face of the prime hero, a fine handsome supple fellow,
+who was called in the programme Herr Adalbert Steinfuggen, or some
+such name.  Well, it seemed that he knew me, for as I struggled out
+after a considerable interval, I heard myself accosted, "Mr. Dutton!
+Sir, surely I have the honour of speaking to Mr. Dutton of
+Micklethwayte?"  I assure you he was the very pink of politeness.  Do
+you remember, Miss Egremont, Abel Stone?'
+
+'Oh, Abel Stone!  He was a choir boy at Micklethwayte, I remember! He
+was very handsome, and had a splendid voice; but he was a real monkey
+for mischief, and nobody could manage him but mother.  She was always
+pleading that he should not be turned out, and at last he ran away.'
+
+'Yes; he went off with a circus, and there he found his vocation,
+rose and throve, married the prima-donna, and is part owner.  He
+seems very respectable, and was so friendly and affectionate that I
+ventured to consult him; when, on hearing whom I was seeking, he
+became warmly interested, and gave me just the information I wanted.
+He said he had little doubt that Funny Frank was a clown called Brag,
+with whom he had had words some years back for misusing the children.
+He said he did not hold with harshness to the little ones in teaching
+them to do the feats, which certainly were wonderful.  If they were
+frightened, they were nervous and met with accidents; but make much
+of them, and they thought it all fun, and took a pride and pleasure
+in their performances.  However this Brag, though a clever fellow,
+could not be hindered from bullying, and at last he went off with a
+girl of the troupe and set up on their own account.  Stone, or
+whatever he pleases to call himself, had met them several times, but
+he spoke of them with great contempt as "low," and they did not
+frequent the same places as he does.  However, he referred to one of
+his men, and found that they had been at Epsom on the Derby day, and
+moreover, that there was a report of them having lately narrowly
+escaped being in a scrape about a child who had been injured.  There
+was no scruple as to advising me where to look for them, or as to the
+best means of detection.  Stone was very indignant, and made me
+understand that all his young people were either to the manner born,
+or willingly hired out by their parents.  I saw them in private life,
+and they looked happy and well-fed, but that was no guarantee for
+Funny Frank.  Well, I followed him up without success, trying each
+place Stone had set down for me, till I came last night to Lyndhurst,
+a very pretty place in the New Forest, where there is to be a fair
+to-morrow, beginning this afternoon.  Stone advised me to look about
+before the affair opened, while unpacking and arranging was going on.
+Well, after all, it was very simple.  I strolled out with my dog
+round the field where the vans and booths were getting into order.
+There was what I thought a little girl in a faded red petticoat
+sitting on the steps at the bottom of a yellow van with her head on
+her hands.'
+
+'That was me,' said Alwyn, lighting up.  'And Mothu came and kissed
+Fan!'
+
+'Yes,' said Mr. Dutton; 'I verily believe we might have missed one
+another, but Monsieur ran up to him and, as I was actually whistling
+him off, I heard a little voice say, "Mothu!  Mothu!" and saw they
+were--well, embracing one another, and then came "Mithter Button,
+Mithter Button, oh, take me home!'"
+
+Eager caressing hands were held out to Monsieur, who jumped off the
+seat to receive the pats and laudations lavished on his curly round
+pate, and had to be reduced to order before Mr. Dutton could answer
+the question whether he had any further difficulty or danger.
+
+'I took him up in my arms, and a handsome truculent-looking woman
+burst out on me, demanding what I was about with her child.  To which
+I answered that she knew very well he was no such thing.  Her man
+came swaggering up, declaring impudently that I had better be off--
+but I believe he saw that the people who came round would not take
+his part, for he gave in much more easily than I expected.  I
+explained as loud as I could that this was a gentleman's son who had
+been stolen from his nurse in the Park.  The man began to protest
+that they had found him deserted, and taken him with them out of
+charity, requesting to be paid for his keep.  So I thought it better
+to give them a sovereign at once, so as to have no further trouble,
+and get him away as fast as I could.  The woman came after me, making
+further demands, but the sight of a policeman in the distance turned
+her back.  I went up to him and explained.  I found he knew all about
+the loss and the reward, and looked regretfully at my prize.  We went
+back to the hotel, where I set Alwyn to rights as well as I could,
+sent out for some clothes, such as the place would produce, and which
+at least, as he says, made a boy of him again.  I'm afraid the
+process was rather trying from such unaccustomed hands, though he was
+very good, and he has been asleep almost all the way home, and, his
+senses all as in a dream bound up.'
+
+The heaviness--whether weariness or content, still continued.  Alwyn
+seemed to find it too much trouble to talk, and only gave little
+smiles, more like his mother than himself.  He clung quite
+desperately to his sister when Mark offered to lift him from the
+carriage, but nurse was close behind, and it was good to see the
+little arms stretched out, and the head laid on her shoulder, the
+hand put up to stroke her cheek, and the lips whispering 'Wyn's own
+nursie.'  The jubilant greeting and triumphant procession with which
+he was borne upstairs seemed almost to oppress him.  He appeared
+almost as if he was afraid of wakening from a happy dream, and his
+lively merriment seemed all gone; there were only beams of
+recognition and gladness at 'Wyn's own nursery, Wyn's own pretty
+cup,' touching it as if to make sure that it was real, and pleased to
+see the twisted crusts, his special treat.
+
+But he could not eat much of them, and soon laid his head down, as
+one weary, with the exhaustion of content; and nurse, who had allowed
+that Mr. Dutton had, considering all things, done much for the
+outward restoration of the daintiness of her recovered child, was
+impatient to give him the hot bath and night's rest that was to bring
+back the bright joyous Alwyn.  So Nuttie only lingered for those
+evening prayers she had yearned after so sorely.  When she held his
+mother's picture to him to be kissed, he raised his eyes to her and
+said: 'Will she come to me at night now?'
+
+'Who, my darling?'
+
+'She, mother dear.'
+
+'Here's her picture, dear boy.'
+
+'Not only the picture--she came out of it, when I cried, up on the
+nasty-smelling bundle in the van all in the dark.'
+
+'She came?'
+
+'Yes, she came, and made it so nice, and hushed me.  I wasn't afraid
+to go to by-by when she came.  And she sang.  Sister, can't you sing
+like that?'
+
+'Not here, I'm afraid, dear, dear boy,' she whispered, holding him so
+tight that he gave a little cry of 'It hurts.'  Then came the
+prayers, not a word forgotten, and the little voice joined in her
+murmured thanksgiving for bringing him home.
+
+She was much moved and awe-stricken at these words of her little
+brother; but she had to dress in haste for dinner, listening the
+while to her maid's rejoinings and vituperations of the wretches who
+had maltreated the child.
+
+When she came down she found no one in the drawing-room but Mr.
+Dutton, whom her father had asked to the happiest meal that had
+perhaps ever been eaten in that house.
+
+She went towards him with winged steps in her white dress: 'Oh! Mr.
+Dutton, we have not said half enough to you, but we never, never
+can.'
+
+He gave a curious, trembling half smile, as she held out her hands to
+him, and said: 'The joy is great in itself,' speaking in a very low
+voice.
+
+'Oh! I am so glad that you did it,' cried Ursula.  'It would not have
+been half so sweet to owe it to any one else.'
+
+'Miss Egremont, do you know what you are saying?' he exclaimed.
+
+'Don't call me Miss Egremont!  You never used to.  Why should you?'
+
+'I have not dared--' he began.
+
+'Dared!  Don't you know you always were our own Mr. Dutton--best,
+wisest friend of all, and now more than ever.'
+
+'Stay,' he said, 'I cannot allow you in your fervour to say such
+things to me, unaware of the strength of feeling you are stirring
+within me.'
+
+'You! you!  Mr. Dutton!' cried Nuttie, with a moment's recoil.  'You
+don't mean that you care for _me_.'
+
+'I know it is preposterous--' he began.
+
+'Preposterous!  Yes, that you should care one bit for silly, foolish,
+naughty, self-willed me.  Oh, Mr. Dutton, you can't mean it!'
+
+'Indeed, I would have kept silence, and not disturbed you with my
+presumption, if--'
+
+'Hush!' she cried.  'Why, it makes me so glad and so proud, I don't
+know what to do.  I didn't think anybody was good enough for you--
+unless it was dear, dear mother--and that it should be me.'
+
+'It is true,' he said gravely, 'my younger days were spent in a vain
+dream of that angel, then when all that was ended, I thought such
+things were not for me; but the old feeling has wakened, it seems to
+me in greater force than ever, though I meant to have kept it in
+control--'
+
+'Oh, I am glad you didn't!  It seems as if the world swam round with
+wonder and happiness,' and she held his hand as if to steady herself,
+starting however as Annaple opened the door saying, 'We've been
+sending telegrams with the good news.'
+
+Then an arch light came into her bright eyes, but the others were
+behind her, and she said no more.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+FOUND AND TAKEN.
+
+
+
+
+'The angels of the gateway
+  Bent softly to the child,
+ And stretched glad hands to take him
+  To the kingdom undefiled.'--B. M.
+
+
+'Come up and see him,' said Nuttie, as the dining-room door was shut.
+'I must feast my eyes on him.'
+
+Annaple replied by throwing an arm round her and looking into her
+eyes, kissing her on each cheek, and then, as they reached the
+landing in the summer twilight, waltzing round and round that narrow
+space with her.
+
+'You ridiculous person!' said Nuttie.  'Do you mean that you saw!'
+
+'Of course I did; I've seen ever so long--'
+
+'Nonsense!  That's impossible--'
+
+'Impossible to owls and bats perhaps, but to nothing else not to see
+that there was one sole and single hero in the world to you, and that
+to him there was one single being in the world; and that being the
+case---'
+
+'But, Annaple, you can't guess what he has always been to me.'
+
+'Oh! don't I know?--a sort of Archbishop of Canterbury and George
+Heriot rolled into one.  So much the more reason, my dear, I don't
+know when I've been so glad in my life than that your good times
+should be coming.'
+
+'They are come in knowing this!  It is only too wonderful,' said
+Nuttie, as they stood together among the plants in the little
+conservatory on the way upstairs.  'I always thought it insulting to
+him when they teased me about him.'
+
+'They did, did they?'
+
+'My father, incited by poor Gregorio.  Oh, Annaple! don't let any one
+guess till we know how my father will take it.  What is it, Ellen?'
+as the nursery-maid appeared on the stairs.
+
+'If you please, ma'am, Mrs. Poole would be glad if you are coming up
+to the nursery.'
+
+They both hastened up and nurse came out to meet them in the day
+nursery, making a sign to Ellen to take her place by the cot, and
+withholding the two ladies.  She made them come as far off as
+possible, and then said that she was not at all satisfied about
+Master Alwyn.  There had been the same drowsiness and disinclination
+to speak, and when she had undressed and washed him, he had seemed
+tender all over, and cried out and moaned as if her touch hurt him,
+especially on one side where, she felt convinced, there was some
+injury; but when she asked about it his eyes grew frightened and
+bewildered, and he only cried in a feeble sort of way, as if sobs
+gave him pain.
+
+She had soothed him, and he had gone into his own bed with the same
+gentle languid gladness, but had presently begun moaning, and
+imploring in his sleep, wakening with screams and entreaties, 'Oh,
+I'll do it!  I'll try!' and she thought him very feverish.  Would it
+not be better that a doctor should see him?
+
+Nurse was always an alarmist, and Nuttie could not help thinking that
+to wake the child to see a stranger to-night would only add to his
+terror and distress, while Annaple declared her entire belief that
+though no doubt the poor little fellow had been cruelly knocked about
+and bruised, a night's rest would probably restore his bright self,
+and make all that was past only like a bad dream.  There was no
+judging to-night, and sleep was wonderful reparation to those little
+beings.
+
+Then however the moans and murmurs began again, and now the awakening
+cry.  They started forward, and as Nuttie came to the cot-side the
+child threw himself into her bosom with, 'Sister!  Sister!  It is
+sister!' but his eyes grew round with terror at sight of Annaple, and
+clinging tightly to Nuttie he gasped, 'Send her away! don't let her
+touch me!  Fan's not here!'
+
+To tell him she was Cousin Annaple, Billy's mamma, had no effect; he
+did not seem able to understand, and she could only retire--nurse
+being thus convinced that to let him see another stranger to-night
+would only do further harm.  Nuttie and nurse succeeded in reassuring
+him that he was safe at home and with them, and in hushing him off
+into what they hoped would be a quiet wholesome sleep in spite of the
+hot sultry night, on which Annaple laid a good deal of the blame of
+his restlessness and feverishness.
+
+Nuttie only came down for a short time before the visitors went away;
+and then she wrote a note to Dr. Brownlow, which Mark promised to
+leave as he went to the city in the morning, Mr. Egremont, in his
+present relief, pooh-poohing all fears, and backing up Annaple's
+belief in the powers of 'tired nature's soft restorer'; but Mr.
+Dutton looked grave and said that he had remarked the extreme
+tenderness, but had hoped that much was due to his own inexperience
+in handling little children.  The parting clasp of the hand had a
+world of meaning in it, and Nuttie openly said that she hoped to tell
+him after matins at St. Michael's how the boy was.  But she could not
+be there.  When she went upstairs at night the half-delirious terrors
+had returned, and there was another difficult soothing and comforting
+before the child slept again.  Nurse fancied the unwonted presence
+might disturb him, and insisted on her going to her own room.
+
+When she returned in the morning it was to find that since daylight
+he had been more quietly asleep; but there was a worn sunken look
+about his face, and she could not be satisfied to leave him alone
+while the nurses stirred about and breakfasted.
+
+He awoke smiling and happy; he looked about and said gladly, 'Wyn at
+home!  Wyn's own nursery,' but he did not want to get up; 'Wyn so
+tired,' he said, speaking of himself in the baby form that he had for
+several months discarded, but he said his pretty 'thank you,' and
+took delight in breakfasting in his cot, though still in a subdued
+way, and showing great reluctance to move or be touched.
+
+Nuttie was sent for to report of him to his father, who would not
+hear for a moment of anxiety, declaring that the boy would be quite
+well if they let him alone, he only wanted rest, and insisting on
+following out his intention of seeing a police superintendent to
+demand whether the kidnapping rascals could not be prosecuted.
+
+Neither by Nuttie nor nurse could much be extracted from the poor
+little fellow himself about his adventures.  He could not bear to
+think of them, and there was a mist of confusion over his mind,
+partly from weakness, partly, they also thought, from the drugged
+spirits with which he had been more than once dosed.  He dimly
+remembered missing Gregorio in the park, and that he had tried to
+find his way home alone, but some one, a big boy, he thought, had
+said he would show him the way, took hold of his hand, dragged him,
+he knew not where, into dreadful dirt and stench, and apparently had
+silenced him with a blow before stripping him.  But it was all very
+indistinct, he could not tell how Mother Bet got hold of him, and the
+being dressed in the rags of a girl had somehow loosed his hold of
+his own identity.  He did not seem at all certain that the poor
+little dirty petticoated thing who had wakened in a horrible cellar,
+or in a dark jolting van who had been dubbed Fan, who had been forced
+by the stick to dance and twist and compelled to drink burning,
+choking stuff, was the same with Alwyn in his sailor suit or in his
+white cot.
+
+It was Dr. Brownlow who at once detected that there had been much of
+this dosing, and drew forth the fact.  It had probably been done
+whenever it was expedient that he should be hidden, or unable to make
+any appeal to outsiders.  Alwyn was quite himself by day, and showed
+no unreasonable fear or shyness, but he begged not to be touched, and
+though he tried to be good and manly, could not keep from cries and
+screams when the doctor examined him.
+
+Then it came out.  'It's where he kicked me.'
+
+'Who?'
+
+'That man--master, she said I must call him.  He kicked poor little
+Fan with his great heavy big boots--'cause Fan would say Wyn's
+prayers.'
+
+'Who was Fan?' asked the puzzled doctor.
+
+'Himself,' whispered Nuttie.  'Alas! himself!'
+
+'Wyn was Fan,' said Alwyn.  'Fan's gone now!'
+
+'And did the man kick poor little Fan,' repeated the doctor--'here?'
+
+'Oh don't--don't!  It hurts so.  Master said he would have none of
+that, and he kicked with his big boot.  Oh!  Fan couldn't dance one
+bit after that.'
+
+He could not tell how long ago this had been.  He seemed to have lost
+all reckoning of days, and probably felt as if ages had past in Funny
+Frank's van, but Dr. Brownlow thought the injury could not be above
+two or three days old, and probably it accounted for there having
+been no more obstructions put in the way of removing the child, since
+he had ceased to be of use, and the discovery of the injury might
+have brought the perpetrator into trouble.  Indeed, as it was, Mr.
+Egremont caused the police to be written to, demanding the arrest of
+the man and woman Brag, but they had already decamped, and were never
+traced, which was decidedly a relief to those who dreaded all that a
+prosecution would have involved.
+
+And Dr. Brownlow became very grave over the injury.  He said it was a
+surgical case, and he should like to have another opinion, enjoining
+that the child should be kept in bed, and as quiet as possible, till
+he could bring his friend in the afternoon, which was no difficult
+matter, for Alwyn seemed to have no desire for anything but rest and
+the sight of his friends and his treasures, which were laid beside
+him to be gently handled and stroked but not played with.  Mothu and
+Mithter Button were among the friends he craved for, but he showed no
+desire to see Billy-boy, and it was thought best to keep that young
+gentleman's rampant strength at a distance.
+
+The chief difficulty was with his father, who declared they were all
+croaking, and that the boy would be as well as ever to-morrow.  He
+went and sat by the cot, and talked merrily of the pony that Alwyn
+was to ride, and the yachting they would have in the summer; and the
+little fellow smiled and was pleased, but went to sleep in the midst.
+Then Mr. Egremont went out, taking Annaple with him, because Nuttie
+would not go till the doctors' visit was over, though he declared
+that they were certain not to come till long after her return from
+the drive.  He actually went to the dealer's, and had pony after pony
+paraded before the carriage, choosing a charming toy Shetland at
+last, subject to its behaviour with the coachman's little boy, while
+Annaple hopefully agreed with him that Alwyn would be on its back in
+another week.
+
+He still maintained his opinion, outwardly at least, when he was met
+on his return by Nuttie with a pale, almost thunderstruck face.  Dr.
+Brownlow had called her from trying to soothe away the fright and
+suffering of the examination, to break to her that both he and his
+colleague thought very seriously of the injury and its consequences,
+and deemed it very doubtful whether the poor little fellow could be
+pulled through.
+
+Mr. Egremont was again angry, declared that she had misunderstood,
+and made the worst of it; that Dr. Brownlow was a conceited young
+ass; that his friend played into his hands; with other amenities of
+the same kind, to which she listened with mingled irritation and pity
+for his unreasonableness, and even at the sympathy which he found in
+Annaple's hopeful nature.
+
+The young mother never dreaded nor expected what she could not bear
+to think possible, such as the death-warrant of that beautiful child,
+while Nuttie's nature always expected the worst, and indeed had read
+the doom in the doctor's eyes and voice rather than in his words.  So
+Annaple backed Mr. Egremont up when he made his daughter write to
+desire Dr. Brownlow to call in the first advice in London; and among
+them they made so sure that this would be effective that they
+actually raised Nuttie's hopes so as to buoy her through the feverish
+early hours of the night when the pain was aggravated, the terrors
+returned, the boy was tormented by his duality with Fan, and the past
+miseries were acted over again.  Even nurse and sister did not
+suffice, and Mithter Button had to be fetched by Mark before he could
+feel quite secure that he was Alwyn and not Fan.  Indeed, in these
+light-headed moments, a better notion was gained of what he must have
+endured than in the day-time, when all seemed put aside or forgotten.
+After a time he became capable of being soothed by hymns, though
+still asking why his sister could not sing like that vision of his
+mother which had comforted him in his previous miseries, and craving
+for her return.  Then at last he fell quietly asleep, and Nuttie was
+left with a few sustaining words and a pressure from Mr. Dutton's
+hand.
+
+Alas! the new consultation could only ratify the first opinion.  The
+injury need not have been necessarily fatal, though dangerous to any
+young child, and here it had been aggravated by previous ill-
+treatment, and by the doses of spirits that had been forced down,
+besides which, Alwyn was naturally delicate, and--though the doctors
+would not say so to father or sister--there were hereditary
+predispositions that gave him the less chance of battling through.
+
+Yet Mr. Egremont concluded his purchase of the pony, and insisted
+that Alwyn should be carried to the window to see it; and Alwyn's
+smile was almost enough to break Nuttie's heart, but his head drooped
+on nurse's shoulder, he hardly lifted his heavy eyelids, and begged
+for 'by-by' again.  Even Annaple burst into tears at the sight, ran
+out of the room with her sobs, and never augured recovery again,
+though still she strove to cheer and while away the poor father's
+piteous hours by making the most of every sign that the child was
+happy and not suffering much.
+
+That he would be viewed as a 'pale placid martyr' was his sister's
+chief comfort.  His replies as to the manner of the hurt, as well as
+his light-headed wanderings, had made it more and more evident that
+the man Brag's brutality had been excited by his persisting in
+kneeling down to say his prayers aloud--the only way he knew how to
+say them.  Indeed there was a recurring anxiety night and morning to
+kneel, which had to be reasoned away, even when he was too weak to
+make the attempt, and was only appeased by 'Sister' kneeling by his
+side, holding his hands, and repeating the little prayers with him.
+It was of his own accord that he added: 'And forgive those people,
+and make them good.'  Annaple burst into tears again and almost
+scolded when she heard of it.  'Oh dear! oh dear! now I know he won't
+get well!  I'm glad Billy isn't so horribly good!  Nuttie, Nuttie,
+don't!  You know I don't mean it.  Only I just can't bear it.  He is
+the sweetest little fellow in the world!  And oh! the cruelty of it.'
+
+'Yes,' said Nuttie in her dreary calmness; 'he is too sweet and
+lovely and beautiful and good to be anywhere but safe with mother.'
+
+For it was more apparent that they could not keep him.  It did not
+last long; there were a couple of piteous days of restless pain and
+distress, and then came the more fatal lull and absence of suffering,
+a drowsiness in which the little fellow sank gradually away, lying
+with a strange calm beauty on his face, and smiling feebly when he
+now and then lifted his eyes to rest them on sister or nurse.  His
+father could not bear the sight.  It filled him more with angry
+compassion than with the tender reverence and hushed awe with which
+Ursula watched her darling slipping as it were from her hold.  So Mr.
+Egremont wandered wretchedly about the lower rooms, while Mark and
+Annaple tried their best for him through the long summer evening,
+darkening into night.  By and by Alwyn lifted his hand, turned his
+head, opened his lips, and whispered, 'Hark, sister, she is singing.'
+The look of exceeding joy beamed more and more over the pinched
+little face.  'She's come again,' he said; and once more, 'Come to
+take Wyn to the dear Lord.'  After that there were very few more long
+breaths before little Alwyn Egremont's spirit was gone to that unseen
+world, and only the fair little frame left with that wondrous look of
+delighted recognition on the face.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+THE UMBRELLA MAN.
+
+
+
+
+Little Alwyn was laid to rest beside his mother in a beautiful summer
+noontide.  His father was not in a state to attend the funeral, and
+was left under the care of Annaple, his own choice among those who
+offered to stay and minister to him.  It was his own wish that his
+daughter should be to the last with her little brother.  He had even
+said to her that she had been a good sister, and his boy had been
+very fond of her, and he would not keep her away on any account.
+
+And, with a man's preference for a young and kindly woman, he chose
+Annaple to be with him rather than Mr. Dutton, remembering likewise
+that but for him the boy would have died in some workhouse, unknown
+and unclaimed, or among the wretches who had caused his death.  So
+Nuttie had the comfort of Mr. Dutton's going down with her, as well
+as Mark, and poor broken-down nurse, but not a word referring to the
+confession of that happy evening had passed between them during the
+mournful fortnight which had since elapsed.
+
+May Condamine and her husband had made all as fair and consoling as
+they could.  There were white-robed children to bear the boy from the
+churchyard gate, choristers sang hymns, the grave was lined with moss
+and daisies, and white roses decked the little coffin and the mound.
+There was as much of welcome and even of triumph as befitted the
+innocent child, whose death had in it the element of testimony to the
+truth.  And Nuttie felt it, or would feel it by and by, when her
+spirit felt less as if some precious thing had been torn up by the
+roots--to be safe and waiting for her elsewhere, indeed, but that did
+not solace the yearning longing for the merry loving child; nor the
+aching pity for the crushed blighted creature whom she had watched
+suffering and dying.  It was far beyond her power as yet to acquiesce
+in her aunt's consolation that it was happier for the child himself,
+than if he was to grow up to temptation from without, and with an
+unsound constitution, with dangerous hereditary proclivities.  She
+could believe it in faith, nay, she had already experienced the
+difficulties her father had thrown in her way of dealing with him,
+she tried to be resigned, but the good sense of the Canoness was too
+much for her.
+
+It was a day of more haste than suited the ideal of such a time, for
+Mr. Egremont could not be left for a night; so there was only time
+for a luncheon, with little jerks of talk, and then for an hour spent
+in short private interviews.  Mrs. Egremont obtained from poor Nurse
+Poole all the details, and, moreover, her opinion of Mr. Mark's baby,
+in whom, it having been born under her auspices, she took a special
+interest.
+
+Nuttie meantime was pacing the shady walk with her dear old friend
+Miss Nugent, feeling it strange that her heart did not leap up at the
+bare presence of one she loved so much, yet conscious of the soothing
+of her sympathy.  And Mary, watching her all through, had been struck
+with the increased sweetness and nobleness her countenance had
+acquired during these years of discipline.  More of her mother's
+expression had come than could have been thought possible in features
+of such a different mould, formed for so much more strength and
+energy.  They had not met since Nuttie had been summoned home to her
+mother's deathbed, and their time was chiefly spent on reminiscences
+alike of the old sorrow and the new; but, when the time for parting
+was nearly come, Mary said affectionately, 'And you, my dear?'
+
+'Oh, I am all right,' said Nuttie, and her eyes shone with a light
+Mary did not at the moment understand; 'you need not be anxious for
+me _now_.'
+
+'I suppose that unhappy valet's death makes your task easier,' said
+Mary.
+
+'I think it will,' said Nuttie.  'Poor man!  He was--I can't help
+saying it--the evil genius of the house.  Dear mother knew it,
+struggled against him, and broke down in the struggle.  It seems so
+strange that what she could not do has been done in such a manner,
+and at such a price!  I wonder whether she knew it when she welcomed
+her boy!'
+
+'Her influence will aid you still,' said Mary, 'and you have Mr.
+Dutton to help you too.  I was so glad to find he was so near you.'
+
+'Oh, Mr. Dutton!' exclaimed Ursula, in a strange tone that sent a
+thrill through Mary, though she knew not why; but at that moment they
+were interrupted, very inopportunely, by Mr. Bulfinch, who could not
+go away without asking Miss Egremont whether she thought her father
+could see him on business if he came up to town the next day.  She
+thought that such an interview would rouse her father and do him
+good, advising him to call on the chance.
+
+Mark's tete-a-tete had been with his sister May, to whom he had much
+to tell of his wife and her gallant patience and energy, and how
+curious it was that now the incubus that had weighed on his uncle's
+household was removed, the prejudice had melted away, and he had
+grown so fond of her that, next to Ursula, she was his best
+comforter.
+
+'I hope that will lead to more,' said May.
+
+'I don't see how,' said Mark.  The more we rely only on a blessing on
+our own exertions the better.'
+
+'Even when Annaple works within an inch of her life?'
+
+'Now that she is on a right tack about the baby, that will be easier.
+Yes, May, I do feel sometimes that I have brought her down to
+drudgery and narrowness and want of variety such as was never meant
+for her, but she will never let me think so.  She says that it is
+living in realities, and that it makes her happier than toiling after
+society, or rather after the world, and I do believe it is true!  I'm
+sure it is with me.'
+
+'But such work as yours, Mark.'
+
+'Nonsense, May; I enjoy it.  I did not when I was in the Greenleaf
+firm, with an undeveloped sense that Goodenough was not to be
+trusted, and we were drifting to the bad, yet too green to understand
+or hinder it; but this I thoroughly like.  What does one want but
+honest effective work, with some power of dealing with and helping
+those good fellows, the hands, to see the right and help themselves?'
+
+May sighed.  'And yet, now that poor child is gone, I feel all the
+more how hard it is that you should be put out of the rights of your
+name.'
+
+'I never had any rights.  It was the bane of my life to be supposed
+to have them.  Nothing but this could have made a man of me.'
+
+'And don't you have regrets for your boy?'
+
+'I don't think I have--provided we can give him an education--such as
+I failed to make proper use of, or Annaple might be luxuriating at
+Pera at this moment.'
+
+'Well!' said May, pausing as she looked up the vista of trees at the
+great house; 'I can't bear it to go out of the old name.'
+
+'Names may be taken!'
+
+'You don't mean that there's any chance of--Oh! not that horrid Mr.
+Fane?'
+
+'Certainly not.'
+
+'Oh!' as a trim black figure appeared walking down the open space.
+'That man!'
+
+'I am not authorised to tell any one so, May.'
+
+'Yes, I understand.  The wretch, he is taking stock of the place
+already!'
+
+'For shame.  May, no one has deserved so well of them.'
+
+'I don't care, he got you into that horrid concern.'
+
+'And got me out of it, and found my work for me.  I tell you, May, it
+is the best thing that could possibly happen to your parish, or the
+estate, or my poor uncle either!  And you will soon come to a better
+mind. '
+
+'Never, while he is to get into your place!  Turn back before he
+comes within hailing distance. '
+
+Before Mark could do anything towards bringing his sister to a better
+mind he was seized on by his stepmother to propound a scheme she had
+hatched, namely that, as a mutual benefit, Nurse Poole should be
+allowed the consolation of bringing her chief comforter, his little
+daughter, down with her on the visit Mrs. Egremont had invited her to
+pay at Redcastle.  He was very grateful, though doubtful whether
+Annaple would accept the offer, for she was missing her children's
+company, though they were only at Springfield House, and she had been
+with them part of every day.  And, sad as this month had been, it had
+been such a rest from sheer physical toil that she had gained almost
+as much by it as the little one.
+
+There was a general assembly and coffee-drinking in the verandah,--
+Mr. Condamine, Blanche, and her two young sisters were all there,--
+and May had to be duly civil to Mr. Dutton, though he came back with
+some water-lilies that he had fished out of the lake for Nuttie, and
+she thought it taking possession.  Then the Londoners set forth for
+the station, and there Mark, having perhaps had a hint from his wife,
+saw Nuttie and Mr. Dutton safely bestowed by Broadbent in an empty
+carriage, and then discovered a desire to smoke, and left them to
+themselves.
+
+They had not been alone together for more than a second since the
+evening of Alwyn's return, and there was a great shyness between
+them, which lasted till the first station was past without any
+irruption of newcomers.  Nothing had been said but a few comments on
+the arrangements and the attendants, but probably both were trying to
+begin to speak, and at last it was Ursula who crossed over so that
+her face could not be seen, and said in an odd tone--
+
+'Mr. Dutton--'
+
+'Yes,' and he turned, instantly on the alert.
+
+'Did you mean it--what I thought you meant that evening?'
+
+'Can you doubt it?' he said earnestly.  'But even then I was
+surprised into the avowal, and I would have held it back if possible,
+if I had guessed what was going to happen.'
+
+'Ah! but then I should not have had that drop of comfort through it
+all,' and she laid hold of his hand, which returned the pressure
+strongly, but he sedulously guarded both words and tone as he said:
+
+'Listen, Ursula, before you speak again.  How dear you must always be
+to me, I cannot tell you, but when I then spoke, it was with the
+sense that on every account, I should meet with strong opposition
+from your father and family.  And now your position is altered, so
+that the unsuitability is doubled.  I am not a young man, remember,
+and my thoughts must be for you above all, I want you to consider
+whether, in the present state of affairs, you would not do better to
+look on what then passed as unsaid, or only as the ebullition of
+gratitude towards your old friend.  Let me go abroad, and give you
+full opportunity for--for some fresh beginning likely to be fitter
+for you--'
+
+'Mr. Dutton, how can you say such horrid things?  As if a dukedom
+would make any difference.'
+
+'Yes,' he said, turning towards her.  'If it is only the old-friend
+feeling, then it is better dropped, but if your heart is in it,
+child, then we go on, come what may.  It is due to you.'
+
+She raised her face towards him now, and he gave a grave kiss to her
+forehead.  She drew a long breath, and said after a little pause,
+'And now I have something to say.  One does think of such things even
+in these sad times, and you can help me.  I am so glad it is you,
+because I know you will, and be rejoiced to do so.  You know when
+Mark found us out first, dear mother and I always felt that it was a
+great pity he should not have the estate he had been brought up to
+expect.  I believe dear mother thought it would have been the right
+thing for me to marry him, but I always did mean to give it back to
+him, even when I didn't like him.  Well, then, you know it all seemed
+settled otherwise, but now, it is so lucky you spoke to me while that
+dear little fellow was with us, because now you will help me to
+persuade my father that it is the only satisfactory thing to do to
+let it go in the male line to Mark and his Willy.'
+
+'I see!  I see!' said Mr. Dutton eagerly.  'It would be an infinite
+relief if it could be carried out.'
+
+'I believe my father would like it,' said Nuttie.  'He cares for the
+name; and now no one prevents it; he is fond of Mark, and still more
+of Annaple!  And you!  Oh, Mr. Dutton, if he will only take it in the
+right way, I think you will make me able to do what it grieved dear
+mother never to have brought about for my poor father.'
+
+'My whole self is yours to aid you,' he said.  'You know of course
+that I could not ask you to detach yourself from one to whom you are
+so necessary.  If he will permit us, we will watch over him together
+as doing her work.'
+
+'Thank you,' was all Nuttie's lips could utter, though her hand said
+much more.
+
+And before they reached London they had arranged something of a plan
+of action for propitiating Mr. Egremont, and bringing the future
+prospects to be available so as to save Annaple from being worked to
+death in the meantime.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+ANNAPLE'S AMBITION FALLEN.
+
+
+
+
+'Well, how did you get on, Annaple?'
+
+'Oh! very well, poor old man, on the whole, though it made one pity
+him doubly that he chose to make as if he forgot everything, and you
+were all gone on a picnic, taking me out for a long drive in the
+afternoon--where we were least likely to meet any one--that I will
+say for him.'
+
+'Forgetting is not the best for him.'
+
+'As if he could forget!  But he was very nice and friendly, and put
+on his best, most courteous self.  I think he looks on me rather as a
+protector from the solemn Mr. Edsall.'
+
+'Surely Edsall treats him well.  He was excellently recommended.  You
+know I saw his master's daughter.'
+
+'Oh! only _too_ well.  He takes the management of him as if he were
+three years old, or a lunatic.  He simply _will_ not be offended any
+more than if he had to do with a baby.'
+
+'What should offend him?'
+
+'That Mr. Egremont greatly resents being allowed nothing but by what
+Edsall calls medical sanction.  He is too blind, you know, to venture
+to pour out anything for himself, and besides, Edsall has all the
+drugs under lock and key, and is coolness itself about any amount of
+objurgations, such as I fancy go on sometimes.'
+
+'Do you think he will stand it?'
+
+'Who?  Your uncle?  Yes, I think he will.  This man really makes him
+more comfortable than poor Gregorio did.'
+
+'Yes; Nuttie said she was sure that there was neglect, if not
+bullying latterly.  But he must miss Gregorio terribly.  They had
+been together for at least five-and-twenty or thirty years, and had
+plenty of gossip together.'
+
+'Whereas the present paternal despotism and appalling dignity and
+gravity will keep him more dependent on his right congeners.'
+
+'If they are of the right sort, that's all.'
+
+'He has been making me read him a whole heap of letters; indeed, as
+you know, I have been doing that all along, when he could not get
+Nuttie.  There were some from Mr. Bulfinch.  Do you know that bailiff
+of his must be next door to a swindler?'
+
+'Bulfinch is coming up to see him to-morrow.'
+
+'And, Mark, do you know, he has been putting out feelers as if to
+discover whether we would do--what he asked us to do five years ago.'
+
+'Would you?'
+
+'If it were not for the children, and--and sometimes the extreme
+pinch, I should say it was more like _life_ to work yourself up as a
+City man,' said Annaple.  'If you were the Squire, with all his
+opportunities, it would be a different thing, but there's no outlet
+there, and I have often admired the wisdom of the Apocryphal saying,
+"Make not thyself an underling to a foolish man."'
+
+'Well, it is lucky you think so, Nannie, for though Dutton is
+certainly not a foolish man, he will not want an underling.  And what
+do you say to my mother's proposal of having poor Poole to stay at
+Redcastle, and borrowing baby to comfort her till she goes out again.
+
+'I hate it,' said Annaple energetically.  'It is very horrid, but it
+is awfully good of the Canoness; and I suppose we shall have to let
+it come to pass, and miss all that most charming time of babyhood
+which is coming.  But most likely it will quite set the little woman
+up, and be a real kindness to poor Poole.'
+
+'If we could only keep her for good.'
+
+'Yes, and then our children would not be half so much our own.  I do
+want to be away with them in our own quarters.  I wonder when Nuttie
+can spare us, but I should like to see her through the great crisis
+with her father.'
+
+That crisis was to involve more than Annaple in the least expected.
+Nuttie found that the momentous confession could not possibly take
+place before the interview with Mr. Bulfinch, at which her presence
+was needed to help her father with his papers.  The principal concern
+was to show the full enormity of the bailiff, and decide upon the
+steps to be taken, the solicitor being anxious for a prosecution,
+while a certain tenderness for poor Gregorio's memory, or perhaps for
+the exposure of his own carelessness, made Mr. Egremont reluctant.
+There was also a proposal, brought forward with much diffidence from
+Mr. Condamine's mother, to rent Bridgefield House, but on this, as
+well as respecting a successor to the bailiff, Mr. Egremont was to
+give his answer the next day, when Mr. Bulfinch would call again.
+
+Nuttie was thankful for the business that had filled up the hour
+after luncheon, when Alwyn used to play in the drawing-room and
+delight his father; but she was feeling desperate to have the crisis
+over, and resolved to speak when she went out driving with him.  It
+was he, however, who began.  'I sounded Mark's wife yesterday,
+Ursula.  She is a nice little thing enough, and a good wife in her
+way.'
+
+'A very good wife.'
+
+'Except when she persuaded him to turn up his nose at the agency.
+D'ye think he would take it now, since he has tasted the sweets of
+his umbrella business?' then, as Nuttie paused, taken by surprise;
+'Five hundred a year and the Home Farm would be better than, what is
+it, a hundred and fifty and a floor over a warehouse!  I don't like
+to see old Will's son wearing himself out there, and the lad is a
+good honest lad, with business habits, who would do justice to you
+after I am gone.'
+
+'Father,' said Nuttie, trembling with the effort, 'I want you to do
+something better than that.  I want you to let Mark take the agency
+with a view to himself--not me.  Let him be as he would have been if
+he had never hunted us up at Micklethwayte, and put me in his place.'
+
+'Eh!' said Mr. Egremont.  'It is not entailed--worse luck; if it had
+been, I should not have been bound to dance attendance at the heels
+of such an old sinner as the General.'
+
+'No, but it ought to go to the heir male, and keep in the old name.
+Think--there have been Egremonts at Bridgefield for four hundred
+years!'
+
+'Very pretty talk, but how will it be with you, Miss.  We shall have
+Fane, and I don't know how many more, coming after the scent of
+Bridgefield now,' he said with a heavy sigh, ending with a bitter
+'Hang them all!'
+
+'And welcome,' said Nuttie, answering the thought rather than the
+words.  'Father, I wanted to tell you--'
+
+'You don't mean that any one has been after you at such a time as
+this!' he cried.
+
+'It was before--I mean it was the evening when we were all so glad,
+before we began to be afraid.'
+
+'The umbrella man!  By Jove!'
+
+'And now,' went on Nuttie, in spite of the explosion, 'he would
+hardly have ventured to go on with it but for this--I mean,' as her
+father gave a little laugh of his unpleasant sort, 'he said it would
+be the greatest possible relief, and make it all right for the
+property to go to the heir male.'
+
+'Hein!  You think so, do you?  See how it will be when I come to talk
+to him!  A shrewd fellow like that who got out of the Micklethwayte
+concern just in time.  Catch him giving up a place like that, though
+he may humbug you.'
+
+'Then you will see him, father?'
+
+'If you turn him in on me, I can't help it.  Bless me! umbrellas
+everywhere!  And here you mean to turn me over to the mercies of that
+solemn idiot, Edsall.  I should have been better off with poor
+Gregorio.'
+
+'No, father; Mr. Dutton would not take me from you.  We would both
+try all we could to make you comfortable.'
+
+'Convert the old reprobate?  Is that his dodge?'
+
+'Don't, father,' for the sneering tone returned.
+
+'Come now,' he added in a much more fatherly manner, for her voice
+had struck him.  'You don't mean that a well-looking girl like you,
+who could have her pick of all the swells in town, can really be
+smitten with a priggish old retired umbrella-monger like that.  Why,
+he might be your father.'
+
+'He has been getting younger ever since I knew him,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Well.  He plays as good a game of whist as any man in England,'
+muttered Mr. Egremont, leaving his daughter in actual doubt whether
+he meant this as a recommendation, or as expressing a distrust of
+him, as one likely to play his cards to the best advantage.  She had
+to remain in doubt, for they overtook Clarence Fane, who came and
+spoke to them in a very friendly and solicitous manner, and showed
+himself willing to accept a lift in the carriage.  Mr. Egremont,
+willing to escape from perplexities as well as to endeavour to drive
+away if possible the oppression of his grief, invited him in, and he
+had some gossip to impart, which at first seemed to amuse the hearer
+after this time of seclusion, but the sick and sore heart soon
+wearied of it, and long before the drive was over, Mr. Egremont was
+as much bored as his daughter had been from the first.
+
+When Mr. Fane got out, he paused a moment to hold Ursula's hand in a
+tender manner, while he told her that he had not ventured to intrude
+(he had left a card of inquiry every day), but that if ever he could
+be of the least use in amusing Mr. Egremont, he was at her service,
+and would give up any engagement.
+
+'Hein! my fine fellow!  No doubt you would!' said Mr. Egremont, when
+his daughter had uttered her cold thanks, and they had driven on.  'I
+see your little game, but it is soon to begin it.  We may as well let
+them know that she is booked before the running begins.'
+
+It was a remarkable intimation of his acceptance of her engagement,
+but Ursula was contented to take it as such, and be thankful.
+
+Mr. Dutton had his interview as soon as Mr. Egremont had rested after
+his drive, and the result was satisfactory.
+
+No doubt much was due to the Egremont indolence and want of energy,
+which always preferred to let things take their course.  And now that
+Gregorio was no longer present to amuse, and take all trouble off his
+hands, Mr. Egremont could hardly have borne to part with his
+daughter; and, despite of umbrellas and religion, was not sorry to
+have a perfectly trustworthy son-in-law in the house, able to play at
+cards with him, manage his household, and obviate all trouble about
+suitors for the heiress.  Moreover, his better feelings were stirred
+by gratitude on his poor little son's account, and he knew very well
+that a more brilliant match for his daughter would not have secured
+for his old age the care and attention he could rely upon here.  He
+was obliged likewise to believe in the disinterestedness, which
+disclaimed all desire for the estate, as involving cares and duties
+for which there had been no training; and he was actually glad to
+keep the property in the direct line.  The old liking for Mark, and
+sense of the hardship of his exclusion, revived, strengthened now by
+regard for Annaple; together with the present relief from care
+obtained by making him manager of the estate.
+
+When once brought to a point, Mr. Egremont was always sudden and
+impetuous, chiefly for the sake of having it over and being
+unmolested and at rest again.  So that very evening, while Nuttie
+only ventured on sharing with Annaple the glad tidings that Mr.
+Dutton was accepted, and in his marvellous goodness, undertook to
+make his home with her father.  Mark was almost stunned by the news,
+confirmed to him by Mr. Dutton as well as his uncle, that he was to
+be acknowledged as heir of Bridgefield Egremont, and in the meantime
+manage the estate with an income suitable to an oldest son.
+
+Presently he came upstairs by himself, and beckoned to Nuttie, rather
+to the alarm of his wife.
+
+'Ursula,' he said, and took both her hands, 'I cannot have you do
+this for me.'
+
+'Can't you, Mark?  You can't prevent it, you see.  And don't you know
+it is the beginning of all my happiness?'
+
+'But indeed, I cannot feel it right.  It is a strained sense of
+justice.  Come and tell her so, Nannie.'
+
+'What?' said Annaple coming forward.
+
+They both paused a moment, then Nuttie said, 'Only that the estate
+ought to go in the male line.'
+
+'Oh, is that all?' said Annaple, 'I was afraid Mr. Egremont had a
+fit!'
+
+'Ah!  Don't you see what it means,' said Mark.  'They want it to be
+as if there were an entail--to begin treating me as an eldest son at
+once.  It is Ursula's doing, putting herself out of the succession.'
+
+'I always hated being an heiress,' said Nuttie.
+
+'It would be more dreadful than ever now.  Annaple, do be sensible!
+Don't you see it is the only right thing to do?'
+
+'Billy!' was the one word Annaple said.
+
+'Yes, Billy and Jenny and all,' said Nuttie, 'before you've all died
+of your horrid place--Oh! you haven't heard that part of it.  Of
+course Mark will have to go down to Bridgefield and look after the
+place, and live like a gentleman.'
+
+'Eight hundred a year,' murmured Mark, 'and the house at the Home
+Farm.'
+
+'Oh! dear,' gasped Annaple, 'I wanted you to be Lord Mayor, and now
+you'll only be a stupid old country squire.  No, no, Nuttie, it's--
+it's--it's the sort of thing that one only laughs at because
+otherwise one would have to do the other thing!'
+
+And she gripped Nuttie tight round the waist, and laid her head on
+her shoulder, shaking with a few little sobs, which might be one
+thing or the other.
+
+'It will save her youth, perhaps her life,' whispered Mark, lifting
+Nuttie's hand to his lips for a moment, and then vanishing, while
+Annaple recovered enough to say, 'I'm tougher than that, sir.  But
+little Jenny!  Oh, Nuttie, I believe it has come in time.  I've known
+all along that one straw more might break the camel's back.  We've
+been very happy, but I am glad it is over before Mark got worn down
+before his time.  Grinding is very wholesome, but one may have too
+much; and I haven't Mark's scruples, Nuttie dear, for I do think the
+place is more in his line than yours or Mr. Dutton's.'
+
+'Yes,' said Ursula, 'you see he was always happy there, and I never
+was.'
+
+The next thing was for Mr. Dutton and Ursula to keep Mr. Egremont up
+to the point of making his long deferred will; nor did they find this
+so difficult as they expected, for having once made up his mind, he
+wished to have the matter concluded, and he gave his instructions to
+Bulfinch the next day.  Of course Mark had to give full notice to his
+employers; but the allowance was to begin at once, so that Annaple
+only went back to the warehouse to pack up, since she was to occupy
+No. 5, while Mr. Egremont and his daughter were going under Mr.
+Dutton's escort to the baths in Dauphine, an entirely new resort,
+free from the associations he dreaded, for he could not yet bear the
+sight of little Willy--the rival 'boy of Egremont.'  But the will was
+safely signed before he went, to the great relief of Nuttie, who,
+according to the experience of fiction, could hardly believe his life
+safe till what she called justice had been done.
+
+After all Mr. Egremont became so dependent on Mr. Dutton, during this
+journey, that he did not like the separation at its close, and
+pressed on the marriage even sooner than either of the lovers felt
+quite reverent towards the recent sorrow.  He insisted on Bulfinch
+having the settlements ready for them on their return, and only let
+them wait long enough to keep their residence, before there was a
+very quiet wedding in their parish church, with the cousins for
+bridesmaids.  Then Mark and Annaple took care of Mr. Egremont for the
+fortnight while Mr. Dutton showed his wife his old haunts in France,
+returning to Springfield House, where there was plenty of room for
+Mr. Egremont to make his home with them.
+
+Said Annaple to Miss Nugent, 'I never saw Nuttie so youthful and
+bright.  She is more like a girl than I ever saw her since the
+first.'
+
+'Yes,' said Mary, 'she has some one to rest on now.'
+
+Mr. Egremont lived between three and four years, more contented and
+peaceful than he had ever been, though frequently suffering, and
+sometimes giving way to temper and impatience.  But Mr. Dutton
+understood how to manage on these occasions, and without giving up
+his own extensive usefulness, could give him such care, attention,
+and amusement as beguiled his discomforts, and made his daughter's
+task an easier one.
+
+How far the sluggish enfeebled nature was capable of a touch of
+better things, or whether his low spirits were repentance, no one
+could judge.  At any rate sneers had ended, and when he was laid
+beside his wife and boy at Bridgefield, Ursula stood by the grave
+with a far more tender and hopeful feeling than she could have
+thought possible when he had rent her away from her old home.
+She looked up at her husband and said, 'Is not her work done?'
+
+THE END.
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Nuttie's Father
+by Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Nuttie's Father
+by Charlotte M. Yonge
+(#14 in our series by Charlotte M. Yonge)
+
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+Title: Nuttie's Father
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+Author: Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+Release Date: May, 2003  [Etext #4053]
+[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule]
+[The actual date this file first posted = 10/22/01]
+[Most recently updated 11/10/2001]
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Nuttie's Father
+by Charlotte M. Yonge
+******This file should be named 8nutt10.txt or 8nutt10.zip******
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+Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, 8nutt11.txt
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+Scanned a proofed by Sandra Laythorpe, menorot@menorot.com
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+
+Nuttie's Father
+
+by Charlotte M Yonge
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+ST. AMBROSE'S CHOIR.
+
+
+
+
+'For be it known
+ That their saint's honour is their own.'--SCOTT.
+
+
+The town of Micklethwayte was rising and thriving.  There were
+salubrious springs which an enterprising doctor had lately brought
+into notice.  The firm of Greenleaf and Dutton manufactured umbrellas
+in large quantities, from the stout weather-proof family roof down to
+the daintiest fringed toy of a parasol.  There were a Guild Hall and
+a handsome Corn Market.  There was a Modern School for the boys, and
+a High School for the girls, and a School of Art, and a School of
+Cookery, and National Schools, and a British School, and a Board
+School, also churches of every height, chapels of every denomination,
+and iron mission rooms budding out in hopes to be replaced by
+churches.
+
+Like one of the animals which zoologists call radiated, the town was
+constantly stretching out fresh arms along country roads, all living
+and working, and gradually absorbing the open spaces between.  One of
+these arms was known as St. Ambrose's Road, in right of the church,
+an incomplete structure in yellow brick, consisting of a handsome
+chancel, the stump of a tower, and one aisle just weather-tight and
+usable, but, by its very aspect, begging for the completion of the
+beautiful design that was suspended above the alms-box.
+
+It was the evening of a summer day which had been very hot.  The
+choir practice was just over, and the boys came out trooping and
+chattering; very small ones they were; for as soon as they began to
+sing tolerably they were sure to try to get into the choir of the old
+church, which had a foundation that fed, clothed, taught, and finally
+apprenticed them.  So, though the little fellows were clad in
+surplices and cassocks, and sat in the chancel for correctness sake,
+there was a space round the harmonium reserved for the more
+trustworthy band of girls and young women who came forth next,
+followed by four or five mechanics.
+
+Behind came the nucleus of the choir--a slim, fair-haired youth of
+twenty; a neat, precise, well-trimmed man, closely shaven, with
+stooping shoulders, at least fifteen years older, with a black poodle
+at his heels, as well shorn as his master, newly risen from lying
+outside the church door; a gentle, somewhat drooping lady in black,
+not yet middle-aged and very pretty; a small eager, unformed, black-
+eyed girl, who could hardly keep back her words for the outside of
+the church door; a tall self-possessed handsome woman, with a fine
+classical cast of features; and lastly, a brown-faced, wiry
+hardworking clergyman, without an atom of superfluous flesh, but with
+an air of great energy.
+
+'Oh! vicar, where are we to go?' was the question so eager to break
+forth.
+
+'Not to the Crystal Palace, Nuttie.  The funds won't bear it.  Mr.
+Dutton says we must spend as little as possible on locomotion.'
+
+'I'm sure I don't care for the Crystal Palace.  A trumpery tinsel
+place, all shams.'
+
+'Hush, hush, my dear, not so loud,' said the quiet lady; but Nuttie
+only wriggled her shoulders, though her voice was a trifle lowered.
+'If it were the British Museum now, or Westminster Abbey.'
+
+'Or the Alps,' chimed in a quieter voice, 'or the Ufizzi.'
+
+'Now, Mr. Dutton, that's not what I want.  Our people aren't ready
+for that, but what they have let it be real.  Miss Mary, don't you
+see what I mean?'
+
+'Rather better than Miss Egremont herself,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Well,' said the vicar, interposing in the wordy war, 'Mrs.
+Greenleaf's children have scarlatina, so we can't go to Horton
+Bishop.  The choice seems to be between South Beach and Monks
+Horton.'
+
+'That's no harm,' cried Nuttie; 'Mrs. Greenleaf is so patronising!'
+
+'And both that and South Beach are so stale,' said the youth.
+
+'As if the dear sea could ever be stale,' cried the young girl.
+
+'I thought Monks Horton was forbidden ground,' said Miss Mary.
+
+'So it was with the last regime', said the vicar; 'but now the new
+people are come I expect great things from them.  I hear they are
+very friendly.'
+
+'I expect nothing from them,' said Nuttie so sententiously that all
+her hearers laughed and asked 'her exquisite reason,' as Mr. Dutton
+put it.
+
+'Lady Kirkaldy and a whole lot of them came into the School of Art.'
+
+'And didn't appreciate "Head of Antinous by Miss Ursula Egremont,"'
+was the cry that interrupted her, but she went on with dignity
+unruffled--'Anything so foolish and inane as their whole talk and all
+their observations I never heard.  "I don't like this style," one of
+them said.  "Such ugly useless things!  I never see anything pretty
+and neatly finished such as we used to do."'  The girl gave it in a
+tone of mimicry of the nonchalant voice, adding, with fresh
+imitation, "'And another did not approve of drawing from the life--
+models might be such strange people."'
+
+'My ears were not equally open to their profanities,' said Miss Mary.
+'I confess that I was struck by the good breeding and courtesy of the
+leader of the party, who, I think, was Lady Kirkaldy herself.'
+
+'I saw!  I thought she was patronising you, and my blood boiled!'
+cried Nuttie.
+
+'Will boiling blood endure a picnic in the park of so much ignorance,
+folly, and patronage?' asked Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Oh, indeed, Mr. Dutton, Nuttie never said that,' exclaimed gentle
+Mrs. Egremont.
+
+'Whether it is fully worth the doing is the question,' said the
+vicar.
+
+'Grass and shade do not despise,' said Miss Mary.
+
+'There surely must be some ecclesiastical remains,' said the young
+man.
+
+'And there is a river,' added the vicar.
+
+'I shall get a stickleback for my aquarium,' cried Nuttie.  'We shall
+make some discoveries for the Scientific Society.  I shall note down
+every individual creature I see!  I say! you are sure it is not a
+sham waterfall or Temple of Tivoli?'
+
+'It would please the choir boys and G. F. S. girls quite as much, if
+not more, in that case,' said Miss Mary; 'but you need not expect
+that, Nuttie.  Landscape-gardening is gone by.'
+
+'Even with the county people?' said Nuttie.
+
+'By at least half a century,' said Mr. Dutton, 'with all deference to
+this young lady's experience.'
+
+'It was out of their own mouths,' cried the girl defiantly.  'That's
+all I know about county people, and so I hope it will be.'
+
+'Come in, my dear, you are talking very fast,' interposed Mrs.
+Egremont, with some pain in the soft sweet voice, which, if it had
+been a little stronger, would have been the best in the choir.
+
+These houses in St. Ambrose's Road were semi-detached.  The pair
+which the party had reached had their entrances at the angles, with a
+narrow gravel path leading by a tiny grass plat to each.  One, which
+was covered with a rich pall of purple clematis, was the home of Mrs.
+Egremont, her aunt, and Nuttie; the other, adorned with a Gloire de
+Dijon rose in second bloom, was the abode of Mary Nugent, with her
+mother, the widow of a naval captain.  Farther on, with adjoining
+gardens, was another couple of houses, in one of which lived Mr.
+Dutton; in the other lodged the youth, Gerard Godfrey, together with
+the partner of the principal medical man.  The opposite neighbours
+were a master of the Modern School and a scholar.  Indeed, the saying
+of the vicar, the Rev. Francis Spyers, was, and St. Ambrose's Road
+was proud of it, that it was a professional place.  Every one had
+something to do either with schools or umbrellas, scarcely excepting
+the doctor and the solicitor, for the former attended the pupils and
+the latter supplied them.  Mr. Dutton was a partner in the umbrella
+factory, and lived, as the younger folk said, as the old bachelor of
+the Road.  Had he not a housekeeper, a poodle, and a cat; and was not
+his house, with lovely sill boxes full of flowers in the windows, the
+neatest of the neat; and did not the tiny conservatory over his
+dining-room window always produce the flowers most needed for the
+altar vases, and likewise bouquets for the tables of favoured ladies.
+Why, the very daisies never durst lift their heads on his little
+lawn, which even bore a French looking-glass globe in the centre.
+Miss Nugent, or Miss Mary as every one still called her, as her elder
+sister's marriage was recent, was assistant teacher at the School of
+Art, and gave private drawing lessons, so as to supplement the
+pension on which her mother lived.  They also received girls as
+boarders attending the High School.
+
+So did Miss Headworth, who had all her life been one of those people
+who seem condemned to toil to make up for the errors or disasters of
+others.  First she helped to educate a brother, and soon he had died
+to leave an orphan daughter to be bred up at her cost.  The girl had
+married from her first situation; but had almost immediately lost her
+husband at sea, and on this her aunt had settled at Micklethwayte to
+make a home for her and her child, at first taking pupils, but when
+the High School was set up, changing these into boarders; while Mrs.
+Egremont went as daily governess to the children of a family of
+somewhat higher pretensions.  Little Ursula, or Nuttie, as she was
+called, according to the local contraction, was like the child of all
+the party, and after climbing up through the High School to the last
+form, hoped, after passing the Cambridge examination, to become a
+teacher there in another year.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+MONKS HORTON.
+
+
+
+
+'And we will all the pleasures prove,
+By shallow rivers, by whose falls
+Melodious birds sing madrigals.'--Old Ballad.
+
+
+It was holiday-time, and liberties were taken such as were not
+permissible, when they might have afforded a bad precedent to the
+boarders.  Therefore, when two afternoons later Mary Nugent,
+returning from district visiting, came out into her garden behind the
+house, she was not scandalised to see a pair of little black feet
+under a holland skirt resting on a laurel branch, and going a few
+steps more she beheld a big shady hat, and a pair of little hands
+busy with a pencil and a blank book; as Ursula sat on the low wall
+between the gardens, shaded by the laburnum which facilitated the
+ascent on her own side.
+
+'Oh Miss Mary!  Delicious!  Come up here!  You don't know how
+charming this is.'
+
+She moved aside so as to leave the ascent--by an inverted flower-pot
+and a laurel branch--open to her friend, thus knocking down one of
+the pile of books which she had taken to the top of the wall.  Miss
+Nugent picked it up, 'Marie Stuart!  Is this your way of studying
+her?'
+
+'Now, you know 'tis holiday time, and volunteer work; besides, she
+was waiting for you, and I could not help doing this.'  She held out
+a hand, which was scarcely needed, and Mary sprang lightly to share
+her perch upon the wall.  'Look here!'
+
+'Am I to guess the subject as in the game of historic outlines,' said
+Miss Nugent, as the book was laid on her lap.  'It looks like a
+modern--no, a mediaeval--edition of Marcus Curtius about to leap into
+the capital opening for a young man, only with his dogs instead of
+his horse.  That hound seems very rationally to object.'
+
+'Now don't!  Guess in earnest.'
+
+'A compliment to your name.  The Boy of Egremont, poor fellow, just
+about to bound across the strid.'
+
+'Exactly!  I always feel sure that my father must have done something
+like this.'
+
+'Was it so heroic?' said Miss Mary. 'You know it was for the
+hundredth time, and he had no reason to expect any special danger.'
+
+'Oh, but his mother was waiting, and he had to go.  Now, I'll tell
+you how it must have been with my father.  You know he sailed away in
+a yacht before I was born, and poor mother never saw him again; but I
+know what happened.  There was a ship on fire like the Birkenhead,
+and the little yacht went near to pick up the people, and my father
+called out, like Sir Humphrey Gilbert--
+
+
+          "Do not fear, Heaven is as near
+           By water as by land."
+
+
+And the little yacht was so close when the great ship blew up that it
+got sucked down in the whirlpool, and rescuers and all died a noble
+death together!'
+
+'Has your mother been telling you?' asked Miss Mary.
+
+'Oh no! she never mentions him.  She does not know.  No one does; but
+I am quite sure he died nobly, with no one to tell the tale, only the
+angels to look on, and that makes it all the finer.  Or just suppose
+he was on a desert island all the time, and came back again to find
+us!  I sometimes think he is.'
+
+'What?  When you are _quite sure_ of the other theory?'
+
+'I mean I am quite sure while I am thinking about it, or reading
+Robinson Crusoe, or the Swiss Family.'
+
+'Oh!'
+
+'Miss Mary, has no one ever told you anything about my father?'
+
+'No one.'
+
+'They never tell me.  Mother cries, and aunt Ursula puts on her
+"there's-an-end-of-it look."  Do you think there is anything they are
+waiting to tell me till I am older?'
+
+'If there were, I am sure you had better not try to find it out
+beforehand.'
+
+'You don't think I would do anything of _that sort?_  But I thought
+you might know.  Do you remember their first settling here?'
+
+'Scarcely.  I was a very small child then.'
+
+Miss Nugent had a few vague recollections which she did not think it
+expedient to mention.  A dim remembrance rose before her of
+mysterious whisperings about that beautiful young widow, and that it
+had been said that the rector of the Old Church had declared himself
+to know the ladies well, and had heartily recommended them.  She
+thought it wiser only to speak of having been one of their first
+scholars, telling of the awe Miss Headworth inspired; but the
+pleasure it was to bring a lesson to pretty Mrs. Egremont, who always
+rewarded a good one with a kiss, 'and she was so nice to kiss--yes,
+and is.'
+
+'Aunt Ursel and mother both were governesses,' continued the girl,
+'and yet they don't want me to go out.  They had rather I was a
+teacher at the High School.'
+
+'They don't want to trust their Little Bear out in the world.'
+
+'I think it is more than that,' said the girl.  'I can't help
+thinking that he--my father--must have been some one rather grand,
+with such a beautiful name as Alwyn Piercefield Egremont.  Yes; I
+know it was that, for I saw my baptismal certificate when I stood for
+the scholarship; it was Dieppe,--Ursula Alice, daughter of Alwyn
+Piercefield and Alice Elizabeth Egremont, May 15, 1860.  James
+Everett--I think he was the chaplain at Dieppe.'
+
+Mary Nugent thought it the wisest way to laugh and say: 'You, of all
+people in the world, to want to make out a connection with the
+aristocracy!'
+
+'True love is different,' said Ursula.  'He must have been cast off
+by his family for her sake, and have chosen poverty--
+
+
+     "To make the croon a pund, my Alwyn gaed to sea,
+      And the croon and the pund, they were baith for me."'
+
+
+Miss Mary did not think a yacht a likely place for the conversion of
+a croon into a pound, and the utter silence of mother and aunt did
+not seem to her satisfactory; but she feared either to damp the
+youthful enthusiasm for the lost father, or to foster curiosity that
+might lead to some painful discovery, so she took refuge in an
+inarticulate sound.
+
+'I think Mr. Dutton knows,' proceeded Nuttie.
+
+'You don't mean to ask him?'
+
+'Catch me!  I know how he would look at me.'
+
+'Slang!  A forfeit!'
+
+'Oh, it's holiday time, and the boarders can't hear.  There's Mr.
+Dutton's door!'
+
+This might in one way be a relief to Miss Nugent, but she did not
+like being caught upon the wall, and therefore made a rapid descent,
+though not without a moment's entanglement of skirt, which delayed
+her long enough to show where she had been, as Mr. Dutton was at the
+same moment advancing to his own wall on the opposite side of the
+Nugent garden.  Perhaps he would have pretended to see nothing but
+for Nuttie's cry of glee.
+
+'You wicked elf,' said Miss Mary, 'to inveigle people into
+predicaments, and then go shouting ho! ho! ho! like Robin Goodfellow
+himself.'
+
+'You should have kept your elevation and dignity like me,' retorted
+Ursula; 'and then you would have had the pleasure of seeing Mr.
+Dutton climbing his wall and coming to our feet.'
+
+'Mischievous elves deserve no good news,' said Mr. Dutton, who was by
+no means so venerable that the crossing the wall was any effort or
+compromise of dignity, and who had by this time joined Mary on her
+grass plat.
+
+'Oh, what is it!  Are we to go to Monks Horton?' cried Nuttie.
+
+'Here is a gracious permission from Lord Kirkaldy, the only
+stipulations being that no vestiges of the meal, such as sandwich
+papers or gooseberry skins, be left on the grass; and that nobody
+does any mischief,' he added in an awful tone of personality.  'So if
+I see anybody rooting up holly trees I shall be bound to interfere.'
+
+'Now, Mr. Dutton, it was only a baby holly in a chink.'
+
+'Only a holly tree!  Just like the giant's daughter when she only
+carried off waggon, peasant, oxen, and all in her pinafore.'
+
+'It is not longer than my finger now!'
+
+'Well, remember, mischief either wanton or scientific is forbidden.
+You are to set an example to the choir-boys.'
+
+'Scientific mischief is a fatal thing to rare plants,' said Mary.
+
+'If I'm not to touch anything, I may as well stay at home,' pouted
+Nuttie.
+
+'You may gather as many buttercups and daisies as the sweet child
+pleases,' said Mr. Dutton; whereupon she threatened to throw her
+books at his head.
+
+Miss Nugent asked how they were to go, and Mr. Dutton explained that
+there was only a quarter of a mile's walk from the station; that
+return tickets would be furnished at a tariff of fourpence a head;
+and that there would be trains at 1.15 and 7.30.
+
+'How hungry the children will be.'
+
+'They will eat all the way.  That's the worst of this sort of outing.
+They eat to live and live to eat.'
+
+'At least they don't eat at church,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Not since the peppermint day, when Mr. Spyers suspended Dickie
+Drake,' put in Mary.
+
+And the Spa Terrace Church people said it was incense.'
+
+'No.  Nuttie!'
+
+'Indeed they did.  Louisa Barnet attacked us about it at school, and
+I said I wished it had been.  Only they mustn't eat peppermint in the
+train, for it makes mother quite ill.'
+
+'Do you mean that Mrs. Egremont will come?' exclaimed Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Oh yes, she shall.  It is not too far, and it will be very good for
+her.  I shall make her.'
+
+'There's young England's filial duty!' said Mary.
+
+'Why, I know what is good for her, and she always does as "I wish."'
+
+'Beneficent despotism!' said Mr. Dutton.  'May I ask if Miss
+Headworth is an equally obedient subject.'
+
+'Oh! Aunt Ursel is very seldom tiresome.'
+
+'Nuttie! Nuttie! my dear,' and a head with the snows of more than
+half a century appeared on the other side of the wall, under a cap
+and parasol.  'I am sorry to interrupt you, but it is cool enough for
+your mother to go into the town, and I wish you to go with her.'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+HEIR HUNTING.
+
+
+
+
+'And she put on her gown of green,
+ And left her mother at sixteen,
+      To marry Peter Bell!'--WORDSWORTH.
+
+
+In the shrubberies of Monks Horton were walking a lady somewhat past
+middle age, but full of activity and vigour, with one of those bright
+faces that never grow old, and with her a young man, a few years over
+twenty, with a grave and almost careworn countenance.
+
+More and more confidential waxed the conversation, for the lady was
+making fresh acquaintance with a nephew seldom seen since he had been
+her pet and darling as almost a baby, and he was experiencing the
+inexpressible charm of tone and manner that recalled the young mother
+he had lost in early boyhood.
+
+'Then your mind is made up,' she said; 'you are quite right to decide
+on having a profession; but how does your father take it?'
+
+'He is quite convinced that to repeat my uncle's life, dangling on as
+heir, would be the most fatal mistake.'
+
+'Assuredly, and all the legal knowledge you acquire is so much in
+favour of your usefulness as the squire.'
+
+'If I ever am the squire, of which I have my doubts.'
+
+'You expect Mr. Egremont to marry?'
+
+'Not a future marriage, but one in the past.'
+
+'A private marriage!  Do you suspect it?'
+
+'I don't suspect it--I know it.  I have been hoping to talk the
+matter over with you.  Do you remember our first governess, Miss
+Headworth?'
+
+'My dear Mark, did I not lose at Pera the charms of your infancy?'
+
+'Then neither my mother nor my grandmother ever wrote to you about
+her?'
+
+'I do remember that it struck me that immunity from governesses was a
+compensation for the lack of daughters.'
+
+'Can you tell me no details,' said Mark anxiously.  'Have you no
+letters?  It was about the time when Blanche was born, when we were
+living at Raxley.'
+
+'I am sorry to say that our roving life prevented my keeping old
+letters.  I have often regretted it.  Let me see, there was one who
+boxed May's ears.'
+
+'That was long after.  I think it was that woman's barbarity that
+made my father marry again, and a very good thing that was.  It was
+wretched before.  Miss Headworth was in my own mother's time.'
+
+'I begin to remember something happening that your mother seemed
+unable to write about, and your grandmother said that she had been
+greatly upset by "that miserable affair," but I was never exactly
+told what it had been.'
+
+'Miss Headworth came when I was four or five years old.  Edda, as we
+used to call her in May's language, was the first person who gave me
+a sense of beauty.  She had dark eyes and a lovely complexion.  I
+remember in after times being silenced for saying, "not so pretty as
+my Edda."  I was extremely fond of her, enough to have my small
+jealousy excited when my uncle joined us in our walks, and
+monopolised her, turning May and me over to play with his dog!'
+
+'But, Mark, Mr. Egremont is some years older than your father.  He
+could not have been a young man at that time.'
+
+'So much the worse.  Most likely he seemed to her quite paternal.
+The next thing I recollect was our being in the Isle of Wight, we two
+children, with Miss Headworth and the German nurse, and our being
+told of our new sister.  Uncle Alwyn and his yacht were there, and we
+went on board once or twice.  Then matters became confused with me, I
+recollect a confusion, papa and grandmamma suddenly arriving,
+everybody seeming to us to have become very cross, our dear Miss
+Headworth nowhere to be found, our attendants being changed, and our
+being forbidden to speak of her again.  I certainly never thought of
+the matter till a month ago.  You know my uncle's eyes have been much
+affected by his illness, and he has made a good deal of use of me.
+He has got a valet, a fellow of no particular country, more Savoyard
+than anything else, I fancy.  He is a legacy, like other evils, from
+the old General, and seems a sort of necessity to my uncle's
+existence.  Gregorio they call him.  He was plainly used to absolute
+government, and viewed the coming down amongst us as an assertion of
+liberty much against his will.  We could see that he was awfully
+jealous of my father and me, and would do anything to keep us out;
+but providentially he can't write English decently, though he can
+speak any language you please.  Well, the man and I came into
+collision about a scamp of a groom who was doing intolerable mischief
+in the village, and whom they put it on me to get discharged.  On
+that occasion Mr. Gregorio grew insolent, and intimated to me that I
+need not make so sure of the succession.  He knew that which might
+make the Chanoine and me change our note.  Well, my father is always
+for avoiding rows; he said it was an unmeaning threat, it was of no
+use to complain of Gregorio, and we must digest his insolence.  But
+just after, Uncle Alwyn sent me to hunt up a paper that was missing,
+and in searching a writing-case I came upon an unmistakable marriage
+certificate between Alwyn Piercefield Egremont and Alice Headworth,
+and then the dim recollections I told you of began to return.'
+
+'What did you do?'
+
+'I thought I had better consult my father, expecting to hear that she
+was dead, and that no further notice need be taken of the matter.
+But he was greatly disturbed to hear of the certificate, and would
+hardly believe me.  He said that some friend of my grandmother had
+written her word of goings on at Freshwater between his brother and
+the young governess, and that they went off at once to put a stop to
+it, but found us left with the German maid, who declared that Miss
+Headworth had gone off with Mr. Egremont in the yacht.  No more was
+heard of my uncle for six weeks, and when he came back there was a
+great row with the old General, but he absolutely denied being
+married.  I am afraid that was all the old sinner wished, and they
+went off together in the yacht to the West Indies, where it was
+burnt; but they, as you know, never came to England again, going
+straight off to the Mediterranean, having their headquarters at
+Sorrento, and cruising about till the General's death ten years ago.'
+
+'Yes, I once met them at Florence, and thought them two weary
+pitiable men.  One looked at the General as a curious relic of the
+old buck of the Regency days, and compassionated his nephew for
+having had his life spoilt by dangling after the old man.  It was a
+warning indeed, and I am glad you have profited by it, Mark.'
+
+'He came back, after the old man died, to club life in London, and
+seldom has been near the old place; indeed, it has been let till
+recently, and he wants to let it again, but it is altogether too
+dilapidated for that without repairs.  So he came down to see about
+it, and was taken ill there.  But to return to what my father told
+me. He was shocked to hear of the certificate, for he had implicitly
+believed his brother's denial of the marriage, and he said Miss
+Headworth was so childish and simple that she might easily have been
+taken in by a sham ceremony.  He said that he now saw he had done
+very wrong in letting his mother-in-law take all the letters about
+"that unhappy business" off his hands without looking at them, but he
+was much engrossed by my mother's illness, and, as he said, it never
+occurred to him as a duty to trace out what became of the poor thing,
+and see that she was provided for safely.  You know Mrs. Egremont
+says laissez faire is our family failing, and that our first thought
+is how _not_ to do it.'
+
+'Yes, utter repudiation of such cases was the line taken by the last
+generation; and I am afraid my mother would be very severe.'
+
+'Another thing that actuated my father was the fear of getting his
+brother into trouble with General Egremont, as he himself would have
+been the one to profit by it.  So I do not wonder so much at his
+letting the whole drop without inquiry, and never even looking at the
+letters, which there certainly were.  I could not get him to begin
+upon it with my uncle, but Mrs. Egremont was strongly on my side in
+thinking that such a thing ought to be looked into, and as I had
+found the paper it would be best that I should speak.  Besides that
+there was no enduring that Gregorio should be pretending to hold us
+in terror by such hints.'
+
+'Well, and has there been a wife and family in a cottage all this
+time?'
+
+'Aunt Margaret, he has never seen or heard of her since he left her
+at Dieppe!  Would you believe it, he thinks himself a victim?  He
+never meant more than to amuse himself with the pretty little
+governess; and he took on board a Mr. and Mrs. Houghton to do
+propriety, shady sort of people I imagine, but that she did not
+know.'
+
+'I have heard of them,' said Lady Kirkaldy, significantly.
+
+'She must have been a kind friend to the poor girl,' said Mark.  'On
+some report that Lady de Lyonnais was coming down on her, wrathful
+and terrible, the poor foolish girl let herself be persuaded to be
+carried off in the yacht, but there Mrs. Houghton watched over her
+like a dragon.  She made them put in at some little place in Jersey,
+put in the banns, all unknown to my uncle, and got them married.
+Each was trying to outwit the other, while Miss Headworth herself was
+quite innocent and unconscious, and, I don't know whether to call it
+an excuse for Uncle Alwyn or not, but to this hour he is not sure
+whether it was a legal marriage, and my father believes it was not,
+looking on it as a youthful indiscretion.  He put her in lodgings at
+Dieppe, under Mrs. Houghton's protection, while he returned home on a
+peremptory summons from the General.  He found the old man in such a
+state of body and mind as he tries to persuade me was an excuse for
+denying the whole thing, and from that time he represents himself as
+bound hand and foot by the General's tyranny.  He meant to have kept
+the secret, given her an allowance, and run over from time to time to
+see her, but he only could get there once before the voyage to the
+West Indies.  The whole affair was, as he said, complicated by his
+debts, those debts that the estate has never paid off.  The General
+probably distrusted him, for he curtailed his allowance, and scarcely
+let him out of sight; and he--he submitted for the sake of his
+prospects, and thinking the old man much nearer his end than he
+proved to be.  I declare as I listened, it came near to hearing him
+say he had sold his soul to Satan!  From the day he sailed in the
+Ninon he has never written, never attempted any communication with
+the woman whose life he had wrecked, except one inquiry at Dieppe,
+and that was through Gregorio.'
+
+'What! the valet?'
+
+Yes.  I believe I seemed surprised at such a medium being employed,
+for Uncle Alwyn explained that the man had got hold of the secret
+somehow--servants always know everything--and being a foreigner he
+was likely to be able to trace her out.
+
+'I daresay he profited by the knowledge to keep Alwyn in bondage
+during the old man's lifetime.'
+
+'I have no doubt of it, and he expected to play the same game with
+me.  The fellow reminds me, whenever I look at him, of a sort of
+incarnate familiar demon.  When I asked my uncle whether he could
+guess what had become of her, he held up his hands with a hideous
+French grimace.  I could have taken him by the throat.'
+
+'Nay, one must pity him.  The morals of George IV.'s set had been
+handed on to him by the General,' said Lady Kirkaldy, rejoicing in
+the genuine indignation of the young face, free from all taint of
+vice, if somewhat rigid.  'And what now?'
+
+'He assured me that he could make all secure to my father and me, as
+if that were the important point; but finally he perceived that we
+had no right to stand still without endeavouring to discover whether
+there be a nearer heir, and my father made him consent to my making
+the search, grinning at its Quixotism all the time.'
+
+'Have you done anything?'
+
+'Yes.  I have been to Jersey, seen the register--July 20, 1859--and
+an old French-speaking clerk, who perfectly recollected the party
+coming from the yacht, and spoke of her as tres belle.  I have also
+ascertained that there is no doubt of the validity of the marriage.
+Then, deeply mistrusting Master Gregorio, I went on to Dieppe, where
+I entirely failed to find any one who knew or remembered anything
+about them--there is such a shifting population of English visitors
+and residents, and it was so long ago.  I elicited from my uncle that
+she had an aunt, he thought, of the same name as herself; but my
+father cannot remember who recommended her, or anything that can be a
+clue.  Has any one looked over my grandmother's letters?'
+
+'I think not.  My brother spoke of keeping them till I came to
+London.  That might give a chance, or the Houghtons might know about
+her.  I think my husband could get them hunted up.  They are sure to
+be at some continental resort.'
+
+'What's that?' as a sound of singing was heard.
+
+'"Auld Langsyne."  The natives are picnicking in the ravine below
+there.  They used to be rigidly excluded, but we can't stand that;
+and this is the first experiment of admitting them on condition that
+they don't make themselves obnoxious.'
+
+'Which they can't help.'
+
+'We have yet to see if this is worse than an Austrian or Italian
+festival.  See, we can look down from behind this yew tree.  It
+really is a pretty sight from this distance.'
+
+'There's the cleric heading his little boys and their cricket, and
+there are the tuneful party in the fern on the opposite side.  They
+have rather good voices, unless they gain by distance.'
+
+'And there's a girl botanising by the river.'
+
+'Sentimentalising over forget-me-nots, more likely.'
+
+'My dear Mark, for a specimen of young England, you are greatly
+behindhand in perception of progress!'
+
+'Ah! you are used to foreigners, Aunt Margaret.  You have never
+fathomed English vulgarity.'
+
+'It would serve you right to send you to carry the invitation to go
+round the gardens and houses.'
+
+'Do you mean it, aunt?'
+
+'Mean it?  Don't you see your uncle advancing down the road--there--
+accosting the clergyman--what's his name--either Towers or Spires--
+something ecclesiastical I know.  We only waited to reconnoitre and
+see whether the numbers were unmanageable.'
+
+'And yet he does not want to sit for Micklethwayte?'
+
+'So you think no one can be neighbourly except for electioneering!
+O Mark, I must take you in hand.'
+
+'Meantime the host is collecting.  I abscond.  Which is the least
+showy part of the establishment?'
+
+'I recommend the coal cellar--'and, as he went off--'poor boy, he is
+a dear good fellow, but how little he knows how to be laughed at!'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+A NAME.
+
+
+
+
+'Sigh no more lady, lady sigh no more,
+   Men were deceivers ever,
+ One foot on sea and one on land--
+   To one thing constant never.'--Old Ballad.
+
+
+'So you have ventured out again,' said Lady Kirkaldy, as her nephew
+strolled up to her afternoon tea-table under a great cedar tree:
+
+'The coast being clear, and only distant shouts being heard in the
+ravine--
+
+
+          '" Like an army defeated
+             The choir retreated;
+             And now doth fare well
+             In the valley's soft swell,"'
+
+
+said the aunt.
+
+'At least you have survived; or is this the reaction,' said the
+nephew, putting on a languid air.
+
+'There were some very nice people among them, on whom the pictures
+were by no means thrown away.  What would you say, Mark, if I told
+you that I strongly suspect that I have seen your lost aunt?'
+
+'Nonsense!' cried Mark, as emphatically as disrespectfully.
+
+'I am not joking in the least,' said Lady Kirkaldy, looking up at
+him.  'I heard the name of Egremont, and made out that it belonged to
+a very lady-like pretty-looking woman in gray and white; she seemed
+to be trying to check and tame a bright girl of eighteen or so, who
+was in a perfect state of rapture over the Vandykes.  I managed to
+ask the clergyman who the lady was, and he told me she was a Mrs.
+Egremont, who lives with her aunt, a Miss Headworth, who boards girls
+for the High School; very worthy people, he added.'
+
+'Headworth?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'But if it were, she would have known your name.'
+
+'Hardly.  The title had not come in those days; and if she heard of
+us at all it would be as Kerrs.  I ventured further to put out a
+feeler by asking whether he knew what her husband had been, and he
+said he believed he had been lost at sea, but he, Mr. Spyers I mean,
+had only been at Micklethwayte three or four years, and had merely
+known her as a widow.'
+
+'I suppose it is worth following up,' said Mark, rather reluctantly.
+'I wish I had seen her.  I think I should know Miss Headworth again,
+and she would hardly know me.'
+
+'You see what comes of absconding.'
+
+'After all, it was best,' said Mark.  'Supposing her to be the real
+woman, which I don't expect, it might have been awkward if she had
+heard my name!  How can we ascertain the history of this person
+without committing ourselves?'
+
+Lord Kirkaldy, an able man, who had been for many years a
+diplomatist, here joined the party, and the whole story was laid
+before him.  He was new to Micklethwayte, having succeeded a somewhat
+distant kinsman, and did not know enough of the place to be able to
+fix on any one to whom to apply for information; but the result of
+the consultation was that Lady Kirkaldy should go alone to call on
+Miss Headworth, and explain that she was come to inquire about a
+young lady of the same name, who had once been governess to the
+children of her sister, Lady Adelaide Egremont.  Mark was rather a
+study to his uncle and aunt all the evening.  He was as upright and
+honourable as the day, and not only acted on high principle, but had
+a tender feeling to the beautiful playfellow governess, no doubt
+enhanced by painful experiences of successors chosen for their utter
+dissimilarity to her.  Still it was evidently rather flat to find
+himself probably so near the tangible goal of his romantic search;
+and the existence of a first cousin had been startling to him, though
+his distaste was more to the taking her from second-rate folk in a
+country town than to the overthrow of his own heirship.  At least so
+he manifestly and honestly believed, and knowing it to be one of
+those faiths that make themselves facts, the Kirkaldys did not
+disturb him in it, nor commiserate him for a loss which they thought
+the best thing possible for him.
+
+Miss Headworth was accustomed to receive visitors anent boarders, so
+when Lady Kirkaldy's card was brought to her, the first impression
+was that some such arrangement was to be made.  She was sitting in
+her pretty little drawing-room alone, for Nuttie and her mother had
+gone out for a walk with Miss Nugent.
+
+The room, opening on the garden, and cool with blinds, had a certain
+homely grace about the faded furniture.  The drawings on the walls
+were good, the work quaint and tasteful.  There was a grand vase of
+foxgloves before the empty grate, and some Marshal Nial roses in a
+glass on the table.  The old lady herself--with alert black eyes and
+a sweet expression--rose from her chair in the window to receive her
+guest.
+
+Lady Kirkaldy felt reassured as to the refinement of the
+surroundings, and liked the gentle but self-possessed tones of the
+old lady.  She noticed the foxgloves.
+
+'Yes,' said Miss Headworth, 'they are the fruits of yesterday's
+expedition.  My two children, as I call them, brought them home in
+triumph.  I cannot tell you what pleasure Lord Kirkaldy's kindness
+gave them--and many more.'
+
+'I am glad,' said the lady, while she said to herself, 'now for it,'
+and sat forward.  'It struck me,' she said, 'on hearing your name
+that you might be related to--to a young lady who lived a good while
+ago in the family of my sister, Lady Adelaide Egremont.'
+
+A strange look came into Miss Headworth's eyes, her lips trembled,
+she clutched tightly the arm of her chair, but then cast a puzzled
+glance at her visitor.
+
+'Perhaps if you heard of me then,' said the latter, 'it was as Lady
+Margaret Kerr.'
+
+'Yes,' said Miss Headworth, then pausing, she collected herself and
+said in an anxious voice,  'Do I understand that your ladyship is
+come to inquire for my niece, being aware of the circumstances.'
+
+'I only became aware of them yesterday,' said Lady Kirkaldy.  'I was
+in Turkey at the time, and no particulars were given to me; but my
+nephew, Mark Egremont, your niece's old pupil, came to consult us,
+having just discovered among his uncle's papers evidence of the
+marriage, of which of course he had been ignorant.'
+
+'Then,' exclaimed Miss Headworth, holding her hands tightly clasped,
+'Shall I really see justice done at last to my poor child?'
+
+'It is young Mark's most earnest wish and his father--'Lady Kirkaldy
+hesitated for a word, and Miss Headworth put in:
+
+'His father!  Why would he never even acknowledge either Alice's
+letters or mine?  We wrote several times both to him and Lady
+Adelaide, and never received any reply, except one short one,
+desiring he might not be troubled on such a subject.  It was cruel!
+Alice said it was not in his writing.  She had done very wrong, and
+the family might well be offended, but a poor child like her, just
+eighteen, might have been treated with some pity.'
+
+'My sister was in declining health.  He was very much engrossed.  He
+left the matter to--to others,' said Lady Kirkaldy.  'He is very
+sorry now that he acquiesced in what was then thought right.  He did
+not then know that there had been a marriage.'
+
+'I should have thought in that case a clergyman would have been bound
+to show the more compassion.'
+
+Lady Kirkaldy knew that the cruel silence had been chiefly the work
+of the stem Puritan pitilessness of her mother, so she passed this
+over, saying, 'We are all very anxious to atone, as far as possible,
+for what is past, but we know little or nothing, only what my nephew
+Mark has been able to gather.'
+
+'Little Mark!  Alice always talked of him with great affection.  How
+pleased she will be to hear of his remembering her.'
+
+'Would you object to telling me what you know of this history?' said
+Lady Kirkaldy.  'I am afraid it is very painful to you, but I think
+we should understand it clearly.  Please speak to me as a friend, as
+woman to woman.'
+
+'Your ladyship is very kind,' said the poor old lady.  'I have only
+mentioned the subject once since we came to settle here, seventeen
+years ago, but such things one cannot forget.  If you will excuse me,
+I have some dates that will assist my accuracy.'
+
+She hurried away, and came back in a few moments, having evidently
+dried some tears, perhaps of thankfulness, but she paused as if
+reluctant to begin.
+
+'I think your niece had no nearer relation than yourself,' said Lady
+Kirkaldy, anxious to set her off and at ease.
+
+'Oh no, or she never would have been so treated.  She was an orphan.
+My poor brother was a curate.  He married--as young men will--on
+insufficient means, his strength gave way, and he died of diphtheria
+when this poor child was only two years old.  Indeed, two little ones
+died at the same time, and the mother married again and went to
+Shanghai.  She did not long live there, poor thing, and little Alice
+was sent home to me.  I thought I did my best for her by keeping her
+at a good school.  I have often wished that I had given up my
+situation, and become an assistant there, so as to have her more
+under my own eyes; but I fancied it important to receive a salary out
+of which I could save.  I am wearying your ladyship, but I can't but
+dwell on the excuses for my poor child.'
+
+'Indeed I wish to hear all the details,' was the sincere and gentle
+answer.
+
+'I had her with me generally in the holidays, and I confess I was
+absolutely alarmed to see how pretty the child was growing, knowing
+how great a disadvantage it often is.  She was always a good girl,
+not naturally so studious as could be wished, but docile, merry,
+gentle, a favourite with every one, and peculiarly innocent and
+childish.  I wished her to remain a few years longer as teacher, but
+it so happened that Lady Adelaide Egremont, coming to consult the
+head of the establishment about a nursery-governess, saw Alice, and
+was so much struck with her sweet face, which was all sunshine then,
+as to insist on engaging her.'
+
+'Ah! my dear sister, I remember her enthusiastic letter about her
+pretty governess, and her boy's affection for her, an affection that
+has lasted--'
+
+'It seemed so safe.  A clergyman's family in the country, and so kind
+a lady at the head, that, though Alice had been educated for a
+superior governess, it appeared the best beginning she could have.
+And she was very happy, and met with great kindness.  Only,
+unfortunately, Lady Adelaide was delicate, and for many weeks
+entirely confined to the sofa.  Mr. Egremont's elder brother was much
+there.  He seemed to my poor inexperienced child quite elderly, and
+his attentions like those of--of an old uncle--she told me
+afterwards--'
+
+'He must really have been over forty--'
+
+'No doubt my poor Alice was unguarded.  We know what a merry, happy,
+childish girl may be, but I never heard that her conduct was even
+censured while she remained at Baxley, though I find that Captain
+Egremont used to join them in their walks, under pretext of playing
+with the children.  Then she was sent to Freshwater with the two
+eldest children during Lady Adelaide's confinement, and there, most
+unjustifiably, Captain Egremont continually visited them from his
+yacht, and offered to take them out in it.  Alice knew she ought not
+to go without a married lady on board, and he brought a Mr. and Mrs.
+Houghton to call, who were very kind and caressing to her and the
+children, so that she thought all was right.  Oh! Lady Kirkaldy, I
+don't mean to defend her, I daresay she was very giddy and silly, she
+reproaches herself, poor dear, but I do say that a wicked advantage
+was taken of her innocence and ignorance.  She says that she had
+begun to grow a little uneasy at the way people looked when Captain
+Egremont joined them on the beach; and the nurse, a German, said
+something that she could not understand.  On the 1st of July--yes--
+but I have the date here--came a telegram to the hotel to have rooms
+for Lady de Lyonnais and Mr. Egremont ready by the evening.  The
+whole place knew it, and some meddling person burst on Alice with the
+news, roughly and coarsely given, that they were coming to call her
+to account for her goings on.  Captain Egremont found her crying in
+the utmost terror, and--she really hardly knew what he said to her--
+she thinks he offered to shelter her on board the Ninon, from Lady de
+Lyonnais' first wrath while he and Mrs. Houghton explained matters;
+but she cannot tell, for she lost her senses with fright, only knew
+that he was kind and sweet to her in her distress, and thought only
+of escaping.  Well, I don't excuse her.  Of course it was the most
+terrible and fatal thing she could have done, and--' The good old
+lady was quite overcome, and Lady Kirkaldy had tears in her eyes as
+she said,
+
+'It was frightful folly--but she was guarded.'
+
+'Yes, her innocence was guarded, thank God,' said Miss Headworth
+fervently.  'You see she did know that Mr. and Mrs. Houghton were on
+board, and Mrs. Houghton was a truly kind protector who deserved her
+confidence, though, poor lady, she admitted to me that her own
+conduct had not been-strictly correct.'
+
+'How long was it before you heard of her?'
+
+'There was a dreadful letter from Mr. Egremont enclosing what was due
+of her salary, and then I heard no more for seven months.  I went to
+the Isle of Wight and made all inquiries, but the nurse and children
+had gone away immediately, and I could obtain no trace of them.'
+
+'Then she--your niece, never wrote.'
+
+'She was afraid, poor dear.  She had never been at her ease with me.
+Her mother had taught her to think me strict and harsh, and she had
+never opened to me in those days.  Besides, he had forbidden her.  At
+last, however, in January, came a letter from this Mrs. Houghton,
+telling me that my Alice was very unwell at Dieppe, that nothing had
+been heard of her husband, Captain Egremont, to whom she had been
+married on the 20th of July at St. Philippe, in Jersey, and that she
+herself was obliged to leave the place almost immediately; but she
+would, if possible, wait till my arrival, as Mrs. Egremont was not in
+a condition to be left alone.  My dear friends, with whom I was then
+living, were as kind as possible, and set me free to go.  I was there
+in three days, and truly the dear, beautiful, merry girl I had parted
+with only a year before was a sad piteous sight.  Mrs. Houghton
+seemed broken-hearted at leaving her, thinking there was little
+chance of her living; but Mr. Houghton, who, I am afraid, was a
+professed gambler, had got into some scrape, and was gone to Paris,
+where she had to follow him.  She told me all about it, and how, when
+Captain Egremont fancied that a marriage in the Channel Islands was
+one he could play fast and loose with, she had taken care that the
+formalities should be such as to make all secure.  Foolish and wrong
+as poor Alice had been, she had awakened all the best side of that
+poor woman's nature, and no mother could have been more careful and
+tender.  She gave me the certificate--here it is--and assured me that
+it would hold good.  I have shown it to a lawyer, and he said the
+same; but when I sent a copy to Mr. Egremont, my letter was returned
+unopened.'
+
+'Captain Egremont had denied the marriage, and they believed him,'
+said Lady Kirkaldy.  'It is hard to believe that he could be so
+heartless, but he was in bondage to the old General Egremont, and
+dreaded losing his inheritance.'
+
+'So he told them in his one visit to Dieppe.  He said he must keep
+his marriage secret, but promised an allowance, on condition that
+Alice would live quietly at Dieppe, and not communicate with any one
+of her own family or his.  He had left £100 with her, but that was
+nearly gone, and she had never heard from him.  It had preyed on her,
+and she was so ill that I never expected, any more than Mrs.
+Houghton, to see her recover.  I stayed there with her; she could not
+be moved, even if she would have consented, when she was continually
+expecting him; but at last--four days after her little girl was born--
+came the news of the Ninon having been burnt, with all on board,
+three months before.  Do you know, strange to say, though I had
+feared so much to tell her, she began to revive from that time.  The
+suspense and watching were over.  She saw that he had not deserted
+her, and believed that he had loved her to the last.  She cried a
+great deal, but it was in a peaceful, natural way.  I wrote then, as
+I had already written, to Lady Adelaide and to Mr. Egremont, but was
+not answered.'
+
+'I can account for that,' said Lady Kirkaldy.  'My sister had been
+ordered to Madeira in the autumn, and there they remained till her
+death in May.  All the letters were sent to my mother, and she did
+not think fit to forward, or open, any bearing on the subject.  In
+the meantime Mr. Egremont was presented to the family living, and on
+his return moved to Bridgefield Egremont.  And you came here?'
+
+'Of course I could not part with my poor Alice again.  Mr. and Mrs.
+Fordyce, whose daughter I had long ago educated, had always kept up a
+correspondence with me, and, knowing all the story, proposed to me to
+come here.  He was then rector of the old church, and by their help
+and recommendation, with such capital as I had, we were able to begin
+a little school; and though that has had to give way to the High
+School, what with boarders, and with Alice's employment as daily
+governess, we have, I am thankful to say, gone on very well and
+comfortably, and my dear child has recovered her cheerfulness, though
+she can never be quite what--I think she was meant to be,' said the
+old lady, with a sad smile, 'though perhaps she is something better.'
+
+'Do you think she was absolutely convinced of his death?'
+
+'Do you mean that he is alive?' exclaimed Miss Headworth in dismay.
+'Oh! he is a wickeder man than even I supposed, to have forsaken her
+all these years.  Is my poor child in his power?  Must her peace, now
+she has attained it, be disturbed?'
+
+'There is a great deal to take into consideration,' said Lady
+Kirkaldy.  'I had better tell you how this visit of mine came about,
+and explain some matters about the Egremont family.'
+
+She then told how Captain Egremont, after a brief service in the Life
+Guards, had been made to retire, that the old General, whose heir he
+was, might keep him in attendance on him.  Already self-indulgent and
+extravagant, the idleness of the life he led with the worn-out old
+roue had deadened his better feelings, and habituated him to
+dissipation, while his debts, his expensive habits, and his dread of
+losing the inheritance, had bound him over to the General.  Both had
+been saved from the fire in the Ninon, whence they were picked up by
+a Chilian vessel, and they had been long in communicating with home.
+The General hated England, and was in broken health.  He had spent
+the remaining years of his life at various continental resorts, where
+he could enjoy a warm climate, combined with facilities for high
+play.
+
+When at length, he died, Captain Egremont had continued the life to
+which he had become accustomed, and had of late manifested an
+expectation that his nephew Mark should play the same part by him as
+he had done by the General, but the youth, bred in a very different
+tone, would on no account thus surrender himself to an evil bondage.
+Indeed he felt all the severity of youthful virtue, and had little
+toleration for his uncle's ways of thinking; though, when the old man
+had come home ill, dejected, and half blind, he had allowed himself
+to be made useful on business matters.  And thus he had discovered
+the marriage, and had taken up the cause with the ardour stimulated
+by a chivalrous feeling for the beautiful vision of his childhood,
+whose sudden disappearance had ended his brightest days.
+
+'I suppose it is right and generous of the young man,' said Miss
+Headworth.  'But since the--the man is alive, I wish my poor Alice
+could have been left at peace!'
+
+'You forget that her daughter has rights which must be taken into
+consideration.'
+
+'Little Nuttie!  Dear child!  I should so far like her to be provided
+for, so far as that she need not go out in the world to earn her own
+livelihood.  But no! better be as we are than accept anything from
+that man!'
+
+'I quite understand and respect your feeling, Miss Headworth,'
+returned the lady; 'but may I return to my question whether you think
+your niece has any doubt of her husband being dead.'
+
+Miss Headworth considered.  'Since you ask me, I think she has kept
+the possibility of the life before her.  We have never mentioned the
+subject, and, as I said, the belief in his death ended a great
+suspense and sense of wounded affection.  She began soon and
+vigorously to turn her attention to the support of her child, and has
+found a fair measure of happiness; but at the same time she has
+shrunk from all notice and society, more than would be natural in so
+very young a widow and so attractive, more than I should have
+expected from her original character.  And once, when she did
+apprehend symptoms of admiration, she insisted that I should tell the
+history, enough, as she said, to make it plain that it was
+impossible.  There was one night too, when she had scarlatina, and
+was a little lightheaded, only four years ago, when she talked a good
+deal about his coming back; but that might have been only the old
+impression on her brain, of that long watching at Dieppe.  He--
+Captain Egremont, does not yet know where she is?'
+
+'No, certainly not.  But I fear he must.'
+
+'I suppose he ought,' sighed Miss Headworth; 'but in the meantime,
+till we know what line he takes, surely she need not be unsettled by
+the knowledge of his existence.'
+
+'By no means.  You had better act as you think best about that.  But
+you will not object to my nephew, her old pupil, Mark, coming to see
+her?  I will make him promise not to enter upon the subject.'
+
+Miss Headworth had only time to make a sign of reluctant acquiescence
+when the door opened and mother and daughter came in.  Nuttie first,
+eager as usual and open-mouthed, unaware that any one was there, for
+Lady Kirkaldy, wishing to avoid talk and observation, had left her
+carriage at the livery stables, and walked to St. Ambrose Road.  The
+girl, whom in a moment she classed as small, dark, and oddly like May
+Egremont, stopped short at sight of a stranger; the mother would have
+retreated but for Miss Headworth's nervous call 'Alice, my dear, here
+is Lady Kirkaldy.'
+
+Very lovely was Lady Kirkaldy's impression as she saw a slender
+figure in a dark gray linen dress, and a face of refined, though not
+intellectual, beauty and sweetness, under a large straw hat with a
+good deal of white gauziness about it, and the curtsey was full of
+natural grace.
+
+'You do not know me,' said Lady Kirkaldy, taking her hand, 'but I am
+aunt to some former pupils of yours, one of whom, Mark Egremont, is
+very anxious to come and see you.'
+
+'Mark!  My dear little Mark,' and her face lighted up.  'How very
+kind of him.  But he is not little Mark now.'
+
+'He is not a very big Mark either.  Most of the Egremonts are small.
+I see your daughter takes after them,' said Lady Kirkaldy, shaking
+hands with Ursula, who looked at her in unmitigated amazement.
+
+Alice faltered something about Lady Adelaide.
+
+'My dear sister fell into a decline, and died while the three
+children were still babies.  Poor things, I believe they had a sad
+time till their father married a Miss Condamine, who has been an
+excellent stepmother to them.  I have been to see them, but Mark was
+not then at home, so he has come to me at Monks Horton.  When will he
+find you at home?  Or may I bring him in at once.  He was to meet me
+at Micklethwayte.'
+
+'I should like very much to see him,' was the answer.  And Miss
+Headworth was obliged to say something about her ladyship taking a
+cup of tea.  Lady Kirkaldy, knowing that Mark was on the watch, set
+off in search of him, and found him, as she expected, pacing the
+pavement in front of the church.  There was no great distance in
+which to utter her explanations and cautions, warning him of her
+promise that the intelligence of the husband's being alive was to be
+withheld for a fitter time, but he promised dutifully, and his aunt
+then took him in with her.
+
+The recognition of her claims was a less stunning shock to Alice
+Egremont than to her aunt.  Shielded by her illness, as well as by
+her simplicity and ignorance, she had never been aware of her aunt's
+attempted correspondence with the Egremonts, nor of their deafness to
+appeals made on her behalf.  Far less had it ever occurred to her
+that the validity of her marriage could be denied, and the heinous
+error of her elopement seemed to her quite sufficient to account for
+her having been so entirely cast off by the family.  The idea that as
+wife or widow she had any claims on them, or that Ursula might have
+rights above those of Mark, had not come into her mind, which,
+indeed, at the moment was chiefly occupied by the doubt whether the
+milk was come in, and by ordering in the best teacups, presented by
+the boarders.
+
+Thus she was in the passage when Mark entered, and his exclamation
+instantly was 'Oh, Edda, dear old Edda!  You aren't a bit altered!'
+and he put his head under her hat and kissed her, adding, as she
+seemed rather startled, 'You are my aunt, you know; and where's my
+cousin?  You are Ursula?'
+
+He advanced upon Nuttie, took her by the hand and kissed her forehead
+before she was aware, but she flashed at him with her black eyes, and
+looked stiff and defiant.  She had no notion of kisses to herself,
+still less to her pretty mother whom she protected with a half proud,
+half jealous fondness.  How could the man presume to call her by that
+foolish name?  However, that single effusion had exhausted Mark's
+powers of cordiality, or else Nuttie's stiffness froze him.  They
+were all embarrassed, and had reason to be grateful to Lady
+Kirkaldy's practised powers as a diplomate's wife.  She made the
+most of Mrs. Egremont's shy spasmodic inquiries, and Mark's jerks of
+information, such as that they were all living at Bridgefield
+Egremont, now, that his sister May was very like his new cousin, that
+Blanche was come out and was very like his mother, etc. etc.  Every
+one was more at ease when Lady Kirkaldy carried the conversation off
+to yesterday's entertainment, hoping no one had been overtired, and
+the like.  Mrs. Egremont lighted up a little and began telling some
+of the expressions of delight she had heard, and in the midst,
+Nuttie, waking from her trance of stiff displeasure, came plump in
+with 'Oh! and there's a water-soldier, a real Stratiotes aculeatus in
+your lake.  May we get it?  Mr. Dutton didn't think we ought, but it
+would be such a prize!'
+
+'Ursula means a rare water-plant,' said Mrs. Egremont gently, seeing
+that Lady Kirkaldy had no notion of the treasure she possessed.  'She
+and some of her friends are very eager botanists.'
+
+'I am sure you may,' said the lady, amused.
+
+'Thank you!  Then, O mother!  Miss Mary and I will go.  And we'll
+wait till after office hours, and then Gerard Godfrey can come and
+fish it out for us!  Oh, thank you.  He wants the pattern of the
+Abbot's cross for an illumination, and he can get some ferns for the
+church.'
+
+Soon after this ebullition, Lady Kirkaldy carried off her nephew, and
+his first utterance outside the door was 'A woman like that will be
+the salvation of my uncle.'
+
+'Firstly, if you can bring them together,' said his aunt; 'and
+secondly, if there is stuff enough in that pretty creature.'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+SUSPENSE.
+
+
+
+
+'Where shall the traitor rest
+ He, the deceiver?'--SCOTT.
+
+
+Poor Miss Headworth's peace of mind was utterly destroyed.  That the
+niece whom she had nursed back to life and happiness, and brought to
+love her as a mother, should be at the mercy of a man whom she looked
+on as a heartless profligate, was dreadful to her beyond measure.
+And it involved Ursula's young life likewise?  Could it be a duty,
+after these eighteen years, to return to him?  What legal rights had
+he to enforce the resumption of the wife he had deserted.  'I will
+consult Mr. Dutton,' said the old lady to herself; 'Mr. Dutton is the
+only person who knows the particulars.  He will give me the best
+advice.'
+
+And while Miss Headworth, over her evening toilette, was coming to
+this resolution in one bedroom, Nuttie, in another, was standing
+aghast at her mother's agitation, and receiving a confession which
+filled her with astonishment.
+
+'I can't think why that gentleman should go and be so affectionate
+all on a sudden, 'quoth Nuttie;' if he is my cousin, and so fond of
+you, why couldn't he have come to see us before?'
+
+'Oh, Nuttie, dear, you don't understand why it is so good of him!  My
+dear, now this has come, I must tell you--you must hear--the sad
+thing your mother did.  Yes, my dear, I was their governess--and--and
+I did not--In short, my dear, I eloped.'
+
+'You, mother!  Oh what fun!' cried the girl in the utter extremity of
+wonder.
+
+'Nuttie!' exclaimed Mrs. Egremont, in a tone of horror and
+indignation--nay, of apprehension.
+
+'O mother--I didn't mean that!  But I can't get to believe it.  You,
+little mother mine, you that are so timid and bashful and quiet.
+That you--you should have done such a thing.'
+
+'Nuttie, my dear, can't you understand that such a thing would make
+me quiet?  I am always feeling when I see people, or they bring their
+daughters here.  "If they only knew--"'
+
+'No, no, no!  They would still see you were the sweetest dear.  But
+tell me all about it.  How very much in love you must have been!'
+said Nuttie, a magnificent vision of a young sailor with curly hair
+and open throat rising before her.
+
+'I think I was more frightened than in love,' faintly said Mrs.
+Egremont.  'At least I didn't know it was love, I thought he was only
+kind to me.'
+
+'But you liked it?' said Ursula magisterially.
+
+'I liked it, oh, I liked it!  It gave me a feeling such as nothing
+else ever did, but I never thought of its being love, he was so much
+older.'
+
+'Older!' exclaimed Nuttie, much taken aback.  'Oh! as old as Mr.
+Dutton?'
+
+'Mr. Dutton is thirty-six, I think.  Yes, he was older than that.'
+
+'Mother, how could you?'  For to be older than Mr: Dutton seemed to
+the youthful fancy to be near decrepitude; but she added, 'I suppose
+he was very noble, and had done great things.'
+
+'He was the grandest gentleman I ever saw, and had such, a manner,'
+said the mother, passing over the latter suggestion.  'Anyway, I
+never thought what it all meant--all alone with the children as I
+was--till I found people looking at me, and laughing at me, and then
+I heard Lady de Lyonnais and Mr. Egremont were coming down, very
+angry, to send me away.  I ought, I know it now, to have waited, for
+they would have written to my aunt.  But I was horribly frightened,
+and I couldn't bear to think of never seeing him again, and he came
+and comforted me, and said he would take me to Mrs. Houghton, the
+kind lady who was staying in the Ninon, and they would make it all
+square for me--and then--oh! it was very sweet--but I never knew that
+we were sailing away to Jersey to be married!  I knew it was very
+dreadful without any one's leave, but it was so noble of him to take
+the poor little governess and defend her, and it wasn't as if my
+mother had been alive.  I didn't know Aunt Ursel then as I did
+afterwards.  And Mrs. Houghton said there was nothing else to be
+done.'
+
+'O don't leave off, mother.  Do tell me.  How long did you have him?'
+
+'Six weeks then--and afterwards one fortnight at Dieppe.  He was not
+free.  He had an old uncle, General Egremont, who was sick and hot-
+tempered, and he was obliged to keep everything secret from him, and
+therefore from everybody else.  And so I was to live at Dieppe, while
+he went out to take care of his uncle, and you know--you know--'
+
+'Yes, I know, dear mother.  But I am sure he was saving somebody
+else, and it was a noble death!  And I know how Aunt Ursel came to
+Dieppe, and how I--your own little Frenchwoman--came to take care of
+you.  And haven't we been jolly without any of these fine relations
+that never looked after you all this time?  Besides, you know he is
+very likely to be on a lonely coral island, and will come home yet.
+I often think he is.'
+
+'My dear child, I have been happier than I deserved,' said Alice
+Egremont, drying her eyes.  'But oh! Nuttie, I hope you will be a
+wiser woman than your mother.'
+
+'Come, don't go on in that way!  Why, I've such advantages!  I've
+Miss Mary, and Aunt Ursel, and Mr. Spyers, and Mr. Dutton, and you,
+you poor little thing, had nobody!  One good thing is, we shall get
+the water-soldier.  Mr. Dutton needn't come, for he's like a cat, and
+won't soil his boots, but Gerard is dying to get another look at the
+old ruin.  He can't make up his mind about the cross on one of the
+stone-coffin lids, so he'll be delighted to come, and he'll get it
+out of the pond for us.  I wonder when we can go.  To-night is choir
+practice, and to-morrow is cutting-out day.'
+
+Miss Headworth was not sorry that the small sociabilities of the
+friends did not leave her alone with her niece all that evening, or
+the next day, when there was a grand cutting-out for the working
+party,--an operation always performed in the holidays.  Miss
+Headworth had of late years been excused from it, and it gave her the
+opportunity she wanted of a consultation with Mr. Dutton.  He was her
+prime adviser in everything, from her investments (such as they were)
+to the eccentricities of her timepieces; and as the cuckoo-clock had
+that night cuckooed all the hours round in succession, no one thought
+it wonderful that she should send a twisted note entreating him to
+call as early as he could in the afternoon.  Of course Nuttie's
+chatter had proclaimed the extraordinary visitors, and it needed not
+the old lady's dash under "on an anxious affair" to bring him to her
+little drawing-room as soon as he could quit his desk.  Perhaps he
+hastened his work with a hope in his heart which he durst not
+express, but the agitation on the usually placid face forbade him to
+entertain it for an instant, and he only said, 'So our expedition has
+led to unforeseen consequences, Miss Headworth.'  And then she
+answered under her breath, as if afraid of being overheard: 'Mr.
+Dutton, my poor child does not know it yet, but the man is alive!'
+
+Mr. Dutton compressed his lips.  It was the greater shock, for he had
+actually made inquiries at the Yacht Club, but the officials there
+either had not been made aware of the reappearance of the two
+Egremonts, or they did not think it worth while to look beyond the
+record which declared that all hands had perished, and the connection
+of the uncle and nephew with the Yacht Club had not been renewed.
+Presently he said, 'Then hers was a right instinct.  There is reason
+to be thankful.'
+
+Miss Headworth was too full of her own anxieties to heed his causes
+for thankfulness.  She told what she had heard from Lady Kirkaldy and
+from Mark Egremont, and asked counsel whether it could be Alice's
+duty to return to the man who had deserted her, or even to accept
+anything from him.  There was an impetuous and indignant spirit at
+the bottom of the old lady's heart, in spite of the subdued life she
+had led for so many years, and she hardly brooked the measured
+considerate manner in which her adviser declared that all depended on
+circumstances, and the manner in which Captain Egremont made the
+first move.  At present no one was acting but young Mark, and, as Mr.
+Dutton observed, it was not a matter in which a man was very likely
+to submit to a nephew's dictation.
+
+There was certainly no need for Mrs. Egremont to _force_ her presence
+on him.  But Mr. Dutton did think that for her own sake and her
+child's there ought to be full recognition of their rights, and that
+this should be proved by their maintenance.
+
+'I imagine that Ursula may probably be a considerable heiress, and
+her lights must not be sacrificed.'
+
+'Poor little girl!  Will it be for her happiness?  I doubt it
+greatly!'
+
+'Of that I suppose we have no right to judge,' said Mr. Dutton,
+somewhat tremulously. 'Justice is what we have to look to, and to
+allow Nuttie to be passed over would be permitting a slur to be cast
+on her and her mother.'
+
+'I see that,' said Miss Headworth, with an effort.  'I suppose I am
+after all a selfish, faithless old woman, and it is not in my hands
+after all.  But I must prepare my poor Alice for what may be coming.'
+
+'If any terms are offered to her, she had better put the matter into
+a lawyer's hands.  Dobson would be a safe man to deal with.'
+
+Miss Headworth was amazed that he--who had helped her in many a
+little question bordering on law--should not proffer his aid now in
+this greatest stress.  He was a resolute, self-controlled man, and
+she never guessed at the feeling that made him judge himself to be no
+fitting champion for Alice Egremont against her husband.  Ever since,
+ten years ago, he had learnt that his beautiful neighbour did not
+regard herself so certainly a widow as to venture to open her heart
+to any other love, he had lived patiently on, content to serve her as
+a trustworthy friend, and never betraying the secret hope so long
+cherished and now entirely crushed.
+
+He was relieved to escape from the interview, and the poor old lady
+remained a little more certain as to her duty perhaps, but with a
+certainty that only made her more unhappy, and she was so restless
+and nervous that, in the middle of the evening's reading of
+Archbishop Trench's Lectures on History, Alice suddenly broke off in
+the very middle of a sentence and exclaimed, 'Aunt Ursel! you are
+keeping something from me.'
+
+Miss Headworth made a faint attempt by saying something about
+presently, and glancing with her eyes to indicate that it was to be
+reserved till after Nuttie's bedtime, but the young lady comprehended
+the signs and exclaimed, 'Never mind me, Aunt Ursel,--I know all
+about mother; she told me last night.'
+
+'It is!' broke in Mrs. Egremont, who had been watching her aunt's
+face.  'You have heard of _him_.'
+
+'Oh, my father!  You really have!' cried Nuttie.  'Then he really was
+on the desert island all this time; I was quite sure of it.  How
+delightful!'  She jumped up and looked at the door, as if she
+expected to see him appear that instant, clad in skins like Robinson
+Crusoe, but her aunt's nervous agitation found vent in a sharp
+reproof: 'Nuttie, hold your tongue, and don't be such a foolish
+child, or I shall send you out of the room this instant!'
+
+'But aunt?' gasped Alice, unable to bear the suspense.
+
+'Yes, my poor dear child.  Captain Egremont with the General got off
+with some of the crew in a boat when the Ninon was burnt.  He spent a
+good many years abroad with the old man, but he has now inherited the
+family place, and is living there.'  Miss Headworth felt as if she
+had fired a cannon and looked to see the effect.
+
+'Ah, if we could have stayed at Dieppe!' said Mrs. Egremont.  'But we
+did write back to say where we could be heard of.'
+
+'That was of no use.  Mark found no traces of us when he went
+thither.'
+
+'Did he send Mark?'
+
+'No.  My dear Alice, I must not conceal from you that this is all Mr.
+Mark Egremont's doing.  He seems to have been helping his uncle with
+his papers when he came on the evidence of your marriage, and,
+remembering you as he does, he forced the confession of it from the
+captain, and of his own accord set forth to discover what had become
+of you and to see justice done to you.'
+
+'Dear little Mark!' said she; 'he always was such an affectionate
+little boy.'
+
+'And now, my dear, you must consider how you will receive any
+advances on his part.'
+
+'Oh, Aunt Ursel, don't!  I can't talk now.  Please let me go to bed.
+Nuttie, dear, you need not come yet.'
+
+The desire for solitude, in which to realise what she had heard, was
+overpowering, and she fled away in the summer twilight, leaving
+Nuttie with wide open eyes, looking after her vanished hero and
+desert island.
+
+'My poor Alice!' sighed the old lady.
+
+'Aunt Ursel!' exclaimed Nuttie, 'was--I mean--is my father a good or
+a bad man?'
+
+'My dear, should a daughter ask such a question?'
+
+'Aunt Ursel, I can't help it.  I think I ought to know all about it,'
+said Nuttie gravely, putting away her childishness and sitting down
+by her aunt.  'I did not think so much of it when mother told me they
+eloped, because, though I know it was very wrong, people do do odd
+things sometimes when they are very much in love (she said it in a
+superior patronising tone that would have amused Miss Headworth very
+much at any other time); and it has not spoilt mother for being the
+dearest, sweetest, best thing in the world, and, besides, they had
+neither of them any fathers or mothers to disobey.  But, then, when I
+found he was so old, and that he kept it a secret, and must have told
+stories only for the sake of money (uttered with extreme contempt), I
+didn't like it.  And if he left her as Theseus left Ariadne, or Sir
+Lancelot left Elaine, I--I don't think it is nice.  Do you think he
+only pretended to be lost in the Ninon to get rid of her, or that he
+could not find her?'
+
+'The Ninon was really reported lost with all on board,' said Miss
+Headworth.  'That was ascertained.  He was saved by a Chilian ship,
+and seems to have been a good while making his way back to Europe.  I
+had taken care that our address should be known at Dieppe, but it is
+quite possible that he may not have applied to the right people, or
+that they may not have preserved my letter, so that we cannot feel
+sore that he was to blame.'
+
+'If he had been worth anything at all, he would have moved heaven and
+earth to find her!' cried Nuttie; 'and you said yourself it was all
+_that_ Mark's doing!'
+
+'He seems to be a very upright and generous young man, that Mr. Mark
+Egremont,' said Miss Headworth, a whole romance as to Nuttie's future
+destiny sweeping across her mind in an instant, with a mental
+dispensation to first cousins in such a case.  'I think you will find
+him a staunch champion even against his own interests.'
+
+Perceptions came across Nuttie.  'Oh, then I am a sort of lost
+heiress, like people in a story!  I see!  But, Aunt Ursel, what do
+you think will happen?'
+
+'My dear child, I cannot guess in the least.  Perhaps the Egremont
+property will not concern you, and only go to male heirs.  That would
+be the best thing, since in any case you must be sufficiently
+provided for.  Your father must do that.'
+
+'But about mother?'
+
+'A proper provision must be insisted on for her,' said Miss
+Headworth.  'It is no use, however, to speculate on the future.  We
+cannot guess how Mr. Mark Egremont's communication will be received,
+or whether any wish will be expressed for your mother's rejoining
+your father.  In such a case the terms must be distinctly understood,
+and I have full trust both in Mr. Mark and in Lady Kirkaldy as her
+champions to see that justice is done to you both.'
+
+'I'm sure he doesn't deserve that mother should go to him.'
+
+'Nor do I expect that he will wish it, or that it would be proper;
+but he is bound to give her a handsome maintenance, and I think most
+probably you will be asked to stay with your uncle and cousins,' said
+Miss Headworth, figuring to herself a kind of Newstead Abbey or some
+such scene of constant orgies at Bridgefield Egremont.
+
+'I shall accept nothing from the family that does not include
+mother,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Dear child, I foresee many trials, but you must be her protector.'
+
+'That I will,' said Nuttie; and in the gallant purpose she went to
+bed, to find her mother either asleep or feigning slumber with tears
+on her cheek.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+THE WATER-SOLDIER.
+
+
+
+
+'Presumptuous maid, with looks intent,
+ Again she stretched, again she bent,
+ Nor knew the gulf between.'--GRAY.
+
+
+It all seemed like a dream to Ursula, perhaps likewise to her mother,
+when they rose to the routine of daily life with the ordinary
+interests of the day before them.  There was a latent unwillingness
+in Mrs. Egremont's mind to discuss the subject with either aunt or
+daughter; and when the post brought no letter, Ursula, after a
+moment's sense of flatness, was relieved, and returned to her eager
+desire to hurry after the water-soldier.  It was feasible that very
+afternoon.  Mary Nugent came in with the intelligence.
+
+'And can Gerard come? or we shall only look at it.'
+
+'Yes, Gerard can come, and so will Mr. Dutton,' said Mary, who,
+standing about half-way between Mrs. Egremont and her daughter, did
+not think herself quite a sufficient chaperon.
+
+'He will look on like a hen at her ducklings,' said Nuttie.  'It is
+cruel to take him, poor man!'
+
+'Meantime, Nuttie, do you like an hour of "Marie Stuart?"'
+
+'Oh, thank you!'  But she whispered, 'Aunt Ursel, may I tell her?'
+
+'Ask your mother, my dear.'
+
+Leave was given, half reluctantly, and with a prohibition against
+mentioning the subject to any one else, but both mother and aunt had
+confidence in Mary Nugent's wisdom and discretion, so the two friends
+sat on the wall together, and Ursula poured out her heart.  Poor
+little girl! she was greatly discomfited at the vanishing of her
+noble vision of the heroic self-devoted father, and ready on the
+other hand to believe him a villain, like Bertram Risingham, or 'the
+Pirate,' being possessed by this idea on account of his West Indian
+voyages.  At any rate, she was determined not to be accepted or
+acknowledged without her mother, and was already rehearsing
+magnanimous letters of refusal.
+
+Miss Mary listened and wondered, feeling sometimes as if this were as
+much a romance as the little yacht going down with the burning ship;
+and then came back the recollection that there was a real fact that
+Nuttie had a father, and that it was entirely uncertain what part he
+might take, or what the girl might be called on to do.  Considering
+anxiously these bearings of the question, she scarcely heard what she
+was required to assent to, in one of Nuttie's eager, 'Don't you think
+so?'
+
+'My dear Nuttie,' she said, rousing herself, 'what I do think is that
+it will all probably turn out exactly contrariwise to our
+imaginations, so I believe it would be wisest to build up as few
+fancies as possible, but only to pray that you may have a right
+judgment in all things, and have strength to do what is right,
+whatever you may see that to be.'
+
+'And of course that will be to stick by mother.'
+
+'There can be little doubt of that, but the how?  No, dear, do not
+let us devise all sorts of _hows_ when we have nothing to go upon.
+That would be of no use, and only perplex you when the time comes.
+It would be much better to "do the nexte thinge," and read our "Marie
+Stuart."'
+
+Nuttie pouted a little, but submitted, though she now and then broke
+into a translation with 'You know mother will never stand up for
+herself,' or 'They think I shall be asked to stay with the Egremonts,
+but I must work up for the exam.'
+
+However, the school habit of concentrating her attention prevailed,
+and the study quieted Nuttie's excitement.  The expedition took place
+as arranged.  There was a train which stopped so that the party could
+go down by it, and the distance was not too great for walking back.
+
+Mr. Dutton met them on the platform, well armed with his neat silk
+umbrella, and his black poodle, Monsieur, trotting solemnly after
+him.  Gerard Godfrey bore materials for an exact transcript of the
+Abbot's monumental cross, his head being full of church architecture,
+while Nuttie carried a long green tin case, or vasculum as she chose
+to call it, with her three vowels, U A E, and the stars of the Little
+Bear conspicuously painted on it in white.
+
+'You did not venture on that the other day,' said Mr. Dutton.  'How
+much of the park do you mean to carry away in it?'
+
+'Let me take it,' said Gerard politely.
+
+'No, thank you.  You'd leave it behind, while you were pottering over
+the mouldings.'
+
+'You are much more likely to leave it behind yourself.'
+
+'What--with my soldier, my Stratiotes, in it?  I think I see myself.'
+
+'Give it to me,' said Gerard.  'Of course I can't see you carrying a
+great thing like that.'
+
+'Can't you, indeed?'
+
+'Gently, gently, my dear,' said Miss Mary, as the young people seemed
+very near a skirmish, and the train was sweeping up.  Then there was
+another small scuffle, for Nuttie had set her heart on the third
+class; but Mr. Dutton had taken second-class tickets, and was about
+to hand them into a carriage whence there had just emerged a very
+supercilious black-moustached valet, who was pulling out a leather-
+covered dressing-case, while Gerard was consoling Nuttie by telling
+her that Monsieur never deigned to go third class.
+
+'It is a smoking carriage,' said Miss Nugent, on the step.  'Pah! how
+it smells,' as she jumped back.
+
+'Beautiful backy--a perfect nosegay,' said Gerard.
+
+'Trust that fellow for having the best.'
+
+'His master's, no doubt,' suggested Mr. Dutton.
+
+'You'd better go in it, to enjoy his reversion,' said Nuttie.
+
+'And where's my escort, then?'
+
+'Oh, I'm sure we don't want you.'
+
+'Nuttie, my dear,' expostulated Miss Nugent, dragging her into the
+next carriage.
+
+'You may enjoy the fragrance still,' said Nuttie when seated.  'Do
+you see--there's the man's master; he has stood him up against that
+post, with his cigar, to wait while he gets out the luggage.  I
+daresay you can get a whiff if you lean out far enough.'
+
+'I say! that figure is a study!' said Gerard.  'What is it that he is
+so like?'
+
+'Oh! I know,' said Nuttie.  'It is Lord Frederick Verisopht, and the
+bad gentlefolks in the pictures to the old numbers of Dickens that
+you have got, Miss Mary.  Now, isn't he?  Look! only Lord Frederick
+wasn't fat.'
+
+Nuttie was in a state of excitement that made her peculiarly
+unmanageable, and Miss Nugent was very grateful to Mr. Dutton for his
+sharp though general admonition against staring, while, under pretext
+of disposing of the umbrella and the vasculum, he stood up, so as to
+block the window till they were starting.
+
+There was no one else to observe them but a demure old lady, and in
+ten minutes' time they were in open space, where high spirits might
+work themselves off, though the battle over the botanical case was
+ended by Miss Nugent, who strongly held that ladies should carry
+their own extra encumbrances, and slung it with a scarf over Nuttie's
+shoulders in a knowing knapsack fashion.
+
+The two young people had known one another all their lives, for
+Gerard was the son of a medical man who had lived next door to Miss
+Headworth when the children were young.  The father was dead, and the
+family had left the place, but this son had remained at school, and
+afterwards had been put into the office at the umbrella factory under
+charge of Mr. Dutton, whose godson he was, and who treated him as a
+nephew.  He was a good-hearted, steady young fellow, with his whole
+interest in ecclesiastical details, wearing a tie in accordance with
+'the colours,' and absorbed in church music and decorations, while
+his recreations were almost all in accordance therewith.
+
+There was plenty of merriment, as he drew and measured at the very
+scanty ruins, which were little more than a few fragments of wall,
+overgrown luxuriantly with ivy and clematis, but enclosing some fine
+old coffin-lids with floriated crosses, interesting to those who
+cared for architecture and church history, as Mr. Dutton tried to
+make the children do, so that their ecclesiastical feelings might be
+less narrow, and stand on a surer foundation than present interest, a
+slightly aggressive feeling of contempt for all the other town
+churches, and a pleasing sense of being persecuted.
+
+They fought over the floriations and mouldings with great zest, and
+each maintained a date with youthful vigour--both being, as Mr.
+Dutton by and by showed them, long before the foundation.  The pond
+had been left to the last with a view to the wellbeing of the water-
+soldier on the return.  Here the difficulties of the capture were
+great, for the nearest plant flourished too far from the bank to be
+reached with comfort, and besides, the sharp-pointed leaves to which
+it owes its name were not to be approached with casual grasps.
+
+'Oh Monsieur, I wish you were a Beau,' sighed Nuttie.  'Why, are you
+too stupid to go and get it?'
+
+'It is a proof of his superior intelligence,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'But really it is too ridiculous--too provoking--to have come all
+this way and not get it,' cried the tantalised Nuttie.  'Oh, Gerard,
+are you taking off your boots and stockings?  You duck!'
+
+'Just what I wish I was,' said the youth, rolling up his trousers.
+
+But even the paddling in did not answer.  Mr. Dutton called out
+anxiously, 'Take care, Gerard, the bottom may be soft,' and came down
+to the very verge just in time to hold out his hand, and prevent an
+utterly disastrous fall, for Gerard, in spite of his bare feet, sank
+at once into mud, and on the first attempt to take a step forward,
+found his foot slipping away from under him, and would in another
+instant have tumbled backwards into the slush and weeds.  He
+scrambled back, his hat falling off into the reeds, and splashing Mr.
+Dutton all over, while Monsieur began to bark 'with astonishment at
+seeing his master in such a plight,' declared the ladies, who stood
+convulsed with cruel laughter.
+
+'Isn't it dreadful?' exclaimed Ursula.
+
+'Well!  It might have been worse,' gravely said Mr. Dutton, wiping
+off the more obnoxious of his splashes with his pocket handkerchief.
+
+'Oh I didn't mean you, but the water-soldier,' said Nuttie.  'To have
+come five miles for it in vain!'
+
+'I don't know what to suggest,' added Gerard.  'Even if the ladies
+were to retire--'
+
+'No, no,' interposed Mr. Dutton, ''tis no swimming ground, and I
+forbid the expedient.  You would only be entangled in the weeds.'
+
+'Behold!' exclaimed Mary, who had been prowling about the banks, and
+now held up in triumph one of the poles with a bill-hook at the end
+used for cutting weed.
+
+'Bravo, Miss Nugent!' cried Gerard.
+
+'Female wit has circumvented the water-soldier,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Don't cry out too soon,' returned Mary; 'the soldier may float off
+and escape you yet.'
+
+However, the capture was safely accomplished, without even a dip
+under water to destroy the beauty of the white flowers.  With these,
+and a few waterlilies secured by Gerard for the morrow's altar vases,
+the party set out on their homeward walk, through plantations of
+whispering firs, the low sun tingeing the trunks with ruddy light;
+across heathery commons, where crimson heath abounded, and the
+delicate blush-coloured wax-belled species was a prize; by cornfields
+in ear hanging out their dainty stamens; along hedges full of
+exquisite plumes of feathering or nodding grass, of which Nuttie made
+bouquets and botanical studies, and Gerard stored for harvest
+decorations.  They ran and danced on together with Monsieur at their
+heels, while the elders watched them with some sadness and anxiety.
+Free-masonry had soon made both Mary and Mr. Dutton aware of each
+other's initiation, and they had discussed the matter in all its
+bearings, agreed that the man was a scoundrel, and the woman an
+angel, even if she had once been weak, and that she ought to be very
+resolute with him if he came to terms.  And then they looked after
+their young companions, and Mr. Dutton said, 'Poor children, what is
+before them?'
+
+'It is well they are both so young,' answered Mary.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+THAT MAN.
+
+
+
+
+'It is the last time--'tis the last!'--SCOTT.
+
+
+Sundays were the ever-recurring centres of work and interests to the
+little circle in St. Ambrose's Road.  To them the church services and
+the various classes and schools were the great objects and
+excitements of the week.  A certain measure of hopeful effort and
+varying success is what gives zest to life, and the purer and higher
+the aim, and the more unmixed the motives, the greater the happiness
+achieved by the 'something attempted, something done.'
+
+Setting apart actual spiritual devotion, the altar vases, purchased
+by a contribution of careful savings, and adorned with the Monks
+Horton lilies, backed by ferns from the same quarter; the surplices
+made by the ladies themselves, the chants they had practised, the
+hymns they had taught, could not but be much more interesting to them
+than if they had been mere lookers on.  Every cross on the markers,
+every flower on the altar cloth was the work of one or other of them;
+everything in the church was an achievement, and choir boys, school
+children, Bible classes, every member of the regular congregation,
+had some special interest; nay, every irregular member or visitor
+might be a convert in time--if not a present sympathiser, and at the
+very least might swell the offertory that was destined to so many
+needs of the struggling district.
+
+Thus it was with some curiosity mingled with self-reproach that
+Nuttie, while singing her Benedictus among the tuneful shop-girls, to
+whom she was bound to set an example, became aware of yesterday's
+first-class traveller lounging, as far as the rows of chairs would
+permit, in the aisle, and, as she thought, staring hard at her
+mother.  It was well that Mrs. Egremont's invariable custom was never
+to lift her eyes from her book or her harmonium, or she surely must
+have been disconcerted, her daughter thought, by the eyes that must
+have found her out, under her little black net bonnet and veil, as
+the most beautiful woman in church,--as she certainly was,--even that
+fine good-for-nothing gentleman thinking so.  Nuttie would add his
+glances to the glories of her lovely mother!
+
+And she did so, with triumph in her tone of reprobation, as she
+trotted off, after the early dinner, to her share of Sunday-school
+work as usual under Miss Nugent's wing.  It began with a children's
+service, and then ensued, in rooms at the factory, lent by Mr.
+Dutton, the teaching that was to supply the omissions of the Board
+School; the establishment of a voluntary one being the next ambition
+of St. Ambrose's.
+
+Coming home from their labours, in the fervent discussion of their
+scholars, and exchanging remarks and greetings with the other
+teachers of various calibres, the friends reached their own road, and
+there, to their amazement, beheld Miss Headworth.
+
+'Yes, it really is!' cried Nuttie.  'We can't be too late?  No--
+there's no bell!  Aunt Ursel!  What has brought you out?  What's the
+matter?  Where's mother?'
+
+'In the house.  My dear,' catching hold of her, and speaking
+breathlessly, 'I came out to prepare you.  He is come--your father--'
+
+'Where?' cried Nuttie, rather wildly.
+
+'He is in the drawing-room with your mother.  I said I would send
+you.'  Poor Miss Headworth gasped with agitation.  'Oh! where's Mr.
+Dutton--not that anything can be done--'
+
+'Is it _that man_?' asked Nuttie, and getting no answer, 'I know it
+is!  Oh Aunt Ursel, how could you leave her with him?  I must go and
+protect her.  Gerard--come.  No, go and fetch Mr. Dutton.'
+
+'Hush! hush, Nuttie,' cried her aunt, grasping her.  'You know
+nothing about it.  Wait here till I can tell you.'
+
+'Come in here, dear Miss Headworth,' said Mary, gently drawing her
+arm into hers, for the poor old lady could hardly stand for
+trembling, and bidding Gerard open the door of her own house with the
+latch-key.
+
+She took them into the dining-room, so as not to disturb her mother,
+sent Gerard off after Mr. Dutton in the very uttermost astonishment
+and bewilderment, and set Miss Headworth down in an easy-chair, where
+she recovered herself, under Mary's soothing care, enough to tell her
+story in spite of Nuttie's exclamations.  'Wait! wait, Nuttie!  You
+mustn't burst in on them so!  No, you need not be afraid.  Don't be a
+silly child!  He won't hurt her!  Oh no!  They are quite delighted to
+meet.'
+
+'Delighted to meet?' said Nuttie, as if transfixed.
+
+'Yes,' said her aunt.  'Oh yes, I always knew the poor child cared
+for him and tried to believe in him all along.  He only had to say
+the word.'
+
+'I wouldn't,' cried the girl, her eyes flashing.  'Why didn't you ask
+him how he could desert her and leave her?'
+
+'My dear! how can one come between husband and wife?  Oh, my poor
+Alice!'
+
+'How was it, how did they meet, dear Miss Headworth?' asked Mary,
+administering the wine she had been pouring out.
+
+'You hadn't been gone half an hour, Alice was reading to me, and I
+was just dozing, when in came Louisa.  "A gentleman to see Mrs.
+Egremont," she said, and there he was just behind.  We rose up--she
+did not know him at once, but he just said "Edda, my little Edda,
+sweeter than ever, I knew you at once," or something of that sort,
+and she gave one little cry of "I knew you would come," and sprang
+right into his arms.  I--well, I meant to make him understand how he
+had treated her, but just as I began "Sir"--he came at me with his
+hand outstretched--'
+
+'You didn't take it, aunt, I hope?' cried Nuttie.
+
+'My dear, when you see him, you will know how impossible it is.  He
+_has_ that high-bred manner it is as if he were conferring a favour.
+"Miss Headworth, I conclude," said he, "a lady to whom I owe more
+than I can express."  Just as if I had done it for his sake.'  Miss
+Nugent felt this open expression dangerous on account of the
+daughter, and she looked her consternation at Mr. Dutton, who had
+quietly entered, ruthlessly shutting Gerard Godfrey out with only
+such a word of explanation as could be given on the way.
+
+'Then he comes with--with favourable intentions,' said Mary, putting
+as much admonition as she could into her voice.
+
+'Oh! no doubt of that,' said Miss Headworth, drawing herself
+together.  'He spoke of the long separation,--said he had never been
+able to find her, till the strange chance of his nephew stumbling on
+her at Abbots Norton.'
+
+'That is--possib--probably true,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'It can't be,' broke in Nuttie.  'He never troubled himself about it
+till his nephew found the papers.  You said so, Aunt Ursel!  He is a
+dreadful traitor of a man, just like Marmion, or Theseus, or
+Lancelot, and now he is telling lies about it!  Don't look at me.
+Aunt Ursel, they are lies, and I _will_ say it, and he took in poor
+dear mother once, and now he is taking her in again, and I can't bear
+that he should be my father!'
+
+It was so entirely true, yet so shocking to hear from her mouth, that
+all three stood aghast, as she stood with heaving chest, crimson
+cheeks, and big tears in her eyes.  Miss Headworth only muttered,
+'Oh, my poor child, you mustn't!'
+
+Mr. Dutton prevented another passionate outburst by his tone of
+grave, gentle authority.  'Listen a moment, Ursula,' he said.  'It is
+unhappily true that this man has acted in an unjustifiable way
+towards your mother and yourself.  But there are, no doubt, many more
+excuses for him than you know of, and as I found a few years ago that
+the people at Dieppe had lost the address that had been left with
+them, he must have found no traces of your mother there.  You cannot
+understand the difficulties that may have been in his way.  And there
+is no use, quite the contrary, in making the worst of him.  He has
+found your mother out, and it seems that he claims her
+affectionately, and she forgives and welcomes him--out of the sweet
+tenderness of her heart.'
+
+'She may--but I can't,' murmured Nuttie.
+
+'That is not a fit thing for a daughter, nor a Christian, to say,'
+Mr. Dutton sternly said.
+
+''Tis not for myself--'tis for her,--'objected Nuttie.
+
+'That's nonsense; a mere excuse,' he returned.  'You have nothing at
+all to forgive, since he did not know you were in existence.  And as
+to your mother, whom you say you put first, what greater grief or
+pain can you give her than by showing enmity and resentment against
+her husband, when she, the really injured person, loves and
+forgives?'
+
+'He's a bad man.  If she goes back to him, I know he will make her
+unhappy--'
+
+'You don't know any such thing, but you do know that your opposition
+will make her unhappy.  Remember, there's no choice in the matter.
+He has legal rights over you both, and since he shows himself ready
+(as I understand from Miss Headworth that he is) to give her and you
+your proper position, you have nothing to do but to be thankful.  I
+think myself that it is a great subject of thankfulness that your
+mother can return so freely without any bitterness.  It is the
+blessing of such as she--'
+
+Nuttie stood pouting, but more thoughtful and less violent, as she
+said, 'How can I be thankful?  I don't want position or anything.  I
+only want him to let my--my own mother, and aunt, and me alone.'
+
+'Child, you are talking of what you do not understand.  You must not
+waste any more time in argument.  Your mother has sent for you, and
+it is your duty to go and let her introduce you to your father.  I
+have little doubt that you will find him very unlike all your
+imagination represents him, but let that be as it may, the fifth
+Commandment does not say, "Honour only thy good father," but, "Honour
+thy father."  Come now, put on your gloves--get her hat right, if you
+please, Miss Mary.  There--now, come along, be a reasonable creature,
+and a good girl, and do not give unnecessary pain and vexation to
+your mother.'  He gave her his arm, and led her away.
+
+'Well done, Mr. Dutton!' exclaimed Miss Nugent.
+
+'Poor Mr. Dutton!'  All Aunt Ursel's discretion could not suppress
+that sigh, but Mary prudently let it pass unnoticed, only honouring
+in her heart the unselfishness and self-restraint of the man whose
+long, patient, unspoken hopes had just received a death-blow.
+
+'Oh, Mary!  I never thought it would have been like this!' cried the
+poor old lady.  'I ought not to have spoken as I did before the
+child, but I was so taken by surprise!  Alice turned to him just as
+if he had been the most faithful, loving husband in the world.  She
+is believing every word he says.'
+
+'It is very happy for her that she can,' pleaded Mary.
+
+'So it is, yes, but--when one knows what he is, and what she is!  Oh,
+Mr. Dutton, is the poor child gone in?'
+
+'Yes, I saw her safe into the room.  She was very near running off up
+the stairs,' said Mr. Dutton.  'But I daresay she is fascinated by
+this time.  That sort of man has great power over women.'
+
+'Nuttie is hardly a woman yet,' said Miss Nugent.
+
+'No, but there must be a strong reaction, when she sees something
+unlike her compound of Marmion and Theseus.'
+
+'I suppose there is no question but that they must go with him!' said
+Miss Headworth wistfully.
+
+'Assuredly.  You say he--this Egremont--was affectionate,' said Mr.
+Dutton quietly, but Mary saw his fingers white with his tight
+clenching of the bar of the chair.
+
+'Oh yes, warmly affectionate, delighted to find her prettier than
+ever, poor dear; I suppose he meant it.  Heaven forgive me, if I am
+judging him too hardly, but I verily believe he went to church to
+reconnoitre, and see whether she pleased his fancy--'
+
+'And do you understand,' added Mr. Dutton, 'that he is prepared to do
+her full justice, and introduce her to his family and friends as his
+wife, on equal terms?  Otherwise, even if she were unwilling to stand
+up for herself, it would be the duty of her friends to make some
+stipulations.'
+
+'I am pretty sure that he does,' said the aunt; 'I did not stay long
+when I saw that I was not wanted, but I heard him say something about
+his having a home for her now, and her cutting out the Redcastle
+ladies.'
+
+'Besides, there is the nephew, Mr. Mark Egremont,' said Mary.  'He
+will take care of her.'
+
+'Yes,' said Mr. Dutton.  'It appears to be all right.  At any rate,
+there can be no grounds for interference on our part.'
+
+Mr. Dutton took his leave with these words, wringing Miss Headworth's
+hand in mute sympathy, and she, poor old lady, when he was gone,
+fairly collapsed into bitter weeping over the uncertain future of
+those whom she had loved as her own children, and who now must leave
+her desolate.  Mary did her best with comfort and sympathy, and
+presently took her to share her griefs and fears with gentle old Mrs.
+Nugent.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+THE FATHER.
+
+
+
+
+'I do think this lady
+ To be my child.'-King Lear.
+
+
+Nuttie, in her fresh holland Sunday dress, worked in crewels with
+wild strawberries by her mother's hands, and with a white-trimmed
+straw hat, was almost shoved into the little drawing-room by Mr.
+Dutton, though he was himself invisible.
+
+Her eyes were in such a daze of tears that she hardly saw more at
+first than that some one was there with her mother on the sofa.  'Ah,
+there she is!' she heard her mother cry, and both rose.  Her mother's
+arm was round her waist, her hand was put into another, Mrs.
+Egremont's voice, tremulous with exceeding delight, said, 'Our child,
+our Ursula, our Nuttie!  Oh, this is what I have longed for all these
+years!  Oh, thanks, thanks!' and her hands left her daughter to be
+clasped and uplifted for a moment in fervent thanksgiving, while
+Nuttie's hand was held, and a strange hairy kiss, redolent of
+tobacco-smoking, was on her forehead--a masculine one, such as she
+had never known, except her cousin Mark's, since the old rector died,
+and she had grown too big for Mr. Dutton's embraces.  It was more
+strange than delightful, and yet she felt the polish of the tone that
+said, 'We make acquaintance somewhat late, Ursula, but better late
+than never.'
+
+She looked up at this new father, and understood instantly what she
+had heard of his being a grand gentleman.  There was a high-bred look
+about him, an entire ease and perfect manner that made everything he
+did or said seem like gracious condescension, and took away the power
+of questioning it at the moment.  He was not above the middle size,
+and was becoming unwieldy; but there was something imposing and even
+graceful in his deportment, and his bald narrow forehead looked
+aristocratic, set off between side tufts of white hair, white
+whiskers, and moustaches waxed into sharp points, Victor Emmanuel
+fashion, and a round white curly beard.  His eyes were dark, and
+looked dull, with yellow unwholesome corners, and his skin was not of
+a pleasant colour, but still, with all Nuttie's intentions of
+regarding him with horror, she was subdued, partly by the grand
+breeding and air of distinction, and partly by the current of
+sympathy from her mother's look of perfect happiness and exultation.
+She could not help feeling it a favour, almost an undeserved favour,
+that so great a personage should say, 'A complete Egremont, I see.
+She has altogether the family face.'
+
+'I am so glad you think so,' returned her mother.
+
+'On the whole it is well, but she might have done better to resemble
+you, Edda,' he said caressingly; 'but perhaps that would have been
+too much for the Earlsforth natives.  William's girls will have
+enough to endure without a double eclipse!' and he laughed.
+
+'I--I don't want--' faltered the mother.
+
+'You don't want, no, but you can't help it,' he said, evidently with
+a proud delight in her beauty.  'Now that I have seen the child,' he
+added, 'I will make my way back to the hotel.'
+
+'Will you--won't you stay to tea or dinner?' said his wife, beginning
+with an imploring tone which hesitated as she reviewed possible chops
+and her aunt's dismay.
+
+'Thank you, I have ordered dinner at the hotel,' he answered, 'and
+Gregorio is waiting for me with a cab.  No doubt you will wish to
+make arrangements with Madame--the old lady--and I will not trouble
+her further to-night.  I will send down Gregorio to-morrow morning,
+to tell you what I arrange.  An afternoon train, probably, as we
+shall go no farther than London.  You say Lady Kirkaldy called on
+you.  We might return her visit before starting, but I will let you
+know when I have looked at the trains.  My compliments to Miss
+Headworth.  Good evening, sweetest.'  He held his wife in a fond
+embrace, kissing her brow and cheeks and letting her cling to him,
+then added, 'Good evening, little one,' with a good-natured careless
+gesture with which Nuttie was quite content, for she had a certain
+loathing of the caresses that so charmed her mother.  And yet the
+command to make ready had been given with such easy authority that
+the idea of resisting it had never even entered her mind, though she
+stood still while her mother went out to the door with him and
+watched him to the last.
+
+Coming back, she threw her arms round her daughter, kissed her again
+and again, and, with showers of the glad tears long repressed, cried,
+'Oh, my Nuttie, my child, what joy!  How shall I be thankful enough!
+Your father, your dear father!  Now it is all right.'  Little
+sentences of ecstasy such as these, interspersed with caresses, all
+in the incoherence of overpowering delight, full of an absolute faith
+that the lost husband had loved her and been pining for her all these
+years, but that he had been unable to trace her, and was as happy as
+she was in the reunion.
+
+The girl was somewhat bewildered, but she was carried along by this
+flood of exceeding joy and gladness.  The Marmion and Theseus images
+had been dispelled by the reality, and, with Mr. Dutton's sharp
+reproof fresh upon her, she felt herself to have been doing a great
+injustice to her father; believed all that her mother did, and found
+herself the object of a romantic recognition--if not the beggar girl
+become a princess, at any rate, the little school-teacher a county
+lady!  And she had never seen her mother so wildly, overpoweringly
+happy with joy.  That made her, too, feel that something grand and
+glorious had happened.
+
+'What are we going to do?' she asked, as the vehemence of Mrs.
+Egremont's emotion began to work itself off.
+
+'Home!  He takes us to his home!  _His_ home!' repeated her mother,
+in a trance of joy, as the yearnings of her widowed heart now were
+fulfilled.
+
+'Oh, but Aunt Ursel!'
+
+'Poor Aunt Ursel!  Oh, Nuttie, Nuttie, I had almost forgotten!  How
+could I?' and there was a shower of tears of compunction.  'But he
+said he owed everything to her!  She will come with us!  Or if she
+doesn't live with us, we will make her live close by in a dear little
+cottage.  Where is she?  When did she go?  I never saw her go.'
+
+The sound of the front door was heard, for the visitor had been
+watched away and Miss Headworth was returning to her own house to be
+there received with another fervent gush of happiness, much more
+trying to her, poor thing, than to Nuttie.
+
+There was evensong imminent, and the most needful act at the moment
+was to compose the harmonium-player sufficiently for her to take her
+part.  Miss Headworth was really glad of the necessity, since it put
+off the discussion, and made a reason for silencing Nuttie until all
+should be more recovered from the first agitation.  Alice Egremont
+herself was glad to carry her gratitude and thankfulness to the
+Throne of Grace, and in her voluntary, and all her psalms, there was
+an exulting strain that no one had thought the instrument capable of
+producing, and that went to the heart of more than one of her
+hearers.  No one who knew her could doubt that hers was simply
+innocent exultation in the recovery of him whom she so entirely loved
+and confided in.  But there could not but be terrible doubts whether
+he were worthy of that trust, and what the new page in her life would
+be.
+
+Miss Headworth had said they would not talk till after church, but
+there was no deferring the matter then.  She was prepared, however,
+when her niece came up to her in a tender deprecating manner, saying,
+'Aunt Ursel, dear Aunt Ursel, it does seem very ungrateful, but--'
+
+'He is going to take you away?  Yes, I saw that.  And it ought to be,
+my dear.  You know where?'
+
+'Yes; to London first, to be fitted out, and then to his own home.
+To Bridgefield Egremont.  I shall have to see Mr. Egremont,' and her
+voice sank with shame.  'But Mark will be good to me, and why should
+I care when I have him.'
+
+'It is quite right. I am glad it should be so,' firmly said the old
+lady.
+
+'And yet to leave you so suddenly.'
+
+'That can't be helped.'
+
+'And it will only be for a little while,' she added, 'till you can
+make arrangements to come to us.  My dear husband says he owes you
+everything.  So you must be with us, or close to us.'
+
+'My dear, it's very dear and good of you to think of it, but I must
+be independent.'  She put it in those words, unwilling again to speak
+unguardedly before Nuttie.
+
+'Oh, dear auntie, indeed you must!  Think what you are to us, and
+what you have done for us.  We can't go away to be happy and
+prosperous and leave you behind.  Can we, Nuttie?  Come and help me
+to get her to promise.  Do--do dearest auntie,' and she began the
+coaxing and caressing natural to her, but Nuttie did not join in it,
+and Miss Headworth shook her head and said gravely--
+
+'Don't, Alice.  It is of no use.  I tell you once for all that my
+mind is made up.'
+
+Alice, knowing by long experience that, when her aunt spoke in that
+tone, persuasion was useless, desisted, but looked at her in
+consternation, with eyes swimming in tears.  Nuttie understood her a
+little better, and felt the prickings of distrust again.
+
+'But, aunt, dear aunt, how can we leave you?  What will you do with
+all the boarders,' went on Mrs. Egremont.
+
+'I shall see my way, my dear.  Do not think about that.  It is a
+great thing to see you and this child receive justice.'
+
+'And only think, after all the hard things that have been said of
+him, that we should meet first at church!  He would not wait and send
+letters and messages by Mark.  You see he came down himself the first
+moment.  I always knew he would.  Only I am so sorry for him, that he
+should have lost all those sweet years when Nuttie was a tiny child.
+She must do all she can to make up to him.'
+
+'Oh dear!' broke out Nuttie.  'It is so strange!  It will be all so
+strange!'
+
+'It will be a very new life,' said her aunt, rather didactically;
+'but you must do your best to be a good daughter, and to fill your
+new position, and I have no doubt you will enjoy it.'
+
+'If I could but take all with me!' said Nuttie.  'Oh dear! whatever
+will you do, Aunt Ursel?  Oh mother, the choir!  Who will play the
+harmonium? and who will lead the girls? and whatever will Mr. Spyers
+do? and who will take my class?  Mother, couldn't we stay a little
+longer to set things going here?'
+
+'It is nice of you to have thought of it, my dear,' said Mrs.
+Egremont, 'but your father would not like to stay on here.'
+
+'But mightn't I stay, just a few days, mother, to wish everybody
+good-bye?  Mr. Dutton, and Miss Mary, and Gerard, and all the girls?'
+
+There was some consolation in this plan, and the three women rested
+on it that night, Mrs. Egremont recovering composure enough to write
+three or four needful notes, explaining her sudden departure.  The
+aunt could not talk of a future she so much dreaded for her nieces,
+losing in it the thought of her own loneliness; Alice kept back her
+own loving, tender, undoubting joy with a curious sense that it was
+hard and ungrateful towards the aunt; but it was impossible to think
+of that, and Nuttie was in many moods.
+
+Eager anticipation of the new unseen world beyond, exultation in
+finding herself somebody, sympathy with her mother's happiness, all
+had their share, but they made her all the wilder, because they were
+far from unmixed.  The instinctive dislike of Mr. Egremont's
+countenance, and doubt of his plausible story, which had vanished
+before his presence, and her mother's faith, returned upon her from
+time to time, caught perhaps from her aunt's tone and looks.  Then
+her aunt had been like a mother to her--her own mother much more like
+a sister, and the quitting her was a wrench not compensated for as in
+Mrs. Egremont's case by a more absorbing affection.  Moreover, Nuttie
+felt sure that poor Gerard Godfrey would break his heart.  As the
+mother and daughter for the last time lay down together in the room
+that had been theirs through the seventeen years of the girl's life,
+Alice fell asleep with a look of exquisite peace and content on her
+face, feeling her long term of trial crowned by unlooked-for joy,
+while Ursula, though respecting her slumbers too much to move, lay
+with wide-open eyes, now speculating on the strange future, now
+grieving over those she left--Aunt Ursel, Gerard, Mary, and all such;
+the schemes from which she was snatched, and then again consoling
+herself with the hope that, since she was going to be rich, she could
+at once give all that was wanted--the white altar cloth, the brass
+pitcher--nay, perhaps finish the church and build the school!  For
+had not some one said something about her position?  Oh yes, she had
+not thought of it before, but, since she was the elder brother's
+daughter, she must be the heiress!  There was no doubt a grand
+beautiful story before her; she would withstand all sorts of
+fascinations, wicked baronets and earls innumerable, and come back
+and take Gerard by the hand, and say, 'Pride was quelled and love was
+free.'  Not that Gerard had ever uttered a word tending in that
+direction since he had been seven years old, but that would make it
+all the prettier; they would both be silently constant, till the time
+came, perhaps when she was of age.  Mother would like it, though
+_that_ father would certainly be horrid.  And how nice it would be to
+give Gerard everything, and they would go all over the Continent, and
+see pictures, and buy them, and see all the cathedrals and all the
+mountains.  But perhaps, since Mark Egremont had really been so
+generous in hunting up the cousin who was displacing him, she was
+bound in duty to marry him; perhaps he reckoned on her doing so.  She
+would be generous in her turn, give up all the wealth to him, and
+return to do and be everything to Micklethwayte.  How they would
+admire and bless her.  And oh! she was going to London to-morrow--
+London, which she so much wished to see--Westminster Abbey, British
+Museum, All Saints, National Gallery, no end of new dresses.
+
+Half-waking, half-dreaming, she spent the night which seemed long
+enough, and the light hours of the summer morning seemed still
+longer, before she could call it a reasonable time for getting up.
+Her splashings  awoke her mother, who lay smiling for a few moments,
+realising and giving thanks for her great joy, then bestirred herself
+with the recollection of all that had to be done on this busy morning
+before any summons from her husband could arrive.
+
+Combining packing and dressing, like the essentially unmethodical
+little woman she was, Mrs. Egremont still had all her beautiful silky
+brown hair about her shoulders when the bell of St. Ambrose's was
+heard giving its thin tinkling summons to matins at half-past seven.
+She was disappointed; she meant to have gone for this last time, but
+there was no help for it, and Nuttie set off by herself.
+
+Gerard Godfrey was at his own door.  He was not one of the regular
+attendants at the short service, being of that modern species that
+holds itself superior to 'Cranmer's prayers,' but on this morning he
+hastened up to her with outstretched hand.
+
+'And you are going away!' he said.
+
+'I hope to get leave to stay a few days after mother,' she said.
+
+'To prolong the torment?' he said.
+
+'To wish everybody good-bye.  It is a great piece of my life that is
+come to an end, and I can't bear to break it off so short.'
+
+'And if you feel so, who are going to wealth and pleasure, what must
+it be to those who are left behind?'
+
+'Oh!' said Nuttie, 'some one will be raised up.  That's what they
+always say. '
+
+'I shall go into a brotherhood,' observed Gerard desperately.
+
+'Oh, don't,' began Nuttie, much gratified, but at that moment Miss
+Nugent came out at her door, and Mr. Spyers, who was some way in
+advance, looked round and waited for them to come up.  He held out
+his hands to her and said, 'Well, Nuttie, my child, you are going to
+begin a new life.'
+
+'Oh dear!  I wish I could have both!' cried Nuttie, not very
+relevantly as far as the words
+went.
+
+'Scheiden und weiden thut weh!' quoted Mary.
+
+'If his place was only Monks Horton.  What will Aunt Ursel do?'
+
+'I think perhaps she may be induced to join us,' said Mary.  'We mean
+to do our best to persuade her.'
+
+'And there's the choir!  And my class, and the harmonium,' went on
+Nuttie, while Gerard walked on disconsolately.
+
+'Micklethwayte has existed without you, Nuttie,' said Mr. Spyers,
+taking her on with him alone.  'Perhaps it will be able to do so
+again.  My dear, you had better look on.  There will be plenty for
+you to learn and to do where you are going, and you will be sure to
+find much to enjoy, and also something to bear.  I should like to
+remind you that the best means of going on well in this new world
+will be to keep self down and to have the strong desire that only
+love can give to be submissive, and to do what is right both to God
+and your father and mother.  May I give you a text to take with you?
+"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right."'
+
+They were at the door and there was no time for an answer, but
+Nuttie, as she took her place, was partly touched and partly fretted
+at the admonition.
+
+The question as to her remaining a day or two after her mother was
+soon disposed of.  Mrs. Egremont sent a pretty little note to make
+the request, but the elegant valet who appeared at ten o'clock
+brought a verbal message that his master wished Mrs. and Miss
+Egremont to be ready by two o'clock to join him in calling on Lady
+Kirkaldy at Monks Horton, and that if their luggage was ready by four
+o'clock, he (Gregorio) would take charge of it, as they were all to
+go up to town by the 4.40 train.
+
+'Did he have my note?' faltered Alice, stimulated by the imploring
+glances of aunt and daughter, but anticipating the answer.
+
+'Yes, madame, but he wishes that Miss Egremont should accompany you
+immediately.'
+
+'Of course,' was Alice's comment, 'now that he has found his child,
+he cannot bear to part with her.'
+
+And all through the farewells that almost rent the gentle Alice's
+heart in two, she was haunted by the terror that she or her daughter
+should have red eyes to vex her husband.  As to Mr. Dutton, he had
+only come in with Gerard in a great hurry just after breakfast, said
+there was much to do to-day at the office, as they were going to take
+stock, and they should neither of them have time to come home to
+luncheon.  He shook the hands of mother and daughter heartily,
+promised to 'look after' Miss Headworth, and bore off in his train
+young Gerard, looking the picture of woe, and muttering 'I believe he
+has got it up on purpose;' while mother and daughter thought it very
+odd, and rather unkind.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+NEW PLUMES.
+
+
+
+
+'And ye sall walk in silk attire,
+ And siller hae to spare.'--Old Ballad.
+
+
+The very best open fly and pair of horses, being the equipage most
+like a private carriage possessed by the Royal Hotel, came to the
+door with Mr. Egremont seated in it, at a few minutes after two
+o'clock, and found Alice in her only black silk, with a rose in her
+bonnet, and a tie to match on her neck, hastily procured as signs of
+her wifehood.
+
+She had swallowed her tears, and Nuttie was not a crying person, but
+was perfectly scarlet on her usually brown cheeks.  Her father
+muttered some civility about back seats, but it was plain that it was
+only in words, and she never thought of anything but looking back,
+with her last wave to her aunt and the two maids, one crying at the
+gate, the other at the door.
+
+'There,' said Mr. Egremont, as they drove away, 'that is over!'
+
+'My dear aunt,' said his wife.  'Who can express her goodness to me?'
+
+'Cela va sans dire,' was the reply.  'But these are connections that
+happily Ursula is young enough to forget and leave behind.'
+
+'I shall never forget!' began Nuttie, but she saw her father
+composing himself in his corner without paying the slightest heed to
+what she was saying, and she encountered a warning and alarmed glance
+from her mother, so she was forced to content herself with uttering
+silent vows of perpetual recollection as she passed each well-known
+object,--the unfinished church, with Mr. Spyers at the door talking
+to old Bellman; the Town Hall, whose concerts, lectures, and S. P. G.
+meetings had been her chief gaiety and excitement; the School of Art,
+where Lady Kirkaldy's appearance now seemed to her to have been like
+that of a bird of omen; past the shops in the High Street, with a
+little exultation at the thought of past desires which they had
+excited.  Long could she have rattled away, her hopes contradicting
+her regrets, and her regrets qualifying her anticipations, but she
+saw that her mother was nervous about every word and gesture, and
+fairly looked dismayed when she exclaimed, 'Oh, mother, there's Etta
+Smith; how surprised she will be!' bowing and smiling with all her
+might.
+
+There was a look of bare toleration on Mr. Egremont's face, as if he
+endured because it would soon be over, as Nuttie bowed several times,
+and his wife, though less quick to catch people's eyes, sometimes
+also made her recognition.  When the streets were past and Nuttie had
+aimed her last nods at the nursery parties out walking on the road,
+she became aware that those cold, lack-lustre, and yet sharply
+critical eyes of her father were scanning her all over.
+
+'She has been educated?' he presently said to his wife.
+
+'Oh yes,' was the eager answer.  'She is in the highest form at the
+High School, and has to go up for the Senior Local Examination.  Miss
+Belper makes sure that she will get a first class.'
+
+Mr. Egremont gave a little wave of the hand, as dismissing something
+superfluous, and said, 'I hope she has some accomplishments.'
+
+'She has done very fairly in French and German--'
+
+'And Latin,' put in Ursula.
+
+'And she has had several prizes at the School of Art.'
+
+'And music?  That's the only thing of any value in society,' he said
+impatiently, and Mrs. Egremont said more timidly, 'She has learnt
+music regularly.'
+
+'But I don't care about it,' broke in Nuttie.  'I haven't mother's
+ear nor her voice.  I learnt the science in case I should have to
+teach, and they make me practise.  I don't mind classical music, but
+I can't stand rubbish, and I think it is waste of time.'
+
+Mr. Egremont looked fairly amused, as at the outspoken folly of an
+enfant terrible, but he only said, either to his wife or to himself,
+'A little polish, and then she may be fairly presentable. '
+
+'We have taken great pains with her,' answered the gentle mother,
+evidently taking this as a great compliment, while the daughter was
+tingling with indignation.  She, bred up by mother, and aunt, and
+Mary Nugent, to be barely presentable.  Was not their society at
+Micklethwayte equal in good manners to any, and superior, far
+superior, in goodness and intelligence to these stupid fashionable
+people, who undervalued all her real useful acquirements, and cared
+for nothing but trumpery music.
+
+The carriage entered the park, and Nuttie saw lake and woods from a
+fresh point of view.  The owners were both at home, and Nuttie found
+herself walking behind her parents into a cheerful apartment, half
+library, half morning-room.  Mrs. Egremont was by far the most shy
+and shrinking of the party, but it was an occasion that showed her
+husband's complete tact and savoir favre.  He knew perfectly well
+that the Kirkaldys knew all about it, and he therefore took the
+initiative.  'You are surprised to see us,' he said, as he gave his
+hand, 'but we could not leave the country without coming to thank
+Lady Kirkaldy for her kindness in assisting in following up the clue
+to Mrs. Egremont's residence.'
+
+'I am very happy,' said Lady Kirkaldy, while all were being seated.
+
+'I think it was here that my nephew Mark first met one whom, child as
+he was, he could not but remember.'
+
+'I don't think you met him here,' said Lady Kirkaldy to Mrs.
+Egremont; 'but he heard the name and was struck by it.'
+
+'Dear Mark!' was the response.  'He was so kind.'
+
+'He is a dear good boy,' chimed in my lady.
+
+'Yes,' said her lord, 'an excellent good fellow with plenty of
+brains.'
+
+'As he well knows,' said Mr. Egremont.  'Oh yes; I quite agree with
+all you say of him!  One ought to be thankful for the possession of a
+rare specimen.'
+
+It was in the tone in which Falstaff discussed that sober boy, Lord
+John of Lancaster.  Lord Kirkaldy asked if the visitors were going to
+remain long in the neighbourhood.
+
+'We are due in London to-night,' replied Mr. Egremont.  'We shall
+spend a day or two there, and then go home.  Alice,' he added, though
+his wife had never heard him call her so before, 'Lady Kirkaldy knows
+your inexperience.  Perhaps she would be good enough to give you some
+addresses that might be useful.'
+
+'I shall be delighted,' said the lady, cordially looking at the
+blushing Mrs. Egremont.
+
+'Dressmaker, and all the rest of it,' said Mr. Egremont.  'You know
+better than she does what she will require, and a little advice will
+be invaluable.  Above all, if you could tell her how to pick up a
+maid.'
+
+Lady Kirkaldy proposed to take the mother and daughter up to her
+dressing-room, where she kept her book of addresses to London
+tradesmen; and Mr. Egremont only begged that they would remember the
+4.40 train.  Then Lord Kirkaldy was left to entertain him, while the
+ladies went up the broad staircase to the pleasant room, which had a
+mingled look of refinement and usefulness which struck Nuttie at
+once.  Lady Kirkaldy, as soon as the door was shut, took her visitor
+by the hand, kissed her forehead, and said, 'You must let me tell you
+how glad I am.'
+
+The crystal veil at once spread over Alice's eyes.
+
+'Oh, thank you. Lady Kirkaldy!  I am _so_ happy, and yet I am so
+afraid.  Please tell me what we shall _do_ so that we may not vex
+him, so high bred and fastidious as he is?'
+
+'Be yourself!  That's all, my dear,' said Lady Kirkaldy tenderly.
+'Don't be afraid.  You are quite incapable of doing anything that
+could distress the most fastidious taste.'
+
+It was perfectly true of the mother, perhaps less so of the daughter;
+but Lady Kirkaldy only thought of her as a mere girl, who could
+easily be modelled by her surroundings.  The kind hostess applied
+herself to giving the addresses of the people she thought likely to
+be most useful in the complete outfit which she saw would be
+necessary, explaining to which establishments she applied with
+confidence if she needed to complete her wardrobe in haste, feeling
+certain that nothing would be sent her that she disliked, and giving
+leave to use her name.  She soon saw that the mother was a little
+dazed, while Ursula's eyes grew rounder at the unlimited vista of
+fine clothes, and she assented, and asked questions as to the
+details.  As to a maid, Lady Kirkaldy would write to a person who
+would call on Mrs. Egremont at the hotel in London, and who might be
+what was wanted; and in conclusion, Lady Kirkaldy, with some
+diffidence, begged to be written to--'if--if,' she said, 'there
+happened to be any difficulty about which you might not like to
+consult Mrs. William Egremont.'  Nuttie hardly knew whether to be
+grateful or not, for she did not believe in any standard above that
+of Micklethwayte, and she was almost angry at her mother's grateful
+answer--'Oh, thank you!  I should be so grateful!  I am so afraid of
+annoying him by what he may think small, ignorant, country-town ways!
+You will understand--'
+
+Lady Kirkaldy did understand, and she dreaded what might be before
+the sweet little yielding woman, not from want of breeding so much as
+from the long-indulged selfishness of her husband; but she encouraged
+her as much as possible, and promised all possible counsel, bringing
+her downstairs again just in time.
+
+'Pretty little soul!' said Lord Kirkaldy, as the fly clattered away.
+'I wonder whether Mark has done her a kindness!'
+
+'It is just what she is, a pretty, nay, a beautiful soul, full of
+tenderness and forgiveness and affection and humility, only I doubt
+whether there is any force or resolution to hold her own.  You smile!
+Well, perhaps the less of that she has the better she may get on with
+him.  Did he say anything about her?'
+
+'No; I think he wants to ignore that they have not spent the last
+twenty years together.'
+
+'That may be the best way for all parties.  Do you think he will
+behave well to her?'
+
+'No man could well do otherwise to such a sweet little thing,' said
+Lord Kirkaldy; 'especially as she will be his most obedient slave,
+and will make herself necessary to him.  It is much better luck than
+he deserves; but I pity her when she comes to make her way with yon
+ladies!'
+
+'I wish I was there!  I know she will let herself be trodden on!
+However, there's Mark to stand up for her, and William Egremont will
+do whatever he thinks right and just.  I wish I knew how his wife
+will take it!'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+BRIDGEFIELD EGREMONT.
+
+
+
+
+'Let us see these handsome houses
+ Where the wealthy nobles dwell.'--TENNYSON.
+
+
+'Mother, mother!' cried two young people, bursting open the door of
+the pretty dining-room of Bridgefield Rectory, where the grown-up
+part of the family were lingering over a late breakfast.
+
+'Gently, gently, children,' said the dignified lady at the head of
+the table.  'Don't disturb papa.'
+
+'But we really have something to say, mother!' said the elder girl,
+'and Fraulein said you ought to know.  Uncle Alwyn is come home, and
+Mrs. Egremont.  And please, are we to call her Aunt Egremont, or Aunt
+Alwyn, or what?'
+
+The desired sensation was produced.  Canon Egremont put down his
+newspaper.  The two elder sisters looked from one to the other in
+unmitigated astonishment.  Mark briefly made answer to the final
+question, 'Aunt Alice,' and Mrs. Egremont said gravely, 'How did you
+hear this, Rosalind?  You know I always forbid you to gossip.'
+
+'We didn't gossip, mother.  We went up to the gardens to get some
+mulberries for our half-holiday feast; and Ronaldson came out and
+told us we must ask leave first, for the ladies were come.  The
+Squire came home at nine o'clock last night, and Mrs. Egremont and
+all, and only sent a telegram two hours before to have the rooms got
+ready.'
+
+'Has Uncle Alwyn gone and got himself married?' exclaimed one of the
+young ladies, in utter amazement.
+
+'Not just now, Blanche,' said her father.  'It is an old story now.
+Your uncle married this lady, who had been governess to May and Mark,
+many years ago, and from--circumstances in which she was not at all
+to blame, he lost sight of her while he was abroad with old General
+Egremont.  Mark met her about a fortnight ago, and this has led to
+your uncle's going in quest of her, though he has certainly been more
+sudden in his proceedings than I expected.'
+
+The mother here succeeded in sending Rosalind and Adela, with their
+wondering eyes, off the scene, and she would much have liked to send
+her two stepdaughters after them, but one-and-twenty and eighteen
+could not so readily be ordered off as twelve and ten; and Mark, who
+had been prohibited from uttering a word to his sisters, was eagerly
+examining Margaret whether she remembered their Edda; but she had
+been only three years old at the time of the adventures in the Isle
+of Wight, and remembered nothing distinctly but the aspect of one of
+the sailors in the yacht.
+
+'Well,' said Mrs. Egremont, 'this has come very suddenly upon us.  It
+would have been more for her own dignity if she had held out a little
+before coming so easily to terms, after the way in which she has been
+treated.'
+
+'When you see her, mother, you will understand,' said Mark.
+
+'Shall we have to be intimate with her?' asked May.
+
+'I desire that she should be treated as a relation,' said the Canon
+decidedly.  'There is nothing against her character,' and, as his
+wife was about to interrupt,--'nothing but an indiscretion to which
+she was almost driven many years ago.  She was cruelly treated, and I
+for one am heartily sorry for having let myself be guided by others.'
+
+Mrs. William Egremont felt somewhat complacent, for she knew he meant
+Lady de Lyonnais, and there certainly had been no love lost between
+her and her step-children's grandmother; but she was a sensible
+woman, and forbore to speak, though there was a mental reservation
+that intimacy would a good deal depend upon circumstances.  Blanche
+cried out that it was a perfect romance, and May gravely said, 'But
+is she a lady?'
+
+'A perfect lady,' said Mark.  'Aunt Margaret says so.'
+
+'One knows what a perfect lady means,' returned May.
+
+'Come, May,' said Mrs. Egremont, 'do not let us begin with a
+prejudice.  By all accounts the poor thing has conducted herself with
+perfect respectability all this time.  What did you tell me, Mark?
+She has been living with an aunt, keeping a school at Micklethwayte.'
+
+ Not quite,' said Mark.  'She has been acting as a daily governess.
+She seemed to be on friendly terms with the clerical folk.  I came
+across the name at a school feast, or something of the kind, which
+came off in the Kirkaldys' park.'
+
+'Oh, then, I know exactly the sort of person!' returned May, pursing
+up her lips.
+
+Mark laughed and said, 'I wonder whether it is too soon to go up and
+see them.  I wonder what my uncle thinks of his daughter.'
+
+'What!  You don't mean to say there is a daughter?' cried May.
+
+'Even so.  And exactly like you too, Miss May.'
+
+'Then you are cut out, Mark!'
+
+'You are cut out, I think, May.  You'll have to give her all your
+Miss Egremont cards.'
+
+'No,' said the young lady; 'mother made me have my Christian name
+printed.  She said all but the daughters of the head of the family
+ought to have it so.  I'm glad of it.'
+
+'How old is she?' asked Blanche.
+
+'About a year younger than you.'
+
+'I think it is very interesting,' said Blanche.  'How wonderful it
+must all be to her!  I will go up with you, Mark, as soon as I can
+get ready.'
+
+'You had better wait till later in the day, Blanche,' said the
+mother.  She knew the meeting was inevitable, but she preferred
+having it under her own eye, if she could not reconnoitre.
+
+She was a just and sensible woman, who felt reparation due to the
+newly-discovered sister-in-law, and that harmony, or at least the
+appearance of it, must be preserved; but she was also exclusive and
+fastidious by nature, and did not look forward to the needful
+intercourse with much satisfaction either on her own account or that
+of her family.
+
+She told Mark to say that she should come to see Mrs. Egremont after
+luncheon, since he was determined to go at once, and moreover to drag
+his father with him.  Canon Egremont was a good and upright man,
+according to his lights, which were rather those of a well-beneficed
+clergyman of the first than of the last half of the century,
+intensified perhaps that the passive voice was the strongest in him.
+All the country knew that Canon Egremont could be relied on to give a
+prudent, scholarly judgment, and to be kind and liberal, when once
+induced to stir mind or body--but how to do that was the problem.  He
+had not been a young man at the time of his first marriage, and was
+only a few years' junior to his brother, though he had the fresh,
+wholesome look of a man who kept regular hours and lived much in the
+air.
+
+Alice knew him at once, and thought eighteen years had made little
+change, as, at Nuttie's call to her, she looked from the window and
+saw the handsome, dignified, gray-haired, close-shaven rosy face, and
+the clerical garb unchanged in favour of long coats and high
+waistcoats.
+
+The mother and daughter were exploring the house together.  Mr.
+Egremont had made it known that he preferred having his breakfast
+alone, and not being disturbed in the forenoon.  So the two ladies
+had breakfasted together at nine, the earliest hour at which they
+could prevail on the household to give them a meal.  Indeed Nuttie
+had slept till nearly that time, for between excitement and noise,
+her London slumbers had been broken; and her endeavour to keep
+Micklethwayte hours had resulted in a long, weary, hungry time in the
+sitting-room of the hotel, with nothing to do, when the gaze from the
+window palled on her, but to write to her aunt and Mary Nugent.  The
+rest of the day had been spent in driving about in a brougham with
+her mother shopping, and this she could not but enjoy exceedingly,
+more than did the timid Mrs. Egremont, who could not but feel herself
+weighted with responsibility; and never having had to spend at the
+utmost more than ten pounds at a time, felt bewildered at the cheques
+put into her hands, and then was alarmed to find them melting away
+faster than she expected.
+
+There was a very late dinner, after which Mr. Egremont, on the first
+day, made his wife play bezique with him.  She enjoyed it, as a
+tender reminiscence of the yachting days; but Nuttie found herself de
+trop, and was reduced to the book she had contrived to purchase on
+her travels.  The second night Mr. Egremont had picked up two
+friends, not yet gone out of town, whose talk was of horses and of
+yachts, quite incomprehensible to the ladies.  They were very
+attentive to Mrs. Egremont, whom they evidently admired, one so
+visibly as to call up a blush; but they disregarded the daughter as a
+schoolgirl.  Happily they appeared no more after the dinner; but
+Nuttie's first exclamation of astonished disgust was silenced at once
+by her mother with unusual determination, 'You must not speak so of
+your father's friends.'
+
+'Not when--'
+
+'Not at all,' interrupted Mrs. Egremont.
+
+The only sense of promotion to greatness that Ursula had yet enjoyed
+was in these fine clothes, and the maid whom Lady Kirkaldy had
+recommended, a grave and severe-looking person, of whom both stood
+somewhat in awe.  The arrival at Bridgefield had been too late for
+anything to be taken in but a general impression of space and
+dreariness, and the inevitable dinner of many courses, after which
+Nuttie was so tired out that her mother sent her to bed.
+
+Since the waking she had made some acquaintance with the house.
+There was no show of domestics, no curtseying housekeeper to parade
+the new mistress over the house; Mr. Egremont had told his wife that
+she must fill up the establishment as she pleased, but that there was
+an admirable cook downstairs, and he would not have her interfered
+with--she suited his tastes as no one else did, and she must be left
+to deal with the provisions and her own underlings.  There was a
+stable establishment, and a footman had been hired in town, but there
+was besides only one untidy-looking housemaid, who began by giving
+warning; and Alice and Nuttie had roamed about without meeting any
+one from the big wainscotted dining-room with faded crimson curtains
+and family portraits, the older grimy, the younger chalky, to the two
+drawing-rooms, whose gilding and pale blue damask had been preserved
+by pinafores of brown holland; the library, which looked and smelt as
+if Mr. Egremont was in the habit of sitting there, and a big
+billiard-room, all opening into a shivery-feeling hall, with
+Scagliola columns and a few dirty statues between them; then upstairs
+to a possible morning-room, looking out over a garden lawn, where
+mowing was going on in haste, and suites of dreary shut-up fusty
+bedrooms.  Nuttie, who had notions of choosing her own bower, could
+not make up her mind which looked the least inviting.  It did not
+seem as if girls could ever have laughed together, or children
+clattered up and down the stairs.  Mrs. Egremont begged her to keep
+possession for the present at least of the chamber where the grim
+housemaid had chosen to put her, and which had the advantage of being
+aired.
+
+The two windows looked out over the park, and thence it was that
+while Morris, the maid, was unpacking and putting away the new
+purchases, and Nuttie was standing, scarcely realising that such
+pretty hats and bonnets could be her very own, when her mother beheld
+the Canon and Mark advancing up the drive.  It was with a great start
+that she called Ursula to come down directly with her, as no one
+would know where to find them, hastily washing the hands that had
+picked up a sense of dustiness during the exploration, and taking a
+comprehensive glance in the cheval glass, which showed her some one
+she felt entirely unfamiliar to her in a dainty summer costume of
+pale gray silk picked out with a mysterious shade of pink.  Ursula
+too thought Miss Egremont's outer woman more like a Chelsea
+shepherdess than Nuttie's true self, as she tripped along in her
+buckled shoes and the sea green stockings that had been sent home
+with her skirt.  With crimson cheeks and a throbbing heart, Alice was
+only just at the foot of the stairs when the newcomers had made their
+way in, and the kind Canon, ignoring all that was past, held out his
+hands saying, 'Well, my dear, I am glad to see you here,' kissing
+Mrs. Egremont on each cheek.  'And so this is your daughter.  How do
+you do, my dear--Ursula?  Isn't that your name?'  And Ursula had
+again to submit to a kiss, much more savoury and kindly than her
+father's, though very stubbly.  And oh! her uncle's dress was like
+that of no one she had ever seen except the rector of the old church,
+the object of unlimited contempt to the adherents of St. Ambrose's.
+
+As to Mark, he only kissed his aunt, and shook hands with her, while
+his father ran on with an unusual loquacity that was a proof of
+nervousness in him.
+
+'Mrs. Egremont--Jane, I mean--will be here after luncheon.  She
+thought you would like to get settled in first.  How is Alwyn?  Is he
+down yet?'
+
+'I will see,' in a trembling voice.
+
+'Oh no, never mind, Alwyn hates to be disturbed till he has made
+himself up in the morning.  My call is on you, you know.  Where are
+you sitting?'
+
+'I don't quite know.  In the drawing-room, I suppose.'
+
+The Canon, knowing the house much better than she did, opened a door
+into a third drawing-room she had not yet seen, a pretty little room,
+fitted up with fluted silk, like a tent, somewhat faded but not much
+the worse for that, and opening into a conservatory, which seemed to
+have little in it but some veteran orange trees.  Nuttie, however,
+exclaimed with pleasure at the nicest room she had seen, and Mark
+began unfastening the glass door that led into it.  Meantime Alice,
+with burning cheeks and liquid eyes, nerved her voice to say, 'Oh,
+sir--Mr. Egremont--please forgive me!  I know now how wrong I was.'
+
+'Nonsense, my dear.  Bygones are bygones.  You were far more sinned
+against than sinning, and have much to forgive me.  There, my dear,
+we will say no more about it, nor think of it either.  I am only too
+thankful that poor Alwyn should have some one to look after him.'
+
+Alice, who had dreaded nothing more than the meeting with her former
+master, was infinitely relieved and grateful for this kindness.  She
+had ejaculated, 'Oh, you are so good!' in the midst, and now at the
+mention of her husband, she exclaimed, 'Oh! do you think he is ill?
+I can't help being afraid he is, but he will not tell me, and does
+not like to be asked.'
+
+'Poor fellow, he has damaged his health a good deal,' was the answer.
+'He had a sharp attack in the spring, but he has pretty well got over
+it, and Raikes told me there was no reason for uneasiness, provided
+he would be careful; and that will be a much easier matter now.  I
+should not wonder if we saw him with quite a renewed youth.'
+
+So the Canon and Mrs. Egremont were getting on pretty well together,
+but there was much more stiffness and less cordiality between the two
+cousins, although Mark got the window open into the conservatory, and
+showed Nuttie the way into the garden, advising her to ask Ronaldson,
+the gardener, to fill the conservatory with flowers.  The pavilion,
+as this little room was called, always seemed to have more capacities
+for being lived in than any other room in the house.  It had been
+fitted up when such things were the fashion for the shortlived bride
+of 'our great uncle.'
+
+'The colour must have been awful then,' said Mark, looking up at it,
+'enough to set one's teeth on edge; but it has faded into something
+quite orthodox--much better than could be manufactured for you.'
+
+Mark had evidently some ideas of art, and was besides inclined to do
+the honours to the stranger; but Nuttie was not going to encourage
+him or anybody else to make up to her, while she had that look of
+Gerard Godfrey's in her mind's eye.  So she made small answer, and he
+felt rebuffed, but supposed her shy, and wondered when he could go
+back to her mother, who was so much more attractive.
+
+Presently his father went off to storm the den of the master of the
+house, and there was a pleasant quarter of an hour, during which the
+three went out through the conservatory, and Mark showed the ins-and-
+outs of the garden, found out Ronaldson, and congratulated him on
+having some one at last to appreciate his flowers, begging him to
+make the conservatory beautiful.  And Mrs. Egremont's smile was so
+effective that the Scot forthwith took out his knife and presented
+her with the most precious of the roses within his reach.
+
+Moreover Mark told the names and ages of all his sisters, whole and
+half.  He was the only son, except a little fellow in the nursery.
+And he exhorted his aunt not to be afraid of his step-mother, who was
+a most excellent person, he declared, but who never liked to see any
+one afraid of her.
+
+There was something a little alarming in this, but on the whole the
+visit was very pleasant and encouraging to Mrs. Egremont; and she
+began rejoicing over the kindness as soon as the Canon had summoned
+his son, and they had gone away together.
+
+'I am sure you must be delighted with your uncle and cousin, my
+dear,' she said.
+
+'He's not a bit my notion of a priest,' returned Nuttie.  'And I
+don't believe he has any daily prayers!'
+
+'He is old-fashioned, my dear.'
+
+'One of the stodgey old clergymen in books,' observed Nuttie.  'I
+didn't think there were any of that sort left.'
+
+'Oh, my dear, pray don't take fancies into your head!  He is a very,
+very good man, and has been most kind to me, far more than I deserve,
+and he is your uncle, Nuttie.  I do so hope you will get on well with
+your cousins.'
+
+Here a gong, a perfectly unknown sound to Nuttie, made itself heard,
+and rather astonished her by the concluding roar.  The two ladies
+came out into the hall as Mr. Egremont was crossing it.  He made an
+inclination of the head, and uttered a sort of good morning to his
+daughter, but she was perfectly content to have no closer salutation.
+Having a healthy noonday appetite, her chief wish was at the moment
+that those beautiful little cutlets, arranged in a crown form, were
+not so very tiny; or that, with two men-servants looking on, it were
+possible to attain to a second help, but she had already learnt that
+Gregorio would not hear her, and that any attempt to obtain more food
+frightened her mother.
+
+'So his reverence has been to see you,' observed Mr. Egremont.
+'William, if you like it better.'
+
+'Oh yes, and he was kindness itself!'
+
+'And how did Master Mark look at finding I could dispense with his
+assistance?'
+
+'I think he is very glad.'
+
+Mr. Egremont laughed.  'You are a simple woman, Edda!  The pose of
+virtuous hero was to have been full compensation for all that it
+might cost him!  And no doubt he looks for the reward of virtue
+likewise.'
+
+Wherewith he looked full at Ursula, who, to her extreme vexation,
+felt herself blushing up to the ears.  She fidgeted on her chair, and
+began a most untrue 'I'm sure--' for, indeed, the poor girl was sure
+of nothing, but that her father's manner was most uncomfortable to
+her.  His laugh choked whatever she might have said, which perhaps
+was well, and her mother's cheeks glowed as much as hers did.
+
+'Did the Canoness--Jane, I mean--come up?' Mr. Egremont went on.
+
+'Mrs. Egremont?  No; she sent word that she is coming after
+luncheon.'
+
+'Hm!  Then I shall ride out and leave you to her majesty.  Now look
+you, Alice, you are to be very careful with William's wife.  She is a
+Condamine, you know, and thinks no end of herself, and your position
+among the women-folk of the county depends more on how she takes you
+up than anything else.  But that doesn't mean that you are to let her
+give herself airs and domineer over you.  Remember you are the elder
+brother's wife--Mrs. Egremont of Bridgefield Egremont--and she is
+nothing but a parson's wife, and I won't have her meddling in my
+house.  Only don't you be absurd and offend her, for she can do more
+for or against you in society than any one else--more's the pity!'
+
+'Oh! won't you stay and help me receive her?' exclaimed the poor
+lady, utterly confused by these contrary directions.
+
+'Not I!  I can't abide the woman! nor she me!'  He added, after a
+moment, 'You will do better without me.'
+
+So he went out for his ride, and Ursula asked, 'Oh, mother! what will
+you do?'
+
+'The best I can, my dear.  They are good people, and are sure to be
+kinder than I deserve.'
+
+Nuttie was learning that her mother would never so much as hear, far
+less answer, a remark on her husband.  It was beginning to make a
+sore in the young heart that a barrier was thus rising, where there
+once had been as perfect oneness and confidence as could exist
+between two natures so dissimilar, though hitherto the unlikeness had
+never made itself felt.
+
+Mrs, Egremont turned the conversation to the establishing themselves
+in the pavilion, whither she proceeded to import some fancy-work that
+she had bought in London, and sent Nuttie to Ronaldson, who was
+arranging calceolarias, begonias, and geraniums in the conservatory,
+to beg for some cut-flowers for a great dusty-looking vase in the
+centre of the table.
+
+These were being arranged when Mrs. William Egremont and Miss Blanche
+Egremont were ushered in, and there were the regular kindred
+embraces, after which Alice and Nuttie were aware of a very handsome,
+dignified-looking lady, well though simply dressed in what was
+evidently her home costume, with a large shady hat and feather, her
+whole air curiously fitting the imposing nickname of the Canoness.
+Blanche was a slight, delicate-looking, rather pretty girl in a lawn-
+tennis dress.  The visitor took the part of treating the newcomers as
+well-established relations.
+
+'We would not inundate you all at once,' she said, 'but the children
+are all very eager to see their cousin.  I wish you would come down
+to the Rectory with me.  My ponies are at the door.  I would drive
+you, and Ursula might walk with Blanche.'  And, as Alice hesitated
+for a moment, considering how this might agree with the complicated
+instructions that she had received, she added, 'Never mind Alwyn.  I
+saw him going off just before I came up, and he told William he was
+going to look at some horses at Hale's, so he is disposed of for a
+good many hours.'
+
+Alice decided that her husband would probably wish her to comply, and
+she rejoiced to turn her daughter in among the cousins, so hats,
+gloves, and parasols were fetched, and the two mothers drove away
+with the two sleek little toy ponies.  By which it may be perceived
+that Mrs. William Egremont's first impressions were favourable.
+
+'It is the shortest way through the gardens,' said Blanche.  'Have
+you been through them yet?'
+
+'Mark walked about with us a little.'
+
+'You'll improve them ever so much.  There are great capabilities.
+Look, you could have four tennis courts on this one lawn.  We wanted
+to have a garden-party up here last year, and father said we might,
+but mother thought Uncle Alwyn might think it a liberty; but now
+you'll have some delicious ones?  Of course you play lawn-tennis?'
+
+'I have seen it a very few times,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Oh, we must teach you!  Fancy living without lawn-tennis!' said
+Blanche.  'I always wonder what people did without it.  Only'--with
+an effort at antiquarianism--'I believe they had croquet.'
+
+'Aunt Ursula says there weren't garden-parties before croquet came
+in.'
+
+'How dreadful, Ursula!  Your name's Ursula, isn't it?  Haven't you
+some jolly little name to go by?'
+
+'Nuttie.'
+
+'Nuttie!  That's scrumptious!  I'll call you Nuttie, and you may call
+me Pussycat.'
+
+'That's not so nice as Blanche.'
+
+'Mother won't have me called so when strangers are there, but you
+aren't a stranger, you know.  You must tell me all about yourself,
+and how you came never to learn tennis!'
+
+'I had something else to do,' said Nuttie, with dignity.
+
+'Oh, you were in the schoolroom!  I forgot.  Poor little Nuts!'
+
+'At school,' said Ursula.
+
+'Ah, I remember!  But you're out now, aren't you?  I've been out
+since this spring.  Mother won't let us come out till we are
+eighteen, isn't it horrid?  And we were so worked there!  I can tell
+you a finishing governess is an awful institution!  Poor little Rosie
+and Adey will be in for one by and by.  At present they've only got a
+jolly little Fraulein that they can do anything they please with.'
+
+'Oh, I wonder if she would tell me of some German books!'
+
+'You don't mean that you want to read German!' and Blanche stood
+still, and looked at her cousin in astonishment.
+
+'Why, what else is the use of learning it?'
+
+'Oh, I don't know.  Every one does.  If one went abroad or to court,
+you know,' said Blanche vaguely; but Ursula had now a fresh subject
+of interest; for, on emerging from the shrubbery, they came in sight
+of a picturesque but not very architectural church, which had the
+smallest proportion of wall and the largest of roof, and a pretty
+oriel-windowed schoolhouse covered with clematis.  Nuttie rushed into
+inquiries about services and schools, and was aghast at hearing of
+mere Sundays and saints' days.
+
+'Oh no! father isn't a bit Ritualistic.  I wish he was, it would be
+so much prettier; and then he always advertises for curates of
+moderate views, and they are so stupid.  You never saw such a stick
+as we have got now, Mr. Edwards; and his wife isn't a lady, I'm
+sure.'
+
+Then as to schools, it was an absolute amazement to Nuttie to find
+that the same plans were in force as had prevailed when her uncle had
+come to the living and built that pretty house--nay, were kept up at
+his sole expense, because he liked old-fashioned simplicity, and did
+not choose to be worried with Government inspection.
+
+'And,' said Blanche, 'every one says our girls work ever so much
+better, and make nicer servants than those that are crammed with all
+sorts of nonsense not fit for them.'
+
+As to the Sunday school.  Mother and the curate take care of that.
+I'm sure, if you like it, you can have my class, for I always have a
+headache there, and very often I can't go.  Only May pegs away at it,
+and she won't let me have the boys, who are the only jolly ones,
+because she says I spoil them.  But you must be my friend--mind,
+Nuttie, not May's, for we are nearer the same age.  When is your
+birthday?  You must put it down in my book!'
+
+Nuttie, who had tolerable experience of making acquaintance with new
+girls, was divided between a sense of Blanche's emptiness, and the
+warmth excited by her friendliness, as well as of astonishment at all
+she heard and saw.
+
+Crossing the straggling, meandering village street, the cousins
+entered the grounds of the Rectory, an irregular but well-kept
+building of the soft stone of the country, all the garden front of it
+a deep verandah that was kept open in summer, but closed with glass
+frames in the winter--flower-beds lying before it, and beyond a lawn
+where the young folk were playing at the inevitable lawn-tennis.
+
+Margaret was not so pretty as Blanche, but had a more sensible face,
+and her welcome to Ursula was civil but reserved.  Rosalind and Adela
+were bright little things, in quite a different style from their
+half-sisters, much lighter in complexion and promising to be
+handsomer women.  They looked full of eagerness and curiosity at the
+new cousin, whom Blanche set down on a bank, and proceeded to
+instruct in the mysteries of the all-important game by comments and
+criticisms on the players.
+
+As soon as Mark and Adela had come out conquerors, Ursula was called
+on to take her first lesson.  May resigned her racket, saying she had
+something to do, and walked off the field, and carrying off with her
+Adela, who, as Blanche said, 'had a spine,' and was ordered to lie
+down for an hour every afternoon.  The cheerfulness with which she
+went spoke well for the training of the family.
+
+Nuttie was light-footed and dexterous handed, and accustomed to
+active amusements, so that, under the tuition of her cousins, she
+became a promising pupil, and thawed rapidly, even towards Mark.
+
+She was in the midst of her game when the two mothers came out, for
+the drive had been extended all round the park, under pretext of
+showing it to its new mistress, but really to give the Canoness an
+opportunity of judging of her in a tete-a-tete.  Yet that sensible
+woman had asked no alarming questions on the past, still less had
+offered any advice that could seem like interference.  She had only
+named localities, mentioned neighbours, and made little
+communications about the ways of the place such as might elicit
+remarks; and, as Alice's voice betrayed less and less constraint, she
+ventured on speaking of their daughters, so as to draw forth some
+account of how Ursula might have been educated.
+
+And of this, Alice was ready and eager to talk, telling how clever
+and how industrious Nuttie had always been, and how great an
+advantage Miss Nugent's kindness was, and how she was hoping to go up
+for the Cambridge examination; then, detecting some doubt in her
+companion's manner, she said, 'It would be a great disappointment to
+her not to do so now.  Do you think she had better not?'
+
+'I don't think she will find time to go on with the preparation!
+And, to tell the truth, I don't think we are quite ripe for such
+things in this county.  We are rather backward, and Ursula, coming in
+fresh upon us, might find it a disadvantage to be thought much
+cleverer than other people.'
+
+'Ah!  I was not quite sure whether her father would like it.'
+
+'I do not think he would.  I am sure that if my little Rose were to
+take it into her head, I should have hard work to get her father's
+consent, though no doubt the world will have progressed by the time
+she is old enough.'
+
+'That settles it,' said Alice.  'Thank you, Mrs. Egremont.  I own,'
+she added presently, 'that I do somewhat regret that it cannot be,
+for I thought that a motive for keeping up her studies would be
+helpful to my child;--I do not mean for the sake of the studies, but
+of the--the balance in all this change and novelty.'
+
+'You are quite right, I have felt it myself,' said her sister-in-law.
+'Perhaps something could be done by essay societies.  May belongs to
+one, and if Ursula is an intellectual girl, perhaps you could keep
+her up to some regular employment in the morning.  I succeeded in
+doing so when May came out, but I can accomplish nothing regular but
+music with Blanche; and an hour's steady practice a day is better
+than nothing.'
+
+The drive was on the whole a success, and so was the tea-drinking in
+the verandah, where Aunt Alice and little five-years old Basil became
+fast friends and mutual admirers; the Canon strolled out and was
+installed in the big, cushioned basket-chair that crackled under his
+weight; Blanche recounted Nuttie's successes, and her own tennis
+engagements for the week; Mark lay on a rug and teased her, and her
+dachshund; Nuttie listened to the family chatter as if it were a
+play, and May dispensed the cups, and looked grave and severe.
+
+'Well?' said the Canon anxiously, when Mark, Blanche, and little
+Basil had insisted on escorting the guests home, and he and his wife
+were for a few minutes tete-a-tete.
+
+'It might have been much worse,' said the lady.  'She is a good
+little innocent thing, and has more good sense than I expected.
+Governessy, that's all, but she will shake out of that.'
+
+'Of course she will.  It's the best thing imaginable for Alwyn!'
+
+His wife kept back the words, 'A hundred times too good for Alwyn!'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+LAWN-TENNIS.
+
+
+
+
+'Madam, the guests are come, supper served up,
+ My young lady asked for!'--Romeo and Juliet.
+
+
+A garden-party, Mrs. William Egremont decided, would be the best mode
+of testifying her approbation of her sister-in-law, and introducing
+the newcomers to the neighbourhood.  So the invitations were sent
+forth for an early day of the coming week.
+
+From how many points of view was Mrs. William Egremont's garden-party
+regarded, and how different!  There was Basil, to whom it meant
+wearing his velvet suit and eating as many ices as mother would
+allow.  To Blanche, it was an occasion for triumph on the tennis
+ground for herself, and for hopes for her pupil; and Ursula herself
+looked forward to it and practised for it like a knight for his first
+encounter in the lists, her sole care being to distinguish herself
+with her racket.  To her mother, it was an ordeal, where she trusted
+not to be a mortification to her husband and his family; while to the
+hostess, it was a not unwelcome occasion of exercising honest
+diplomacy and tact, not without a sense of magnanimity.  To May, it
+was a bore to be endured with dutiful philosophy; to her good-natured
+father an occasion for hospitality, where he trusted that his brother
+would appear, and appear to advantage, and was ready even to bribe
+him thereto with that wonderful claret that Alwyn had always envied,
+and declared to be wasted on a parson.  And Mark, perhaps he viewed
+the occasion with different eyes from any one else.  At any rate,
+even the denizens of Bridgefield mustered there with as many minds as
+Scott ascribes to the combatants of Bannockburn, and there were
+probably as many other circles of feeling more or less intersecting
+one another among the more distant guests, most of them, however,
+with the same feeling of curiosity as to what this newly-discovered
+wife and daughter of Alwyn Egremont might be like.
+
+Externally, in her rich black silk, trimmed with point lace, and her
+little straw-coloured bonnet with its tuft of feathery grass and blue
+cornflower, she was so charming that her daughter danced round her,
+crying, 'O mammy, mammy, if they could but see you at home'--then, at
+a look: 'Well then--Aunt Ursel, and Miss Mary, and Mr. Dutton!'
+
+Nuttie was very much pleased with her own pretty tennis dress; but
+she had no personal vanity for herself, only for her mother.  The
+knowledge that she was no beauty was no grievance to her youthful
+spirits; but when her father surveyed them in the hall, she looked
+for his verdict for her mother as if their relations were reversed.
+
+'Ha!  Well, you certainly are a pretty creature, Edda,' he said
+graciously.  'You'll pass muster!  You want nothing but style.  And,
+hang it! you'll do just as well without it, if the Canoness will only
+do you justice.  Faces like that weren't given for nothing.'
+
+She blushed incarnadine and accepted one of his kisses with a
+pleasure, at which Nuttie wondered, her motherly affection prompting
+her to murmur in his ear--
+
+'And Ursula?'
+
+'She'll not cut you out; but she is Egremont enough to do very
+fairly.  Going already?'
+
+'If you would come with us,' she said wistfully, to the horror of
+Nuttie, who was burning to be at the beginning of all the matches.
+
+'I? oh no!  I promised old Will to look in, but that won't be till
+late in the day, or I shall have to go handing all the dowagers into
+the dining-room to tea.'
+
+'Then I think we had better go on.  They asked us to come early, so
+as to see people arrive and know who they are.'
+
+_They_ was a useful pronoun to Alice, who felt it a liberty to call
+her grand-looking sister-in-law, Jane--was too well-bred to term her
+Mrs. William.
+
+The mother and daughter crossed the gardens, Nuttie chattering all
+the way about the tennis tactics she had picked up from Blanche,
+while her mother answered her somewhat mechanically, wondering, as
+her eye fell on the square squat gray church tower, what had become
+of the earnest devotion to church work and intellectual pursuits that
+used to characterise the girl.  True, always both mother and daughter
+had hitherto kept up their church-going, and even their Sunday-school
+habits, nor had any hindrance come in their way, Mr. Egremont
+apparently acquiescing in what he never shared.  But these things
+seemed, in Ursula's mind, to have sunk out of the proportion they
+held at Bridgefield, no longer to be the spirit of a life, but mere
+Sunday duties and occupations.
+
+Was this wicked world getting a hold of the poor child?  Which was
+duty? which was the world?  This was the thought that perplexed
+Alice, too simple as yet to perceive that Ursula's former absorption
+had been in the interests that surrounded her and her companions,
+exactly as they were at present, and that the real being had yet to
+work itself out.
+
+For herself, Alice did not think at all.  She was rejoicing in her
+restored husband, and his evident affection.  Her duty towards him
+was in her eyes plain.  She saw, of course, that he had no religion,
+but she accepted the fact like that of bad weather; she loved him,
+and she loved her daughter; she said her prayers with all her heart
+for them, she hoped, and she did her best, without trying to go below
+the surface.
+
+There was the Rectory gate wide open.  There was Basil rushing up to
+greet his dear Aunt Alice, there were all the windows and doors of
+the Rectory open, and the nearer slopes covered with chairs and seats
+of all dimensions, some under trees, some umbelliferous, and glowing
+Afghan rugs, or spotted skins spread for those who preferred the
+ground.  There was Blanche flitting about wild with excitement, and
+pouncing on Nuttie to admire her outfit, and reiterate instructions;
+there were the two younger girls altering the position of chairs
+according to their mother's directions; there were actually two
+guests--not very alarming ones, only the curate and his wife, both
+rather gaunt, bony people.  He was button-holing the Canon, and she
+was trying to do the same by the Canoness about some parish casualty.
+The Canon hoped to escape in the welcome to his sister-in-law and
+niece, but he was immediately secured again, while his wife found it
+requisite to hurry off else where, leaving Mrs. Edwards to tell her
+story to Mrs. Egremont.  In point of fact, Alice really liked the
+good lady, was quite at ease with her, and felt parish concerns a
+natural element, so that she gave full heed and attention to the
+cruelty of Mrs. Parkins' depriving Betsy Butter (with an old father
+and mother to support) of her family washing, on the ground of a
+missing pocket handkerchief, the which Mrs. Edwards believed to have
+been abstracted by the favourite pickle of Miss Blanche's class, if
+only a confession could be elicited from him when undefended by his
+furious mother.  Mrs. Egremont was listening with actual interest and
+sympathy to the history of Betsy Butter's struggles, and was
+inquiring the way to her cottage, when she was called off to be
+introduced to the arrivals who were beginning to flood the lawn.  She
+presently saw May, who had just come down, walking up and down with
+Mrs. Edwards, evidently hearing the story of the handkerchief.  She
+thought it had been Nuttie for a moment.  There was a general
+resemblance between the cousins that made them be mistaken for one
+another several times in the course of the day, since their dresses,
+though not alike, were of the same make and style.
+
+Thus it was that as Nuttie was sitting on the grass in earnest
+contemplation of Blanche's play, a hand was familiarly laid on her
+shoulder, and a voice said,  'I haven't seen that horrid girl yet!'
+
+After so many introductions, Nuttie had little idea whom she knew, or
+whom she did not know.  She looked up and saw a small person in light
+blue, with the delicate features, transparent skin, and blue eyes
+that accompany yellow hair, with an indescribable glitter of mirth
+and joyousness about the whole creature, as if she were part and
+parcel of the sunbeam in which she stood,
+
+'What horrid girl?' said Nuttie.
+
+'The interloper, the newly-discovered savage, come to upset--Ah!'--
+with a little shriek--'It isn't May!  I beg your pardon.'
+
+'I'm May's cousin,' said Nuttie, 'Ursula Egremont.'
+
+'Oh, oh!' and therewith the fact burst on both girls at once.  They
+stood still a moment in dismay, then the stranger went into a fit of
+laughter.  'Oh, I beg your pardon!  I can't help it!  It is so
+funny!'
+
+Nuttie was almost infected, though somewhat hurt.  'Who said I was
+horrid?' she asked.
+
+'Nobody!  Nobody but me--Annaple Ruthven--and they'll all tell you,
+May and all, that I'm always putting my foot in it.  And I never
+meant that you were horrid--you yourself--you know--only--'
+
+'Only nobody wanted us here,' said Nuttie; 'but we could not help
+it.'
+
+'Of course not.  It was shocking, just my way.  Please forgive me!'
+and she looked most pleading.  Nuttie held out her hand with
+something about 'No one could mind;' and therewith Annaple cried,
+'Oh, if you don't mind, we can have our laugh out!' and the rippling
+laughter did set Nuttie off at once.  The peal was not over when May
+herself was upon them demanding what was the joke.
+
+'Oh, there she is!  The real May!  Why,' said Annaple, kissing her,
+'only think here I've been and gone and thought this was you, and
+inquired about--What was it?--the awful monster--the chimera dire--
+that Mark had routed up--'
+
+'No; you didn't say that,' said Nuttie, half provoked.
+
+'Never mind what I said.  Don't repeat it.  I only wish myself and
+every one else to forget it.  Now it is swept to the winds by a good
+wholesome giggling.  But what business have you two to be so
+inconveniently alike?  You are as bad as the twin Leslies!'
+
+'There's an old foremother on the staircase in white satin who left
+her looks to us both,' said May.
+
+'You'll have to wear badges,' said Annaple.  'You know the Leslies
+were so troublesome that one had to be shipped off to the East Indies
+and the other to the West.'
+
+'They married, that's all,' said May, seeing Nuttie looking
+mystified; and at that moment, Blanche's side coming out victorious,
+Nuttie descended into the arena to congratulate and be asked to form
+part of the next set.
+
+'Well, that was a scrape!' said Annaple; 'but she wasn't bad about
+it!  I must do something to make up for it somehow--get Janet to
+invite her, but really Janet is in such a state of mind that I am
+mildness itself compared with her.  She would not have come, only
+John was curious, and declared he should go whether we did or not.'
+
+'Ah!' said May, 'I saw him, like the rest of mankind, at madame's
+feet.'
+
+'Oh! is she of that sort?'
+
+'No,' said May, 'not at all.  Mother and father too both think she is
+good to the backbone; but she is very pretty, with just the inane
+soft sweetness that men rave about--innocent really.  All accounts of
+her are excellent, and she has nice parish ways, and will be as
+helpful as Uncle Alwyn will let her.'
+
+'But she couldn't always have been nice?'
+
+'Well, I verily believe it was all Uncle Alwyn's and grandmamma's
+fault.  I know Mark thinks so.'
+
+'When the women of a family acquit a woman it goes for something,'
+said Annaple.  'That's not original, my dear, I heard old Lady
+Grosmede say so to Janet when she was deliberating over the
+invitation, "For a good deal more than Mr. Mark's, at any rate.'"
+
+'Mark is very fond of her--the mother, I mean.  He says when he was a
+little fellow her loss was worse to him than even our mother's.'
+
+'Do you remember the catastrophe?'
+
+'Not a bit.  Only when she is petting Basil it strikes me that I have
+heard the tones before.  I only remember the time of misery under the
+crosspatches grandmamma got for us.'
+
+'Well, it was a splendid cutting of his own throat in Mark,' said
+Annaple, 'so it ought to turn out well.'
+
+'I don't know how it is to turn out for Mark,' answered May.  'Oh,
+here he comes!'
+
+'Will you come into this set, Annaple?' he asked.  'They want another
+couple,' and, as she accepted,  'How do you get on with May's
+double?'
+
+'I pity May for having such a double.'
+
+'Don't encourage her by misplaced pity.'
+
+'It's abominable altogether!  I want to fly at somebody!'
+
+'Exhaust your feelings on your racket, and reflect that you see a man
+released from bondage.'
+
+'Is that philosophy or high-faluting?' she said in a teasing tone as
+the game began.
+
+The Ruthvens had very blue blood in their veins, but as there were
+nine of the present generation, they possessed little beyond their
+long pedigree; even the head of the family, Lord Ronnisglen, being
+forced to live as a soldier, leaving his castle to grouse shooters.
+His seven brothers had fared mostly in distant lands as they could,
+and his mother had found a home, together with her youngest child, at
+Lescombe, where her eldest was the wife of Sir John Delmar.  Lady
+Ronnisglen was an invalid, confined to the house, and Lady Delmar had
+daughters fast treading on the heels of Annabella, so christened, but
+always called Annaple after the old Scottish queens, her ancestors.
+She had been May Egremont's chief friend ever since her importation
+at twelve years old, and the intimacy had been promoted by her mother
+and sister.  Indeed, the neighbourhood had looked on with some
+amusement at the competition ascribed to Lady Delmar and to the
+wealthy parvenu, Mrs. West, for the heir-presumptive of Bridgefield
+Egremont.
+
+Annaple's lightness and dexterity rendered her the best of the lady
+tennis-players, and the less practised Ursula found herself defeated
+in the match, in spite of a partner whose play was superior to
+Mark's, and with whom she shyly walked off to eat ices.
+
+'I see,' said Annaple, 'it is a country-town edition of May.  I
+shan't blunder between them again.'
+
+'She will polish,' said Mark, 'but she is not equal to her mother.'
+
+'Whom I have not seen yet.  Ah, there's Mr. Egremont!  Why, he looks
+quite renovated!'
+
+'Well he may be!'
+
+'But Mark, not to hurt your feelings, he must have behaved
+atrociously.'
+
+'I'm not going to deny it,' said Mark.
+
+'I always did think he looked like it,' said Annaple.
+
+'When have you seen him before?'
+
+'Only once, but it was my admirable sagacity, you understand?  I
+always see all the villains in books just on his model.  Oh, but
+who's that?  How very pretty!  You don't mean it is she!  Well, she
+might be the heroine of anything!'
+
+'Isn't she lovely?'
+
+'And has she been keeping school like Patience on a monument all
+these years?  It doesn't seem to have much damaged her damask cheek!'
+
+'It was only daily governessing.  She looks much better than when I
+first saw her; and as to the damask--why, that's deepened by the
+introduction to old Lady Grosmede that is impending.'
+
+'She is being walked up to the old Spanish duck with the red rag
+round her leg to receive her fiat.  What a thing it is to be a
+bearded Dowager, and rule one's neighbourhood!'
+
+'I think she approves.  She has made room for her by her side.  Is
+she going to catechise her?'
+
+Annaple made an absurd sound of mingled pity and disgust.
+
+'Not that she--my aunt, I mean--need be afraid.  The shame is all on
+the other side.'
+
+'And I think Lady Grosmede has too much sense to think the worse of
+her for having worked for herself,' added Annaple.  'If it was not
+for mother I should long to begin!'
+
+'You?  It's a longing well known to me!--but you!'
+
+'Exactly!  As the Irishman felt blue moulded for want of a bating, so
+do I feel fagged out for want of an honest day's work.'
+
+'If one only knew what to turn to,' said Mark so wearily that Annaple
+exclaimed,
+
+'We seem to be in the frozen-out state of mind, and might walk up and
+down singing "I've got no work to do,"'--to which she gave the well
+known intonation.
+
+'Too true,' said he, joining in the hum.
+
+'But I thought you were by way of reading law.'
+
+'One must see more than only "by way of" in these days to do any
+good.'
+
+At that moment Basil ran up with a message that Lady Delmar was ready
+to go home.
+
+They walked slowly up the terrace and Mark paused as they came near
+Mrs. Egremont to say, 'Aunt Alice, here is Miss Ruthven, May's great
+friend.'
+
+Annaple met a pleasant smile, and they shook hands, exchanging an
+observation or two, while a little way off Lady Grosmede was nodding
+her strong old face at Lady Delmar, and saying, 'Tell your mother
+I'll soon come and see her, my dear.  That's a nice little innocent
+body, lady-like, and thoroughly presentable.  Alwyn Egremont might
+have done worse.'
+
+'The only wonder is he did not!' returned Lady Delmar.  'They make
+the best of it here.'
+
+'Very good taste of them.  But, now I've seen her, I don't believe
+there's anything behind.  Very hard upon the poor young man, though
+it was all his doing, his mother says.  I congratulate you that it
+had not gone any farther in that quarter.'
+
+'Oh, dear no!  Never dreamt of it.  She is May's friend, that's all.'
+
+Nevertheless Lady Delmar made a second descent in person to hurry
+Annaple away.
+
+'Isn't it disgusting?' said May, catching her stepmother's smile.
+
+'You will see a good deal more of the same kind,' said the Canoness;
+'I am afraid more mortification is in store for Mark than he guesses.
+I wish that girl were more like her mother.'
+
+'Mamma! a girl brought up among umbrella-makers!  Just fancy!  Why,
+she has just nothing in her!'
+
+'Don't set Mark against her, May; he might do worse.'
+
+'Her head is a mere tennis ball,' said May, drawing her own higher
+than ever, 'and no one would know her from a shop girl.'
+
+'She is young enough,' said the Canoness.  'Don't class me with Lady
+Delmar, May--I only say--if--and that I don't think you realise the
+change Mark will feel.'
+
+'Better so than sell himself,' muttered May.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+OUT OF WORK.
+
+
+
+
+'I'm seeking the fruit that's nae growing.'--Ballad.
+
+
+Society recognised the newcomers.  Lady Grosmede's card appeared the
+next day, and was followed by showers of others, and everybody asked
+everybody 'Have you seen Mrs. Egremont?'
+
+It was well for Alice's happiness even at home that she was a
+success.  When Alwyn Egremont had been lashed by his nephew's
+indignant integrity into tardy recognition of the wife of his youth,
+it had been as if he had been forced to pick up a flower which he had
+thrown away.  He had considerable doubts whether it would answer.
+First, he reconnoitred, intending, if he found a homely or faded
+being, to pension her off; but this had been prevented by her
+undeniable beauty and grace, bringing up a rush of such tender
+associations as he was capable of.  Yet even then, her position
+depended on the impression she might make on those about him, on her
+own power of self-assertion, and on her contributing to his comfort
+or pleasure.
+
+Of self-assertion Alice had none, only a gentle dignity in her
+simplicity, and she was so absolutely devoted to him that he found
+his house far more pleasant and agreeable for her presence and
+unfailing attention, though still his estimation of her was
+influenced more than he owned to himself by that of the world in
+general, and the Rectory in particular.
+
+And the Rectory did its part well.  The Canon was not only charmed
+with the gentle lady, but felt an atonement due to her; and his wife,
+without ever breathing into any ears, save his, the mysterious
+adjective 'governessy,' praised her right and left, confiding to all
+inquirers the romance of the burnt yacht, the lost bride, and the
+happy meeting under Lady Kirkaldy's auspices, with the perfect
+respectability of the intermediate career, while such was the
+universal esteem for, and trust in herself and the Canon, that she
+was fully believed; and people only whispered that probably Alwyn
+Egremont had been excused for the desertion more than he deserved.
+
+The subject of all this gossip troubled herself about it infinitely
+less than did the good Canoness.  In effect she did not know enough
+of the world to think about it at all.  Her cares were of a different
+order, chiefly caused by tenderness of conscience, and solicitude to
+keep the peace between the two beings whom she best loved.
+
+Two things were in her favour in this latter respect, one that they
+saw very little of each other, since Mr. Egremont seldom emerged from
+his own rooms till after luncheon; and the other that Ursula's brains
+ran to little but lawn-tennis for the ensuing weeks.  To hold a
+champion's place at the tournaments, neck and neck with her cousin
+Blanche, and defeat Miss Ruthven, and that veteran player, Miss
+Basset, was her foremost ambition, and the two cousins would have
+practised morning, noon, and night if their mothers would have let
+them.  There need have been no fear of Ursula's rebellion about the
+Cambridge honours, she never seemed even to think of them, and would
+have had no time in the more important competition of rackets.
+Indeed, it was almost treated as a hardship that the pair were
+forbidden to rush together before twelve o'clock, and that Ursula's
+mother insisted on rational home occupation until that time, setting
+the example herself by letter-writing, needlework, and sharing in the
+music which was a penance to the girl, only enforced by that strong
+sense of protecting affection which forbade rebellion.  But Alice
+could hope that their performances were pleasant to her husband in
+the evening, if only to sleep by, and so she persisted in preparing
+for them.
+
+Nuttie's rage for tennis, and apparent forgetfulness of her old life
+and aspirations, might be disappointing, but it conduced to make her
+mother's task easier than if she had been her original, critical, and
+protesting self.  In the new and brilliant surroundings she troubled
+herself much less than could have been expected at the failure of her
+father, his house, nay, and of the parish itself, in coming up to the
+St. Ambrose standard.  How much was owing to mere novelty and
+intoxication, how much to a yet unanalysed disappointment, how much
+to May's having thrown her upon the more frivolous Blanche, could not
+be guessed.  The effect was unsatisfactory to her mother, but a
+certain relief, for Nuttie's aid would have been only mischievous in
+the household difficulties that weighed on the anxious conscience.
+Good servants would not stay at Bridgefield Hall for unexplained
+causes, which their mistress believed to be connected with Gregorio,
+or with the treasure of a cook-housekeeper over whom she was
+forbidden to exercise any authority, and who therefore entirely
+neglected all meals which the master did not share with the ladies.
+Fortunately, Mr. Egremont came in one day at their luncheon and found
+nothing there but semi-raw beef, upon which there was an explosion;
+and being by this time convinced that his wife both would and could
+minister to his comfort, her dominion was established in the female
+department, though, as long as Gregorio continued paramount with his
+master, and the stables remained in their former state, it was
+impossible to bring matters up to the decorous standard of the
+Rectory, and if ever his mistress gave an order he did not approve,
+Gregorio overruled it as her ignorance.  In fact, he treated both the
+ladies with a contemptuous sort of civility.  Meantime Mr. Egremont
+was generally caressing and admiring in his ways towards his wife,
+with only occasional bursts of temper when anything annoyed him.  He
+was proud of her, gave her a liberal allowance, and only refused to
+be troubled; and she was really happy in his affection, for which she
+felt a gratitude only too humble in the eyes of her daughter.
+
+They had parties.  Blanche's ambition of tennis courts all over the
+lawn was fulfilled, and sundry dinners, which were crosses to Alice,
+who had neither faculty nor training for a leader and hostess,
+suffered much from the menu, more from the pairing of her guests,
+more again in catching her chief lady's eye after, and most of all
+from her husband's scowls and subsequent growls and their
+consequence, for Ursula broke out, 'It is not fair to blame my
+mother.  How should she have all the savoir-faire, or what you may
+call it, of Aunt Jane, when she has had no practice?'
+
+'Perhaps, Mrs. Egremont,' he retorted with extreme suavity, 'you will
+also attend to your daughter's manners.'  Otherwise he took little
+notice of Ursula, viewing her perhaps, as did the neighbourhood, as a
+poor imitation of May, without her style, or it may be with a sense
+that her tongue might become inconvenient if not repressed.  When he
+began to collect sporting guests of his own calibre in the shooting
+season, the Canoness quietly advised her sister-in-law to regard them
+as gentlemen's parties, and send Ursula down to spend the evening
+with her cousins; and to this no objection was made.  Mr. Egremont
+wanted his beautiful wife at the head of his table, and his guests
+never comported themselves unsuitably before her; but nobody wanted
+the unformed girl, and she and Blanche were always happy together.
+
+The chief restraint was when Mark was at home, and that was not
+always.  He made sundry visits and expeditions, and was altogether in
+an uncomfortable condition of reaction and perplexity as to his
+future.  He was a good and conscientious fellow, and had never been
+actually idle, but had taken education and life with the easiness of
+the prospective heir to a large property; and though he had acquitted
+himself creditably, it was with no view of making his powers
+marketable.  Though he had been entered at the Temple, it was chiefly
+in order to occupy himself respectably, and to have a nominal
+profession, so as not to be wholly dependent on his uncle; and all
+that he had acquired was the conviction that it would be half a
+lifetime, if not a whole one, before the law would afford him a
+maintenance.
+
+His father wished him to take Holy Orders with a view to the
+reversion of the Rectory, but Mark's estimate of clerical duty and
+vocation was just such as to make him shrink from them.  He was
+three-and-twenty, an awkward age for all those examinations that
+stand as lions in the face of youth intended for almost any sort of
+service, and seldom or never to be gagged by interest.  For one
+indeed, he went up and failed, and in such a manner as to convince
+him that cramming had more to do than general culture with success.
+
+He had a certain consciousness that most people thought another way
+open to him, most decidedly his gentle aunt, and perhaps even his
+parents.  The matter came prominently before him one day at luncheon,
+when, some parochial affairs being on hand and Mr. Egremont out for
+the day, Alice, whose free forenoons enabled her to take a share in
+church and parish affairs, was there, as well as the curate and his
+wife.
+
+These good people were in great commotion about a wedding about to
+take place between a young farmer and his delicate first cousin, the
+only survivor of a consumptive family.
+
+'"Proputty, proputty,"' quoted the Canon.  'James Johnson is what
+they call a warm man.'
+
+'It is a sin and a shame,' said Mrs. Edwards.  'What can they expect?
+George Johnson looks strong enough now, but they tell me his brother
+undoubtedly died of decline, though they called it inflammation; but
+there was tubercular disease.'
+
+'I am afraid it is strong in the family,' said the Canoness, 'they
+all have those clear complexions; but I do believe George is heartily
+in love with poor little Emily.'
+
+'First cousins ought to be in the table of degrees,' said Mr.
+Edwards.
+
+'It is always a question whether the multiplying of prohibitions
+without absolute necessity is expedient,' said the Canon.
+
+He spoke quite dispassionately, but the excellent couple were not
+remarkable for tact.  Mrs. Edwards gave her husband such a glance of
+warning and consternation as violently inclined May to laugh, and he
+obediently and hesitatingly began, 'Oh yes, sir, I beg your pardon.
+Of course there may be instances,' thereby bringing an intense glow
+of carnation into Alice's cheeks, while the Canon, ready for the
+occasion, replied, 'And George Johnson considers himself one of them.
+He will repair the old moat house, I suppose.'
+
+And his wife, though she would rather have beaten Mrs. Edwards,
+demanded how many blankets would be wanted that winter.
+
+The effect of this little episode was that Mark announced to his
+father that evening his strong desire to emigrate, an intention which
+the Canon combated with all his might.  He was apparently a hale and
+hearty man, but he had had one or two attacks of illness that made
+him doubt whether he would be long-lived; and not only could he not
+bear to have his eldest son out of reach, but he dreaded leaving his
+family to such a head as his brother.  Mark scarcely thought the
+reasons valid, considering the rapidity of communication with Canada,
+but it was not possible to withstand the entreaties of a father with
+tears in his eyes; and though he could not bring himself to consent
+to preparing to be his father's curate, he promised to do nothing
+that would remove him to another quarter of the world, and in two or
+three days more, started for Monks Horton to see what advice his
+uncle and aunt there could give him; indeed, Lord Kirkaldy's
+influence was reckoned on by his family almost as a sure card in the
+diplomatic line.
+
+The Kirkaldys were very fond of Mark, and had an odd feeling of being
+accountable for the discovery which had changed his prospects.  They
+would have done anything for him that they could, but all Lord
+Kirkaldy's interest was at the foreign office, or with his fellow-
+diplomates, and here he soon found an insuperable bar.  Mark's
+education had stood still from the time of Miss Headworth's flight
+till his father's second marriage, his energies having been solely
+devoted to struggles with the grim varieties of governess purveyed by
+his grandmother, and he had thus missed all chance of foundation of
+foreign languages, and when once at school, he had shared in the
+average English boy's contempt and aversion for the French masters
+who outscreamed a whole class.
+
+In consequence, Lord Kirkaldy, an accurate and elegant scholar in
+European tongues, besides speaking them with the cosmopolitan ease of
+an ambassador's son, was horrified, not only at Mark's pronunciation,
+but at his attempts at letter-writing and translation, made with all
+the good will in the world, but fit for nothing but to furnish the
+good stories which the kind uncle refrained from telling any one but
+his wife.  Unluckily, too, a Piedmontese family, some of them not
+strong in their English, were on a visit at Monks Horton, and the
+dialect in which the old marquis and Mark tried at times to
+interchange ideas about pheasants was something fearful.  And as in
+the course of a week Mark showed no signs of improvement in
+vernacular French or Italian, Lord Kirkaldy's conscience would let
+him give no other advice than that his nephew should stick to English
+law living still on the allowance his father gave him, and hoping for
+one of the chance appointments open to an English barrister of good
+family and fair ability.
+
+Of course Mark had gone at once to carry tidings of 'Aunt Alice,' as
+he scrupulously called her, to old Miss Headworth, whom his aunt had
+continued to visit at intervals.  That good lady had given up her
+boarders, having realised enough to provide for her own old age, and
+she had joined forces with the Nugents, Mary being very thankful to
+have her companionship for Mrs. Nugent, who was growing too blind and
+feeble to be satisfactorily left alone all day.
+
+Mark delighted the old ladies by his visits and accounts of their
+darling's success and popularity, which he could paint so brightly
+that they could not help exulting, even though there might be secret
+misgivings as to the endurance of these palmy days.  He was a great
+hero in their eyes, and they had too good taste to oppress him with
+their admiration, so that he really was more at ease in their little
+drawing-room than anywhere at Monks Horton, whither the Italians
+could penetrate.  The marchesino spoke English very well, but that
+was all the worse for Mark, since it gave such a sense of
+inferiority.  He was an intelligent man too, bent on being acquainted
+with English industries of all kinds; and thus it was that a party
+was organised to see the umbrella factory.  It was conducted by Mr.
+Dutton, with whom Lord Kirkaldy, between charities and public
+business, had become acquainted.
+
+To Mark's secret shame, this manufacturer spoke French perfectly, and
+even got into such a lively conversation with the old marquis about
+Cavour, that Lord Kirkaldy begged him to come to dinner and continue
+it.  They were all surprised, not only by the details of the
+manufacture and the multitude of artizans, male and female, whom it
+employed, but by the number of warehouse-clerks whom they found at
+work, and who, it appeared, were in correspondence with agencies and
+depots in London and all the principal towns in the kingdom.  Gerard
+Godfrey was there,--casting looks askance at the young Egremont, whom
+he regarded as a kind of robber.
+
+The marchesino asked from what class these young men were taken, and
+Mr. Dutton made reply that most of them were sons of professional
+men.  If they could obtain a small capital and take shares in the
+business they were encouraged to do so, and rose to the headship of
+the agencies, obtaining a fair income.
+
+'And you don't exact an examination,' said Mark.
+
+'Except in handwriting and book-keeping,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Poor Mark, you look for your bugbear everywhere!' sighed his aunt.
+
+They went over the Institute, coffee-rooms, eating-rooms, and
+lodging-houses, by which the umbrella firm strove to keep their hands
+respectable and contented, and were highly pleased with all, most
+especially with Mr. Dutton, who, though his name did not come
+prominently forward, had been the prime mover and contriver of all
+these things, and might have been a wealthier man if he had not
+undertaken expenses which he could not charge upon the company.
+
+Gerard Godfrey came in to Mrs. Nugent's that evening in the lowest
+spirits.  He had a sister married to a curate in the same county with
+Bridgefield, and she had sent him a local paper which 'understood
+that a marriage was arranged between Mark de Lyonnais Egremont,
+Esquire, and Ursula, daughter of Alwyn Piercefield Egremont, Esquire,
+of Bridgefield Egremont,' and he could not help coming to display it
+to Miss Headworth in all its impertinence and prematurity.
+
+'Indeed he said nothing to me about it,' said Miss Headworth, 'and I
+think he would if it had been true.'
+
+'No doubt he intends it, and is trying to recommend himself through
+you,' said Gerard.
+
+'I should not think he needed that,' returned Aunt Ursel, 'though I
+should be very glad, I am sure.  He is an excellent young man, and it
+is quite the obvious thing.'
+
+'People don't always do the obvious thing,' put in Mary Nugent.
+
+'Certainly it didn't look like it,' said Miss Headworth,' when he
+told us about the great annual Hunt Ball at Redcastle that Nuttie and
+his sister Blanche are to come out at; he said he did not intend to
+go home for it if he could help it.'
+
+'Struggling against fate,' said Miss Nugent.
+
+'The puppy!' burst out Gerard.
+
+Having ascertained the particulars of this same Hunt Ball, Gerard
+became possessed with a vehement desire to visit his sister, and so
+earnestly solicited a few days' leave of absence that it was granted
+to him.  'Poor boy, he may settle down when he has ascertained
+what an ass he is,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Ah!' said Mary.  'I thought he was very bad when I saw he had not
+changed the green markers for St. Luke's Day.'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+DETRIMENTALS.
+
+
+
+
+'That tongue of yours at times wags more than charity allows;
+ And if you're strong, be merciful, great woman of three cows.'
+                                                      J. O. MANGAN.
+
+
+Nine miles was a severe distance through country lanes in November to
+go to a ball; but the Redcastle Hunt Ball was the ball of the year,
+uniting all the county magnates; and young ladies were hardly
+reckoned as 'come out' till they had appeared there.  Mrs. Egremont's
+position would hardly be established till she had been presented to
+the notabilities who lived beyond calling intercourse; and her
+husband prepared himself to be victimised with an amount of grumbling
+that was intended to impress her with the magnitude of the sacrifice,
+but which only made her offer to forego the gaiety, and be told that
+she would never have any common sense.
+
+So their carriage led the way, and was followed by the Rectory
+waggonette containing the ladies and Mark, who had been decisively
+summoned home, since his stepmother disliked public balls without a
+gentleman in attendance, and his father was not to be detached from
+his fireside.
+
+And in a group near the door, got up as elaborately as his powers
+could accomplish, stood Gerard Godfrey.  He knew nobody there except
+a family in his sister's parish, who had good-naturedly given him a
+seat in their fly, and having fulfilled his duty by asking the
+daughter to dance, he had nothing to disturb him in watching for the
+cynosure whose attraction had led him into these unknown regions,
+and, as he remembered with a qualm, on the eve of St. Britius.
+However, with such a purpose, one might surely grant oneself a
+dispensation from the vigil of a black letter saint.
+
+There at length he beheld the entrance.  There was the ogre himself,
+high bred, almost handsome, as long as he was not too closely
+scrutinised, and on his arm the well-known figure, metamorphosed by
+delicately-tinted satin sheen and pearls, and still more by the
+gentle blushing gladness on the fair cheeks and the soft eyes that
+used to droop.  Then followed a stately form in mulberry moire and
+point lace, leaning on Gerard's more especial abhorrence,--'that
+puppy,' who had been the author of all the mischief; and behind them
+three girls, one in black, the other two in white, and, what was
+provoking, he really could not decide which was Ursula.  The
+carefully-dressed hair and stylish evening dress and equipments had
+altogether transformed the little homely schoolgirl, so that, though
+he was sure that she was not the fair-haired damsel with pale blue
+flowers, he did not know how to decide between the white and daisies
+and the black and grasses.  Indeed, he thought the two whites most
+likely to be sisters, and all the more when the black lace halted to
+exchange greetings with some one, and her face put on an expression
+so familiar to him, that he started forward and tried to catch her
+eye; but in vain, and he suffered agonies of doubt whether she had
+been perverted by greatness.
+
+It was some comfort that, when presently a rush of waiters floated
+by, she was not with her cousin; but to provoke him still more, as
+the daisies neared him, he beheld for a moment in the whirl the queer
+smile, half-frightened, half-exultant, which he had seen on Nuttie's
+face when swinging sky-high!
+
+When the pause came and people walked about, the black lady stood
+talking so near him that he ventured at last on a step forward and an
+eager 'Miss Egremont,' but, as she turned, he found himself obliged
+to say, 'I beg your pardon.'
+
+'Did you mean my cousin.  We often get mistaken for each other,' said
+May civilly.
+
+He brightened.  'I beg your pardon,' he said, 'I knew her at
+Micklethwayte.  I am here--quite by accident.  Mrs. Elmore was so
+good as to bring me.'
+
+May was rather entertained.  'There's my cousin,' she said, 'Lord
+Philip Molyneux is asking her to dance,' and she left him most
+unnecessarily infuriated with Lord Philip Molyneux.
+
+A steward introduced him to a dull-looking girl, but fortune favoured
+him, for this time he did catch the real Nuttie's eye, and all
+herself, as soon as the dance was over, she came up with outstretched
+hands, 'Oh Gerard! to think of your being here!  Come to mother!'
+
+And, beautiful and radiant, Mrs. Egremont was greeting him, and there
+were ten minutes of delicious exchange of news.  But 'pleasures are
+as poppies fled,' Nuttie had no dance to spare, her card was full,
+and she had not learnt fashionable effrontery enough to play tricks
+with engagements, and just then Mr. Egremont descended on them--'I
+wish to introduce you to the Duchess,' he said to his wife; and on
+the way he demanded--'Who is that young cub?'
+
+'Gerard Godfrey--an old neighbour.'
+
+'I thought I had seen him racketing about there with Ursula.  I'll
+not have those umbrella fellows coming about!'
+
+'Does he really make umbrellas, Nuttie?' asked Blanche, catching her
+hand.
+
+'No such thing!' said Nuttie hotly, 'he is in the office.  His father
+was a surgeon; his sisters married clergymen!'
+
+'And he came here to meet you,' said Annaple Ruthven.  'Poor fellow,
+what a shame it is!  Can't you give him one turn!
+
+'Oh dear!  I'm engaged all through!  To Mark this time.'
+
+'Give him one of the extras!  Throw Mark over to me!  No,' as she
+looked at the faces of the two girls, 'I suppose that wouldn't do,
+but I'm free this time--I'm not the fashion.  Introduce me; I'll do
+my best as consolation.'
+
+Nuttie had just performed the feat, with great shyness, when Mark
+appeared, having been sent in quest of his cousin, when her father
+perceived that she had hung back.
+
+Poor Gerard led off Miss Ruthven the more gloomily, and could not
+help sighing out, 'I suppose that is an engagement!'
+
+'Oh! you believe that impertinent gossip in the paper,' returned
+Annaple.  'I wonder they don't contradict it; but perhaps they treat
+it with magnificent scorn.'
+
+'No doubt they know that it is only premature.'
+
+'If _they_ means the elders, I daresay they wish it, but we aren't in
+France or Italy.'
+
+'Then you don't think, Miss Ruthven, that it will come off?'
+
+'I don't see the slightest present prospect,' said Annaple, unable to
+resist the kindly impulse of giving immediate pleasure, though she
+knew the prospect might be even slighter for her partner.
+
+However, he 'footed it' all the more lightly and joyously for the
+assurance, and the good-natured maiden afterwards made him conduct
+her to the tea-room, whither Mark and Nuttie were also tending, and
+there all four contrived to get mixed up together; and Nuttie had
+time to hear of Monsieur's new accomplishment of going home for Mr.
+Dutton's luncheon and bringing it in a basket to the office, before
+fate again descended; Mr. Egremont, who had been at the far end of
+the room among some congeners, who preferred stronger refreshment,
+suddenly heard her laugh, stepped up, and, with a look of thunder
+towards her, observed in a low voice, 'Mark, you will oblige me by
+taking your cousin back to her mother.'
+
+'The gray tyrant father,' murmured Annaple in sympathy.  'That being
+the case, I may as well go back in that direction also.'
+
+This resulted in finding Lady Delmar and the two Mrs. Egremonts
+together, comparing notes about the two different roads to Redcastle
+from their several homes.
+
+Lady Delmar was declaring that her coachman was the most obstinate
+man in existence, and that her husband believed in him to any extent.
+
+'Which way did you come?' she asked.
+
+'By Bankside Lane,' said the Canoness.
+
+'Over Bluepost Bridge!  There, Janet,' said Annaple.
+
+'So much the worse.  I know we shall come to grief over Bluepost
+Bridge, and now there will be treble weight to break it down.  I
+dreamt it, I tell you, and there's second sight in the family.'
+
+'Yes, but you should tell what you did dream, Janet,' said her
+sister.  'She thought Robinson, the coachman, was waltzing with her
+over it, and they went into a hole and stuck fast, while the red-flag
+traction engineman prodded her with an umbrella till she was all over
+blood.  Now, if it had been anything rational, I should have thought
+something of her second sight!  I tell her 'twas suggested by--
+
+
+         "London Bridge is broken down,
+          Dance o'er my lady Lee!"'
+
+
+'Well, I am quite certain those traction-engines will break it some
+time or other,' said Lady Delmar.  'I am always trying to get John to
+bring it before the magistrates, but he only laughs at me, and
+nothing will induce Robinson to go the other way, because they have
+just been mending the road on Lescombe Hill!  Annaple, my dear, I
+can't allow you another waltz; Mark must excuse you--I am going.  It
+is half-past two, and the carriage was ordered at two!  Robinson will
+be in a worse temper than ever if we keep him waiting.'
+
+She bore her sister off to the cloak-room, and there, nearly an hour
+later, the Egremonts found them still waiting the pleasure of the
+implacable Robinson; but what was that in consideration of having
+kept her sister from such a detrimental as poor Mark had become?  So
+muttered Mr. Egremont, in the satisfaction of having himself, with
+gentlemanly severity, intimated the insuperable gulf between Miss
+Egremont of Bridgefield and the Man of Umbrellas.
+
+Moreover, his sister-in-law took care that he should hear that the
+Duchess of Redcastle had pronounced his wife sweetly pretty and lady-
+like, and talked of inviting them for a visit of a few nights.
+
+'A bore,' observed he ungratefully, ''tis as dull as ditchwater.'
+But, in truth, though the Canon's family, when in residence, were
+intimate with the ducal family, Alwyn Egremont had never been at the
+castle since the days of his earliest youth, and he was not quite
+prepared to owe his toleration there to his wife's charms, or the
+Canoness's patronage of her.
+
+And innocent Alice only knew that everybody had been very kind to
+her, and it was only a pity that her husband did not like her to
+notice poor Gerard Godfrey.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+GOING AGEE.
+
+
+
+
+'Gin ye were a brig as auld as me.'--BURNS.
+
+
+'What's the matter?' exclaimed Mrs. Egremont, waking from a doze,--
+'that bridge?'
+
+'Bridge!  Don't be such a fool!  We aren't near it yet.'
+
+The servant, his face looking blurred through the window, came to
+explain that the delay was caused by an agricultural engine, which
+had chosen this unlucky night, or morning, to travel from one farm to
+another.  There was a long delay, while the monster could be heard
+coughing frightfully before it could be backed with its spiky
+companion into a field so as to let the carriages pass by; and
+meantime Mr. Egremont was betrayed into uttering ejaculations which
+made poor Nuttie round her eyes in the dark as she sat by his feet on
+the back seat, and Alice try to bury her ears in her hood in the
+corner.
+
+On they went at last, for about a mile, and then came another sudden
+stop--another fierce growl from Mr. Egremont, another apparition of
+the servant at the window, saying, in his alert deferential manner,
+'Sir, the bridge have broke under a carriage in front.  Lady
+Delmar's, sir.  The horse is plunging terrible.'
+
+The door was torn open, and all three, regardless of ball costumes,
+precipitated themselves out.
+
+The moon was up, and they saw the Rectory carriage safe on the road
+before them, but on the bridge beyond was a struggling mass, dimly
+illuminated by a single carriage lamp. Mr. Egremont and the groom
+hurried forward where Mark and the Rectory coachman were already
+rendering what help they could.  May standing at the horses' heads,
+and her mother trying to wrap everybody up, since stay in their
+carriages they could not.  Transferring the horses to Nuttie, the two
+sisters hurried on towards the scene of action, but Blanche's white
+satin boots did not carry her far, and she turned on meeting her
+uncle.  He spoke with a briskness and alacrity that made him like
+another man in this emergency, as he assured the anxious ladies that
+their friends were safe, but that they could not be extricated till
+the carriage was lifted from the hole into which it had sunk amid
+bricks, stones, and broken timbers.  He sent his own coachman to
+assist, as being the stronger man, and, mounting the box, turned and
+drove off in quest of further help, at a wayside cottage, or from the
+attendants on the engine, whose weight had probably done the
+mischief, and prepared the trap for the next comer.
+
+As May came near, her brother made her available by putting the lamp
+into her hand, bidding her hold it so as to light those who were
+endeavouring to release the horse, which had cleared the portion of
+the bridge before the break-down under the brougham, and now lay on
+the road, its struggles quelled by a servant at its head.  Nearly the
+whole of the hind wheels and most of the door had disappeared on one
+side, and, though more was visible on the other, it was impossible to
+open the door, as a mass of rubbish lay on it.  Annaple was on this
+side, and her voice was heard calling to May in fits of the laughter
+which is perhaps near akin to screams--
+
+
+         '"London bridge is broken down,
+           Dance o'er my lady Lee!"
+
+
+Janet will go in for second-sight ever after.  Yes, she's all right,
+except a scratch from the glass, and that I'm sitting on her more or
+less.  How are they getting on?'  'The horse is all but out.  Not
+hurt, they think.  Here's another man come to help--a gentleman--my
+dear, it is your partner, Nuttie's umbrella man.'  'Oh, making it
+complete--hopes, Janet--I'm sorry, but I can't help squashing you!
+I can't help subsiding on you!  What is it now?' as the lamp-light
+vanished.
+
+'They are looking for something to make levers of,' returned May;
+'these wooden rails are too rotten.'
+
+'Can't they get us through the window?' sighed a muffled voice.
+
+'Not unless we could be elongated, like the Hope of the Katzekopfs.'
+
+'We shall manage now,' cried Mark; 'we have found some iron bars to
+the hatch down there.  But you must prepare for a shock or two before
+you can be set free.'
+
+The two gentlemen and three servants strove and struggled, hoisted
+and pushed, to the tune of suppressed sounds, half of sobs, half of
+laughter, till at last the carriage was heaved up sufficiently to be
+dragged backwards beyond the hole; but even then it would not stand,
+for the wheels on the undermost side were crushed, neither could
+either door be readily opened, one being smashed in, and the other
+jammed fast.  Annaple, however, still tried to keep up her own
+spirits and her sister's, observing that she now knew how to
+sympathise with Johnnie's tin soldiers in their box turned upside
+down.
+
+Two sturdy labourers here made their appearance, having been roused
+in the cottage and brought back by Mr. Egremont, and at last one door
+was forced open by main force, and the ladies emerged, Annaple,
+helping her sister, beginning some droll thanks, but pausing as she
+perceived that Lady Delmar's dress was covered with blood.
+
+'My dear Janet.  This is worse than I guessed.  Why did you not
+speak?'
+
+'It is not much,' said the poor lady, rather faintly.  'My neck--'
+
+The elder ladies came about her, and seated her on cushions, where,
+by the light of May's lamp, Alice, who had been to an ambulance class
+at Micklethwayte, detected the extent of the cut, extracted a
+fragment of glass, and staunched the bleeding with handkerchiefs and
+strips of the girls' tulle skirts, but she advised her patient to be
+driven at once to a surgeon to secure that no morsel of glass
+remained.  Mr. Egremont, gratified to see his wife come to the front,
+undertook to drive her back to Redcastle.  Indeed, they must return
+thither to cross by the higher bridge.  'You will go with me,'
+entreated Lady Delmar, holding Alice's hand; and the one hastily
+consigning Nuttie to her aunt's care, the other giving injunctions
+not to alarm her mother to Annaple, who had declared her intention of
+walking home, the two ladies went off under Mr. Egremont's escort.
+
+Just then it was discovered that the Delmar coachman, Robinson, had
+all this time been lying insensible, not dead, for he moaned, but
+apparently with a broken leg, if nothing worse.  Indeed, the men had
+known it all along, but, until the ladies had been rescued, nothing
+had been possible but to put his cushion under his head and his rug
+over him.  The ladies were much shocked, and Mrs. William Egremont
+decided that he must be laid at the bottom of the waggonette, and
+that she would take him straight to the hospital.
+
+They were only a mile and a half from Lescombe, and it was pronounced
+safe to cross on foot by the remains of the bridge, so that Annaple,
+who had a pair of fur boots, had already decided on going home on
+foot.  The other girls wanted to accompany her, and, as May and
+Nuttie both had overshoes, they were permitted to do so, and desired
+to go to bed, and wait to be picked up by the waggonette, which must
+return to Bridgefield by the Lescombe road.  Blanche, having a
+delicate throat, was sentenced to go with her stepmother.  Mark
+undertook to ride the horse through the river, and escort the three
+girls, and Gerard Godfrey also joined them.  The place where he was
+staying lay a couple of miles beyond Lescombe, and when Mrs. Elmore's
+fly had been met and turned back by Mr. Egremont, he had jumped off
+to render assistance, and had done so effectively enough to win
+Mark's gratitude.
+
+It was by this time about half-past five, as was ascertained by the
+light of the waning moon, the carriage-lamp having burnt out.  It was
+a fine frosty morning, and the moon was still powerful enough to
+reveal the droll figures of the girls.  May had a fur cloak, with the
+hood tied over her head by Mrs. Egremont's lace shawl; Nuttie had a
+huge white cloud over her head, and a light blue opera cloak; Annaple
+had 'rowed herself in a plaidie' like the Scotch girl she was, and
+her eyes flashed out merrily from its dark folds.  They all disdained
+the gentlemen's self-denying offers of their ulsters, and only Nuttie
+consented to have the carriage-rug added to her trappings, and
+ingeniously tied on cloak-fashion with her sash by Gerard.  He and
+Mark piloted the three ladies over the narrow border of the hole,
+which looked a very black open gulf.  Annaple had thanked the men,
+and bidden them come to Lescombe the next day to be paid for their
+assistance.  Then they all stood to watch Mark ride through the
+river, at the shallowest place, indicated both by her and the
+labourers.  It was perfectly fordable, so Annaple's were mock heroics
+when she quoted--
+
+
+         'Never heavier man and horse
+          Stemmed a midnight torrent's force.'
+
+
+And Nuttie responded in a few seconds--
+
+
+         'Yet through good heart and our Ladye's grace
+          Full soon he gained the landing place.'
+
+
+They were both in high spirits, admiring each other's droll
+appearance, and speculating on the ghosts they might appear to any
+one who chanced to look out of window.  Annaple walked at the horse's
+head, calling him poor old Robin Hood, and caressing him, while
+Gerard and Nuttie kept together.
+
+May began to repent of her determination to walk; Lescombe seemed
+very far off, and she had an instinct that she was an awkward fifth
+wheel.  Either because Robin Hood walked too fast for her weary
+limbs, or because she felt it a greater duty to chaperon Nuttie than
+Annaple, she fell back on the couple in the rear, and was rather
+surprised at the tenor of their conversation.
+
+This 'umbrella man' was telling of his vicar's delight in the
+beautiful chalice veil that had been sent by Mrs. Egremont, and
+Nuttie was communicating, as a secret she ought not to tell, that
+mother was working a set of stoles, and hoped to have the white ones
+ready by the dedication anniversary; also that there was a box being
+filled for the St. Ambrose Christmas tree.  They were trying to get
+something nice for each of the choir boys and of the old women; and
+therewith, to May's surprise, this youth, whom she regarded as a sort
+of shopman, fell into full narration of all the events of a highly-
+worked parish,--all about the choral festival, and the guilds, and
+the choir, and the temperance work.  A great deal of it was a strange
+language to May, but she half-disapproved of it, as entirely unlike
+the 'soberness' of Bridgefield ways, and like the Redcastle vicar,
+whom her father commonly called 'that madman.'  Still, she had a
+practical soul for parish work, and could appreciate the earnestness
+that manifested itself, and the exertions made for people of the
+classes whom she had always supposed too bad or else too well off to
+come under clerical supervision.  And her aunt and cousin and this
+young man all evidently had their hearts in it!  For Nuttie--though
+her new world had put the old one apparently aside--had plunged into
+all the old interests, and asked questions eagerly, and listened to
+their answers, as if Micklethwayte news was water to the thirsty.
+The two were too happy to meet, and, it must be confessed, had not
+quite manners enough, to feel it needful to include in their
+conversation the weary figure that plodded along at a little distance
+from them, hardly attending to the details of their chatter, yet
+deriving new notions from it of the former life of Ursula and her
+mother, matters which she had hitherto thought beneath her attention,
+except so far as to be thankful that they had emerged from it so
+presentable.  That it was a more actively religious, and perhaps a
+more intellectual one than her own, she had thought impossible, where
+everything must be second-rate.  And yet, when her attention had
+wandered from an account of Mr. Dutton's dealings with a refractory
+choir boy bent on going to the races, she found a discussion going on
+about some past lectures upon astronomy, and Nuttie vehemently
+regretting the not attending two courses promised for the coming
+winter upon electricity and on Italian art, and mournfully observing,
+'We never go to anything sensible here.'
+
+May at first thought, 'Impertinent little thing,' and felt affronted,
+but then owned to herself that it was all too true.  Otherwise there
+was hardly anything said about the contrast with Nuttie's present
+life; Gerard knew already that the church atmosphere was very
+different, and with the rector's daughter within earshot, he could
+not utter his commiseration, nor Nuttie her regrets.
+
+Once there was a general start, and the whole five came together at
+the sight of a spectrally black apparition, with a huge tufted head
+on high, bearing down over a low hedge upon them.  Nobody screamed
+except Nuttie, but everybody started, though the next moment it was
+plain that they were only chimney-sweepers on their way.
+
+'Retribution for our desire to act ghosts!' said Annaple, when the
+sable forms had been warned of the broken bridge.  'Poor May, you are
+awfully tired!  Shouldn't you like a lift in their cart?'
+
+'Or I could put you up on Robin Hood,' said Mark.
+
+'Thank you, I don't think I could stick on.  Is it much farther?'
+
+'Only up the hill and across the park,' said Annaple, still cheerily.
+
+'Take my arm, old woman,' said Mark, and then there was a pause,
+before Annaple said in an odd voice, 'You may tell her, Mark.'
+
+'Oh, Annaple!  Mark! is it so?' cried May joyously, but under her
+breath; and with a glance to see how near the other couple were.
+
+'Yes,' said Annaple between crying and laughing.  'Poor Janet, she'll
+think we have taken a frightfully mean advantage of her, but I am
+sure I never dreamt of such a thing; and the queer thing is, that
+Mark says she put it into his head!'
+
+'No, no,' said Mark; 'you know better than that--'
+
+'Why, you told me you only found it out when she began to trample on
+the fallen--'
+
+'I told you I had only understood my own heart.'
+
+'And I said very much the same--she made me so angry you see.'
+
+'I can't but admire your motives!' said May, exceedingly rejoiced all
+the time, and ready to have embraced them both, if it had not been
+for the spectators behind.  'In fact, it was opposition you both
+wanted.  I wonder how long you would have gone on not finding it out,
+if all had been smooth?'
+
+'The worst of it is,' said Annaple, 'that I'm afraid it is a very bad
+thing for Mark.'
+
+'Not a bit of it,' retorted he.  'It is the only thing that could
+have put life into my work, or made me care to find any!  And find it
+I will now!  Must we let the whole world in to know before I have
+found it, Annaple?'
+
+'I could not but tell my mother,' said Annaple.  'It would come out
+in spite of me, even if I wished to keep it back.'
+
+'Oh yes!  Lady Ronnisglen is a different thing,' said Mark.  'Just as
+May here is--'
+
+'And she will say nothing, I know, till we are ready--my dear old
+minnie,' said Annaple.  'Only, Mark, do pray have something definite
+to hinder Janet with if there are any symptoms of hawking her
+commodity about.'
+
+'I _will_,' said Mark.  'If we could only emigrate!'
+
+'Ah, if we could!' said Annaple.  'Ronald is doing so well in New
+Zealand, but I don't think my mother could spare me.  She could not
+come out, and she must be with me, wherever I am.  You know--don't
+you--that I am seven years younger than Alick.  I was a regular
+surprise, and the old nurse at Ronnisglen said 'Depend upon it, my
+Leddy, she is given to be the comfort of your old age.'  And I have
+always made up my mind never to leave her.  I don't think she would
+get on with Janet or any of them without me, so you'll have to take
+her too, Mark.'
+
+'With all my heart,' he answered.  'And, indeed, I have promised my
+father not to emigrate.  I must, and will, find work at hand, and
+wake a home for you both!'
+
+'But you will tell papa at once?' said May.  'It will hurt him if you
+do not.'
+
+'You are right, May; I knew it when Annaple spoke of her mother, but
+there is no need that it should go further.'
+
+The intelligence had lightened the way a good deal, and they were at
+the lodge gates by this time.  Gerard began rather ruefully to take
+leave; but Annaple, in large-hearted happiness and gratitude, begged
+him to come and rest at the house, and wait for daylight, and this he
+was only too glad to do, especially as May's secession had made the
+conversation a little more personal.
+
+Nuttie was in a certain way realising for the first time what her
+mother's loyalty had checked her in expressing, even if the tumult of
+novelties had given her full time to dwell on it.
+
+'Everybody outside is kind,' she said to Gerard; 'they are nice in a
+way, and good, but oh! they are centuries behind in church matters
+and feeling, just like the old rector.'
+
+'I gathered that; I am very sorry for you.  Is there no one fit to be
+a guide?'
+
+'I don't know,' said Nuttie.  'I didn't think--I must, somehow,
+before Lent.'
+
+'There is Advent close at hand,' he said gravely.  'If you could only
+be at our mission services, we hope to get Father Smith!'
+
+'Oh, if only I could!  But mother never likes to talk about those
+kind of things.  She says our duty is to my father.'
+
+'Not the foremost.'
+
+'No, she would not say that.  But oh, Gerard! if he should be making
+her worldly!'
+
+'It must be your work to hinder it,' he said, looking at her
+affectionately.
+
+'Oh, Gerard! but I'm afraid I'm getting so myself.  I have thought a
+great deal about lawn-tennis, and dress, and this ball,' said Nuttie.
+'Somehow it has never quite felt real, but as if I were out on a
+visit.'
+
+'You are in it, but not of it,' said Gerard admiringly.
+
+'No, I'm not so good as that!  I like it all--almost all.  I thought
+I liked it better till you came and brought a real true breath of
+Micklethwayte.  Oh! if I could only see Monsieur's dear curly head
+and bright eyes!'
+
+This had been the tenor of the talk, and these were the actual last
+words before the whole five--just in the first streaks of dawn--
+coalesced before the front door, to be admitted by a sleepy servant;
+Mark tied up the horse for a moment, while Annaple sent the man to
+waken Sir John Delmar, and say there had been a slight accident, but
+no one was much hurt; and, as they all entered the warm, dimly-
+lighted hall, they were keenly sensible that they had been dancing or
+walking all night.
+
+Rest in the chairs which stood round the big hearth and smouldering
+wood-fire was so extremely comfortable, as they all dropped down,
+that nobody moved or spoke, or knew how long it was before there was
+a voice on the stairs--'Eh? what's this, Annaple?  An accident?
+Where's Janet?' and a tall burly figure, candle in hand, in a
+dressing-gown and slippers, was added to the group.
+
+'Janet will be at home presently, I hope,' said Annaple, 'but she got
+a cut with some broken glass, and we sent her round by Dr. Raymond's
+to get it set to rights.  Oh, John! we came to grief on Bluepost
+Bridge after all, and I'm afraid Robinson has got his leg broken!'
+
+Sir John was a good-natured heavy man, whose clever wife thought for
+him in all that did not regard horses, dogs, and game.  He looked
+perfectly astounded, and required to have all told him over again
+before he could fully take it in.  Then he uttered a suppressed
+malediction on engines, insisted that all his impromptu guests should
+immediately eat, drink, and sleep, and declared his intention of
+going off at once to Redcastle to see about his wife.
+
+The two gentlemen were committed to the charge of the butler, and
+Annaple took Nuttie and May to her sister's dressing-room, where she
+knew she should find fire and tea, and though they protested that it
+was not worth while, she made them undress and lie down in a room
+prepared for them in the meantime.  It was a state chamber, with a
+big bed, far away from the entrance, shuttered and curtained up, and
+with double doors, excluding all noise.  The two cousins lay down,
+Nuttie dead asleep almost before her head touched the pillow, while
+May was aching all over, declaring herself far too much tired and
+excited to sleep; and, besides that it was not worth while, for she
+should be called for in a very short time.  And she remained
+conscious of a great dread of being roused, so that when she heard
+her cousin moving about the room, she insisted that they had scarcely
+lain down, whereupon Nuttie laughed, declared that she had heard a
+great clock strike twelve before she moved, and showed daylight
+coming in through the shutters.
+
+'We can't lie here any longer, I suppose,' said May, sitting up
+wearily; 'and yet what can we put on?  It makes one shiver to think
+of going down to luncheon in a ball dress!'
+
+'Besides, mine is all torn to pieces to make bandages,' said Nuttie.
+'I must put on the underskirt and my cloak again.'
+
+'Or Annaple might lend us something.  I must get out somehow to know
+how poor Lady Delmar is, and what has become of everybody.  Ring,
+Ursula, please, and lie down till somebody comes.'
+
+The bell was answered by a maid, who told them that my lady had been
+brought home by Mr. and Mrs. Egremont about an hour after their
+arrival.  She was as well as could be expected, and there was no
+cause for anxiety.  Mr. and Mrs. Egremont had then gone on to
+Bridgefield, leaving word that Mrs. William Egremont and Miss Blanche
+were sleeping at Redcastle, having sent home for their own dresses
+and the young ladies', and would call for the rest of their party on
+the way.  Indeed, a box for the Miss Egremonts had been deposited by
+the Canon from the pony-carriage an hour ago, and was already in the
+dressing-room; but Miss Ruthven would not have them disturbed.  Miss
+Ruthven,--oh yes, she was up, she had not been in bed at all.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+A CASTLE OF UMBRELLAS.
+
+
+
+
+No, Annaple Ruthven could not have slept, even if she had had time.
+Her first care had been to receive her sister, who had been met at
+the entrance of Redcastle by her husband.  There had been profuse
+offers of hospitality to Mr. and Mrs. Egremont, the latter of whom
+looked tired out, and offers of sending messengers to Bridgefield;
+but Mr. Egremont would not hear of them, and every one suspected that
+he would not incur the chance of rising without Gregorio and all his
+appliances.
+
+By the time they were disposed of, and Lady Delmar safe in bed, it
+was time to repair to her mother's room, so as to prevent her from
+being alarmed.  Lady Ronnisglen was English born.  She was not by any
+means the typical dowager.  Her invalid condition was chiefly owing
+to an accident, which had rendered her almost incapable of walking,
+and she was also extremely susceptible of cold, and therefore hardly
+ever went out; but there was so much youth and life about her at
+sixty-three that she and Annaple often seemed like companion sisters,
+and her shrewd, keen, managing eldest-born like their mother.
+
+Annaple lay down beside her on her bed in the morning twilight, and
+gave her the history of the accident in playful terms indeed.
+Annaple could never help that, but there was something in her voice
+that made Lady Ronnisglen say, when satisfied about Janet's hurt,
+'You've more to say, Nannie dear.'
+
+'Yes, minnie mine, I walked home with Mark Egremont.'
+
+'And--?'
+
+'Yes, minnie.  He is going to work and make a home--a real, true,
+homely home for you and me.'
+
+'My child, my child, you have not hung the old woman about the poor
+boy's neck!'
+
+'As if I would have had him if he did not love her, and make a mother
+of her!'
+
+'But what is he going to do, Nan?  This is a very different thing
+from--'
+
+'Very different from Janet's notions!' and they both laughed, the
+mother adding to the mirth by saying--
+
+'Poor Janet, congratulating herself that no harm had been done, and
+that you had never taken to one another!'
+
+'Did she really now?'
+
+'Oh yes, only yesterday, and I bade her not crow too soon, for I
+thought I saw symptoms--'
+
+'You dear darling minnie!  Think of that!  Before we either of us
+knew it, and when he is worth ever so much than he was before!  Not
+but that I am enraged when people say he has acted nobly, just as if
+there had been anything else for him to do!'
+
+'I own that I am glad he has proved himself.  I was afraid he would
+be dragged in the way of his uncle.  Don't be furious, Nannie.  Not
+at all into evil, but into loitering; and I should like to know what
+are his prospects now.'
+
+'Well, mother, I don't think he has any.  But he means to have.  And
+not a word is to be said to anybody except you and his father and May
+till he has looked over the top of the wall, and seen his way.  We
+need not bring Janet down on us till then.'
+
+'I must see him, my dear.  Let me see him before he goes away.  He
+always has been a very dear lad, a thoroughly excellent right-minded
+fellow.  Only I must know what he means to do, and whether there is
+any reasonable chance of employment or fixed purpose.'
+
+Lady Ronnisglen's maid here arrived with her matutinal cup of tea;
+and Annaple, beginning to perceive that she was very stiff, went off
+in hopes that her morning toilette would deceive her hardworked
+little frame into believing it had had a proper night's rest.
+
+She was quite ready to appear at the breakfast table, though her
+eldest niece, a long-haired, long-limbed girl, considerably the
+bigger of the two, was only too happy to preside over the cups.  All
+the four young people were in the greatest state of excitement,
+welcoming, as the heroes of the night, Mark and Mr. Godfrey, and
+clamouring to be allowed to walk down after breakfast with their
+father and the gentlemen to see the scene of the catastrophe and the
+remains of the carriage and the bridge.
+
+Sir John made a courteous reference to the governess, but there was a
+general sense that the cat was away, and presently there was a rush
+upstairs to prepare for the walk.  Annaple had time in the course of
+all the bustle, while the colour came back to her cheeks for a
+moment, to tell Mark that her mother had been all that was good, and
+wanted to see him.
+
+He must manage to stay till after eleven o'clock; she could not be
+ready before.  Then he might come to her sitting-room, which, as well
+as her bedroom, was on the ground floor.
+
+Mark had to work off his anxiety by an inspection of the scene of the
+disaster and a circumstantial explanation of the details to the young
+Delmars, who crowded round him and Mr. Godfrey, half awed, half
+delighted, and indeed the youngest--a considerable tomboy--had nearly
+given the latter the opportunity of becoming a double hero by
+tumbling through the broken rail, but he caught her in time, and she
+only incurred from Sir John such a scolding as a great fright will
+produce from the easiest of fathers.
+
+Afterwards Mark put Gerard on the way to his brother-in-law's living,
+asking him on the road so many questions about the umbrella business
+that the youth was not quite sure how to take it, and doubted whether
+the young swell supposed that he could talk of nothing else; but his
+petulance was mitigated when he was asked, 'Supposing a person wished
+to enter the business, to whom should he apply?'
+
+'Do you know any one who wishes for anything of the kind?' he asked.
+'Are you making inquiries for any one?' and on a hesitating
+affirmation, 'Because I know there is an opening for a man with
+capital just at present.  Dutton won't advertise--'tis so risky; and
+he wants some knowledge of a person's antecedents, and whether he is
+likely to go into it in a liberal, gentlemanly spirit, with good
+principles, you see, such as would not upset all we are doing for the
+hands.'
+
+'What amount of capital do you mean?'
+
+'Oh, from five hundred to a thousand!  Or more would not come amiss.
+If I only had it!  What it would be to conduct an affair like that on
+true principles!  But luck is against me every way.'
+
+Mark was at the sitting-room door as the four quarters began to
+strike in preparation for eleven, but Lady Ronnisglen had been in her
+chair for nearly half-an-hour, having been rapid and nervous enough
+to hurry even the imperturbable maid, whom Annaple thought incapable
+of being hastened.  She was a little slight woman, with delicate
+features and pale complexion, such as time deals with gently, and her
+once yellow hair now softened with silver was turned back in bands
+beneath the simple net cap that suited her so well.  There was a soft
+yet sparkling look about her as she held out her hands and exclaimed,
+'Ah, Master Mark, what mischief have you been doing?'
+
+Mark came and knelt on one knee beside her and said: 'Will you let me
+work for you both, Lady Ronnisglen?  I will do my best to find some.'
+
+'Ah! that is the point, my dear boy.  I should have asked and wished
+for definite work, if you had come to me before that discovery of
+yours; and now it is a mere matter of necessity.'
+
+'Yes,' said Mark; then, with some hesitation, he added: 'Lady
+Ronnisglen, do you care whether I take to what people call a
+gentleman's profession?  I could, of course, go on till I am called
+to the bar, and then wait for something to turn up; but that would be
+waiting indeed!  Then in other directions I've taken things easy, you
+see, till I'm too old for examinations.  I failed in the only one
+that was still open to me.  Lord Kirkaldy tried me for foreign office
+work, and was appalled at my blunders.  I'm not fit for a parson.'
+
+'I should have thought you were.'
+
+'Not I,' said Mark.  'I'm not up to the mark there.  I couldn't say
+honestly that I was called to it.  I wish I could, for it would be
+the easiest way out of it; but I looked at the service, and I can't.
+There--that's a nice confession to come to you with!  I can't think
+how I can have been so impudent.'
+
+'Mark, you are a dear good lad.  I respect and honour you ever so
+much more than before all this showed what stuff was in you!  But the
+question is, What's to be done?  My child is verily the "penniless
+lass with a high pedigree," for she has not a poor thousand to call
+her own.'
+
+'And I have no right to anything in my father's lifetime, though I
+have no doubt he would give me up my share of my mother's portion--
+about £3000.  Now this is what has occurred to me: In the place where
+I found my uncle's wife--Micklethwayte, close to Monks Horton--
+there's a great umbrella factory, with agencies everywhere.  There
+are superior people belonging to it.  I've seen some of them, and
+I've been talking to the young fellow who helped us last night, who
+is in the office.  I find that to go into the thing with such capital
+as I might hope for, would bring in a much larger and speedier return
+than I could hope for any other way, if only my belongings would set
+aside their feelings.  And you see there are the Kirkaldys close by
+to secure her good society.'
+
+Lady Ronnisglen put out her transparent-looking, black-mittened hand,
+and gave a little dainty pat to his arm.  'I like to see a man in
+earnest,' said she.  Her little Skye terrier was seized with jealousy
+at her gesture, and came nuzzling in between with his black nose.
+'Mull objects!' she said, smiling; but then, with a graver look, 'And
+so will your father.'
+
+'At first,' said Mark; 'but I think he will give way when he has had
+time to look at the matter, and sees how good you are.  That will
+make all the difference.'
+
+So Annaple, who had been banished for a little while, was allowed to
+return, and mother, daughter, and lover built themselves a little
+castle of umbrellas, and bestowed a little arch commiseration on poor
+Lady Delmar; who, it was agreed, need know nothing until something
+definite was arranged, since Annaple was clearly accountable to no
+one except her mother.  She would certainly think the latter part of
+her dream only too well realised, and consider that an unfair
+advantage had been taken of her seclusion in her own room.  In spite
+of all loyal efforts to the contrary, Mark, if he had been in a frame
+of mind to draw conclusions, would have perceived that the prospect
+of escaping from the beneficent rule of Lescombe was by no means
+unpleasant to Lady Ronnisglen.  The books that lay within her reach
+would hardly have found a welcome anywhere else in the house.  Sir
+John was not brilliant, and his wife had turned her native wits to
+the practical rather than the intellectual line, and had quite enough
+to think of in keeping up the dignities of Lescombe with a large
+family amid agricultural difficulties.
+
+Annaple remembered at last that she ought to go and look after her
+guests, assisted therein by the pleasure of giving May a hearty kiss
+and light squeeze, with a murmur that 'all was right.'
+
+She brought them downstairs just as the gong was sounding, and the
+rush of girls descending from the schoolroom, and Lady Ronnisglen
+being wheeled across the hall in her chair.  Nuttie, who had expected
+to see a gray, passive, silent old lady like Mrs. Nugent, was quite
+amazed at the bright, lively face and voice that greeted the son-in-
+law and grandchildren, May and herself, congratulating these two on
+having been so well employed all the morning, and observing that she
+was afraid her Nannie could not give so good an account of herself.
+
+'Well,' said Sir John, 'I am sure she looks as if she found plodding
+along the lanes as wholesome as sleeping in her bed!  Nan Apple-
+cheeks, eh?'
+
+Whereupon Annaple's cheeks glowed all the more into resemblance of
+the baby-name which she had long ceased to deserve; but May could see
+the darkness under her eyes, betraying that it was only excitement
+that drove away fatigue.
+
+Sir John had not gone far in his circumstantial description of the
+injuries to his unfortunate carriage when the Canon arrived, with his
+wife and Blanche.  Mark would have given worlds in his impatience to
+have matters settled between the two parents then and there; but Lady
+Ronnisglen had already warned him that this would not be possible,
+and assured him that it would be much wiser to prepare his father
+beforehand.
+
+Then he fixed his hopes on a solitary drive with his father back in
+the pony carriage, but he found himself told off to take that home,
+and had to content himself with May as a companion.  Nor was his
+sister's mode of receiving the umbrella plan reassuring.  She had
+smiled too often with her stepmother over Nuttie's having been
+brought up among umbrellas to be ready to accept the same lot for her
+brother and her friend, and she was quite sure that her father would
+never consent.  'An Egremont an umbrella-maker! how horrible!  Just
+fancy seeing Dutton, Egremont and Co. on the handle of one's
+umbrella!'
+
+'Well, you need not patronise us,' said Mark.
+
+'But is it possible that Lady Ronnisglen did not object?' said May.
+
+ She seemed to think it preferable to driving pigs in the Texas, like
+her son Malcolm.'
+
+'Yes, but then that _was_ the Texas.'
+
+'Oh May, May, I did not think you were such a goose!'
+
+'I should have thought the folly was in not being patient.  Stick to
+your profession, and something must come in time.'
+
+'Ay, and how many men do you think are sticking to it in that hope?
+No, May, 'tis not real patience to wear out the best years of my life
+and hers in idleness, waiting for something not beneath an Egremont
+to do!'
+
+'But is there nothing to do better than that?'
+
+'Find it for me, May.'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+INFRA DIG.
+
+
+
+
+'Till every penny which she told,
+ Creative Fancy turned to gold.'--B. LLOYD.
+
+
+The Blueposts Bridge had produced a good deal of effect.  Ursula
+Egremont in special seemed to herself to have been awakened from a
+strange dream, and to have resumed her real nature and affections.
+She felt as if she would give all her partners at the ball for one
+shake of Monsieur's fringed paws; her heart yearned after Aunt Ursel
+and Miss Mary; she longed after the chants of the choir; and when she
+thought of the effort poor Gerard Godfrey had made to see her, she
+felt him a hero, and herself a recreant heroine, who had well-nigh
+been betrayed into frivolity and desertion of him, and she registered
+secret resolutions of constancy.
+
+She burned to pour out to her mother all the Micklethwayte tidings,
+and all her longings to be there; but when the Rectory party set her
+down at the door, the footman, with a look of grave importance,
+announced that Mr. Egremont was very unwell.  'Mr. Gregory thinks he
+has taken a chill from the effect of exposure, sir, and Dr. Hamilton
+has been sent for.'
+
+The Canon and his wife both got out on this intelligence, and Mrs.
+Egremont was summoned to see them.  She came, looking more frightened
+than they thought the occasion demanded, for she was appalled by the
+severe pain in the head and eyes; but they comforted her by assuring
+her that her husband had suffered in the same manner in the spring,
+and she saw how well he had recovered; and then telling Nuttie to
+bring word what the doctor's report was, and then spend the evening
+at the Rectory, they departed, while poor Nuttie only had one kiss,
+one inquiry whether she were rested, before her mother fled back to
+the patient.
+
+Nor did she see her again till after the doctor's visit, and then it
+was only to desire her to tell her uncle that the attack was
+pronounced to be a return of the illness of last spring, and that it
+would be expedient to go abroad for the winter.
+
+Go abroad!  It had always been a vision of delight to Nuttie, and she
+could not be greatly concerned at the occasion of it; but she did not
+find the Rectory in a condition to converse and sympathise.  Blanche
+was lying down with a bad headache.  The Edwardses and a whole party
+of semi-genteel parish visitors had come in to inquire about the
+accident, and had to be entertained with afternoon tea; and May,
+though helping her stepmother to do her devoir towards them, seemed
+more preoccupied than ever.
+
+As indeed she was, for she knew that Mark was putting his fate to the
+touch with his father in the study.
+
+The Canon heard the proposal with utter consternation and dismay at
+the perverseness of the two young people, who might have been engaged
+any time these two years with the full approbation of their families,
+and now chose the very moment when every one was rejoicing at their
+freedom.
+
+'When a young man has got into a pickle,' he said, 'the first thing
+is to want to be married!'
+
+'Exactly so, sir, to give him a motive for getting out of the pickle.
+'
+
+'Umbrellas!  I should like to hear what your grandfather would have
+said!'
+
+'These are not my grandfather's days, sir.'
+
+'No indeed!  There was nothing to do but to give a hint to old Lord
+de Lyonnais, and he could get you put into any berth you chose.
+Interest was interest in those days!  I don't see why Kirkaldy can't
+do the same.'
+
+'Not unless I had foreign languages at my tongue's end.'
+
+Whereat the Canon groaned, and Mark had to work again through all the
+difficulties in the way of the more liberal professions; and the
+upshot was that his father agreed to drive over to Lescombe the next
+day and see Lady Ronnisglen.  He certainly had always implicitly
+trusted his son's veracity, but he evidently thought that there must
+have been much warping of the imagination to make the young man
+believe the old Scottish peeress to have consented to her daughter's
+marrying into an umbrella factory.
+
+Nuttie was surprised and gratified that both Mark and May put her
+through an examination on the habits of Micklethwayte and the
+position of Mr. Godfrey, which she thought was entirely due to the
+favourable impression Gerard had produced, and she felt
+proportionably proud of him when Mark pronounced him a very nice
+gentlemanly young fellow.  She could not think why her uncle, with
+more testiness than she had ever seen in that good-natured dignitary,
+ordered May not to stand chattering there, but to give them some
+music.
+
+The Canon drove to Lescombe the next day under pretext of inquiring
+after Lady Delmar, and then almost forgot to do so, after he had
+ascertained that she was a prisoner to her dressing-room, and that
+Sir John was out shooting.  The result of his interview filled him
+with astonishment.  Lady Ronnisglen having had a large proportion of
+sons to put out in life on very small means had learnt not to be
+fastidious, and held that the gentleman might ennoble the vocation
+instead of the vocation debasing the gentleman.  Moreover, in her
+secret soul she felt that her daughter Janet's manoeuvres were far
+more truly degrading than any form of honest labour; and it was very
+sore to her to have no power of preventing them, ridicule, protest,
+or discouragement being all alike treated as the dear mother's old-
+world unpractical romance.  It galled her likewise that she could
+perceive the determination that Annaple Ruthven should be disposed of
+before Muriel Delmar came on the scene; and the retiring to ever so
+small a home of their own had been discussed between mother and
+daughter, and only put aside because of the pain it would give their
+honest-hearted host and their hostess, who really loved them.
+
+Thus she did her best to persuade her old friend that there were few
+openings for a man of his son's age, and that if the Micklethwayte
+business were all that Mark imagined, it was not beneath the
+attention even of a well-born gentleman in these modern days, and
+would involve less delay than any other plan, except emigration,
+which was equally dreaded by each parent.  Delay there must be, not
+only in order to ascertain the facts respecting the firm, but to
+prove whether Mark had any aptitude for the business before involving
+any capital in it.  However, every other alternative would involve
+much longer and more doubtful waiting.  And altogether the Canon felt
+that if a person of Lady Ronnisglen's rank did not object, he had
+scarcely a right to do so.  However, both alike reserved consent
+until full inquiry should have been made.
+
+The Canon wrote to Lord Kirkaldy, and in the meantime wanted to
+gather what information he could from his sister-in-law; but he found
+her absolutely engrossed as her husband's nurse, and scarcely
+permitted to snatch a meal outside the darkened room.  He groaned and
+grumbled at his brother's selfishness, and declared that her health
+would be damaged, while his shrewder lady declared that nothing would
+be so good for her as to let Alwyn find her indispensable to his
+comfort, even beyond Gregorio.
+
+This absorption of her mother fell hard on Ursula, especially when
+the first two days' alarm was over, and her mother was still kept an
+entire prisoner, as companion rather than nurse.  As before, the
+rheumatic attack fastened upon the head and eyes, causing lengthened
+suffering, and teaching Mr. Egremont that he had never had so gentle,
+so skilful, so loving, or altogether so pleasant a slave as his wife,
+the only person except Gregorio whom, in his irritable state, he
+would tolerate about him.
+
+His brother could not be entirely kept out, but was never made
+welcome, more especially when he took upon himself to remonstrate on
+Alice's being deprived of air, exercise, and rest.  He got no thanks;
+Mr. Egremont snarled, and Alice protested that she was never tired,
+and needed nothing.  The Rectory party were, excepting the schoolroom
+girls, engaged to make visits from home before going into residence
+at Redcastle, and were to begin with Monks Horton.  They offered to
+escort Ursula to see her great aunt at Micklethwayte--Oh joy of
+joys!--but when the Canon made the proposition in his brother's room,
+Mr. Egremont cut it short with 'I'm not going to have her running
+after those umbrella-mongers.'
+
+The Canon's heart sank within him at the tone, and he was really very
+sorry for his niece, who was likely to have a fortnight or three
+weeks of comparative solitude before her father was ready to set out
+on the journey.
+
+'Can't she help you, in reading to her father--or anything?' he asked
+Alice, who had come out with him into the anteroom to express her
+warm thanks for the kind proposal.
+
+She shook her head.  'He would not like it, nor I, for her.'
+
+'I should think not!' exclaimed the Canon, as his eye fell on the
+title of a yellow French book on the table.  'I have heard of this!
+Does he make you read such as this to him, Alice?'
+
+'Nothing else seems to amuse him,' she said.  'Do you, think I ought
+not?  I don't understand much of that kind of modern French, but
+Nuttie knows it better.'
+
+'Not _that kind_, I hope,' said the Canon hastily.  No, no, my dear,'
+as he saw her colour mantling, 'small blame to you.  You have only to
+do the best you can with him, poor fellow!  Then we'll take anything
+for you.  We've said nothing to Nuttie, Jane said I had better ask
+you first.'
+
+'Oh, that was kind!  I am glad she is spared the disappointment.'
+
+Not that she was.  For when she learnt her cousins' destination, she
+entreated to go with them, and had to be told that the proposal had
+been made and refused.
+
+There is no denying that she behaved very ill.  It was the first real
+sharp collision of wills.  She had differed from, and disapproved of,
+her father all along, but what had been required of her had generally
+been pleasant to one side at least of her nature; but here she was
+condemned to the dulness of the lonely outsider to a sick room, when
+her whole soul was leaping back to the delights of her dear old home
+at Micklethwayte,
+
+She made her mother's brief meal with her such a misery of protests
+and insistences on pleadings with her father that poor Alice was fain
+to rejoice when the servants' presence silenced her, and fairly fled
+from her when the last dish was carried out.
+
+"When they met again Nuttie demanded, 'Have you spoken to my father?'
+
+'I told you, my dear, it would be of no use?'
+
+'You promised.'
+
+'No, Nuttie, I did not.'
+
+'I'm sure I understood you to say you would if you could.'
+
+'It was your hopes, my dear child.  He is quite determined.'
+
+'And you leave him so.  Mother, I can't understand your submitting to
+show such cruel ingratitude!'
+
+Nuttie was very angry, though she was shocked at the burning colour
+and hot tears that she beheld as, half choked, her mother said: 'Oh,
+my dear, my dear, do not speak so!  You know--you know it is not in
+my heart, but my first duty, and yours too, is to your father.'
+
+'Whatever he tells us?' demanded Nuttie, still hot and angry.
+
+'I did not say that,' returned her mother gently, 'but you know,
+Nuttie, Aunt Ursel herself would say that it is our duty to abide by
+his decision here.'
+
+'But you could speak to him,' still argued Nuttie, 'what's the use of
+his being so fond of you if he won't do anything you want?'
+
+'Hush! hush, Nuttie! you know that is not a right way of speaking.  I
+cannot worry him now he is ill.  You don't know what that dreadful
+pain is!'
+
+Happily Nuttie did refrain from saying, 'No doubt it makes him very
+cross;' but she muttered, 'And so we are to be cut off for ever from
+Aunt Ursel, and Miss Mary, and--and--every thing good--and nice--and
+catholic?'
+
+'I hope not, indeed, I hope not.  Only he wants us to get the good
+society manners and tone--like your cousins, you know.  You are young
+enough for it, and a real Egremont, you know Nuttie, and when you
+have learnt it, he will trust you there,' said the mother, making a
+very mild version of his speech about the umbrella-mongers.
+
+'Yes, he wants to make me worldly, so that I should not care, but
+that he never shall do, whatever you may let him do to you.'
+
+His bell rang sharply, and away hurried Alice, leaving her daughter
+with a miserably sore and impatient heart, and the consciousness of
+having harshly wounded the mother whom she had meant to protect.  And
+there was no hugging and kissing to make up for it possible.  They
+would not meet till dinner-time, and Nuttie's mood of stormy
+repentance had cooled before that time into longing to be more tender
+than usual towards her mother, but how was that possible during the
+awful household ceremony of many courses, with three solemn men-
+servants ministering to them?
+
+And poor Alice jumped up at the end, and ran away as if afraid of
+fresh objurgations, so that all Nuttie could do was to rush headlong
+after her, catch her on the landing, kiss her face all over, and
+exclaim, 'Oh, mother, mother, I was dreadfully cross!'
+
+'There, there!  I knew you would be sorry, dear, dear child, I know
+it is very hard, but let me go.  He wants me!'
+
+And a very forlorn and deplorable person was left behind, feeling as
+if her father, after carrying her away from everything else that she
+loved, had ended by robbing her of her mother.
+
+She stood on the handsome staircase, and contrasted it with the
+little cosy entrance at her aunt's.  She felt how she hated all these
+fine surroundings, and how very good and unworldly she was for so
+doing.  Only, was it good to have been so violent towards her mother?
+
+The Rectory folks were dining out, so she could only have recourse to
+Mudie's box to try to drive dull care away.
+
+A few days more and they were gone.  Though Mr. Egremont was
+gradually mending, he still required his wife to be in constant
+attendance.  In point of fact Alice could not, and in her loyalty
+would not, tell her dignified brother-in-law, far less her daughter,
+of the hint that the doctor had given her, namely, that her husband
+was lapsing into the constant use of opiates, founded at first on the
+needs of his malady, but growing into a perilous habit, which
+accounted for his shutting himself up all the forenoon.
+
+While under medical treatment it was possible to allowance him, and
+keep him under orders, but Dr. Hamilton warned her not to allow the
+quantity to be exceeded or the drugs to be resorted to after his
+recovery, speaking seriously of the consequences of indulgence.  He
+spoke as a duty, but as he looked at the gentle, timid woman, he saw
+little hope of her doing any good!
+
+Poor Alice was appalled.  All she could do was to betake herself to
+'the little weapon called All-Prayer,' and therewith to use all
+vigilance and all her arts of coaxing and cheering away weariness and
+languor, beguiling sleeplessness, soothing pain by any other means.
+She had just enough success to prevent her from utterly despairing,
+and to keep her always on the strain, and at her own cost, for Mr.
+Egremont was far more irritable when he was without the narcotic, and
+the serenity it produced was an absolute relief.  She soon found too
+that Gregorio was a contrary power.  Once, when he had suggested the
+dose, and she had replied by citing the physician's commands, Mr.
+Egremont had muttered an imprecation on doctors, and she had caught a
+horrible grin of hatred on the man's face, which seemed to her almost
+diabolical.  She had prevailed then, but the next time her absence
+was at all prolonged, she found that the opiate had been taken, and
+her dread of quitting her post increased, though she did not by any
+means always succeed.  Sometimes she was good-humouredly set aside,
+sometimes roughly told to mind her own business; but she could not
+relinquish the struggle, and whenever she did succeed in preventing
+the indulgence she felt a hopefulness that--in spite of himself and
+Gregorio, she might yet save him.
+
+Another hint she had from both the Canon and his wife.  When they
+asked what place was chosen, Mr. Egremont said he had made Alice
+write to inquire of the houses to be had at various resorts--Mentone,
+Nice, Cannes, and the like.  She was struck by the ardour with which
+they both began to praise Nice, Genoa, Sorrento, any place in
+preference to Mentone, which her husband seemed to know and like the
+best.
+
+And when she went downstairs with them the Canon held her hand a
+moment, and said, 'Anywhere but Mentone, my dear.'
+
+She looked bewildered for a moment, and the Canoness added, 'Look in
+the guide-books.'
+
+Then she remembered Monte Carlo, and for a moment it was to her as
+shocking a warning as if she had been bidden to keep her husband out
+of the temptation of thieving.
+
+She resolved, however, to do her best, feeling immediately that again
+it was a pull of her influence against Gregorio's.  Fortune favoured
+her so far that the villa favoured by Mr. Egremont was not to be had,
+only the side of the bay he disliked, and that a pleasant villa
+offered at Nice.
+
+Should she close with it?  Well--was there great haste?  Gregorio
+knew a good many people at Mentone, and could ascertain in his own
+way if they could get the right side of the bay by going to the hotel
+and waiting.  Alice, however, pressed the matter--represented the
+danger of falling between two stools, pleaded personal preference,
+and whereas Mr. Egremont was too lazy for resistance to any
+persuasion, she obtained permission to engage the Nice villa.  The
+next day Gregorio announced that he had heard that the proprietor of
+Villa Francaleone at Mentone was giving up hopes of his usual
+tenants, and an offer might secure it.
+
+'Villa Eugenie at Nice is taken,' said Alice, and she received one of
+those deadly black looks, which were always like a stab.
+
+Of all this Nuttie knew nothing.  She was a good deal thrown with the
+schoolroom party and with the curate's wife for companionship.  Now
+Mrs. Edwards did not approve of even the canonical Egremonts, having
+an ideal far beyond the ritual of Bridgefield; and she was delighted
+to find how entirely Miss Egremont sympathised with her.
+
+Nuttie described St. Ambrose's as a paradise of church observances
+and parish management, everything becoming embellished and all
+shortcomings forgotten in the loving mists of distance.  The
+harmonium was never out of tune; the choir-boys were only just
+naughty enough to show how wisely Mr. Spyers dealt with them; the
+surplices, one would think, never needed washing; Mr. Dutton and
+Gerard Godfrey were paragons of lay helpers, and district visitors
+never were troublesome.  Mrs. Edwards listened with open ears, and
+together they bewailed the impracticability of moving the Canon to
+raising Bridgefield to anything approaching to such a standard; while
+Nuttie absolutely cultivated her home sickness.
+
+According to promise Blanche wrote to her from Monks Horton, and told
+her thus much--'We have been all over your umbrella place.  It was
+very curious.  Then we called upon Miss Headworth, who was quite
+well, and was pleased to hear of you.'
+
+Blanche was famous for never putting into a letter what her
+correspondent wanted to hear, but her stepmother wrote a much longer
+and more interesting letter to Mrs. Egremont.
+
+'You will be glad to hear that we found your aunt quite well.  I
+suppose it is not in the nature of things that you should not be
+missed; but I should think your place as well supplied as could be
+hoped by that very handsome and superior Miss Nugent, with whom she
+lives.  I had a good deal of conversation with both; for you will be
+surprised to hear that the Canon has consented to Mark's making the
+experiment of working for a year in Greenleaf and Dutton's office,
+with a view to entering the firm in future.  I was very anxious to
+understand from such true ladies what the position would be socially.
+I longed to talk it over with you beforehand; but Alwyn could never
+spare you, and it was not a subject to be broached without ample time
+for discussion.  We felt that though the Kirkaldys could tell us
+much, it was only from the outside, whereas Miss Headworth could
+speak from within.  The decision is of course a blow to his father,
+and will be still more so to the De Lyonnais family, but they have
+never done anything to entitle them to have a voice in the matter,
+and the Kirkaldys agree with us that, though not a path of
+distinction, it is one of honourable prosperity; and with this, if
+Mark is content, we have no right to object, since his mind is set on
+present happiness rather than ambition.'
+
+It was a letter gratifying to Alice in its confidential tone, as well
+as in the evident approval of those surroundings which she loved so
+well.  She read it to her husband, as she was desired to give him a
+message that the Canon had not written out of consideration for his
+eyes.  He laughed the laugh that always jarred on her.  'So Master
+Mark has got his nose to the grindstone, has he?' was his first
+exclamation, and, after some cogitation, 'The fellow wants to be
+married, depend on it!'
+
+'Do you think so?' returned Alice wistfully.
+
+'Think!  Why, you may see it in Jane's letter!  I wonder who it is!
+The little yellow Ruthven girl, most likely!  The boy is fool enough
+for anything!  I thought he would have mended his fortunes with
+Ursula, but he's too proud to stomach that, I suppose!'
+
+'I did wish that!' said Alice.  'It would have set everything
+straight, and it would have been so nice for her.'
+
+'You should have cut out your daughter after your own pattern,' he
+answered; 'not let her be such a raw insignificant little spitfire.
+'Tis a pity.  I don't want the estate to go out of the name, though I
+won't leave it to an interfering prig like Mark unless he chooses to
+take my daughter with it!'
+
+The latter part of this amiable speech was muttered and scarcely
+heard or attended to by Alice in her struggle to conceal the grief
+she felt at the uncompromising opinion of her child.  Nuttie might
+outgrow being raw, but there seemed less rather than more prospect of
+a better understanding with her father.  About a week later Mark made
+his appearance, timing it happily when his uncle was making his
+toilette, so that his aunt was taking a turn on the sunny terrace
+with Nuttie when the young man came hurrying up the garden.
+
+'Mark!  What?  Are you come home?'
+
+'Not the others.  They are at Mr. Condamine's, I came last night--by
+way of Lescombe.  Edda, dear, it is all right!  Oh, I forgot you did
+not know!  There was no seeing you before we went away.  Ah! by the
+by, how is my uncle?'
+
+'Much better, except that using his eyes brings on the pain.  'What
+is it, Mark?  Ah! I can guess,' she said, aided no doubt by that
+conjecture of her husband's.
+
+'Yes, yes, yes!' he answered, with a rapidity quite unlike himself.
+'Why, Nuttie, how mystified you look!'
+
+'I'm sure I don't wonder at any one being glad to live at dear old
+Micklethwayte,' said Nuttie slowly.  'But, somehow, I didn't think it
+of you, Mark.'
+
+'My dear, that's not all!' said her mother.
+
+'Oh!' cried Nuttie, with a prolonged intonation.  'Is it?--Oh, Mark!
+did you _do it_ that night when you led the horse home?'
+
+'Even so, Nuttie!  And, Aunt Alice, Lady Ronnisglen is the best and
+bravest of old ladies, and the wisest.  Nobody objects but Lady
+Delmar, and she declares she shall not consider it an engagement till
+Ronnisglen has been written to in Nepaul, as if he had anything to do
+with it; but that matters the less, since they all insist on our
+waiting till I've had a year's trial at the office!  I suppose they
+could not be expected to do otherwise, but it is a pity, for I'm
+afraid Lady Delmar will lead Annaple and her mother a life of it.'
+
+'Dear Mark, I am delighted that it is all going so well.'
+
+'I knew you would be!  I told them I must tell _you_, though it is
+not to go any farther.'
+
+So that hope of Mark's restoration to the inheritance faded from
+Alice, and yet she could not be concerned for him.  She had never
+seen him in such good spirits, for the sense of failure and
+disappointment had always been upon him; and the definite prospect of
+occupation, gilded by his hopes of Annaple, seemed to make a new man
+of him.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+AN OLD FRIEND.
+
+
+
+
+'My heart untravelled still returns to thee.'--GOLDSMITH.
+
+
+To go abroad!  Such had been the fairy castle of Nuttie's life.  She
+had dreamed of Swiss mountains, Italian pictures, Rheinland castles,
+a perpetual panorama of delight, and here she was in one of the great
+hotels of Paris, as little likely to see the lions of that city as
+she had been to see those of London.
+
+The party were halting for two days there because the dentist, on
+whom Mr. Egremont's fine show of teeth depended, practised there; but
+Nuttie spent great part of the day alone in the sitting-room, and her
+hand-bag and her mother's, with all their books and little comforts,
+had been lost in the agony of landing.  Her mother's attendance was
+required all the morning, or what was worse, she expected that it
+would be, and though Nuttie's persistence dragged out the staid,
+silent English maid, who had never been abroad before, to walk in the
+Tuilleries gardens, which they could see from their windows, both
+felt half-scared the whole time.  Nuttie was quite unused to finding
+her own way unprotected, and Martin was frightened, cross, and
+miserable about the bags, which, she averred, had been left by
+Gregorio's fault.  She so hated Gregorio that only a sort of
+adoration which she entertained for Mrs. Egremont  would have induced
+her to come tete-a-tete with him, and perhaps he was visiting his
+disappointment about Mentone on her.  In the afternoon nothing was
+achieved but a drive in the Bois de Boulogne, when it was at once
+made evident that Mr. Egremont would tolerate no questions nor
+exclamations.
+
+His mouth was in no condition for eating in public, and he therefore
+decreed that his wife and daughter should dine at the table d'hote,
+while he was served alone by Gregorio.  This was a great boon to
+Nuttie, and to her mother it recalled bridal days long past at
+Dieppe; but what was their astonishment when on entering the room
+they beheld the familiar face of Mr. Dutton!  It was possible for him
+to place himself between them, and there is no describing the sense
+of rest and protection his presence imparted to them, more especially
+to Nuttie.
+
+He had come over, as he did from time to time, on business connected
+with the materials he used, and he was beguiled into telling them of
+his views of Mark, whom he had put in the way of learning the
+preliminaries needful to an accountant.  He had a deep distrust of
+the business capacities and perseverance of young gentlemen of
+family, especially with a countess-aunt in the neighbourhood, and
+quoted Lord Eldon's saying that to make a good lawyer of one, it was
+needful for him to have spent both his own and his wife's fortune to
+begin with, but he allowed that young Mr. Egremont was a very
+favourable specimen, and was resolutely applying himself to his work,
+and that he himself felt it due to him to give all the assistance
+possible.
+
+Miss Headworth, he could not deny, had aged, but far less than Mrs.
+Nugent in the past year, and it really was a great comfort to Miss
+Mary to have the old ladies together.  He told too how the mission,
+now lately over, had stirred the Micklethwayte folk into strong
+excitement, and how good works had been undertaken, evil habits
+renounced, reconciliations effected, religious services frequented.
+Would it last?  Nobody, he said, had taken it up so zealously as
+Gerard Godfrey, who seemed as if he would fain throw everything up,
+and spend his whole life in some direct service as a home missionary
+or something of the kind.  'He is a good fellow,' said Mr. Dutton,
+'and it is quite genuine, but I made him wait at least a year, that
+he may be sure that this is not only a passing impulse.'
+
+Nuttie thought that she knew what was the impulse that had actuated
+him, and felt a pleasant elation and self-consciousness even while
+she repressed a sigh of pity for herself and for him.  Altogether the
+dip into the Micklethwayte world was delightful, but when Mr. Dutton
+began to ask Nuttie what she had seen, she burst out with, 'Nothing--
+nothing but just a walk and a drive in the Bois de Boulogne;' and her
+mother explained that 'in Mr. Egremont's state of health,' etc.
+
+'I wonder,' asked Mr. Dutton, 'if I might be allowed--'
+
+Nuttie's eyes sparkled with ecstasy.
+
+It ended in her mother, who had been wondering how Mr. Egremont could
+be amused all the long evening, arranging that Mr. Dutton should come
+in an hour's time to call on him, on the chance of being admitted,
+and that then the offer might be made when she had prepared him for
+it, advising Nuttie to wait in her own room.  She was beginning to
+learn how to steer between her husband and her daughter, and she did
+not guess that her old friend was sacrificing one of the best French
+plays for the chance.
+
+It turned out well; Mr. Egremont was conscious of a want of variety.
+He demanded whether it was the young fellow, and being satisfied on
+that part, observed in almost a good-humoured tone, 'So, we are in
+for umbrellas, we may as well go in for the whole firm!' caused the
+lights to be lowered under pretext of his eyes--to conceal the lack
+of teeth--did not absolutely refuse to let Nuttie take advantage of
+the escort, and when Mr. Dutton did come to the anteroom of the
+apartment, he was received with full courtesy, though Gregorio looked
+unutterable contempt.  Mr. Dutton was a man who could talk, and had
+seen a good deal of the world at different times.  Mr. Egremont could
+appreciate intelligent conversation, so that they got on wonderfully
+well together, over subjects that would have been a mere weariness to
+Nuttie but for the exceeding satisfaction of hearing a Micklethwayte
+voice.  At last Mr. Dutton said something about offering his escort
+to the ladies, or to Miss Egremont, who used, he said in a paternal
+way, to be a little playfellow of his; Mr. Egremont really smiled,
+and said, 'Ay, ay, the child is young enough to run after sights.
+Well, thank you, if you are so good as to take the trouble, they will
+be very grateful to you, or if her mother cannot go with her, there's
+the maid.'
+
+Nuttie thought she had never known him so amiable, and hardly durst
+believe her good fortune would not turn the wheel before morning.
+And it so far did that her mother found, or thought she found, that
+it would not do to be out of call, and sent the silent Martin in her
+stead.  But Mr. Dutton had set telegraphs to work and recovered the
+bags, which Gregorio had professed to give up in despair.
+
+A wonderful amount of lionising was contrived by Mr. Dutton, who had
+lived a few years at Paris in early youth, and had made himself
+acquainted alike with what was most worth seeing, and the best ways
+and means of seeing it, so that as little time as possible was wasted
+on the unimportant.  It was one of the white days of Nuttie's life,
+wanting nothing but her mother's participation in the sight of the
+St. Michael of the Louvre, of the Sainte Chapelle, of the vistas in
+Notre Dame, and of poor Marie Antoinette's cell,--all that they had
+longed to see together.
+
+She had meant to tell Mr. Dutton that it was all her father's
+selfishness, but somehow she could not say so, there was something
+about him that hindered all unbefitting outbreaks of vexation.
+
+And thus, when she mentioned her disappointment at not being allowed
+to go to Micklethwayte with her uncle, he answered, 'You could not of
+course be spared with your father so unwell.'
+
+'Oh, he never let me come near him!  I wasn't of the slightest use to
+him!'
+
+'Mrs. Egremont would have missed you.'
+
+'Really he never gave her time.  He perfectly devours her, body and
+soul.  Oh dear, no!  'Twas for no good I was kept there, but just
+pride and ingratitude, though mother tried to call it being afraid
+for my manners and my style.'
+
+'In which, if you lapse into such talk, you fully justify the
+precaution.  I was just thinking what a young lady you had grown
+into,' he answered in a tone of banter, under which, however, she
+felt a rebuke; and while directing her attention to the Pantheon, he
+took care to get within hearing again of Martin.
+
+And in looking at these things, he carried her so far below the
+surface.  St. Michael was not so much Raffaelle's triumph of art as
+the eternal victory over sin; the Sainte Chapelle, spite of all its
+modern unsanctified gaudiness, was redolent of St. Louis; and the
+cell of the slaughtered queen was as a martyr's shrine, trod with
+reverence.  There were associations with every turn, and Nuttie might
+have spent years at Paris with another companion without imbibing so
+many impressions as on this December day, when she came home so full
+of happy chatter that the guests at the table d'hote glanced with
+amusement at the eager girl as much as with admiration at the
+beautiful mother.  Mr. Dutton had been invited to come and take
+coffee and spend the evening with them again, but Mr. Egremont's
+affairs with the dentist had been  completed, and he had picked up,
+or, more strictly speaking, Gregorio had hunted up for him, a couple
+of French acquaintances, who appeared before long and engrossed him
+entirely.
+
+Mr. Dutton sat between the two ladies on a stiff dark-green sofa on
+the opposite side of the room, and under cover of the eager, half-
+shrieking, gesticulating talk of the Frenchmen they had a quiet low-
+toned conversation, like old times, Alice said.  'More than old
+times,' Nuttie added, and perhaps the others both agreed with her.
+
+When the two Englishwomen started at some of the loud French tones,
+almost imagining they were full of rage and fury, their friend smiled
+and said that such had been his first notion on coming abroad.
+
+'You have been a great deal abroad?' Mrs. Egremont asked; 'you seem
+quite at home in Paris.'
+
+'Oh, mamma, he showed me where the school was that he went to, and
+the house where he lived!  Up such an immense way!'
+
+Mr. Dutton was drawn on to tell more of his former life than ever had
+been known to them.  His father, a wine merchant, had died a bankrupt
+when he was ten years old, and a relation, engaged in the same
+business at Paris, had offered to give him a few years of foreign
+schooling, and then make him useful in the business.
+
+His excellent mother had come with him, and they had lived together
+on very small means, high up in a many-storied lodging-house, while
+he daily attended the Lycie.  His reminiscences were very happy of
+those days of cheerful contrivance, of her eager desire to make the
+tiny appartement a home to her boy, of their pleasant Sundays and
+holidays, and the life that in this manner was peculiarly guarded by
+her influence, and the sense of being all she had upon earth.  He had
+scarcely ever spoken of her before, and he dwelt on her now with a
+tenderness that showed how she had been the guiding spirit of his
+life.
+
+At fifteen he was taken into the office at Marseilles, and she went
+thither with him, but the climate did not agree with her; she
+drooped, and, moreover, he discovered that the business was not
+conducted in the honourable manner he had supposed.  After a few
+months of weighing his obligations to his kinsman against these
+instincts, the question was solved by his cousin's retiring.  He
+resolved to take his mother back to England at any loss, and falling
+in with one of the partners of the umbrella firm in quest of French
+silk, he was engaged as foreign correspondent, and brought his mother
+to Micklethwayte, but not in time to restore her health, and he had
+been left alone in the world just as he came of age, when a small
+legacy came to him from his cousin, too late for her to profit by it.
+It had been invested in the business, and he had thus gradually risen
+to his present position.  Mrs. Egremont was amazed to hear that his
+mother had only been dead so short a time before she had herself come
+to Micklethwayte; and fairly apologised for the surprise she could
+not help betraying at finding how youthful he had then been, and
+Nuttie exclaimed, in her original unguarded fashion:
+
+'Why, Mr. Dutton, I always thought you were an old bachelor!'
+
+'Nuttie, my dear!' said her mother in a note of warning, but Mr.
+Dutton laughed and said:
+
+'Not so far wrong!  They tell me I never was a young man.'
+
+'You had always to be everything to your mother,' said Mrs. Egremont
+softly.
+
+'Yes,' he said, 'and a very blessed thing it was for me.'
+
+'Ah! you don't regret now all that you must have always been giving
+up for her,' returned Alice.
+
+'No, indeed.  Only that I did not give up more.'
+
+'That is always the way.'
+
+'It is indeed.  One little knows the whips that a little self-will
+prepares.'
+
+Nuttie thought he said it for her admonition, and observed, 'But she
+was good,' only, however, in a mumble, that the other two thought it
+inexpedient to notice, though it made both hearts ache for her, even
+Alice's--with an additional pang of self-reproach that she herself
+was not good enough to help her daughter better.
+
+Neither of them guessed at the effect that a glimpse of the lovely
+young seeming widow had had on the already grave self-restrained
+young man in the home lately made lonely, how she had been his secret
+object for years, and how, when her history was revealed to him, he
+had still hoped on for a certainty which had come at last as so fatal
+a shock and overthrow to all his dreams.
+
+A life of self-restraint and self-conquest had rendered it safe for
+him to thoroughly enjoy the brief intercourse, which had come about
+by the accident of his having come to dine at the Hotel de Louvre, to
+meet a friend who had failed him.
+
+These were two completely happy hours to all the three, and when they
+said 'good-night' there was a sense of soothing and invigoration on
+Alice's mind; and on Nuttie's that patience and dutifulness were the
+best modes of doing justice to her Micklethwayte training, although
+he had scarcely said a word of direct rebuke or counsel.
+
+While Mr. Dutton sped home to tell Miss Headworth that Mrs. Egremont
+looked lovelier than ever, and was--yes she was--more of an angel,
+that her husband had been very pleasant, much better than he
+expected, and, indeed, might come to anything good under such
+influence; and as to little Nuttie--she was developing fast, and had
+a brave constant heart, altogether at Micklethwayte.  But that
+servant who was acting as courier was an insolent scoundrel, who was
+evidently cheating them to the last degree.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+A FRIEND IN NEED.
+
+
+
+
+'True courage often is in frightened eyes.'--
+                                 Thoughts and Verses.
+
+
+All the preliminaries of the sojourn at Nice had been settled in
+correspondence, and the Egremont family had nothing to do, after
+arriving at the station, but to drive up to Villa Eugenie, whose
+flower-wreathed balconies were like a vision of beauty.  Servants had
+been hired through agencies known to Mr. Egremont, and Gregorio
+looked very black at his mistress keeping the reins in her hand, and
+tried to make her feel herself inefficient.
+
+It was not an eventful or very interesting part of Ursula's life.
+She was almost wild with the novelty and beauty of the South at
+first, but except for what she could thus see, there was little
+variety.  The mould of the day was as much as possible after the
+Bridgefield fashion, except that there were no cousins at the
+Rectory, no parish interests, very little society, as far as the
+ladies were concerned.  Mr. Egremont had old acquaintance and
+associates with whom he spent afternoons and evenings, after his own
+fashion, but they were not people to whom he wished to introduce his
+wife and daughter.
+
+And the superior English habitues of Nice, the families who formed
+the regular society, knew Mr. Egremont's reputation sufficiently to
+feel by no means disposed to be cordial to the fair wife and grown-up
+daughter whom he so unexpectedly produced on the scene.  It had been
+different at home, where he had county standing, and the Canon and
+Canoness answered for the newcomers; but here, where all sorts of
+strange people came to the surface, the respectable felt it needful
+to be very cautious, and though of course one or two ladies had been
+asked to call through the intervention of Lady Kirkaldy or of Mrs.
+William Egremont, and had been assured on their authority that it was
+'all right,' their attentions were clogged by doubt, and by
+reluctance to involve their mankind in intimacy with the head of the
+family.  Thus very little of the proverbial gaiety of Nice offered
+itself to Nuttie and her mother, and, except by a clerical family who
+knew Mr. Spyers, they were kept at a distance, which Mr. Egremont
+perceived and resented by permitting no advances.  The climate suited
+him so well that, to his wife's great relief, he seemed to have
+dropped his inclination for sedatives; but his eyes would not bear
+much, and she felt bound to be always on the alert, able to amuse him
+and hinder his feeling it dull.  Gregorio highly disapproved of the
+house and servants, and was always giving hints that Mentone would
+agree far better with his master; but every day that Mr. Egremont
+seemed sufficiently amused at Nice was so much gain, and she had this
+in her favour, that he was always indolent and hard to move.
+Moreover, between his master's levee and late dinner Gregorio was
+hardly ever to be found.  No doubt he knew the way to Monte Carlo
+well enough, and perhaps preferred that the family should be farther
+off, for he soon ceased to show himself discontented with their
+present abode.  Once when his absence was inconvenient, Mr. Egremont
+abused him roundly as a good-for-nothing gambler, but when Alice
+hoped that he might be called to a reckoning, the wrath had subsided
+with the immediate vexation, and as usual she was told 'All those
+fellows were alike.'
+
+The foreign servants were not to be induced to give the early-rising
+ladies more than a roll and cup of coffee, and Nuttie felt ravenous
+till she learned to lay in a stock of biscuits, and, with Martin's
+connivance, made tea on her own account, and sustained her mother for
+the morning's walk before the summons to Mr. Egremont.
+
+He always wanted his wife much earlier in the day, during his hours
+of deshabille, and letting her write his letters and read the papers
+to him.  She was pleased with this advance, but it gave Nuttie a
+great deal more solitude, which was sometimes judiciously spent, but
+it was very hard not to be desultory in spite of learning lessons in
+French, Italian, and drawing.
+
+Later in the day came the drive or the visit to the public gardens
+when the band was playing, but this became less frequent as Mr.
+Egremont observed the cold civility shown to his wife, and as he
+likewise grew stronger and made more engagements of his own.  Then
+Nuttie had happy afternoons of driving, donkey-riding, or walking
+with her mother, sketching, botanising, admiring, and laying up
+stores for the long descriptive letters that delighted the party in
+St. Ambrose's Road, drinking in all the charm of the scenery, and
+entering into it intelligently.  They spent a good many evenings
+alone together likewise, and it could not but give Alice a pang to
+see the gladness her daughter did not repress when this was the case,
+even though to herself it meant relaxation of the perpetual vigilance
+she had to exert when the father and daughter were together to avert
+collisions.  They were certainly not coming nearer to one another,
+though Nuttie was behaving very well and submissively on the whole,
+and seldom showing symptoms of rebellion.  This went on through the
+early part of their stay, but latterly there was a growing sense upon
+the girl that she and her mother were avoided by some young ladies to
+whom they had been introduced, and whom they saw regularly at the
+daily services at St. Michael's Church.  They were pleasant-looking
+girls, with whom Nuttie longed to fraternise, and she was mortified
+at never being allowed to get beyond a few frigidly civil words in
+the street, more especially when she came upon sketching parties and
+picnics in which she was never included.
+
+It was all very well for her mother to answer her murmurs and
+wonderings with 'You know people are very exclusive, my dear.'
+Nuttie began to guess that her father and her name were the real
+reason, and her eyes were further opened later in the spring when Mr.
+Egremont, who had recovered unusual health and vigour, took his
+ladies to Mentone to spend a day or two in the newer beauties there.
+Alice had her misgivings, but the visit was avowedly to show the
+place to her, and she could not reasonably object.  He was in unusual
+good humour, and even tolerated their ecstasies at the scenery and
+the flowers, dined at the table d'hote and found acquaintance,
+enjoyed himself, and in the forenoon, while Nuttie was out wondering
+and admiring, and going as far as she could drag Martin, he expressed
+to his wife that she would be astonished at the gardens and the music
+of Monte Carlo.
+
+There, however, Alice made a stand.  'Thank you, it is very kind, but
+if you please, I should not like to take Ursula to Monte Carlo, or to
+go there myself,' she said in an apologetic tone.
+
+He laughed.  'What! you are afraid of making the little one a
+confirmed gambler?'
+
+'You know I am not, but--'
+
+'You think the little prig will be contaminated, eh?'
+
+'Well, I think it will be happier for her if she never sees anything--
+of the kind.'
+
+'You little foolish Edda, as if her eyes or ears need see anything
+but flowers and music and good company.'
+
+'I know that, but I had so much rather not.  It was a sweet face and
+caressing voice that implored, and he still was good humoured.
+
+'Well, well, I don't want to drag you, old lady, against your will,
+though I fancy you would be rather surprised at the real aspect of
+the abode of iniquity your fancy depicts.'
+
+'Oh, thank you, thank you so much!'
+
+'What an absurd little woman it is!  I wonder if you would thank me
+as heartily supposing I cleared a round thousand and gave you--say a
+diamond necklace?'
+
+'I am sure I should not!'
+
+'No, I don't believe you would.  That restless little conscience of
+yours would be up on end.  After all, I don't know that you are the
+worse for it, when it looks so prettily out of your brown eyes.  I
+wonder what you expect to see?  The ruined gamester shooting himself
+on every path, eh?'
+
+'No, no; I don't suppose I should see anything horrid or even
+disagreeable.  I know it is all very beautiful; but then every person
+who goes for the innocent pleasures' sake only helps to keep up the
+whole thing--evil and all.'
+
+'And what would the old women of all sorts here and at Nice do
+without such a choice temple of scandal to whet their teeth upon?
+Well, I suppose you and your precious daughter can take care of
+yourselves.  There are the gardens, or you can tell Gregorio to order
+you a carriage.'
+
+'Then you are going?'
+
+'Yes, I promised Grafton.  Don't be afraid, Mistress Edda, I'm not
+going to stake Bridgefield and reduce you to beggary.  I'm an old
+hand, and was a cool one in my worst days, and whatever I get I'll
+hand over to appease you.'
+
+That was all she could obtain, and she secretly hoped there would be
+no winnings to perplex her.  Thankful that she had not made him angry
+by the resistance for which she had prepared herself with secret
+prayer ever since the Mentone scheme had been proposed, she placed
+herself at Nuttie's disposition for the rest of the day.
+
+They had a charming donkey-ride, and, still unsatiated with beauty,
+Ursula made her mother come out again to wonder at the trees in the
+public gardens.  Rather tired, they were sitting on a shaded bench,
+when a voice close to them exclaimed, 'It is; yes, it must be; 'tis
+the voice--yes, and the face prettier than ever.  Little Alice--ah!
+you don't know me.  Time has been kinder to you than to me.'
+
+'Oh!  I know you now!  I beg your pardon,' cried Alice, recognising
+in the thin nutcracker parchment visage and shabbily-dressed figure
+the remnant of the brilliant aquiline countenance and gay attire of
+eighteen years ago.  'Mrs. Houghton!  I am so glad to have met you,
+you were so kind to me.  And here she is.'
+
+'What! is this the child?  Bless me, what a proof how time goes!
+Young lady, you'll excuse my not knowing you.  You were a very
+inconvenient personage not quite born when I last met your mother.
+What a likeness!  I could have known her for Alwyn Egremont's
+daughter anywhere!'
+
+'Yes, they all say she is a thorough Egremont.'
+
+'Then it is all right.  I saw Alwyn Egremont, Esquire, and family
+among the arrivals at Nice, but I hardly durst expect that it was
+you.  It seemed too good to be true, though I took care the knot
+should be tied faster than my gentleman suspected.'
+
+'Oh, please!' cried Alice deprecatingly, at first not apprehending
+the force of the words, having never known the gulf from which Mrs.
+Houghton had saved her, and that lady, seeing that the girl was
+listening with all her ears, thought of little pitchers and
+restrained her reminiscences, asking with real warm interest, 'And
+how was it?  How did you meet him again?'
+
+'He came and found me out,' said Alice, with satisfaction in her
+voice.
+
+'Indeed!  Not at Dieppe; for he was en garcon when I nearly came
+across him ten years ago at Florence.'
+
+'Oh no!  He inquired at Dieppe, but they had lost the address my aunt
+left.'
+
+'Indeed!  I should not have thought it of old Madame Leroux, she
+seemed so thoroughly interested in la pauvre petite.  What did you
+do?  Your aunt wrote to me when your troubles were safely over, and
+she thought him lost in the poor Ninon, that she meant to settle in a
+place with an awfully long Yorkshire name.'
+
+'Micklethwayte; yes, we lived there, and got on very well.  We had
+boarders, and I had some dear little pupils; but last year Mark
+Egremont--you remember dear little Mark--was in the neighbourhood,
+and hearing my name, he told his uncle, who had been seeking us ever
+since.  And he came, Mr. Egremont, and took us home, and oh, the
+family have been so kind!'
+
+'What?  The parson, and that awful old she-lion of a grandmother,
+whose very name scared you out of your wits?'
+
+'She is dead, and so is dear good Lady Adelaide.  Canon Egremont is
+kindness itself.  It was all the old lady's doing, and he knew
+nothing about it.  He was gone to Madeira with Lady Adelaide and got
+none of our letters, and he never knew that his brother was married
+to me.'
+
+'Trust Alwyn for that,' Mrs. Houghton muttered.  'Well, all's well
+that ends well, and I hope he feels due gratitude to me for doing him
+a good turn against his will.  I tried to get at him at Florence to
+find out what he had done with you, but unluckily I was ill, and had
+to send through poor Houghton, and he mismanaged it of course, though
+I actually wrote down that barbarous address, Mickle something, on a
+card.  I believe he only got as far as the man instead of the
+master.'
+
+'Ah!  I wanted to ask for Captain Houghton,' said Alice, glad to lead
+the conversation away from revelations of which she had an
+instinctive dread.
+
+'Gone, my dear! two years ago.  Poor fellow! it was low fever, but
+quite as much want of luck, I shall always believe,' she said.
+
+'Oh, I am sorry!  He was so kind to me!' said Alice, squeezing her
+hand, and looking up with sweet tender commiseration.
+
+'There, there, don't, you pretty creature!' said Mrs. Houghton,
+putting her hand across her eyes.  'I declare, you've almost made me
+cry--which I've not done--well, hardly, since I parted with you at
+Dieppe, thinking you a sweet little flower plucked and thrown away to
+die, though I had done my best to bind it to him.  What care I took
+not to let Houghton disabuse him about Jersey marriages!'
+
+There is a difference between hearing and hearkening, and Alice
+Egremont's loving and unsuspecting heart was so entirely closed
+against evil thoughts of her husband, and so fully occupied with her
+old friend's condition, that she never took in the signification of
+all this, while Nuttie, being essentially of a far more shrewd and
+less confiding nature, and already imbued with extreme distrust of
+her father, was taking in all these revelations with an open-eyed,
+silent horror of conviction that her old impressions of the likeness
+to Marmion or Theseus had been perfectly correct.  It was all under
+her hat, however, and the elder ladies never thought of her, Alice
+bringing back the conversation to Mrs. Houghton herself.  'Oh, my
+dear, I drag on as I can.  I've got a fragment of our old income, and
+when that's run too low, I go up to Monte Carlo--I always had the
+lucky hand, you know, and 'tis only restitution after all!  I'm sick
+of it all though, and sometimes think I'll take my good sister Anne's
+offers and go home.'
+
+'Oh do, do!' cried Alice.
+
+'But,' went on the poor woman, 'humble pie goes against me, and think
+what an amount would be before me--heigh ho!--after nearly five-and-
+twenty years; yes, five-and-twenty years it is--since Houghton, poor
+fellow, told me I was too bright and winsome for a little country
+lawyer's house in a poky street.  What would they think of me now?'
+and she laughed with a sound that was painful to hear.  'Well,
+Sycorax had done one good deed, and when I look at you, queening it
+there, I feel that so have I.'
+
+'You were very good to me, I know; but oh, if you would go home to
+your sister!'
+
+'My dear, you little know what you ask!  Anne!  Why, she is the prime
+district lady, or whatever you call it, of Dockforth.  Think what it
+would be to her to have this battered old vaurien thrown on her
+hands, to be the stock subject for all the righteous tongues.
+Besides,' as she coughed, 'the English climate would make an end of
+me outright.  I'm in a bad way enough here, where I can sit among the
+lemon trees half the days in the winter, but the English fireside in
+a stuffy parlour--' and she shuddered.
+
+That shiver reminded all that it was getting late, too late for Mrs.
+Houghton to be out of doors, and near the time when Mr. Egremont was
+to meet his ladies at the hotel.  Alice begged for Mrs. Houghton's
+address, and it was given with a short ironical laugh at her promise
+to call again if possible.  'Ay, if possible,' the poor woman
+repeated.  'I understand!  No, no,' as Alice was about to kiss her.
+'I won't have it done.'
+
+'There's no one in sight.'
+
+'As if that made a difference!  Alice, child, you are as innocent as
+the little dove that flew aboard the Ninon.  How have you done it?
+Get along with you!  No kisses to such as me!  I don't know whether
+it breaks my heart, or binds it up to look at the face of you.
+Anyway, I can't bear it.'
+
+She hurried away, and made some steps from them.  A terrible paroxysm
+of coughing came on, and Mrs. Egremont hurried towards her, but she
+waved back all help, shook her head, and insisted on going home.
+Alice kept her in sight, till she dived into a small side street.
+
+'Mother,' said Nuttie.  Then there was a pause.  'Mother, did you
+know all this?'
+
+'Don't talk of it, Nuttie.  It is not a thing to be talked about to
+any one or by any one.  I wish you had not been there.'
+
+'But, mother, this once!  Did you know?'
+
+'I knew that I knew not what I did when I went on board that yacht,
+but that God's kind providence was over me in a way that I little
+deserved.  That is all I care to know, and, Ursula, I will have not
+another word about it.  No, I will not hear it.'
+
+'I was only going to ask whether you would tell my father.'
+
+'Certainly; but not before you.'
+
+The tone of decision was unwonted, and Nuttie knew she must abide by
+it, but the last shreds of filial respect towards Mr. Egremont were
+torn away by what Mrs. Houghton had implied, and the girl dashed up
+and down her bedroom muttering to herself, 'Oh, why have I such a
+father?  And she, she will not see it, she is wilfully blind!  Why
+not break with him and go home to dear Aunt Ursel and Gerard and Mr.
+Dutton at once, instead of this horrid, horrid grandeur?  Oh, if I
+could fling all these fine things in his face, and have done with him
+for ever.  Some day I will, when I am of age, and Gerard has won his
+way.'
+
+Meantime Alice, in some trepidation, but with resolution at the
+bottom, had told her husband of the meeting with Mrs. Houghton, of
+her widowhood, sickness, and poverty.
+
+He did not like the intelligence of their meeting, and hoped no one
+had seen it; then, when reassured on this score, he hummed a little
+and exclaimed, 'Poor old Flossy Houghton!  I don't wonder!  They went
+the pace!  Well, what do you want?  Twenty pounds for her!  Why,
+'twill all be at Monte Carlo in three days' time.'
+
+'It is very good of you, but I want more than that.  She is so ill
+and wretched, you know. '
+
+'I can't have you visiting her, if that's what you mean.  Why, after
+all the pains I've been at to get you on your proper level at home,
+here's my Lady Louisa and all her crew, in their confounded
+insolence, fighting shy of you, and you can't give them a better
+colour for it than by running after a woman like that--divorced to
+begin with, and known at every gambling table in Europe.'
+
+'I know that, Alwyn, dear Alwyn' (it was very seldom that she called
+him so, and she put her clasped hands on his shoulder); 'but I am
+sure she is dying, and she was so good to me, I can't bear doing
+nothing for her.'
+
+'Well, there's twenty--fifty, if you like.'
+
+'Thank you, thank you, but you know I never meant to visit her--like--
+like society; only to go sometimes privately and--'
+
+'And how about your daughter?'
+
+'I would not take her on any account.  What I want to do is this.
+Mrs. Houghton spoke of her sister, a kind good woman in England, who
+would take her home, and love her, if only she could bring herself to
+go.  Now, I think I could persuade her to write, or let me write to
+the sister--and if only the two were together again!  It is very
+dreadful to think of her dying alone, in the way she is going on!'
+
+'What, little saint, you want to try your hand on her?  I should say
+she was too tough an old sinner for you.'
+
+'Oh, Alwyn! her heart was very near, though she tried to keep it
+back.  I do not want to--to do what you mean--only to get her to let
+her sister come.  I'm sure that would do the rest.'
+
+'If any sister does more than you, you little witch,' he said.
+
+Alice pressed him no more then, but a day or two later, when she knew
+he had an engagement, she arranged to dispose of Nuttie with the
+clergyman's wife, and then begged permission to go by train to
+Mentone, and come back in the evening.  He did not like it--no more
+did she--for she was perfectly unaccustomed to travelling alone, but
+there was a deep sense of sacred duty upon her, only strengthened by
+her unwillingness to realise how much she owed to Mrs. Houghton.
+
+She telegraphed that she was coming, and found her friend more
+touched than she chose to allow at the fact of her visit, declaring
+that she must have wonderful power over Alwyn Egremont, if she knew
+how to use it; indeed, the whole tone was of what Alice felt
+flattery, intended to turn away anything more serious.  Poor woman,
+she was as careful of doing no injury to her young friend's
+reputation as Mr. Egremont could have desired.  Alice had come
+resolved that she should have one good meal, but she would not hear
+of eating anywhere in public where either could be recognised, and
+the food was brought to a private room in the hotel.  To her lodgings
+she still would not take Alice, nor would she give her sister's
+address.  Except for a genuine shower of tears when Alice insisted on
+kissing her there seemed no ground gained.
+
+But Alice went again on her husband's next visit to Mentone.  He was,
+to a certain degree, interested in her endeavours, and really wished
+the poor woman to be under the charge of her relations, instead of
+dying a miserable lonely death among strangers.
+
+This time Alice had to seek her friend in the dreary quatrieme of the
+tall house with the dirty stone stairs. It was a doleful empty room,
+where, with a mannish-looking dressing-gown and a torn lace scarf
+tied hood-fashion over her scanty hair, Mrs. Houghton sat over a pan
+of charcoal oppressive to Alice's English lungs.
+
+'Come again!' she cried.  'Well, I really shall begin to think that
+angels and ministers of grace exist off the stage!  You pretty thing!
+Let me look at you.  Where did you get that delicious little bonnet?'
+
+'Why, it is perfectly plain!'
+
+'So it is!  'Tis only the face that is in it.  Now if some folks put
+this on--sister Anne, for example, what dowdies they would be.  Poor
+old Anne, you must know she had a turn for finery, only she never
+knew how to gratify it.  To see the contortions of her crinolines was
+the delight of all the grammar school.  It was a regular comedy for
+them to see her get into our pew edgeways, and once unconsciously she
+carried off a gentleman's hat on her train.'
+
+So she went on talking, coughing at intervals, and generally using a
+half-mocking tone, as if defying the tenderness that awoke in spite
+of her, but always of her original home, and especially of her
+sister.  Alice ventured to ask whether they often heard from one
+another.
+
+'Good soul, she always writes at Christmas and on my birthday.  I
+know as well as possible that I shall find a letter poste restante
+wherever she heard of me last, and that she hasn't done--I'm ashamed
+to say for how long--really, I think not since I let her know that I
+couldn't stand Ivy Lodge, Dockforth, at any price, when she wrote to
+Monaco on seeing poor Houghton's death in the paper.'
+
+There was a good deal of rambling talk of this kind, to which Alice
+listened tenderly and compassionately, making no attempt at
+persuasion, only doing what was possible for the poor lady's comfort.
+She had procured on her way some fruit and jelly, and some good
+English tea, at which Mrs. Houghton laughed, saying, 'Time was, I
+called it cat-lap!  Somehow it will seem the elixir of life now,
+redolent, even milkless, of the days when we were young.'
+
+Then she revealed something of her long, suffering, almost ghastly
+nights, and Alice gently told how her old friend, Mrs. Nugent,
+suffered from sleeplessness, and kept a store of soothing psalms and
+hymns in her memory.  There was a little laugh.  'That's for you good
+folk.  I haven't such a thing about me!  Come, Par exemple!' and
+Alice repeated the first thing she could remember, the verse
+beginning 'God, who madest earth and heaven.'
+
+'That's one of your charms, is it?  Well, it would not be too much
+for me if my poor old memory would hold it.  Say it again.'
+
+Alice generally had about her a tiny prayer-book with 'Hymns, Ancient
+and Modern,' attached.  It had been a gift from Mary Nugent, and she
+was fond of it, but the opportunity was not to be lost, and she took
+it out, saying she would bring a larger one and reclaim it.  And, as
+she was finally taking leave, she said with a throbbing heart, 'Do
+you know that you have betrayed your sister's address?  I shall write
+to her now.'
+
+'If you do--!' cried Mrs. Houghton, in a tone like threatening
+deprecation, but with a little of her strange banter in it besides.
+Alice's mind had been made up to do the thing, and she had not felt
+it honest not to give due warning of her intentions.  Even now she
+was not certain of the lady's surname, but she trusted to her
+husband's knowledge of Mrs. Houghton's previous history; and not in
+vain.  Mr. Egremont amused himself with a little ridicule at his
+wife's quixotry, and demanded whether Flossy Houghton was a promising
+convert; but confessed himself very glad that the poor thing should
+be off their hands, declaring that it was quite time her own people
+looked after her, and happily he recollected her maiden name.  So the
+letter was written, after numerous attempts at expressing it
+suitably, explaining Mrs. Houghton's illness and the yearnings she
+was too proud and ashamed to express to her sister, and was answered
+at once by a few short words of earnest gratitude, and an assurance
+that Miss Reade was preparing to start at once.  Could Mrs. Egremont
+meet her and prepare her sister?
+
+To Alice's disappointment this could not be.  Mr. Egremont had
+invited some friends to the villa, and would not spare her.  She
+could only send a note, assuring Miss Reade that she believed that
+preparation would do more harm than good, and she waited and watched
+anxiously.  A card came by the post in Mrs. Houghton's scrawled
+writing.  'Naughty little wretch!' was all it said, but thence she
+gathered hope.
+
+The spring was advancing, and Mr. Egremont was in haste to be gone,
+but Alice obtained one more run to Mentone, and once more climbed up
+the dark and dirty stairs to the room, where the well-known voice
+answered her tap, 'Come in!  Ah, there she is, the wicked little
+angel!'
+
+A substantial little roly-poly business-like little woman hurried
+forward with tearful eyes and outstretched hands.  'Oh, Mrs.
+Egremont! can I ever thank you enough?'
+
+'You can't, Anne, so don't try.  It will be a relief to all parties,'
+interposed Mrs. Houghton.  'Sentiment is not permitted here.'
+
+Nevertheless she hugged Alice almost convulsively.  She was sitting
+in a comfortable arm-chair, one about which Mrs. Egremont knew
+something, and the whole aspect of the room had changed indescribably
+for the better, as much indeed as Mrs. Houghton's own personal array,
+which had no longer the desolate neglected look of old.
+
+A little stool was close to her chair, as if the two sisters could
+not bear to be far apart, and the look of love and content in their
+eyes as they turned to one another was perfect joy to Alice.  She had
+no longer any doubt that Anne Reade, who had found the wanderer yet a
+great way off, would yet bring her back to the home, spiritually if
+not outwardly.
+
+Mrs. Houghton spoke, of better rooms when the winter visitors had
+fled, Anne spoke of her being able to return to Dockforth.  Whether
+that would ever be seemed entirely doubtful to Alice's eyes,
+especially as the patient's inclination was evidently otherwise.
+There was nothing to be done but to leave the sisters together,
+obtaining Miss Reade's ready promise to write, and putting into her
+hands a sum of money which could be sincerely called 'only a debt of
+gratitude from my husband and me,' and which would smooth the way
+either to remaining or returning to England.
+
+Nor was there any return.  Ere many weeks had passed Mrs. Egremont
+heard from Miss Reade how a fresh cold had made it impossible to
+move, and summer heat had brought on low fever, which had destroyed
+the feeble strength, but not till 'childhood's star' had again
+arisen, and a deeply and truly repentant woman had passed away,
+saved, as it seemed, through that one effort on behalf of the young
+girl whose innocence she had protected.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+THE VORTEX.
+
+
+
+
+'With one black shadow at her feet.'--TENNYSON.
+
+
+The rebuffs that society had bestowed on his wife and daughter at
+Nice had rendered Mr. Egremont the more determined on producing them
+in London and establishing their position.  He secured a furnished
+house in Westburnia before leaving Nice, and, travelling leisurely
+home without visiting Bridgefield, he took possession the second week
+in May.
+
+There had not been much correspondence with the Rectory, and on the
+first forenoon, as Mrs. Egremont and Nuttie were trying to enliven
+the drawing-room with the flowers sent up to meet them, they were
+surprised by the entrance of Blanche, full of kisses and welcomes.
+
+'Oh! didn't you know?  I'm with the Kirkaldys just round the corner.
+Aunt Margaret has undertaken to do the part of a noble aunt by me.'
+
+'Then you are here for the season?  And May?'
+
+'May wouldn't come, except just for a week to see the pictures, and
+lay in a stock of talk.  She's grown more parochial than ever, and we
+believe it is all Hugh Condamine.  Oh! I forgot you were gone before
+we came home last autumn.  He is mamma's nephew, you know, and was
+ordained last year to the curacy of the next parish to his father's
+place.  If the Edwardses only would take themselves off, we would
+have him at home, and then we should have flowers on the altar, and
+all sorts of jolly things.  Papa would stand ever so much more from
+him than from the old Edwardses.'
+
+'But is he engaged to May, then?'
+
+'Well, no, not exactly.  I believe he does not think it right till he
+has done preparing for priest's orders.  He's ever so strict, you
+know, and he hasn't got much either; but he means it.  Lucy, his
+sister, you know, told me all about it, and that altogether the
+elders had settled it was better for both that he should attend to
+his preparation, and May should not bind herself, though they really
+understand one another, and so she won't come to London.'
+
+'Oh, that's very good of her!' cried Nuttie; 'but why won't they let
+them settle their minds and be engaged?'
+
+'People are always tiresome,' said Blanche; 'and I do believe the
+living is at the bottom of it, at least Lucy thought so.  I mean
+everybody wants to wait--all the old ones, I mean--not Hugh or May,
+of course--to know whether Mark will stick to the umbrellas, or turn
+back and be a clergyman, because, then, of course, he would have the
+living; and if he doesn't, they want to be certain whether Uncle
+Alwyn, or you, Nuttie, would promise it to Hugh if he married May!'
+
+'Me!' exclaimed Nuttie.
+
+'My dear, I don't like to hear you talk of such things,' said Mrs.
+Egremont gently.
+
+'Oh yes, I know--it's all very dreadful.  I was only telling you what
+is in the old people's heads, and what would settle it, and make it
+all right with them.'
+
+'And how is Mark?  Is Miss Ruthven in London?' asked Mrs. Egremont,
+glad to turn away the conversation from the contingencies of which
+Blanche spoke with the hardness of youth, as yet not realising
+sorrow.
+
+'I daresay you know nearly as much of Mark as we do, now the
+Kirkaldys are up here.  All his letters go to Lescombe.  Oh no,
+Annaple is not in London.  The Delmars can't afford it, you know,
+though I believe my lady would have made a stretch if Annaple hadn't
+been bespoke--but now she reserves herself for Muriel.'
+
+Alice looked with some discomfort at the soft fair-haired creature
+who was uttering all this worldly jargon in a tone that would have
+been flippant if it had not been so childish.  She asked if Lord.
+Ronnisglen had written.
+
+'Oh yes, long ago.  Lady Delmar had tried to make him nasty about it,
+but he wouldn't be, so that's all right; and Mark seems to get on
+very well, though it must be horridly dull for him now the Kirkaldys
+are away, and he can't spend all his Sundays at Monks Horton.'
+
+'He will get more into the spirit of the place,' said Nuttie, whereat
+Blanche shrugged her shoulders a little, and exclaimed:
+
+'You've got out of it at any rate, Nuttie!'
+
+'I hope not!'
+
+'Well, then, the look of it!  I never saw any one so improved!  Isn't
+she, Aunt Alice?  She's grown, I declare!  Yes'--measuring herself
+against her cousin--'I was a leetle bit taller when you came, and now
+you've got above me! and what a duck of a way of doing your hair!
+You must show me!  I must tell May there's no fear of your being
+taken for one another now; Aunt Margaret will be quite surprised.'
+
+It was true that Ursula had developed a good deal during the last
+year, and, under the experienced hands of Martin, had lost her
+schoolgirl air, and turned into a young lady capable of becoming the
+Paris outfit which her father had enjoined.  Without positive beauty,
+she was a pleasing, intelligent, animated girl, with the reputation
+of being an heiress, with a romance in the background, and there was
+nothing to prevent her from being a success.  The family connections,
+with Lady Kirkaldy to set the example, had determined on giving full
+support to Mrs. Egremont, and, as of course every one liked to look
+at so lovely a face, the way of both was smoothed in a manner that
+delighted her husband when they encountered any of those who had
+looked coldly on her at Nice.
+
+He would have had her presented, but her own reluctance and the
+united counsels of Lady Kirkaldy and the Canoness prevailed on him to
+drop the idea; and then there was a fight with Ursula, who declared
+that she would not go to court if her mother did not; but she was
+overruled at last by that mother's tears at her defiance; and let
+herself be presented, together with Blanche, by Lady Kirkaldy.
+
+To Ursula it was altogether a strange time, full of the same kind of
+reckless swing and sense of intoxication that had possessed her at
+Bridgefield.  Not that there was an excessive amount of actual
+gaiety.  Hot rooms and late hours were soon found not to agree with
+Mrs. Egremont.  She looked faded and languid after evening parties;
+and, as her husband really cared more to have her ready to wait upon
+him and amuse him than for anything else, he did not insist on her
+going out more than might be needful to establish her position, or
+when it suited him to show her off.  The other purposes were quite as
+well served by letting Ursula go out with Lady Kirkaldy, who was
+warmly interested in mother and daughter, glad of a companion for
+Blanche, and still more glad of a companion for herself.  For she was
+not slow to discover that exhibitions, which were merely fashionable
+gapeseed to her niece, were to Nuttie real delights, viewed
+intelligently, and eliciting comments and questions that Lady
+Kirkaldy and even her husband enjoyed in their fresh interest, but
+which were unendurable weariness to Blanche, unless she had some one
+to chatter with.  Lectures and lessons, which the aunt hoped to
+render palatable by their being shared by the two cousins, only
+served to show the difference between a trained and eager, and an
+untrained and idle, nature.  With the foreign society to be met at
+Lord Kirkaldy's, Blanche was less at a loss than her brother, and
+could get on by the help of nods and becks and wreathed smiles; but
+Nuttie, fresh from her winter abroad, could really talk, and was
+often in request as a useful person to help in entertaining.  She
+thus saw some of the choicest society in London, and, in addition,
+had as much of the youthful gaiety as Lady Kirkaldy thought wholesome
+for the two girls.  Also there were those ecclesiastical delights and
+privileges which had been heard of at Micklethwayte, and were within
+reach, greatly enjoyed by Mrs. Egremont whenever she could share
+them, though her daughter chafed at her treating all except the chief
+service on Sunday as more indulgence than duty.
+
+Nuttie was strong, with that spring of energy which unbroken health
+and a quiet life lays up, and, in her own phrase, she went in for
+everything, from early services to late balls, thinking all right
+because it was seldom that her day did not begin with matins or
+Celebration, and because she was not taken to more than two balls a
+week, and conversed at times with superior people, or looked at those
+with world-famed names.  Possibly the whirl was greater than if it
+had been mere gaiety, for then the brain would not have participated
+in it.  Church functions, with the scurry to go at all, or to obtain
+a seat, fine music, grand sermons, religious meetings, entertainments
+for the poor, lectures, lessons, exhibitions, rides, drives, kettle-
+drums, garden-parties, concerts, theatres, operas, balls, chattering,
+laughing, discussing, reading up current subjects, enjoying
+attention, excitement as to what should be done and how,--one thing
+drove out another in perpetual succession, and the one thing she
+never did or could do was to sit still and think!  Rest was simply
+dreamless sleep, generally under the spell of a strong will to wake
+at the appointed hour for church.  The short intervals of being alone
+with her mother were spent in pouring out histories of her doings,
+which were received with a sympathy that doubled their pleasure,
+excepting when Nuttie thought proper to grumble and scold at her
+mother's not coming to some Church festival at an hour when she
+thought Mr. Egremont might want her.
+
+Of him Nuttie saw very little.  He did not want her, and cared little
+what she did, as long as she was under the wing of Lady Kirkaldy,
+whose patronage was a triumphant refutation of all doubts.  He went
+his own way, and had his own club, his own associates, and, with his
+wife always at his beck and call, troubled himself very little about
+anything else.
+
+Alice spent a good deal of time alone, chiefly in waiting his
+pleasure; but she had her own quiet occupations, her books, her
+needlework, her housekeeping, and letter-writing, and was peacefully
+happy as long as she did not displease Nuttie.  There were no
+collisions between father and daughter, and the household
+arrangements satisfied that fastidious taste.  She was proud of
+Ursula's successes, but very thankful not to be dragged out to share
+them, though she was much less shy, and more able on occasion to take
+her place.
+
+One pain she had.  Good old Mrs. Nugent was rapidly decaying, and she
+shared with all her loving heart in the grief this was to Mary and to
+Miss Headworth, and longed to help them in their nursing.  She would
+not grieve Nuttie by dwelling constantly on the bad accounts, and the
+girl hardly attended to them in the tumult of occupations; and so at
+last, when the final tidings came in the second week in July, they
+were an absolute shock to Nuttie, and affected her as the first grief
+sometimes does.  Mrs. Nugent was really the first person of her own
+intimate knowledge who had died, and in the excited state in which
+she was, the idea of the contrast between her own occupations and
+Mary's was so dreadful to her that she wept most bitterly, with the
+sobs of childhood, such as she really did not know how to restrain.
+
+It was an unfortunate day, for it was one of the few on which Mr.
+Egremont wanted to take out his ladies.  There was to be a great
+garden-party at Richmond, given by one of his former set, who had
+lately whitewashed himself by marrying a very fast and fashionable
+lady.  Nuttie had heard strong opinions on the subject at Lord
+Kirkaldy's; but her father was quite elated at being in a position to
+countenance his old friends.  Alice, in the midst of her sorrow,
+recollected this with consternation.
+
+'My dear, my dear, hush!  You must stop yourself!  Remember we have
+to go out.'
+
+'Go--out,' cried Nuttie, her sobs arrested by very horror.  'You
+wouldn't go--!'
+
+'I am afraid your father would be very much vexed--'
+
+'Let him!  It is a horrid wicked place to go to at all; and now--when
+dear, dear old Mrs. Nugent is lying there--and--'
+
+The crying grew violent again, and in the midst in walked Mr.
+Egremont with an astonished 'What is all this?'
+
+'We have lost one of our dear kind old friends at Micklethwayte,'
+said Alice, going towards him; 'dear old Mrs. Nugent,' and she lifted
+up her tear-stained face, which he caressed a little and said, 'Poor
+old body;' but then, at a sob, 'Can't you stop Ursula from making
+such a row and disfiguring herself?  You must pick up your looks,
+Edda, for I mean you to make a sensation at Jerningham's.'
+
+'Oh, Alwyn, if you could let us stay at home!  Mrs. Nugent was so
+good to us, and it does seem unkind--' The tears were in her eyes
+again.
+
+'Nonsense!' he said impatiently.  'I promised Jerningham, and it is
+absurd to have you shutting yourself up for every old woman at
+Micklethwayte.'
+
+Thereupon Ursula wiped away her tears, and stood up wrathful before
+him.  'I am not going,' she said.
+
+'Oh, indeed!' he returned in a tone that made her still more angry.
+'Hein'! a French ejaculation which he had the habit of uttering in a
+most exasperating manner.
+
+'No,' she said.  'It is scarcely a place to which we even ought to be
+asked to go, and certainly not when--'
+
+'Do you hear that, Mrs. Egremont?' he asked.
+
+'Oh, Nuttie, Nuttie, dear!' she implored; 'don't.'
+
+'No, mother,' said Nuttie, with flashing eyes; 'if you care so little
+for your best friends as to let yourself be dragged out among all
+sorts of gay, wicked people when your dear friend is lying dead, I'm
+sure I shan't go with you.'
+
+Her father laughed a little.  'A pretty figure you are, to make a
+favour of accompanying us!'
+
+'Oh, go away, go away, Nuttie,' entreated her mother.  'You don't
+know what you are saying. '
+
+'I do know,' said Nuttie, exasperated perhaps by the contrast in the
+mirror opposite between her own swelled, disfigured face, and the
+soft tender one of her mother with the liquid eyes.  'I know how much
+you care for the dear friends who took care of us when we
+were forsaken!'
+
+And with this shaft she marched out of the room, while her father
+again laughed, and said, 'Have they been training her for the tragic
+stage?  Never mind, Edda, the little vixen will come to her senses
+upstairs, and be begging to go.'
+
+ I don't think she will,' said Alice sadly; 'she is not that sort of
+stuff, and she was very fond of Mrs. Nugent.  Oh, Alwyn! if you could
+let us off.'
+
+'Not after that explosion, certainly,' he said.  'Besides, I promised
+Jerningham, and such an excuse would never hold water.  She is not
+even a relation.'
+
+'No, but she was very good to me.'
+
+'The more reason why you should not stay at home and be hipped.
+Never mind that silly girl.  She will be all right by and by.'
+
+On the contrary, she did not come down to luncheon, and when, about
+an hour later, Alice, after writing a few tender loving words to the
+mourners, went up to her daughter's room, it was to find a limp and
+deplorable figure lying across the bed, and to be greeted with a
+fresh outburst of sobs and inarticulate exclamations.
+
+'Oh, Nuttie, dear, this will not do!  It is not right.  Dear good
+Mrs. Nugent herself would tell you that this is not the way any one
+so good and so suffering should be grieved for.  Think--'
+
+'Oh, I know all that!' cried Nuttie, impatiently; 'but she--she was
+the dearest--and nobody cares for her but me.  Not even you--'
+
+Again Alice tried to debate the point, and urge on her the duties of
+moderation, self-control, and obedience, but the poor gentle mother
+was at a great disadvantage.
+
+In the first place, she respected and almost envied her daughter's
+resistance, and really did not know whether it was timidity or
+principle that made it her instinct to act otherwise; in the next,
+Ursula could always talk her down; and, in the third, she was, and
+greatly she reproached herself for that same, in great dread of
+setting herself off into tears that might become hysterical if she
+once gave way to them.  And what would be her husband's feelings if
+she too collapsed and became unpresentable.
+
+So, having once convinced herself that even if Nuttie had been a
+consenting party, no amount of cold water and eau-de-cologne would
+bring those bloodshot eyes, swollen lids, and mottled cheeks to be
+fit to be seen, she fled as fast as possible from the gasps of barbed
+reproaches which put her own composure in peril, and dressed with the
+heaviest of hearts, coupled with the utmost solicitude to look her
+best.  If she had not thought it absolutely wrong, she would even
+have followed Martin's suggestion, and put on a soupcon of rouge; but
+by the time she was summoned to the carriage the feverishness of her
+effort at self-control had done the work, and her husband had paid
+her the compliment of observing that she looked pretty enough for
+two.
+
+Nuttie heard them drive off, with a burst of fresh misery of
+indignation against her mother--now as a slave and a victim--now as
+forgetting her old home.  It was chiefly in mutterings; she had
+pretty well used up her tears, for, unconsciously perhaps, she had
+worked them up as a defensive weapon against being carried to the
+party; and now that the danger was over, her head throbbed, her eyes
+burnt, and her throat ached too much for her to wish to cry any more.
+She had not felt physically like this, since the day, seven years
+ago, when she and Mildred Sharpe had been found suspiciously toying
+with the key of the arithmetic, and had been debarred from trying for
+the prize.  Then she felt debased and guilty; now she felt, or ought
+to feel, like a heroine maintaining the right.
+
+She got up and set herself to rights as well as she could.  Martin,
+who had been allowed to know that she had lost an old friend, petted
+and pitied her, and brought her a substantial meal with her tea,
+after which she set out to evensong at the church at the end of the
+square, well veiled under a shady hat, and with a conviction that
+something ought to happen.
+
+Nothing did, however, happen; she met no one whom she knew, the
+psalms were not particularly appropriate, and her attention wandered
+away to the scene at home.  She did not come back, as she was sure
+she ought to have done, soothed, exhilarated, and refreshed, but
+rather in a rasped state of mind, and a conscience making a vehement
+struggle to believe itself in the right--a matter in which she
+thoroughly succeeded.
+
+She wrote a long letter to Mary Nugent, and shed some softer tears
+over it, then she built a few castles on her future escape from the
+power of her father; and then she picked up Reata, and became
+absorbed in it, regretting only the weakness of her eyes, and the
+darkening of the summer evening.
+
+She was still reading when the others came home.  Her mother kissed
+her, but looked so languid and tired-out that Nuttie was shocked, and
+Martin declared that she ought not to go down to dinner.
+
+A tete-a-tete dinner between father and daughter was too dreadful to
+Alice's imagination to be permitted, so she dressed and went down,
+looking like a ghost.  Mr. Egremont scowled at Nuttie, Nuttie scowled
+at him, each considering it the fault of the other, and when at last
+it was over, Alice gave up the struggle, and went off to bed, leaving
+a contrite message that her headache would be better to-morrow.
+
+'All your accursed folly and obstinacy,' observed Mr. Egremont, when
+Nuttie, with a tone of monition gave him the message.
+
+'I should call it the consequence of being dragged out with a sore
+heart,' returned Nuttie--a little speech she had prepared ever since
+she had seen how knocked up her mother was.
+
+'Then I should recommend keeping your ideas to yourself,' he
+answered, looking at her in his annihilating manner.
+
+She was put down. She thought afterwards of a hundred things that she
+could have said to him, but she was crushed for the present, and when
+he went out she could only betake herself to Reata, and forget all
+about it as much as she could.
+
+When she went upstairs, at the end of the third volume, Martin was on
+the watch, and would not let her go into the room.
+
+'I have been at hand, ma'am, without her guessing it, and I am happy
+to say her tears has had a free course when she was in bed.  Yes,
+ma'am, suppressed grief is always dangerous.'
+
+Mrs. Egremont was still prostrate with fatigue and headache the next
+day, and Nuttie had all the quiet luxuriating in reminiscences she
+desired.  Her father was vexed and angry, and kept out of the way,
+but it must be confessed that Nuttie's spirits had so much risen by
+the afternoon that it was a sore concession to consistency when she
+found herself not expected at Blanche's last little afternoon dance
+at Lady Kirkaldy's!
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+
+
+'If I cannot once or twice in a quarter bear out a knave against
+ an honest man, I have but very little credit with your Worship.'
+                                               II. King Henry IV.
+
+
+
+Another cause besides Ursula's recalcitrance and her mother's ailment
+contributed to disturb Mr. Egremont, and bring him home.  His agent,
+by name Bulfinch, a solicitor at Redcastle, came to him with
+irrefragable proofs of gross peculation on the part of the bailiff
+who managed the home farm which supplied the house and stables, and
+showed him that it was necessary to make a thorough investigation and
+change of system.
+
+In point of fact, Mr. Egremont greatly preferred being moderately
+cheated to exerting himself to investigate, but this was going beyond
+moderation, and the explosion had been too public to be passed over.
+So he came home and sat by, while his wife and Mr. Bulfinch did the
+work for him, and made it evident to him that the frauds had been of
+long standing, and carried on with the connivance of the coachman, of
+Gregorio,--who had before Mrs. Egremont's arrival acted as house
+steward,--and of the former cook.  Indeed, it was the housekeeper
+whom Mrs. Egremont had left in charge, whose refusal to connive had
+brought about the discovery.
+
+Gregorio's share in all was sufficiently evident, and Alice's heart
+leapt with hope.  Her husband would be wholly her own if his evil
+genius were once departed, but Mr. Egremont would not see it.  He had
+no objection to sacrifice the coachman and all his underlings, with
+the bailiff and his entire family, and felt none of the pity that
+Alice had for the pretty, silly, half-educated daughters; but as to
+the valet--Pooh! pooh! the poor fellow had been out of the way all
+this time--whatever he had done had been in the dark, ages long ago,
+before Bridgefield knew its mistress; he was a foreigner, and that
+was enough to prevent him from forgathering with the English.  It was
+all their English prejudice.
+
+'I can show you facts and figures, sir,' said Mr. Bulfinch.
+
+'I daresay, a year or more old.  Why, I was an unprotected carcase
+then--a mere prey--the fellow only did after his kind.'
+
+Alice held her tongue then, but made an effort in private.  'Indeed,
+I don't think you know; I am afraid Gregorio is not altered.  I found
+him out in his charges about the wine, and the servants' wages at
+Nice, only you wouldn't listen.'
+
+'His little perquisites, my dear child!  Come, nonsense, these
+foreign fellows don't pretend to have the morals you ascribe to the
+native flunkey--generally without foundation either--they are much of
+a muchness as to that; but your Frenchman or Italian does it more
+neatly, and is a dozen times better servant than the other is.'
+
+'But--'
+
+'Oh, ay!  I know you don't like him.  But he knows his manners to
+you, I hope?' said Mr. Egremont, with a suddenness that made her wish
+she could truthfully say he did not.
+
+'Yes, he always is--is respectful, but somehow I see it is under
+protest.'
+
+Mr. Egremont laughed.  'Rivals--yes, I see; why, you don't consider
+the sore trial of having a full-grown mistress turned in upon him!
+Look here, you keep the keys already, but the new fellow at the farm
+and all the rest of them shall account to you for everything--
+Gregorio and all.  Won't that satisfy you?'
+
+''Tis not only the money, but I think Gregorio is a bad--not a good--
+man.'
+
+'Ho, ho! she wants to advertise for a pious footman and coachman! eh?
+No, I thank you, my dear Edda, I agree with--who was it who said,
+"Volez moi, mais sans m'ennuyer."'
+
+The Rectory likewise had hoped for Gregorio's dismissal, and there
+were grave looks when Alice had to confess that nothing would move
+her husband against him.  The Canon even lashed himself up to say,
+'I tell you how it is, Alwyn, you'll never do any good with your
+household, while you keep that fellow.'
+
+'I am not aware what description of good you expect me to do with it,
+Will,' coolly answered the elder brother in a disconcerting tone.
+
+Poor Alice, on her side, thought of the Little Master, and then
+wondered if it was uncharitable to do so.  For she knew it had become
+war to the knife with Gregorio!  Whether his master told him, or
+whether it were his own evil conscience, or the wonderful intuition
+of servants, he certainly knew of the pressure for his dismissal, and
+he visited it on her as much as he durst.
+
+Outwardly deferential, he could thwart and annoy her in a hundred
+ways, from making love to the housemaids to making evil suggestions
+to his master, yet never giving her any overt cause of complaint.  He
+could worry and sting her under the politest exterior, and he knew
+very well that the most effectual form of annoyance was the
+persuading his master that any discomfort or lassitude was to be
+removed by some form of narcotic.  This would have the further
+advantage of stupefying Mr. Egremont, and making him more ready to
+lapse under the old influence; while the duration and strength of the
+new one was already a surprise to Gregorio.
+
+But there was no doubt that Mrs. Egremont had profited by her year of
+training.  She looked tired, and less youthful and pretty, but she
+had gained in grace and importance as well as in style, and was much
+more really the mistress of Bridgefield.  Her shyness had passed
+away, and she knew now to take her place in society, though still she
+was somewhat silent.  And her husband depended upon her entirely for
+all his correspondence, for much of his occupation and amusement, and
+even for the regulation of his affairs.  In the household, Gregorio
+was little more than his personal attendant, and she had the general
+management, even of the other men-servants.  The Canoness might well
+say it had turned out better than she expected.
+
+And Nuttie had become more womanly, and had acquired the indefinable
+polish given by a London season.  She had learnt the art of
+conversation, and could make herself agreeable to her uncle, or to
+any one else who came in her way.  Even May allowed that she had
+something in her, and cultivated her more than before; but, on the
+other hand, even the Rectory could perceive that there was now an
+absolute alienation between her and her father, and what might before
+have been fear had become dislike.  If she had to refer to him,
+especially if her plans for herself or her mother were crossed, there
+was always a tone of bitterness or of sarcasm about her; and her
+greater boldness and freedom of speech would occasionally manifest
+itself towards him.  This was not indeed often, since not only did
+his cool contempt make her come off the worst in the encounters, but
+the extreme distress they gave to her mother made her refrain
+whenever her temper, or what she thought her conscience, would let
+her; but still there was always a danger which kept poor Alice on
+thorns whenever there was a possible difference of schemes or
+opinions.
+
+Mrs. William Egremont was seriously considering of representing to
+Ursula that her conduct was bad taste, bad policy, and, moreover, was
+doing her mother's spirits and health serious harm; but it was a
+delicate matter in which to meddle, and the good lady could not make
+up her mind how far to surrender her brother-in-law's character and
+allow a partial justification to Ursula.  She was a cautious woman,
+and waited and watched her opportunities.
+
+In the beginning of October Mr. and Mrs. Egremont were invited to a
+great shooting party at Sir James Jerningham's.  The invitation did
+not include Ursula.  Perhaps she had never dawned on their hostess's
+imagination; perhaps it was that Lady Jerningham was well known to
+dislike girls, or any one who might absorb young men's attention.
+At any rate the omission was a cause of thankfulness to the party
+concerned, and she did not neglect to worry her mother by a protest
+against keeping such company as would be met at Waldicotes.
+
+Alice smiled a little faintly and said, 'I don't think it hurts me,
+my dear; I don't understand half of what they talk about, and they
+are always kind to me.'
+
+'I don't think you ought to go among them or countenance them.'
+
+'My dear child,'--and the colour rose--'I don't feel as if I had a
+right to set myself above any one.'
+
+'Mother!'
+
+'People might have said just the same of me.'
+
+'And whose fault was that?' muttered Nuttie under her breath, but
+Mrs. Egremont would not hear.  She only pleaded, as perhaps mother
+ought not to have done with child.
+
+'You know, Nuttie, it is not for my own pleasure, but your father's
+eyesight makes him dislike to go anywhere without me now; and I
+really should be uneasy about him.'
+
+'Yes; he is all you care for,' said Nuttie.  'You sacrifice
+everything you used to think essential, just to his will and
+pleasure.'
+
+'Oh, Nuttie, I hope not; I don't think I do!'
+
+'If I thought it was doing him any good I should not so much mind,'
+went on the girl; 'but he is just the same, and I am always thinking
+of "As the husband is, the wife is--"'
+
+'Hush! hush!  You have no right to think in that way of your father.
+I will not hear it.  I have let you say too much already, Nuttie.'
+Then after a pause she added, gently and wistfully, 'You have been
+better taught, and are clearer headed than ever I was, my Nuttie, and
+it is quite right that you should hate what seems evil to you.  I can
+only go on trying to do what seems my duty from day to day.  I know,'
+she added with rising tears, 'that the sin and folly of my younger
+days worked a difficult position for us both; but we can only act
+according to our lights, and pray God to direct us; and please--
+please bear with me, my dear one, if the same course does not always
+seem right to us both.'
+
+Nuttie had never heard her say anything so fully showing that she
+realised these difficulties, and, greatly touched, she asked pardon,
+kissed and caressed her mother.  There was a calm over them for the
+next few days, and Nuttie actually refrained from bitter comments
+when her mother was not allowed to go to evensong on Sunday, on the
+plea of her being tired, but, as the girl believed, in order that she
+might read the newspapers aloud.
+
+She knew that her silence was appreciated by the way her mother
+kissed her and called her a dear, good, considerate girl.
+
+On Monday Mr. and Mrs. Egremont went away at what was a strangely
+early hour for the former, Nuttie spending her days at the Rectory.
+
+On the Tuesday Blanche went with her little sister and the governess
+on a shopping expedition to Redcastle, and in relating her adventures
+on her return, she said, 'Oh, by the bye, I met Annaple in Park's
+shop!'
+
+'Full of Micklethwayte news, I suppose,' said May.
+
+'Yes, of course.  Did you know, Nuttie, that your aunt was ill?'
+
+'No, indeed, I did not.  What was the matter?'
+
+'Bronchitis, I believe--brown titus, as Betty Butter calls it.'
+
+'Bronchitis!  Oh dear! oh dear!  Are you quite sure, Blanche?'
+
+'Oh yes!  I am quite certain Annaple said Mark told her that Miss
+Headworth was laid up with bronchitis.'
+
+'And nobody has written to us all this week!' sighed Nuttie.
+
+'I should think that a sign there could not be much in it,' observed
+May; 'it may be only a bad cold.'
+
+'But Aunt Ursel had bronchitis four years ago, and was very ill
+indeed,' persisted Nuttie.  'I'm sure it is bronchitis, and that she
+won't let Miss Mary write to us.'
+
+She was in much distress about it, though May privately told her that
+she ought to know Blanche's way better than to trust implicitly to
+any of her reports; and her aunt said much the same thing in more
+general terms, even proposing that if she did not hear the next
+morning she should go over to Lescombe to ascertain what Mark had
+really said.
+
+This pacified her a little, but on her way home the alarm grew upon
+her, and, moreover, she recollected the opposition that she believed
+that her father was certain to make to either her mother or herself
+going to nurse her aunt.  It flashed upon her that if she were to
+hasten to Micklethwayte on this alarm before there could be a
+prohibition, it would be no disobedience, and perfectly justifiable,
+not to say noble.  Her parents were to return on Thursday evening,
+and she made up her mind that, unless she were fully reassured as to
+Miss Headworth's state, she would go off at once to Micklethwayte
+before any one could gainsay her.  She had plenty of money, and she
+consulted the time-table in the hall before going upstairs.  It only
+concerned the nearest line, but she calculated that if she caught the
+express, she should reach her destination in time to write to her
+mother at Waldicotes, and prevent needless shocks.  Her eagerness for
+the plan grew upon her, so that it seemed like liberation; she could
+hardly sleep for thinking of it, and certainly was not as much
+disappointed as she believed herself when the post came in--a blank.
+
+Martin was away with her mistress, so Nuttie explained matters to the
+upper housemaid, who was very sympathetic, carried down her orders
+for the carriage, procured for her both breakfast and provision for
+the journey, and packed her clothes.  Ursula would fain have been off
+before the Rectory was aware, but the two little girls came up with a
+message about the plans for the day, just as she was beginning an
+explanatory note, and she entrusted to them the information that she
+was so uneasy about Miss Headworth that she had decided on going to
+see for herself.
+
+So in dashed Adela and Rosalind to their mother's room full of
+excitement with the news that Cousin Nuttie was gone off by the
+train, because her aunt was very ill indeed.
+
+'Gone, Adela? are you sure?  Really gone?'
+
+'Oh yes, mamma!  The dogcart was coming round, and she said she
+wanted to catch the 10.05 train, and was very sorry she had not time
+to write a note to you.'
+
+'Was there a letter?  What had she heard?'
+
+'Oh, only that her aunt was so very ill!  She did not tell us--did
+she, Rosie?'
+
+'There was something about being in time to write to Aunt Alice,'
+suggested Adela.
+
+'I am very sorry about this.  I am afraid it will be a great shock to
+Alice,' observed the mother, as she imparted the news at her
+husband's dressing-room door.
+
+'Young girls are so precipitate!' said the Canon.
+
+'Your brother won't like it at all,' the lady continued.
+
+'Not he.  But after all, it is just as well that he was not asked.
+They do owe that poor old lady a good deal, and Alwyn's not the man
+to see it.  I'm not sorry the girl took the matter into her own
+hands, though I couldn't have advised it.'
+
+'Except that it will all fall on Alice.'
+
+'He is very fond of Alice.  She has done more with him than I ever
+thought possible.  Kept him respectable this whole year, and really
+it grows on him.  He makes ever so much more of her now than when he
+first brought her home--and no wonder.  No, no; he won't fall foul of
+her.'
+
+'Perhaps not; but it is just as bad, or worse, for her if he falls
+foul of her daughter.  Besides, she is very much attached to her
+aunt.  I wish I knew what the account was, or whether she knows
+anything about it.'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+URSULA'S RECEPTION.
+
+
+
+
+'Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.'--SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+It was at half-past seven o'clock that Ursula Egremont's cab stopped
+at St. Ambrose's Road.  She had missed the express train, and had to
+come on by a stopping one.  But here at last she was, with eyes even
+by gaslight full of loving recognition, a hand full of her cab-fare,
+a heart full of throbbing hope and fear, a voice full of anxiety, as
+she inquired of the astonished servant, 'Louisa, Louisa, how is Aunt
+Ursel!' and, without awaiting the reply, she opened the adjoining
+door.  There sat, with their evening meal on the table, not only Mary
+Nugent, but Miss Headworth herself.
+
+Nuttie rushed at her, and there was an incoherency of exclamations,
+the first thing that made itself clear to the senses of the traveller
+being, 'Ill, my dear?  No such thing!  Only I had a bad cold, and
+Mary here is only too careful of me.'
+
+'But Mark said you had bronchitis.'
+
+'What could have put that into his head?  He did not write it,
+surely?'
+
+'He wrote it to Annaple Ruthven, and she told Blanche.'
+
+'Oh!' and Mary Nugent's tone was rather nettling.
+
+'And then it was such a terrible time since we had heard anything,'
+added Nuttie, on the defensive.
+
+'Did not your mother get my letter?' said Miss Headworth.  'I wrote
+to her at--what's the name of that place?  I hope I addressed it
+right.'
+
+'Oh, but I was not there.  I didn't go with them.'
+
+'Ah, yes, I remember.  Then did not she send you?'
+
+'No, I came off this morning.  I heard this yesterday evening, and I
+determined that nothing should stop me if there was no news by the
+post.'
+
+'Dear child!  But will your father not be displeased?' said Miss
+Headworth.
+
+'He hasn't any right to object,' cried Nuttie, with flashing eyes and
+a look that made Miss Nugent anxious; but at the moment there could
+be little thought save of welcome to the warm-hearted girl.  Louisa
+was already brewing fresh tea, and extemporising additions to the
+meal, and Nuttie was explaining how she hoped to have arrived a
+couple of hours sooner.
+
+'By the bye, I meant to have written to mother for her to have it to-
+morrow before leaving Waldicotes.  Is there time?'
+
+No, the pillar at hand was cleared at seven, and the regular post-
+office could not be reached in time; so they satisfied themselves
+with the knowledge that Mrs. Egremont must have had Aunt Ursel's
+cheerful letter, and Mary recommended telegraphing to the Canon the
+first thing in the morning.  Then they gave themselves up to
+enjoyment.
+
+'At any rate, I'm here,' said Nuttie, 'and I'll make the most of it.'
+
+And her handsome furs were laid aside, and her boots taken off, and
+she resigned herself to absolute ease and luxury, while Mary poured
+out the tea, and her aunt heaped her plate with eggs and rashers
+'such as one doesn't get anywhere else,' said Nuttie, declaring
+herself quite voracious, while her aunt fondly admired her growth and
+improvement, and she inquired into the cold, not quite gone yet; and
+there were speculations over what Mark could have got into his head.
+Mary remembered having met him coming to call, and having told him
+that she had persuaded Miss Headworth to keep her bed because her
+colds were apt to be severe, and it was agreed to lay the
+exaggeration at the door of the lovers and Blanche.  Miss Headworth
+laughed, and said she ought to be flattered that an old woman's sore
+throat should be thought worthy of mention by a fine young gentleman
+like Mr. Mark.  'A very good young man he is,' she added.  'You would
+never have thought how kind he is in coming in here to tell me
+everything he hears about your dear mother, Nuttie.'
+
+'He makes himself very useful while Mr. Dutton is away,' added Mary,
+'taking his young men's class and all.'
+
+'Oh! is Mr. Dutton away?'
+
+'Yes; he has had to be in London a great deal of late.  I am afraid
+he may have to live there altogether.'
+
+'What a grievous pity!'
+
+'He won't be anywhere without doing good,' said Miss Headworth, 'but
+I sometimes wish we had his cool good sense here.'
+
+'And how is Mr. Spyers,' asked Nuttie.  She felt shy of asking for
+Gerard Godfrey, or perhaps she thought she ought to be shy of his
+name, and kept hoping that it would come in naturally.
+
+'Mr. Spyers is very well.  Very busy of course, and very much
+delighted with your mother's gifts to the church.  All her own work,
+isn't it, Nuttie?'
+
+'Yes; every bit.  She does lots of embroidery and work of all kinds
+when she is waiting for _him_ or sitting with him, and luckily it has
+never occurred to him to ask what it is for.'
+
+The two ladies knew well what was meant by him, but they would not
+pursue the subject, and proceeded to put Nuttie au courant with St.
+Ambrose affairs--how last year's mission had produced apparently an
+immense effect in the town, and how the improvement had been ebbing
+ever since, but had left various individual gains, and stirred up
+more than one good person who had hitherto thought it enough to save
+one's own soul and let other people alone; how Mr. Spyers was
+endeavouring to bind people together in a guild; how a violent gust
+of temperance orators had come down upon the place, and altogether
+fascinated and carried away Gerard Godfrey.
+
+There was his name at last, and Nuttie was rather gratified to feel
+herself blushing as she asked, 'Ah! poor Gerard--how is he?'
+
+'As good and sincere as ever,' said Miss Nugent, 'but not much wiser.
+He is so excitable and vehement.'
+
+'Yes,' said Miss Headworth.  'I don't understand the kind of thing.
+In my time a steady young clerk used to be contented after hours with
+playing at cricket in the summer, or learning the flute in the
+winter--and a great nuisance it was sometimes, but now Gerard must
+get himself made a sort of half clergyman.'
+
+'A reader,' suggested Mary.
+
+'Minor orders.  Oh, how delightful!' cried Nuttie.
+
+'People, don't half understand it,' added Miss Headworth.  'Mrs.
+Jeffreys will have it that he is no better than a Jesuit, and really
+I did not know what to say, for he talked, to me by the hour about
+his being an external brother to something.'
+
+'Not to the Jesuits, certainly,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Yes, I told her that; but she thinks all monks are Jesuits, you
+know, and that all brothers are monks; and he does wear his cassock--
+his choir cassock, I mean--when he has his service in the iron room
+at the sandpits.  And now he has taken up temperance, and flies about
+giving the pledge, and wanting one to wear bits of blue ribbon.  I
+told him I never did take, and never had taken, more than a little
+hot wine and water when I had a cold, and I couldn't see what good it
+would do to George Jenkins and the poor fellows at the Spread Eagle
+if I took ever so many vows.'
+
+'There's a regular blue-ribbon fever set in,' said Miss Nugent.
+'Gerard told me I was supporting the cause of intemperance yesterday
+because I was so wicked as to carry the rest of your bottle of port,
+Miss Headworth, to poor Anne Crake.'
+
+'Well! he is a dear boy, and youth wouldn't be youth if it were not
+sometimes rather foolish,' said Miss Headworth, 'and it is better it
+should be for good than evil.'
+
+'Eager in a cause and not for selfishness,' said Mary.  'Poor Gerard,
+I wonder where he will be safely landed!'
+
+So did Nuttie, who had a secret flattering faith in being the cause
+of all the poor young fellow's aberrations, and was conscious of
+having begun the second volume of her life's novel.  She went to bed
+in the elated frame of mind proper to a heroine.  There was a shade
+over all in the absence of dear old Mrs. Nugent, and in Mary's deep
+mourning, but there is more tenderness than poignancy in sorrow for
+shocks of corn gathered in full season, and all was cheerful about
+her.
+
+She had quite a triumph the next day, as old friends dropped in for
+the chance of seeing her.  The least agreeable encounter was that
+with Mark, who came in on his way to the office, having just received
+by the second post a letter from his father inquiring into Miss
+Headworth's state.  He met Nuttie in the vestibule, with her hat on,
+and in a great hurry, as she wanted to walk with Mary to the School
+of Art, Gerard Godfrey accompanying them as far as the office; and
+she did not at all like the being called to account, and asked what
+could have possessed her to take alarm.
+
+'Why, you wrote yourself!'
+
+'I!'
+
+'To Annaple Ruthven.'
+
+'What am I supposed to have written?'
+
+'That Aunt Ursel was very ill with bronchitis.'
+
+'I'll be bound that Miss Ruthven said no such thing.  You don't
+pretend that you heard it from herself?'
+
+'No; but Blanche did.'
+
+'Blanche!  Oh, that accounts for it!  Though I should have thought
+you knew Blanche by this time.'
+
+'But what did you say?'
+
+'I believe I said I couldn't get a knitting pattern Miss Headworth
+was to send Lady Ronnisglen because she was in bed with a cold.  What
+you and Blanche could contrive to make of a simple thing like that--'
+
+'And Annaple!'
+
+'Well,' but checking himself with a smile, 'we will not fight about
+that.  I only hope it has not brought you into an awkward scrape,
+Nuttie.'
+
+'I can't help that,' she answered with her head rather high.
+
+'You have written and explained?' he said anxiously.
+
+'To my mother, of course.'
+
+'If I were you,' he said, lowering his voice, 'I should write or send
+a special message to your father.'
+
+'I can't see why.  It was a mistake.'
+
+'Yours was a strong measure, and he won't like it.  Be advised,
+Nuttie.  Recollect your mother.  The best way would be to go home at
+once.  I could get a day to take you--if you would start this
+afternoon.'
+
+'Thank you; I'm not going back till I hear,' she said proudly.
+
+Time being up, Mark took his leave hastily, and as he shut the door,
+Nuttie uttered half aloud the words she had scarcely repressed, 'No,
+I thank you, Mr. Mark, I am not going back like a dog in a string.'
+
+'What, was that what he expected of you?' said Gerard Godfrey, whom
+she had not intended to hear her, but who had come out of the
+sitting-room on the sounds of departure.
+
+'He said he would take me home if I could go at once.'
+
+'Wouldn't he have liked it!' exclaimed Gerard.
+
+'It might be the best way,' said Miss Nugent, who had followed young
+Godfrey.
+
+'Now, Miss Mary,' cried Nuttie, 'as if I could shorten my holiday now
+that I have it.'
+
+'And I don't see what business he had to call you to account,' said
+Gerard.  'A stuck-up fellow.'
+
+'Of course all the Egremonts are set against my being here,' said
+Nuttie.
+
+'I thought the Canon offered to bring you last year,' said Mary
+gently.
+
+'Oh, that was only to Monks Horton!  It would have been simply
+tantalising.'
+
+'Lady Kirkaldy is an excellent person,' said Miss Nugent.
+
+'Is she at home now?' asked Ursula.
+
+'Coming next week, they tell me,' said Gerard.
+
+'He--your cousin--will always be loafing up there now, giving up all
+that he had undertaken, I suppose.'
+
+'Not very likely,' said Mary quietly.
+
+It is a mere Scottish anti-church influence,' said Gerard, turning
+round at the swing-door of his office.  'Why else will Egremont not
+take the pledge?'
+
+Wherewith he disappeared, blue ribbon and all, while Mary smiled,
+though she was vexed; and Nuttie observed, 'Poor Gerard; but I can't
+see why he should be jealous of Mark _now_.'
+
+Mary did not choose to understand what Nuttie implied in her
+simplicity, and made answer, 'He is rather blue ribbon mad.  Besides,
+I am afraid the fact of being a "swell" does not conduce to your
+cousin's popularity among the clerks.'
+
+'Surely he does not give himself airs,' said Ursula, her family
+feelings awaking.
+
+'No; but I fancy he is rather reserved.'
+
+'What's this about giving up what he has undertaken?  What is it?'
+
+'When Mr. Dutton went to London, he asked Mark to take his Sunday
+afternoons with the big lads.  He thought they wanted some one with
+more resources and variety than there is in poor Gerard, who didn't
+at all like being passed over.'
+
+'I never should have thought it of Mark.  He never dreamt of teaching
+anybody at home.'
+
+'Very likely not, but there is an atmosphere at St. Ambrose's.'
+
+'And oh, how glad I am to be in it!  I wonder how long they will let
+me stay!  The dear little mother will try to get me a Sunday here, if
+she dares.  Indeed, I can't hear before Saturday, and then there
+would hardly be time to get home!  Oh, that's jolly!  I'll go to the
+nursery gardens, and get _such_ flowers for the vases!'
+
+Saturday brought Nuttie a letter, but not from her mother--
+
+
+'My Dear Ursula--I write because we are anxious to keep your mother
+as quiet as possible.  It was a serious shock to her to find that you
+had left home, and she naturally supposed that Miss Headworth was in
+great danger.  Your father was greatly displeased, and she has been
+much overcome, and very unwell, but we hope by keeping her perfectly
+quiet that worse consequences may be prevented.  Your father desires
+you to remain where you are for the present, as he will not have her
+disturbed again.  Your mother sends her love both to you and to your
+aunt, and desires me to say that she will write in a day or two, and
+that she thinks you had better not come back till she is better and
+your father's vexation has diminished.
+
+'I wish you had informed us of your intentions, as then we could have
+ascertained the grounds of the report that terrified you so
+strangely.--I remain your affectionate aunt,
+                                         JANE M. EGREMONT.'
+
+
+'Poor mother! he has been sneering at us all in his dreadful cynical
+way, and knocked her up into one of her awful headaches,' said
+Nuttie, who felt extremely angered by the grave tone of rebuke in the
+letter, and tossed it over to her aunt without absolutely reading it
+all.  Miss Headworth was a good deal distressed, and anxious to know
+what Mrs. William Egremont meant; but Nuttie positively declared,
+'Oh, it is her headaches!  You know she always had them more or less,
+and they have grown a great deal worse since she has taken to sitting
+in that horrid, stuffy, perfumy, cigar-ry room, and doesn't take half
+exercise enough.'
+
+And when Miss Headworth showed herself much concerned about the state
+of things, Nuttie coaxed her, and declared that she should fancy
+herself unwelcome, and have to go and beg a lodging somewhere instead
+of enjoying her reprieve.  And Aunt Ursel was far less impervious to
+coaxing than she used to be when she was the responsible head of a
+boarding house.  She did most thoroughly enjoy the affection of her
+great niece, and could not persuade herself to be angry with her,
+especially when the girl looked up smiling and said, 'If the worst
+came to the worst and he did disinherit me, the thing would only
+right itself.  I always meant to give it back to Mark.'
+
+No great aunt in the world could fail to admire the generous spirit
+of the girl who came back from the great world of luxury, so loving
+and happy in her humble surroundings.  The only sighs were for poor
+Alice, in the hands of a man of whom Miss Headworth knew so much
+evil.  If she were not wretched and a victim--and Nuttie did not
+think her such--she must surely be getting spoilt and worldly.  Her
+daughter implied fears of this kind, yet who could read her letters
+and think so?
+
+Nuttie was fortunately too much in awe of the Canoness to write all
+the pertnesses that tingled at her fingers' ends, and she sent a
+proper and fairly meek letter, intimating, however, that she was only
+too happy to remain at Micklethwayte.
+
+It was two or three days more before she heard again.
+
+
+'My Own Dear Child--They have let me write at last, and I can say how
+much I like to think of your nestling up to dear Aunt Ursel, and how
+glad I am to find that she was well enough to enjoy you. It is almost
+like being there to hear of you, and the only thing that grieves me
+is that your father was very much vexed at your setting off in that
+sudden way, and at my being so foolish about it.  His eyes have been
+very bad, and he missed me sadly while I was laid up.  We are neither
+of us very strong, and we think--if Aunt Ursel and Mary can keep you
+for a little longer--it will be better for you to stay on with them,
+as it might be as dreary for you as it was last winter, especially as
+the Rectory folk will soon be going into residence.  I will write to
+them about it and persuade them to take something for your board, so
+as to make it easy for them.  And then you can have a fire in your
+room; you must not leave it off now you are used to it.  My dear, I
+wish you would write a little apology to your father.  I ought not to
+conceal that he is really very angry, and I think it would be well if
+you expressed some regret, or if you cannot truthfully do that, asked
+his pardon for your impetuosity; for you know he cannot be expected
+to realise all that dear Aunt Ursel is to us.  You cannot think how
+kind your Aunt Jane has been to me; I did not think she could have
+been so tender.  This is the first letter I ever had to write to you,
+my own dear child.  I miss you every moment, but after all it is
+better you should be away till your father has overlooked this
+hurried expedition of yours.  I am sure he would if you wrote him a
+real nice letter, telling how you were really frightened, and that it
+was not a mere excuse.  Pray do, and then you can come back to your
+loving little mother.
+                                'A. E.'
+
+
+'As if I would or could,' quoth Nuttie to herself.  'Apologise to him
+indeed, for loving the aunt who toiled for us when he deserted us.
+Poor little mother, she can't really expect it of me.  Indeed, I
+don't think she quite knows what she wants, or whether she likes me
+to be here or at Bridgefield!  My belief is that he bullies her less
+when I am out of the way, because she just gives way to him, and does
+not assert any principle.  I've tried to back her up, and it is of no
+use, and I am sure I don't want such a winter as the last.  So I am
+much better here; and as to begging pardon, when I have done nothing
+wrong, I am sure I won't, to please anybody.  I shall tell her that
+she ought to know me better than to expect it!'
+
+But Nuttie did not show the letter either to Aunt Ursel or Mary
+Nugent; nor did she see that in which Alice had satisfied them that
+it might be better that her daughter should pay them a long visit,
+while Mr. Egremont's health required constant attendance, and the
+Canon's family were at Redcastle.  And as her husband was always
+open-handed, she could make Ursula's stay with them advantageous to
+their slender means, without hurting their feelings.
+
+She told them as much as she could, but there was more that no living
+creature might know, namely, the advantage that Gregorio had gained
+over that battlefield, his master, during her days of illness.  The
+first cold weather had brought on pain, and anger and anxiety,
+nervous excitement and sleeplessness, which the valet had taken upon
+him to calm with a narcotic under a new name that at first deceived
+her till she traced its effects, and inquired of Dr. Hammond about
+it.  Unwillingly, on her account, he enlightened her, and showed her
+that, though the last year's care had done much to loosen the bonds
+of the subtle and alluring habit, yet that any resumption of it
+tended to plunge its victim into the fatal condition of the confirmed
+opium-eater, giving her every hope at the same time that this
+propensity might be entirely shaken off, and that the improvement in
+Mr. Egremont's health and habits which had set in might be confirmed,
+and raise him above the inclination.
+
+Could she have been rid of Gregorio, she would have felt almost sure
+of victory; but as it was, she believed the man absolutely meant to
+baffle her, partly out of a spiteful rivalry, partly because his
+master's torpid indolence could be used to his own advantage.  She
+was absolutely certain that his sneering tone of remark made her
+husband doubly disinclined to let any religious book be near, or to
+permit her to draw him to any Sunday observance.
+
+The battle must be fought out alone.  The gentle woman could have no
+earthly helper in the struggle.  The Canon and Mark, the only persons
+who could have given her the slightest aid, were both at a distance,
+even if her loyal heart could have brooked confession to them, and
+she only hoped that Nuttie would never know of it.  Only aid from
+above could be with her in the daily, hourly effort of cheerfulness,
+patience, and all the resources of feminine affection, to avert the
+temptation; and she well knew that the presence of the ardent,
+unsubdued, opinionative girl would, alas! only double the
+difficulties.  So she acquiesced, at least for the present, in
+Nuttie's grand achievement of having broken away from all the wealth
+and luxury of Bridgefield to return to her simple home and good old
+aunt.  Mark was a good deal vexed, but Nuttie did not care about
+that, attributing this displeasure to Egremont clanship; Mary Nugent
+was doubtful and anxious, and thought it her duty to reconcile
+herself to her father; but Miss Headworth, who, be it remembered, had
+reason to have the worst impressions of Mr. Egremont, rejoiced in her
+young niece having escaped from him for the time, and only sighed
+over the impossibility of Alice's doing the same.  And when Nuttie
+described, as she constantly did, the various pleasures she had
+enjoyed during the past year, the good old lady secretly viewed her
+as a noble Christian heroine for resigning all this in favour of the
+quiet little home at Micklethwayte, though reticent before her, and
+discussed her excellence whenever she was alone with Mary.
+
+Nor would Miss Nugent vex her with contradictions or hints that what
+Nuttie was giving up at present might be a dull house, with her
+mother engrossed by an irritable semi-invalid, and the few gaieties
+to be enjoyed by the help of the Canon's family at Redcastle.  She
+did ask the girl whether Mrs. Egremont, being avowedly not quite
+well, might not need her assistance; but Nuttie vehemently disavowed
+being of any possible use to her father; he never let her read to
+him! oh no! he called her music schoolgirly, a mere infliction; he
+never spoke to her if he could help it, and then it was always with a
+sort of sneer; she believed he could not bear the sight of her, and
+was ashamed of it, as well he might be!  For Mrs. Houghton's
+disclosures had rankled ever since within her, and had been confirmed
+by her aunt.
+
+'But that is very sad,' said Mary.  'I am so sorry for you.  Ought
+you not to try hard to conquer his distaste?'
+
+'I--why, he cares for nothing good!'
+
+'Nay,' smiling.  'Not for your mother?'
+
+'Oh!  She's pretty, you know; besides, she makes herself a regular
+slave to him, and truckles to him in everything, as I could never
+do.'
+
+'Perhaps she is overcoming evil with good.'
+
+'I am afraid it is more like being overcome of evil.  No, no, dear
+Miss Mary, don't be shocked.  The dear little mother never would be
+anything but good in her own sweet self, but it is her nature not to
+stand up for anything, you know.  She seems to me just like a
+Christian woman that has been obliged to marry some Paynim knight.
+And it perfectly provokes me to see her quite gratified at his
+notice, and ready to sacrifice anything to him, now I know how he
+treated her.  If I had been in her place, I wouldn't have gone back
+to him; no, not if he had been ready to crown me after I was dead,
+like Ines de Castro.'
+
+'I don't know that you would have had much choice in that case.'
+
+'My very ghost would have rebelled,' said Nuttie, laughing a little.
+
+And Mary could believe that Mrs. Egremont, with all her love for her
+daughter, might find it a relief not to have to keep the peace
+between the father and child.  'Yet,' she said to herself, 'if Mr.
+Dutton were here, he would have taken her back the first day.'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+DISENCHANTMENT.
+
+
+
+
+'He promised to buy me a bunch of blue ribbons.'
+
+
+St. Ambrose's road was perfectly delightful as long as there was any
+expectation of a speedy recall.  Every day was precious; every
+meeting with an old face was joyful; each interchange of words with
+Mr. Spyers or Gerard Godfrey was hailed as a boon; nothing was
+regretted but the absence of Monsieur and his master, and that the
+favourite choir boy's voice was cracked.
+
+But when there was reason to think that success had been complete,
+when Miss Headworth had been persuaded by Mary that it was wiser on
+all accounts not to mortify Alice by refusing the two guineas a week
+offered for Miss Egremont's expenses; when a couple of boxes of
+clothes and books had arrived, and Ursula found herself settled at
+Micklethwayte till after Christmas, she began first to admit to
+herself that somehow the place was not all that it had once been to
+her.
+
+Her mother was absent, that was one thing.  Mrs. Nugent was gone,
+that was another.  There was no Monsieur or Mr. Dutton to keep her in
+awe of his precision, even while she laughed at it.  There were no
+boarders to patronise and play with, and her education at the High
+School was over.  If she saw a half-clothed child, it was not half so
+interesting to buy an ulster in the next shop, as it was to turn over
+the family rag-bag, knit, sew, and contrive!  Somehow things had a
+weariness in them, and the little excitements did not seem to be the
+exquisite delights they used to be.  After having seen Patience at
+the Princess's it was not easy to avoid criticising a provincial Lady
+Jane, and it was the like with other things of more importance.  Even
+the ritual of St. Ambrose's Church no longer struck her as the ne
+plus ultra of beauty, and only incited her to describe London
+churches.
+
+She resumed her Sunday-school classes, and though she talked at first
+of their raciness and freedom, she soon longed after the cleanliness,
+respectfulness, and docility of the despised little Bridgefordites,
+and uttered bitter things of Micklethwayte turbulence, declaring--
+perhaps not without truth--that the children had grown much worse in
+her absence.
+
+And as Mr. Godfrey had been superintendent during the latter half of
+the time, this was a cruel stroke.  He wanted to make her reverse her
+opinions.  And they never met without 'Now, Ursula, don't you
+remember Jem Burton putting on Miss Pope's spectacles, and grinning
+at all the class.'
+
+'Yes; and how Mr. Dutton brought him up to beg her pardon.  Now, was
+any notice taken when that horrid boy--I don't know his name--turned
+the hymn they were saying to her into "Tommy, make room for your
+uncle"?'
+
+'Oh, Albert Cox!  It is no use doing anything to him, he would go off
+at once to the Primitives.'
+
+'Let him!'
+
+'I cannot make him a schismatic.'
+
+'I wonder what he is now!'
+
+'Besides, Miss Pope perfectly provokes impertinence.'
+
+'Then I wouldn't give her work she can't do.'
+
+Such an argument as this might be very well at the moment of
+provocation, but it became tedious when recurred to at every meeting.
+Nuttie began to wonder when Monks Horton would be inhabited again,
+and how much notice Lady Kirkaldy would take of her, and she was a
+good deal disappointed when Mark told her that Lord Kirkaldy had been
+begged to undertake a diplomatic mission which would keep them abroad
+all the winter.
+
+There was a certain weariness and want of interest.  It was not
+exactly that there was nothing intellectual going on.  There were the
+lectures, but they were on chemistry, for which Nuttie cared little.
+There were good solid books, and lively ones too, but they seemed
+passe to one who had heard them discussed in town.  Mary and Miss
+Headworth read and talked them over, and perhaps their opinions were
+quite as wise, and Miss Nugent's conversation was equal to that of
+any of Nuttie's London friends, but it was only woman's talk after
+all--the brilliancy and piquancy, the touch and go, she had enjoyed
+in Lady Kirkaldy's drawing-room was lacking.
+
+Mr. Spyers was too much immersed in parish matters to read anything
+secular, and neither he nor Gerard Godfrey seemed ever to talk of
+anything but parish matters.  There was not the slightest interest in
+anything beyond.  Foreign politics, European celebrities,--things in
+which Nuttie had learnt to take warm interest when with the
+Kirkaldys, were nothing to them.  Even Mary wondered at her
+endeavours to see the day's paper, and she never obtained either
+information or sympathy unless she came across Mark.  It seemed to
+her that Gerard cared less for the peace or war of an empire than for
+a tipsy cobbler taking the pledge.  The monotony and narrowness of
+the world where she had once been so happy fretted and wearied her,
+though she was ashamed of herself all the time, and far too proud to
+allow that she was tired of it all.  Aunt Ursel at her best had
+always been a little dry and grave, an authority over the two nieces;
+and though softened, she was not expansive, did not invite
+confidences, and home was not home without the playfellow-mother.
+
+And most especially was she daily tired of Gerard Godfrey!  Had he
+always talked of nothing but 'the colours,' chants, E. C. U.,
+classes, and teetotalism?  Whatever she began it always came back to
+one or other of these subjects, and when she impatiently declared
+that she was perfectly sick of hearing of the Use of Sarum, he looked
+at her as guilty of a profanity.
+
+Perhaps it was true that he was narrower than he had been.  He was a
+good, honest, religiously-minded lad, but with no great depth or
+grasp of intellect; Ursula Egremont had been his companion first and
+then his romance, and the atmosphere of the community in which he
+lived had been studious and intelligent.  His expedition to Redcastle
+had convinced him that the young lady lived in a different world,
+entirely beyond his reach, and in the reaction of his hopelessness,
+he had thrown himself into the excitement of the mission, and it had
+worked on him a zealous purpose to dedicate himself totally to a
+religious life, giving up all worldly aims, and employing the small
+capital he could call his own in preparing for the ministry.  Mr.
+Dutton had insisted that he should test his own steadfastness and
+resolution by another year's work in his present situation before he
+took any steps.
+
+He had submitted, but still viewed himself as dedicated, and so far
+as business hours permitted, gave his services like a clerical pupil
+to St. Ambrose's with the greatest energy, and perhaps somewhat less
+judgment than if Mr. Dutton had been at hand.  Being without natural
+taste for intellectual pursuits, unless drawn into them by his
+surroundings, he had dropped them entirely, and read nothing but the
+ephemeral controversial literature of his party, and not much of
+that, for he was teaching, preaching, exhorting, throughout his spare
+time; while the vicar was in too great need of help to insist on
+deepening the source from which his zealous assistant drew.  As Miss
+Nugent observed, teetotalism was to him what dissipation was to other
+young men.
+
+On this vehemence of purpose descended suddenly Ursula Egremont once
+more; and the human heart could not but be quickened with the idea,
+not entirely unfounded, that it was to him that she had flown back,
+and that her exile proved that she cared for him more than for all
+the delights she had enjoyed as heiress of Bridgefield.  The good
+youth was conscientious to the back-bone, and extremely perplexed
+between his self-dedication and the rights that their implied
+understanding might give to her.  Was she to be the crowning blessing
+of his life, to be saved partly through his affection from worldly
+trials and temptations, and bestowing on him a brilliant lot in which
+boundless good could be effected?  Or was she a syren luring him to
+abandon his higher and better purposes?
+
+The first few days of her stay, the former belief made him feel like
+treading on air, or like the hero of many a magazine story; but as
+time went on this flattering supposition began to fail him, when
+Nuttie showed her weariness of the subjects which, in his
+exclusiveness, he deemed the only ones worthy of a Christian, or
+rather of a Catholic.  Both of them had outgrown the lively, aimless
+chatter and little jests that had succeeded the games of childhood,
+and the growth had been in different directions, so that Ursula felt
+herself untrue to her old romance when she became weary of his
+favourite topics, disappointed by his want of sympathy and
+comprehension, fretted by his petty disapprovals, and annoyed by his
+evident distaste for Mark, to whom she turned as to one of her proper
+world.
+
+At last, after many tossings, Gerard fixed upon a test.  If she
+endured it she would be the veritable maiden of his imagination, and
+they would stand by one another, come what would; if not, he would
+believe that the past had been fancy, not love, or love that had not
+withstood the attractions of fashionable life.  A great temperance
+meeting was coming on, and Gerard, eager at once to fill the room,
+and to present a goodly roll of recruits, watched anxiously for his
+moment, and came on Nuttie with his hands full of bills in huge
+letters, and his pockets of badges.
+
+'Excellent speakers,' he cried.  'We shall have the hall crowded.
+You'll come, Ursula?'
+
+'I don't know what Miss Mary will do.  I don't think she means it.'
+
+'Oh, if you insist, if we both insist, she will.  Look at the paper--
+we are to have some splendid experiences.'
+
+Nuttie made a face.  'I've heard all about those,' she said.  'That
+man,' pointing to one of the names, 'regularly rants about it; he is
+like a madman.'
+
+'He does go rather far, but it is quite necessary, as you will hear.
+Oh, Nuttie, if you would only be one of us!  I've brought a card!  If
+you would!'
+
+'Why, what's the use, Gerard!  I don't like wine, I never do drink
+it, except a little claret-cup sometimes when I can't get water.'
+
+'Then it would cost you nothing.'
+
+'Yes, it would.  It would make me ridiculous.'
+
+'You used not to heed the sneers of the world.'
+
+'Not for anything worth doing--but this is not.'
+
+'It is the greatest cause of the day!' he cried, in an eager exalted
+manner, which somewhat inclined her to laugh.  'Do away with alcohol
+and you would do away with crime!'
+
+'Thank you for the compliment, Gerard; I never found that the
+infinitesimal drop of alcohol that I suppose there is in a tumbler of
+claret-cup disposed me to commit crimes.'
+
+'Why won't you understand me, Ursula!  Can't you give up that for the
+sake of saving others!'
+
+'I wonder whom it would save.'
+
+'Example saves!  If you put on this'--taking out the badge--'how many
+should you not lead at your home?'
+
+'Just nobody!  Mother and I should have a bad time of it, that's
+all.'
+
+'And if you endured, what would not your testimony effect in the
+household and village?'
+
+'Nothing!  I have nothing to do with the men-servants, and as to the
+village, it is very sober.  There's only one public house, and that
+is kept by Uncle William's old butler, and is as orderly as can be.'
+
+'Ah! that's the way you all deceive yourselves.  Moderate drinkers
+are ten times more mischievous than regular drunkards.'
+
+'Thank you, Gerard!  And outrageous abstainers are more mischievous
+than either of them, because they make the whole thing so utterly
+foolish and absurd.'  She was really angry now, and so was Gerard.
+
+'Is that your ultimatum?' he asked, in a voice that he strove to
+render calm.
+
+'Certainly; I'm not going to take the pledge.'
+
+Having quarrelled in childhood, made quarrelling now easier, and
+Gerard answered bitterly:
+
+'Very well, I hope you will have no cause to repent it.'
+
+''Tis not the way to make me repent it, to see how it seems to affect
+some people's common sense.  It is just as if all your brains had run
+to water!' said Nuttie, laughing a little; but Gerard was desperately
+serious, and coloured vehemently.
+
+'Very well, Miss Egremont, I understand.  I have had my answer,' he
+said, gathering up his papers and marching out of the room.
+
+She stood still, offended, and not in the least inclined to run after
+him and take back her words.  He, poor fellow, stumbled down the
+steps, and held by the garden rail to collect his senses and compose
+himself.
+
+'What's the matter, Gerard, are you ill or giddy?' asked Miss Nugent,
+coming up in the winter twilight.
+
+'No, oh no!  Only the dream of my life is over,' he answered, scarce
+knowing what he said.
+
+'You haven't--' cried Mary aghast.
+
+'Oh no,' he said, understanding the blank, 'only she won't take the
+pledge!'
+
+'I don't see how she could or ought,' responded Mary.  'Is that all?'
+
+'I had made it the test,' muttered poor Gerard.  'It is right!  It is
+all over now.  I shall know how to go on my way.  It is best so--I
+know it is--only I did not know whether anything was due to her.'  It
+was almost a sob.
+
+'Dear old Gerard,' said Mary, 'I see you meant to do right.  It is
+well your mind should be settled.  I think you'll find comfort in
+your good work.'
+
+He wrung her hand, and she went in, half amused, for she was fully
+aware of the one-sidedness of the mania for temperance under which he
+acted, yet honouring his high, pure motives, and rejoicing that he
+had found this indirect mode of gauging Nuttie's feelings towards
+him--that is, if he was right about them, and there was no revulsion.
+
+Far from it.  Nuttie was still angry.  'Gerard had been so
+ridiculous,' she said, 'teasing her to take the pledge, and quite
+incapable of understanding her reasons.  I can't think why Gerard has
+grown so stupid.'
+
+'Enthusiasms carry people away,' returned Mary.
+
+'If Mr. Dutton had only stayed, he would have kept Gerard like
+himself,' said Nuttie.
+
+But there was no relenting.  The two young people avoided each other;
+and perhaps Nuttie was secretly relieved that the romance she had
+outgrown no longer entangled her.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+A FAILURE.
+
+
+
+
+'Would I had loved her more!'--Mrs. Hemans.
+
+
+'On the 14th of January, at Bridgefield Egremont, the wife of Alwyn
+Piercefield Egremont, Esquire, a son and heir.'
+
+Ursula had been prepared for this event for about a fortnight by a
+long tender letter from her mother, mourning over the not meeting at
+Christmas, and the long separation, but saying that she had wished to
+spare the long anxiety, and that it had been a trying time which she
+felt herself able to cope with better alone, than even with her dear
+Nuttie, knowing her to be happy and safe with Aunt Ursel.  Now, if
+all went well, they would have a happy meeting, and begin on a new
+score.  'If the will of God should be otherwise,' added Alice, 'I am
+sure I need not entreat my Nuttie to do and be all that she can to
+her father.  My child, you do not know how sorely he needs such love
+and tendance and prayer as you can give him.  I know you have thought
+I have set you aside--if not better things, for his sake.  Indeed I
+could not help it.'  Then there was something tear-stained and
+blotted out, and it ended with, 'He is beginning to miss your step
+and voice about the house.  I believe he will really be glad to see
+you, when the bright spring days come, and I can kiss my own Nuttie
+again.'
+
+Nuttie was very much delighted, but a little hurt that her aunt and
+Mary should have been in the secret, and pledged to say nothing to
+her till her mother should write.  She found, moreover, that Miss
+Headworth was extremely anxious and not altogether reassured by Mrs.
+William Egremont's letter of announcement, which filled Nuttie with
+delight.  How happy the little mother must be to have a baby in her
+arms again, and though she herself did not profess to have a strong
+turn for infant humanity, it was the greatest possible relief to be
+no longer an heiress, excepting that the renunciation in favour of
+Mark was no longer practicable.
+
+The residence at Redcastle was not over, but the Canoness had come to
+nurse her sister-in-law, and kept up the correspondence.  The son and
+heir was reported to be a perfect specimen, and his father was
+greatly elated and delighted, but the letters showed anxiety about
+the mother, who did not get on as she ought, and seemed to have no
+power of rally about her.  At length came a letter that seemed to
+burn itself into Nuttie's brain--
+
+
+'My Dear Ursula--Your mother is longing to see you.  You had better
+come home directly.  Your aunt saved her before.  Tell her if she
+will come, she shall have my deepest gratitude.  I shall send to meet
+the 5.11 train.--Your affectionate father,
+                                       A. P. EGREMONT.'
+
+
+Mrs. William Egremont wrote at more length.  Symptoms had set in
+which filled the doctors and nurses with double anxiety.  Advice had
+been sent for from London, and Mr. Egremont was in an uncontrollable
+state of distress.  She had undertaken to summon Ursula home, and to
+beg Miss Headworth to undertake the journey.  She evidently did not
+know that her brother-in-law had written himself, and before they
+could start a telegram terrified them, but proved to contain no fresh
+tidings, only a renewed summons.
+
+Miss Headworth forgot all her resolutions about Mr. Egremont's
+hospitality--her Alice was her only thought, and all the remedies
+that had been found efficacious at Dieppe.  The good lady had a
+certain confidence in her own nursing and experience of Alice, which
+buoyed her up with hope, while Ursula seemed absolutely stunned.  She
+had never thought of such a frightful loss or grief, and her mental
+senses were almost paralysed, so that she went through the journey in
+a kind of surface trance, observing all around her much as usual,
+looking out for the luggage and for the servant who had come to meet
+them with the report 'No change.'  She did the honours of the
+carriage, and covered Miss Headworth with the fur rug.  They wanted
+it, for they were shivering with anxiety.
+
+Canon Egremont came out to the front hall to meet them, and put his
+arms round Nuttie tenderly, saying, 'My poor dear child!' then as he
+saw he had frightened them, 'No, no!  She is alive--conscious they
+say, only so very weak.'  Then with something of his usual urbane
+grace, he held out his hand, 'Miss Headworth, it is very good in you
+to come.  You have a great deal to forgive.'
+
+He took them into the tent-room, where tea was standing, interrupting
+himself in the account he was giving to bid Nuttie let her aunt have
+some.  It was plain from his manner that he had given up hope, and in
+another minute in hurried his brother, looking terribly haggard and
+with bloodshot eyes, giving his hand to each, with, 'That's right,
+Miss Headworth, thank you.  Come, let me know what you think of her!'
+
+'Does she know they are come?' said the Canon.  'No?  Then, Alwyn,
+let them have some tea, and take off their things.  I can tell you,
+the nurses will never let them in just off a journey.'
+
+Miss Headworth seconded this, and Mr. Egremont submitted, allowing
+that she had not asked for Nuttie since the morning, and then had
+smiled and squeezed his hand when he said she was coming with her
+aunt; but he walked up and down in direful restlessness, his whole
+mind apparently bent on extracting from Miss Headworth that she had
+been as ill or worse at Dieppe.
+
+Alas! when Mrs. William Egremont came down to fetch Nuttie; there was
+no question that matters were much worse.  The sweet face was
+perfectly white and wasted, and the heavy lids of the dark eyes
+scarcely lifted themselves, but the lips moved into a smile, and the
+hand closed on that of the girl, who stood by her as one frozen into
+numbness.  There was the same recognition when her aunt was brought
+to her side, the poor old lady commanding herself with difficulty, as
+the loving glance quivered over the face.
+
+Time passed on, and she still held Nuttie's hand.  Once, when a
+little revived by some stimulant at her lips, she made an effort and
+said, 'Stay with him!  Take care of him!  _Love_ him!  And your
+little brother, my Nuttie!  Promise!'
+
+'I promise,' the girl answered, scarce knowing what she said.
+
+And the eyes closed with an air of peace and rest.
+
+Again when Miss Headworth was doing something to ease her position
+she said, 'Thank you,' and then more vigorously, 'Thank you, dear
+aunt, for all you have been to us.'
+
+There was little more.  She asked Nuttie for 'her hymn,' the evening
+hymn with which mother and daughter used nightly to go to sleep, and
+which, in her strange dreamy way, the girl managed to say.
+
+Then a little murmur and sign passed between the elder ladies, and
+Mrs. William Egremont fetched her husband.  As he opened his book to
+find the commendatory prayer, thinking her past all outward
+consciousness, and grieved by the look of suffering, her eyes again
+unclosed and her lips said, 'Failed.'
+
+'Don't think of that!  God can make failures success.'
+
+There was a half smile, a look of peace.  '_He_ makes up,' she said;
+and those were the last audible words before it was over, and the
+tender spirit was released from its strife, some time later, they
+only knew when by the failure of the clasp on her husband's hand.
+
+Old Miss Headworth did not understand the meaning of that sad word
+till the next forenoon.  Then,--as she sat in the darkened tent-room,
+crying over her letters,--while the stunned and bewildered Nuttie
+was, under her Aunt Jane's direction, attending to the needful
+arrangements, Canon Egremont wandered in upon her in the overflow of
+confidence of a man with a full heart, wanting to talk it all out,
+communicating the more, because she was a discreet woman, and asked
+no questions.  He had tried to see his brother, but Gregorio had not
+admitted him.  He was aware now of the whole state of things.  Dr.
+Hammond had told him, when first beginning to be alarmed for his
+patient, that the principal cause for anxiety was the exhaustion
+caused by the long strain on her spirits and strength consequent on
+her efforts to wean her husband from his fatal propensity.  There had
+been other 'complications,' as the doctor called them, and more
+immediate causes of danger, but both he and his colleague, summoned
+from London, believed that she would have surmounted them if she had
+had more strength to rally.  But her nurses dated the decided turn
+for the worse from the day when she had gazed up into Mr. Egremont's
+face, and detected the look in his eyes that she had learnt too well
+to understand.
+
+She would fain have lived, and, according to her obedient nature, had
+submitted to all the silence and stillness enforced on her; but she
+had told Dr. Hammond that she must see her brother-in-law before she
+was too far gone.  And the doctor, knowing all, took care it should
+be brought about.
+
+And then she had spoken of her failure in the effort of these years.
+'If I had begun better,' she said, 'it might not have been so with
+him.'
+
+'My dear, indeed you have nothing to blame yourself for.  You were
+grievously sinned against by us all.  Alwyn was no saint when he drew
+you into it--and you, you have been his good angel, doing all and
+more too,' said the Canon, almost breaking down.
+
+'I tried--but if I had been a better woman--And to leave him to that
+man!'
+
+'Child, child, victories sometimes come this way!' he cried, scarce
+knowing how it was put into his mouth, but glad to see the light in
+her eye.
+
+'Thanks,' she replied.  'No, I ought not to have said that.  I leave
+him to God, and my poor Nuttie.  I want you to tell her, if I can't,
+what she must try to do.  If I had but brought them together more!
+But I tried for the best.'
+
+Then she begged for her last communion, saying, 'I do pray for that
+poor Gregorio.  Isn't that forgiving him?'  And the attempt to
+exchange forgiveness with the Canon for their mutual behaviour at the
+time of her marriage overcame them both so much that they had to
+leave it not half uttered.  Indeed, in speaking of the scene, William
+Egremont was utterly overwhelmed.
+
+'And that's the woman that I treated as a mere outcast!' he cried,
+walking about the little room.  'Oh God, forgive me!  I shall never
+forgive myself.'
+
+Poor Miss Headworth!  In past days she had longed for any amount of
+retribution on Alice's hard-hearted employers, but it was a very
+different thing to witness such grief and self reproach.  He had in
+truth much more developed ideas of duty, both as man and priest, than
+when he had passively left a disagreeable subject to his mother-in-
+law, as lying within a woman's province; and his good heart was
+suffering acutely for the injustice and injury in which he had shared
+towards one now invested with an almost saintly halo.
+
+In the gush of feeling he had certainly revealed more to Miss
+Headworth, than his wife, or even he himself, in his cooler moments,
+would have thought prudent, and he ended by binding her to secrecy;
+and saying that he should only tell his niece what was necessary for
+her to know.
+
+Nuttie was going about, dry-eyed and numbed, glad of any passing
+occupation that would prevent the aching sense of desolation at her
+heart from gaining force to overwhelm her; courting employment, and
+shunning pity and condolence, but she could not escape when her uncle
+took her hand, made her sit down by him, with 'I want to speak to
+you, my dear;' and told her briefly and tenderly what her mother's
+effort had been, and of the message and task she had bequeathed.
+The poor girl's heart fainted within her.
+
+'Oh! but, Uncle William, how can I?  How can I ever?  Mother could do
+things I never could!  He _did_ care for her!  He does not care for
+me!'
+
+'You must teach him to do so, Nuttie.'
+
+'Oh!' she said, with a hopeless sound.
+
+The Canon did think it very hopeless in his heart, but he persevered,
+as in duty bound.  'I told your dear mother that perhaps you would
+succeed where she thought she had failed, though indeed she had done
+much.  It made her happy.  So, my dear child, you are bound to do
+your best.'
+
+'Yes;' then, after a pause--'But mother could coax him and manage
+him.  Mother was with him day and night; she could always get at him.
+What can I do?'
+
+'I think you will find that he depends upon you more,' said the
+Canon, 'and it may be made easier to you, if you only set your will
+to it.'
+
+'If I ought, I'll try,' said poor Nuttie, more humbly perhaps than
+she had ever spoken before, but in utter dejection, and her uncle
+answered her like a child.
+
+'There, that's a good girl.  Nobody can do more.'
+
+For the Canon had one hope.  He had not thought it becoming to speak
+to her of the counter influence, but he could not help thinking it
+possible that if he and his son, backed by doctor and lawyer, made a
+long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether, they might induce
+his brother to part with Gregorio, and this would render Ursula's
+task far less impossible.
+
+He was confirmed in this hope by finding that Mark's arrival was not
+unwelcome to Mr. Egremont, who seemed to have forgotten the
+unpleasantness with which he had regarded the engagement, and only
+remembered that his nephew had been Alice's champion, resuming old
+customs of dependence, making him act as amanuensis, and arraigning
+the destiny that had restored so lovely and charming a creature only
+to snatch her away, leaving nothing but a headstrong girl and a
+helpless baby.
+
+That poor little fellow was all that could be desired at his age, but
+Nuttie felt her beautiful mother almost insulted when the elder
+ladies talked of the wonderful resemblance that the Canoness declared
+to have been quite startling in the earlier hours of his life.  For
+the convenience of one of the sponsors, he was to be christened in
+the afternoon following the funeral, the others being--by his
+mother's special entreaty--his sister and Mark.  Egremont customs
+were against the ladies going to the funeral, so that Nuttie was kept
+at home, much against her will; but after the luncheon she escaped,
+leaving word with her aunts that she was going to walk down to church
+alone, and they were sorry enough for her to let her have her own
+way, especially as her father, having been to the funeral, had shut
+himself up and left all the rest to them.
+
+The Egremont family had a sort of enclosure or pen with iron rails
+round it close to the church wall, where they rested under flat
+slabs.  The gate in this was open now, and the new-made grave was one
+mass of white flowers,--wreaths and crosses, snowdrops, hyacinths,
+camellias, and the like,--and at the feet was a flowerpot with
+growing plants of the white hyacinth called in France 'lys de la
+Vierge.'  These, before they became frequent in England, had been
+grown in Mr. Dutton's greenhouse, and having been favourites with
+Mrs. Egremont, it had come to be his custom every spring to bring her
+the earliest plants that bloomed.  Nuttie knew them well, the careful
+tying up, the neat arrangement of moss over the earth, the peculiar
+trimness of the whole; and as she looked, the remembrance of the
+happy times of old, the sick longing for all that was gone, did what
+nothing had hitherto effected--brought an overwhelming gush of tears.
+
+There was no checking them now that they had come.  She fled into
+church on the first sounds of arrival and hid herself in the friendly
+shelter of the great family pew; but she had to come out and take her
+place, though she could hardly utter a word, and it was all that she
+could do to keep from sobbing aloud; she could not hand the babe, and
+the Canon had to take on trust the name 'Alwyn Headworth,' for he
+could not hear the words that were on her trembling lips.
+
+It was soon over; and while the baby and his attendants, with Miss
+Headworth, were being packed into the carriage, and her uncle and
+aunt bowing off the grand god-father, she clutched her cousin's arm,
+and said, 'Mark; where's Mr. Dutton?'
+
+'I--I didn't know he was coming, but now you ask, I believe I saw him
+this morning.'
+
+'I know he is here.'
+
+'Do you want to see him?' said Mark kindly.
+
+'Oh, if I might!'
+
+Then, with a sudden impulse, she looked back into the church, and
+recognised a black figure and slightly bald head bowed down in one of
+the seats.  She pointed him out.  'No doubt he is waiting for us all
+to be gone,' said Mark in a low voice.  'You go into the Rectory,
+Nuttie; there's a fire in the study, and I'll bring him to you there.
+I'll get him to stay the night if I can.'
+
+'Oh, thank you!' and it was a really fervent answer.
+
+Mark waited, and when Mr. Dutton rose, was quite shocked at his
+paleness and the worn look on his face, as of one who had struggled
+hard for resignation and calm.  He started, almost as if a blow had
+been struck him, as Mark uttered his name in the porch, no doubt
+having never meant to be perceived nor to have to speak to any one;
+but in one moment his features had recovered their usual expression
+of courteous readiness.  He bowed his head when Mark told him that
+Ursula wanted to shake hands with him, and came towards the Rectory,
+but he entirely declined the invitation to sleep there, declaring
+that he must return to London that night.
+
+Mark opened the study door, and then went away to secure that the man
+whom he had learnt to esteem very highly should at least have some
+refreshment before he left the house.
+
+Those few steps had given Mr. Dutton time to turn from a mourner to a
+consoler, and when Nuttie came towards him with her hand
+outstretched, and 'Oh, Mr. Dutton, Mr. Dutton!' he took it in both
+his, and with a calm broken voice said, 'God has been very good to us
+in letting us know one like her.'
+
+'But oh! what can we do without her?'
+
+'Ah, Nuttie! that always comes before us.  But I saw your work and
+your comfort just now.'
+
+'Poor little boy!  I shall get to care about him, I know, but as yet
+I can only feel how much rather I would have _her_.'
+
+'No doubt, but it is _her_ work that is left you.'
+
+'Her work?  Yes!  But oh, Mr. Dutton, you don't know how dreadful it
+is!'
+
+He did not know what she meant.  Whether it was simply the burthen on
+any suddenly motherless girl, or any special evil on her father's
+part, but he was soon enlightened, for there was something in this
+old friend that drew out her confidence beyond all others, even when
+he repressed her, and she could not help telling him in a few
+murmured furtive words such as she knew she ought not to utter, and
+he felt it almost treason to hear.  'Opiates! she was always trying
+to keep my father from them!  It was too much for her!  My uncle says
+I must try to do it, and I can't.'
+
+'Poor child!' said Mr. Dutton kindly, though cut to the heart at the
+revelation of sweet Alice's trial; 'at least you can strive, and
+there is always a blessing on resolution.'
+
+'Oh, if you knew! and he doesn't like me.  I don't think I've ever
+been nice to him, and that vexed her!  I haven't got her ways.'
+
+'No,' said Mr. Dutton, 'but you will learn others.  Look here,
+Nuttie.  You used to be always craving for grand and noble tasks, the
+more difficult the better.  I think you have got one now, more severe
+than ever could have been thought of--and very noble.  What are those
+lines about the task "bequeathed from bleeding sire to son"?  Isn't
+it like that?  You are bound to go on with her work, and the more
+helpless you feel, and the more you throw yourself on God, the more
+God will help you.  He takes the will for the deed, if only you have
+will enough; and, Nuttie, you can pray that you may be able to love
+and honour him.'
+
+Teacups were brought in, followed by Mark, and interrupted them; and,
+after a short interval, they parted at the park gate, and Ursula
+walked home with Mark, waked from her dull numb trance, with a
+crushed feeling as if she had been bruised all over, and yet with a
+purpose within her.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+FARMS OR UMBRELLAS.
+
+
+
+
+'He tokin into his handis
+ His londis and his lode.'--CHAUCER.
+
+
+'Mark!  Mark!'  A little figure stood on the gravel road leading
+through Lescombe Park, and lifted up an eager face, as Mark jumped
+down from his horse.  'I made sure you would come over.'
+
+'Yes, but I could not get away earlier.  And I have so much to say to
+you and your mother, Annaple; there's a great proposition to be
+considered.'
+
+'Oh dear! and here is John bearing down upon us.  Never mind.  We'll
+get into the mither's room and be cosy!'
+
+'Well, Mark,' said Sir John's hearty voice, 'I thought you would be
+here.  Come to luncheon?  That's right!  And how is poor Egremont?
+I thought he looked awful at the funeral.'
+
+'He is fairly well, thank you; but it was a terrible shock.'
+
+'I should think so.  To find such a pretty sweet creature just to
+lose her again.  Child likely to live, eh?'
+
+'Oh yes, he is a fine fellow, and has never had anything amiss with
+him.'
+
+'Poor little chap!  Doesn't know what he has lost!  Well, Nannie,' as
+they neared the house, 'do you want a tete-a-tete or to take him in
+to your mother?  Here, I'll take the horse.'
+
+'Come to her at once,' said Annaple; 'she wants to hear all, and
+besides she is expecting me.'
+
+Mark was welcomed by Lady Ronnisglen with inquiries for all
+concerned, and especially for that 'poor girl.  I do pity a young
+thing who has to take a woman's place too soon,' she said.  'It takes
+too much out of her!'
+
+'I should think Ursula had plenty of spirit,' said Annaple.
+
+'I don't know whether spirit is what is wanted,' said Mark.  'Her
+mother prevailed more without it than I am afraid she is likely to do
+with it.'
+
+'Complements answer better than parallels sometimes, but not always,'
+said Lady Ronnisglen.
+
+'Which are we?' asked Annaple demurely.
+
+'Not parallels certainly, for then we should never meet,' responded
+Mark.  'But here is the proposal.  My father and all the rest of us
+have been doing our best to get my uncle to smooth Ursula's way by
+getting rid of that valet of his.'
+
+'The man with the Mephistopheles face?'
+
+'Exactly.  He is a consummate scoundrel, as we all know, and so does
+my uncle himself, but he has been about him these twelve or fourteen
+years, and has got a sort of hold on him--that--that-- It is no use
+to talk of it, but it did not make that dear aunt of mine have an
+easier life.  In fact I should not be a bit surprised if he had been
+a hindrance in the hunting her up.  Well, the fellow thought proper
+to upset some arrangements my mother had made, and then was more
+insolent than I should have thought even he could have been towards
+her.  I suppose he had got into the habit with poor Aunt Alice.  That
+made a fulcrum, and my father went at my uncle with a will.  I never
+saw my father so roused in my life.  I don't mean by the behaviour to
+his wife, but at what he knew of the fellow, and all the harm he had
+done and is doing.  And actually my uncle gave in at last, and
+consented to tell Gregorio to look out for another situation, if he
+has not feathered his nest too well to need one, as I believe he
+has.'
+
+'Oh, that will make it much easier for Ursula!' cried Annaple.
+
+'If he goes,' put in her mother.
+
+'I think he will.  I really had no notion how much these two years
+have improved my uncle!  To be sure, it would be hard to live with
+such a woman as that without being the better for it!  But he really
+seems to have acquired a certain notion of duty!'
+
+They did not smile at the simple way in which Mark spoke of this vast
+advance, and Lady Ronnisglen said, 'I hope so, for the sake of his
+daughter and that poor little boy.'
+
+'I think that has something to do with it,' said Mark.  'He feels a
+responsibility, and still more, I think he was struck by having a
+creature with him to whom evil was like physical pain.'
+
+'It will work,' said Lady Ronnisglen.
+
+'Then,' went on Mark, 'he took us all by surprise by making me this
+proposal--to take the management of the estate, and become a kind of
+private secretary to him.  You know he gets rheumatism on the optic
+nerve, and is almost blind at times.  He would give me £300 a year,
+and do up the house at the home farm, rent free.  What do you say to
+that, Annaple?'
+
+There was a silence, then Annaple said: 'Give up the umbrellas!  Oh!
+What do you think, Mark?'
+
+'My father wishes it,' said Mark.  'He would, as he had promised to
+do, make over to me my share of my own mother's fortune, and that
+would, I have been reckoning, bring us to just what we had thought of
+starting upon this spring at Micklethwayte.'
+
+'The same now,' said Lady Ronnisglen, after some reckoning, 'but what
+does it lead to?'
+
+'Well--nothing, I am afraid,' said Mark; 'as you know, this is all I
+have to reckon upon.  The younger children will have hardly anything
+from their mother, so that my father's means must chiefly go to
+them.'
+
+'And this agency is entirely dependent on your satisfying Mr.
+Egremont?'
+
+'True, but that's a thing only too easily done.  However, as you say,
+this agency has no future, and if that came to an end, I should only
+have to look out for another or take to farming.'
+
+'And ask poor John if that is a good speculation nowadays!' said
+Annaple.
+
+'Fortunes are and have been made on the umbrellas,' said Mark.
+'Greenleaf has a place almost equal to Monks Horton, and Dutton,
+though he makes no show, has realised a considerable amount.'
+
+'Oh yes, let us stick to the umbrellas!' cried Annaple; 'you've made
+the plunge, so it does not signify now, and we should be so much more
+independent out of the way of everybody.'
+
+'You would lose in society,' said Mark, 'excepting, of course, as to
+the Monks Horton people; but they are often away.'
+
+'Begging your pardon, Mark, is there much to lose in this same
+neighbourhood?' laughed Annaple, 'now May will go.'
+
+'It is not so much a question of liking,' added her mother, 'as of
+what is for the best, and where you may wish to be--say ten years
+hence.'
+
+Looked at in this way, there could be no question but that the
+umbrella company promised to make Mark a richer man in ten years'
+time than did the agency at Bridgefield Egremont.  He had a salary
+from the office already, and if he purchased shares in the
+partnership with the portion his father would resign to him, his
+income would already equal what he would have at Bridgefield, and
+there was every prospect of its increase, both as he became more
+valuable, and as the business continued to prosper.  If the descent
+in life had been a grievance to the ladies, the agency would have
+been an infinite boon, but having swallowed so much, as Annaple said,
+they might as well do it in earnest, and to some purpose.  Perhaps,
+too, it might be detected that under the circumstances Annaple would
+prefer the living in a small way out of reach of her sister's visible
+compassion.
+
+So the matter was settled, but there was an undercurrent in Mark's
+mind on which he had not entered, namely, that his presence at home
+might make all the difference in that reformation in his uncle's
+habits which Alice had inaugurated, and left in the hands of others.
+With him at hand, there was much more chance of Gregorio's being
+dispensed with, Ursula's authority maintained, little Alwyn well
+brought up, and the estate, tenants, and household properly cared
+for, and then he smiled at his notion of supposing himself of so much
+importance.  Had he only had himself to consider, Mark would have
+thought his duty plain; but when he found Miss Ruthven and her mother
+so entirely averse, he did not deem it right to sacrifice them to the
+doubtful good of his uncle, nor indeed to put the question before
+them as so much a matter of conscience that they should feel bound to
+consider it in that light.  He did indeed say, 'Well, that settles
+it,' in a tone that led Annaple to exclaim: 'I do believe you want to
+drop the umbrellas!'
+
+'No,' he answered, 'it is not that, but my father wished it, and
+thought it would be good for my uncle.'
+
+'No doubt,' said Annaple, 'but he has got a daughter, also a son, and
+a brother, and agents are plentiful, so I can't see why all the
+family should dance attendance on him.'
+
+Lady Ronnisglen, much misdoubting Mr. Egremont's style of society,
+and dreading that Mark might be dragged into it, added her word,
+feeling on her side that it was desirable and just to hinder the
+family from sacrificing Mark's occupation and worldly interest to a
+capricious old roue, who might very possibly throw him over when it
+would be almost impossible to find anything else to do.  Moreover,
+both she and Annaple believed that the real wish was to rescue the
+name of Egremont from association with umbrellas, and they held
+themselves bound to combat what they despised and thought a piece of
+worldly folly.
+
+So Mark rode home, more glad that the decision was actually made than
+at the course it had taken.  His father was disappointed, but could
+not but allow that it was the more prudent arrangement; and Mr.
+Egremont showed all the annoyance of a man whose good offer has been
+rejected.
+
+''Tis that little giggling Scotch girl!' he said.  'Well, we are quit
+of her, anyway.  'Tis a pity that Mark entangled himself with her,
+and a mother-in-law into the bargain!  I was a fool to expect to get
+any good out of him!'
+
+This was said to his daughter, with whom he was left alone; for Miss
+Headworth could not bear to accept his hospitality a moment longer
+than needful, and besides had been so much shaken in nerves as to
+suspect that an illness was coming on, and hurried home to be nursed
+by Mary Nugent.  Canon Egremont was obliged to go back to Redcastle
+to finish his residence, and his wife, who had been absent nearly a
+month from her family, thought it really wisest to let the father and
+daughter be thrown upon one another at once, so that Ursula might
+have the benefit of her father's softened mood.
+
+There could be no doubt that he was softened, and that he had derived
+some improvement from the year and a half that his wife had been with
+him.  It might not have lifted him up a step, but it had arrested him
+in his downward course.  Selfish and indolent he was as ever, but
+there had been a restraint on his amusements, and a withdrawal from
+his worst associates, such as the state of his health might continue,
+above all if Gregorio could be dispensed with.  The man himself had
+become aware of the combination against him, and, though reckoning on
+his master's inertness and dependence upon him, knew that a fresh
+offence might complete his overthrow, and therefore took care to be
+on his good behaviour.
+
+Thus Nuttie's task might be somewhat smoothed; but the poor girl felt
+unspeakably desolate as she ate her breakfast all alone with a dull
+post-bag, and still more so when, having seen the housekeeper, who,
+happily for her, was a good and capable woman, and very sorry for
+her, she had to bethink herself what to do in that dreary sitting-
+room during the hour when she had always been most sure of her
+sister-mother's dear company.  How often she had grumbled at being
+called on to practise duets for her father's evening lullaby!  She
+supposed she ought to get something up, and she proceeded to turn
+over and arrange the music with a sort of sick loathing for whatever
+was connected with those days of impatient murmurs, which she would
+so gladly have recalled.  Everything had fallen into disorder, as
+Blanche and May had left it the last time they had played there; and
+the overlooking it, and putting aside the pieces which she could
+never use alone, occupied her till Gregorio, very meek and polite,
+came with a message that Mr. Egremont would be glad if she would come
+to his room.  In some dread, some distaste, and yet some pity and
+some honest resolution, she made her way thither.
+
+There he sat, in dressing-gown, smoking-cap, and blue spectacles,
+with the glittering February sunshine carefully excluded.  He looked
+worse and more haggard than when she had seen him at dinner in the
+evening, made up for company, and her compassion increased,
+especially as he not only held out his hand, but seemed to expect her
+to kiss him, a thing she had never done since their first
+recognition.  It was not pleasant in itself, but it betokened full
+forgiveness, and indeed he had never spoken to her in his sneering,
+exasperating voice since her mournful return home.
+
+'Have you seen the boy?' he asked.
+
+'Yes; they are walking him up and down under the south wall,' said
+Nuttie, thankful that she had peeped under the many wraps as he was
+carried across the hall.
+
+'Here!  I want you to read this letter to me.  A man ought to be
+indicted for writing such a hand!'
+
+It was really distinct penmanship, though minute; but, as Nuttie
+found, her father did not like to avow how little available were his
+eyes.  He could write better than he could read, but he kept her over
+his correspondence for the rest of the morning, answering some of the
+letters of condolence for him in her own name, writing those of
+business, and folding and addressing what he himself contrived to
+write.  Her native quickness stood her in good stead, and, being
+rather nervous, she took great pains, and seldom stumbled; indeed,
+she only once incurred an exclamation of impatience at her stupidity
+or slowness.
+
+She guessed rightly that this forbearance was owing to tender
+persuasions of her mother, and did not guess that a certain fear of
+herself was mingled with other motives.  Her father had grown used to
+woman's ministrations; he needed them for his precious little heir,
+and he knew his daughter moreover for a severe judge, and did not
+want to alienate her and lose her services; so they got on fairly
+well together, and she shared his luncheon, during which a message
+came up about the carriage; and as there had been an application for
+some nursery needment, and moreover black-edged envelopes had run
+short, there was just purpose enough for a drive to the little town.
+
+Then Nuttie read her father to sleep with the newspaper; rushed round
+the garden in the twilight to stretch her young limbs; tried to read
+a little, dressed, dined with her father; finished what he had missed
+in the paper, then offered him music, and was told 'if she pleased,'
+and as she played she mused whether this was to be her life.  It
+looked very dull and desolate, and what was the good of it all?  But
+there were her mother's words, 'Love him!'  How fulfil them?  She
+could pity him now, but oh! how could she love one from whom her
+whole nature recoiled, when she thought of her mother's ruined life?
+Mr. Dutton too had held her new duties up to her as capable of being
+ennobled.  Noble!  To read aloud a sporting paper she did not want to
+understand, to be ready to play at cards or billiards, to take that
+dawdling drive day by day, to devote herself to the selfish exactions
+of burnt-out dissipation.  Was this noble?  Her mother had done all
+this, and never even felt it a cross, because of her great love.  It
+must be Nuttie's cross if it was her duty; but could the love and
+honour possibly come though she tried to pray in faith?
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+THE GIGGLING SCOTCH GIRL.
+
+
+
+
+'For every Lamp that trembled here,
+ And faded in the night,
+ Behold a Star serene and clear
+ Smiles on me from the height.'--B. M.
+
+
+Nuttie was not mistaken in supposing that this first day would be a
+fair sample of her life, though, of course, after the first weeks of
+mourning there were variations; and the return of the Rectory party
+made a good deal of brightening, and relieved her from the necessity
+of finding companionship and conversation for her father on more than
+half her afternoons and evenings.
+
+He required her, however, almost every forenoon, and depended on her
+increasingly, so that all her arrangements had to be made with
+reference to him.  It was bondage, but not as galling in the fact as
+she would have expected if it had been predicted to her a few months
+previously.  In the first place, Mr. Egremont never demanded of her
+what was actually against her conscience, except occasionally giving
+up a Sunday evensong to read the paper to him, and that only when he
+was more unwell than usual.  He was, after all, an English gentleman,
+and did not ask his young daughter to read to him the books which her
+mother had loathed.  Moreover, Gregorio was on his good behaviour,
+perfectly aware that there was a family combination against him, and
+having even received a sort of warning from his master, but by no
+means intending to take it, and therefore abstaining from any kind of
+offence that could furnish a fresh handle against him; and thus for
+the present, Dr. Hammond's regimen was well observed, and Mr.
+Egremont was his better self in consequence, for, under his wife's
+guardianship, the perilous habit had sufficiently lost strength to
+prevent temper and spirits from manifestly suffering from abstinence.
+
+The first time Nuttie found herself obliged to make any very real
+sacrifice to her father's will was on the occasion of Mark's marriage
+at Easter.  Things had arranged themselves very conveniently for him
+at Micklethwayte, though it seemed to Nuttie that she only heard of
+affairs there in a sort of distant dream, while such events were
+taking place as once would have been to her the greatest possible
+revolutions.
+
+Aunt Ursel reached home safely, but her expectations of illness were
+realised.  She took to her bed on arriving, and though she rose from
+it, there was reason to think she had had a slight stroke, for her
+activity of mind and body were greatly decayed, and she was wholly
+dependent on Mary Nugent for care and comfort.  Mary, remembering
+the consequences of the former alarm, made the best of the old lady's
+condition; and Nuttie, ashamed of having once cried 'wolf,' did not
+realise the true state of the case, nor indeed could she or would she
+have been spared to go to Micklethwayte.
+
+The next news told that Gerard Godfrey, at the end of the year
+required by Mr. Dutton, had resigned his situation, and at the close
+of his quarter's notice was going to prepare for Holy Orders under
+the training of a clergyman who would employ him in his parish, and
+assist him in reading up to the requirements for admission to a
+theological college.  Poor dear old Gerard!  It gave Nuttie a sort of
+pang of self-reproach to own how good and devoted he was, and yet so
+narrow and stupid that she could never have been happy with him.  Was
+he too good, or was he too dull for her?  Had she forsaken him for
+the world's sake, or was it a sound instinct that had extinguished
+her fancy for him?  No one could tell, least of all the parties
+concerned.  He might be far above her in spiritual matters, but he
+was below her in intellectual ones, and though they would always feel
+for one another that peculiar tenderness left by the possibilities of
+a first love, no doubt the quarrel over the blue ribbon had been no
+real misfortune to either.
+
+The next tidings were still more surprising.  Mr. Dutton was leaving
+the firm.  Though his father had died insolvent, and he had had to
+struggle for himself in early life, he was connected with wealthy
+people, and change and death among these had brought him a fair share
+of riches.  An uncle who had emigrated to Australia at the time of
+the great break up had died without other heirs, leaving him what was
+the more welcome to him that Micklethwayte could never be to him what
+it had been in its golden age.  He had realised enough to enable him
+to be bountiful, and his parting gift to St Ambrose's would complete
+the church; but he himself was winding up the partnership, and
+withdrawing his means from Greenleaf and Co. in order to go out to
+Australia to decide what to do with his new possessions.
+
+Mark Egremont purchased a number of the shares, though, to gratify
+the family, the shelter of the Greenleaf veiled his name under the
+'Co.,' and another, already in the firm, possessed of a business-like
+appellation, gave designation to the firm as Greenleaf, Goodenough,
+and Co.
+
+Mr. Dutton's well-kept house, with the little conservatory and the
+magnolia, was judged sufficient for present needs, and the lease was
+taken off his hands, so that all was in order for the marriage of
+Mark and Annaple immediately after Easter.
+
+Lady Delmar had resigned herself to the inevitable, and the wedding
+was to take place at Lescombe.  Nuttie, whose chief relaxation was in
+hearing all the pros and cons from May and Blanche, was asked to be
+one of the bridesmaids by Annaple, who had come over to the Rectory
+in a droll inscrutable state of mischief, declaring that she had
+exasperated Janet to the verge of insanity by declaring that she
+should have little umbrellas like those in the Persian inscriptions
+on her cards, and that Mark was to present all the bridesmaids with
+neat parasols.  If crinolines had not been gone out they could have
+all been dressed appropriately.  Now they must wear them closely
+furled.  All this banter was hardly liked by May and Blanche, whose
+little sisters were laughed at again for needing the assurance that
+they were really to wear white and rowan leaves and berries--the
+Ronnisglen badge.  Nuttie, who had drawn much nearer to May,
+refrained from relating this part of the story at home, but was much
+disappointed when, on telling her father of the request, she was
+answered at once:
+
+'Hein!  The 24th?  You'll be in London, and a very good thing too.'
+
+'Are we to go so soon?'
+
+'Yes.  Didn't I tell you to take that house in Berkshire Road from
+the 20th?'
+
+'I did not think we were to start so soon.  Is there any particular
+reason?'
+
+'Yes.  That Scotch girl ought to have known better than to ask you in
+your deep mourning.  I thought women made a great point of such
+things.'
+
+'Aunt Jane did not seem to think it wrong,' said Nuttie, for she
+really wished much for consent.  Not only had she grown fond both of
+Mark and Annaple, but she had never been a bridesmaid, and she knew
+that not only the Kirkaldys but Mr. Dutton had been invited; she had
+even ventured on offering to lodge some of the overflowing guests of
+the Rectory.
+
+'Their heads are all turned by that poverty-stricken Scotch peerage,'
+returned Mr. Egremont; 'or the Canoness should have more sense of
+respect.'
+
+Nuttie's wishes were so strong that she made one more attempt, 'I
+need not be a bridesmaid.  They would not mind if I wore my black.'
+
+'I should, then!' said her father curtly.  'If they don't understand
+the proprieties of life, I do.  I won't have you have anything to do
+with it.  If you are so set upon gaiety, you'll have enough of
+weddings at fitter times!'
+
+It was the old sneering tone.  Nuttie felt partly confounded, partly
+indignant, and terribly disappointed.  She did care for the sight of
+the wedding--her youthful spirits had rallied enough for that, but
+far more now she grieved at missing the sight of Mr. Dutton, when he
+was going away, she knew not where, and might perhaps come on purpose
+to see her; and it also made her sore and grieved at being accused of
+disregard to her mother.  She was silenced, however, and presently
+her father observed, in the same unpleasant tone, 'Well, if you've
+digested your disappointment, perhaps you'll condescend to write to
+the agent, that I expect the house to be ready on the 21st.'
+
+Nuttie got through her morning's work she hardly knew how, though her
+father was dry and fault-finding all the time.  Her eyes were so full
+of tears when she was released that she hardly saw where she was
+going, and nearly ran against her aunt, who had just walked into the
+hall.  Mrs. Egremont was too prudent a woman to let her burst out
+there with her grievance, but made her come into the tent-room before
+she exclaimed, 'He is going to take me away to London; he won't let
+me go to the wedding.'
+
+'I am sorry for your disappointment,' said her aunt quietly, 'but I
+am old-fashioned enough to be glad that such strong respect and
+feeling should be shown for your dear mother.  I wish Annaple had
+spoken to me before asking you, and I would have felt the way.'
+
+'I'm sure it is not want of feeling,' said Nuttie, as her tears broke
+forth.
+
+'I did not say it was,' returned her aunt, 'but different generations
+have different notions of the mode of showing it; and the present
+certainly errs on the side of neglect of such tokens of mourning.  If
+I did not think that Annaple and her mother are really uncomfortable
+at Lescombe, I should have told Mark that it was better taste to wait
+till the summer.'
+
+'If I might only have stayed at home--even if I did not go to the
+wedding,' sighed Nuttie, who had only half listened to the Canoness's
+wisdom.
+
+'Since you do not go, it is much better that you should be out of the
+way,' said Mrs. Egremont.  'Is your father ready to see me?'
+
+So Nuttie had to submit, though she pouted to herself, feeling
+grievously misjudged, first as if she had been wanting in regard to
+the memory of her mother, who had been so fond of Mark, and so
+rejoiced in his happiness; and then that her vexation was treated as
+mere love of gaiety, whereas it really was disappointment at not
+seeing Mr. Dutton, that good, grave, precise old friend, who could
+not be named in the same breath with vanity.  Moreover, she could not
+help suspecting that respect to her mother was after all only a cloak
+to resentment against Mark and his marriage.
+
+However, she bethought herself that her mother had often been
+disappointed and had borne it cheerfully, and after having done what
+Aunt Ursel would have called 'grizzling' in her room for an hour, she
+wrote her note to Miss Ruthven and endeavoured to be as usual,
+feeling keenly that there was no mother now to perceive and
+gratefully commend one of her only too rare efforts for good humour.
+On other grounds she was very sorry to leave Bridgefield.  May had,
+in her trouble, thawed to her, and they were becoming really
+affectionate and intimate companions, by force of propinquity and
+relationship, as well as of the views that May had imbibed from Hugh
+Condamine.  Moreover Nuttie felt her aunt's watch over the baby a
+great assistance to her own ignorance.
+
+However the Canoness had resigned to the poor little heir the perfect
+and trustworthy nurse, whom Basil had outgrown, and who consented to
+the transfer on condition of having her nursery establishment
+entirely apart from the rest of the household.  Her reasons were
+known though unspoken, namely, that the rejection of one or two
+valets highly recommended had made it plain that there had been no
+dislodgment of Gregorio.  The strong silent objection to him of all
+good female servants was one of the points that told much against
+him.  Martin and the housekeeper just endured him, and stayed on for
+the present chiefly because their dear lady had actually begged them
+not to desert her daughter if they could help it, at least not at
+first.
+
+Nuttie bound over her cousins to give her a full account of the
+wedding, and both of them wrote to her.  Blanche's letter recorded
+sundry scattered particulars,--as to how well the rowan-trimmed tulle
+dresses looked--how every one was packed into the carriages for the
+long drive--how there had been a triumphal arch erected over the
+Bluepost Bridge itself, and Annaple nearly choked with laughing at
+the appropriateness--how, to her delight, a shower began, and the
+procession out of the church actually cried out for umbrellas--how
+papa, when performing the ceremony, could not recollect that the
+bride's proper name was Annabella, and would dictate it as
+Anna-Maria, Sir John correcting him each time sotto voce--how Basil
+and little Hilda Delmar walked together and 'looked like a couple of
+ducks,' which, it was to be hoped, was to be taken metaphorically--
+how dreadfully hard the ice on the wedding-cake was, so that when
+Annaple tried to cut it the knife slipped and a little white dove
+flew away and hit May, which everyone said was a grand omen that she
+would be the next bride, while of course Annaple was perfectly
+helpless with mirth.  Every one said it was the merriest wedding ever
+seen, for the bride's only tears were those of laughter.  What Nuttie
+really cared for most came just at the end, and not much of that.
+'Your Mr. Dutton is just gone.  He got on famously with Hugh
+Condamine, and I forgot to tell you that he has given Mark such a
+jolly present, a lovely silver coffee-pot, just the one thing they
+wanted, and Lady Delmar said he didn't look near so like a tradesman
+as she expected.  I see May is writing too, but I don't know what you
+will get out of her, as Hugh Condamine came for the day.'
+
+Nuttie, however, had more hopes from May.  Her letter certainly was
+fuller of interest, if shorter.
+
+
+'My Dear Nuttie--Blanche has no doubt told you all the externals.  I
+suppose there never was a brighter wedding, for as Annaple keeps her
+mother with her, there was no real rending asunder of ties.  Indeed I
+almost wish her excitement did not always show itself in laughing,
+for it prevents people from understanding how much there is in her.
+
+
+(Plainly Hugh Condamine had been rather scandalised by the 'giggling
+Scotch girl.')
+
+
+'Dear old Lady Ronnisglen was delightful.  If there were any tears,
+they were hers, and Lady Delmar was very cordial and affectionate.
+Of course Hugh and Mr. Dutton missed much that one would have liked
+in a wedding.  I drove back with them afterwards, and it was very
+interesting to listen to their conversation about church matters.
+Hugh is very much struck with your friend; he had heard a good deal
+about Micklethwayte before, and says that such a lay worker is
+perfectly invaluable.  It is a great pity that he is not going on in
+the firm, it would make it so much nicer for Mark, but he says he has
+duties towards his new property.  I think he was sorry not to find
+you at home, but he plainly never thought it possible you should be
+at the wedding.  I don't know whether I ought to tell you this, but I
+think you ought to know it.  There is a lovely new wreath of Eucharis
+lilies and maiden-hair at dear Aunt Alice's grave, close against the
+rails at the feet, and Hugh told me that he looked out of his window
+very early yesterday morning and saw Mr. Dutton standing there,
+leaning on the rail, with his bare head bowed between his hands.  You
+can't think how it impressed Hugh.  He said he felt reverent towards
+him all through that day, and he was quite angry with Rosalind and
+Adela for jesting because, when the shower began as we were coming
+out of church, Mr. Dutton rushed up with an umbrella, being the only
+person there who had one, I believe.  Hugh says you may be proud of
+such a friend.  I wish you could have seen Hugh.--Your affectionate
+cousin,
+                                             'MARGARET EGREMONT.'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+THREE YEARS LATER.
+
+
+
+
+'There's something rotten in the State.'--Hamlet.
+
+
+On an east-windy afternoon in March Mary Nugent emerged from the
+School of Art, her well-worn portfolio under her arm, thinking how
+many successive generations of boys and girls she had drilled through
+'free-hand,' 'perspective,' and even 'life' with an unvarying average
+of failure and very moderate success, and how little talent or
+originality had come to the front, though all might be the better for
+knowing how to use eyes and fingers.
+
+On the whole her interest as well as her diligence did not flag; but
+a sense of weariness and monotony would sometimes come after a
+recurrence of well-known blunders of her pupils, and she missed the
+sense of going home to refreshment and enjoyment which had once
+invigorated her.  St. Ambrose's Road had had its golden age, but the
+brightness had been dimmed ever since that festival at Monks Horton.
+One after another of the happy old society had dropped away.  The
+vicar had received promotion, and she only remained of the former
+intimates, excepting old Miss Headworth, who was no longer a
+companion, but whom affection forbade her to desert in feeble old
+age.  Had her thoughts of the old times conjured up a figure
+belonging to them?  There was the well-brushed hat, the natty silk
+umbrella, the perfect fit of garments, the precise turn-out, nay, the
+curly lion-shaven poodle, with all his fringes, leaping on her in
+recognition, and there was that slightly French flourish of the hat,
+before--with a bounding heart--she met the hand in an English grasp.
+
+'Miss Nugent!'
+
+'Mr. Dutton!'
+
+'I thought I should meet you here!'
+
+'When did you come?'
+
+'Half an hour ago.  I came down with George Greenleaf, left my things
+at the Royal Hotel, and came on to look for you.'
+
+'You will come and spend the evening with us?'
+
+'If you are so good as to ask me.  How is Miss Headworth?'
+
+'Very feeble, very deaf; but she will be delighted to see you.  There
+is no fear of her not remembering you, though she was quite lost when
+Mrs. Egremont came in yesterday.'
+
+'Mrs. Egremont!' he repeated with a little start.
+
+'Mrs. Mark.  Ah! we have got used to the name--the Honourable Mrs.
+Egremont, as the community insist on calling her.  What a sunny
+creature she is!'
+
+'And Miss Egremont, what do you hear of her?'
+
+'She writes long letters, poor child.  I hope she is fairly happy.
+Are you come home for good, or is this only a visit?'
+
+'I have no intention of returning.  I have been winding up my good
+cousin's affairs at Melbourne.'
+
+Mary's heart bounded again with a sense of joy, comfort, and
+protection; but she did not long keep Mr. Dutton to herself, for
+every third person they met gladly greeted him, and they were long in
+getting to St. Ambrose's Road, now dominated by a tall and beautiful
+spire, according to the original design.  They turned and looked in
+at the pillared aisles, stained glass, and handsome reredos.
+
+'Very different from our struggling days,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Yes,' said Mary, with half a sigh.  'There's the new vicar,' as he
+passed with a civil nod.  'He has three curates, and a house of
+Sisters, and works the parish excellently.'
+
+'You don't speak as if you were intimate.'
+
+'No.  His womankind are rather grand--quite out of our beat; and in
+parish work I am only an estimable excrescence.  It is very well that
+I am not wanted, for Miss Headworth requires a good deal of
+attention, and it is only the old Adam that regrets the days of
+importance.  Ah, do you see?'
+
+They were passing Mr. Dutton's old home.  On the tiny strip of lawn
+in front was a slender black figure, with yellow hair, under a tiny
+black hat, dragging about a wooden horse whereon was mounted a sturdy
+boy of two, also yellow-locked and in deep mourning under his Holland
+blouse.
+
+'Billy-boy is riding to meet his daddy!' was merrily called out both
+by mother and son before they perceived the stranger.
+
+'Mr. Dutton,' said Mary.
+
+Annaple bowed, but did not put out her hand, and such a flush was on
+her face that Miss Nugent said, 'I am sure that is too much for you!'
+
+'Oh no--' she began; but 'Allow me,' said Mr. Dutton, and before she
+could refuse he was galloping round and round the little lawn, the
+boy screaming with delight as Monsieur raced with them.
+
+'So he is come!' she said in a low doubtful voice to Mary.
+
+'Yes.  He has met Mr. Greenleaf in London.  I always think he has the
+contrary to the evil eye.  Whatever he takes in hand rights itself.'
+
+'I'll hope so.  Oh, thank you!  Billy-boy, say thank you!  What a
+ride you have had!'
+
+'Why are they in such deep mourning?' asked Mr. Dutton, after they
+had parted.
+
+'Oh, did you not know? for good old Lady Ronnisglen.  She had a bad
+fall about two years ago, and never left her bed again; and this last
+autumn she sank away.'
+
+'They have had a great deal of trouble, then.  I saw the death of
+Canon Egremont in the Times soon after I went out to Australia.'
+
+'Yes; he had heart disease, and died quite suddenly.  The living is
+given to Mr. Condamine, who married the eldest daughter, and the
+widow is gone to live under the shadow of Redcastle Cathedral.'
+
+Therewith Miss Nugent opened her own door, and Miss Headworth was
+soon made aware of the visitor.  She was greatly changed, and had the
+indescribable stony look that tells of paralysis; and though she knew
+Mr. Dutton, and was delighted to see him, his presence made her
+expect to see Alice and Nuttie come in, though she soon recollected
+herself and shed a few helpless tears.  Then--in another mood--she
+began to display with pride and pleasure the photographs of 'Alice's
+dear little boy.'  She had a whole series of them, from the long-
+clothed babe on his sister's knee to the bright little fellow holding
+a drum--a very beautiful child, with a striking resemblance to his
+mother, quite startling to Mr. Dutton, especially in the last, which
+was coloured, and showed the likeness of eyes and expression.
+
+'Nuttie always sends me one whenever he is taken,' said the old lady.
+'Dear Nuttie!  It is very good for her.  She is quite a little mother
+to him.'
+
+'I was sure it would be so,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Yes,' said Mary, 'he is the great interest and delight of her life.
+Her letters are full of his little sayings and doings.'
+
+'Is she at home now?'
+
+'No; at Brighton.  Her father seems to have taken a dislike to
+Bridgefield since his brother's death, and only goes there for a
+short time in the shooting season.  He has taken a lease of a house
+in London, and spends most of the year there.'
+
+'Ah!' as she showed him the address, 'that is near the old house
+where I used to stay with my grand-aunt.  We thought it altogether in
+the country then, but it is quite absorbed now, and I have dazzling
+offers from building companies for the few acres of ground around it.
+Have you seen her?'
+
+'Oh no; I believe she is quite necessary to her father.  I only hear
+of her through Lady Kirkaldy, who has been very kind to her, but, I
+am sorry to say, is now gone with her Lord to the East.  She says she
+thinks that responsibility has been very good for Nuttie; she is
+gentler and less impetuous, and a good deal softened by her affection
+for the child.'
+
+'She was certain to develop.  I only dreaded what society her father
+might surround her with.'
+
+'Lady Kirkaldy says that all has turned out better than could have
+been expected.  You see, as she says, Mr. Egremont has been used to
+good women in his own family, and would not like to see her in a
+slangy fast set.  All her own gaieties have been under Lady
+Kirkaldy's wing, or that of Mrs. William Egremont's relations, and
+only in a quiet moderate way.  Her father gets his own old set about
+him, and they have not been very choice, but they are mostly elderly
+men, and gentlemen, and know how to behave themselves to her.
+Indeed, her cousin Blanche, who was here in the winter, gave us to
+understand that Ursula knows how to take care of herself, and gets
+laughed at as rather an old maidish model of propriety, if you can
+believe it of your little Nuttie.'
+
+'I could quite believe in her on the defensive, unprotected as she
+is.'
+
+'What did that young lady--Miss Blanche--tell us about that
+gentleman, Mary?' asked Miss Headworth, hearing and uttering what
+Miss Nugent hoped had passed unnoticed.
+
+'Oh, I think that was all gossip!' returned Mary, 'and so I am sure
+did the Mark Egremonts.  She said there was one of Mr. Egremont's
+friends, Mr. Clarence Fane, I think she called him, rather younger
+than the others, who, she was pleased to say, seemed smitten with
+Nuttie, but I have heard nothing more about it, and Mrs. Mark scouted
+the idea,' she added in haste, as she saw his expression vary in
+spite of himself.
+
+'Do you see much of your neighbours?'
+
+'We are both too busy to see much of one another, but we have our
+little talks over the wall.  What a buoyant creature she is.  It
+seems as if playfulness was really a sustaining power in her, helping
+her to get diversion out of much that others might stumble at.  You
+know perhaps that when she arrived the work-people had got up a
+beautiful parasol for her, white, with a deep fringe and spray of
+rowan.  Little Susie Gunner presented her with it, and she was very
+gracious and nice about it.  But then what must Mr. Goodenough do but
+dub it the Annabella sunshade, and blazon it, considerably
+vulgarised, in all the railway stations, and magazines.'
+
+'I know!  I had the misfortune to see it in the station at Melbourne;
+and my mind misgave me from that hour.'
+
+'Her husband was prepared to be very angry, but she fairly laughed
+him out of it, made all sorts of fun out of the affair, declared it
+her only opening to fame, and turned it into a regular joke; so that
+indeed the Greenleafs, who were vexed at the matter, and tried to
+apologise, were quite perplexed in their turn, and not at all sure
+that the whole concern was not being turned into ridicule.'
+
+'I wonder it did not make him cut the connection,' said Mr. Dutton,
+muttering 'I only wish it had.'
+
+'Mrs. Greenleaf is very funny about her, 'added Mary, 'proud of the
+Honourable Mrs. Egremont, as they insist on calling her, yet not
+quite pleased that she should be the junior partner's wife; and
+decidedly resenting her hardly going into society at all, though I
+really don't see how she could; for first there was the Canon's
+death, and then just after the boy was born came Lady Ronnisglen's
+accident, and for the next year and a half there was constant
+attendance on her.  They fitted up a room on the ground floor for
+her, the one opening into your drawing-room, and there they used to
+sit with her.  I used to hear them reading to her and singing to her,
+and they were always as merry as possible, till last autumn, when
+something brought on erysipelas, and she was gone almost before they
+took alarm.  The good little daughter was beaten down then, really
+ill for a week; but if you can understand me, the shock seemed to
+tell on her chiefly bodily, and though she was half broken-hearted
+when her husband in a great fright brought me up to see her, and say
+whether her sister should be sent for, she still made fun of him, and
+described the impossible advice they would bring on themselves.  I
+had to take care of her while he went away to the funeral in
+Scotland, and then I learnt indeed to like her and see how much there
+is in her besides laughter.'
+
+'Did the old lady leave them anything?'
+
+'I believe she had nothing to leave.  Her jointure was not much, but
+I am sure they miss that, for Mrs. Egremont has parted with her
+nurse, and has only a little girl in her stead, driving out the
+perambulator often herself, to the great scandal of the Greenleafs,
+though she would have one believe it is all for want of occupation.'
+
+'Do you think they have taken any alarm?'
+
+'There's no judging from her joyous surface, but I have thought him
+looking more careworn and anxious than I liked.  Mr. Dutton, don't
+answer if I ought not to ask, but is it true that things are going
+wrong?  I know you have been seeing Mr. Greenleaf, so perhaps you are
+in his confidence and cannot speak.'
+
+'Tell me, what is known or suspected?'
+
+'Just this, that Mr. Goodenough has been the ruin of the concern.  He
+has been quite different ever since his voyage to America.  You were
+gone, old Mr. Greenleaf has been past attending to business ever
+since he had that attack, and George Greenleaf has been playing the
+country squire at Horton Bishop, and not looking after the office
+work, and Mr. Egremont was inexperienced.  One could see, of course,
+that the whole character of the business was changed--much more
+advertising, much more cheap and flashy work--to be even with the
+times, it was said, but the old superior hands were in despair at the
+materials supplied to them, and the scamped work expected.  You
+should have heard old Thorpe mourning for you, and moralising over
+the wickedness of this world.  His wife told me she really thought he
+would go melancholy mad if he did not leave the factory, and he has
+done so.  They have saved enough to set up a nice little shop at
+Monks Horton.'
+
+'I must go and see them!  Good old Thorpe!  I ought never to have put
+those poor young things into the firm when I ceased to have any
+control over it.  I shall never forgive myself--'
+
+'Nothing could seem safer then!  No one could have guessed that young
+Mr. Greenleaf would be so careless without his father to keep him up
+to the mark, nor that Mr. Goodenough should alter so much.  Is it
+very bad?  Is there worse behind?  Speculation, I suppose--'
+
+'Of course.  I do not see to the bottom of it yet; poor George seemed
+to reckon on me for an advance, but I am afraid this is more than a
+mere temporary depression, such as may be tided over, and that all
+that can be looked to is trying to save honourable names by an utter
+break up, which may rid them of that--that--no, I won't call him a
+scoundrel.  I thought highly of him once, and no doubt he never
+realised what he was doing.'
+
+Before the evening was far advanced Mark Egremont knocked at the
+door, and courteously asked whether Mr. Dutton could be spared to him
+for a little while.  Mary Nugent replied that she was just going to
+help Miss Headworth to bed, and that the parlour was at their service
+for a private interview, but Mark answered, 'My wife is anxious to
+hear.  She knows all that I do, and is quite prepared to hear
+whatever Mr. Dutton may not object to saying before her.'
+
+So they bade good-night to Mary, and went on together to the next
+house, Mr. Dutton saying 'You have much to forgive me, Mr. Egremont;
+I feel as if I had deserted the ship just as I had induced you to
+embark in it.'
+
+'You did not guess how ill it would be steered without you,' returned
+Mark, with a sigh.  'Do not fear to speak out before my wife, even if
+we are sinking.  She will hear it bravely, and smile to the last.'
+
+The room which Mr. Dutton entered was not like the cabin of a sinking
+ship, nor, as in his own time, like the well-ordered apartment of a
+bachelor of taste.  Indeed, the house was a great puzzle to Monsieur,
+who entered by invitation, knowing his way perfectly, thinking
+himself at home after all his travels, and then missing his own
+particular mat, and sniffing round at the furniture.  It was of the
+modified aesthetic date, but arranged more with a view to comfort
+than anything else, and by the light of the shaded lamp and bright
+fire was pre-eminently home-like, with the three chairs placed round
+the hearth, and bright-haired Annaple rising up from the lowest with
+her knitting to greet Mr. Dutton, and find a comfortable lair for
+Monsieur.
+
+'Miss Nugent says that you set everything right that you do but look
+at, Mr. Dutton,' she said; 'so we are prepared to receive you as a
+good genius to help us out of our tangle.'
+
+Mr. Dutton was afraid that the tangle was far past unwinding, and of
+course the details, so far as yet known, were discussed.  There was,
+in truth, nothing for which Mark could be blamed.  He had diligently
+attended to his office-work, which was mere routine, and, conscious
+of his own inexperience, and trusting to the senior partners, he had
+only become anxious at the end of the year, when he perceived
+Goodenough's avoidance of a settlement of accounts, and detected
+shuffling.  He had not understood enough of the previous business to
+be aware of the deterioration of the manner of dealing with it,
+though he did think it scarcely what he expected.  If he had erred,
+it was in acting too much as a wheel in the machinery, keeping his
+thoughts and heart in his own happy little home, and not throwing
+himself into the spirit of the business, or the ways of those
+concerned in it, so that he had been in no degree a controlling
+power.  He had allowed his quality of gentleman to keep him an
+outsider, instead of using it to raise the general level of the
+transactions, so that the whole had gone down in the hands of the
+unscrupulous Goodenough.
+
+Annaple listened and knitted quietly while the affairs were explained
+on either hand.  Mark had had one serious talk with George Greenleaf,
+and both had had a stormy scene with Goodenough.  Then Mr. Dutton had
+telegraphed his arrival, and Greenleaf had met him in London, with
+hopes, bred of long and implicit trust, that his sagacity and perhaps
+his wealth would carry the old house through the crisis.
+
+But Mr. Dutton, though reserving his judgment till the books should
+have been thoroughly examined and the liabilities completely
+understood, was evidently inclined to believe that things had gone
+too far, and that the names of Greenleaf and Egremont could only be
+preserved from actual dishonour by going into liquidation, dissolving
+partnership, and thus getting quit of Goodenough.
+
+Mark listened resignedly, Annaple with an intelligence that made Mr.
+Dutton think her the more clearheaded of the two, though still she
+could not refrain from her little jokes.  'I'm sure I should not mind
+how liquid we became if we could only run off clear of Goodenough,'
+she said.
+
+'You know what it means?' said her husband.
+
+'Oh yes, I know what it means.  It is the fine word for being sold
+up.  Well, Mark, never mind, we are young and strong, and it will not
+be a bit the worse for the Billy-boy in the end to begin at the
+bottom of everything.'
+
+'I hope--may I ask--is everything embarked in the poor old firm?'
+said Mr. Dutton with some hesitation.
+
+'All that is mine,' said Mark, with his elbow on the table and his
+chin on his hand.
+
+'But I've got a hundred a year, charged on poor old Ronnisglen's
+estate,' said Annaple.  'All the others gave theirs up when they
+married, and I wanted to do so, but my dear mother would not let me;
+she said I had better try how I got on first.  Think of that, Mark, a
+hundred a year!  Why, old Gunner or Thorpe would think themselves
+rolling in riches if they only heard that they had a hundred a year!'
+
+'You won't find it go far!'
+
+'Yes, I shall, for I shall make you live on porridge, with now and
+then a sheep's head for a treat!  Besides, there will be something to
+do.  It will be working up again, you know.  But seriously, Mr.
+Dutton, I have some things here of my dear mother's that really
+belong to Ronnisglen, and I was only keeping till he comes home.
+Should not they be got out of the way?'
+
+'My dear, we are not come to that yet!  I hope it may be averted!'
+cried Mark.
+
+But Mr. Dutton agreed with the young wife that it would be much
+better to send these things away before their going could excite
+suspicion.  There was only a tiny silver saucepan, valued as a gift
+of 'Queen' Clementina to an ancestress, also a silver teapot and some
+old point, and some not very valuable jewellery, all well able to go
+into a small box, which Mr. Dutton undertook to deposit with Lord
+Ronnisglen's bankers.  He was struck with the scrupulous veracity
+with which Annaple decided between what had become her own property
+and the heirlooms, though what she claimed might probably be
+sacrificed to the creditors.
+
+Mark could hardly endure to see what made the crisis so terribly
+real.  'That I should have brought you to this!' he said to his wife,
+when their visitor had at length bidden them good-night.
+
+'If we begin at that work,' said Annaple, 'it was I who brought you!
+I have often thought since it was rather selfish not to have
+consented to your helping poor Ursula with her heavy handful of a
+father!  It was all money grubbing and grabbing, you see, and if we
+had thought more of our neighbour than ourselves we might have been
+luxuriating at the Home Farm, or even if your uncle had quarrelled
+with you, he would not have devoured your substance.  I have thought
+so often, ever since I began to see this coming.'
+
+'My dear child, you don't mean that you have seen this coming!'
+
+'My prophetic soul!  Why, Mark, you have as good as inferred it over
+and over again.  I've felt like scratching that Badenough whenever I
+met him in the street.  I must indulge myself by calling him so for
+once in strict privacy.'
+
+'You have guessed it all the time, while I only thought how
+unconscious you were.'
+
+'Not to say stupid, considering all you told me.  Besides, what would
+have been the use of howling and moaning and being dismal before the
+time?  For my part, I could clap my hands even now at getting rid of
+Goodenough, and his jaunty, gracious air!  Come, Mark, it won't be so
+bad after all, you'll see.'
+
+'Nothing can be "so bad," while you are what you are, my Nan.'
+
+'That's right.  While we have each other and the Billy-boy, nothing
+matters much.  There's plenty of work in us both, and that good man
+will find it for us; or if he doesn't, we'll get a yellow van, and
+knit stockings, and sell them round the country.  How jolly that
+would be!  Imagine Janet's face.  There, that's right,' as her
+mimicry evoked a smile, 'I should be ashamed to be unhappy about
+this, when our good name is saved, and when there is a blessing on
+the poor,' she added in a lower voice, tenderly kissing her husband's
+weary brow.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+THE BOY OF EGREMONT.
+
+
+
+
+'And the boy that walked beside me,
+ He could not understand
+ Why, closer in mine, ah, closer,
+ I press'd his warm soft hand.'--LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+The agony of a firm like Greenleaf, Goodenough, and Co. could not be
+a rapid thing, and Mr. Dutton lived between London and Micklethwayte
+for several weeks, having much to endure on all sides.  The senior
+partners thought it an almost malicious and decidedly ungrateful
+thing in him not to throw in his means, or at any rate, offer his
+guarantee to tide them over their difficulties.  Goodenough's
+tergiversations and concealments needed a practised hand and acute
+head to unravel them, and often deceived Mr. Greenleaf himself; and
+when, for a time, he was convinced that the whole state was so rotten
+that a crash was inevitable, his wife's lamentations and complaints
+of Mr. Dutton would undo the whole, and it was as if he were doing
+them an injury that the pair accepted the comfortable prospect he was
+able to offer them in Australia.
+
+He would have made the like proposal to the Egremonts, but found that
+Mark held himself bound by his promise to his father not to emigrate,
+and thought of some kind of office-work.  Before trying to procure
+this for him, however, Mr. Dutton intended to see his uncle, and try
+whether the agency, once rejected, could still be obtained for him.
+Learning from Miss Nugent that the Egremonts were in town, he went up
+thither with the purpose of asking for an interview.
+
+There was a new church in the immediate neighbourhood of his house in
+a state of growth and development congenial to the St. Ambrose
+trained mind, and here Mr. Dutton, after old Micklethwayte custom,
+was attending the early matins, when, in the alternate verses of the
+psalm, he heard a fresh young voice that seemed to renew those days
+gone by, and looking across the central aisle his eyes met a pair of
+dark ones which gave a sudden glitter of gladness at the encounter.
+That was all he saw or cared to see.  He did not take in the finished
+completeness of the very plain dark dress and hat, nor the womanly
+air of the little figure, until they clasped hands in the porch, and
+in the old tones Nuttie exclaimed:  'I've been hoping you would come
+to London.  How is Monsieur?'
+
+'In high health, thank you, the darling of the steamer both going and
+coming.  I hope your charges are well?'
+
+'My father is tolerable, just as usual, and my little Alwyn is
+getting more delicious every day.  He will be so delighted to see
+Monsieur.  I have told him so many stories about him!'
+
+'Do you think I may call on Mr. Egremont?'
+
+'Oh do!  He is ready to be called on between two and three, and we
+always have Wynnie downstairs then, so that you will see him too.
+And you have been at Micklethwayte.  I am afraid you found a great
+change in Aunt Ursel.'
+
+'Yes; but she is very peaceful and happy.'
+
+'And I have to leave her altogether to dear excellent Miss Nugent.
+It seems very, very wrong, but I cannot help it!  And how about Mark
+and Annaple?'
+
+'I think she is the bravest woman I ever met.'
+
+'Then things are really going badly with the dear old firm?'
+
+'I am hoping to talk to Mr. Egremont about it.'
+
+'Ah!'
+
+Nuttie paused.  Towards Mr. Dutton she always had a stronger impulse
+of confidence than towards any one else she had ever met; but she
+felt that he might think it unbecoming to say that she had perceived
+a certain dislike on her father's part towards Mark ever since the
+rejection of the agency and the marriage, which perhaps was regarded
+as a rejection of herself.  He had a habit of dependence on Mark,
+which resulted in personal liking, when in actual contact, but in
+absence the distaste and offence always revived, fostered, no doubt,
+by Gregorio; and Canon Egremont's death had broken the link which had
+brought them together.  However, for his brother's sake, and for the
+sake of the name, the head of the family might be willing to do
+something.  It was one of Nuttie's difficulties that she never could
+calculate on the way her father would take any matter.  Whether for
+better or for worse, he always seemed to decide in diametrical
+opposition to her expectation.  And, as she was certainly less
+impetuous and more dutiful, she parted with Mr. Dutton at her own
+door without any such hint.
+
+These three years had been discipline such as the tenderest, wisest
+hand could not have given her, though it had been insensible.  She
+had been obliged to attend to her father and watch over her little
+brother, and though neither task had seemed congenial to her
+disposition, the honest endeavour to do them rightly had produced the
+affection born of solicitude towards her father, and the strong warm
+tenderness of the true mother-sister towards little Alwyn.
+
+Ursula Egremont was one of those natures to which responsibility is
+the best training.  If she had had any one to guard or restrain her,
+she might have gone to the utmost limits before she yielded to the
+curb.  As it was, she had to take care of herself, to bear and
+forbear with her father, to walk warily with her household, and to be
+very guarded with the society into which she was thrown from time to
+time.  It was no sudden change, but one brought about by experience.
+An outbreak of impatience or temper towards her father was sure to be
+followed by his galling sneer, or by some mortification to her
+desires; any act of mismanagement towards the servants brought its
+own punishment; and if she was tempted by girlish spirits to relax
+the quiet, stiff courtesy which she observed towards her father's
+guests, there followed jests, or semi-patronage, or a tone of
+conversation that offended her, and made her repent it.  Happily, Mr.
+Egremont did not wish her to be otherwise.  One day, when she had
+been betrayed into rattling and giggling, he spoke to her afterwards
+with a cutting irony which bitterly angered her at the moment, and
+which she never forgot.  Each irksome duty, each privation, each
+disappointment, each recurrence of the sweeping sense of desolation
+and loneliness had had one effect--it had sent her to her knees.  She
+had no one else to go to.  She turned to her Father in heaven.
+Sometimes, indeed, it was in murmuring and complaint at her lot, but
+still it was to Him and Him alone, and repentance sooner or later
+came to aid her, while refreshments sprang up around her--little
+successes, small achievements, pleasant hours, tokens that her father
+was pleased or satisfied, and above all, the growing charms of little
+Alwyn.
+
+The special grievance, Gregorio's influence, had scarcely dwelt on
+her at first as it had done on her mother.  The man had been very
+cautious for some time, knowing that his continuance in his situation
+was in the utmost jeopardy, and Mr. Egremont had, in the freshness of
+his grief for his wife, abstained from relapsing into the habits from
+which she had weaned him.  When, however, the Canon was dead, and his
+son at a distance, Gregorio began to feel more secure, and in the
+restless sorrow of his master over the blow that had taken away an
+only brother, he administered soothing drugs under another name, so
+that Ursula, in her inexperience, did not detect what was going on,
+and still fancied that the habit had been renounced.  All she did
+know was that it was entirely useless for her to attempt to exert any
+authority over the valet, and that the only way to escape insolently
+polite disobedience was to let him alone.  Moreover, plans to which
+her father had agreed, when broached by her, had often been
+overthrown after his valet had been with him.  It was a life full of
+care and disappointment, yet there was a certain spring of trust that
+kept Ursula's youth from being dimmed, and enabled her to get a fair
+share of happiness out of it, though she was very sorry not to be
+more at Bridgefield, where she could have worked with all her heart
+with May Condamine.  Moreover, Lady Kirkaldy's absence from London
+was a great loss to her, for there was no one who was so kind or so
+available in taking her into society; and Nuttie, though mistress of
+her father's house, was not yet twenty-two, and strongly felt that
+she must keep within careful bounds, and not attempt to be her own
+chaperon.
+
+But the very sight of her old friend, and the knowledge that he was
+in the neighbourhood, filled her heart with gladness, and seemed like
+a compensation for everything.  Mr. Egremont was in a gracious mood,
+and readily consented to see Mr. Dutton--the friend who had been so
+pleasant and helpful at Paris--and Nuttie gave her private
+instructions to the footman to insure his admittance.
+
+His card was brought in just as the father and daughter were
+finishing luncheon, and he was received in Mr. Egremont's sitting-
+room, where the first civilities had hardly passed before the door
+was opened, and in trotted the golden-haired boy, so beautiful a
+child that it would have been impossible not to look at him with
+delight, even for those to whom his dark eyes and sweet smile did not
+recall those that had once been so dear.
+
+Mr. Egremont's voice took a fresh tone: 'Ah! here he comes, the old
+fellow'--and he held out his hands; but the boy was intent on his own
+purpose.
+
+'Where's black doggie?' he asked in a silver-bell of a little voice,
+but lisping a good deal; 'Wyn got penny for him.'
+
+'Wynnie must be a good boy.  Kiss papa first, and Mr. Dutton,'
+remonstrated the sister; and Alwyn obeyed so far as to submit to his
+father's embrace, and then raising those velvety eyes to the
+visitor's face, he repeated: 'Where black doggie?  Wyn want to see
+him buy bun.'
+
+'There! your fame has preceded you,' said Mr. Egremont, 'or rather
+your dog's.'
+
+'You shall see him,' said Mr. Dutton, taking the pretty boy almost
+reverently on his knee, 'but he is at home now.  I could not leave
+him out on the street, and I did not know if I might bring him in.'
+
+'Oh, Mr. Dutton! as if Monsieur would not be welcome,' cried the
+Nuttie of old times.  'I only wish I had stipulated for him, dear old
+fellow.'
+
+'Wyn want to see him,' reiterated the child.
+
+'May I take him to see the performance?' said Mr. Dutton.  'I live
+only at the corner of Berkshire Road, and there's a dairy just
+opposite where Monsieur has been allowed to keep up his
+accomplishment.'
+
+Alwyn's legs, arms, and voice, were all excitement and entreaty; and
+Mr. Egremont himself proposed that they should all come and witness
+the feat; so Nuttie, in great glee, climbed the stairs with her
+little brother to get ready; and when she came down again, found the
+gentlemen deep, not in Mark Egremont's umbrellas, but in the gas and
+smoke grievances which had arisen since the lease of the house had
+been taken, and in which sympathy might be expected from a fellow-
+inhabitant of the district.  Little Alwyn was, however, plainly the
+lord of the ascendant, and unused to see anything else attended to in
+his presence.  He took possession of Mr. Dutton's hand, and his
+tongue went fast, nor did his father or sister seem to desire any
+better music.  They reached an old-walled garden, with lilac and
+laburnum and horse-chestnut blossoming above, and showing a mass of
+greenery through the iron railing that surmounted, the low wall on
+the street side, where Mr. Dutton halted and took out his key.
+
+'Is this yours?' exclaimed Nuttie, 'I have so often wondered whose it
+could be.'
+
+'Yes, it was a country-house when I was of the age of this little
+man, though you might not think it.'
+
+'The increase of London had not been on that side,' said Mr.
+Egremont.  'This must be a very valuable property!'
+
+And Nuttie perceived that such an inheritance made Mr. Dutton much
+more in his eyes than an ex-umbrella-monger; but no sooner was the
+tall iron gate opened than Monsieur, beautifully shaved, with all his
+curly tufts in perfection, came bounding to meet his master, and
+Alwyn had his arms round the neck in a moment.  Monsieur had in his
+time been introduced to too many children not to understand the
+situation, and respond politely; and he also recognised Ursula, and
+gave unmistakable proofs of being glad to see her.
+
+Then the halfpenny was presented to him.  He wagged his queer tail,
+smiled with his intelligent brown eyes, took it between his teeth,
+and trotted across the street in the most business-like way, the
+others following, but detaining the boy from keeping too close.
+They found the creature sitting upright, tapping the floor with his
+tail, the centre of rapturous admiration to all the customers already
+in the dairy shop.  He received his bun, and demurely dropping on his
+front legs, walked back with it to his master, and crossed the road
+with it uneaten, rather to Alwyn's disappointment, but Mr. Dutton
+said he would probably dispose of it in some hiding-place in the
+garden until his evening appetite came on.  It was well he was a dog
+of moderation, for there was great temptation to repeat the
+entertainment more than was wholesome for him.
+
+'There, Wynnie,' said Nuttie in a voice of monition, 'Monsieur
+doesn't eat all his goodies at once, he keeps them for bedtime.'
+
+It might be perceived that the over-supply of sweets was a matter of
+anxiety to the elder sister.  To the nurse, who waited in readiness,
+Alwyn was consigned for his walk, while his father and sister
+accepted Mr. Dutton's invitation to look round his domain.  It would
+have been small in the country, but it was extensive for the
+locality, and there was a perfect order and trimness about the shaven
+lawn, the little fountain in the midst, the flower-beds gay with
+pansies, forget-me-nots, and other early beauties, and the freshly-
+rolled gravel paths, that made Nuttie exclaim: 'Ah! I should have
+known this for yours anywhere.'
+
+'I have not had much to do to it,' he said.  'My old aunts had it
+well kept up, even when they could only see it from their windows.
+Their old gardener still lives in the cottage behind the tool-house,
+though he is too infirm for anything but being wheeled about in the
+sun in their Bath-chair.'
+
+'You keep a large amount lying idle by retaining it as it is,' said
+Mr. Egremont.
+
+'True, but it is well to preserve an oasis here and there.'
+
+Nuttie knew well that it was not for himself alone, and as they
+entered the little conservatory, and her eye fell on the row of white
+hyacinths, the very scent carried her back to the old times, and her
+eyes grew moist while Mr. Dutton was cutting a bouquet for her in
+accordance with well-known tastes.
+
+'I shall put them in my room.  It will feel like home,' she said, and
+then she saw that she had said what her father did not like; for he
+was always sensitive as to any reference to her early life.
+
+Mr. Dutton, however, took this opportunity of saying that he had been
+backwards and forwards to Micklethwayte several times this spring.
+
+'I hope you are well out of the concern there,' said Mr. Egremont.
+
+'Thank you, sir; I have no share in it at present.'
+
+'So much the better!'
+
+'But I am very anxious about my friends.'
+
+'Ah!'  But Mr. Egremont's attention was drawn off at the entrance of
+the house by a new-fashioned stove of which Mr. Dutton did the
+honours, conducting father and daughter into the drawing-room, where
+obvious traces of the old ladies remained, and thence into his own
+sitting-room, smelling pleasantly of Russia leather, and recalling
+that into which Nuttie had been wont, before her schooldays, to climb
+by the window, and become entranced by the illustrations of a
+wonderful old edition of Telemaque, picked up at Paris.
+
+Mr. Dutton made them sit and rest, for this had been a good deal of
+exercise for Mr. Egremont; coffee was brought in, having been ordered
+on their arrival, and therewith Mr. Dutton entered on an exposition
+of the affairs of Greenleaf and Goodenough, which was listened to
+with a good deal of interest, though Nuttie could not quite detect
+whether it were altogether friendly interests in Mark's misfortunes,
+or if there were not a certain triumph in the young man having run
+into trouble by rejecting his offer.
+
+Mr. Dutton explained that his present object was to induce the
+friends of the family to prevent annoyance by preserving the
+furniture and personals at a valuation; and Mr. Egremont readily
+agreed to contribute to doing this, though he said the sisters and
+stepmother were well able also to do their share.
+
+'And then to give the young people a fresh start,' added Mr. Dutton.
+
+'There are some men who are always wanting fresh starts,' said Mr.
+Egremont, 'just as there are some vessels that are always unlucky.
+And if you observe, it is just those men who are in the greatest
+haste to hang an expensive wife and family round their necks.'
+
+'I don't think poor Annaple can be accused of being expensive, papa,'
+said Nuttie.  'Only think, when Wynnie has two nurses always after
+him, her Willie has only the fraction of a little maid, who does all
+sorts of work besides.'
+
+'Yes, I never saw more resolute and cheerful exertion than Mrs. Mark
+Egremont's,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'She owes him something,' said Mr. Egremont, 'for she has been the
+ruin of him.'
+
+'Of his worldly prospects in one sense,' said Mr. Dutton quietly;
+while Nuttie felt how much better and wiser an answer it was than the
+indignant denial that trembled on her tongue.  'There can be no doubt
+that they made a grievous mistake in their choice, and I
+unfortunately was concerned in leading them into it; but no one can
+see how they meet their troubles without great respect and
+admiration, and I am especially bound to seek for some new opening
+for them.  I have little doubt that some office work might be found
+for him in London, but they are essentially country people, and it
+would be much better for them if he could have some agency.  I
+suppose the situation you offered him before, sir, is filled up? '
+
+'Not really,' cried Nuttie.  'We have only a very common sort of
+uneducated bailiff, who would be much better with some one over him.
+You said so, papa.'
+
+'Did he request you to apply to me?' said Mr. Egremont sharply,
+looking at Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Neither he nor she has the least idea of my intention; I only
+thought, sir, you might be willing to consider how best to assist a
+nephew, who has certainly not been wanting either in industry or
+economy, and who bears your name.'
+
+'Well, I will think it over,' said Mr. Egremont, rising to take
+leave.
+
+The carriage had been bidden to await them at the door for their
+daily drive, and as Mr. Egremont leant back with the furs disposed
+over him he observed: 'That's a man who knows how to take care of
+himself.  I wonder where he gets his coffee, I've not drunk any like
+it since I was at Nice.'  And Nuttie, though well knowing that Mr.
+Dutton's love of perfection was not self-indulgence, was content to
+accept this as high approbation, and a good augury for Mark and
+Annaple.  Indeed, with Mr. Dutton settled near, and with the prospect
+of a daily walk from church with him, she felt such a complete
+content and trust as she had not known since she had been uprooted
+from Micklethwayte.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+A BRAVE HEART.
+
+
+
+
+'One furnace many times the good and bad may hold,
+ Yet what consumes the chaff will only cleanse the gold.'
+                                     Archbishop TRENCH.
+
+
+Never was there a truer verse than that which tells us that in
+seeking duty we find pleasure by the way, and in seeking pleasure we
+meet pain.  It might be varied to apply to our anticipations of
+enjoyment or the reverse.  Ursula had embraced her lot as a
+necessity, and found it enlivened by a good many sunshiny hours; and
+when she looked upon Mr. Dutton's neighbourhood as a continual source
+of delight and satisfaction, she found that it gave rise to a
+continual course of small disappointments.
+
+In the first place, he did not walk home from church with her every
+morning.  She looked for him in vain, even when she knew he was in
+town.  He only appeared there on Sundays, and at intervals when he
+had some especial reason for speaking to her.  At first she thought
+he must have grown lazy or out of health to have thus dropped his old
+Micklethwayte habits, but after a time she discovered by accident
+that he frequented another church, open at a still earlier hour and a
+little farther off, and she was forced to come to the conclusion that
+he acted out of his characteristic precise scrupulosity, which would
+not consider it as correct for her to walk home every day with him.
+She chafed, and derided 'the dear old man' a little in her own mind,
+then ended with a sigh.  Was there any one who cared so much about
+what was proper for her?  And, after all, was he really older than
+Mr. Clarence Fane, whom everybody in her father's set called
+Clarence, or even Clare, and treated as the boy of the party, so that
+she had taken it as quite natural that he should be paired off with
+her.  It was quite a discovery!
+
+There was another and more serious disappointment.  Mr. Egremont had
+not seemed disinclined to consider the giving the agency to Mark, and
+Nuttie had begun to think with great satisfaction of May Condamine's
+delight in welcoming him, and of the good influence that would be
+brought to bear on the dependents, when suddenly there came a
+coolness.  She could trace the moment, and was sure that it was, when
+Gregorio became aware of what was intended.  He had reason to dread
+Mark as an enemy, and was likely to wish to keep him at a distance;
+and it had been Ursula's great hope that an absolute promise might
+have been given before he heard of the plan; but Mr. Egremont was
+always slow to make up his mind, except when driven by a sudden
+impulse, and had never actually said that the post should be offered
+to his nephew.  Nuttie only detected the turn of the tide by the want
+of cordiality, the hums and haws, and by and by the resumption of the
+unkind ironical tone when Mark and Annaple were mentioned; and at
+last, when she had been reading to him a letter from Mrs. William
+Egremont full of anxiety for the young people, and yet of trust in
+his kindness to them, he exclaimed, 'You've not been writing to her
+about this absurd proposal?'
+
+'I have not mentioned any proposal at all.  What do you mean?'
+
+'Why, this ridiculous idea about the agency.  As if I was going to
+put my affairs into the hands of a man who has made such a mull of
+his own.'
+
+'But that was not Mark's fault, papa.  He was junior, you know, and
+had no power over that Goodenough.'
+
+'He ought, then!  Never sail with an unlucky captain.  No, no, Mark's
+honourable lady would not let him take the agency when he might have
+had it, and I am not going to let them live upon me now that they
+have nothing of their own.'
+
+'Oh, papa, but you almost promised!'
+
+'Almost!' he repeated with his ironical tone; 'that's a word capable
+of a good deal of stretching.  This is what you and that umbrella
+fellow have made out of my not giving him a direct refusal on the
+spot.  He may meddle with Mark's affairs if he chooses, but not with
+mine.'
+
+Nuttie had learnt a certain amount of wisdom, and knew that to argue
+a point only made her father more determined, so she merely answered,
+'Very well;' adding in a meek voice, 'Their furniture, poor things!'
+
+'Oh ay.  Their umbrella friend is making a collection for them.  Yes,
+I believe I said I would contribute.'
+
+Hot blood surged up within Nuttie at the contemptuous tone, and she
+bit her lip to keep down the answer, for she knew Mr, Dutton intended
+to call the next afternoon for her father's ultimatum before going
+down to Micklethwayte, where the crisis was fast approaching, and she
+had so much faith in his powers that she dreaded to forestall him by
+an imprudent word.  Alas, Gregorio must have been on his guard, for,
+though Nuttie was sure she heard her friend's ring at the usual time,
+no entrance followed.  She went up to put on her habit to ride with
+her father, and when she came down Mr. Egremont held out a card with
+the name 'Philip Dutton,' and the pencilled request below to be
+allowed to see Mr. Egremont later in the day.
+
+'He has been denied!' exclaimed she in consternation.
+
+'Hein!  Before we go out, sit down and write a note for me.'  And he
+dictated--
+
+
+     'Dear Sir--I will not trouble you to call again this
+      afternoon, as I have decided on reflection that there
+      is no employment on my estate suited to my nephew,
+      Mark Egremont.
+
+     'As I understand that you are raising a family
+      subscription for rescuing his furniture from the
+      creditors, I enclose a cheque for £50 for the purpose.
+                                           --I remain--'
+
+
+'Yours--what--papa?--' asked Ursula, with a trembling voice, full of
+tears.
+
+'Yours, etc., of course.  Quite intimate enough for an ex-umbrella-
+monger.  Here, give it to me, and I'll sign it while you fill up the
+cheque for me.'
+
+That such should be the first letter that Nuttie ever addressed to
+Mr. Dutton, since the round-hand one in 'which Miss Ursula wished Mr.
+Duton to have the onner of a tee with me on my birthday, and I am
+your affected little Nuttie'!
+
+She hoped to explain and lament the next morning, after church.  He
+would surely come to talk it over with her; but he only returned a
+civil note with his receipt, and she did not see him again before his
+departure.  She was greatly vexed; she had wanted so much to tell him
+how it was, and then came an inward consciousness that she would
+probably have told him a great deal too much.
+
+Was it that tiresome prudence of his again that would think for her
+and prevent impulsive and indignant disclosures?  It made her bring
+down her foot sharply on the pavement with vexation as she suspected
+that he thought her so foolish, and then again her heart warmed with
+the perception of self-denying care for her.  She trusted to that
+same prudence for no delusive hopes having been given to Mark and his
+wife.
+
+She did so justly.  Mr. Dutton had thought the matter far too
+uncertain to be set before them.  The Canoness's vague hopes had been
+the fruit of a hint imprudently dropped by Nuttie herself in a letter
+to Blanche.  She had said more to Miss Nugent, but Mary was a
+nonconductor.  Mr. Dutton's heart sank as he looked at the houses,
+and he had some thoughts of going to her first for intelligence, but
+Annaple had spied him, and ran out to the gate to welcome him.
+
+'Oh, Mr. Dutton, I'm so glad!  Mark will be delighted.'
+
+'Is he at home?'
+
+'Oh no, at the office, wading through seas of papers with Mr.
+Greenleaf, but he will come home to eat in a quarter of an hour.  So
+come in;' then, as her boy's merry voice and a gruffer one were
+heard, 'That's the bailiff.  He is Willie's devoted slave.'
+
+'I hoped to have been in time to have saved you that.'
+
+'Well, I'm convinced that among the much maligned races are bailiffs.
+I wonder what I could get by an article on prejudice against classes!
+I was thinking how much beer I should have to lay in for this one,
+and behold he is a teetotaller, and besides that amateur nurse-maid,
+parlour-maid, kitchen-maid, etc. etc.--'
+
+'What bailiff could withstand Mrs. Egremont?  Perhaps you have tamed
+him?'
+
+'Not I.  The cook did that.  Indeed I believe there's a nice little
+idyll going on in the kitchen, and besides he wore the blue ribbon,
+and was already a devoted follower of young Mr. Godfrey!'
+
+'However, if the valuation is ready, I hope you may be relieved from
+him, if you won't be too much concerned at the parting!'
+
+'Mrs. Egremont told us that our people are very good to us,' said
+Annaple, 'and don't mean to send us out with nothing but a pack at
+our backs.  It is very kind in them and in you, Mr. Dutton, to take
+the trouble of it!  No, I'll not worry you with thanks.  The great
+point is, hope for something for Mark to do.  That will keep up his
+spirits best!  Poor Mr. Greenleaf is so melancholy that it is all I
+can do to keep him up to the mark.'
+
+'I have been making inquiries, and I have three possible openings,
+but I hardly like to lay them before you.'
+
+'Oh, we are not particular about gentility!  It is work we want, and
+if it was anything where I could help that would be all the better!
+I'm sure I only wonder there are so many as three.  I think it is
+somebody's doing.  Ah! there's Mark,' and she flew out to meet him.
+'Mark!' she said, on the little path, 'here's the good genius, with
+three chances in his pocket.  Keep him to luncheon.  I've got plenty.
+Poor old man, how hot you look!  Go and cool in the drawing-room,
+while I wash my son's face.'
+
+And she disappeared into the back regions, while Mark, the smile she
+had called up vanishing from his face, came into the drawing-room,
+and held out a cordial, thankful hand to his friend, whose chief
+intelligence was soon communicated.  'Yes,' said Mark, when he heard
+the amount entrusted by the family to Mr. Dutton, 'that will save all
+my wife's poor little household gods.  Not that I should call them
+so, for I am sure she does not worship them.  I don't know what would
+become of me if she were like poor Mrs. Greenleaf, who went into
+hysterics when the bailiff arrived, and has kept her room ever since.
+I sometimes feel as if nothing could hurt us while Annaple remains
+what she is.'
+
+Mr. Dutton did not wonder that he said so, when she came in leading
+her little son, with his sunny hair newly brushed and shining, and
+carrying a little bouquet for the guest of one La Marque rosebud and
+three lilies of the valley.
+
+'Take it to Mr. Dutton, Billy-boy; I think he knows how the flowers
+came into the garden.  You shall have daddy's button-hole to take to
+him next.  There, Mark, it is a pansy of most smiling countenance,
+such as should beam on you through your accounts.  I declare, there's
+that paragon of a Mr. Jones helping Bessy to bring in dinner!  Isn't
+it very kind to provide a man-servant for us?'
+
+It might be rattle, and it might be inconsequent, but it was much
+pleasanter than hysterics.  Billy-boy was small enough to require a
+good deal of attention at dinner, especially as he was more disposed
+to open big blue eyes at the stranger, than to make use of his spoon,
+and Annaple seemed chiefly engrossed with him, though a quick keen
+word at the right moment showed that she was aware of all that was
+going on, as Mark and Mr. Dutton discussed the present situation and
+future measures.
+
+It was quite true that a man concerned in a failure was in great
+danger of being left out of the race for employment, and Mr. Dutton
+did not think it needful to mention the force of the arguments he was
+using to back his recommendation of Mark Egremont.  The possibilities
+he had heard of were a clerkship at a shipping agent's, another at a
+warehouse in their own line, and a desk at an insurance office.  This
+sounded best, but had the smallest salary to begin with, and locality
+had to be taken into account.  Mr. Dutton's plan was, that as soon as
+Mark was no longer necessary for what Annaple was pleased to call the
+fall of the sere and withered leaf, the pair should come to stay with
+him, so that Mark could see his possible employers, and Annaple
+consider of the situations.  They accepted this gratefully, Mark only
+proposing that she should go either to his stepmother or her own
+relations to avoid the final crisis.
+
+'As if I would!' she exclaimed.  'What sort of a little recreant
+goose do you take me for?'
+
+'I take you for a gallant little woman, ready to stand in the
+breach,' said Mark.
+
+'Ah, don't flatter yourself!  There is a thing I have not got courage
+to face--without necessity, and that's Janet's triumphant pity.  Mr.
+Dutton lives rather too near your uncle, but he is a man, and he
+can't be so bad.'
+
+This of course did not pass till Mr. Dutton had gone in to greet the
+ladies next door, to promise to tell them of their child at length
+when the business hours of the day should be over.
+
+Shall it be told?  There was something in his tone--perfectly
+indefinable, with which he spoke of 'Miss Egremont,' that was like
+the old wistfully reverential voice in which he used to mention 'Mrs.
+Egremont.'  It smote Mary Nugent's quiet heart with a pang.  Was it
+that the alteration from the old kindly fatherliness of regard to
+'little Nuttie' revealed that any dim undefined hope of Mary's own
+must be extinguished for ever; or was it that she grieved that he
+should again be wasting his heart upon the impracticable?
+
+A little of both, perhaps, but Mary was as ready as ever to
+sympathise, and to rejoice in hearing that the impetuous child had
+grown into the forbearing dutiful woman.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+A FRESH START.
+
+
+
+
+'Did you say that Mark and his wife were come to Springfield House?'
+
+'They come the day after to-morrow,' answered Ursula.  'Mark could
+not finish up the business sooner.'
+
+'Well, I suppose we must have them to dinner for once.  He has made a
+fool of himself, but I won't have the Canoness complaining that I
+take no notice of him; and it is easier done while he is there than
+when he has got into some hole in the City--that is if he ever gets
+anything to do.'
+
+'Mr. Dutton has several situations in view for him.'
+
+'In view.  That's a large order.  Or does it mean living on Dutton
+and doing something nominal?  I should think Dutton too old and sharp
+a hand for that, though he is quartering them on himself.'
+
+'I believe there is nothing Mr. Dutton would like better, if he
+thought it right for them, but I am quite sure Mark and Annaple would
+not consent.'
+
+'Ha, ha!' and Mr. Egremont laughed.  'Their nose is not brought to
+the grindstone yet!  Say Saturday, then, Ursula.'
+
+'Am I to ask Mr. Dutton?'
+
+'Of course; I'm not going to have a tete-a-tete with Master Mark.'
+
+So Ursula had the satisfaction of writing a more agreeable note to
+Mr. Dutton than her last, and her invitation was accepted, but to her
+vexation Mr. Egremont further guarded himself from anything
+confidential by verbally asking Mr. Clarence Fane on that very day,
+and as that gentleman was a baronet's son, she knew she should fall
+to his lot at dinner, and though she was glad when this was the case
+at their ordinary parties, it was a misfortune on the present
+occasion.  She had not seen Annaple since her marriage, except at the
+family gathering on the Canon's death, when she was very much
+absorbed by the requirements of the stricken household; and Nuttie
+expected to see her in the same subdued condition.  All Mr. Dutton
+had said or Mary Nugent had written about her courage and
+cheerfulness had given the impression of 'patience smiling at grief,'
+and in a very compassionate mood she started for a forenoon call at
+Springfield House; but, early as it was, nobody was at home, unless
+it might be the little boy, whose voice she thought she heard while
+waiting at the gate.
+
+She was out driving with her father afterwards in the long summer
+evening, and only found Mark's card on returning just in time to
+dress.  It was a bright glaring day, and she was sitting by the
+window, rather inattentively listening to Mr. Fane's criticism of a
+new performance at one of the theatres, when she heard the bell, and
+there entered the slight, bright creature who might still have been
+taken for a mere girl.  The refined though pronounced features, the
+transparent complexion, crispy yellow hair and merry eyes, were as
+sunbeam-like as at the Rectory garden-party almost five years ago,
+and the black dress only marked the contrast, and made the
+slenderness of the figure more evident.
+
+Mark looked older, and wrung his cousin's hand with a pressure of
+gratitude and feeling, but Annaple's was a light little gay kiss, and
+there was an entire unconsciousness about her of the role of poor
+relation.  She made an easy little acknowledgment of the introduction
+of Mr. Fane, and, as Mr. Egremont appeared the next moment, exchanged
+greetings with him in a lively ordinary fashion.
+
+This was just what he liked.  He only wanted to forget what was
+unpleasant, and, giggling Scotch girl as she was, he was relieved to
+find that she could not only show well-bred interest in the surface
+matters of the time, but put in bright flashes of eagerness and
+originality, well seconded by Mr. Dutton.  Mr. Fane was always a
+professor of small talk, and Nuttie had learnt to use the current
+change of society, so that though Mark was somewhat silent, the
+dinner was exceedingly pleasant and lively; and, as Mr. Fane remarked
+afterwards, he had been asked to enliven a doleful feast to ruined
+kindred, he could only say he wished prosperity always made people so
+agreeable.
+
+'This is all high spirit and self-respect,' thought Nuttie.  'Annaple
+is talking as I am, from the teeth outwards.  I shall have it out
+with her when we go upstairs!  At any rate my father is pleased with
+her!'
+
+Nuttie made the signal to move as soon as she could, and as they went
+upstairs, put her arm round the slim waist and gave a sympathetic
+pressure, but the voice that addressed her had still the cheery ring
+that she fancied had been only assumed.
+
+'I'm sorry I missed you, but we set out early and made a day of it;
+and oh! we've been into such funny places as I never dreamt of!  You
+didn't see my boy?'
+
+'No.  I thought I heard him.  I must see him to-morrow.'
+
+'And I must see yours.  May it not be a pleasure to-night?  I've no
+doubt you go and gloat over him at night.'
+
+'Well, I do generally run up after dinner; but after your day, I
+can't think of dragging you up all these stairs.'
+
+'Oh, that's nothing!  Only you see it is jollier to have my Billy-boy
+in the next room.'
+
+They were mounting all the time, and were received in the day nursery
+by the old Rectory nurse, much increased in dignity, but inclined to
+be pathetic as she inquired after 'Mr. Mark,' while Annaple, like a
+little insensible being, answered with provoking complacency as to
+his perfect health, and begged Mrs. Poole to bring Master Alwyn to
+play in the garden at Springfield with her Willie.  In fact there was
+a general invitation already to Alwyn to play there, but his
+attendants so much preferred the society of their congeners in the
+parks that they did not avail themselves of it nearly as often as
+Ursula wished.
+
+Little Alwyn asleep was, of course, a beautiful sight, with a
+precious old headless rabbit pressed tight to his cheek; Annaple's
+face grew tender as she looked at the motherless creature; and she
+admired him to any extent except saying that he excelled her own.
+Being more than a year the elder, there could be no rivalry as to
+accomplishments; but as soon as they were out of the nursery hush,
+Annaple laughed her way down again with tales of Billy-boy's wonder
+at his first experiences of travelling.  They sat down among the
+plants in the balcony, as far from the lamps as possible, and talked
+themselves into intimacy over Micklethwayte.  There are two Eden
+homes in people's lives, one that of later childhood, the other the
+first of wedded happiness, and St. Ambrose Road had the same halo to
+both of these; for both had been uprooted from it against their will;
+the chief difference being that Ursula could cast longing, lingering
+looks behind, while Annaple held herself resolutely steeled against
+sentiment, and would only turn it off by something absurd.  Nothing
+was absolutely settled yet; Mark had been presenting himself at
+offices, and she had been seeing rooms and lodgings.
+
+'The insurance office sounds the best, and would be the least shock
+to our belongings,' said Annaple; 'but it seems to lead to nothing.
+He would not get on unless we had capital to invest, and even if we
+had any, you wouldn't catch us doing that again!'
+
+'Does Mr. Dutton advise that?'
+
+'No, he only thought we should like it better; but we are quite past
+caring for people's feelings in the matter.  They couldn't pity us
+worse than they do.  I incline to Stubbs and Co.  One of them was
+once in the Greenleaf office, and has a regard for anything from
+thence; besides Mark would have something to do besides desk work.
+He would have to judge of samples, and see to the taking in and
+storing of goods.  He does know something about that, and I'm sure it
+would agree with him better than an unmitigated high stool, with his
+nose to a desk.'
+
+'I should like it better.'
+
+'That's right!  Now I have got some one to say so.  Besides, rising
+is possible, if one gets very useful.  I mean to be Mrs. Alderman, if
+not my Lady Mayoress, before we have done.  Then they have a great
+big almost deserted set of rooms over the warehouse, where we might
+live and look after the place.'
+
+'Oh! but should you like that?'
+
+'Mr. Dutton wants us to live out in some of the suburban places,
+where it seems there is a perfect population of clerks' families in
+semi-detached houses.  He says we should save Mark's railway fare,
+rent, and all in doctors' bills.  But people, children and all, do
+live and thrive in the City; and I think Mark's health will be better
+looked after if I am there to give him his midday bite and sup, and
+brush him up, than if he is left to cater for himself; and as to
+exercise for the Billy-boy, 'tis not so far to the Thames Embankment.
+The only things that stagger me are the blacks!  I don't know whether
+life is long enough to be after the blacks all day long, but perhaps
+I shall get used to them!'
+
+'Well, I think that would be worse.'
+
+'Perhaps it would; and at any rate, if the blacks do beat me, we
+could move.  Think, no rent, nor rates, nor taxes--that is an
+inducement to swallow--no--to contend with, any number of
+blackamoors, isn't it? even if they settle on the tip of Billy-boy's
+nose.'
+
+'I could come to see you better there than out in a suburb,' said
+Nuttie.  'But what do these rooms look out upon?'
+
+'On one side into their own court, on the other into Wulstan Street--
+a quiet place on the whole--all walls and warehouses; and there's an
+excellent parish church, Mr. Underwood's; so I think we might do
+worse.'
+
+Nuttie was very sorry that the gentlemen came up, and Mr. Fane
+wandered out and began asking whether they were going to the rose
+show.  Somehow on that evening she became conscious that Annaple
+looked at her and Mr. Fane rather curiously; and when they met again
+the next day, and having grown intimate over the introduction of the
+two little boys, were driving out together, there were questions
+about whether she saw much of him.
+
+'Oh, I don't know!  He is the nicest, on the whole, of papa's
+friends; he can talk of something besides'--Nuttie paused over her
+'besides,'--'horseyness, and all that sort of thing--he is not so
+like an old satyr as some of them are; and so he is a resource.'
+
+'I see.  And you meet him elsewhere, don't you, in general society?'
+
+'I don't go out much now that Lady Kirkaldy is not in town; but he
+always seems to turn up everywhere that one goes.'
+
+'Ursula, I'm very glad of that tone of yours.  I was afraid--'
+
+'Afraid of what?' cried Nuttie in a defiant tone.
+
+'That you liked him, and he is not really nice, Nuttie.  Mark knows
+all about him; and so did I when I lived with the Delmars.'
+
+Nuttie laughed rather bitterly.  'Thank you, Annaple.  As if I could
+care for that man--or he for me, for that matter!  I know but too
+well,' she added gravely, 'that nobody nice is ever intimate at
+home.'
+
+'I beg your pardon.  I would not have worried you about it, only I
+think you must take care, Nuttie, for Blanche mentioned it to us last
+winter.'
+
+'Blanche is an arrant gossip!  If she saw a grandfather and great
+grandmother gossiping she would say they were going to be married.'
+
+'Yes, as Mark says, one always swallows Blanche with a
+qualification.'
+
+'You may be quite sure, Annaple, that nothing like that will ever be
+true about me!  Why, what would ever become of my poor little Wyn if
+I was so horrid as to want to go and marry?'
+
+She said it with an ineffable tone of contempt, just like the
+original Nuttie, who seemed to be recalled by association with
+Annaple.
+
+That sojourn of Mark and his wife at Springfield House was a bright
+spot in that summer.  If it had been only that Annaple's presence
+gave the free entree to such an island of old Micklethwayte, it would
+have been a great pleasure to her; but there was besides the
+happiness of confidence and unrestraint in their society, a restful
+enjoyment only to be appreciated by living the guarded life of
+constraint that was hers.  She was so seldom thrown among people whom
+she could admire and look up to.  Annaple told her husband of
+Nuttie's vehement repudiation of any intention of marriage.  'I am
+sure she meant it,' she observed, 'it was only a little too strong.
+I wonder if that poor youth who came to her first ball, and helped to
+pick us out of the hole in Bluepost Bridge, had anything to do with
+it.'
+
+Annaple had an opportunity of judging.  Mr. Dutton would not have
+brought about a meeting which might be painful and unsettling to
+both; but one afternoon, when Nuttie was 'off duty' with her father,
+and had come in to share Annaple's five o'clock tea, Gerard Godfrey,
+looking the curate from head to foot, made his appearance, having
+come up from the far east, about some call on Mr. Dutton's purse.
+
+The two shook hands with pleased surprise, and a little heightening
+of colour, but that was all.  Nuttie had been out to luncheon, and
+was dressed 'like a mere fashionable young lady' in his eyes; and
+when, after the classes and clubs and schools of his district had
+been discussed, he asked, 'And I suppose you are taking part in
+everything here?'
+
+'No, that I can't!'
+
+'Indeed!  I know Porlock, the second curate here very well, and he
+tells me that his vicar has a wonderful faculty of finding
+appropriate work for every one.  Of course you know him?'
+
+'No, I don't;' said Nuttie.
+
+'Miss Egremont has her appropriate work,' said Mr. Dutton, and the
+deacon felt himself pushed into his old position at Micklethwayte.
+He knew the clergy of the district very well, and how persistently
+either Mr. Egremont, or perhaps Gregorio, prevented their gaining
+admittance at his house; and he guessed, but did not know, that
+Nuttie could not have got into personal intercourse with them without
+flat disobedience.
+
+Annaple threw herself into the breach, and talked of St. Wulstan's;
+and the encounter ended, leaving the sense of having drifted entirely
+away from one another, and being perfectly heart whole, though on the
+one hand Ursula's feeling was of respect and honour; and Gerard's had
+a considerable element of pity and disapprobation.
+
+'No!' said Annaple when they were gone, 'he will not cry like the
+kloarek in the Breton ballad who wetted three great missals through
+with his tears at his first mass.  He is very good, I am sure, but he
+is a bit of a prig!'
+
+'It is very hard to youth to be good without priggishness,' said Mr.
+Dutton.  'Self-assertion is necessary, and it may easily be carried
+too far.'
+
+'Buttresses are useful, but they are not beauties,' rejoined Annaple.
+
+The warehouse arrangement was finally adopted, and after the three
+weeks necessary for the cleaning and fitting of their floor, and the
+bringing in of their furniture, Mark and Annaple began what she
+termed 'Life among the Blacks.'
+
+Nuttie had great designs of constantly seeing Annaple, sending her
+supplies from the gardens and preserves at Bridgefield, taking her
+out for drives, and cultivating a friendship between Alwyn and
+Willie, who had taken to each other very kindly on the whole.  They
+could not exactly understand each other's language, and had great
+fights from time to time over toys, for though there was a year
+between them they were nearly equal in strength; but they cared for
+each other's company more than for anything else, were always asking
+to go to one another, and roared when the time of parting came; at
+least Alwyn did so unreservedly, for Nuttie had begun to perceive
+with compunction that Billy-boy was much the most under control, and
+could try to be good at his mother's word, without other bribe than
+her kiss and smile.  Ah! but he had a mother!
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+NUTTIE'S PROSPECTS.
+
+
+
+
+'Three hundred pounds and possibilities.'
+                            Merry Wives of Windsor.
+
+
+Again Nuttie's plans were doomed to be frustrated.  It did not prove
+to be half so easy to befriend Mr. and Mrs. Mark Egremont as she
+expected, at the distance of half London apart, and with no special
+turn for being patronised on their side.
+
+Her father took a fancy for almost daily drives with her in the park,
+because then he could have Alwyn with him; and the little fellow's
+chatter had become his chief amusement.  Or if she had the carriage
+to herself, there was sure to be something needful to be done which
+made it impossible to go into the city to take up and set down Mrs.
+Mark Egremont; and to leave her to make her way home would be no
+kindness.  So Nuttie only accomplished a visit once before going out
+of town, and that was by her own exertions--by underground railway
+and cab.  Then she found all going prosperously; the blacks not half
+so obnoxious as had been expected (of course not, thought Nuttie, in
+the middle of the summer); the look-out over the yard very amusing to
+Billy-boy; and the large old-fashioned pannelled rooms, so cool and
+airy that Annaple was quite delighted with them, and contemned the
+idea of needing a holiday.  She had made them very pretty and
+pleasant with her Micklethwayte furniture, whose only fault was being
+on too small a scale for these larger spaces, but that had been
+remedied by piecing, and making what had been used for two serve for
+one.
+
+The kitchen was on the same floor, close at hand, which was well, for
+Annaple did a good deal there, having only one young maid for the
+rougher work.  She had taken lessons in the School of Cookery, and
+practised a good deal even at Micklethwayte, and she was proud of her
+skill and economy.  Mark came in for his mid-day refreshment, and
+looked greatly brightened, as if the worst had come and was by no
+means so bad as he expected.  All the time he had been at Mr.
+Dutton's he had been depressed and anxious, but now, with his boy on
+his knee, he was merrier than Nuttie had ever known him.  As to
+exercise, there were delightful evening walks, sometimes early
+marketings in the long summer mornings before business began--and
+altogether it seemed, as Nuttie told her father afterwards, as if she
+had had a glimpse into a little City Arcadia.
+
+'Hein!' said he, 'how long will it last?'
+
+And Nuttie was carried away to Cowes, where he had been persuaded to
+recur to his old favourite sport of yachting.  She would have rather
+liked this if Clarence Fane had not been there too, and continually
+haunting them.  She had been distrustful of him ever since Annaple's
+warning, and it became a continual worry to the motherless girl to
+decide whether his civil attentions really meant anything, or whether
+she were only foolish and ridiculous in not accepting them as freely
+and simply as before.
+
+Of one thing she became sure, namely, that Gregorio was doing
+whatever in him lay to bring them together.
+
+In this seaside temporary abode, great part of the London
+establishment was left behind, and Gregorio condescended to act the
+part of butler, with only a single man-servant under him, and thus he
+had much more opportunity of regulating the admission of visitors
+than at home; and he certainly often turned Mr. Fane in upon her,
+when she had intended that gentleman to be excluded, and contrived to
+turn a deaf or uncomprehending ear when she desired that there should
+be no admission of visitors unless her father was absolutely ready
+for them; and also there were times when he must have suggested an
+invitation to dinner, or a joining in a sail.  No doubt Gregorio
+would have been delighted to see her married, and to be thus free
+from any counter influence over his master; but as she said to
+herself, 'Catch me!  Even if I cared a rush for the man, I could not
+do it.  I don't do my poor father much good, but as to leaving poor
+little Alwyn in his clutches--I must be perfectly demented with love
+even to think of it.'
+
+There was a desire on the valet's part to coax and court little Alwyn
+of which she felt somewhat jealous.  The boy was naturally the pet of
+every one in the household, but he was much less out of Gregorio's
+reach in the present confined quarters, and she could not bear to see
+him lifted up in the valet's arms, allowed to play with his watch,
+held to look at distant sails on board the yacht, or even fed with
+sweet biscuits or chocolate creams.
+
+The Rectory nursery had gone on a strict regimen and nurse was as
+angry as Nuttie herself; but there was no preventing it, for his
+father was not above cupboard love, and never resisted the entreaties
+that were always excited by the sight of dainties, only laughing when
+Nuttie remonstrated, or even saying, 'Never mind sister, Wynnie,
+she's got Mrs. Teachem's cap on,' and making the child laugh by
+pretending to smuggle in papers of sweets by stealth, apart from the
+severe eyes of sister or nurse.
+
+That cut Nuttie to the heart.  To speak of the evils for which self-
+indulgence was a preparation would only make her father sneer at her
+for a second Hannah More.  It was a language he did not understand;
+and as to the physical unwholesomeness, he simply did not choose to
+believe it.  She almost wished Alwyn would for once be sick enough to
+frighten him, but that never happened, nor would he accept nurse's
+statement of the boy being out of order.
+
+Poor little Alwyn, he was less and less of an unmixed joy to her as
+he was growing out of the bounds of babyhood, and her notions of
+discipline were thwarted by her father's unbounded indulgence.  To
+her the child was a living soul, to be trained for a responsible
+position here and for the eternal world beyond; to her father he was
+a delightful plaything, never to be vexed, whose very tempers were
+amusing, especially when they teased the serious elder sister.
+
+'Oh father! do you ever think what it will come to?' Nuttie could not
+help saying one day when Mr. Egremont had prevented her from carrying
+him off in disgrace to the nursery for tying the rolls up in dinner
+napkins to enact Punch and Judy, in spite of his own endeavours to
+prevent the consequent desolation of the preparations.
+
+Mr. Egremont shrugged his shoulders, and only observed, 'An excuse
+for a little home tyranny, eh?  No, no, Wyn; we don't want tame
+little muffs here.'
+
+Nuttie was obliged to run out of the room and--it must be confessed--
+dance and stamp out her agony of indignation and misery that her
+father should be bent on ruining his child, for she could not
+understand that all this was simply the instinctive self-indulgence
+of a drugged brain and dulled conscience.
+
+She did, however, get a little support and help during a brief stay
+in the shooting season at Bridgefield.  The Canoness was visiting the
+Condamines at the Rectory, and very soon understood all the state of
+things, more perhaps from her former nurse than from Ursula.  She was
+witness to one of those trying scenes, when Nuttie had been
+forbidding the misuse of a beautiful elaborate book of nursery
+rhymes, where Alwyn thought proper to 'kill' with repeated stabs the
+old woman of the shoe, when preparing to beat her progeny.
+
+Just as she was getting the dagger paper-knife out of his little
+hand, and was diverting the pout on his swelling lip, his father
+became aware of the contest, and immediately the half conquered boy
+appealed to him.  'Sister naughty.  Won't let Wynnie kill cross ugly
+old woman, beating poor little children.'
+
+'A fellow feeling! eh, sister?  Kill her away, boy, tear her out!
+Yes, give her to sister, and tell her that's the way to serve sour
+females!  I declare, Ursula, she has got something of your
+expression.'
+
+'Oh Wynnie, Wynnie!' said Nuttie, as he trotted up to her, 'is sister
+cross and ugly?' and she opened her arms to him.
+
+'Sister, Wyn's own sister,' said the child affectionately, letting
+himself be kissed as he saw her grieved.  'She shan't be ugly old
+woman--ugly old woman go in fire.'
+
+So perilously near the flame did he run to burn the old woman that
+Mr. Egremont shouted to her that in spite of all that humbug, she was
+perfectly careless of the child, although if she had withheld him she
+would probably have been blamed for thwarting him.
+
+'Are you quite fair towards Ursula?' the aunt ventured to say when
+the girl had gone to dress for walking down with her to the Rectory.
+'It is hard on her, and not good for the boy to upset her authority.'
+
+'Eh?  Why, the girl is just a governess manquee, imbued with the
+spirit of all those old women who bred her up.  A nice life the poor
+child would have of it, but for me.'
+
+'I am sure she is devotedly attached to him.'
+
+'Hein!  So she thinks; but trust human nature for loving to wreak
+discipline on the child who has cut her out.'
+
+'That is scarcely just, Alwyn.  She was greatly relieved to be cut
+out.'
+
+Mr. Egremont laughed at this, and his sister-in-law indignantly added
+with all the authority of a successful parent, 'Anyway, nothing is so
+bad for a child as collision between the authorities in a family.
+Ursula is doing her best to act as a mother to that child, and it
+will be very injurious to him to interfere with her influences.'
+
+'She's a good girl enough--gives very little trouble,' he allowed,
+'but I'm not going to have the boy sat upon.'
+
+As he spoke the words, Nuttie returned, and as soon as she was out of
+the house and out of hearing she exclaimed, 'Oh, Aunt Jane, you see
+how it is!  How am I to prevent my boy from being utterly ruined?'
+
+'I have been speaking to your father,' said Mrs. Egremont, 'but he
+does not seem to understand.  Men don't.  A child's faults and
+fancies seem such trifles to them that they can't see the harm of
+indulging them, and, besides, they expect to be amused.'
+
+'And is that poor dear little fellow to grow up spoilt?' said Nuttie,
+her eyes hot with unshed tears.
+
+'I hope not, Ursula.  I have great confidence in your influence, for
+I see you are a sensible girl.'  This was astonishing praise from the
+Canoness.  'But you will throw away your chances if you keep up a
+continual opposition to what your father allows.  It will be much
+less hurtful if Alwyn does get too much indulgence, and does a little
+unnecessary mischief, than for him to learn to think you the enemy of
+his pleasures, always wanting to check and punish him.  Oh yes,' as
+Nuttie was going to answer, 'I know it is for his real good, but how
+is that baby to understand that?  Indeed, my dear, I know how it is;
+I have gone through the same sort of thing with Basil.'
+
+'Oh, it could never have been so bad!'
+
+'No, of course not; but I have had to allow what I did not like for
+the child rather than let him see the shadow of difference of opinion
+between us, and I don't think it has done him any harm.  The great
+point is that you should keep that poor little fellow's affection and
+respect, and make him unwilling to vex you.'
+
+'That he is, dear little man.  He is sorry when he sees sister
+grieved.  He is always distressed if anything is hurt or pained.  He
+is really tender-hearted.'
+
+'Yes, but boys are boys.  That feeling will fail you if you work it
+too hard, and especially if you show vexation at his pleasures.  Keep
+that for real evils, like falsehood or cruelty.'
+
+'Not for disobedience?'
+
+'The evil of disobedience depends much more upon the authority of an
+order than on the child itself.  If he disobeys you under his
+father's licence, you cannot make much of it.  You have him a good
+deal to yourself?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Then make use of that time to strengthen his principles and sense of
+right and wrong, as well as to secure his affections.  My dear, I
+never saw a girl in a more difficult position than yours, but I see
+you are doing your utmost; only I am afraid the love of sedatives is
+the same.'
+
+'Oh aunt, I did think he had given it up!'
+
+'You are inexperienced, my dear.  I see it in his eyes.  Well, I'm
+afraid there is no stopping that.'
+
+'Mother--' and Nuttie's voice was choked.
+
+'She did her best, but you have not the same opportunities.  It can't
+be helped with a man of that age.  Mark might have done something,
+but he is out of the question now, poor fellow!'
+
+'Indeed, Aunt Jane, I think Mark and Annaple are some of the happiest
+people I ever saw.  I only wish my poor Alwyn were as forward as
+their Billy, but I'm not even allowed to teach him his letters,
+because once he cried over them.'
+
+'I wish they had anything to fall back upon,' said Mrs. Egremont
+anxiously.  'They are so unwilling to let any one know of their
+difficulties that I feel as if I never knew in what straits they may
+be.  You will be sure to let me know, Ursula, if there is anything
+that I can do for them.'
+
+That conversation was a great comfort and help to Nuttie, who was
+pleased to find herself treated as a real friend by her aunt, and
+perceived the wisdom of her advice.  But the watching over the Mark
+Egremonts was a very difficult matter to accomplish, for when she
+went back to London she was warned that Billy had the whooping cough,
+rendering them unapproachable all the winter, so that she could only
+hear of them through Mr. Dutton, whom she continued to see
+occasionally whenever there was anything to communicate.  Mr.
+Egremont rather liked him, and on meeting him in the street, would
+ask him casually in to dinner, or to make up a rubber, or play
+piquet, for he excelled in these arts, and still more in chess, and
+an evening with Mr. Dutton was quite a red-letter time with Nuttie.
+It gave her an indefinable sense of safety and protection; but it was
+not always to be had, for her friend had many engagements, being one
+of the active lay church workers, and devoting two regular evenings
+in each week to Gerard Godfrey's eastern district, where he kept all
+the accounts, had a model court and evening class, besides hospitably
+resting tired clergymen and their wives in his pleasant quiet house.
+
+In the spring Mr. Egremont was laid up with the worst rheumatic
+attack he had yet had, in consequence of yielding to the imperious
+will of his son, who had insisted on standing in a bleak corner to
+see the Life Guards pass by.  On this occasion Nuttie did not prove
+herself the heaven-born nurse that the true heroine ought to be, but
+was extremely frightened, and altogether dependent on Gregorio, who
+knew all about the symptoms, and when to send for the doctor and a
+garde-malade.  Gregorio always talked French to Nuttie when he felt
+himself in the ascendant, as he certainly was at present; but he
+became much less gracious when he heard that Mrs. William Egremont
+might be expected, declaring that madame would only excite his
+master, and that her presence was quite unnecessary.  Her coming had
+been volunteered, but it was a great boon to Ursula, who was thus
+helped out in many perplexities, although Mrs. Egremont was a great
+deal at her step-son's, and neither lady was of much avail in the
+sick-room, during the stress of the illness.  It was never actually
+dangerous, but there was great suffering and much excitement, and for
+four or five days the distress and anxiety were considerable.  After
+this passed off Ursula was surprised to find her company preferred to
+that of her aunt.  She was a better souffre-douleur, was less of a
+restraint, and was besides his regular reader and amanuensis, so that
+as the force of the attack abated, he kept her a good deal in his
+room during the latter part of the day, imparting scraps of
+intelligence, skimming the papers for him, and reading his letters.
+
+There was a lease to be signed, and, as soon as might be, Mr.
+Bulfinch, the Redcastle solicitor, brought it up, and had to be
+entertained at luncheon.  While he was waiting in the drawing-room
+for Mr. Egremont to be made ready for him, he looked with deep
+interest on the little heir, whom Ursula presently led off to the
+other end of the room to the hoard of downstair toys; and an
+elaborate camp was under construction, when by the fireside, the
+Canoness inquired in a low confidential tone, 'May I ask whether you
+came about a will?'
+
+'No, Mrs. Egremont.  I wish I were.  It is only about the lease of
+Spinneycotes farm.'
+
+'Then there is none?'
+
+'None that I am aware of.  None has ever been drawn up by us.
+Indeed, I was wishing that some influence could be brought to bear
+which might show the expedience of making some arrangement.  Any
+melancholy event is, I trust, far distant, but contingencies should
+be provided for.'
+
+'Exactly so.  He is recovering now, but these attacks always leave
+effects on the heart, and at his age, with his habits, no one knows
+what may happen.  Of course it would not make much difference to the
+boy.'
+
+'No, the Court of Chancery would appoint the most suitable natural
+guardians.'
+
+'But,' said Mrs. Egremont, 'I am afraid that the personal property
+when divided would not be much of a provision for her.'
+
+'You are right.  The investments are unfortunately and
+disproportionately small.'
+
+'She ought either to have them all, or there should be a charge on
+the estate,' said the Canoness decisively.  'If possible, he must be
+made to move.'
+
+'Oh, don't!' cried Nuttie, jumping up from the floor.  'He mustn't be
+upset on any account.'
+
+'My dear, I had no notion that you heard us!' exclaimed her aunt.  'I
+thought Alwyn was making too much noise with his soldiers.'
+
+'I beg your pardon,' said Nuttie, 'perhaps I should have spoken
+sooner, but indeed he must not be worried and disturbed,' she added,
+somewhat fiercely.
+
+'Don't be afraid, my dear,' said her aunt.  'Mr. Bulfinch knows that
+your father is in no condition to have such matters brought before
+him.'
+
+'Certainly,' said the old lawyer politely;' and we will trust that
+Miss Egremont's prospects may soon come forward on a more auspicious
+occasion.'
+
+Nuttie could have beaten him, but she was obliged to content herself
+with such a sweeping charge of her Zulus among Alwyn's Englishmen,
+that their general shrieked out in indignation against such a
+variation of the accustomed programme of all their games.
+
+Nuttie thought she had defended her patient sufficiently, but she
+found she had been mistaken, for when her aunt had left them, some
+days later, her father began, 'We are well quit of her.  Those
+troublesome dictatorial women always get worse when they are left
+widows--taking upon them to say what their dear husbands would have
+said, forsooth.'
+
+'Aunt Jane was very kind to me,' said Ursula, not in the least
+knowing what he was thinking of.
+
+'To you.  Ay, I should think so, taking upon her to lecture me about
+securing a provision for you.'
+
+'Oh!  I hoped--'
+
+'What?' he broke in.  'You knew of it!  You set her on, I suppose.'
+
+'Oh! no, no, father.  She and Mr. Bulfinch began about it, not
+meaning me to hear--about a will, I mean--and I told them I wasn't
+going to have you worried, and I thought I had stopped it
+altogether.'
+
+'Stop a woman bent on her duty?  Hein!  But you are a good girl, and
+shall come to no loss when we have to make your marriage settlement.'
+
+'You won't have to do that, father!'
+
+'Hein!  What do you keep that poor fellow Clarence Fane dangling in
+attendance on you for? '
+
+'I don't!  I'm sure I don't want him.  I would do anything to keep
+him at a distance!'
+
+'How now!  I thought your Grace condescended to him more than to any
+one else.'
+
+'I don't dislike him unless he has _that_ in his head; but as to
+marrying him!  Oh--h--h,' such a note of horror that elicited a
+little laugh.
+
+'So hot against him, are we?  Who is it then?  Not the umbrella
+fellow?'
+
+'Father! how can you?' she cried, with a burning flush of
+indignation.  He--why--he!  He has always been a sort of uncle, ever
+since I was a little girl.'
+
+'Oh yes, adopted uncles are very devout when young ladies rush out to
+morning prayers at unearthly hours--'
+
+'Father!' with her voice trembling, 'I assure you he doesn't--I mean
+he always goes to St. Michael's, unless he has anything particular to
+say to me.'
+
+'Oh yes, I understand,' and Mr. Egremont indulged in a hearty laugh,
+which almost drove poor Nuttie beside herself.
+
+'Indeed--indeed,' she stammered, in her confusion and suppressed
+wrath; 'it is nothing of that sort.  He is a regular old bachelor--he
+always was.'
+
+'At what age do men become old bachelors?  For he seems to me about
+the age of poor Clarry, whom you seem to view as a bugbear.'
+
+'I wish you would not think of such things, father; I have not the
+slightest intention of leaving you and dear little Wynnie!  Nothing
+should tempt me!'
+
+'Nothing?  Hein!  Then you may as well be on your guard, Miss
+Egremont, or we shall have pleadings that you have encouraged them--
+church and world--or both, maybe.  You pious folk take your little
+diversions and flirtations just like your poor sisters whom you shake
+your heads at, never guessing how Gregorio and I have looked out at
+you and your adopted uncle parading the street.'
+
+'I wish Gregorio would mind his own business, and not put such things
+in your head!' burst out Nuttie.
+
+At which Mr. Egremont laughed longer and louder than ever.
+
+Poor Nuttie!  It was terrible discomfiture, not only for the moment,
+but a notion had been planted in her mind that seemed cruel, almost
+profane, and yet which would not be dismissed, and made her heart
+leap with strange bounds at the wild thought, 'Could it be true?'
+then sink again with shame at her own presumptuous folly in
+entertaining such a thought for a moment.
+
+Yet whenever she actually encountered Mr. Dutton her habitual comfort
+and reliance on him revived, and dispelled all the embarrassment
+which at other times she expected to feel in his presence.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+SPES NON FRACTA.
+
+
+
+
+Summer had quite set in before Mr. Egremont was able to go out for a
+drive, and then he was ordered to Buxton.
+
+Nuttie only once saw her cousins before leaving town, for their
+little boy fulfilled the nursery superstition by whooping till May;
+and all intercourse was prohibited, till he had ceased for a whole
+week to utter a suspicious sound.  Mr. Dutton had insisted on the
+family spending a fortnight at Springfield House for change of air,
+and it was there that Nuttie was permitted to see them, though the
+children were still forbidden to meet.
+
+Annaple looked very thin, but rattled as merrily as ever.  'No one
+could guess,' she said, 'what a delight it was not to know what one
+was to have for dinner?'
+
+'To do more than know, I am afraid,' said Ursula.
+
+'Well, next to the delight of knowing nothing at all about it--and
+even that is only good for a holiday--is the delight of seeing a
+pudding come out smooth and comfortable and unbroken from its basin.
+"Something attempted, something done," you know.  It is quite as good
+a work of art as a water-coloured drawing.'
+
+'Only not quite so permanent.'
+
+'No; it is only one's first pudding that one wants to embalm in a
+glass case for being so good as not to leave its better part behind
+in the basin, or to collapse as soon as it is in the dish.'
+
+'Which my puddings always did in the happy days of old, but then I
+was always hunted ignominiously out of the kitchen and told I wasted
+good food,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Yes, and waste is fearful when Mark and Billy have to eat it all the
+same, like the poor cows with spoilt hay.  I wonder whether your old
+experiences recall the joy of finding trustworthy eggs within your
+price.'
+
+'Ah, I was not housekeeper.  I only remember being in disgrace for
+grumbling when there was no pudding, because the hens would not lay.'
+
+'Though I heard a woman declaring the other day that there ought to
+be a machine for them.  Oh, the scenes that I encounter when I am
+marketing!  If I only could describe them for Punch!  I walked home
+once with our porter's wife, carrying two most brilliant sticks of
+rhubarb, all carmine stalk and gamboge leaf, and expressing a very
+natural opinion that the rhubarb tree must be very showy to look at,
+and curious to know in what kind of fruit the medicine grew.'
+
+'Oh, Annaple! do you go yourself in that way?'
+
+'Mark used to go with me, but, poor old fellow, he has ruinous ideas
+about prices and quantities, and besides, now he is so hard worked-up
+and down all day--he wants a little more of his bed in the morning.'
+
+'And what do you want?'
+
+'I never was a sleepy creature, and I get back in time to dress the
+boy.  I generally find him at high-jinks on his father's bed.  It
+uses up a little superfluous energy before the dressing.'
+
+'But surely you have a servant now?'
+
+'I've come to the conclusion that a workman's wife charing is a
+better institution.  No. 1, a pet of Miss Nugent's, was a nice
+creature, but the London air did for her at once.  No. 2, also from
+Micklethwayte, instantly set up a young man, highly respectable, and
+ready to marry on the spot, as they did, though their united ages
+don't amount to thirty-nine.  No. 3 was a Cockney, and couldn't stay
+because the look-out was so dull; and No. 4 gossiped with her kind
+when I thought her safe in the Temple Gardens with Billy, whereby he
+caught the whooping-cough, and as she also took the liberty of
+wearing my fur cloak, and was not particular as to accuracy, we
+parted on short notice; and I got this woman to come in every day to
+scrub, help make the bed, etc.  It is much less trouble, and the only
+fault I have to find with her is an absolute incapability of
+discerning blacks.  I believe she thinks I have a monomania against
+them.'
+
+Still Annaple insisted that she did not work half so hard as her
+nieces, Muriel and Janet, in their London season, and that her
+economy was not nearly so trying and difficult as that which Lady
+Delmar had been practising for years in order to afford them a summer
+there; nor was her anxiety to make both ends meet by any means equal
+to her sister's in keeping up appearances, and avoiding detrimentals.
+The two sisters met occasionally, but Lady Delmar was so
+compassionate and patronising that Annaple's spirit recoiled in off-
+hand levity and rattle, and neither regretted the occupation that
+prevented them from seeing much of one another.
+
+
+A year passed by, chiefly spent by Mr. Egremont in the pursuit of
+comparative health, at Buxton, Bagneres, and Biarritz, during which
+his daughter could do little but attend to him and to little Alwyn.
+The boy had been enough left to her and nurse during his father's
+acute illness to have become more amenable.  He was an affectionate
+child, inheriting, with his mother's face, her sweetness and docility
+of nature, and he was old enough to be a good deal impressed with the
+fact that he had made poor papa so ill by teasing him to stand in the
+cold.  Mr. Egremont was not at rest without a sight of the child
+every day, if only for a moment, and the helplessness and suffering
+had awed the little fellow a good deal.  It was touching to see him
+pause when galloping about the house when he went past the sick-room,
+and hush his merry voice of his own accord.
+
+And in the journeys, when his father's invalided state would have
+made a fractious or wilful child a serious inconvenience, his good
+temper and contentment were invaluable.  He would sit for hours on
+his sister's lap, listening to whispered oft-told tales, or playing
+at impromptu quiet games; he could go to sleep anywhere, and the
+wonderful discoveries he made at each new place were the amusement of
+all his auditors.  Sister was always his playfellow and companion
+whenever she could be spared from her father, and she had an ever-
+increasing influence over him which she did her best to raise into
+principle.
+
+Perhaps she never had a happier moment than when she heard how he had
+put his hands behind him and steadily refused when Gregorio had
+offered to regale him at a stall of bonbons forming only a thin crust
+to liqueurs, which unfortunately he had already been taught to like.
+
+'But I told him sister said I mustn't have them,' said Alwyn.  'And
+then he made a face and said something in French about you.  I know
+'twas you, for he said "soeur."  What was it?'
+
+'Never mind, Wynnie dear. We had much better never know.  You were
+sister's own dear steadfast boy, and you shall kiss mother's
+picture.'
+
+Nuttie had a beautiful coloured photograph of her mother, finished
+like a miniature, which had been taken at Nice, in the time of Alice
+Egremont's most complete and matured beauty.  She had taught Alwyn to
+kiss and greet it every evening before his prayers, and such a kiss
+was his reward when he had shown any special act of goodness, for
+which, as she told him, 'mother would have been pleased with her
+little son.'
+
+Such another boon was his one Sunday evening at Biarritz, when she
+found that while she was shut up at dinner with her father he had
+voluntarily gone to church with nurse instead of playing on the beach
+with some other English children.  'It was all very long and
+tiresome,' he said, when asked if he liked it.
+
+'Then why did you go, old man?  There was no need to drag you there,'
+said his father.
+
+'She didn't drag me,' said the boy; 'I walked.'
+
+'You need not have walked then, Master Dignity.'
+
+'Poor nursie couldn't go without me,' said Alwyn, 'and sister says
+there's a blessing on those that go.'
+
+'A blessing? eh! and what idea does that little head entertain of a
+blessing?' said Mr. Egremont.
+
+Alwyn lifted his soft brown eyes reverently and said, 'It is
+something good,' speaking, as he always did, in a baby lisp
+inimitable here.
+
+'Well?'
+
+'And it comes from God.'
+
+'Well, what is it?  Can you see it?'
+
+'No'--he looked in perplexity towards Nuttie, who was in agony all
+the time, lest there should be a scoff that might remain in the
+child's mind.
+
+'Never mind sister.  Can you feel it?'
+
+'Yes;' and the little face lighted with such a reality that the
+incipient mockery turned into wonder on the next question.
+
+'And how does it feel?'
+
+'Oh, so nice!  It makes Wynnie glad here,' and he spread his hands
+over his breast; and gave a little caper like a kid for very
+gladness.
+
+'There!' said Mr. Egremont, leaning back fairly conquered.  'Any one
+might envy Wynnie!  Goodnight, my boy, blessing and all.  I wonder if
+one felt like that when one was a little shaver,' he pursued, as
+Alwyn went off to his bed.
+
+'I think I did sometimes,' said Nuttie, 'but I never was half as good
+as Wynnie!'
+
+'What?' exclaimed her father.  'You! bred up among the saints.'
+
+'Ah! but I hadn't the same nature.  I never was like--_her_.'
+
+'Well--'tis very pretty now, and I don't know how we could stand a
+young Turk, but you mustn't make a girl of him.'
+
+'There's no fear of that,' said Nuttie.  'He is full of spirit.  That
+old bathing woman calls him "un vrai petit diable d'Anglais," he is
+so venturous.'
+
+Which delighted Mr. Egremont as much as the concession that the boy's
+faith was 'pretty' delighted Ursula.  Indeed, he went a little
+further, for when she came back from her few minutes at Alwyn's
+bedside he proceeded to tell her of the absolute neglect in which his
+mother, a belle of the Almacks days, had left her nursery.  It was
+the first time he had ever hinted at a shadow of perception that
+anything in his own life had been amiss, and Ursula could not but
+feel a dreamy, hopeful wonder whether her sweet little Alwyn could be
+the destined means of doing that in which her mother had failed.  It
+was at least enough to quicken those prayers which had been more
+dutiful than trustful.
+
+And then her hope sank again when she realised that her father's days
+were spent between the lull of opiate, followed by a certain
+serenity, then in a period of irritability, each being more or less
+prolonged, according to health, weather, or entertainment, and closed
+again by the sedatives in various forms.  It relieved her indeed, but
+she felt it a wickedness to be glad of the calm, and she was aware
+that the habit was making inroads on her father's powers.  Between
+that and his defect of eyesight, he was often much confused,
+especially about money matters, and was more and more dependent.
+
+Would that it had been only upon her, but she was constantly certain
+that Gregorio was taking advantage of his master's helplessness, and
+keeping it up by all means in his power.  Yet what could be done?
+For the valet was absolutely necessary to his comfort, and yet she
+sometimes thought her father half in dread of him, and afraid to
+expostulate about personal neglects, which became more frequent.
+Things, that would have enraged him from others, were only grumbled
+and fretted over, when Gregorio caused him real inconvenience by
+absence or forgetfulness, and made very insufficient apology.  It
+seemed like a bondage; Nuttie thought of her mother's efforts, and
+blamed herself in vain.
+
+It was during this journey that she heard of good Miss Headworth's
+death.  The old lady's mind had long failed, and the actual present
+loss to Nuttie was not great; but it seemed to close a long account
+of gratitude such as she had not thoroughly felt or understood
+before; and the link with Micklethwayte was severed.
+
+For Mark and Annaple prevailed on Mrs. Egremont to install Miss
+Nugent as governess to Rosalind and Adela.  In that capacity Nuttie
+hoped to see a good deal of her; but of course was again
+disappointed, for her father would not hear of returning to
+Bridgefield.  It was draughty, and dull, and desolate, and nothing
+suited him but London.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+BLACKS IN THE ASCENDANT.
+
+
+
+
+'Man's work ends with set of sun,
+ Woman's work is never done.'--Proverb.
+
+
+It was far on in May when Ursula found herself again in the sitting-
+room over the warehouse.  Somehow it had not the dainty well-cared-
+for air of erst.  The pretty table ornaments were out of sight; the
+glass over the clock was dim, the hands had stopped; some of
+Annaple's foes, the blacks, had effected a lodgment on the Parian
+figures; the chintzes showed wear and wash, almost grime; the
+carpet's pattern was worn; a basket full of socks was on the sofa;
+and on the table a dress, once belonging to Annaple's trousseau, was
+laid out, converted into its component parts.  The wails of a baby
+could be heard in the distance, and the first person to appear was
+Master William, sturdy and happy in spite of wofully darned knees to
+his stockings.
+
+'Mother's coming, if baby will stop crying,' he said, 'and lie in her
+cradle.'
+
+'Your little sister!  What's her name?'
+
+'Jane Christian,' said the boy, with a much more distinct enunciation
+than Alwyn, though a year older, had yet acquired.  'She does cry so!
+She won't let mother make my new knickies out of her blue gown!'
+
+Thoughts of the suits that Alwyn was discarding came across Nuttie.
+Could they be offered without offence?  She asked, however, 'Do you
+remember Alwyn--my Wynnie?'
+
+'Wynnie gave me my horse,' cried the boy, unstabling a steed which
+had seen hard service since the presentation.  'Where's Wynnie?'
+
+'He is at home.  You must come and see him,' said Nuttie, who had not
+been allowed to bring him till secure of a clean bill of health.
+'But see, just outside the door, there's something for Billy.'
+
+She had made her servant bring up the parcels to the passage outside,
+and Billy was soon hugging a magnificent box of soldiers, wherewith
+he pranced off to show them to his mother, leaving the doors open, so
+that Ursula could more decidedly hear the baby's voice, not a healthy
+child's lusty cry, but a poor little feeble wail, interspersed with
+attempts at consolation.  'Come, won't she go to Emily?  Oh, Billy-
+boy, how splendid!  I hope you thanked Cousin Ursula.  Baby Jenny,
+now can't you let any one speak but yourself?  Oh! shall I never
+teach you that "Balow, my babe," is not "bellow, my babe."  That's
+better!  Now can't you let Emily have you, while I go to Cousin
+Nuttie?'
+
+'Let me come!  Mayn't I?' exclaimed Ursula, invading the room that
+served as kitchen, where Annaple was trying to hush off the child and
+make her over to a little twelve years old maid, who stood in
+waiting, helping Willie meantime to unpack his soldiers, with
+smothered exclamations of delight.
+
+'Oh, Nuttie, how good of you!  Please to excuse the accompaniment.
+There never was such a young lady for self-assertion to make up for
+there being so little of her.'
+
+And Annaple, very thin and tired looking, held up the child,
+fearfully small and pinched for four months old, to be kissed by
+Nuttie.
+
+'Does she always go on like this?'
+
+''Cept when she is asleep,' said Willie.
+
+'Poor wee lassie,' said Annaple; 'there's great excuse for her, for
+the food has not yet been invented that suits her ladyship.'
+
+'You must come and consult nurse.'
+
+'And how are you all?  I'm glad you are at hand, Nuttie!  Is Mr.
+Egremont better?'
+
+'As well as ever he is--lame and altogether an invalid,--but he has
+not had such bad attacks of pain lately.'
+
+'And his eyes?'
+
+'About the same.  He can write, and tell one card from another, but
+he can't read--or rather it hurts him to do so, and he can't bear a
+strong light.  But, Annaple, how are you?  That child is wearing you
+to a shadow.'
+
+'Oh! I'm quite well--perfectly.  There, I think she is gone off at
+last.  You had better walk her about a little, Emily; she will break
+out again if we try to put her in the cradle.'
+
+And having handed over the child with only a very low murmur, Annaple
+left her combined kitchen and nursery.  She flew at the flowers
+Nuttie had brought like a thirsty person, crying, as she buried her
+face in them, 'Now for beauty!  Now Mark will be refreshed!  Ah!
+here's a pretty pickle for a reception room.'
+
+'Oh, don't put it away!  I could help you; I do so like that kind of
+work.  It is so like old times.'
+
+'It must be put away, thank you, for Mark will be coming in.  And the
+saying about the public washing of garments is specially true of
+one's own husband.  Ways and means are worrying to the masculine
+mind.'
+
+'I thought it was too early for Mark?'
+
+'He has an appointment to keep at Charing Cross or thereabouts, so I
+made him promise to come in in time to "put a bit in his head," as
+our Irish charwoman says.'
+
+'Then I can take him.  I have the carriage, and I must be at home by
+half-past twelve.  I wish you would come too, Annaple.  There's
+plenty of room.  You could show the baby to nurse, and the boys could
+have a good game.  I would send you back in the evening.  Mark could
+come on after his business is done.'
+
+'Thank you, Nuttie, I can't to-day--for a whole heap of domestic
+reasons; but, if you can get Mark to come, do, it would be so good
+for him.'
+
+'How is Mark?'
+
+'He is well, quite well,' said Annaple; 'and so good and patient.
+But you see, it does take it out of a man when that doleful little
+noise won't stop all night!  We are both acquiring a form of
+somnambulism, but when there's real out-of-door business to be done,
+it is not like proper sleep.'
+
+'Or when there's woman's indoor business, I am afraid,' said Nuttie,
+much concerned at the extreme thinness of Annaple's face and hands,
+and the weary look of her large eyes.
+
+'Oh, one makes that up at odd times!' she answered brightly.  'One
+thing is, this work suits Mark, he feels that he can do it, and he
+gets on well with the men.  They asked him to join in their club, and
+he was so much pleased.  He gets up subjects for them, and I am so
+glad he has such a pleasure and interest to keep him from missing the
+society he was used to.'
+
+'It must be very good for them too.  Mr. Dutton said he really
+thought Mark had kept them from going in for a strike.'
+
+'Besides the glory of the thing,' said Annaple drawing herself up,
+'Mr. Dobbs thought so too, and raised us ten pounds; which made us
+able to import that little Bridgefield lassie to hold baby--when--
+when Miss Jenny will let her.  He has some law copying to do besides,
+but I don't like that; it burns the candle at both ends, and he does
+get bad headaches sometimes, and goes on all the same.'
+
+'You must both come and see my Wyn.'
+
+'Ah! I had never asked after him.  I suppose he is as pretty as
+ever,' said Annaple, who secretly thought his beauty too girlish
+compared with her sturdy Billy.
+
+'Prettier, I think, as he gets more expression.  We can't persuade
+ourselves to cut his hair, and it looks so lovely on his sailor suit.
+And he is so good.  I could not have believed a child could be so
+quiet and considerate on a journey.  You should have seen him
+standing by my father's knee in the railway carriage, and amusing him
+with all that was to be seen, and stopping at the least hint that he
+was chattering too much.'
+
+'Billy is wonderfully helpful.  Ah--' and Annaple's eyes lighted up
+as the step that had music in't came up the stair; and as Mark came
+in, Nuttie thought him grown older, his hair thinner, his shoulders
+rounded, and his office coat shabby, but she saw something in his
+countenance there had never been before.  Ever since she had known
+him he had worn a certain air of depression, or perhaps more truly of
+failure and perplexity, which kept before her conscious mind the
+Desdichado on Ivanhoe's shield, even when he was a gentleman at ease
+at the luxurious Rectory; but there was now not only the settled air
+of a man who had found his vocation, but something of the self-
+respect and eagerness of one who was doing it well, and feeling
+himself valued.
+
+'Is baby--' he began.  'Oh, Nuttie!  Are you there?  Mr. Dutton told
+me you were coming.  How is my uncle?'  And the voice was much
+brisker than in the days of lawn-tennis.
+
+'Father, father, look!' cried the boy.
+
+'Why, Billy-boy, you are set up!  Zouaves and chasseurs!  I see where
+they came from.'
+
+During the mixture of greetings and inquiries, admiration of the
+flowers, and the exhibition of Billy's treasures, Annaple glided
+away, and presently placed before him a tray, daintily benapkinned
+and set forth with a little cup of soup.
+
+'Baby is really asleep, and Emily as proud as a Hielandman,' she
+said.  'Now eat this, without more ado, for that good Nuttie is going
+to set you down at Charing Cross.'
+
+'This is the way we spoil our husbands, Nuttie,' said Mark.
+'Refections served up at every turn.'
+
+'Only bones!  The immortal pot au feu,' said Annaple.  'And you are
+to go on after you have interviewed your man of steel, and have tea
+with Nuttie, and pay your respects to your uncle, like a dutiful
+nephew.'
+
+'No, that I can't, Nannie; I promised Dobbs to go and see a man for
+him, and I must come back as soon as I can after that.'
+
+He looked--as to figure and air--much more like his old self when he
+had changed his coat.  They fed him, almost against his will, with a
+few of the forced strawberries Nuttie had brought.  Billy pressed on
+him wonders from a Paris bonbon box, and Annaple fastened a rose and
+a pink in his button-hole, and came down to the street door with her
+boy to see him off.
+
+'What do you think of her?' was Mark's first inquiry.
+
+'Think!  As Mr. Dutton said long ago, never was braver lady!'
+
+'Never was there a truer word!  I meant as to her health?  As to
+courage, spirits, and temper, there is no question; I never saw them
+fail; but are they not almost too much for the frame?' he asked
+anxiously.
+
+It echoed Nuttie's fear, but she tried to frame a cheerful answer.
+'She is very thin, but she seems well.'
+
+'She never complains, but I am sure her strength is not what it was.
+She cannot walk out as she did at first.  Indeed, she gets no real
+rest day nor night, and there's no relieving her!'
+
+'She says you don't get much rest either.'
+
+'More than my share,' said Mark.  'The poor little thing never sleeps
+except in someone's arms, and if awake, is not content for a moment
+except in her mother's.'
+
+'And that has been going on four months?'
+
+'Three.  Ever since we brought her back from Redcastle.  I have
+nearly determined to move into some suburb when I get a rise at
+Michaelmas, unless she improves.'
+
+'Nurse might suggest something.'
+
+'Or at any rate tell us what to think.  We showed her to a doctor,
+and all he could propose was some kind of food, which was no more
+successful than the rest.  Did you look at her, Nuttie?  She is a
+pretty little thing when she is quiet, but she dwindles away--at
+least so it seems to me, though Annaple will not see it, and--and if
+we are not permitted to keep the little one, I dread what the effect
+may be on her.'
+
+Nuttie said something about bravery and goodness, thinking in her
+heart that, if the blow fell, it would be better for all than the
+perpetual suffering of the poor little sickly being.
+
+'Ah! you don't know what her affections are,' said Mark.  'You did
+not see her when she lost her mother, and there had been no strain on
+her powers then.  However, I've no business to croak.  Many a child
+gets over troubles of this kind, and, as Annaple says, little Jenny
+will be all the more to us for what we go through with her.'
+
+The carriage stopped, and Nuttie asked him if it would delay him too
+long if she executed a commission about her father's glasses.  He had
+plenty of time, but she was delayed longer than she expected, and on
+her return was surprised to find that he had dropped asleep.
+
+'Ah! that's what comes of a moment's quiet;' he said, smiling.
+
+'Fine quiet in the roar of Ludgate Hill!'
+
+'To a Cockney 'tis as the mill to the miller!  I like the full stir
+and tide,' he added, looking out upon it.  'I never knew what life
+was before!'
+
+'I should have thought you never knew what hardness and hard work
+were.'
+
+'That's just it,' he answered, smiling.  'The swing of it is
+exhilaration--very different from being a cumberer of the ground.'
+
+'Oh, Mark, all the privations and anxiety!'
+
+'The privation! that's nothing.  Indeed I am afraid--yes, I am
+ashamed to say--it falls more on my dear wife than myself, but if we
+can only wear through a year or two we shall get a further rise, and
+my poor Annaple may get out of this drudgery.  Please God, she and
+the little one can stand it for a time, and I think she has a spring
+within her that will;' then, as he saw tears in his cousin's eyes, he
+added, 'Don't be unhappy about it, Nuttie; I have had it in my mind
+ever so long to tell you that the finding you at Micklethwayte was
+the best thing that ever happened to me!'
+
+Yes, so far as character went, Ursula could believe that it had been
+so.  He was twice the man he would have been without the incentive to
+work, and the constant exercise of patience and cheerfulness; but her
+heart was heavy with apprehension that the weight of the trial might
+be too heavy.  To her eyes the baby's life seemed extremely doubtful,
+and Annaple looked so fragile that the increase of her burthens, any
+saddening of the heart, might destroy her elasticity, and crush her
+outright; while even Mark seemed to her to be toiling so close within
+the limits of his powers that a straw might break the camel's back!
+
+She longed to talk to Mr. Dutton about them, but she found herself
+doomed to a day that perhaps Annaple would have thought more trying
+than her harrowed life.  She was a little later than she had
+intended, and her father had been waiting impatiently to have a note
+read to him, so he growled at her impatience to run after 'that
+Scotch girl.'  And the note happened to be of an irritating nature;
+moreover, the cutlets at luncheon were said to be akin to
+indiarubber, and there was the wrong flavour in the sauce.  Ursula
+let that cook do what she pleased without remonstrance.
+
+Even Alwyn did not afford as much satisfaction as usual, for the boy
+was in high spirits and wanted to blow a little trumpet, which was
+more than his father could stand.  He was very good when this was
+silenced, but he then began to rush round the room daring his sister
+to catch the wild colt as he went by.  This had likewise to be
+stopped, with the murmur that Ursula spoilt the child.
+
+She tried to compose matters by turning out the old toys in the
+ottoman, but Alwyn had outgrown most of them, and did not care for
+any except a certain wooden donkey, minus one ear and a leg, which
+went by the name of Sambo, and had absorbed a good deal of his
+affection.  He had with difficulty been consoled for Sambo being left
+behind, and now turned over everything with considerable clatter in
+search of him.  Alas!  Sambo could nowhere be found in the room, and
+Alwyn dashed off to inquire of all the household after him.  His
+father meanwhile growled at the child's noise, and went on trying the
+glasses Nuttie had brought, and pronouncing each pair in turn
+useless, vowing that it was no use to send her anywhere.
+
+Upon this, back came Alwyn, terribly distressed and indignant, for he
+had extracted from the housemaid left in charge, who was as cross as
+she was trustworthy, 'What! that old broken thing, Master Egremont?
+I threw it on the fire!  I'd never have thought a young gentleman of
+your age would have cared for such rubbish as that.'
+
+'You are a wicked cruel woman,' returned Alwyn, with flashing eyes;
+'I shall tell papa and sister of you.'
+
+And in he flew, sobbing with grief and wrath for the dear Sambo,
+feeling as if it had been a live donkey burnt to death, and hiding
+his face on his sister's breast for consolation.
+
+'Come, come, Wyn,' said his father, who did not brook interruption;
+'here's half a sovereign to go and buy a new donkey.'
+
+'It won't be Sambo,' said Alwyn ruefully.
+
+'But you should thank papa,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Thank you, papa,' he said, with quivering lip, 'but I don't want a
+new one.  Oh Sambo, Sambo! burnt!' and he climbed on Nuttie's lap,
+hid his face against her and cried, but her comfortings were broken
+off by, 'How can you encourage the child in being so foolish?  Have
+done, Wyn; don't be such a baby!  Go out with nurse and buy what you
+like, but I can't have crying here.'
+
+He tried to stop in sheer amazement, but the ground swell of sob
+could not be controlled.  Nuttie was going to lead him away, and
+console him with more imaginative sympathy than could be expected
+from the maids, but her father sharply called her back.  He wanted
+her himself, and indeed there was no question which was the worse
+spoilt child.  He might idolise Alwyn, but not so as to clash with
+his own comforts.  The glasses being unsuccessful, Nuttie proposed to
+drive back to Ludgate Hill for him to choose for himself, but he
+would not hear of going into the heat of the City, and growled at her
+for thinking of such a thing.
+
+They took an aimless drive instead in the park, and Nuttie was nearly
+baked while the carriage was stopped for her father to have a long
+talk over the prospects of the Derby day with one of his most
+unpleasant associates, who stood leaning over the door on the shady
+side of the carriage, no one recking how little protection she
+derived from her small fringed parasol.
+
+She came home tired out, and thankful that her father went to rest in
+his own room.  She climbed to the nursery, thinking to share Alwyn's
+tea and comfort him, but she found only nurse there.  Nurse had a bad
+foot, and dreaded hot pavement, so she had sent Master Alwyn out with
+her subordinate, a country girl, to play in Mr. Dutton's garden till
+it should be cool enough to go and make his purchase, and a message
+had since arrived that he was going to drink tea there, and Mr.
+Dutton would take him out.
+
+His sister envied him the green shades, and had just done her best to
+cool the back drawing-room and rest herself with a book, when Mr.
+Fane was announced.  He talked pleasantly enough, and lingered and
+lingered, no doubt intending to be asked to dinner, but she was
+equally determined to do no such thing.  She had heard enough of
+races for one day, she thought, and at last he took his leave, only
+just before she dressed for dinner.
+
+'I thought Fane was here,' said Mr. Egremont as he came in; no doubt
+told by Gregorio.
+
+'He has been, but he is gone.'
+
+'You didn't ask him to stay and dine?'
+
+'I did not know you wished it.'
+
+'You might have known that I should have liked to see him.  I suppose
+you think your sweet self society enough for any man?'
+
+'I am sorry--'
+
+'I'm sick of hearing you are sorry!  I believe there's nothing you
+like so well as doing an ungracious thing to a friend of mine.'
+
+Nuttie had learnt to hold her tongue on such occasions.
+
+Dinner was nearly over, and her father had been grumbling again at
+having no one to take a hand at cards with him, when the door opened
+a little way, and Alwyn's pretty glowing face looked in.  He was come
+to say good-night rather later than usual, and he ran up to his
+sister with a little bouquet of yellow banksia and forget-me-nots.
+'Mithter Button'--so Alwyn called him--'sent you this.  He said you
+would like it, 'cause it came from one that grew at Mittletwait.  And
+oh, look, look!'
+
+He was hugging a little ship, which he proudly exhibited, while his
+father's brow had darkened at the message.  'Did you buy that?' asked
+his sister.
+
+'Yes, Mr. Button went with me, and we sailed it.  We sailed it by the
+fountain in Mr. Button's garden, And we made a storm!'
+
+He danced about with glee, and Mr. Egremont observed, 'A dear
+purchase for ten shillings.  Did it cost all that, Wyn?'
+
+'They gived me a big silver half-crown, and I gived that to a little
+boy what came to speak to Mr. Button, and had his toes through his
+boots, and he was so glad.'
+
+'Your money is not for beggars, Wyn.'
+
+'The little boy was not a beggar, papa.  He came with a newspaper to
+Mr. Button, and he is so good to his poor sick mother,' said Alwyn.
+'See, see, sister!' turning the prow of his small vessel towards her,
+and showing a word on it in pencil which he required her to spell
+out.  It was Ursula.
+
+'Oh Wynnie!' she said, duly flattered, 'did Mr. Dutton do that?'
+
+'He held my hand, and I did!' cried Alwyn, triumphantly, 'and he will
+paint it on Saturday.  Then it will dry all Sunday, and not come off,
+so it will be the Ursula for ever and always.'
+
+Here nurse claimed her charge; and when the goodnights were over, and
+a murmur recommenced, Nuttie suggested that if Mr. Dutton was at home
+perhaps he would come in and make up the game, but she encountered
+the old humour.  'I'll tell you what, Ursula, I'll not have that
+umbrella fellow encouraged about the house, and if that child is to
+be made the medium of communication, I'll put a stop to it.'
+
+The words were spoken just as Gregorio had entered the room with a
+handkerchief of his master's.  Nuttie, colouring deeply at the
+insult, met his triumphant eyes, bit her lips, and deigned no word of
+reply.
+
+An undefined but very slight odour, that told her of opium smoke,
+pervaded the stairs that night.  It was the only refuge from
+fretfulness; but her heart ached for her father, herself, and most of
+all for her little brother.  And was she to be cut off from her only
+counsellor?
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+THE LOST HEIR.
+
+
+
+
+'Seemed to the boy some comrade gay
+ Led him forth to the woods to play.'--SCOTT.
+
+
+Though it was the Derby day, Mr. Egremont's racing days were over,
+and he only took his daughter with him in quest of the spectacles he
+wanted.  When they came back, Nuttie mounted to the nursery, but no
+little brother met her on the stairs, and she found nurse in deep
+displeasure with her subordinate.
+
+'I sent him out with Ellen to play in the garden at Springfield, and
+swim his ship, where he couldn't come to no harm,' said nurse; 'being
+that my foot is that bad I can't walk the length of the street; and
+what does the girl do but lets that there Gregorio take the dear
+child and go--goodness knows where--without her.'
+
+'I'm sure, ma'am,' said the girl crying, 'I would never have done it,
+but Mr. Gregory said as how 'twas his papa's wish.'
+
+'What was?' said Nuttie.
+
+'That he shouldn't never go and play at Mr. Dutton's again,' said
+Ellen.
+
+'I told her she was to take her orders off me, and no one else,'
+returned nurse, 'except, of course, you, Miss Egremont, as has the
+right.'
+
+'Quite so; you should have told Mr. Gregorio so, Ellen.'
+
+'I did, ma'am, but he said those was Mr. Egremont's orders; and he
+said,' cried the girl, unable to withstand the pleasure of repeating
+something disagreeable, 'that Mr. Egremont wouldn't have no
+messengers between you and a low tradesman fellow, as made umbrellas,
+and wanted to insinuate himself in here.'
+
+'That's quite enough, Ellen; I don't want to hear any impertinences.
+Perhaps you did not understand his foreign accent.  Did he say where
+he was going?'
+
+'I think he said he'd take him to the Serpentine to sail his ship,'
+said Ellen, disposed to carry on asseverations of the correctness of
+her report, but nurse ordered her off the scene, and proceeded, as a
+confidential servant, 'The girl had no call to repeat it; but there's
+not a doubt of it he did say something of the sort.  There's not one
+of us but knows he is dead against Mr. Dutton, because he tried to
+get master to get to sleep without that nasty opium smoke of his.'
+
+There was bitter feud between nurse and valet, and Nuttie could have
+exchanged with her many a lament, but she contented herself with
+saying, 'I wish he would let Master Alwyn alone.  It is high time
+they should come in.'
+
+'The child will be tired to death, and all dirt!  His nice new sailor
+suit too!  Going grubbing about at the Serpentine with no one knows
+who, as isn't fit for a young gentleman,' moaned nurse.
+
+This, however, was the worst fear she entertained, and it was with a
+certain malicious satisfaction that she heard her master's bell for
+Gregorio.
+
+Nuttie descended to explain, and whereas the need was not very
+urgent, and she looked distressed and angered at the valet, her
+father received her complaint with, 'Well, the boy is getting too big
+to be tied for ever to a nursery-maid.  It will do him good to go
+about with a man.'
+
+But as dressing-time came on, and still neither Gregorio nor Alwyn
+appeared, Mr. Egremont became impatient, and declared that the valet
+had no business to keep the child out so long; indeed, he would
+sooner have taken alarm but for Nuttie's manifest agony of anxiety,
+starting and rushing to listen at every ring at the bell or sound of
+wheels near at hand.  At last, at eight o'clock, there was a peal of
+the servants' bell, and the footman who answered it turned round to
+the anxious crowd: 'Mr. Gregory!  He just asked if the child was come
+home, and went off like lightning.'
+
+'The villain!  He's lost him!' shrieked nurse, with a wild scream.
+'Run after him, James!  Catch him up!' suggested the butler at the
+same moment.  'Make him tell where he saw him last!'
+
+James was not a genius, but the hall boy, an alert young fellow, had
+already dashed down the steps in pursuit, and came up with the valet
+so as to delay him till the other servants stood round, and Gregorio
+turned back with them, pale, breathless, evidently terribly dismayed
+and unwilling to face his master, who stood at the top of the steps,
+white with alarm and wrath.
+
+'Sir,' cried Gregorio, with a stammering of mixed languages, 'I have
+been searching everywhere!  I was going to give notice to the police.
+Je ferai tout!  Je le trouverai.'
+
+'Where did you lose him?' demanded Mr. Egremont in a hoarse voice,
+such as Nuttie had never heard.
+
+'In the Park, near the bridge over the Serpentine.  I was speaking
+for a few moments to a friend.  Bah!  Il etait parti.  Mais je le
+trouverai.  Parker, he seeks too.  Fear not, sir, I shall find him.'
+
+'Find him, you scoundrel, or never dare to see me again!  I've borne
+with your insolences long, and now you've brought them to a height.
+Go, I say, find my boy!' exclaimed Mr. Egremont, with a fierce oath
+and passionate gesture, and Gregorio vanished again.
+
+'Bring the carriage--no, call a cab;' commanded Mr. Egremont,
+snatching up his hat.  'Who is this Parker?'
+
+The servants hesitated, but the butler said he believed the man to be
+a friend of Gregorio's employed at one of the clubs.  Nuttie
+meanwhile begging her father not to go without her, flew upstairs to
+put on her hat, and coming down at full speed found that Mr. Dutton,
+passing by and seeing the open door and the terrified servants on the
+steps, had turned in to ask what was the matter, and was hearing in
+no measured terms from Mr. Egremont how the child had been taken away
+from his nurse and lost in the Park while that scamp Gregorio was
+chattering to some good-for-nothing friend.
+
+To Nuttie's great relief, Mr. Dutton offered to go with the father to
+assist in the search, and the coachman, far too anxious and excited
+to let his master go without him in a cab, contrived to bring up the
+carriage.  Some of the servants were ordered off to the various
+police offices.  Poor nurse, who was nearly distracted, started in a
+hansom on her own account, persuaded that she should see and
+recognise traces of her darling at the scene of his loss, and she
+almost raced the carriage, which was bound for the same spot.
+
+Sluggish natures like Mr. Egremont's can sometimes be roused to great
+violence, and then pour forth the long pent-up accumulations kept
+back by indolence and indifference.  His only occupation during the
+rapid drive was to vituperate his valet, the curse of his life, he
+said.  To hear him talk, it would have seemed as if Gregorio had been
+the tyrant who had kept him in bondage all these years, fully aware
+of his falsehood, peculation, and other rascality, but as unable to
+break the yoke as if he had been in truth the slave of anything but
+his own evil habit and helpless acquiescence.
+
+Would it last if Gregorio made his appearance at that instant with
+Alwyn in his hand?  Or even, as Mr. Dutton confidently predicted, a
+policeman might bring the boy home, before many hours were passed.
+The chief doubt here was that Alwyn's defective pronunciation, which
+had been rather foolishly encouraged, might make it difficult to
+understand his mode  of saying his own name, or even that of the
+street, if he knew it perfectly; but the year he had been absent from
+London had prevented him from acquiring the curious ready local
+instinct of the true town child, and he had been so much guarded and
+watched that he was likely to be utterly at a loss when left alone;
+and Nuttie was wretched at the thought of his terror and loneliness,
+even while Mr. Dutton told her of speedy recoveries of lost children
+through kind people or the police.
+
+They found all the officials of the Park already aware and on the
+alert, and quite certain of the impossibility of nurse's prime dread
+that the boy had fallen into the water unseen by any one and been
+drowned.  She was even ready to look into every bush, in case he had
+been frightened and hidden himself; and nothing would satisfy her but
+to stay making these researches, when her master had decided on
+endeavouring to find 'Parker' at the club, and to ascertain from him
+particulars of time and place.
+
+He was found there.  The dinner-hour had brought him back, he being a
+man in authority there, very well dressed and deferential, declaring
+himself immensely distressed at the occurrence, and at having
+accosted Gregorio and attracted his attention.  It was about four
+o'clock, he thought, and he described the exact spot where the little
+boy had been sailing his vessel fastened to a string.  They might
+have been talking twenty minutes or half an hour when Gregorio missed
+his charge, and since that time both had been doing all in their
+power to find him, until half-past seven, when he had to return to
+his club, and Gregorio went to see whether the child had been taken
+home.
+
+By this time Mr. Egremont looked so utterly exhausted, that Mr.
+Dutton availed himself of the hope that the boy might be found safe
+at home to take him back; but alas! nothing had been heard there.
+
+The poor man was in a restless, unmanageable state of excitement,
+almost as terrifying to his daughter as the distress that occasioned
+it.  He swallowed a tumblerful of claret, but would not eat nor go to
+bed; and indeed, Gregorio alone having had the personal charge of
+him, latterly sleeping in his dressing-room, none of the other
+servants knew what to do for him.  Mr. Dutton agreed with her that it
+would be better to send for his doctor, as probably he ought to have
+a sedative, and neither would take the responsibility of giving it;
+while he himself declared he neither would nor could rest till he had
+his boy again.
+
+The doctor was dining out, and they had two terrible hours; while Mr.
+Egremont paced to the windows; threw himself on the sofa; denounced
+Gregorio; or, for a change, all the system of police which had made
+no discovery; and Ursula for letting the boy be so helpless.  Mr.
+Dutton sometimes diverted his attention for a few minutes, and hoped
+he would doze, but the least sound brought him to his feet again, and
+the only congenial occupation was the composition of a description of
+poor little Alwyn's person and dress, which set Nuttie crying so
+uncontrollably, that she had to run out of the room.
+
+Dr. Brownlow came at last, and was very kind and helpful, taking the
+command, and insisting that Mr. Egremont should go to bed, and take
+the dose which he mixed.  Broadbent, the butler, was to take
+Gregorio's place, but he was a ponderous man, without much tact, and
+unused to the valet's office.  'I might just as well have a
+rhinoceros about me,' said Mr. Egremont, in a fit of irritation; and
+it ended, Nuttie hardly knew how, in Mr. Dutton's going upstairs to
+smooth matters.  He came down after a time and said: 'I am not
+satisfied to leave him alone or to Broadbent; I have his consent to
+my sleeping in the dressing-room.  I am just going home to fetch my
+things.  Let me find you gone when I come back.  You will hear no
+more to-night.  Even if he is found, they will keep him till
+morning.'
+
+'It is of no use; I can't sleep.'
+
+'Even if you don't, the mere restful position will make you fitter
+for the morrow.  Will you promise me to undress and really go to
+bed?'
+
+'Oh yes! if you say I must,' said Nuttie drearily; following an
+instinct of obedience.
+
+'And remember,' he said, 'though I do not say it will be so, this may
+be deliverance from bondage.'
+
+'But what a terrible deliverance!'
+
+'Bonds are not burst without something terrible.  No; don't be
+frightened.  Remember there is safekeeping for that sweet little
+fellow, wherever he may be.'
+
+'Oh, Mr. Dutton, if I could pray for him; but the turmoil seems to
+have driven away all such things!  My boy, my boy, where is he now?
+Who has heard him say his little prayers?'
+
+'His Heavenly Father has; of that we may be secure.  You will feel it
+in the quiet of your own room.  Good-night.'
+
+'And I shall know you are praying, better than I can,' murmured
+Nuttie, as she returned his good-night, and crept up to her chamber.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+FETTERS RENT.
+
+
+
+
+'The gods are just, and of our pleasant sins
+ Make whips to scourge us.'--King Lear.
+
+
+There was no real sleep for Ursula that short summer night.  She saw
+the early dawn, listened to the distant roll of market-carts, and
+wondered when it would be reasonable to be afoot, and ready to hear,
+if aught there was to hear.  At any hour after seven, surely the
+finders would have mercy and bring the welcome news.  And just before
+seven she fell asleep, deeply, soundly, and never woke till past
+eight, but that was just enough to revive the power of hope, and give
+the sense of a new day.  But there was nothing to hear--no news.  She
+found Mr. Dutton in the dining-room.  He had had to administer
+another draught to her father, and had left him in a sleep which
+would probably last for some time.  If she would go and sit in the
+outer room, after her breakfast, he would go out to obtain
+intelligence.
+
+'You must have some breakfast,' she said, ringing the bell, and
+wistfully looking over the blinds; then exclaiming: 'Oh, there's
+Mark!  Has he heard anything?' and out she darted, opening the door
+before he rang.  'Mark! have you found him?'
+
+'Yes,' he said gravely, looking utterly amazed as she clasped her
+hands, and seemed ready to fling herself on his neck with joy.  'I
+came because it will be a great shock to my uncle.'
+
+'Then it is so!  Nurse was right,' said Nuttie, turning deadly pale,
+and standing as if before a iring platoon.  'Tell me, Mark, where did
+they find him?'
+
+'At the Faringdon Station.  I was sent for to identify him.'
+
+'Stay,' said Mr. Dutton, as there was a wild horrified look in
+Nuttie's eyes.  'Do you mean little Alwyn?'
+
+'Little Alwyn!  No, certainly not.  What of him?'
+
+'Gregorio managed to lose him in the park yesterday,' put in Mr.
+Dutton.
+
+'That accounts for it, then,' said Mark.  'No, it was Gregorio
+himself, poor man.  He was knocked down by the engine, and killed on
+the spot, just by the station, at eleven o'clock last night.  Our
+name was found on him, and I was sent for early this morning.  There
+was no doubt about it, so I came on here at once to let my uncle
+know, little thinking--'
+
+'Oh, it is dreadful!' cried Nuttie, sinking into a chair.  'Do you
+remember, my father told him never to see his face again unless he
+found Alwyn?'
+
+Broadbent came in at the moment with the coffee-pot, and stood
+suspended, as he was told what had happened, Mark adding the detail:
+'He was crossing the line in front of the engine.'
+
+'Yes, sir,' said the butler.  'It is an awful dispensation.  No doubt
+he knew it was all up with him.  You may not be aware, sir, of the
+subject of his conversation in the park.  Mr. Parker had just seen a
+telegram of the result of the Derby, and he had heavy bets on Lady
+Edina.  I am afraid, sir, there can be no doubt that he found a
+voluntary grave.'
+
+'We will not talk of that.  We cannot judge,' said Mark, shuddering.
+'I said I would send some one from here to arrange what was to be
+done after the inquest.'
+
+Broadbent immediately undertook to go, if his master did not require
+him, and this was thought advisable, as his services were certainly
+not acceptable to Mr. Egremont.  Mark had thought himself likely to
+be detained and had provided for his absence, and the awe-stricken
+trio were consulting together over the breakfast-table, eating
+mechanically, from the very exhaustion of agitation, when the door
+opened, and Mr. Egremont in his dressing-gown was among them,
+exclaiming: 'You are keeping it from me.'  He had been wakened by the
+whispers and rushes of the excited maids, had rung his bell in vain,
+dressed himself as best he could after so many years of dependence,
+and stumbled downstairs, where, as with his daughter, it was
+something like a relief to know that hope was not extinguished in
+Alwyn's case.  But Mr. Egremont was in a very trembling, broken
+condition, and much overcome by his valet's end after so many years
+of intimate association.  Certainly, if either of the others had so
+parted with the man, it would have been a horror in the recollection,
+but he did not seem to dwell on it; and, indeed, attention was
+distracted by every sound at the door, since each might bring news of
+the missing child.
+
+One of these tantalising rings proved to be a policeman with poor
+Gregorio's keys, and a demand for an investigation into any papers he
+might have left which would show his state of mind.  Mr. Egremont
+was very much annoyed, declaring that he would have no stranger
+meddle with them, and that he saw no use in such prying.  What
+difference could it make to any living creature?  However, when he
+found there was no help for it, he said he must do it himself.
+Nuttie offered to help, but was sharply, strongly refused.  Mark
+alone might and should help.
+
+Then Mr. Dutton volunteered to go and explain matters to Mr. Dobbs,
+so as to get freedom for Mark for at least the remainder of the day.
+He would call at the police offices and see what was doing in the
+search, put forward the advertisements, and obtain that the
+Serpentine should be dragged, for he saw that only that measure would
+remove one great terror from these anxious hearts.
+
+'And,' he said to Mark, 'with your permission, I will bring back Mrs.
+Egremont and the children if they will do me the honour to become my
+guests.  She will be a comfort to Miss Egremont, and then you will be
+at hand in the evening.'
+
+Mark could only be thankful, and presently addressed himself to the
+investigation, which his uncle insisted should be made in his own
+presence, though the opiate kept him for the most part dozing in an
+arm-chair, only rousing up now and then by some noise at the front
+door, or putting queries, the replies to which startled him more and
+more, as he grew more wakeful and Mark proceeded.
+
+All, except a few unimportant bills and a betting-book, was locked
+into a dressing-case that had once belonged to Mr. Egremont, and had
+tricks of secret drawers that only he could explain.  It was full of
+papers, and they were a strange revelation that Mr. Egremont might
+well wish to withhold from his daughter.  They went very far back,
+and of course did not come out in order of chronology, nor would Mark
+have understood them but for exclamations and comments here and there
+from his uncle.
+
+Everything seemed to be there,--the old passport and certificate to
+Gregorio Savelli, when he left his Savoyard home to be a waiter at a
+hotel; a few letters in Italian, probably from his parents, which
+Mark could not read, but which soon ceased; the counter-signed
+character with which he had entered General Egremont's service; and
+then came a note or two signed A. P. E., which Mr. Egremont regarded
+with great annoyance, though they only consisted of such phrases as
+'Back on Wednesday.  Find an excuse,' or in French, 'Envoyez
+moi la petite boite!'  'Que la porte soit ouverte apres minuit.'
+
+'That was the way,' groaned Mr. Egremont.  'The scoundrel! he kept
+all those to be able to show me up to the General if he chose!  I was
+a young man then, Mark, not the straitlaced lad you've always been.
+And the General!  A bad old dog he was, went far beyond what I ever
+did, but for all that he had no notion of any one going any way but
+his own, and wanted to rein me in as tight as if he had been an
+epitome of all the virtues.  And Gregorio seemed a good-natured young
+fellow then, and made things easy for me, though no doubt he meant to
+have me in his hands, in case I tried to shake him off.'
+
+Another discovery affected him far more.  It was of a letter in
+Alice's handwriting, addressed to Captain Egremont, in the yacht
+Ninon--poste restante, Madeira.  He had never seen it, never known of
+its existence; Gregorio had gone to inquire for the letters, and had
+suppressed it.  Mr. Egremont had wondered how he had become aware of
+the marriage.  His knowledge had from that time been used as a means
+of enforcing the need of a good understanding with the heir.  Mr.
+Egremont was much moved by the sight of the letter, and its date,
+from Dieppe, about six months after he had left his young wife there.
+He made Mark give it to him unread, handled it tenderly, struggled to
+read the delicate pointed writing to himself, but soon deferred the
+attempt, observing, 'There, there, I can't stand it now!  But you
+see, Mark,' he added after an interval, 'I was not altogether the
+heartless brute you thought me.'
+
+Mark, as he told his wife afterwards, could not help thinking of the
+old preamble to indictments, 'By the temptation of the devil.'
+
+And by and by, out of a pocket-book bearing the date of the General's
+death, came a copy of the certificate of the baptism of Ursula Alice,
+daughter of Alwyn Piercefield and Alice Egremont, together with that
+address which Miss Headworth had left at Dieppe to gratify Alice's
+forlorn idea of a possible rescue, and which Gregorio had asseverated
+to be non-existent.
+
+Doubtless he infinitely preferred his master's wandering bachelor
+life to the resumption of marriage ties, and thus he had contrived to
+keep Mr. Egremont from meeting the Houghtons at Florence.  At the
+same time the uncertainty as to Alice's fate had prevented any other
+marriage.  Gregorio had taken care that, if Mr. Egremont had been
+villain enough to make such an attempt, he should know that his
+secret could be brought to light.
+
+Compared with all this wickedness, the proofs of fraud and dishonesty
+were entirely unimportant.  Gambling had evidently been a passion
+with the valet, and peculation had followed, and Mark could have
+traced out the full tide before the reinstatement of Mrs. Egremont in
+her home, the gradual ebb during her reign, the diminished restraint
+under her daughter.  The other servants had formerly been implicated,
+but, except a young groom and footman, Mark thought the present set
+quite free from the taint, and was glad to acquit Broadbent.  But the
+last telegrams and the betting-book in the unhappy man's pocket
+confirmed Parker's evidence that of late he had staked almost madly,
+and had risked sums far beyond any means he could raise upon the
+horse which had failed.  The bailiff at Bridgefield had, it had long
+been guessed, played into his hands, but to what an extent Mark only
+now discovered.
+
+The result was that what he had learnt in the Park had so astounded
+him that his inattention to the child had not been wonderful.  He
+had--as Parker testified--sought the little fellow vehemently, and
+had he been successful, he might yet have made some effort, trusting
+to his master's toleration; but the loss and reproach had made him an
+absolutely desperate man.  Was it blind flight or self-destruction?
+That he had money about him, having cashed a cheque of his master's,
+favoured the first idea, and no one would too curiously inquire
+whether Mr. Egremont was aware of the amount.
+
+It was only too true that, as he had said, Gregorio Savelli had been
+the curse of his life, having become one of the whips left by
+pleasant vices, and the breaking of the yoke had been not only at a
+terrible price, but, to a man in his half-blind and invalid
+condition, the actual loss of the person on whom he had depended was
+a privation.  Dr. Brownlow, however, knew of a good man-servant just
+set at liberty by the death of an invalid master, and promised to
+send him on trial.
+
+It was a day of agitations and disappointments, a sample of many that
+were to follow.  There was not a sound of a bell that did not make
+anxious hearts throb.  And oh! how many were spent on vain reports,
+on mere calls of sympathy by acquaintance whom the father and sister
+could not see, and on notes of inquiry or condolence that Nuttie had
+to answer.
+
+Annaple came and was a great help and support to her.  Poor nurse,
+oblivious of her bad foot, or perhaps, willing to wreak vengeance on
+it as the cause of all the mischief, had insisted on continuing her
+search in the morning under all the thorns and rhododendrons where
+she thought the dear lamb might have hidden and cried himself to
+sleep, and at last had been brought home in a cab quite worn out and
+despairing.  But the screaming baby proved to be a much better
+comforter to her than any amount of reasonable argument.  To soothe
+it, to understand what ailed it, to find suitable food for it, was an
+occupation which made the suspense less intolerable.  The very
+handling of an infant would have been congenial; and a sickly crying
+one was only too interesting.  Willie was too near her darling's age
+to be a welcome sight, but he was already a prime pet with the
+servants at Springfield; and Annaple, secure that her children were
+in safe and experienced hands, and overflowing with motherly sympathy
+for the grievous loss, was ready to devote herself to Nuttie, whether
+by talk, by letter writing, or by seeing inquiring friends.  She did
+not expect to be of any use to Mr. Egremont, who had always held
+aloof from and disliked 'the giggling Scotch girl,' but who came
+drearily wandering at an unexpected time into the room where she was
+sitting with his daughter, and presently was involved in their
+conversation.  Whether it was the absence of the poor familiar, or
+that Annaple was no longer a giggling girl, but a brave, cheerful
+wife and mother, it was certain that he found the same comfort and
+support in her presence as did Nuttie.  When fits of restless misery
+and despair pressed hardest upon him, it was soon perceived that
+Annaple's cheerful tact enabled her to deal with him as no one else
+could do.  There was the restraint of courtesy towards her, such as
+had worn out towards his daughter, and besides her sanguine optimist
+spirit never became so depressed as did poor Nuttie's.  Mark went by
+day to his work, but came back to dine at his uncle's, hear the
+reports, and do what he could for him; and meantime Annaple spent the
+chief part of the day in aiding Nuttie and Mr. Egremont, while her
+baby really showed signs of improvement in nurse's keeping.  And so
+the days went on, while every endeavour was made to trace the child,
+but with no result but bitter disappointment.  Twice, strayed
+children, younger than Alwyn--one even a girl--were brought as the
+lost boy, and the advertisements bore fruit in more than one
+harassing and heartless correspondence with wretches who professed to
+be ready to restore the child, on promises of absolute secrecy, and
+sums of money sent beforehand, with all sorts of precautions against
+interference from the police.
+
+The first of these created great excitement, and the pursuit was
+committed to Mr. Dutton.  When it proved abortive, Mr. Egremont's
+disappointment and anger were great, and he could not be persuaded
+that all was not the fault of Mr. Dutton's suspicion and precaution
+in holding back the money, nor could any one persuade him that it was
+mere imposture.  When another ill-written enigmatical letter arrived,
+he insisted that it was from the same quarter, and made Broadbent
+conduct the negotiations, with the result that after considerable
+sums had been paid in circuitous fashions, the butler was directed to
+a railway arch where the child would be deposited, and where he found
+a drab-coloured brat of whom he disposed at the nearest police
+station, after which he came home savagely disgusted.
+
+Nuttie was not much less so at what she felt as a slight to Mr.
+Dutton as well as at the failure.  'When you are doing so much for
+us.  We deserve that you should do nothing more,' she said with tears
+shining in her eyes.
+
+'Do not talk in that way,' he answered.  'You know my feeling for the
+dear little fellow himself, and--'
+
+'Oh yes,' interrupted Nuttie, 'I do trust to that!  Nobody--not the
+most indifferent person, but must long to save him.  Yes, I know it
+was doing you a wicked injustice to fancy that you could take offence
+in that way at a father in such trouble.  Please forgive me, Mr.
+Dutton.'
+
+'As if I had anything to forgive.  As if there were anything on earth
+that could come before the endeavour to recover him,' said Mr.
+Dutton, too much moved for his usual precision of speech.
+
+'Yes; he is _her_ child,' said Nuttie, with a trembling tearful
+smile.
+
+'_Her_ child!  Yes, and even if he were not, he is _your_ brother,'
+said Mr. Dutton; then hastily gathering himself up, as if he had said
+too much, he rose to take leave, adding as their hands clasped,
+'Remember, as long as I live, you may count upon me.'
+
+
+'Oh, I know, I know!  There's nobody like you, but I don't know what
+I say in this awful suspense.  If I had only seen him lying white and
+cold and peaceful, it would have been far better than to think of him
+pining and miserable among wicked people, who would try to bring him
+up like themselves.  Mother's own little boy!'
+
+'It will not be allowed, it will not be allowed,' cried Mr. Dutton.
+'God's Providence is still over him.'
+
+'And there are prayers, I know--at our church and Mr. Godfrey's-and
+all ours, but oh! it takes a great deal of faith to lean on them.  I
+wonder if you would, Annaple, if it were Willy?'
+
+'We will not ask Mrs. Egremont,' said Mr. Dutton, as Annaple made a
+gesture of something like doubt.
+
+'It is almost as bad,' said she, coming up and putting her arm round
+Nuttie.  'But indeed, Mr. Dutton, she does trust, only it is very,
+very sore, for her,--as it is for us all.'
+
+'You are her great comfort,' said Mr. Dutton, as he shook hands with
+her.
+
+'He could hardly help thanking me,' said Annaple to her husband
+afterwards.  'Mr. Egremont may well call him an adopted uncle.  I
+should say he was a good deal more, poor man.'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+THE HULL OF THE URSULA.
+
+
+
+
+Ten days had passed, and Mark and Annaple were thinking that they
+ought to return to ordinary life, and leave the bereaved ones to
+endeavour to construct their life afresh under the dreadful wearing
+uncertainty of their darling's fate.  Still they were detained by
+urgent entreaties from father and daughter, who both dreaded their
+departure as additional desolation, and as closing the door of hope.
+And certainly, even this rest was good for Annaple; and her baby, for
+whom nurse had discovered a better system, had really not cried more
+for a whole day than 'befitted a rational child,' said the mother, as
+she walked back to Springfield with her husband in the summer night,
+after dinner, on the day that Broadbent's negotiations had failed.
+
+'Nurse will break her heart at parting with her,' said Mark.  'I wish
+we could afford to have her.'
+
+'Afford, indeed!  Her wages are about a quarter of your salary, sir!
+And after all, 'tis not the nurse that guards the child, as we have
+seen only too plainly.'
+
+'Do you think he is alive, Nan?'
+
+'I begin to think not.  He is not so young but that he could make
+himself known, and those advertise ments are so widely spread.  I am
+sure poor Nuttie would be more at rest if she could give up hope.'
+
+'I did not tell you before, Nan, but Dutton was going to-day to look
+at a poor little unclaimed child's body that had been found in the
+Thames.  He knew him better than I, so he went.'
+
+'He would have come if--' said Annaple.
+
+'Assuredly.  He meant to fetch nurse if he had any doubt, but
+afterwards he was going to his court about his rents.  He always does
+that on Saturday evenings.'
+
+Mr. Dutton himself opened his door to the pair.
+
+'Well,' said Mark.
+
+'Certainly not.  The poor child was evidently much younger, and had
+red hair.  But look here,' and he held out a battered something,
+black with a white stripe.  Mark understood nothing, but Annaple
+exclaimed, 'Is it his ship?'
+
+'Yes, I could swear to it, for see,' and he pointed to some grimed,
+almost effaced, but still legible capitals, which, however, scarcely
+any one but himself could have read as "Ursula."  'I guided his hand
+to make those the evening before he was lost,' said Mr. Dutton.
+
+'Dear little man!  And where did you find it?'
+
+'Where I never thought of doing so!  On the bed of a little crippled
+boy in the next court to mine.  He is rather a friend of mine, and I
+turned in to take him some strawberries.  I found him hugging this.'
+
+'How did he get it?'
+
+'Our "Liz" brought it to him.  Our "Liz" is a very wild specimen, who
+has spent her life in eluding the school board officer till she is
+too old for his clutches; but she has a soft spot in her heart for
+her little brother, and I believe another for Gerard Godfrey.  We
+must be very cautious, and not excite any alarm, or we shall be
+baffled altogether.  I am not sure that I did quite prudently in
+giving little Alf a fresh boat in exchange for this; but I could not
+help bringing it home.'
+
+'You did not see the girl?'
+
+'No.  Those girls wander long and late on these hot nights, and I do
+not think I could have got anything out of her.  I have been to
+Gerard Godfrey, and the next step must be left to him.'
+
+'The next question is whether you will tell those poor things at No.
+5,' said Mark.
+
+Mr. Dutton hesitated.  'I should have no doubt of giving Miss
+Egremont the comfort of knowing that there was a possible clue, but
+if her father insisted on setting on the police, there would be very
+little more hope of success.  I am afraid it will be more prudent to
+wait till we know what Godfrey says.  He hopes to see the girl to-
+morrow evening at his mission class, but of course she is a very
+uncertain attendant there.  No, I cannot trust myself.'
+
+Annaple was forced to brook withholding the hope from the fainting
+hearts all the ensuing Sunday, which was a specially trying day, as
+Nuttie pined for her dear little companion with the pictures,
+stories, and hymns that he had always enjoyed, and made pretty
+childish remarks about, such as she began to treasure as memorable.
+
+As soon as he could, early on Monday morning, Mr. Dutton repaired to
+Gerard Godfrey's lodgings, and found that the young clergyman had
+succeeded in seeing the girl, and had examined her so as not to put
+the wild creature on her guard, and make her use the weapons of
+falsehood towards one who had never been looked on as an ally of the
+police.  It appeared that she had brought home the ship, or rather
+its hull, from one of the lowest of lodging houses, where she had
+employment as something between charwoman and errand girl.  She had
+found it on what passed for a bed in its present condition, one
+morning, when going to make the extremely slight arrangements that
+the terrible lair, which served as a common bedroom, underwent, and
+had secreted it as a prize for her little brother.
+
+At first she had been stolid, and affected utter ignorance as to how
+it got there, but Mr. Godfrey had entreated her as a friend to try to
+discover; and had with all his heart made a pathetic description of
+the girl (he durst not say lady) who had always been a mother to her
+little brother, and now had lost him, and was in terrible uncertainty
+as to his fate.  That came home to Lizzie's feelings, and she let out
+what she had seen or picked up in the way of gossip,--that the ship
+had been left behind by its owner, whether boy or girl Liz was
+uncertain, for it had long fair hair, wore a petticoat, and had been
+dosed with gin and something else when carried away.  They said it
+had made noise enough when brought there by Funny Frank and Julia.
+They were performing folk, who had come in after the Derby day to
+have a spree, and to pick up another kid to do fairies and such like,
+because the last they had had hurt his back and had to be left in the
+workhouse.  Yes, she had heard tell that they had got the child from
+Mother Bet, of whom Gerard had a vague idea as one of the horrible
+hags, who not only beg themselves, but provide outfits for beggars,
+including infants, to excite compassion.  Either she or one of her
+crew had picked up the child and disposed of his clothes; and then
+finding him too old and intelligent to be safely used for begging
+purposes, she had sold or hired him out to these acrobatic
+performers, who had gone off into that vague and unknown region, the
+country.  Liz had no notion what was their real name, nor where they
+would go, only that they attended races and fairs; and as soon as the
+actual pleasure of communicating information was over, she was seized
+with a panic, implored Mr. Godfrey to make no use of her information,
+and explained that the people of the house were quite capable of
+killing her, if they suspected her of betraying any of their
+transactions.  It was impossible to bring any authorities to bear on
+the quest; and Mr. Dutton held it wisest only to write a note telling
+Mr. Egremont that he had obtained evidence that the child was living,
+and that he was going in pursuit, but thought it safer to say no more
+at present.  He gave the note to Mark at his office.  'I cannot trust
+myself to see your cousin,' he said.  'I might be tempted to say more
+than was consistent with Godfrey's honour towards his informant.'
+
+'I think you are right,' said Mark.  'You had better leave me with
+only indefinite knowledge, for I shall be hard pressed.  Do you not
+go home first?'
+
+'Yes, I go to pack up a few things and fetch Monsieur.  A run in the
+country will do him good, and he may be a valuable auxiliary.  I
+shall find no one at Springfield at this hour.'
+
+'What is your plan?'
+
+'I shall venture so far as to apply to the police for the names of
+the usual attendants at races and fairs, and for some idea of their
+ordinary rounds.  I have no doubt that these are known at the chief
+offices.  For the rest, I must use my eyes.  But tell your cousin
+that, with God's blessing, I hope to bring him back to her.'
+
+'He will,' said Ursula, when Mark gave her the message, and from that
+moment she was calmer.  She did not fret Mark with questions even as
+much as Annaple did, she tried to prevent her father from raging at
+the scant information, and she even endeavoured to employ herself
+with some of her ordinary occupations, though all the time she kept
+up the ceaseless watch.  'Mr. Dutton would not have said that without
+good hope,' she averred, 'and I trust to him.'
+
+Yet when four, five, six, eight, days had passed with no tidings, the
+heart sickness grew almost more than she could bear, though she still
+answered with spirit when her father again took to abusing the
+umbrella-fellow for choosing to keep all in his own hands.
+
+Even Annaple could not help saying to her husband that a precise,
+prim, old bachelor was the very last person for a hunt in slums and
+the like.  The very sight of him would put the people on their guard.
+'And think of his fine words,' she added.  'I wish I could go!  If I
+started with a shawl over my head, yoked to a barrel-organ, I should
+have a far better chance than he will.  I declare, Mark, if he does
+not succeed we'll do it.  We'll hire an organ, whereon you shall
+play.  Ah! you shake your head.  A musical education is not required,
+and I know I shall do something desperate soon, if that dear little
+boy is not found.'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+NUTTIE'S KNIGHT.
+
+
+
+
+'The night came on and the bairnies grat,
+ Their minnie aneath the mools heard that.'
+
+
+'LYNDHURST, 4th July.--Philip Dutton to Miss Egremont.  Found.
+Waterloo, 6.15.'
+
+
+'I knew he would,' said Nuttie, with a strange quietness, but as she
+tried to read it to her father her voice choked, and she had to hand
+it to Annaple.  But for the first time in her life she went up and
+voluntarily kissed her father's forehead.  And perhaps it was for the
+first time in his life that the exclamation broke from him, 'Thank
+God!'
+
+Perhaps it was well that the telegram had not come earlier in the
+day, for Mr. Egremont was very restless, showing himself much shaken
+in nerves and spirits before the time for driving to the station,
+which he greatly antedated.  Nuttie could hardly keep him in the
+carriage, and indeed had to persuade him to return thither, when he
+had once sprung out on the arrival of a wrong train.
+
+And after all, when the train did come, his blue spectacles were
+directed to the row of doors at the other end, and Nuttie was
+anxiously trying to save him from being jostled, when a voice said
+'Here!' and close beside them stood Mr. Dutton, with a little boy by
+his side who looked up in her face and said 'Sister!'  It was said in
+a dreamy, almost puzzled way, not with the ecstatic joy Nuttie had
+figured to herself; and there was something passive in the mode of
+his hearing his father's 'My boy, my boy!'  Instinctively all turned
+to the harbour of the carriage; Mr. Dutton lifted Alwyn in, and as
+Nuttie received him, a pang shot across her, as she felt how light,
+how bony the little frame had become in these three weeks.
+
+'Come in!  Come back with us!  Tell us all!' said Mr. Egremont, as
+Mr. Dutton was about to help him in.
+
+'My dog,' said Mr. Dutton, while Alwyn looked up from nestling in
+Nuttie's lap to say, 'Mithter Button come!  And Mothu!'
+
+'We have room for him,' said Mr, Egremont graciously.  'Here, poor
+fellow.'
+
+'He has the right,' said Mr. Dutton, 'for he was the real finder.'
+
+And Monsieur, curly and shiny, occupied with great dignity the back
+seat beside his master, while Alwyn, in a silent but dreamy content,
+as if he only half understood where he was, rested against his
+sister's bosom with his hands in his father's.
+
+'Come, old chap,' said his father cheerily, 'tell us all about it.'
+
+But Alwyn only shuddered a little, raised his eyelids slightly, and
+gave a tiny faint smile.
+
+'I think he is very much tired,' said Mr. Dutton.  'There was a good
+deal to be done to make him presentable this morning.  You must
+forgive me for sacrificing his curls, there was nothing else to be
+done with them.'
+
+'Ah!' and Nuttie looked again.  The boy was in a new, rather coarse,
+ready-made, sailor suit that hung loosely upon his little limbs, his
+hair was short, and he was very pale, the delicate rosy flush quite
+gone, and with it the round outline of the soft cheek; and there were
+purple marks under the languid eyes.  She bent down and kissed him,
+saying, 'Was Mr. Button nurse to you, Wynnie?'
+
+He smiled again and murmured, 'Mr. Button made me boy again.'
+
+After a question and answer or two as to main facts of place and time
+of the discovery, Mr. Dutton told his story.  'I did not effect much
+with my inquiries after the circuses.  All I heard of were of too
+superior an order for kidnapping practices.  However, I thought the
+only way would be to haunt fairs and races, and look at their camp-
+followers.  At a place in Hertfordshire I saw a performance
+advertised with several children as fairies, so I went to see it.  I
+was soon satisfied that Alwyn was not there; but it struck me that I
+had known the face of the prime hero, a fine handsome supple fellow,
+who was called in the programme Herr Adalbert Steinfuggen, or some
+such name.  Well, it seemed that he knew me, for as I struggled out
+after a considerable interval, I heard myself accosted, "Mr. Dutton!
+Sir, surely I have the honour of speaking to Mr. Dutton of
+Micklethwayte?"  I assure you he was the very pink of politeness.  Do
+you remember, Miss Egremont, Abel Stone?'
+
+'Oh, Abel Stone!  He was a choir boy at Micklethwayte, I remember! He
+was very handsome, and had a splendid voice; but he was a real monkey
+for mischief, and nobody could manage him but mother.  She was always
+pleading that he should not be turned out, and at last he ran away.'
+
+'Yes; he went off with a circus, and there he found his vocation,
+rose and throve, married the prima-donna, and is part owner.  He
+seems very respectable, and was so friendly and affectionate that I
+ventured to consult him; when, on hearing whom I was seeking, he
+became warmly interested, and gave me just the information I wanted.
+He said he had little doubt that Funny Frank was a clown called Brag,
+with whom he had had words some years back for misusing the children.
+He said he did not hold with harshness to the little ones in teaching
+them to do the feats, which certainly were wonderful.  If they were
+frightened, they were nervous and met with accidents; but make much
+of them, and they thought it all fun, and took a pride and pleasure
+in their performances.  However this Brag, though a clever fellow,
+could not be hindered from bullying, and at last he went off with a
+girl of the troupe and set up on their own account.  Stone, or
+whatever he pleases to call himself, had met them several times, but
+he spoke of them with great contempt as "low," and they did not
+frequent the same places as he does.  However, he referred to one of
+his men, and found that they had been at Epsom on the Derby day, and
+moreover, that there was a report of them having lately narrowly
+escaped being in a scrape about a child who had been injured.  There
+was no scruple as to advising me where to look for them, or as to the
+best means of detection.  Stone was very indignant, and made me
+understand that all his young people were either to the manner born,
+or willingly hired out by their parents.  I saw them in private life,
+and they looked happy and well-fed, but that was no guarantee for
+Funny Frank.  Well, I followed him up without success, trying each
+place Stone had set down for me, till I came last night to Lyndhurst,
+a very pretty place in the New Forest, where there is to be a fair
+to-morrow, beginning this afternoon.  Stone advised me to look about
+before the affair opened, while unpacking and arranging was going on.
+Well, after all, it was very simple.  I strolled out with my dog
+round the field where the vans and booths were getting into order.
+There was what I thought a little girl in a faded red petticoat
+sitting on the steps at the bottom of a yellow van with her head on
+her hands.'
+
+'That was me,' said Alwyn, lighting up.  'And Mothu came and kissed
+Fan!'
+
+'Yes,' said Mr. Dutton; 'I verily believe we might have missed one
+another, but Monsieur ran up to him and, as I was actually whistling
+him off, I heard a little voice say, "Mothu!  Mothu!" and saw they
+were--well, embracing one another, and then came "Mithter Button,
+Mithter Button, oh, take me home!'"
+
+Eager caressing hands were held out to Monsieur, who jumped off the
+seat to receive the pats and laudations lavished on his curly round
+pate, and had to be reduced to order before Mr. Dutton could answer
+the question whether he had any further difficulty or danger.
+
+'I took him up in my arms, and a handsome truculent-looking woman
+burst out on me, demanding what I was about with her child.  To which
+I answered that she knew very well he was no such thing.  Her man
+came swaggering up, declaring impudently that I had better be off--
+but I believe he saw that the people who came round would not take
+his part, for he gave in much more easily than I expected.  I
+explained as loud as I could that this was a gentleman's son who had
+been stolen from his nurse in the Park.  The man began to protest
+that they had found him deserted, and taken him with them out of
+charity, requesting to be paid for his keep.  So I thought it better
+to give them a sovereign at once, so as to have no further trouble,
+and get him away as fast as I could.  The woman came after me, making
+further demands, but the sight of a policeman in the distance turned
+her back.  I went up to him and explained.  I found he knew all about
+the loss and the reward, and looked regretfully at my prize.  We went
+back to the hotel, where I set Alwyn to rights as well as I could,
+sent out for some clothes, such as the place would produce, and which
+at least, as he says, made a boy of him again.  I'm afraid the
+process was rather trying from such unaccustomed hands, though he was
+very good, and he has been asleep almost all the way home, and, his
+senses all as in a dream bound up.'
+
+The heaviness--whether weariness or content, still continued.  Alwyn
+seemed to find it too much trouble to talk, and only gave little
+smiles, more like his mother than himself.  He clung quite
+desperately to his sister when Mark offered to lift him from the
+carriage, but nurse was close behind, and it was good to see the
+little arms stretched out, and the head laid on her shoulder, the
+hand put up to stroke her cheek, and the lips whispering 'Wyn's own
+nursie.'  The jubilant greeting and triumphant procession with which
+he was borne upstairs seemed almost to oppress him.  He appeared
+almost as if he was afraid of wakening from a happy dream, and his
+lively merriment seemed all gone; there were only beams of
+recognition and gladness at 'Wyn's own nursery, Wyn's own pretty
+cup,' touching it as if to make sure that it was real, and pleased to
+see the twisted crusts, his special treat.
+
+But he could not eat much of them, and soon laid his head down, as
+one weary, with the exhaustion of content; and nurse, who had allowed
+that Mr. Dutton had, considering all things, done much for the
+outward restoration of the daintiness of her recovered child, was
+impatient to give him the hot bath and night's rest that was to bring
+back the bright joyous Alwyn.  So Nuttie only lingered for those
+evening prayers she had yearned after so sorely.  When she held his
+mother's picture to him to be kissed, he raised his eyes to her and
+said: 'Will she come to me at night now?'
+
+'Who, my darling?'
+
+'She, mother dear.'
+
+'Here's her picture, dear boy.'
+
+'Not only the picture--she came out of it, when I cried, up on the
+nasty-smelling bundle in the van all in the dark.'
+
+'She came?'
+
+'Yes, she came, and made it so nice, and hushed me.  I wasn't afraid
+to go to by-by when she came.  And she sang.  Sister, can't you sing
+like that?'
+
+'Not here, I'm afraid, dear, dear boy,' she whispered, holding him so
+tight that he gave a little cry of 'It hurts.'  Then came the
+prayers, not a word forgotten, and the little voice joined in her
+murmured thanksgiving for bringing him home.
+
+She was much moved and awe-stricken at these words of her little
+brother; but she had to dress in haste for dinner, listening the
+while to her maid's rejoinings and vituperations of the wretches who
+had maltreated the child.
+
+When she came down she found no one in the drawing-room but Mr.
+Dutton, whom her father had asked to the happiest meal that had
+perhaps ever been eaten in that house.
+
+She went towards him with winged steps in her white dress: 'Oh! Mr.
+Dutton, we have not said half enough to you, but we never, never
+can.'
+
+He gave a curious, trembling half smile, as she held out her hands to
+him, and said: 'The joy is great in itself,' speaking in a very low
+voice.
+
+'Oh! I am so glad that you did it,' cried Ursula.  'It would not have
+been half so sweet to owe it to any one else.'
+
+'Miss Egremont, do you know what you are saying?' he exclaimed.
+
+'Don't call me Miss Egremont!  You never used to.  Why should you?'
+
+'I have not dared--' he began.
+
+'Dared!  Don't you know you always were our own Mr. Dutton--best,
+wisest friend of all, and now more than ever.'
+
+'Stay,' he said, 'I cannot allow you in your fervour to say such
+things to me, unaware of the strength of feeling you are stirring
+within me.'
+
+'You! you!  Mr. Dutton!' cried Nuttie, with a moment's recoil.  'You
+don't mean that you care for _me_.'
+
+'I know it is preposterous--' he began.
+
+'Preposterous!  Yes, that you should care one bit for silly, foolish,
+naughty, self-willed me.  Oh, Mr. Dutton, you can't mean it!'
+
+'Indeed, I would have kept silence, and not disturbed you with my
+presumption, if--'
+
+'Hush!' she cried.  'Why, it makes me so glad and so proud, I don't
+know what to do.  I didn't think anybody was good enough for you--
+unless it was dear, dear mother--and that it should be me.'
+
+'It is true,' he said gravely, 'my younger days were spent in a vain
+dream of that angel, then when all that was ended, I thought such
+things were not for me; but the old feeling has wakened, it seems to
+me in greater force than ever, though I meant to have kept it in
+control--'
+
+'Oh, I am glad you didn't!  It seems as if the world swam round with
+wonder and happiness,' and she held his hand as if to steady herself,
+starting however as Annaple opened the door saying, 'We've been
+sending telegrams with the good news.'
+
+Then an arch light came into her bright eyes, but the others were
+behind her, and she said no more.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+FOUND AND TAKEN.
+
+
+
+
+'The angels of the gateway
+  Bent softly to the child,
+ And stretched glad hands to take him
+  To the kingdom undefiled.'--B. M.
+
+
+'Come up and see him,' said Nuttie, as the dining-room door was shut.
+'I must feast my eyes on him.'
+
+Annaple replied by throwing an arm round her and looking into her
+eyes, kissing her on each cheek, and then, as they reached the
+landing in the summer twilight, waltzing round and round that narrow
+space with her.
+
+'You ridiculous person!' said Nuttie.  'Do you mean that you saw!'
+
+'Of course I did; I've seen ever so long--'
+
+'Nonsense!  That's impossible--'
+
+'Impossible to owls and bats perhaps, but to nothing else not to see
+that there was one sole and single hero in the world to you, and that
+to him there was one single being in the world; and that being the
+case---'
+
+'But, Annaple, you can't guess what he has always been to me.'
+
+'Oh! don't I know?--a sort of Archbishop of Canterbury and George
+Heriot rolled into one.  So much the more reason, my dear, I don't
+know when I've been so glad in my life than that your good times
+should be coming.'
+
+'They are come in knowing this!  It is only too wonderful,' said
+Nuttie, as they stood together among the plants in the little
+conservatory on the way upstairs.  'I always thought it insulting to
+him when they teased me about him.'
+
+'They did, did they?'
+
+'My father, incited by poor Gregorio.  Oh, Annaple! don't let any one
+guess till we know how my father will take it.  What is it, Ellen?'
+as the nursery-maid appeared on the stairs.
+
+'If you please, ma'am, Mrs. Poole would be glad if you are coming up
+to the nursery.'
+
+They both hastened up and nurse came out to meet them in the day
+nursery, making a sign to Ellen to take her place by the cot, and
+withholding the two ladies.  She made them come as far off as
+possible, and then said that she was not at all satisfied about
+Master Alwyn.  There had been the same drowsiness and disinclination
+to speak, and when she had undressed and washed him, he had seemed
+tender all over, and cried out and moaned as if her touch hurt him,
+especially on one side where, she felt convinced, there was some
+injury; but when she asked about it his eyes grew frightened and
+bewildered, and he only cried in a feeble sort of way, as if sobs
+gave him pain.
+
+She had soothed him, and he had gone into his own bed with the same
+gentle languid gladness, but had presently begun moaning, and
+imploring in his sleep, wakening with screams and entreaties, 'Oh,
+I'll do it!  I'll try!' and she thought him very feverish.  Would it
+not be better that a doctor should see him?
+
+Nurse was always an alarmist, and Nuttie could not help thinking that
+to wake the child to see a stranger to-night would only add to his
+terror and distress, while Annaple declared her entire belief that
+though no doubt the poor little fellow had been cruelly knocked about
+and bruised, a night's rest would probably restore his bright self,
+and make all that was past only like a bad dream.  There was no
+judging to-night, and sleep was wonderful reparation to those little
+beings.
+
+Then however the moans and murmurs began again, and now the awakening
+cry.  They started forward, and as Nuttie came to the cot-side the
+child threw himself into her bosom with, 'Sister!  Sister!  It is
+sister!' but his eyes grew round with terror at sight of Annaple, and
+clinging tightly to Nuttie he gasped, 'Send her away! don't let her
+touch me!  Fan's not here!'
+
+To tell him she was Cousin Annaple, Billy's mamma, had no effect; he
+did not seem able to understand, and she could only retire--nurse
+being thus convinced that to let him see another stranger to-night
+would only do further harm.  Nuttie and nurse succeeded in reassuring
+him that he was safe at home and with them, and in hushing him off
+into what they hoped would be a quiet wholesome sleep in spite of the
+hot sultry night, on which Annaple laid a good deal of the blame of
+his restlessness and feverishness.
+
+Nuttie only came down for a short time before the visitors went away;
+and then she wrote a note to Dr. Brownlow, which Mark promised to
+leave as he went to the city in the morning, Mr. Egremont, in his
+present relief, pooh-poohing all fears, and backing up Annaple's
+belief in the powers of 'tired nature's soft restorer'; but Mr.
+Dutton looked grave and said that he had remarked the extreme
+tenderness, but had hoped that much was due to his own inexperience
+in handling little children.  The parting clasp of the hand had a
+world of meaning in it, and Nuttie openly said that she hoped to tell
+him after matins at St. Michael's how the boy was.  But she could not
+be there.  When she went upstairs at night the half-delirious terrors
+had returned, and there was another difficult soothing and comforting
+before the child slept again.  Nurse fancied the unwonted presence
+might disturb him, and insisted on her going to her own room.
+
+When she returned in the morning it was to find that since daylight
+he had been more quietly asleep; but there was a worn sunken look
+about his face, and she could not be satisfied to leave him alone
+while the nurses stirred about and breakfasted.
+
+He awoke smiling and happy; he looked about and said gladly, 'Wyn at
+home!  Wyn's own nursery,' but he did not want to get up; 'Wyn so
+tired,' he said, speaking of himself in the baby form that he had for
+several months discarded, but he said his pretty 'thank you,' and
+took delight in breakfasting in his cot, though still in a subdued
+way, and showing great reluctance to move or be touched.
+
+Nuttie was sent for to report of him to his father, who would not
+hear for a moment of anxiety, declaring that the boy would be quite
+well if they let him alone, he only wanted rest, and insisting on
+following out his intention of seeing a police superintendent to
+demand whether the kidnapping rascals could not be prosecuted.
+
+Neither by Nuttie nor nurse could much be extracted from the poor
+little fellow himself about his adventures.  He could not bear to
+think of them, and there was a mist of confusion over his mind,
+partly from weakness, partly, they also thought, from the drugged
+spirits with which he had been more than once dosed.  He dimly
+remembered missing Gregorio in the park, and that he had tried to
+find his way home alone, but some one, a big boy, he thought, had
+said he would show him the way, took hold of his hand, dragged him,
+he knew not where, into dreadful dirt and stench, and apparently had
+silenced him with a blow before stripping him.  But it was all very
+indistinct, he could not tell how Mother Bet got hold of him, and the
+being dressed in the rags of a girl had somehow loosed his hold of
+his own identity.  He did not seem at all certain that the poor
+little dirty petticoated thing who had wakened in a horrible cellar,
+or in a dark jolting van who had been dubbed Fan, who had been forced
+by the stick to dance and twist and compelled to drink burning,
+choking stuff, was the same with Alwyn in his sailor suit or in his
+white cot.
+
+It was Dr. Brownlow who at once detected that there had been much of
+this dosing, and drew forth the fact.  It had probably been done
+whenever it was expedient that he should be hidden, or unable to make
+any appeal to outsiders.  Alwyn was quite himself by day, and showed
+no unreasonable fear or shyness, but he begged not to be touched, and
+though he tried to be good and manly, could not keep from cries and
+screams when the doctor examined him.
+
+Then it came out.  'It's where he kicked me.'
+
+'Who?'
+
+'That man--master, she said I must call him.  He kicked poor little
+Fan with his great heavy big boots--'cause Fan would say Wyn's
+prayers.'
+
+'Who was Fan?' asked the puzzled doctor.
+
+'Himself,' whispered Nuttie.  'Alas! himself!'
+
+'Wyn was Fan,' said Alwyn.  'Fan's gone now!'
+
+'And did the man kick poor little Fan,' repeated the doctor--'here?'
+
+'Oh don't--don't!  It hurts so.  Master said he would have none of
+that, and he kicked with his big boot.  Oh!  Fan couldn't dance one
+bit after that.'
+
+He could not tell how long ago this had been.  He seemed to have lost
+all reckoning of days, and probably felt as if ages had past in Funny
+Frank's van, but Dr. Brownlow thought the injury could not be above
+two or three days old, and probably it accounted for there having
+been no more obstructions put in the way of removing the child, since
+he had ceased to be of use, and the discovery of the injury might
+have brought the perpetrator into trouble.  Indeed, as it was, Mr.
+Egremont caused the police to be written to, demanding the arrest of
+the man and woman Brag, but they had already decamped, and were never
+traced, which was decidedly a relief to those who dreaded all that a
+prosecution would have involved.
+
+And Dr. Brownlow became very grave over the injury.  He said it was a
+surgical case, and he should like to have another opinion, enjoining
+that the child should be kept in bed, and as quiet as possible, till
+he could bring his friend in the afternoon, which was no difficult
+matter, for Alwyn seemed to have no desire for anything but rest and
+the sight of his friends and his treasures, which were laid beside
+him to be gently handled and stroked but not played with.  Mothu and
+Mithter Button were among the friends he craved for, but he showed no
+desire to see Billy-boy, and it was thought best to keep that young
+gentleman's rampant strength at a distance.
+
+The chief difficulty was with his father, who declared they were all
+croaking, and that the boy would be as well as ever to-morrow.  He
+went and sat by the cot, and talked merrily of the pony that Alwyn
+was to ride, and the yachting they would have in the summer; and the
+little fellow smiled and was pleased, but went to sleep in the midst.
+Then Mr. Egremont went out, taking Annaple with him, because Nuttie
+would not go till the doctors' visit was over, though he declared
+that they were certain not to come till long after her return from
+the drive.  He actually went to the dealer's, and had pony after pony
+paraded before the carriage, choosing a charming toy Shetland at
+last, subject to its behaviour with the coachman's little boy, while
+Annaple hopefully agreed with him that Alwyn would be on its back in
+another week.
+
+He still maintained his opinion, outwardly at least, when he was met
+on his return by Nuttie with a pale, almost thunderstruck face.  Dr.
+Brownlow had called her from trying to soothe away the fright and
+suffering of the examination, to break to her that both he and his
+colleague thought very seriously of the injury and its consequences,
+and deemed it very doubtful whether the poor little fellow could be
+pulled through.
+
+Mr. Egremont was again angry, declared that she had misunderstood,
+and made the worst of it; that Dr. Brownlow was a conceited young
+ass; that his friend played into his hands; with other amenities of
+the same kind, to which she listened with mingled irritation and pity
+for his unreasonableness, and even at the sympathy which he found in
+Annaple's hopeful nature.
+
+The young mother never dreaded nor expected what she could not bear
+to think possible, such as the death-warrant of that beautiful child,
+while Nuttie's nature always expected the worst, and indeed had read
+the doom in the doctor's eyes and voice rather than in his words.  So
+Annaple backed Mr. Egremont up when he made his daughter write to
+desire Dr. Brownlow to call in the first advice in London; and among
+them they made so sure that this would be effective that they
+actually raised Nuttie's hopes so as to buoy her through the feverish
+early hours of the night when the pain was aggravated, the terrors
+returned, the boy was tormented by his duality with Fan, and the past
+miseries were acted over again.  Even nurse and sister did not
+suffice, and Mithter Button had to be fetched by Mark before he could
+feel quite secure that he was Alwyn and not Fan.  Indeed, in these
+light-headed moments, a better notion was gained of what he must have
+endured than in the day-time, when all seemed put aside or forgotten.
+After a time he became capable of being soothed by hymns, though
+still asking why his sister could not sing like that vision of his
+mother which had comforted him in his previous miseries, and craving
+for her return.  Then at last he fell quietly asleep, and Nuttie was
+left with a few sustaining words and a pressure from Mr. Dutton's
+hand.
+
+Alas! the new consultation could only ratify the first opinion.  The
+injury need not have been necessarily fatal, though dangerous to any
+young child, and here it had been aggravated by previous ill-
+treatment, and by the doses of spirits that had been forced down,
+besides which, Alwyn was naturally delicate, and--though the doctors
+would not say so to father or sister--there were hereditary
+predispositions that gave him the less chance of battling through.
+
+Yet Mr. Egremont concluded his purchase of the pony, and insisted
+that Alwyn should be carried to the window to see it; and Alwyn's
+smile was almost enough to break Nuttie's heart, but his head drooped
+on nurse's shoulder, he hardly lifted his heavy eyelids, and begged
+for 'by-by' again.  Even Annaple burst into tears at the sight, ran
+out of the room with her sobs, and never augured recovery again,
+though still she strove to cheer and while away the poor father's
+piteous hours by making the most of every sign that the child was
+happy and not suffering much.
+
+That he would be viewed as a 'pale placid martyr' was his sister's
+chief comfort.  His replies as to the manner of the hurt, as well as
+his light-headed wanderings, had made it more and more evident that
+the man Brag's brutality had been excited by his persisting in
+kneeling down to say his prayers aloud--the only way he knew how to
+say them.  Indeed there was a recurring anxiety night and morning to
+kneel, which had to be reasoned away, even when he was too weak to
+make the attempt, and was only appeased by 'Sister' kneeling by his
+side, holding his hands, and repeating the little prayers with him.
+It was of his own accord that he added: 'And forgive those people,
+and make them good.'  Annaple burst into tears again and almost
+scolded when she heard of it.  'Oh dear! oh dear! now I know he won't
+get well!  I'm glad Billy isn't so horribly good!  Nuttie, Nuttie,
+don't!  You know I don't mean it.  Only I just can't bear it.  He is
+the sweetest little fellow in the world!  And oh! the cruelty of it.'
+
+'Yes,' said Nuttie in her dreary calmness; 'he is too sweet and
+lovely and beautiful and good to be anywhere but safe with mother.'
+
+For it was more apparent that they could not keep him.  It did not
+last long; there were a couple of piteous days of restless pain and
+distress, and then came the more fatal lull and absence of suffering,
+a drowsiness in which the little fellow sank gradually away, lying
+with a strange calm beauty on his face, and smiling feebly when he
+now and then lifted his eyes to rest them on sister or nurse.  His
+father could not bear the sight.  It filled him more with angry
+compassion than with the tender reverence and hushed awe with which
+Ursula watched her darling slipping as it were from her hold.  So Mr.
+Egremont wandered wretchedly about the lower rooms, while Mark and
+Annaple tried their best for him through the long summer evening,
+darkening into night.  By and by Alwyn lifted his hand, turned his
+head, opened his lips, and whispered, 'Hark, sister, she is singing.'
+The look of exceeding joy beamed more and more over the pinched
+little face.  'She's come again,' he said; and once more, 'Come to
+take Wyn to the dear Lord.'  After that there were very few more long
+breaths before little Alwyn Egremont's spirit was gone to that unseen
+world, and only the fair little frame left with that wondrous look of
+delighted recognition on the face.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+THE UMBRELLA MAN.
+
+
+
+
+Little Alwyn was laid to rest beside his mother in a beautiful summer
+noontide.  His father was not in a state to attend the funeral, and
+was left under the care of Annaple, his own choice among those who
+offered to stay and minister to him.  It was his own wish that his
+daughter should be to the last with her little brother.  He had even
+said to her that she had been a good sister, and his boy had been
+very fond of her, and he would not keep her away on any account.
+
+And, with a man's preference for a young and kindly woman, he chose
+Annaple to be with him rather than Mr. Dutton, remembering likewise
+that but for him the boy would have died in some workhouse, unknown
+and unclaimed, or among the wretches who had caused his death.  So
+Nuttie had the comfort of Mr. Dutton's going down with her, as well
+as Mark, and poor broken-down nurse, but not a word referring to the
+confession of that happy evening had passed between them during the
+mournful fortnight which had since elapsed.
+
+May Condamine and her husband had made all as fair and consoling as
+they could.  There were white-robed children to bear the boy from the
+churchyard gate, choristers sang hymns, the grave was lined with moss
+and daisies, and white roses decked the little coffin and the mound.
+There was as much of welcome and even of triumph as befitted the
+innocent child, whose death had in it the element of testimony to the
+truth.  And Nuttie felt it, or would feel it by and by, when her
+spirit felt less as if some precious thing had been torn up by the
+roots--to be safe and waiting for her elsewhere, indeed, but that did
+not solace the yearning longing for the merry loving child; nor the
+aching pity for the crushed blighted creature whom she had watched
+suffering and dying.  It was far beyond her power as yet to acquiesce
+in her aunt's consolation that it was happier for the child himself,
+than if he was to grow up to temptation from without, and with an
+unsound constitution, with dangerous hereditary proclivities.  She
+could believe it in faith, nay, she had already experienced the
+difficulties her father had thrown in her way of dealing with him,
+she tried to be resigned, but the good sense of the Canoness was too
+much for her.
+
+It was a day of more haste than suited the ideal of such a time, for
+Mr. Egremont could not be left for a night; so there was only time
+for a luncheon, with little jerks of talk, and then for an hour spent
+in short private interviews.  Mrs. Egremont obtained from poor Nurse
+Poole all the details, and, moreover, her opinion of Mr. Mark's baby,
+in whom, it having been born under her auspices, she took a special
+interest.
+
+Nuttie meantime was pacing the shady walk with her dear old friend
+Miss Nugent, feeling it strange that her heart did not leap up at the
+bare presence of one she loved so much, yet conscious of the soothing
+of her sympathy.  And Mary, watching her all through, had been struck
+with the increased sweetness and nobleness her countenance had
+acquired during these years of discipline.  More of her mother's
+expression had come than could have been thought possible in features
+of such a different mould, formed for so much more strength and
+energy.  They had not met since Nuttie had been summoned home to her
+mother's deathbed, and their time was chiefly spent on reminiscences
+alike of the old sorrow and the new; but, when the time for parting
+was nearly come, Mary said affectionately, 'And you, my dear?'
+
+'Oh, I am all right,' said Nuttie, and her eyes shone with a light
+Mary did not at the moment understand; 'you need not be anxious for
+me _now_.'
+
+'I suppose that unhappy valet's death makes your task easier,' said
+Mary.
+
+'I think it will,' said Nuttie.  'Poor man!  He was--I can't help
+saying it--the evil genius of the house.  Dear mother knew it,
+struggled against him, and broke down in the struggle.  It seems so
+strange that what she could not do has been done in such a manner,
+and at such a price!  I wonder whether she knew it when she welcomed
+her boy!'
+
+'Her influence will aid you still,' said Mary, 'and you have Mr.
+Dutton to help you too.  I was so glad to find he was so near you.'
+
+'Oh, Mr. Dutton!' exclaimed Ursula, in a strange tone that sent a
+thrill through Mary, though she knew not why; but at that moment they
+were interrupted, very inopportunely, by Mr. Bulfinch, who could not
+go away without asking Miss Egremont whether she thought her father
+could see him on business if he came up to town the next day.  She
+thought that such an interview would rouse her father and do him
+good, advising him to call on the chance.
+
+Mark's tete-a-tete had been with his sister May, to whom he had much
+to tell of his wife and her gallant patience and energy, and how
+curious it was that now the incubus that had weighed on his uncle's
+household was removed, the prejudice had melted away, and he had
+grown so fond of her that, next to Ursula, she was his best
+comforter.
+
+'I hope that will lead to more,' said May.
+
+'I don't see how,' said Mark.  The more we rely only on a blessing on
+our own exertions the better.'
+
+'Even when Annaple works within an inch of her life?'
+
+'Now that she is on a right tack about the baby, that will be easier.
+Yes, May, I do feel sometimes that I have brought her down to
+drudgery and narrowness and want of variety such as was never meant
+for her, but she will never let me think so.  She says that it is
+living in realities, and that it makes her happier than toiling after
+society, or rather after the world, and I do believe it is true!  I'm
+sure it is with me.'
+
+'But such work as yours, Mark.'
+
+'Nonsense, May; I enjoy it.  I did not when I was in the Greenleaf
+firm, with an undeveloped sense that Goodenough was not to be
+trusted, and we were drifting to the bad, yet too green to understand
+or hinder it; but this I thoroughly like.  What does one want but
+honest effective work, with some power of dealing with and helping
+those good fellows, the hands, to see the right and help themselves?'
+
+May sighed.  'And yet, now that poor child is gone, I feel all the
+more how hard it is that you should be put out of the rights of your
+name.'
+
+'I never had any rights.  It was the bane of my life to be supposed
+to have them.  Nothing but this could have made a man of me.'
+
+'And don't you have regrets for your boy?'
+
+'I don't think I have--provided we can give him an education--such as
+I failed to make proper use of, or Annaple might be luxuriating at
+Pera at this moment.'
+
+'Well!' said May, pausing as she looked up the vista of trees at the
+great house; 'I can't bear it to go out of the old name.'
+
+'Names may be taken!'
+
+'You don't mean that there's any chance of--Oh! not that horrid Mr.
+Fane?'
+
+'Certainly not.'
+
+'Oh!' as a trim black figure appeared walking down the open space.
+'That man!'
+
+'I am not authorised to tell any one so, May.'
+
+'Yes, I understand.  The wretch, he is taking stock of the place
+already!'
+
+'For shame.  May, no one has deserved so well of them.'
+
+'I don't care, he got you into that horrid concern.'
+
+'And got me out of it, and found my work for me.  I tell you, May, it
+is the best thing that could possibly happen to your parish, or the
+estate, or my poor uncle either!  And you will soon come to a better
+mind. '
+
+'Never, while he is to get into your place!  Turn back before he
+comes within hailing distance. '
+
+Before Mark could do anything towards bringing his sister to a better
+mind he was seized on by his stepmother to propound a scheme she had
+hatched, namely that, as a mutual benefit, Nurse Poole should be
+allowed the consolation of bringing her chief comforter, his little
+daughter, down with her on the visit Mrs. Egremont had invited her to
+pay at Redcastle.  He was very grateful, though doubtful whether
+Annaple would accept the offer, for she was missing her children's
+company, though they were only at Springfield House, and she had been
+with them part of every day.  And, sad as this month had been, it had
+been such a rest from sheer physical toil that she had gained almost
+as much by it as the little one.
+
+There was a general assembly and coffee-drinking in the verandah,--
+Mr. Condamine, Blanche, and her two young sisters were all there,--
+and May had to be duly civil to Mr. Dutton, though he came back with
+some water-lilies that he had fished out of the lake for Nuttie, and
+she thought it taking possession.  Then the Londoners set forth for
+the station, and there Mark, having perhaps had a hint from his wife,
+saw Nuttie and Mr. Dutton safely bestowed by Broadbent in an empty
+carriage, and then discovered a desire to smoke, and left them to
+themselves.
+
+They had not been alone together for more than a second since the
+evening of Alwyn's return, and there was a great shyness between
+them, which lasted till the first station was past without any
+irruption of newcomers.  Nothing had been said but a few comments on
+the arrangements and the attendants, but probably both were trying to
+begin to speak, and at last it was Ursula who crossed over so that
+her face could not be seen, and said in an odd tone--
+
+'Mr. Dutton--'
+
+'Yes,' and he turned, instantly on the alert.
+
+'Did you mean it--what I thought you meant that evening?'
+
+'Can you doubt it?' he said earnestly.  'But even then I was
+surprised into the avowal, and I would have held it back if possible,
+if I had guessed what was going to happen.'
+
+'Ah! but then I should not have had that drop of comfort through it
+all,' and she laid hold of his hand, which returned the pressure
+strongly, but he sedulously guarded both words and tone as he said:
+
+'Listen, Ursula, before you speak again.  How dear you must always be
+to me, I cannot tell you, but when I then spoke, it was with the
+sense that on every account, I should meet with strong opposition
+from your father and family.  And now your position is altered, so
+that the unsuitability is doubled.  I am not a young man, remember,
+and my thoughts must be for you above all, I want you to consider
+whether, in the present state of affairs, you would not do better to
+look on what then passed as unsaid, or only as the ebullition of
+gratitude towards your old friend.  Let me go abroad, and give you
+full opportunity for--for some fresh beginning likely to be fitter
+for you--'
+
+'Mr. Dutton, how can you say such horrid things?  As if a dukedom
+would make any difference.'
+
+'Yes,' he said, turning towards her.  'If it is only the old-friend
+feeling, then it is better dropped, but if your heart is in it,
+child, then we go on, come what may.  It is due to you.'
+
+She raised her face towards him now, and he gave a grave kiss to her
+forehead.  She drew a long breath, and said after a little pause,
+'And now I have something to say.  One does think of such things even
+in these sad times, and you can help me.  I am so glad it is you,
+because I know you will, and be rejoiced to do so.  You know when
+Mark found us out first, dear mother and I always felt that it was a
+great pity he should not have the estate he had been brought up to
+expect.  I believe dear mother thought it would have been the right
+thing for me to marry him, but I always did mean to give it back to
+him, even when I didn't like him.  Well, then, you know it all seemed
+settled otherwise, but now, it is so lucky you spoke to me while that
+dear little fellow was with us, because now you will help me to
+persuade my father that it is the only satisfactory thing to do to
+let it go in the male line to Mark and his Willy.'
+
+'I see!  I see!' said Mr. Dutton eagerly.  'It would be an infinite
+relief if it could be carried out.'
+
+'I believe my father would like it,' said Nuttie.  'He cares for the
+name; and now no one prevents it; he is fond of Mark, and still more
+of Annaple!  And you!  Oh, Mr. Dutton, if he will only take it in the
+right way, I think you will make me able to do what it grieved dear
+mother never to have brought about for my poor father.'
+
+'My whole self is yours to aid you,' he said.  'You know of course
+that I could not ask you to detach yourself from one to whom you are
+so necessary.  If he will permit us, we will watch over him together
+as doing her work.'
+
+'Thank you,' was all Nuttie's lips could utter, though her hand said
+much more.
+
+And before they reached London they had arranged something of a plan
+of action for propitiating Mr. Egremont, and bringing the future
+prospects to be available so as to save Annaple from being worked to
+death in the meantime.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+ANNAPLE'S AMBITION FALLEN.
+
+
+
+
+'Well, how did you get on, Annaple?'
+
+'Oh! very well, poor old man, on the whole, though it made one pity
+him doubly that he chose to make as if he forgot everything, and you
+were all gone on a picnic, taking me out for a long drive in the
+afternoon--where we were least likely to meet any one--that I will
+say for him.'
+
+'Forgetting is not the best for him.'
+
+'As if he could forget!  But he was very nice and friendly, and put
+on his best, most courteous self.  I think he looks on me rather as a
+protector from the solemn Mr. Edsall.'
+
+'Surely Edsall treats him well.  He was excellently recommended.  You
+know I saw his master's daughter.'
+
+'Oh! only _too_ well.  He takes the management of him as if he were
+three years old, or a lunatic.  He simply _will_ not be offended any
+more than if he had to do with a baby.'
+
+'What should offend him?'
+
+'That Mr. Egremont greatly resents being allowed nothing but by what
+Edsall calls medical sanction.  He is too blind, you know, to venture
+to pour out anything for himself, and besides, Edsall has all the
+drugs under lock and key, and is coolness itself about any amount of
+objurgations, such as I fancy go on sometimes.'
+
+'Do you think he will stand it?'
+
+'Who?  Your uncle?  Yes, I think he will.  This man really makes him
+more comfortable than poor Gregorio did.'
+
+'Yes; Nuttie said she was sure that there was neglect, if not
+bullying latterly.  But he must miss Gregorio terribly.  They had
+been together for at least five-and-twenty or thirty years, and had
+plenty of gossip together.'
+
+'Whereas the present paternal despotism and appalling dignity and
+gravity will keep him more dependent on his right congeners.'
+
+'If they are of the right sort, that's all.'
+
+'He has been making me read him a whole heap of letters; indeed, as
+you know, I have been doing that all along, when he could not get
+Nuttie.  There were some from Mr. Bulfinch.  Do you know that bailiff
+of his must be next door to a swindler?'
+
+'Bulfinch is coming up to see him to-morrow.'
+
+'And, Mark, do you know, he has been putting out feelers as if to
+discover whether we would do--what he asked us to do five years ago.'
+
+'Would you?'
+
+'If it were not for the children, and--and sometimes the extreme
+pinch, I should say it was more like _life_ to work yourself up as a
+City man,' said Annaple.  'If you were the Squire, with all his
+opportunities, it would be a different thing, but there's no outlet
+there, and I have often admired the wisdom of the Apocryphal saying,
+"Make not thyself an underling to a foolish man."'
+
+'Well, it is lucky you think so, Nannie, for though Dutton is
+certainly not a foolish man, he will not want an underling.  And what
+do you say to my mother's proposal of having poor Poole to stay at
+Redcastle, and borrowing baby to comfort her till she goes out again.
+
+'I hate it,' said Annaple energetically.  'It is very horrid, but it
+is awfully good of the Canoness; and I suppose we shall have to let
+it come to pass, and miss all that most charming time of babyhood
+which is coming.  But most likely it will quite set the little woman
+up, and be a real kindness to poor Poole.'
+
+'If we could only keep her for good.'
+
+'Yes, and then our children would not be half so much our own.  I do
+want to be away with them in our own quarters.  I wonder when Nuttie
+can spare us, but I should like to see her through the great crisis
+with her father.'
+
+That crisis was to involve more than Annaple in the least expected.
+Nuttie found that the momentous confession could not possibly take
+place before the interview with Mr. Bulfinch, at which her presence
+was needed to help her father with his papers.  The principal concern
+was to show the full enormity of the bailiff, and decide upon the
+steps to be taken, the solicitor being anxious for a prosecution,
+while a certain tenderness for poor Gregorio's memory, or perhaps for
+the exposure of his own carelessness, made Mr. Egremont reluctant.
+There was also a proposal, brought forward with much diffidence from
+Mr. Condamine's mother, to rent Bridgefield House, but on this, as
+well as respecting a successor to the bailiff, Mr. Egremont was to
+give his answer the next day, when Mr. Bulfinch would call again.
+
+Nuttie was thankful for the business that had filled up the hour
+after luncheon, when Alwyn used to play in the drawing-room and
+delight his father; but she was feeling desperate to have the crisis
+over, and resolved to speak when she went out driving with him.  It
+was he, however, who began.  'I sounded Mark's wife yesterday,
+Ursula.  She is a nice little thing enough, and a good wife in her
+way.'
+
+'A very good wife.'
+
+'Except when she persuaded him to turn up his nose at the agency.
+D'ye think he would take it now, since he has tasted the sweets of
+his umbrella business?' then, as Nuttie paused, taken by surprise;
+'Five hundred a year and the Home Farm would be better than, what is
+it, a hundred and fifty and a floor over a warehouse!  I don't like
+to see old Will's son wearing himself out there, and the lad is a
+good honest lad, with business habits, who would do justice to you
+after I am gone.'
+
+'Father,' said Nuttie, trembling with the effort, 'I want you to do
+something better than that.  I want you to let Mark take the agency
+with a view to himself--not me.  Let him be as he would have been if
+he had never hunted us up at Micklethwayte, and put me in his place.'
+
+'Eh!' said Mr. Egremont.  'It is not entailed--worse luck; if it had
+been, I should not have been bound to dance attendance at the heels
+of such an old sinner as the General.'
+
+'No, but it ought to go to the heir male, and keep in the old name.
+Think--there have been Egremonts at Bridgefield for four hundred
+years!'
+
+'Very pretty talk, but how will it be with you, Miss.  We shall have
+Fane, and I don't know how many more, coming after the scent of
+Bridgefield now,' he said with a heavy sigh, ending with a bitter
+'Hang them all!'
+
+'And welcome,' said Nuttie, answering the thought rather than the
+words.  'Father, I wanted to tell you--'
+
+'You don't mean that any one has been after you at such a time as
+this!' he cried.
+
+'It was before--I mean it was the evening when we were all so glad,
+before we began to be afraid.'
+
+'The umbrella man!  By Jove!'
+
+'And now,' went on Nuttie, in spite of the explosion, 'he would
+hardly have ventured to go on with it but for this--I mean,' as her
+father gave a little laugh of his unpleasant sort, 'he said it would
+be the greatest possible relief, and make it all right for the
+property to go to the heir male.'
+
+'Hein!  You think so, do you?  See how it will be when I come to talk
+to him!  A shrewd fellow like that who got out of the Micklethwayte
+concern just in time.  Catch him giving up a place like that, though
+he may humbug you.'
+
+'Then you will see him, father?'
+
+'If you turn him in on me, I can't help it.  Bless me! umbrellas
+everywhere!  And here you mean to turn me over to the mercies of that
+solemn idiot, Edsall.  I should have been better off with poor
+Gregorio.'
+
+'No, father; Mr. Dutton would not take me from you.  We would both
+try all we could to make you comfortable.'
+
+'Convert the old reprobate?  Is that his dodge?'
+
+'Don't, father,' for the sneering tone returned.
+
+'Come now,' he added in a much more fatherly manner, for her voice
+had struck him.  'You don't mean that a well-looking girl like you,
+who could have her pick of all the swells in town, can really be
+smitten with a priggish old retired umbrella-monger like that.  Why,
+he might be your father.'
+
+'He has been getting younger ever since I knew him,' said Nuttie.
+
+'Well.  He plays as good a game of whist as any man in England,'
+muttered Mr. Egremont, leaving his daughter in actual doubt whether
+he meant this as a recommendation, or as expressing a distrust of
+him, as one likely to play his cards to the best advantage.  She had
+to remain in doubt, for they overtook Clarence Fane, who came and
+spoke to them in a very friendly and solicitous manner, and showed
+himself willing to accept a lift in the carriage.  Mr. Egremont,
+willing to escape from perplexities as well as to endeavour to drive
+away if possible the oppression of his grief, invited him in, and he
+had some gossip to impart, which at first seemed to amuse the hearer
+after this time of seclusion, but the sick and sore heart soon
+wearied of it, and long before the drive was over, Mr. Egremont was
+as much bored as his daughter had been from the first.
+
+When Mr. Fane got out, he paused a moment to hold Ursula's hand in a
+tender manner, while he told her that he had not ventured to intrude
+(he had left a card of inquiry every day), but that if ever he could
+be of the least use in amusing Mr. Egremont, he was at her service,
+and would give up any engagement.
+
+'Hein! my fine fellow!  No doubt you would!' said Mr. Egremont, when
+his daughter had uttered her cold thanks, and they had driven on.  'I
+see your little game, but it is soon to begin it.  We may as well let
+them know that she is booked before the running begins.'
+
+It was a remarkable intimation of his acceptance of her engagement,
+but Ursula was contented to take it as such, and be thankful.
+
+Mr. Dutton had his interview as soon as Mr. Egremont had rested after
+his drive, and the result was satisfactory.
+
+No doubt much was due to the Egremont indolence and want of energy,
+which always preferred to let things take their course.  And now that
+Gregorio was no longer present to amuse, and take all trouble off his
+hands, Mr. Egremont could hardly have borne to part with his
+daughter; and, despite of umbrellas and religion, was not sorry to
+have a perfectly trustworthy son-in-law in the house, able to play at
+cards with him, manage his household, and obviate all trouble about
+suitors for the heiress.  Moreover, his better feelings were stirred
+by gratitude on his poor little son's account, and he knew very well
+that a more brilliant match for his daughter would not have secured
+for his old age the care and attention he could rely upon here.  He
+was obliged likewise to believe in the disinterestedness, which
+disclaimed all desire for the estate, as involving cares and duties
+for which there had been no training; and he was actually glad to
+keep the property in the direct line.  The old liking for Mark, and
+sense of the hardship of his exclusion, revived, strengthened now by
+regard for Annaple; together with the present relief from care
+obtained by making him manager of the estate.
+
+When once brought to a point, Mr. Egremont was always sudden and
+impetuous, chiefly for the sake of having it over and being
+unmolested and at rest again.  So that very evening, while Nuttie
+only ventured on sharing with Annaple the glad tidings that Mr.
+Dutton was accepted, and in his marvellous goodness, undertook to
+make his home with her father.  Mark was almost stunned by the news,
+confirmed to him by Mr. Dutton as well as his uncle, that he was to
+be acknowledged as heir of Bridgefield Egremont, and in the meantime
+manage the estate with an income suitable to an oldest son.
+
+Presently he came upstairs by himself, and beckoned to Nuttie, rather
+to the alarm of his wife.
+
+'Ursula,' he said, and took both her hands, 'I cannot have you do
+this for me.'
+
+'Can't you, Mark?  You can't prevent it, you see.  And don't you know
+it is the beginning of all my happiness?'
+
+'But indeed, I cannot feel it right.  It is a strained sense of
+justice.  Come and tell her so, Nannie.'
+
+'What?' said Annaple coming forward.
+
+They both paused a moment, then Nuttie said, 'Only that the estate
+ought to go in the male line.'
+
+'Oh, is that all?' said Annaple, 'I was afraid Mr. Egremont had a
+fit!'
+
+'Ah!  Don't you see what it means,' said Mark.  'They want it to be
+as if there were an entail--to begin treating me as an eldest son at
+once.  It is Ursula's doing, putting herself out of the succession.'
+
+'I always hated being an heiress,' said Nuttie.
+
+'It would be more dreadful than ever now.  Annaple, do be sensible!
+Don't you see it is the only right thing to do?'
+
+'Billy!' was the one word Annaple said.
+
+'Yes, Billy and Jenny and all,' said Nuttie, 'before you've all died
+of your horrid place--Oh! you haven't heard that part of it.  Of
+course Mark will have to go down to Bridgefield and look after the
+place, and live like a gentleman.'
+
+'Eight hundred a year,' murmured Mark, 'and the house at the Home
+Farm.'
+
+'Oh! dear,' gasped Annaple, 'I wanted you to be Lord Mayor, and now
+you'll only be a stupid old country squire.  No, no, Nuttie, it's--
+it's--it's the sort of thing that one only laughs at because
+otherwise one would have to do the other thing!'
+
+And she gripped Nuttie tight round the waist, and laid her head on
+her shoulder, shaking with a few little sobs, which might be one
+thing or the other.
+
+'It will save her youth, perhaps her life,' whispered Mark, lifting
+Nuttie's hand to his lips for a moment, and then vanishing, while
+Annaple recovered enough to say, 'I'm tougher than that, sir.  But
+little Jenny!  Oh, Nuttie, I believe it has come in time.  I've known
+all along that one straw more might break the camel's back.  We've
+been very happy, but I am glad it is over before Mark got worn down
+before his time.  Grinding is very wholesome, but one may have too
+much; and I haven't Mark's scruples, Nuttie dear, for I do think the
+place is more in his line than yours or Mr. Dutton's.'
+
+'Yes,' said Ursula, 'you see he was always happy there, and I never
+was.'
+
+The next thing was for Mr. Dutton and Ursula to keep Mr. Egremont up
+to the point of making his long deferred will; nor did they find this
+so difficult as they expected, for having once made up his mind, he
+wished to have the matter concluded, and he gave his instructions to
+Bulfinch the next day.  Of course Mark had to give full notice to his
+employers; but the allowance was to begin at once, so that Annaple
+only went back to the warehouse to pack up, since she was to occupy
+No. 5, while Mr. Egremont and his daughter were going under Mr.
+Dutton's escort to the baths in Dauphine, an entirely new resort,
+free from the associations he dreaded, for he could not yet bear the
+sight of little Willy--the rival 'boy of Egremont.'  But the will was
+safely signed before he went, to the great relief of Nuttie, who,
+according to the experience of fiction, could hardly believe his life
+safe till what she called justice had been done.
+
+After all Mr. Egremont became so dependent on Mr. Dutton, during this
+journey, that he did not like the separation at its close, and
+pressed on the marriage even sooner than either of the lovers felt
+quite reverent towards the recent sorrow.  He insisted on Bulfinch
+having the settlements ready for them on their return, and only let
+them wait long enough to keep their residence, before there was a
+very quiet wedding in their parish church, with the cousins for
+bridesmaids.  Then Mark and Annaple took care of Mr. Egremont for the
+fortnight while Mr. Dutton showed his wife his old haunts in France,
+returning to Springfield House, where there was plenty of room for
+Mr. Egremont to make his home with them.
+
+Said Annaple to Miss Nugent, 'I never saw Nuttie so youthful and
+bright.  She is more like a girl than I ever saw her since the
+first.'
+
+'Yes,' said Mary, 'she has some one to rest on now.'
+
+Mr. Egremont lived between three and four years, more contented and
+peaceful than he had ever been, though frequently suffering, and
+sometimes giving way to temper and impatience.  But Mr. Dutton
+understood how to manage on these occasions, and without giving up
+his own extensive usefulness, could give him such care, attention,
+and amusement as beguiled his discomforts, and made his daughter's
+task an easier one.
+
+How far the sluggish enfeebled nature was capable of a touch of
+better things, or whether his low spirits were repentance, no one
+could judge.  At any rate sneers had ended, and when he was laid
+beside his wife and boy at Bridgefield, Ursula stood by the grave
+with a far more tender and hopeful feeling than she could have
+thought possible when he had rent her away from her old home.
+She looked up at her husband and said, 'Is not her work done?'
+
+THE END.
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Nuttie's Father
+by Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+
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