initial commit of ebook 5156HEADmain

4 files changed, 31145 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/2004-02-brock10.txt b/old/2004-02-brock10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2edcd7e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/2004-02-brock10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,15091 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Beechcroft at Rockstone, by Charlotte M. Yonge
+(#29 in our series by Charlotte M. Yonge)
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: Beechcroft at Rockstone
+
+Author: Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+Release Date: February, 2004  [EBook #5156]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on May 18, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, BEECHCROFT AT ROCKSTONE ***
+
+
+
+
+This Project Gutenberg Etext of Beechcroft at Rockstone by Charlotte M
+Yonge was prepared by Sandra Laythorpe, laythorpe@tiscali.co.uk.  A
+web page for Charlotte M Yonge will be found at
+www.menorot.com/cmyonge.htm.
+
+
+
+
+
+BEECHCROFT AT ROCKSTONE
+
+by
+
+Charlotte M Yonge
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.  A DISPERSION
+
+
+
+'A telegram!  Make haste and open it, Jane; they always make me so
+nervous!  I believe that is the reason Reginald always _will_
+telegraph when he is coming,' said Miss Adeline Mohun, a very pretty,
+well preserved, though delicate-looking lady of some age about forty,
+as her elder sister, brisk and lively and some years older, came into
+the room.
+
+'No, it is not Reggie.  It is from Lily.  Poor Lily!  Jasper---
+accident---Come.'
+
+'Poor dear Lily!  Is it young Jasper or old Jasper, I wonder?'
+
+'If it were young Jasper she would have put Japs.  I am afraid it is
+her husband.  If so, she will be going off to him.  I must catch the
+11.20 train.  Will you come, Ada?'
+
+'Oh no; I should be knocked up, and on your hands.  The suspense is
+bad enough at home.'
+
+'If it is old Jasper, we shall see in the paper to-day.  I will send
+it down to you from the station.  Supposing it is Sir Jasper, and she
+wants to go out to him, we must take in some of the children.'
+
+'Oh!  Dear little Primrose would be nice enough, but what should we
+do with that Halfpenny woman?  If we had the other girls, I suppose
+they would be at school all day; but surely some might go to
+Beechcroft.  And mind, Jane, I will not have you overtasking
+yourself!  Do not take any of them without having Gillian to help
+you.  That I stipulate.'
+
+Jane Mohun seemed as if she did not hear as these sentences were
+uttered at intervals, while she stood dashing off postcards at her
+davenport.  Then she said, on her way to the door---
+
+'Don't expect me to-night.  I will send Fanny to ask one of the
+Wellands to come in to you, and telegraph if I bring any one home
+with me.'
+
+'But, Jane dear--'
+
+However, the door was shut, and by the time Miss Adeline had reached
+her sister's room, the ever-ready bag was nearly packed.
+
+'I only wanted to say, dear Jane, that you must give my love to dear
+Lily.  I am grieved---grieved for her; but indeed you must not
+undertake anything rash.'  (A shake of the head, as the shoes went
+into their neat bag.)  'Do not let her persuade you to stay at
+Silverfold in her absence.  You cannot give up everything here'
+
+'Yes, yes, Ada, I know it does not suit you.  Never fear.'
+
+'It is not that, but you are much too useful here to drop everything,
+especially now every one is away.  I would willingly sacrifice
+myself, but--'
+
+'Yes, I know, Ada dear.  Now, good-bye, and take care of yourself,
+and don't be nervous.  It may mean only that young Japs has twisted
+his little finger.'
+
+And with a kiss, Miss Mohun ran downstairs as fast and lightly as if
+her years had been half their amount, and accomplished her orders to
+Fanny---otherwise Mrs. Mount---a Beechcroft native, who, on being left
+a widow, had returned to her former mistresses, bringing with her a
+daughter, who had grown up into an efficient housemaid.  After a few
+words with her, Miss Mohun sped on, finding time at the station to
+purchase a morning paper just come down, and to read among the
+telegrams---
+
+
+                                           'COLOMBO, Sept. 3rd.
+'Lieutenant-General Sir Jasper Merrifield, G.C.B., has been thrown
+from his horse, and received severe injuries.'
+
+
+She despatched this paper to her sister by a special messenger, whom
+she had captured by the way, and was soon after in the train,
+knitting and pondering.
+
+At Silverton station she saw the pony carriage, and in it her niece
+Gillian, a girl not quite seventeen, with brown eyes showing traces
+of tears.
+
+'Mamma knew you would come,' she said.
+
+'You have heard direct, of course.'
+
+'Yes; Claude telegraphed.  The horse fell over a precipice.  Papa's
+leg and three ribs are broken.  Not dangerous.  That is all it says;
+and mamma is going out to him directly.'
+
+'I was quite sure she would.  Well, Gillian, we must do the best we
+can.  Has she any plans?'
+
+'I think she waited for you to settle them.  Hal is come; he wanted
+to go with her, but she says it will cost too much, and besides,
+there is his Ordination in Advent.'
+
+'Has she telegraphed to your uncles?'
+
+'To Beechcroft and to Stokesley; but we don't quite know where Uncle
+Reginald is.  Perhaps he will see the paper.'
+
+Gillian's tears were flowing again, and her aunt said---
+
+'Come, my dear, you must not give way; you must do all you can to
+make it better for your mother.'
+
+'I know,' she answered.  'Indeed, I didn't cry till I sat waiting,
+and it all came over me.  Poor papa! and what a journey mamma will
+have, and how dreadful it will be without her!  But I know that it is
+horrid of me, when papa and my sisters must want her so much more.'
+
+'That's right---quite right to keep up before her.  It does not sound
+to me so bad, after all; perhaps they will telegraph again to stop
+her.  Did Claude ask her to come out?'
+
+'Oh no!  There were only those few words.'
+
+No more could be learnt till the pony stopped at the door, and Hal
+ran out to hand out his aunt, and beg her privately to persuade his
+mother to take him, or, if she would not consent to that, at least to
+have Macrae, the old soldier-servant, with her---it was not fit for
+her to travel alone.
+
+Lady Merrifield looked very pale, and squeezed her sister close in
+her arms as she said---
+
+'You are my great help, Jenny.'
+
+'And must you go?'
+
+'Yes, certainly.'
+
+'Without waiting to hear more?'
+
+'There is no use in losing time.  I cannot cross from Folkestone till
+the day after to-morrow, at night.  I must go to London to-morrow,
+and sleep at Mrs. Merrifield's.'
+
+'But this does not seem to me so very bad.'
+
+'Oh, no, no! but when I get there in three weeks' time, it will be
+just when I shall be most wanted.  The nursing will have told on the
+girls, and Jasper will be feeling weary of being laid up, and wanting
+to take liberties.'
+
+'And what will you be after such a journey?'
+
+'Just up to keeping him in order.  Come, you have too much sense to
+expostulate, Jenny.'
+
+'No; you would wear yourself to fiddle-strings if you stayed at home.
+I only want you to take Hal, or Macrae.'
+
+'Hal is out of the question, I would not interfere with his
+preparation on any account.  Macrae would be a very costly article;
+and, moreover, I want him to act major-domo here, unless you would,
+and that I don't dare to hope for.'
+
+'No, you must not, Lily; Ada never feels well here, nor always at
+Brighton, and Emily would be too nervous to have her without me.
+But we will take as many children as you please, or we have room
+for.'
+
+'That is like you, Jenny.  I know William will offer to take them in
+at home, but I cannot send them without Miss Vincent; and she cannot
+leave her mother, who has had a sort of stroke.  Otherwise I should
+try leaving them here while I am away, but the poor old lady is in no
+state for it---in fact, I doubt her living long.'
+
+'I know; you have been governess by yourself these last weeks; it
+will be well to relieve her.  The best way will be for us to take
+Mysie and Valetta, and let them go to the High School; and there is a
+capital day-school for little boys, close to St. Andrew's, for
+Fergus, and Gillian can go there too, or join classes in whatever she
+pleases.'
+
+'My Brownie!  Have you really room for all those?'
+
+'Oh yes!  The three girls in the spare room and dressing-room, and
+Fergus in the little room over the porch.  I will write to Fanny; I
+gave her a hint.'
+
+'And I have no doubt that Primrose will be a delight to her aunt
+Alethea, poor little dear!  Yes, that makes it all easy, for in the
+holidays I know the boys are sure of a welcome at the dear old home,
+or Hal might have one or two of them at his Curacy.'
+
+The gong sounded for the melancholy dinner that had to go on all the
+same, and in the midst all were startled by the arrival of a
+telegram, which Macrae, looking awestruck, actually delivered to
+Harry instead of to his mistress; but it was not from Ceylon.  It was
+from Colonel Mohun, from Beechcroft: 'Coming 6.30.  Going with you.
+Send children here.'
+
+Never were twenty words, including addresses, more satisfactory.  The
+tears came, for the first time, to Lady Merrifield's eyes at the
+kindness of her brothers, and Harry was quite satisfied that his
+uncle would be a far better escort than himself or Macrae.  Aunt Jane
+went off to send her telegram home and write some needful letters,
+and Lady Merrifield announced her arrangements to those whom they
+concerned.
+
+'Oh! mamma, don't,' exclaimed Valetta; 'all the guinea-pigs will
+die.'
+
+'I thought,' said Gillian, 'that we might stay here with Miss Vincent
+to look after us.'
+
+'That will not do in her mother's state.  Mrs. Vincent cannot be
+moved up here, and I could not lay such a burthen on them.'
+
+'We would be very good,' said Val.
+
+'That, I hope, you will be any way; but I think it will be easier at
+Rockstone, and I am quite sure that papa and I shall be better
+satisfied about you.'
+
+'Mayn't we take Quiz!' asked Fergus.
+
+'And Rigdum Funnidos?' cried Valetta.
+
+'And Ruff and Ring?' chimed in Mysie.
+
+'My dear children, I don't see how Aunt Jane can be troubled with any
+more animals than your four selves.  You must ask her, only do not be
+surprised or put out if she refuses, for I don't believe you can keep
+anything there.'
+
+Off the three younger ones went, Gillian observing, 'I don't see how
+they can, unless it was Quiz; but, mamma, don't you think I might go
+to Beechcroft with Primrose?  I should be so much quieter working for
+the examination there, and I could send my exercises to Miss Vincent;
+and then I should keep up Prim's lessons.'
+
+'Your aunt Alethea will, I know, like doing that, my dear; and I am
+afraid to turn those creatures loose on the aunts without some one to
+look after them and their clothes.  Fanny will be very helpful; but
+it will not do to throw too much on her.'
+
+'Oh!  I thought they would have Lois---'
+
+'There would not be room for her; besides that, I don't think it
+would suit your aunts.  You and Mysie ought to do all the mending for
+yourselves and Fergus, and what Valetta cannot manage.  I know you
+would rather be at Beechcroft, my dear; but in this distress and
+difficulty, some individual likings must be given up.'
+
+'Yes, mamma.'
+
+Lady Merrifield looked rather dubiously at her daughter.  She had
+very little time, and did not want to have an argument, nor to elicit
+murmurs, yet it might be better to see what was in Gillian's mind
+before it was too late.  Mothers, very fond of their own sisters,
+cannot always understand why it is not the same with their daughters,
+who inherit another element of inherited character, and of another
+generation, and who have not been welded together with the aunts in
+childhood.  'My dear,' she said, 'you know I am quite ready to hear
+if you have any real reasonable objection to this arrangement.'
+
+'No, mamma, I don't think I have,' said Gillian thoughtfully.  'The
+not liking always meeting a lot of strangers, nor the general bustle,
+is all nonsense, I know quite well.  I see it is best for the
+children, but I should like to know exactly who is to be in authority
+over them.'
+
+'Certainly Aunt Jane,' replied Lady Merrifield.  'She must be the
+ultimate authority.  Of course you will check the younger ones in
+anything going wrong, as you would here, and very likely there will
+be more restrictions.  Aunt Ada has to be considered, and it will be
+a town life; but remember that your aunt is mistress of the house,
+and that even if you do think her arrangements uncalled for, it is
+your duty to help the others to submit cheerfully.  Say anything you
+please fully and freely in your letters to me, but don't let there be
+any collisions of authority.  Jane will listen kindly, I know, in
+private to any representation you may like to make, but to say before
+the children, "Mamma always lets them," would be most mischievous.'
+
+'I see,' said Gillian.  'Indeed, I will do my best, mamma, and it
+will not be for very long.'
+
+'I hope and trust not, my dear child.  Perhaps we shall all meet by
+Easter---papa, and all; but you must not make too sure.  There may be
+delays.  Now I must see Halfpenny.  I cannot talk to you any more, my
+Gillyflower, though I am leaving volumes unsaid.
+
+Gillian found Aunt Jane emerging from her room, and beset by her
+three future guests.
+
+'Aunt Jane, may we bring Quiz?'
+
+'And Rigdum Funnidos and Lady Rigdum?'
+
+'And Ruff and Ring?  They are the sweetest doves in the world.'
+
+'Doves!  Oh, Mysie, they would drive your aunt Ada distracted, with
+coo-roo-roo at four o'clock in the morning, just as she goes off to
+sleep.'
+
+'The Rigdums make no noise but a dear little chirp,' triumphantly
+exclaimed Valetta.
+
+'Do you mean the kittens?  We have a vacancy for one cat, you know.'
+
+Oh yes, we want you to choose between Artaxerxes and the Sofy.  But
+the Rigdums are the eldest pair of guinea-pigs.  They are so fond of
+me, that I know poor old Funnidos will die of grief if I go away and
+leave him.'
+
+'I sincerely hope not, Valetta, for, indeed, there is no place to put
+him in.'
+
+'I don't think he would mind living in the cellar if he only saw me
+once a day,' piteously pleaded Valetta.
+
+'Indeed, Val, the dark and damp would surely kill the poor thing, in
+spite of your attentions.  You must make up your mind to separation
+from your pets, excepting the kitten.'
+
+Valetta burst out crying at this last drop that made the bucket
+overflow, but Fergus exclaimed:  'Quiz!  Aunt Jane!  He always goes
+about with us, and always behaves like a gentleman, don't you,
+Quizzy?' and the little Maltese, who perfectly well understood that
+there was trouble in the air, sat straight up, crossed his paws, and
+looked touchingly wistful.
+
+'Poor dear little fellow!' said Aunt Jane; 'yes, I knew he would be
+good, but Kunz would be horribly, jealous, you see; he is an only
+dog, and can't bear to have his premises invaded.'
+
+'He ought to be taught better,' said Fergus gravely.
+
+'So he ought,' Aunt Jane confessed; 'but he is too old to begin
+learning, and Aunt Ada and Mrs. Mount would never bear to see him
+disturbed.  Besides, I really do not think Quiz would be half so well
+off there as among his own friends and places here, with Macrae to
+take care of him.'  Then as Fergus began to pucker his face, she
+added, 'I am really very sorry to be so disagreeable.'
+
+'The children must not be unreasonable,' said Gillian sagely, as she
+came up.
+
+'And I am to choose between Xerxes and Artaxerxes, is it?' said Aunt
+Jane.
+
+'No, the Sofy,' said Mysie.  'A Sofy is a Persian philosopher, and
+this kitten has got the wisest face.'
+
+'Run and fetch them,' suggested her aunt, 'and then we can choose.
+Oh,' she added, with some relief at the thought, 'if it is an object
+to dispose of Cockie, we could manage him.'
+
+The two younger ones were gratified, but Gillian and Mysie both
+exclaimed that Cockie's exclusive affections were devoted to Macrae,
+and that they could not answer for his temper under the separation.
+To break up such a household was decidedly the Goose, Fox, and
+Cabbage problem.  As Mysie observed, in the course of the search for
+the kittens, in the make-the-best-of-it tone, 'It was not so bad as
+the former moves, when they were leaving a place for good and all.'
+
+'Ah, but no place was ever so good as this,' said poor Valetta.
+
+'Don't be such a little donkey,' said Fergus consequentially.  'Don't
+you know we are going to school, and I am three years younger than
+Wilfred was?'
+
+'It is only a petticoat school,' said Val, 'kept by ladies.'
+
+'It isn't.'
+
+'It is; I heard Harry say so.'
+
+'And yours is all butchers and bakers and candlestick makers.'
+
+On which they fell on each other, each with a howl of defiance.
+Fergus grabbed at Val's pigtail, and she was buffeting him vehemently
+when Harry came out, held them apart, and demanded if this were the
+way to make their mother easy in leaving them.
+
+'She said it was a pet-pet-petticoat school,' sobbed Fergus.
+
+'And so it ought to be, for boys that fight with girls.'
+
+'And he said mine was all butchers and bakers and candlestick
+makers,' whined Valetta.
+
+'Then you'd better learn manners, or they'll take you for a tramp,'
+observed Harry; but at that moment Mysie broke in with a shout at
+having discovered the kittens making a plaything of the best library
+pen-wiper, their mother, the sleek Begum, abetting them, and they
+were borne off to display the coming glories of their deep fur to
+Aunt Jane.
+
+Her choice fell upon the Sofy, as much because of the convenience of
+the name as because of the preternatural wisdom of expression
+imparted by the sweep of the black lines on the gray visage.  Mr.
+Pollock's landlady was to be the happy possessor of Artaxerxes, and
+the turbulent portion of the Household was disposed of to bear him
+thither, and to beg Miss Hacket to give Buff and Ring the run of her
+cage, whence they had originally come, also to deliver various
+messages and notes.
+
+By the time they returned, Colonel Mohun was met in the hall by his
+sister.  'Oh, Reggie, it is too good in you!' were the words that
+came with her fervent kiss.  'Remember how many years I have been
+seasoned to being "cockit up on a baggage waggon."  Ought not such an
+old soldier as I to be able to take care of myself?'
+
+'And what would your husband say to you when you got there?  And
+should not I catch it from William?  Well, are you packing up the
+youthful family for Beechcroft, except that at Rotherwood they are
+shrieking for Mysie?'
+
+'I know how good William and Alethea would be.  This child,' pointing
+to Primrose, who had been hanging on her all day in silence, 'is to
+go to them; but as I can't send Miss Vincent, educational advantages,
+as the advertisements say, lie on the side of Rockstone; so Jenny
+here undertakes to be troubled with the rabble.'
+
+'But Mysie?  Rotherwood met me at the station and begged me to obtain
+her from you.  They really wish it.'
+
+'He does, I have no doubt.'
+
+'So does Madame la Marquise.  They have been anxious about little
+Phyllis all the summer.  She was languid and off her feed in London,
+and did not pick up at home as they expected.  My belief is that it
+is too much governess and too little play, and that a fortnight here
+would set her up again.  Rotherwood himself thinks so, and Victoria
+has some such inkling.  At any rate, they are urgent to have Mysie
+with the child, as the next best thing.'
+
+'Poor dear little Fly!' ejaculated Lady Merrifield; 'but I am afraid
+Mysie was not very happy there last year.'
+
+'And what would be the effect of all the overdoing?' said Miss Mohun.
+
+'Mysie is tougher than that sprite, and I suppose there is some
+relaxation,' said Lady Merrifield.
+
+'Yes; the doctors have frightened them sufficiently for the present.
+
+'I suppose Mysie is a prescription, poor child,' said her aunt, in a
+tone that evoked from her brother---
+
+'Jealous, Jenny?'
+
+'Well, Jane,' said Lady Merrifield, 'you know how thankful I am to
+you and Ada, but I am inclined to let it depend on the letters I get
+to-morrow, and the way Victoria takes it.  If it is really an earnest
+wish on that dear little Fly's account, I could not withstand old
+Rotherwood, and though Mysie might be less happy than she would be
+with you, I do not think any harm will be done.  Everything there is
+sound and conscientious, and if she picks up a little polish, it
+won't hurt her.'
+
+'Shall you give her the choice?'
+
+'I see no good in rending the poor child's mind between two
+affections, especially as there will be a very short time to decide
+in, for I shall certainly not send her if Victoria's is a mere duty
+letter.'
+
+'You are quite right there, Lily,' said the Colonel.  'The less
+choice the greater comfort.'
+
+'Well done, sir soldier,' said his sister Jane.  'I say quite right
+too; only, for my own sake, I wish it had been Valetta.'
+
+'So no doubt does she,' said the mother; 'but unluckily it isn't.
+And, indeed, I don't think I wish it.  Val is safer with you.  As
+Gillian expressed it the other day, "Val does right when she likes
+it; Mysie does right when she knows it."'
+
+'You have the compliment after all, Jane,' said the Colonel.  'Lily
+trusts you with the child she doesn't trust!'
+
+There was no doubt the next morning, for Lady Rotherwood wrote an
+earnest, affectionate letter, begging for Mysie, who, she said, had
+won such golden opinions in her former visit that it would be a real
+benefit to Phyllis, as much morally as physically, to have her
+companionship.  It was the tenderest letter that either of the
+sisters had ever seen from the judicious and excellent Marchioness,
+full of warm sympathy for Lady Merrifield's anxiety for her husband,
+and betraying much solicitude for her little girl.
+
+'It has done her good,' said Jane Mohun.  'I did not think she had
+such a soft spot.'
+
+'Poor Victoria,' said Lady Merrifield, 'that is a shame.  You know
+she is an excellent mother.'
+
+'Too excellent, that's the very thing,' muttered Aunt Jane.  'Well,
+Mysie's fate is settled, and I dare say it will turn out for the
+best.'
+
+So Mysie was to go with Mrs. Halfpenny and Primrose to Beechcroft,
+whence the Rotherwoods would fetch her.  If the lady's letter had
+been much less urgent, who could have withstood her lord's
+postscript: 'If you could see the little pale face light up at the
+bare notion of seeing Mysie, you would know how grateful we shall be
+for her.'
+
+Mysie herself heard her destiny without much elation, though she was
+very fond of Lady Phyllis, and the tears came into her eyes at the
+thought of her being unwell and wanting her.
+
+'Mamma said we must not grumble,' she said to Gillian; 'but I shall
+feel so lost without you and Val.  It is so unhomish, and there's
+that dreadful German Fraulein, who was not at home last time.'
+
+'If you told mamma, perhaps she would let you stay,' returned
+Gillian.  'I know I should hate it, worse than I do going to
+Rockstone and without you.'
+
+'That would be unkind to poor Fly,' said Mysie.  'Besides, mamma said
+she could not have settling and unsettling for ever.  And I shall see
+Primrose sometimes; besides, I do love Fly.  It's marching orders,
+you know.'
+
+It was Valetta who made the most objection.  She declared that it was
+not fair that Mysie, who had been to the ball at Rotherwood, should
+go again to live with lords and ladies, while she went to a nasty
+day-school with butchers' and bakers' daughters.  She hoped she
+should grow horridly vulgar, and if mamma did not like it, it would
+be her own fault!
+
+Mrs. Halfpenny, who did not like to have to separate Mysie's clothes
+from the rest after they were packed, rather favoured this
+naughtiness by observing: 'The old blue merino might stay at home.
+Miss Mysie would be too set up to wear that among her fine folk.  Set
+her up, that she should have all the treats, while her own Miss
+Gillian was turned over to the auld aunties!'
+
+'Nonsense, nurse,' said Gillian.  'I'm much better pleased to go and
+be of some use!  Val, you naughty child, how dare you make such a
+fuss?' for Valetta was crying again.
+
+'I hate school, and I hate Rockstone, and I don't see why Mysie
+should always go everywhere, and wear new frocks, and I go to the
+butchers and bakers and wear horrid old ones.'
+
+'I wish you could come too,' said Mysie; 'but indeed old frocks are
+the nicest, because one is not bothered to take so much care of them;
+and lords and ladies aren't a bit better to play with than, other
+people.  In fact, Ivy is what Japs calls a muff and a stick.'
+
+Valetta, however, cried on, and Mysie went the length of repairing to
+her mother, in the midst of her last notes and packings, to entreat
+to change with Val, who followed on tip-toe.
+
+'Certainly not,' was the answer from Lady Merrifield, who was being
+worried on all sides, 'Valetta is not asked, and she is not behaving
+so that I could accept for her if she were.'
+
+And Val had to turn away in floods of tears, which redoubled on being
+told by the united voices of her brothers and sisters that they were
+ashamed of her for being so selfish as to cry for herself when all
+were in so much trouble about papa.
+
+Lady Merrifield caught some of the last words.  'No, my dear,' she
+said.  'That is not quite just or kind.  It is being unhappy that
+makes poor Val so ready to cry about her own grievances.  Only, Val,
+come here, and remember that fretting is not the way to meet such
+things.  There is a better way, my child, and I think you know what I
+mean.  Now, to help you through the time in an outer way, suppose you
+each set yourself some one thing to improve in while I am away.
+Don't tell me what it is, but let me find out when I come home.'
+With that she obeyed an urgent summons to speak to the gardener.
+
+'I shall!  I shall,' cried little Primrose, 'write a whole copy-book
+in single lines!  And won't mamma be pleased?  What shall you do,
+Fergus? and Val? and Mysie?'
+
+'I shall get to spin my peg-top so as it will never tumble down, and
+will turn an engine for drawing water,' was the prompt answer of
+Fergus.
+
+'What nonsense!' said Val; 'you'd better settle to get your long
+division sums right.'
+
+'That s girls' stuff,' replied Fergus; 'you'd better settle to leave
+off crying for nothing.'
+
+'That you had!' said several voices, and Val very nearly cried again
+as she exclaimed: 'Don't be all so tiresome.  I shall make mamma a
+beautiful crewel cushion, with all the battles in history on it.  And
+won't she be surprised!'
+
+'I think mamma meant more than that,' said Mysie.
+
+'Oh, Mysie, what shall you do?' asked Primrose.
+
+'I did think of getting to translate one of mamma's favourite German
+stories quite through to her without wanting the dictionary or
+stumbling one bit,' said Mysie; 'but I am sure she meant something
+better and better, and I'm thinking what it is---Perhaps it is making
+all little Flossie Maddin's clothes, a whole suit all oneself---Or
+perhaps it is manners.  What do you think, Gill?'
+
+'I should say most likely it was manners for you,' volunteered Harry,
+'and the extra you are most likely to acquire at Rotherwood.'
+
+'I'm so glad,' said Mysie.
+
+'And you, Gill,' inquired Primrose, 'what will you do?  Mine is a
+copy-book, and Fergus's is the spinning-top-engines, and rule of
+three; and Val's is a crewel battle cushion and not crying; and
+Mysie's is German stories and manners; and what's yours, Gill?'
+
+'Gill is so grown up, she is too good to want an inside thing'
+announced Primrose.
+
+'Oh, Prim, you dear little thing,' cried both elder brother and
+sister, as they thought with a sort of pang of the child's opinion of
+grown-up impeccability.
+
+'Harry is grown up more,' put in Fergus; 'why don't you ask him?'
+
+'Because I know,' said Primrose, with a pretty shyness, and as they
+pressed her, she whispered, 'He is going to be a clergyman.'
+
+There was a call for Mysie and Val from upstairs, and as the younger
+population scampered off, Gillian said to her brother---
+
+'Is not it like "occupy till I come"?'
+
+'So I was thinking,' said Harry gravely.  'But one must be as young
+as Mysie to throw one's "inside things" into the general stock of
+resolutions.'
+
+'Yes,' said Gillian, with uplifted eyes.  'I do---I do hope to do
+something.'
+
+Some great thing was her unspoken thought---some great and excellent
+achievement to be laid before her mother on her return.  There was a
+tale begun in imitation of Bessie Merrifield, called "Hilda's
+Experiences".  Suppose that was finished, printed, published,
+splendidly reviewed.  Would not that be a great thing?  But alas, she
+was under a tacit engagement never to touch it in the hours of study.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.  ROCKQUAY
+
+
+
+The actual moment of a parting is often softened by the confusion of
+departure.  That of the Merrifield family took place at the junction,
+where Lady Merrifield with her brother remained in the train, to be
+carried on to London.
+
+Gillian, Valetta, and Fergus, with their aunt, changed into a train
+for Rockstone, and Harry was to return to his theological college,
+after seeing Mysie and Primrose off with nurse on their way to the
+ancestral Beechcroft, whence Mysie was to be fetched to Rotherwood.
+The last thing that met Lady Merrifield's eyes was Mrs. Halfpenny
+gesticulating wildly, under the impression that Mysie's box was going
+off to London.
+
+And Gillian's tears were choked in the scurry to avoid a smoking-
+carriage, while Harry could not help thinking---half blaming himself
+for so doing---that Mysie expended more feeling in parting with Sofy,
+the kitten, than with her sisters, not perceiving that pussy was the
+safety-valve for the poor child's demonstrations of all the sorrow
+that was oppressing her.
+
+Gillian, in the corner of a Rockstone carriage, had time for the full
+heart-sickness and tumult of fear that causes such acute suffering to
+young hearts.  It is quite a mistake to say that youth suffers less
+from apprehension than does age; indeed, the very inexperience and
+novelty add to the alarms, where there is no background of anxieties
+that have ended happily, only a crowd of examples of other people's
+misfortunes.  The difference is in the greater elasticity and power
+of being distracted by outward circumstances; and thus lookers-on
+never guess at the terrific possibilities that have scared the
+imagination, and the secret ejaculations that have met them.  How
+many times on that brief journey had not Gillian seen her father
+dying, her sisters in despair, her mother crushed in the train,
+wrecked in the steamer, perishing of the climate, or arriving to find
+all over and dying of the shock; yet all was varied by speculations
+on the great thing that was to offer itself to be done, and the
+delight it would give, and when the train slackened, anxieties were
+merged in the care for bags, baskets, and umbrellas.
+
+Rockstone and Rockquay had once been separate places---a little
+village perched on a cliff of a promontory, and a small fishing
+hamlet within the bay, but these had become merged in one, since
+fashion had chosen them as a winter resort.  Speculators blasted away
+such of the rocks as they had not covered with lodging-houses and
+desirable residences.  The inhabitants of the two places had their
+separate churches, and knew their own bounds perfectly well; but to
+the casual observer, the chief distinction between them was that
+Rockstone was the more fashionable, Rockquay the more commercial,
+although the one had its shops, the other its handsome crescents and
+villas.  The station was at Rockquay, and there was an uphill drive
+to reach Rockstone, where the two Miss Mohuns had been early
+inhabitants---had named their cottage Beechcroft after their native
+home, and, to justify the title, had flanked the gate with two copper
+beeches, which had attained a fair growth, in spite of sea winds,
+perhaps because sheltered by the house on the other side.
+
+The garden reached out to the verge of the cliff, or rather to a low
+wall, with iron rails and spikes at the top, and a narrow, rather
+giddy path beyond.  There was a gate in the wall, the key of which
+Aunt Jane kept in her own pocket, as it gave near access to certain
+rocky steps, about one hundred and thirty in number, by which, when
+in haste, the inhabitants of Rockstone could descend to the lower
+regions of the Quay.
+
+There was a most beautiful sea-view from the house, which compensated
+for difficulties in gardening in such a situation, though a very
+slight slope inwards from the verge of the cliff gave some protection
+to the flower-beds; and there was not only a little conservatory
+attached to the drawing-room at the end, but the verandah had glass
+shutters, which served the purpose of protecting tender plants, and
+also the windows, from the full blast of the winter storms.  Miss
+Mohun was very proud of these shutters, which made a winter garden of
+the verandah for Miss Adeline to take exercise in.  The house was
+their own, and, though it aimed at no particular beauty, had grown
+pleasant and pretty looking by force of being lived in and made
+comfortable.
+
+It was a contrast to its neighbours on either side of its pink and
+gray limestone wall.  On one side began the grounds of the Great
+Rockstone Hotel; on the other was Cliff House, the big and seldom-
+inhabited house of one of the chief partners in the marble works,
+which went on on the other side of the promontory, and some people
+said would one day consume Rockstone altogether.  It was a very fine
+house, and the gardens were reported to be beautifully kept up, but
+the owner was almost always in Italy, and had so seldom been at
+Rockstone that it was understood that all this was the ostentation of
+a man who did not know what to do with his money.
+
+Aunt Adeline met the travellers at the door with her charming
+welcome.  Kunz, all snowy white, wagged his tight-curled tail amid
+his barks, at sight of Aunt Jane, but capered wildly about the Sofy's
+basket, much to Valetta's agony; while growls, as thunderous as a
+small kitten could produce, proceeded therefrom.
+
+'Kunz, be quiet,' said Aunt Jane, in a solemn, to-be-minded voice,
+and he crouched, blinking up with his dark eye.
+
+'Give me the basket.  Now, Kunz, this is our cat.  Do you hear?  You
+are not to meddle with her.'
+
+Did Kunz really wink assent---a very unwilling assent?
+
+'Oh, Aunt Jane!' from Val, as her aunt's fingers undid the cover of
+the basket.
+
+'Once for all!' said Aunt Jane.
+
+'M-m-m-m-ps-pss-psss!' from the Sofy, two screams from Val and
+Fergus, a buffeting of paws, a couple of wild bounds, first on a
+chair-back, then on the mantelpiece, where, between the bronze
+candlestick and the vase, the Persian philosopher stood hissing and
+swearing, while Kunz danced about and barked.
+
+'Take her down, Gillian,' said Aunt Jane; and Gillian, who had some
+presence of mind, accomplished it with soothing words, and, thanks to
+her gloves, only one scratch.
+
+Meantime Miss Mohun caught up Kunz, held up her finger to him,
+stopped his barks; and then, in spite of the 'Oh, don'ts,' and even
+the tears of Valetta, the two were held up---black nose to pink nose,
+with a resolute 'Now, you are to behave well to each other, from Aunt
+Jane.
+
+Kunz sniffed, the Sofy hissed; but her claws were captive.  The dog
+was the elder and more rational, and when set down again took no more
+notice of his enemy, whom Valetta was advised to carry into Mrs.
+Mount's quarters to be comforted and made at home there; the united
+voice of the household declaring that the honour of the Spitz was as
+spotless as his coat!
+
+Such was the first arrival at Rockstone, preceding even Aunt
+Adeline's inquiries after Mysie, and the full explanation of the
+particulars of the family dispersion.  Aunt Ada's welcome was not at
+all like that of Kunz.  She was very tender and caressing, and
+rejoiced that her sister could trust her children to her.  They
+should all get on most happily together, she had no doubt.
+
+True-hearted as Gillian was, there was something hopeful and
+refreshing in the sight of that fair, smiling face, and the touch of
+the soft hand, in the room that was by no means unfamiliar, though
+she had never slept in the house before.  It was growing dark, and
+the little fire lighted it up in a friendly manner.  Wherever Aunt
+Jane was, everything was neat; wherever Aunt Adeline was, everything
+was graceful.  Gillian was old enough to like the general prettiness;
+but it somewhat awed Val and Fergus, who stood straight and shy till
+they were taken upstairs.  The two girls had a very pretty room and
+dressing-room---the guest chamber, in fact; and Fergus was not far
+off, in a small apartment which, as Val said, 'stood on legs,' and
+formed the shelter of the porch.
+
+'But, oh dear! oh dear!' sighed Val, as Gillian unpacked their
+evening garments, 'Isn't there any nice place at all where one can
+make a mess?'
+
+'I don't know whether the aunts will ever let us make a mess,' said
+Gillian; 'they don't look like it.'
+
+At which Valetta's face puckered up in the way only too familiar to
+her friends.
+
+'Come, don't be silly, Val.  You won't have much time, you know; you
+will go to school, and get some friends to play with, and not want to
+make messes here.'
+
+'I hate friends!'
+
+'Oh, Val!'
+
+'All but Fly, and Mysie is gone to her.  I want Mysie.'
+
+So in truth did Gillian, almost as much as her mother.  Her heart
+sank as she thought of having Val and Fergus to save from scrapes
+without Mysie's readiness and good humour.  If Mysie were but there
+she should be free for her 'great thing.'  And oh! above all, Val's
+hair---the brown bush that Val had a delusion that she 'did' herself,
+but which her 'doing' left looking rather worse than it did before,
+and which was not permitted in public to be in the convenient tail.
+Gillian advanced on her with the brush, but she tossed it and
+declared it all right!
+
+However, at that moment there was a knock.  Mrs. Mount's kindly face
+and stout form appeared.  She had dressed Miss Ada and came to see
+what she could do for the young people, being of that delightful
+class of old servants who are charmed to have anything young in the
+house, especially a boy.  She took Valetta's refractory mane in hand,
+tied her sash, inspected Fergus's hands, which had succeeded in
+getting dirty in their inevitable fashion, and undertook all the
+unpacking and arranging.  To Val's inquiry whether there was any
+place for making 'a dear delightful mess' she replied with a curious
+little friendly smile, and wonder that a young lady should want such
+a thing.
+
+'I'm afraid we are all rather strange specimens of young ladies,'
+replied Gillian; 'very untidy, I mean.'
+
+'And I'm sure I don't know what Miss Mohun and Miss Ada will say'
+said good Mrs. Mount.
+
+'What's that?  What am I to say?' asked Aunt Jane, coming into the
+room.
+
+But, after all, Aunt Jane proved to have more sympathy with 'messes'
+than any of the others.  She knew very well that the children would
+be far less troublesome if they had a place to themselves, and she
+said, 'Well, Val, you shall have the boxroom in the attics.  And
+mind, you must keep all your goods there, both of you.  If I find
+them about the house, I shall---'
+
+'Oh, what, Aunt Jane?'
+
+'Confiscate them,' was the reply, in a very awful voice, which
+impressed Fergus the more because he did not understand the word.
+
+'You need not look so much alarmed, Fergus,' said Gillian; 'you are
+not at all the likely one to transgress.'
+
+'No,' said Valetta gravely.  'Fergus is what Lois calls a regular old
+battledore.'
+
+'I won't be called names,' exclaimed Fergus.
+
+'Well, Lois said so---when you were so cross because the poker had got
+on the same side as the tongs!  She said she never saw such an old
+battledore, and you know how all the others took it up.'
+
+'Shuttlecock yourself then!' angrily responded Fergus, while both
+aunt and sister were laughing too much to interfere.
+
+'I shall call you a little Uncle Maurice instead,' said Aunt Jane.
+'How things come round!  Perhaps you would not believe, Gill, that
+Aunt Ada was once in a scrape, when she was our Mrs. Malaprop, for
+applying that same epithet on hearsay to Maurice.'
+
+This laugh made Gillian feel more at home with her aunt, and they
+went up happily together for the introduction to the lumber-room, not
+a very spacious place, and with a window leading out to the leads.
+Aunt Jane proceeded to put the children on their word of honour not
+to attempt to make an exit thereby, which Gillian thought
+unnecessary, since this pair were not enterprising.
+
+The evening went off happily.  Aunt Jane produced one of the old
+games which had been played at the elder Beechcroft, and had a
+certain historic character in the eyes of the young people.  It was
+one of those variations of the Game of the Goose that were once held
+to be improving, and their mother had often told them how the family
+had agreed to prove whether honesty is really the best policy, and
+how it had been agreed that all should cheat as desperately as
+possible, except 'honest Phyl,' who _couldn't_; and how, by some
+extraordinary combination, good for their morals, she actually was
+the winner.  It was immensely interesting to see the identical much-
+worn sheet of dilapidated pictures with the padlock, almost close to
+the goal, sending the counter back almost to the beginning in search
+of the key.  Still more interesting was the imitation, "in very
+wonderful drawing, devised by mamma, of the career of a true knight---
+from pagedom upwards---in pale watery Prussian-blue armour, a crimson
+scarf, vermilion plume, gamboge spurs, and very peculiar arms and
+legs.  But, as Valetta observed, it must have been much more
+interesting to draw such things as that than stupid freehand lines
+and twists with no sense at all in them.
+
+Aunt Ada, being subject to asthmatic nights, never came down to
+breakfast, and, indeed, it was at an hour that Gillian thought
+fearfully early; but her Aunt Jane was used to making every hour of
+the day available, and later rising would have prevented the two
+children from being in time for the schools, to which they were to go
+on the Monday.  Some of Aunt Jane's many occupations on Saturday
+consisted in arranging with the two heads of their respective
+schools, and likewise for the mathematical class Gillian was to join
+at the High School two mornings in the week, and for her lessons on
+the organ, which were to be at St. Andrew's Church.  Somehow Gillian
+felt as if she were as entirely in her aunt's hands as Kunz and the
+Sofy had been!
+
+After the early dinner, which suited the invalid's health, Aunt Jane
+said she would take Valetta and Fergus to go down to the beach with
+the little Varleys, while she went to her district, leaving Gillian
+to read to Aunt Ada for half an hour, and then to walk with her for a
+quiet turn on the beach.
+
+It was an amusing article in a review that Gillian was set to read,
+and she did it so pleasantly that her aunt declared that she looked
+forward to many such afternoon pastimes, and then, by an easier way
+than the hundred and a half steps, they proceeded down the hill, the
+aunt explaining a great deal to the niece in a manner very gratifying
+to a girl beginning to be admitted to an equality with grown-up
+people.
+
+'There is our old church,' said Aunt Ada, as they had a glimpse of a
+gray tower with a curious dumpy steeple.
+
+'Do you go to church there!'
+
+'I do---always.  I could not undertake the hill on Sundays; but Jane
+takes the school-children to the St. Andrew's service in the
+afternoon.'
+
+'But which is the parish church?'
+
+'In point of fact, my dear; it is all one parish.  Good morning, Mr.
+Hablot.  My niece, Miss Gillian Merrifield.  Yes, my sister is come
+home.  I think she will be at the High School.  He is the vicar of
+St. Andrew's,' as the clergyman went off in the direction of the
+steps.
+
+'I thought you said it was all one parish.'
+
+'St. Andrew's is only a district.  Ah, it was all before your time,
+my dear.'
+
+'I know dear Uncle Claude was the clergyman here, and got St.
+Andrew's built.'
+
+'Yes, my dear.  It was the great work and thought with him and Lord
+Rotherwood in those days that look so bright now,' said Aunt Ada.
+'Yes, and with us all.'
+
+'Do tell me all about it,' entreated Gillian; and her aunt, nothing
+loth, went on.
+
+'Dear Claude was only five-and-twenty when he had the living.  Nobody
+would take it, it was such a neglected place.  All Rockquay down
+there had grown up with only the old church, and nobody going to it.
+It was a great deal through Rotherwood.  Some property here came to
+him, and he was shocked at the state of things.  Then we all thought
+the climate might be good for dear Claude, and Jane came to live with
+him and help him, and look after him.  You see there were a great
+many of us, and Jane---well, she didn't quite get on with Alethea, and
+Claude thought she wanted a sphere of her own, and that is the way
+she comes to have more influence than any one else here.  And as I am
+always better in this air than anywhere else, I came soon after---even
+before my dear fathers death.  And oh! what an eager, hopeful time it
+was, setting everything going, and making St. Andrew's all we could
+wish!  We were obliged to be cautious at the old church, you know,
+because of not alarming the old-fashioned people.  And so we are
+still---'
+
+'Is that St. Andrew's?  Oh, it is beautiful.  May I look in?'
+
+'Not now, my dear.  You will see it another time.'
+
+'I wish it were our church.'
+
+'You will find the convenience of having one so near.  And our
+services are very nice with our present rector, Mr. Ellesmere, an
+excellent active man, but his wife is such an invalid that all the
+work falls on Jane.  I am so glad you are here to help her a little.
+St. Andrew's has a separate district, and Mr. Hablot is the vicar;
+but as it is very poor, we keep the charities all in one.  Rotherwood
+built splendid schools, so we only have an infant school for the
+Rockstone children.  On Sunday, Jane assembles the older children
+there and takes them to church; but in the afternoon they all go to
+the National Schools, and then to a children's service at St.
+Andrew's.  She gets on so well with Mr. Hablot---he was dear Claude's
+curate, you see, and little Mrs. Hablot was quite a pupil of ours.
+What do you think little Gerald Hablot said---he is only five---"Isn't
+Miss Mohun the most consultedest woman in Rockquay?"'
+
+'I suppose it is true,' said Gillian, laughing, but rather awestruck.
+
+'I declare it makes me quite giddy to count up all she has on her
+hands.  Nobody can do anything without her.  There are so few
+permanent inhabitants, and when people begin good works, they go
+away, or marry, or grow tired, and then we can't let them drop!'
+
+'Oh! what's that pretty spire, on the rise of the other hill?'
+
+'My dear, that was the Kennel Mission Chapel, a horrid little hideous
+iron thing, but Lady Flight mistook and called it St. Kenelm's, and
+St. Kenelm's it will be to the end of the chapter.'  And as she
+exchanged bows with a personage in a carriage, 'There she is, my
+dear.'
+
+'Who?  Did she build that church?'
+
+'It is not consecrated.  It really is only a mission chapel, and he
+is nothing but a curate of Mr. Hablot's,' said Aunt Ada, Gillian
+thought a little venomously.
+
+She asked, 'Who?'
+
+'The Reverend Augustine Flight, my dear.  I ought not to say anything
+against them, I am sure, for they mean to be very good; but she is
+some City man's widow, and he is an only son, and they have more
+money than their brains can carry.  They have made that little place
+very beautiful, quite oppressed with ornament---City taste, you know,
+and they have all manner of odd doings there, which Mr. Hablot
+allows, because he says he does not like to crush zeal, and he thinks
+interference would do more harm than good.  Jane thinks he ought not
+to stand so much, but---'
+
+Gillian somehow felt a certain amusement and satisfaction in finding
+that Aunt Jane had one disobedient subject, but they were interrupted
+by two ladies eagerly asking where to find Miss Mohun, and a few
+steps farther on a young clergyman accosted them, and begged that
+Miss Mohun might be told the hour of some meeting.  Also that 'the
+Bellevue Church people would not co-operate in the coal club.'
+
+Then it was explained that Bellevue Church was within the bounds of
+another parish, and had been built by, and for, people who did not
+like the doctrine at the services of St. Andrew's.
+
+By this time aunt and niece had descended to the Marine esplanade, a
+broad road, on one side of which there was a low sea wall, and then
+the sands and rocks stretched out to the sea, on the other a broad
+space of short grass, where there was a cricket ground, and a lawn-
+tennis ground, and the volunteers could exercise, and the band played
+twice a week round a Russian gun that stood by the flagstaff.
+
+The band was playing now, and the notes seemed to work on Gillian's
+feet, and yet to bring her heart into her throat, for the last time
+she had heard that march was from the band of her father's old
+regiment, when they were all together!
+
+Her aunt was very kind, and talked to her affectionately and
+encouragingly of the hopes that her mother would find her father
+recovering, and that it would turn out after all quite an expedition
+of pleasure and refreshment.  Then she said how much she rejoiced to
+have Gillian with her, as a companion to herself, while her sister
+was so busy, and she was necessarily so much left alone.
+
+'We will read together, and draw, and play duets, and have quite a
+good account of our employment to give,' she said, smiling.
+
+'I shall like it very much,' said Gillian heartily.
+
+'Dear child, the only difficulty will be that you will spoil me, and
+I shall never be able to part with you.  Besides, you will be such a
+help to my dear Jane.  She never spares herself, you know, and no one
+ever spares her, and I can do so little to help her, except with my
+head.'
+
+'Surely here are plenty of people,' said Gillian, for they were in
+the midst of well-dressed folks, and Aunt Ada had more than once
+exchanged nods and greetings.
+
+'Quite true, my dear; but when there is anything to be done, then
+there is a sifting!  But now we have you, with all our own Lily's
+spirit, I shall be happy about Jane for this winter at least.
+
+They were again interrupted by meeting a gentleman and lady, to whom
+Gillian was introduced, and who walked on with her aunt conversing.
+They had been often in India, and made so light of the journey that
+Gillian was much cheered.  Moreover, she presently came in sight of
+Val and Fergus supremely happy over a castle on the beach, and
+evidently indoctrinating the two little Varleys with some of the
+dramatic sports of Silverfold.
+
+Aunt Ada found another acquaintance, a white moustached old
+gentleman, who rose from a green bench in a sunny corner, saying,
+'Ah, Miss Mohun, I have been guarding your seat for you.'
+
+'Thank you, Major Dennis.  My niece, Miss Merrifield.'
+
+He seemed to be a very courteous old gentleman, for he bowed, and
+made some polite speech about Sir Jasper, and, as he was military,
+Gillian hoped to have heard some more about the journey when they sat
+down, and room was made for her; but instead of that he and her aunt
+began a discussion of the comings and goings of people she had never
+heard of, and the letting or not letting of half the villas in
+Rockstone; and she found it so dull that she had a great mind to go
+and join the siege of Sandcastle.  Only her shoes and her dress were
+fitter for the esplanade than the shore with the tide coming in; and
+when one has just begun to buy one's own clothes, that is a
+consideration.
+
+At last she saw Aunt Jane's trim little figure come out on the sands
+and make as straight for the children as she could, amid greetings
+and consultations, so with an exclamation, she jumped up and went
+over the shingle to meet them, finding an endeavour going on to make
+them tolerably respectable for the walk home, by shaking off the
+sand, and advising Val to give up her intention of dragging home a
+broad brown ribbon of weed with a frilled edge, all polished and
+shiny with wet.  She was not likely to regard it as such a curiosity
+after a few days' experience of Rockquay, as her new friends told
+her.
+
+Kitty Varley went to the High School, which greatly modified
+Valetta's disgust to it, for the little girls had already vowed to be
+the greatest chums in the world, and would have gone home with arms
+entwined, if Aunt Jane had not declared that such things could not be
+done in the street, and Clem Varley, with still more effect,
+threatened that if they were such a pair of ninnies, he should squirt
+at them with the dirtiest water he could find.
+
+Valetta had declared that she infinitely preferred Kitty to Fly, and
+Kitty was so flattered at being adopted by the second cousin of a
+Lady Phyllis, and the daughter of a knight, that she exalted Val
+above all the Popsys and Mopsys of her present acquaintance, and at
+parting bestowed on her a chocolate cream, which tasted about equally
+of salt water and hot hand---at least if one did not feel it a
+testimonial of ardent friendship.
+
+Fergus and Clement had, on the contrary, been so much inclined to
+punch and buffet one another, that Miss Mohun had to make them walk
+before her to keep the peace, and was by no means sorry when the gate
+of 'The Tamarisks' was reached, and the Varleys could be disposed of.
+
+However, the battery must have been amicable, for Fergus was crazy to
+go in and see Clement's little pump, which he declared 'would do it'-
+--an enigmatical phrase supposed to refer to the great peg-top-
+perpetual-motion invention.  He was dragged away with difficulty on
+the plea of its being too late by Aunt Jane, who could not quite turn
+two unexpected children in on Mrs. Varley, and had to effect a cruel
+severance of Val and Kitty in the midst of their kisses.
+
+'Sudden friendships,' said Gillian, from the superiority of her age.
+
+'I do not think you are given that way,' said Aunt Jane.
+
+'Does the large family suffice for all of you?  People are so
+different,' added Aunt Ada.
+
+'Yes,' said Gillian.  'We have never been in the way of caring for
+any outsider.  I don't reckon Bessie Merrifield so---nor Fly Devereux,
+nor Dolores, because they are cousins.'
+
+'Cousins may be everything or nothing,' asserted Miss Mohun.  'You
+have been about so much that you have hardly had time to form
+intimacies.  But had you no friends in the officers' families?'
+
+'People always retired before their children grew up to be
+companionable, said Gillian.  'There was nobody except the Whites.
+And that wasn't exactly friendship.'
+
+'Who were they?' said Aunt Jane, who always liked to know all about
+everybody.
+
+'He rose from the ranks,' said Gillian.  'He was very much respected,
+and nobody would have known that he was not a gentleman to begin
+with.  But his wife was half a Greek.  Papa said she had been very
+pretty; but, oh! she had grown so awfully fat.  We used to call her
+the Queen of the White Ants.  Then Kally---her name was really
+Kalliope---was very nice, and mamma got them to send her to a good
+day-school at Dublin, and Alethea and Phyllis used to have her in to
+try to make a lady of her.  There used to be a great deal of fun
+about their Muse, I remember; Claude thought her very pretty, and
+always stood up for her, and Alethea was very fond of her.  But soon
+after we went to Belfast, Mr. White was made to retire with the rank
+of captain.  I think papa tried to get something for him to do; but I
+am not sure whether he succeeded, and I don't know any more about
+them.'
+
+'Not exactly friendship, certainly,' said Aunt Jane, smiling.  'After
+all, Gillian, in your short life, you have had wider experiences than
+have befallen your old aunts!'
+
+'Wider, perhaps, not deeper, Jane,' suggested Miss Adeline.
+
+And Gillian thought---though she felt it would be too sentimental to
+say---that in her life, persons and scenes outside her own family had
+seemed to 'come like shadows and so depart'; and there was a general
+sense of depression at the partings, the anxiety, and the being
+unsettled again when she was just beginning to have a home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.  PERPETUAL MOTION
+
+
+
+If Fergus had not yet discovered the secret of perpetual motion,
+Gillian felt as if Aunt Jane had done so, and moreover that the
+greater proportion of parish matters were one vast machine, of which
+she was the moving power.
+
+As she was a small spare woman, able to do with a very moderate
+amount of sleep, her day lasted from 6 A.M. to some unnamed time
+after midnight; and as she was also very methodical, she got through
+an appalling amount of business, and with such regularity that those
+who knew her habits could tell with tolerable certainty, within
+reasonable limits, where she would be found and what she would be
+doing at any hour of the seven days of the week.  Everything she
+influenced seemed to recur as regularly as the motions of the great
+ruthless-looking engines that Gillian had seen at work at Belfast;
+the only loose cog being apparently her sister Adeline, who quietly
+took her own way, seldom came downstairs before eleven o'clock, went
+out and came in, made visits or received them, wrote letters, read
+and worked at her own sweet will.  Only two undertakings seemed to
+belong to her---a mission working party, and an Italian class of young
+ladies; and even the presidency of these often lapsed upon her
+sister, when she had had one of those 'bad nights' of asthma, which
+were equally sleepless to both sisters.  She was principally useful
+by her exquisite needlework, both in church embroidery and for sales;
+and likewise as the recipient of all the messages left for Miss
+Mohun, which she never forgot, besides that, having a clear sensible
+head, she was useful in consultation.
+
+She was thoroughly interested in all her sister's doings, and always
+spoke of herself as the invalid, precluded from all service except
+that of being a pivot for Jane, the stationary leg of the compasses,
+as she sometimes called herself.  This repose, together with her
+prettiness and sweetness of manner, was very attractive; especially
+to Gillian, who had begun to feel herself in the grip of the great
+engine which bore her along without power of independent volition,
+and with very little time for 'Hilda's Experiences'.
+
+At home she had gone on harmoniously in full acquiescence with
+household arrangements; but before the end of the week the very same
+sensations came over her which had impelled her and Jasper into
+rebellion and disgrace, during the brief reign of a very strict daily
+governess, long ago at Dublin.  Her reason and sense approved of all
+that was set before her, and much of it was pleasant and amusing; but
+this was the more provoking by depriving her of the chance of
+resistance or the solace of complaint.  Moreover, with all her time
+at Aunt Jane's disposal, how was she to do her great thing?
+Valetta's crewel battle cushion had been reduced to a delicious
+design of the battle of the frogs and mice, drawn by Aunt Ada, and
+which she delighted in calling at full length 'the Batrachyomachia,'
+sparing none of the syllables which she was to work below.  And it
+was to be worked at regularly for half an hour before bed-time.
+Trust Aunt Jane for seeing that any one under her dominion did what
+had been undertaken!  Only thus the spontaneity seemed to have
+departed, and the work became a task.  Fergus meanwhile had set his
+affections on a big Japanese top he had seen in a window, and was
+eagerly awaiting his weekly threepence, to be able to complete the
+purchase, though no one but Valetta was supposed to understand what
+it had to do with his 'great thing.'
+
+It was quite pleasant to Gillian to have a legitimate cause of
+opposition when Miss Mohun made known that she intended Gillian to
+take a class at the afternoon Sunday-school, while the two children
+went to Mrs. Hablot's drawing-room class at St. Andrew's Vicarage,
+all meeting afterwards at church.
+
+'Did mamma wish it?' asked Gillian.
+
+'There was no time to mention it, but I knew she would.'
+
+'I don't think so,' said Gillian.  'We don't teach on Sundays, unless
+some regular person fails.  Mamma likes to have us all at home to do
+our Sunday work with her.'
+
+'Alas, I am not mamma!  Nor could I give you the time.'
+
+'I have brought the books to go on with Val and Ferg.  I always do
+some of their work with them, and I am sure mamma would not wish them
+to be turned over to a stranger.'
+
+'The fact is, that young ladies have got beyond Sunday-schools!'
+
+'No, no, Jane,' said her sister; 'Gillian is quite willing to help
+you; but it is very nice in her to wish to take charge of the
+children.'
+
+'They would be much better with Mrs. Hablot than dawdling about here
+and amusing themselves in the new Sunday fashion.  Mind, I am not
+going to have them racketing about the house and garden, disturbing
+you, and worrying the maids.'
+
+'Aunt Jane!' cried Gillian indignantly, 'you don't think that is the
+way mamma brought us up to spend Sunday?'
+
+'We shall see,' said Aunt Jane; then more kindly, 'My dear, you are
+right to use your best judgment, and you are welcome to do so, as
+long as the children are orderly and learn what they ought.'
+
+It was more of a concession than Gillian expected, though she little
+knew the effort it cost, since Miss Mohun had been at much pains to
+set Mrs. Hablot's class on foot, and felt it a slight and a bad
+example that her niece and nephew should be defaulters.  The motive
+might have worked on Gillian, but it was a lower one, therefore
+mentioned.
+
+She had seen Mrs. Hablot at the Italian class, and thought her a mere
+girl, and an absolute subject of Aunt Jane's stumbling pitifully,
+moreover, in a speech of Adelchi's; therefore evidently not at all
+likely to teach Sunday subjects half so well as herself!
+
+Nor was there anything amiss on that first Sunday.  The lessons were
+as well and quietly gone through as if with mamma, and there was a
+pleasant little walk on the esplanade before the children's service
+at St. Andrew's; after which there was a delightful introduction to
+some of the old books mamma had told them of.
+
+They were all rather subdued by the strangeness and newness of their
+surroundings, as well as by anxiety.  If the younger ones were less
+anxious about their parents than was their sister, each had a plunge
+to make on the morrow into a very new world, and the Varleys'
+information had not been altogether reassuring.  Valetta had learnt
+how many marks might be lost by whispering or bad spelling, and how
+ferociously cross Fraulein Adler looked at a mistake in a German
+verb; while Fergus had heard a dreadful account of the ordeals to
+which Burfield and Stebbing made new boys submit, and which would be
+all the worse for him, because he had a 'rum' Christian name, and his
+father was a swell.
+
+Gillian had some experience through her elder brothers, and suspected
+Master Varley of being guilty of heightening the horrors; so she
+assured Fergus that most boys had the same sort of Christian names,
+but were afraid to confess them to one another, and so called each
+other Bill and Jack.  She advised him to call himself by his surname,
+not to mention his father's title if he could help it, and, above
+all, not to seem to mind anything.
+
+Her own spirits were much exhilarated the next morning by a note from
+Harry, the recipient of all telegrams, with tidings that the doctors
+were quite satisfied with Sir Jasper, and that Lady Merrifield had
+reached Brindisi.
+
+There was great excitement at sight of a wet morning, for it appeared
+that an omnibus came round on such occasions to pick up the scholars;
+and Valetta thought this so delightful that she danced about
+exclaiming, 'What fun!' and only wishing for Mysie to share it.  She
+would have rushed down to the gate umbrellaless if Aunt Jane had not
+caught and conducted her, while Gillian followed with Fergus.  Aunt
+Jane looked down the vista of young faces---five girls and three boys-
+--nodding to them, and saying to the senior, a tall damsel of fifteen,
+
+'Here are my children, Emma.  You will take care of them, please.
+You are keeping order here, I suppose?'
+
+There was a smile and bow in answer as the door closed, and the
+omnibus jerked away its ponderous length.
+
+'I'm sorry to see that Stebbing there,' observed the aunt, as she
+went back; 'but Emma Norton ought to be able to keep him in order.
+It is well you have no lessons out of the house to-day, Gillian.'
+
+'Are you going out then?'
+
+'Oh yes!' said Miss Mohun, running upstairs, and presently coming
+back with a school-bag and a crackling waterproof cloak, but pausing
+as she saw Gillian at the window, nursing the Sofy, and gazing at the
+gray cloud over the gray sea.  'You are not at a loss for something
+to do,' she said, 'you said you meant to write to your mother.'
+
+'Oh yes!' said Gillian, suddenly fretted, and with a sense of being
+hunted, 'I have plenty to do.'
+
+'I see,' said Miss Mohun, turning over the books that lay on the
+little table that had been appropriated to her niece, in a way that,
+unreasonably or not, unspeakably worried the girl, 'Brachet's French
+Grammar---that's right.  Colenso's Algebra---I don't think they use
+that at the High School.  Julius Caesar---you should read that up in
+Merivale.'
+
+'I did,' said Gillian, in a voice that very nearly said, 'Do let them
+alone.'
+
+'Well, you have materials for a very useful, sensible morning's work,
+and when Ada comes down, very likely she will like to be read to.'
+
+Off went the aunt, leaving the niece stirred into an absolute desire,
+instead of spending the sensible morning, to take up 'Near
+Neighbours', and throw herself into an easy-chair; and when she had
+conscientiously resisted that temptation, her pen would hover over
+'Hilda's Experiences', even when she had actually written 'Dearest
+Mamma.'  She found she was in no frame to write such a letter as
+would be a comfort to her mother, so she gave that up, and made her
+sole assertion of liberty the working out of a tough double equation
+in Colenso, which actually came right, and put her in such good
+humour that she was no longer afraid of drumming the poor piano to
+death and Aunt Ada upstairs to distraction, but ventured on learning
+one of the Lieder ohne Worte; and when her Aunt Ada came down and
+complimented her on the sounds that had ascended, she was complacent
+enough to write a very cheerful letter, whilst her aunt was busied
+with her own.  She described the Sunday-school question that had
+arisen, and felt sure that her father would pronounce his Gill to be
+a sensible young woman.  Afterwards Miss Adeline betook herself to a
+beautiful lily of church embroidery, observing, as Gillian sat down
+to read to her Alphonse Karr's Voyage autour de mon Jardin, that it
+was a real pleasure to listen to such prettily-pronounced French.
+Kunz lay at her feet, the Sofy nestled in Gillian's lap, and there
+was a general sense of being rubbed down the right way.
+
+By and by there loomed through the rain two dripping shiny forms
+under umbrellas strongly inclined to fly away from them---Miss Mohun
+and Mr. Grant, the junior curate, whom she had brought home to
+luncheon.  Both were full of the irregularities of the two churches
+of Bellevue and St. Kenelm's on the recent harvest-thanksgiving
+Sunday.  It was hard to tell which was most reprobated, what St.
+Kenelm's did or what Bellevue did not do.  If the one blew trumpets
+in procession, the other collected the offertory in a warming-pan.
+Gillian had already begun to find that these misdoings supplied much
+conversation at Beechcroft Cottage, and began to get half weary, half
+curious to judge for herself of all these enormities; nor did she
+feel more interested in the discussion of who had missed church or
+school, and who needed tickets for meat, or to be stirred up to pay
+for their coal club.
+
+At last she heard, 'Well, I think you might read to her, Gillian!
+Oh! were not you listening?  A very nice girl near here, a pupil
+teacher, who has developed a hip complaint, poor child.  She will
+enjoy having visits from you, a young thing like herself.'
+
+Gillian did not like it at all, but she knew that it would be wrong
+to refuse, and answered, 'Very well,' with no alacrity---hoping that
+it was not an immediate matter, and that something might happen to
+prevent it.  But at that moment the sun came out, the rain had
+ceased, and there were glistening drops all over the garden; the
+weather quarter was clear, and after half an hours rest after dinner
+Aunt Jane jumped up, decreeing that it was time to go out, and that
+she would introduce Gillian to Lilian Giles before going on to the
+rest of her district.
+
+She gathered a few delicate flowers in the little conservatory, and
+put them in a basket with a peach from the dessert, then took down a
+couple of books from the shelf.  Gillian could not but acquiesce,
+though she was surprised to find that the one given to her was a
+translation of Undine.
+
+'The child is not badly off,' explained Miss Mohun.  'Her father is a
+superior workman.  She does not exactly want comforts, but she is
+sadly depressed and disappointed at not being able to go on with her
+work, and the great need is to keep her from fretting over her
+troubles, and interested in something.'
+
+Gillian began to think of one of the graceful hectic invalids of whom
+she had read, and to grow more interested as she followed Aunt Jane
+past the old church with the stout square steeple, constructed to
+hold, on a small side turret window, a light for the benefit of ships
+at sea.  Then the street descended towards the marble works.  There
+was a great quarry, all red and raw with recent blasting, and above,
+below, and around, rows of new little stuccoed, slated houses, for
+the work-people, and a large range of workshops and offices fronting
+the sea.  This was Miss Mohun's district, and at a better-looking
+house she stopped and used the knocker.
+
+That was no distinction; all had doors with knockers and sash
+windows, but this was a little larger, and the tiny strip of garden
+was well kept, while a beautiful myrtle and pelargonium peeped over
+the muslin blind; and it was a very nice-looking woman who opened the
+door, though she might have been the better for a cap.  Aunt Jane
+shook hands with her, rather to Gillian's surprise, and heard that
+Lily was much the same.
+
+'It is her spirits are so bad, you see, Miss Mohun,' she added, as
+she ushered them into a somewhat stuffy little parlour, carpeted and
+bedecked with all manner of knick-knacks, photographs, and framed
+certificates of various societies of temperance and providence on the
+gaily-papered walls.  The girl lay on a couch near the fire, a sallow
+creature, with a big overhanging brow, made heavier by a dark fringe,
+and an expression that Gillian not unjustly decided was fretful,
+though she smiled, and lighted up a little when she saw Miss Mohun.
+
+There was a good deal said about her bad nights, and her appetite,
+and how the doctor wanted her to take as much as she could, and how
+everything went against her---even lardy cake and roly-poly pudding
+with bacon in it!
+
+Miss Mohun put the flowers on the little table near the girl, who
+smiled a little, and thanked her in a languid dreary manner.  Finding
+that she had freshly been visited by the rector, Miss Mohun would not
+stop for any serious reading, but would leave Miss Merrifield to read
+a story to her.
+
+'And you ought to get on together,' she said, smiling.  'You are just
+about the same age, and your names rhyme--Gillian and Lilian.  And
+Gillians mother is a Lily too.'
+
+This the young lady lid not like, for she was already feeling it a
+sort of presumption in the girl to bear a name so nearly resembling
+her mother's.  She had seen a little cottage poverty, and had had a
+class of little maidservants; but this level of life which is in no
+want, keeps a best parlour, and does not say ma'am, was quite new to
+her, and she did not fancy it.  When the girls were left together,
+while Mrs. Giles returned to her ironing, Gillian was the shyer of
+the two, and began rather awkwardly and reluctantly---
+
+'Miss Mohun thought you would like to hear this.  It is a sort of
+German fairy tale.'
+
+Lilian said, 'Yes, Miss Merrifield' in a short dry tone, completing
+Gillian's distaste, and she began to read, not quite at her best, and
+was heartily glad when at the end of half an hour Mrs. Giles was
+heard in parley with another visitor, so that she had an excuse for
+going away without attempting conversation.  She was overtaken by the
+children on their way home from their schools, where they had dined.
+They rushed upon her, together with the two Varleys, who wanted to
+take them home to tea; and Gillian giving her ready consent, Fergus
+dashed home to fetch his beloved humming-top, which was to be
+introduced to Clement Varley's pump, and in a few minutes they were
+off, hardly vouchsafing an answer to such comparatively trifling
+inquiries as how they were placed at their schools.
+
+Gillian found, however, that neither of her aunts was pleased at her
+having consented to the children's going out without reference to
+their authority.  How did she suppose they were to come home?
+
+'I did not think, can't they be fetched?' said Gillian, startled.
+
+'It is not far,' said Adeline, pitying her.  'One of the maids---'
+
+'My dear Ada!' exclaimed Aunt Jane.  'You know that Fanny cannot go
+out at night with her throat, and I never will send out those young
+girls on any account.'
+
+'Can't I go?' said Gillian desperately.
+
+'Are not you a young girl?  I must go myself.'
+
+And go she did at a quarter to eight, and brought home the children,
+looking much injured.  Gillian went upstairs with them, and there was
+an outburst.
+
+'It was horrid to be fetched home so soon, just as there was a chance
+of something nice; when all the tiresome big ones had gone to dress,
+and we could have had some real fun,' said Valetta.
+
+'Real fun!  Real sense!' said Fergus.
+
+'But what had you been about all this time?'
+
+'Why, their sisters and a man that was there _would_ come and drink
+tea in the nursery, where nobody wanted them, and make us play their
+play.
+
+'Wasn't that nice?  You are always crying out for Harry and me to
+come and play with you.'
+
+'Oh, it wasn't like that,' said Val, 'you play with us, and they only
+pretended, and played with each other.  It wasn't nice.'
+
+'Clem said it was---forking,' said Fergus.
+
+'No, spooning,' said Val.  'The dish ran after the spoon, you know.'
+
+'Well, but you haven't told me about the schools,' said Gillian, in
+elder sisterly propriety, thinking the subject had better be
+abandoned.
+
+'Jolly, jolly, scrumptious!' cried Fergus.
+
+'Oh! Fergus, mamma doesn't like slang words.  Jasper doesn't say
+them.'
+
+'Not at home, but men say what they like at school, and the 'bus was
+scrumptious and splendiferous!'
+
+'I'm sure it wasn't,' said Valetta; 'I can't bear being boxed up with
+horrid rude boys.'
+
+'Because you are only a girl!'
+
+'Now, Gill, they shot with---'
+
+'Val, if you tell---'
+
+'Telling Gill isn't telling.  Is it, Gill?'
+
+She assented.
+
+'They did, Gill.  They shot at us with pea-shooters,' sighed the
+girl.
+
+'Oh! it was jolly, jolly, jolly!' cried the boy.  'Stebbing hit the
+girl who made the sour face on her cheeks, and they all squealed, and
+the cad looked in and tried to jaw us.'
+
+'But that dreadful boy shot right into his mouth,' said Val, while
+Fergus went into an ecstasy of laughter.  'Wasn't it a shame, Gill?'
+
+'Indeed it was' said Gillian.  'Such ungentlemanly boys ought not to
+be allowed in the omnibus.'
+
+'Girls shouldn't be allowed in the 'bus, they are so stupid,' said
+Fergus.  'That one---as cross as old Halfpenny---who was she, Val?'
+
+'Emma Norton!  Up in the highest form!'
+
+'Well, she is a prig, and a tell-tale-tit besides; only Stebbing said
+if she did, her junior would catch it.'
+
+'What a dreadful bully he must be!' exclaimed Gillian.
+
+I'll tell you what,' said Fergus, in a tone of profound admiration,
+'no one can hold a candle to him at batting!  He snowballed all the
+Kennel choir into fits, and he can brosier old Tilly's stall, and go
+on just the same.'
+
+'What a greedy boy!' exclaimed Val.
+
+'Disgusting,' added Gillian.
+
+'You're girls,' responded Fergus, lengthening the syllable with
+infinite contempt; but Valetta had spirit enough to reply, 'Much
+better be a girl than rude and greedy.'
+
+'Exactly,' said Gillian; 'it is only little silly boys who think such
+things fine.  Claude doesn't, nor Harry, nor Japs.'
+
+'You know nothing about it,' said Fergus.
+
+'Well, but you've never told me about school---how you are placed, and
+whom you are under.'
+
+'Oh! I'm in middle form, under Miss Edgar.  Disgusting!  It's only
+the third form that go up to Smiler.  She knows it is no use to try
+to take Stebbing and Burfield.'
+
+'And, Gill,' added Val, 'I'm in second class too, and I took three
+places for knowing where Teheran was, and got above Kitty Varley and
+a girl there two years older than I am, and her name is Maura.'
+
+'Maura, how very odd!  I never heard of any one called Maura but one
+of the Whites,' said Gillian.  'What was her surname?'
+
+This Valetta could not tell, and at the moment Mrs. Mount came up
+with intent to brush Miss Valetta's hair, and to expedite the going
+to bed.
+
+Gillian, not very happy about the revelations she had heard, went
+downstairs, and found her younger aunt alone, Miss Mohun having been
+summoned to a conference with one of her clients in the parish room.
+In her absence Gillian always felt more free and communicative, and
+she had soon told whatever she did not feel as a sort of confidence,
+including Valetta's derivation of spooning, and when Miss Mohun
+returned it was repeated to her.
+
+'Yes,' was her comment, 'children's play is a convenient cover to the
+present form of flirtation.  No doubt Bee Varley and Mr. Marlowe
+believe themselves to have been most good-natured.'
+
+'Who is he, and will it come to anything?' asked Aunt Ada, taking her
+sister's information for granted.
+
+'Oh no, it is nothing.  A civil service man, second cousin's brother-
+in-law's stepson.  That's quite enough in these days to justify
+fraternal romping.'
+
+'I thought Beatrice Varley a nice girl.'
+
+'So she is, my dear.  It is only the spirit of the age, and, after
+all, this deponent saith not which was the dish and which was the
+spoon.  Have the children made any other acquaintances, I wonder?
+And how did George Stebbing comport himself in the omnibus?  I was
+sorry to see him there; I don't trust that boy.'
+
+'I wonder they didn't send him in solitary grandeur in the brougham,'
+said Miss Ada.
+
+Gillian held the history of the pea-shooting as a confidence, even
+though Aunt Jane seemed to have been able to see through the omnibus,
+so she contented herself with asking who George Stebbing was.
+
+'The son of the manager of the marble works; partner, I believe.'
+
+'Yes,' said Aunt Ada. 'the Co. means Stebbing primarily.'
+
+'Is he a gentleman?'
+
+'Well, as much as old Mr. White himself, I suppose.  He is come up
+here---more's the pity---to the aristocratic quarter, if you please,'
+said Aunt Jane, smiling, 'and if garden parties are not over, Mr.
+Stebbing may show you what they can be.'
+
+'That boy ought to be at a public school,' said her sister.  'I hope
+he doesn't bully poor little Fergus.'
+
+'I don't think he does,' said Gillian.  'Fergus seemed rather to
+admire him.'
+
+'I had rather hear of bullying than patronage in that quarter,' said
+Miss Mohun.  'But, Gillian, we must impress on the children that they
+are to go to no one's house without express leave.  That will avoid
+offence, and I should prefer their enjoying the society of even the
+Varleys in this house.'
+
+Did Aunt Jane repent of her decision on the Thursday half-holiday
+granted to Mrs. Edgar's pupils, when, in the midst of the working
+party round the dining-room table, in a pause of the reading, some
+one said, 'What's that!'---and a humming, accompanied by a drip, drop,
+drip, drop, became audible?
+
+Up jumped Miss Mohun, and so did Gillian, half in consternation, half
+to shield the boy from her wrath.  In a few moments they beheld a
+puddle on the mat at the bottom of the oak stairs, while a stream was
+descending somewhat as the water comes down at Lodore, while Fergus's
+voice could be heard above---
+
+'Don't, Varley!  You see how it will act.  The string of the humming-
+top moves the pump handle, and that spins.  Oh!'
+
+'Master Fergus!  Oh---h, you bad boy!'
+
+The shriek was caused by the avenging furies who had rushed up the
+back stairs just as Miss Mohun had darted up the front, so as to
+behold, on the landing between the two, the boys, one spinning the
+top, the other working the pump which stood in its own trough of
+water, receiving a reckless supply from the tap in the passage.  The
+maid's scream of 'What will your aunt say?' was answered by her
+appearance, and rush to turn the cock.
+
+'Don't, don't, Aunt Jane,' shouted Fergus; 'I've almost done it!
+Perpetual motion.'  He seemed quite unconscious that the motion was
+kept up by his own hands, and even dismay could not turn him from
+being triumphant.
+
+'Oh! Miss Jane,' cried Mrs. Mount, 'if I had thought what they boys
+was after.'
+
+'Mop it up, Alice,' said Aunt Jane to the younger girl.  'No don't
+come up, Ada; it is too wet for you.  It is only a misdirected
+experiment in hydraulics.'
+
+'I told him not,' said Clement Varley, thinking affairs serious.
+
+'Fergus, I am shocked at you,' said Gillian sternly.  'You are
+frightfully wet.  You must be sent to bed.'
+
+'You must go and change,' said Aunt Jane, preventing the howl about
+to break forth.  'My dear boy, that tap must be let alone.  We can't
+have cataracts on the stairs.'
+
+'I didn't mean it, Aunt Jane; I thought it was an invention,' said
+Fergus.
+
+'I know; but another time come and ask me where to try your
+experiments.  Go and take off those clothes; and you, Clement, you
+are soaking too.  Run home at once.'
+
+Gillian, much scandalised, broke out---
+
+'It is very naughty.  At home, he would be sent to bed at once.'
+
+'I am not Mrs. Halfpenny, Gillian,' said Aunt Jane coldly.
+
+'Jane has a soft spot for inventions, for Maurice's sake,' said her
+sister.
+
+'I can't confound ingenuity and enterprise with wanton mischief, or
+crush it out for want of sympathy,' said Miss Mohun.  'Come, we must
+return to our needles.'
+
+If Aunt Jane had gone into the state of wrath to be naturally
+expected, Gillian would have risen in arms on her brother's behalf,
+and that would have been much pleasanter than the leniency which made
+her views of justice appear like unkindness.
+
+This did not dispose her to be the better pleased at an entreaty from
+the two children to be allowed to join Mrs. Hablot's class on Sunday.
+It appeared that they had asked Aunt Jane, and she had told them that
+their sister knew what their mother would like.
+
+'But I am sure she would not mind,' said Valetta.  'Only think, she
+has got a portfolio with pictures of everything all through the
+Bible!'
+
+'Yes,' added Fergus, 'Clem told me.  There are the dogs eating
+Jezebel, and such a jolly picture of the lion killing the prophet.
+I do want to see them!  Varley told me!'
+
+'And Kitty told me,' added Valetta.  'She is reading such a book to
+them.  It is called The Beautiful Face, and is all about two children
+in a wood, and a horrid old grandmother and a dear old hermit, and a
+wicked baron in a castle!  Do let us go, Gillyflower.
+
+'Yes,' said Fergus; 'it would be ever so much better fun than poking
+here'
+
+'You don't want fun on Sunday.'
+
+'Not fun exactly, but it is nicer.'
+
+'To leave me, the last bit of home, and mamma's own lessons.'
+
+'They ain't mamma's,' protested Fergus; but Valetta was touched by
+the tears in Gillian's eyes, kissed her, and declared, 'Not that.'
+
+Whether it were on purpose or not, the next Sunday was eminently
+unsuccessful; the Collects were imperfect, the answers in the
+Catechism recurred to disused babyish blunders; Fergus twisted
+himself into preternatural attitudes, and Valetta teased the Sofy to
+scratching point, they yawned ferociously at The Birthday, and would
+not be interested even in the pony's death.  Then when they went out
+walking, they would not hear of the sober Rockstone lane, but
+insisted on the esplanade, where they fell in with the redoubtable
+Stebbing, who chose to patronise instead of bullying 'little Merry'---
+and took him off to the tide mark---to the agony of his sisters, when
+they heard the St. Andrew's bell.
+
+At last, when the tempter had gone off to higher game, Fergus's
+Sunday boots and stockings were such a mass of black mud that Gillian
+had to drag him home in disgrace, sending Valetta into church alone.
+She would have put him to bed on her own responsibility, but she
+could not master him; he tumbled about the room, declaring Aunt Jane
+would do no such thing, rolled up his stockings in a ball, and threw
+them in his sister's face.
+
+Gillian retired in tears, which she let no one see, not even Aunt
+Ada, and proceeded to record in her letter to India that those
+dreadful boys were quite ruining Fergus, and Aunt Jane was spoiling
+him.
+
+However, Aunt Jane, having heard what had become of the youth, met
+him in no spoiling mood; and though she never knew of his tussle with
+Gillian, she spoke to him very seriously, shut him into his own room,
+to learn thoroughly what he had neglected in the morning, and allowed
+him no jam at tea.  She said nothing to Gillian, but there were
+inferences.
+
+The lessons went no better on the following Sunday; Gillian could
+neither enforce her authority nor interest the children.  She avoided
+the esplanade, thinking she had found a nice country walk to the
+common beyond the marble works; but, behold, there was an outbreak of
+drums and trumpets and wild singing.  The Salvation Army was marching
+that way, and, what was worse, yells and cat-calls behind showed that
+the Skeleton Army was on its way to meet them.  Gillian, frightened
+almost out of her wits, managed to fly over an impracticable-looking
+gate into a field with her children, but Fergus wanted to follow the
+drum.  After that she gave in.  The children went to Mrs. Hablot, and
+Gillian thought she saw 'I told you so' in the corners of Aunt Jane's
+eyes.
+
+It was a further offence that her aunt strongly recommended her going
+regularly to the High School instead of only attending certain
+classes.  It would give her far more chance of success at the
+examination to work with others and her presence would be good for
+Valetta.  But to reduce her to a schoolgirl was to be resented on
+Miss Vincent's account as well as her own.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.  THE QUEEN OF THE WHITE ANTS
+
+
+
+The High School was very large.  It stood at present at the end of a
+budding branch of Rockquay, where the managers, assisted by the funds
+advanced by Lord Rotherwood and that great invisible potentate, the
+head of the marble works, had secured and adapted a suitable house,
+and a space round it well walled in.
+
+The various classes of students did not see much of each other,
+except those who were day boarders and spent the midday recreation
+time together.  Even those in the same form were only together in
+school, as the dressing-room of those who dined there was separate
+from that of the others, and they did not come in and out at the same
+time.  Valetta had thus only really made friends with two or three
+more Rockstone girls of about her own age besides Kitty Yarley, with
+whom she went backwards and forwards every day, under the escort
+provided in turn by the families of the young ladies.
+
+Gillian's studies were for three hours in the week at the High
+School, and on two afternoons she learnt from the old organist at
+Rockstone Church.  She went and came alone, except when Miss Mohun
+happened to join her, and that was not often, 'For,' said that lady
+to her sister, 'Gillian always looks as if she thought I was acting
+spy upon her.  I wish I could get on with that girl; I begin to feel
+almost as poor Lily did with Dolores.'
+
+'She is a very good girl,' said Miss Adeline.
+
+'So she is; and that makes it all the more trying to be treated like
+the Grand Inquisitor.'
+
+'Shall I speak to her?  She is always as pleasant as possible with
+me.'
+
+'Oh no, don't.  It would only make it worse, and prevent you from
+having her confidence.'
+
+'Ah, Jane, I have often thought your one want was gentleness,' said
+Miss Ada, with the gesture of her childhood---her head a little on one
+side.  'And, besides, don't you know what Reggie used to call your
+ferret look?  Well, I suppose you can't help it, but when you want to
+know a thing and are refraining from asking questions, you always
+have it more or less.'
+
+'Thank you, Ada.  There's nothing like brothers and sisters for
+telling one home-truths.  I suppose it is the penalty of having been
+a regular Paul Pry in my childhood, in spite of poor Eleanor making
+me learn "Meddlesome Matty" as soon as I could speak.  I always _do_
+and always _shall_ have ringing in my ears---
+
+
+          '"Oh! what a pretty box is this,
+            I'll open it," said little Miss.'
+
+
+'Well, you know you always do know or find out everything about
+everybody, and it is very useful.'
+
+'Useful as a bloodhound is, eh?'
+
+'Oh no, not that, Jenny.'
+
+'As a ferret, or a terrier, perhaps.  I suppose I cannot help that,
+though,' she added, rather sadly.  'I have tried hard to cure the
+slander and gossip that goes with curiosity.  I am sorry it results
+in repulsion with that girl; but I suppose I can only go on and let
+her find out that my bark, or my eye, is worse than my bite.'
+
+'You are so good, so everything, Jenny,' said Adeline, 'that I am
+sure you will have her confidence in time, if only you won't poke
+after it.'
+
+Which made Miss Mohun laugh, though her heart was heavy, for she had
+looked forward to having a friend and companion in the young
+generation.
+
+Gillian meantime went her way.
+
+One morning, after her mathematical class was over, she was delayed
+for about ten minutes by the head mistress, to whom she had brought a
+message from her aunt, and thus did not come out at noon at the same
+time as the day scholars.  On issuing into the street, where as yet
+there was hardly any traffic, except what was connected with the two
+schools, she perceived that a party of boys were besetting a little
+girl who was trying to turn down the cross road to Bellevue, barring
+her way, and executing a derisive war-dance around her, and when she,
+almost crying, made an attempt to dash by, pulling at her plaited
+tail, with derisive shouts, even Gillian's call, 'Boys, boys, how can
+you be so disgraceful!' did not check them.  One made a face and put
+his tongue out, while the biggest called out, 'Thank you, teacher,'
+and Gillian perceived to her horror, that they were no street boys,
+but Mrs. Edgar's, and that Fergus was one of them.  That he cried in
+dismay, 'Don't, Stebbing!  It's my sister,' was no consolation, as
+she charged in among them, catching hold of her brother, as she said,
+
+'I could not believe that you could behave in such a disgraceful
+manner!'
+
+All the other tormentors rushed away headlong, except Stebbing, who,
+in some compunction, said---
+
+'I beg your pardon, Miss Merrifield, I had no notion it was you.'
+
+'You are making it no better,' said Gillian.  'The gentlemen I am
+used to know how to behave properly to any woman or girl.  My father
+would be very sorry that my brother has been thrown into such
+company.'
+
+And she walked away with her head extremely high, having certainly
+given Master Stebbing a good lesson.  Fergus ran after her.  'Gill,
+Gill, you won't tell.'
+
+'I don't think I ever was more shocked in my life,' returned Gillian.
+
+'But, Gill, she's a nasty, stuck-up, conceited little ape, that Maura
+White, or whatever her ridiculous name is.  They pretend her father
+was an officer, but he was really a bad cousin of old Mr. White's
+that ran away; and her mother is not a lady---a great fat disgusting
+woman, half a nigger; and Mr. White let her brother and sister be in
+the marble works out of charity, because they have no father, and she
+hasn't any business to be at the High School.'
+
+'White, did you say?  Maura White!' exclaimed Gillian.  'Captain
+White dead!  Oh, Fergus! it must be Captain White.  He was in the
+dear old Royal Wardours, and papa thought so much of him!  To think
+of your going and treating his daughter in that shocking way!'
+
+'It was what Stebbing said,' gruffly answered Fergus.
+
+'If you let yourself be led by these horrid cads---'
+
+'He is no such thing!  He is the crack bat of Edgar's---'
+
+'A boy is a cad who can't behave himself to a girl because she is
+poor.  I really think the apology to me was the worst part or the
+matter.  He only treats people well when he sees they can take care
+of themselves.'
+
+'I'll tell him about Captain White,' said Fergus, a little abashed.
+
+'Yes.  And I will get the aunts to call on Mrs. White, and that may
+help them to a better level among these vulgar folk.'
+
+'But you won't---' said Fergus, with an expressive pause.
+
+'I won't get you into trouble, for I think you are sorry you treated
+one of our own in such a manner.'
+
+'I wouldn't, indeed, if I had known.'
+
+'I shall only explain that I have found out whom Maura belongs to.
+I should go and see them at once, only I must make Val find out where
+she lives.'
+
+So Gillian returned home, communicating the intelligence with some
+excitement that she had discovered that Valetta's schoolmate, Maura
+White, was none other than the daughter of her father's old fellow-
+soldier, whose death shocked her greatly, and she requested to go and
+call on Mrs. White as soon as she could learn her abode.
+
+However, it seemed to be impossible that any one should live in
+Rockstone unknown to Aunt Jane.
+
+'White?' she said.  'It can't be the Whites down by Cliffside.  No;
+there's a father there, though he generally only comes down for
+Sunday.'
+
+'I am sure there are some Whites on the Library list,' said Miss Ada.
+
+'Oh yes; but she washes!  I know who they must be.  I know in
+Bellevue there are some; but they go to the Kennel Church.  Didn't
+you come home, Ada, from that function you went to with Florence,
+raving about the handsome youth in the choir?'
+
+'Oh yes, we thought it such an uncommon, foreign face, and he looked
+quite inspired when he was singing his solo.'
+
+'Yes; I found out that his name was White, a clerk or something in
+the marble works, and that he had a mother and sister living at
+Bellevue.  I did see the sister when I went to get the marble girls
+into the G.F.S., but she said something foolish about her mother not
+liking it.'
+
+'Yes; nobody under the St. Kenelm influence ever will come into the
+G.F.S.'
+
+'But what is she doing?' asked Gillian.  'Do you mean Kalliope?'
+
+'I suppose I do.  I saw a rather nice-looking young woman in the
+department where they make Florentine mosaic, and I believe they said
+she was Miss White, but she cut me off very short with her mother, so
+I had no more to do with her.'
+
+'I am sure mamma would wish me to call on Mrs. White,' said Gillian.
+
+'There's no reason against it,' said Aunt Jane. 'I will go with you
+the first day I can.'
+
+When would that be, wondered Gillian.  She told Valetta to talk to
+Maura and learn the name of the house; and this was ascertained to be
+3 Ivinghoe Terrace, Bellevue Road, but Val had very little
+opportunity of cultivating the acquaintance of town girls, who did
+not stay to dinner, as she had to go home immediately after school,
+under Emma Norton's escort, and perhaps she was not very ardent in
+the cause, for Kitty Varley and her other friends did not like the
+child, and she was more swayed by them than perhaps she liked to
+confess to her sister.
+
+Each morning at breakfast Gillian hoped that Aunt Jane would lay out
+her day so as to call on Mrs. White; but first there was the working
+party, then came the mothers' meeting, followed by afternoon tea at
+Mrs. Hablot's for some parish council.  On the third day, which might
+have been clear, 'a miserable creature,' as Gillian mentally called
+her, wrote to beg the Misses Mohun to bring themselves and her niece
+to make up a lawn-tennis set, since some one had failed.  Gillian
+vainly protested that she did not care about lawn tennis, and could
+not play unless Jasper was her partner; and Aunt Jane so far sided
+with her as to say it was very inconvenient, and on such short notice
+they ought not to be expected. But Aunt Ada clearly wanted to go; and
+so they went.  It was a beautiful place, but Gillian could not enjoy
+herself, partly because she knew so few of the people, but more
+because she was vexed and displeased about the Whites.  She played
+very badly; but Aunt Jane, when pressed into the service, skipped
+about with her little light figure and proved herself such a splendid
+player, doing it so entirely con amore, that Gillian could not but
+say to herself, 'She was bent on going; it was all humbug her
+pretending to want to refuse.'
+
+That afternoon's dissipation had made it needful to do double work
+the next day, and Gillian was again disappointed.  Then came
+Saturday, when Miss Mohun was never available, nor was she on Monday;
+and when it appeared that she had to go to a meeting at the Cathedral
+town on Tuesday, Gillian grew desperate, and at her tete-a-tete meal
+with Aunt Ada, related the whole history of the Whites, and her great
+desire to show kindness to her father's old brother-officer's family,
+and how much she was disappointed.
+
+Miss Adeline was touched, and indeed, fond as she was of her sister,
+she could not help being flattered by Gillian's preference and
+confidence.
+
+'Well, my deal, this is a nice day, not too hot or too cold; I do not
+see why I should not walk down with you and call.  If I find it too
+far, we can take a cab to go back.'
+
+'Oh, thank you, Aunt Ada; it is very very kind of you, and there is
+no knowing when Aunt Jane may be able to go.  I don't like to close
+up my Indian letter till I can say I have seen them.'
+
+Gillian fidgeted a good deal lest, before her aunt's postprandial
+repose was over, visitors should come and put a stop to everything,
+and she looked ready to cut the throat of a poor lady in a mushroom
+hat, who came up to leave a message for Miss Mohun about a possible
+situation for one of her class of boys.
+
+However, at last they started, Kunz and all, Miss Adeline quite
+infected by Gillian's excitement.
+
+'So your father and mother were very fond of them.'
+
+'Papa thought very highly of him, and was very sorry he had to
+return,' said Gillian.
+
+'And she was a beautiful Greek.'
+
+Gillian began to be quite afraid of what she might have said.
+
+'I don't think she is more than half Greek,' she said.  'I believe
+her mother was a Gorfiote, but her father was English or Irish.  I
+believe he kept a shop in Malta.'
+
+'Quite a mixture of nationalities then, and no wonder she is
+beautiful.  That youth had a very striking profile; it quite reminded
+me of a gem as I saw it against the dark pillar.'
+
+'I did not say she was very beautiful now,' said Gillian, feeling a
+qualm as she recollected the Queen of the White Ants, and rather
+oddly divided between truthfulness, fear of alarming her aunt into
+turning back, and desire of giving her a little preparation.
+
+'Ah! those southern beauties soon go on.  Some one told me that Lord
+Byron's "Maid of Athens," whose portrait I used to think the
+loveliest thing in the world, became a great stout woman, but was
+quite a mother to all the young Englishmen about.  I remember I used
+to try to hold my head and keep my eyelids down like the engraving in
+an old book that had been my mother's.'
+
+'Oh! I think I have seen it at Beechcroft,' said Gillian, very much
+amused, for she now perceived whence arose Aunt Ada's peculiar turn
+of the head and droop of the eyelashes, and how the conscious
+affectation of childhood had become unconsciously crystallised.
+
+She grew more and more anxious as they found some difficulty in
+making out Ivinghoe Terrace, and found it at last to be a row of
+rather dilapidated little houses, apparently built of lath and
+stucco, and of that peculiar meanness only attained by the modern
+suburb.  Aunt Ada evidently did not like it at all, and owned herself
+almost ready to turn back, being sure that Valetta must have made
+some mistake.  Gillian repeated that she had always said the Whites
+were very poor, but she began to feel that her impatience had misled
+her, and that she would have been better off with the aunt who was
+used to such places, and whose trim browns and crimsons were always
+appropriate everywhere, rather than this dainty figure in delicate
+hues that looked only fit for the Esplanade or the kettledrum, and
+who was becoming seriously uneasy, as Kunz, in his fresh snowiness,
+was disposed to make researches among vulgar remains of crabs and
+hakes, and was with difficulty restrained from disputing them with a
+very ignoble and spiteful yellow cur of low degree.
+
+No. 3, with its blistered wall and rusty rail, was attained, Kunz was
+brought within the enclosure, and Gillian knocked as sharply and fast
+as she could, in the fear that her aunt might yet turn about and
+escape.
+
+The door was opened with a rapidity that gave the impression that
+they had been watched, but it was by a very untidy-looking small
+maid, and the parlour into which they were turned had most manifestly
+been lately used as the family dining-room, and was redolent of a
+mixture of onion, cabbage, and other indescribable odours.
+
+Nobody was there, except a black and white cat, who showed symptoms
+of flying at Kunz, but thought better of it, and escaped by the
+window, which fortunately was open, though the little maid would have
+shut it, but for Miss Adeline's gasping and peremptory entreaty to
+the contrary.  She sat on the faded sofa, looking as if she just
+existed by the help of her fan and scent-bottle, and when Gillian
+directed her attention to the case of clasps and medals and the
+photograph of the fine-looking officer, she could only sigh out,
+'Oh, my dear!'
+
+There was a certain air of taste in the arrangement of the few
+chimney-piece ornaments, and Gillian was pleased to see the two large
+photographs of her father and mother which Captain White had so much
+valued as parting gifts.  A few drawings reminded her of the School
+of Art at Belfast, and there was a vase of wild flowers and ferns
+prettily arranged, but otherwise everything was wretchedly faded and
+dreary.
+
+Then came the opening of the door, and into the room rolled, rather
+than advanced, something of stupendous breadth, which almost took
+Gillian's breath away, as she durst not look to see the effect on her
+aunt.  If the Queen of the White Ants had been stout before, what was
+she now?  Whatever her appearance had been in the days of comparative
+prosperity, with a husband to keep her up to the mark, and a desire
+to rank with the officers' wives, she had let everything go in
+widowhood, poverty, and neglect; and as she stood panting in her old
+shiny black alpaca, the only thing Gillian recalled about her like
+old times was the black lace veil thrown mantilla fashion over her
+head; but now it was over a widow's cap, and a great deal rustier
+than of old.  Of the lovely foreigner nothing else remained except
+the dark eyes, and that sort of pasty sallow whiteness that looks at
+if for generations past cold water and fresh air had been unknown.
+There was no accent more interesting in her voice than a soupcon of
+her Irish father as she began, 'I am sorry to have kept the lady so
+long waiting.  Was it about the girl's character that you came?'
+
+'Oh no, Mrs. White, interrupted Gillian, her shyness overpowered by
+the necessity of throwing herself into the breach.  'Don't you
+remember me?  I am Gillian Merrifield, and this is my aunt, Miss
+Adeline Mohun.'
+
+The puffy features lighted up into warmth.  'Little Miss Gillian!
+And I am proud to see you!  My little Maura did tell me that Miss
+Valetta was in her class at the High School; but I thought there was
+no one now who would come near the poor widow.  And is your dear
+mamma here, Miss Gillian, and are she and your papa quite well?'
+
+Gillian could hardly believe in such dense remoteness that her
+father's accident should be unknown, but she explained all, and met
+with abundant sympathy, the dark eyes filled with tears, and the
+voice broke into sobs, as Mrs. White declared that Sir Jasper and
+Lady Merrifield had been the best friends she ever had in her life.
+
+But oh! that the handkerchief had been less grimy with which she
+mopped her eyes, as she spoke of the happy days that were gone!
+Gillian saw that poor Aunt Ada was in an agony to get away, and
+hurried out her questions for fear of being stopped.  'How was
+Kalliope---was she at home?'
+
+'Oh no, poor Kally, she is the best girl in the world.  I always say
+that, with all my sorrows, no one ever was more blest in their
+children than poor little me.  Richard, my eldest, is in a lawyer's
+office at Leeds.  Kally is employed in the art department, just as a
+compliment to her relation, Mr. White.  Quite genteel, superior work,
+though I must say he does not do as much for us as he might.  Such a
+youth as my Alexis now was surely worthy of the position of a
+gentleman.'
+
+The good lady was quite disposed to talk; but there was no making
+out, through her cloud of confused complaints, what her son and
+daughter were actually doing; and Aunt Ada, while preserving her
+courtesy, was very anxious to be gone, and rose to take leave at the
+first moment possible, though after she was on her feet Mrs. White
+detained her for some time with apologies about not returning her
+visit.  She was in such weak health, so unequal to walking up the
+cliff, that she was sure Miss Mohun would excuse her, though Alexis
+and Kally would be perfectly delighted to hear of Miss Gillian's
+kindness.
+
+Gillian had not made out half what she wanted to know, nor effected
+any arrangement for seeing Kalliope, when she found herself out in
+the street, and her aunt panting with relief.  'My dear, that woman!
+You don't mean that your mother was fond of her.'
+
+'I never said mamma was fond of her.'
+
+'My dear, excuse me.  It was the only reason for letting you drag me
+here.  I was almost stifled.  What a night I shall have!'
+
+'I am very sorry, Aunt Ada, but, indeed, I never said that mamma was
+fond of her, only that papa thought very highly of her husband, and
+wished us to be kind to her.'
+
+'Well, you gave me that impression, whether you wished it or not!
+Such a hole; and I'm sure she drinks gin!'
+
+'Oh no, aunt!'
+
+'I can't be mistaken!  I really was afraid she was going to kiss
+you!'
+
+'I do wish I could have made out about Alexis and Kalliope.'
+
+'Oh, my dear, just working like all the lot, though she shuffled
+about it.  I see what they are like, and the less you see of them the
+better.  I declare I am more tired than if I had walked a mile.  How
+am I ever to get up the hill again?'
+
+'I am sorry, aunt,' said Gillian.  'Will you take my arm?  Perhaps we
+may meet Kalliope, if the marble people come out at four or five.
+What's that bell?' as a little tinkle was heard.
+
+'That's St. Kenelm's!  Oh! you would like to go there, and it would
+rest me; only there's Kunz.'
+
+'I should like to see it very much,' said Gillian.
+
+'Well,' said Aunt Ada, who certainly seemed to have something of the
+'cat's away' feeling about her, and, moreover, trusted to avoid
+meeting Kalliope.  'Just round the corner here is Mrs. Webb's, who
+used to live with us before she married, Kunz will be happy with her.
+Won't he, my doggie, like to go and see his old Jessie?'
+
+So Kunz was disposed of with a very pleasant, neat-looking woman, who
+begged Miss Adeline to come and have some tea after the service.
+
+It was really a beautiful little church--'a little gem' was exactly
+the term that suggested itself---very ornate, and the chief lack being
+of repose, for there seemed not an inch devoid of colour or carving.
+There was a choir of boys in short surplices and blue cassocks, and a
+very musical service, in the course of which it was discovered to be
+the Feast of St. Remigius, for after the Lesson a short discourse was
+given on the Conversion of Clovis, not forgetting the sacred ampulla.
+
+There were about five ladies present and six old women, belonging to
+a home maintained by Lady Flight.  The young priest, her son, had a
+beautiful voice, and Gillian enjoyed all very much, and thought the
+St. Andrew's people very hard and unjust; but all this went out of
+her head in the porch, for while Lady Flight was greeting Miss Mohun
+with empressement, and inviting her to come in to tea, Gillian had
+seen a young woman who had come in late and had been kneeling behind
+them.
+
+Turning back and holding out her hands, she exclaimed---
+
+'Kalliope!  I so wanted to see you.'
+
+'Miss Gillian Merrifield,' was the response.  'Maura told me you were
+here, but I hardly hoped to see you.'
+
+'How can I see you?  Where are you?  Busy?'
+
+'I am at the marble works all day---in the mosaic department.  Oh,
+Miss Gillian, I owe it all to Miss Merrifield's encouraging me to go
+to the School of Art.  How is she?  And I hope you have good accounts
+of Sir Jasper?'
+
+'He is better, and I hope my mother is just arriving.  That's why we
+are here; and Alethea and Phyllis are out there.  They will want to
+know all about you.'
+
+At that moment Aunt Adeline looked round, having succeeded in
+persuading Lady Flight that she had another engagement.  She saw a
+young woman in a shabby black dress, with a bag in her hand, and a
+dark fringe over a complexion of clear brown, straight features, to
+whom Gillian was eagerly talking.
+
+'Ah!' she said, as Mr. Flight now came up from the vestry; 'do you
+know anything of that girl?'
+
+'Second-rate people, somewhere in Bellevue,' said the lady.
+
+'The brother is my best tenor,' said Mr. Flight.  'She is very often
+at St. Kenelm's, but I do not know any more of her.  The mother
+either goes to Bellevue or nowhere.  They are in Bellevue Parish.'
+
+This was quite sufficient answer, for any interference with parochial
+visiting in the Bellevue district was forbidden.
+
+Aunt Ada called to Gillian, and when she eagerly said, 'This is
+Kalliope, aunt,' only responded with a stiff bow.
+
+'I do not know what these people might have been, Gillian,' she said,
+as they pursued their way to Mrs. Webb's; 'but--they must have sunk
+so low that I do not think your mother can wish you to have anything
+to do with them.
+
+'Oh, Aunt Ada!  Kalliope was always such a good girl!'
+
+'She has a fringe.  And she would not belong to the G.F.S.,' said
+Aunt Ada.  'No, my dear, I see exactly the sort of people they are.
+Your aunt Jane might be useful to them, if they would let her, but
+they are not at all fit for you to associate with.'
+
+Gillian chafed inwardly, but she was beginning to learn that Aunt Ada
+was more impenetrable than Aunt Jane, and, what was worse, Aunt Jane
+always stood by her sister's decision, whether she would have herself
+originated it or not.
+
+When the elder aunt came home, and heard the history of their day,
+and Gillian tried to put in a word, she said---
+
+'My dear, we all know that rising from the ranks puts a man's family
+in a false position, and they generally fall back again.  All this is
+unlucky, for they do not seem to be people it is possible to get at,
+and now you have paid your kind act of attention, there is no more to
+be done till you can hear from Ceylon about them.'
+
+Gillian was silenced by the united forces of the aunts.
+
+'It really was a horrid place,' said Aunt Ada, when alone with her
+sister; 'and such a porpoise of a woman!  Gillian should not have
+represented her as a favourite.'
+
+'I do not remember that she did so,' returned Aunt Jane.  'I wish she
+had waited for me.  I have seen more of the kind of thing than you
+have, Ada.'
+
+'I am sure I wish she had.  I don't know when I shall get over the
+stifling of that den; but it was just as if they were her dearest
+friends.'
+
+'Girls will be silly!  And there's a feeling about the old regiment
+too.  I can excuse her, though I wish she had not been so impatient.
+I fancy that eldest daughter is really a good girl and the mainstay
+of the family.'
+
+'But she would have nothing to do with you or the G.F.S.'
+
+'If I had known that her father had been an officer, I might have
+approached her differently.  However, I will ask Lily about their
+antecedents, and in six weeks we shall know what is to be done about
+them.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.  MARBLES
+
+
+
+Six weeks seem a great deal longer to sixteen than to six-and-forty,
+and Gillian groaned and sighed to herself as she wrote her letters,
+and assured herself that so far from her having done enough in the
+way of attention to the old soldier's family, she had simply done
+enough to mark her neglect and disdain.
+
+'Grizzling' (to use an effective family phrase) under opposition is a
+grand magnifier; and it was not difficult to erect poor Captain White
+into a hero, his wife into a patient sufferer, and Alethea's kindness
+to his daughter into a bosom friendship; while the aunts seemed to be
+absurdly fastidious and prejudiced.  'I don't wonder at Aunt Ada,'
+she said to herself; 'I know she has always been kept under a glass
+case; but I thought better things of Aunt Jane.  It is all because
+Kalliope goes to St. Kenelm's, and won't be in the G.F.S.'
+
+And all the time Gillian was perfectly unaware of her own family
+likeness to Dolores.  Other matters conduced to a certain spirit of
+opposition to Aunt Jane.  That the children should have to use the
+back instead of the front stair when coming in with dusty or muddy
+shoes, and that their possessions should be confiscated for the rest
+of the day when left about in the sitting-rooms and hall, were
+contingencies she could accept as natural, though they irritated her;
+but she agreed with Valetta that it was hard to insist on half an
+hour's regular work at the cushion, which was not a lesson, but play.
+She was angered when Aunt Jane put a stop to some sportive passes and
+chatter on the stairs between Valetta and Alice Mount, and still more
+so when her aunt took away Adam Bede from the former, as not
+desirable reading at eleven years old.
+
+It was only the remembrance of her mother's positive orders that
+withheld Gillian from the declaration that mamma always let them read
+George Eliot; and in a cooler moment of reflection she was glad she
+had abstained, for she recollected that _always_ was limited to
+mamma's having read most of Romola aloud to her and Mysie, and to her
+having had Silas Marner to read when she was unwell in lodgings, and
+there was a scarcity of books.
+
+Such miffs about her little sister were in the natural order of
+things, and really it was the 'all pervadingness,' as she called it
+in her own mind, of Aunt Jane that chiefly worried her, the way that
+the little lady knew everything that was done, and everything that
+was touched in the house; but as long as Valetta took refuge with
+herself, and grumbled to her, it was bearable.
+
+It was different with Fergus.  There had been offences certainly;
+Aunt Jane had routed him out of preparing his lessons in Mrs. Mount's
+room, where he diversified them with teaching the Sofy to beg, and
+inventing new modes of tying down jam pots.  Moreover, she had
+declared that Gillian's exemplary patience was wasted and harmful
+when she found that they had taken three-quarters of an hour over
+three tenses of a Greek verb, and that he said it worse on the
+seventh repetition than on the first.  After an evening, when Gillian
+had gone to a musical party with Aunt Ada, and Fergus did his lessons
+under Aunt Jane's superintendence, he utterly cast off his sister's
+aid.  There was something in Miss Mohun's briskness that he found
+inspiring, and she put in apt words or illustrations, instead of only
+rousing herself from a book to listen, prompt, and sigh.  He found
+that he did his tasks more thoroughly in half the time, and rose in
+his class; and busy as his aunt was, she made the time not only for
+this, but for looking over with him those plates of mechanics in the
+Encyclopaedia, which were a mere maze to Gillian, but of which she
+knew every detail, from ancient studies with her brother Maurice.  As
+Fergus wrote to his mother, 'Aunt Jane is the only woman who has any
+natural _scence_.'
+
+Gillian could not but see this as she prepared the letters for the
+post, and whatever the ambiguous word might be meant for, she had
+rather not have seen it, for she really was ashamed of her secret
+annoyance at Fergus's devotion to Aunt Jane, knowing how well it was
+that Stebbing should have a rival in his affections.  Yet she could
+not help being provoked when the boy followed his aunt to the doors
+of her cottages like a little dog, and waited outside whenever she
+would let him, for the sake of holding forth to her about something
+which wheels and plugs and screws were to do.  Was it possible that
+Miss Mohun followed it all?  His great desire was to go over the
+marble works, and she had promised to take him when it could be done;
+but, unfortunately, his half-holiday was on Saturday, when the
+workmen struck off early, and when also Aunt Jane always had the
+pupil-teachers for something between instruction and amusement.
+
+Gillian felt lonely, for though she got on better with her younger
+than her elder aunt, and had plenty of surface intercourse of a
+pleasant kind with both, it was a very poor substitute for her
+mother, or her elder sisters, and Valetta was very far from being a
+Mysie.
+
+The worst time was Sunday, when the children had deserted her for
+Mrs. Hablot, and Aunt Ada was always lying down in her own room to
+rest after morning service.  She might have been at the Sunday-
+school, but she did not love teaching, nor do it well, and she did
+not fancy the town children, or else there was something of
+opposition to Aunt Jane.
+
+It was a beautiful afternoon, of the first Sunday in October, and she
+betook herself to the garden with the 'Lyra Innocentium' in her hand,
+meaning to learn the poem for the day.  She wandered up to the rail
+above the cliff, looking out to the sea.  Here, beyond the belt of
+tamarisks and other hardy low-growing shrubs which gave a little
+protection from the winds, the wall dividing the garden of Beechcroft
+Cottage from that of Cliff House became low, with only the iron-
+spiked railing on the top, as perhaps there was a desire not to
+overload the cliff.  The sea was of a lovely colour that day, soft
+blue, and with exquisite purple shadows of clouds, with ripples of
+golden sparkles here and there near the sun, and Gillian stood
+leaning against the rail, gazing out on it, with a longing, yearning
+feeling towards the dear ones who had gone out upon it, when she
+became conscious that some one was in the other garden, which she had
+hitherto thought quite deserted, and looking round, she saw a figure
+in black near the rail. Their eyes met, and both together exclaimed---
+
+'Kalliope!'---'Miss Gillian!  Oh, I beg your pardon!'
+
+'How did you come here?  I thought nobody did!'
+
+'Mr. White's gardener lets us walk here.  It is so nice and quiet.
+Alexis has taken the younger ones for a walk, but I was too much
+tired.  But I will not disturb you---'
+
+'Oh! don't go away.  Nobody will disturb us, and I do so want to know
+about you all.  I had no notion, nor mamma either, that you were
+living here, or---'
+
+'Or of my dear father's death!' said Kalliope, as Gillian stopped
+short, confused.  'I did write to Miss Merrifield, but the letter was
+returned.'
+
+'But where did you write?'
+
+'To Swanage, where she had written to me last.'
+
+'Oh! we were only there for six weeks, while we were looking for
+houses; I suppose it was just as the Wardours were gone to Natal
+too?'
+
+'Yes, we knew they were out of reach.'
+
+'But do tell me about it, if you do not mind.  My father will want to
+hear.'
+
+Kalliope told all in a calm, matter-of-fact way, but with a strain of
+deep suppressed feeling.  She was about twenty-three, a girl with a
+fine outline of features, beautiful dark eyes, and a clear brown
+skin, who would have been very handsome if she had looked better fed
+and less hardworked.  Her Sunday dress showed wear and adaptation,
+but she was altogether ladylike, and even the fringe that had
+startled Aunt Ada only consisted of little wavy curls on the temples,
+increasing her classical look.
+
+'It was fever---at Leeds.  My father was just going into a situation
+in the police that we had been waiting for ever so long, and there
+were good schools, and Richard had got into a lawyer's office, when
+there began a terrible fever in our street---the drains were to blame,
+they said---and every one of us had it, except mother and Richard, who
+did not sleep at home.  We lost poor little Mary first, and then papa
+seemed to be getting better; but he was anxious about expense, and
+there was no persuading him to take nourishment enough.  I do believe
+it was that.  And he had a relapse---and---'
+
+'Oh, poor Kalliope!  And we never heard of it!'
+
+'I did feel broken down when the letter to Miss Merrifield came
+back,' said Kalliope.  'But my father had made me write to Mr. James
+White---not that we had any idea that he had grown so rich.  He and my
+father were first cousins, sons of two brothers who were builders;
+but there was some dispute, and it ended by my father going away and
+enlisting.  There was nobody nearer to him, and he never heard any
+more of his home; but when he was so ill, he thought he would like to
+be reconciled to "Jem," as he said, so he made me write from his
+dictation.  Such a beautiful letter it was, and he added a line at
+the end himself.  Then at last, when it was almost too late, Mr.
+White answered.  I believe it was a mere chance---or rather
+Providence---that he ever knew it was meant for him, but there were
+kind words enough to cheer up my father at the last.  I believe then
+the clergyman wrote to him.'
+
+'Did not he come near you?'
+
+'No, I have never seen him; but there was a correspondence between
+him and Mr. Moore, the clergyman, and Richard, and he said he was
+willing to put us in the way of working for ourselves, if---if---we
+were not too proud.'
+
+'Then he did it in an unkind way,' said Gillian.
+
+'I try to think he did not mean to be otherwise than good to us.  I
+told Mr. Moore that I was not fit to be a governess, and I did not
+think they could get on without me at home, but that I could draw
+better than I would do anything else, and perhaps I might get
+Christmas cards to do, or something like that.  Mr. Moore sent a card
+or two of my designing, and then Mr. White said he could find work
+for me in the mosaic department here; and something for my brothers,
+if we did not give ourselves airs.  So we came.'
+
+'Not Richard?' said Gillian, who remembered dimly that Richard had
+not been held in great esteem by her own brothers.
+
+'No; Richard is in a good situation, so it was settled that he should
+stay on there.'
+
+'And you---'
+
+'I am in the mosaic department.  Oh, Miss Gillian, I am so grateful
+to Miss Merrifield.  Don't you remember her looking at my little
+attempts, and persuading Lady Merrifield to get mother to let me go
+to the School of Art?  I began only as the girls do who are mere
+hands, and now I have to prepare all the designs for them, and have a
+nice little office of my own for it.  Sometimes I get one of my own
+designs taken, and then I am paid extra.'
+
+'Then do you maintain them all?'
+
+'Oh no; we have lodgers, the organist and his wife,' said Kalliope,
+laughing, 'and Alexis is in the telegraph office, at the works;
+besides, it turned out that this house and two more belong to us, and
+we do very well when the tenants pay their rents.'
+
+'But Maura is not the youngest of you,' said Gillian, who was rather
+hazy about the family.
+
+'No, there are the two little boys.  We let them go to the National
+School for the present.  It is a great trial to my poor mother, but
+they do learn well there, and we may be able to do something better
+for them by the time they are old enough for further education.'
+
+Just then the sound of a bell coming up from the town below was a
+warning to both that the conversation must be broken off.  A few
+words---'I am so glad to have seen you,' and 'It has been such a
+pleasure'---passed, and then each hastened down her separate garden
+path.
+
+'Must I tell of this meeting?'  Gillian asked herself.  'I shall
+write it all to mamma and Alethea, of course.  How delightful that
+those lessons that Kalliope had have come to be of so much use!  How
+pleased Alethea will be!  Poor dear thing!  How much she has gone
+through!  But can there be any need to tell the aunts?  Would it not
+just make Aunt Ada nervous about any one looking through her sweet
+and lovely wall?  And as to Aunt Jane, I really don't see that I am
+bound to gratify her passion for knowing everything.  I am not
+accountable to her, but to my own mother.  My people know all about
+Kalliope, and she is prejudiced.  Why should I be unkind and
+neglectful of an old fellow-soldier's family, because she cannot or
+will not understand what they really are?  It would not be the
+slightest use to tell her the real story.  Mrs. White is fat, and
+Kalliope has a fringe, goes to St. Kenelm's, and won't be in the
+G.F.S., and that's enough to make her say she does not believe a word
+of it, or else to make it a fresh ground for poking and prying, in
+the way that drives one distracted!  It really is quite a satis-
+faction to have something that she can't find out, and it is not
+underhand while I write every word of it to mamma.'
+
+So Gillian made her conscience easy, and she did write a long and
+full account of the Whites and their troubles, and of her
+conversation with Kalliope.
+
+In the course of that week Fergus had a holiday, asked for by some
+good-natured visitor of Mrs. Edgar's.  He rushed home on the previous
+day with the news, to claim Aunt Jane's promise; and she undertook so
+to arrange matters as to be ready to go with him to the marble works
+at three o'clock.  Valetta could not go, as she had her music lesson
+at that time, and she did not regret it, for she had an idea that
+blasting with powder or dynamite was always going on there.  Gillian
+was not quite happy about the dynamite, but she did not like to
+forego the chance of seeing what the work of Kalliope and Alexis
+really was, so she expressed her willingness to join the party, and
+in the meantime did her best to prevent Aunt Ada from being driven
+distracted by Fergus's impatience, which began at half-past two.
+
+Miss Mohun had darted out as soon as dinner was over, and he was
+quite certain some horrible cad would detain her till four o'clock,
+and then going would be of no use.  Nevertheless he was miserable
+till Gillian had put on her hat, and then she could do nothing that
+would content him and keep him out of Aunt Ada's way, but walk him up
+and down in the little front court with the copper beeches, while she
+thought they must present to the neighbours a lively tableau of a
+couple of leopards in a cage.
+
+However, precisely as the clock struck three, Aunt Jane walked up to
+the iron gate.  She had secured an order from Mr. Stebbing, the
+managing partner, without which they would not have penetrated beyond
+the gate where 'No admittance except on business' was painted.
+
+Mr. Stebbing himself, a man with what Valetta was wont to call a
+grisly beard, met them a little within the gate, and did the honours
+of the place with great politeness.  He answered all the boy's
+questions, and seemed much pleased with his intelligence and
+interest, letting him see what he wished, and even having the
+machinery slacked to enable him to perceive how it acted, and most
+delightful of all, in the eyes of Fergus, letting him behold some
+dynamite, and explaining its downward explosion.  He evidently had a
+great respect for Miss Mohun, because she entered into it all, put
+pertinent questions, and helped her nephew if he did not understand.
+
+It was all dull work to Gillian, all that blasting and hewing and
+polishing, which made the place as busy as a hive.  She only wished
+she could have seen the cove as once it was, with the weather-beaten
+rocks descending to the sea, overhung with wild thrift and bramble,
+and with the shore, the peaceful haunts of the white sea-birds;
+whereas now the fresh-cut rock looked red and wounded, and all below
+was full of ugly slated or iron-roofed sheds, rough workmen, and
+gratings and screeches of machinery.
+
+It was the Whites whom she wanted to see, and she never came upon the
+brother at all, nor on the sister, till Mr. Stebbing, perhaps
+observing her listless looks, said that they were coming to what
+would be more interesting to Miss Merrifield, and took them into the
+workrooms, where a number of young women were busy over the very
+beautiful work by which flowers and other devices were represented by
+inlaying different coloured marbles and semi-precious stones in black
+and white, so as to make tables, slabs, and letter-weights, and
+brooches for those who could not aspire to the most splendid and
+costly productions.
+
+Miss Mohun shook hands with 'the young ladies' within the magic
+circle of the G.F.S., and showed herself on friendly terms of
+interest with all.  From a little inner office Miss White was
+summoned, came out, and met an eager greeting from Gillian, but
+blushed a little, and perhaps had rather not have had her unusual
+Christian name proclaimed by the explanation---
+
+'This is Kalliope White, Aunt Jane.'
+
+Miss Mohun shook hands with her, and said her niece had been much
+pleased at the meeting, and her sister would be glad to hear of her,
+explaining to Mr. Stebbing that Captain White had been a brother-
+officer of Sir Jasper Merrifield.
+
+Kalliope had a very prettily-shaped head, with short hair in little
+curls and rings all over it.  Her whole manner was very quiet and
+unassuming, as she explained and showed whatever Mr. Stebbing wished.
+It was her business to make the working drawings for the others, and
+to select the stones used, and there could be no doubt that she was a
+capable and valuable worker.
+
+Gillian asked her to show something designed by herself, and she
+produced an exquisite table-weight, bearing a spray of sweet peas.
+Gillian longed to secure it for her mother, but it was very
+expensive, owing to the uncommon stones used in giving the tints, and
+Mr. Stebbing evidently did not regard it with so much favour as the
+jessamines and snowdrops, which, being of commoner marbles, could be
+sold at a rate fitter for the popular purse.  Several beautiful
+drawings in her office had been laid aside as impracticable, 'unless
+we had a carte blanche wedding order,' he said, with what Gillian
+thought a sneer.
+
+She would gladly have lingered longer, but this was a very dull room
+in Fergus's estimation, and perhaps Aunt Jane did not desire a long
+continuance of the conversation under Mr. Stebbing's eyes, so Gillian
+found herself hurried on.
+
+Mr. Stebbing begged Miss Mohun to come in to his wife, who would have
+tea ready, and this could not be avoided without manifest incivility.
+Fergus hoped to have been introduced to the haunts of his hero, but
+Master George was gone off in attendance on his brother, who was
+fishing, and there was nothing to relieve the polite circle of the
+drawing-room---a place most aesthetically correct, from cornice to the
+little rugs on the slippery floor.  The little teacups and the low
+Turkish table were a perfect study to those who did not---like Fergus-
+--think more of the dainty doll's muffins on the stand, or the long-
+backed Dachshund who looked for them beseechingly.
+
+Mrs. Stebbing was quite in accordance with the rest, with a little
+row of curls over her forehead, a terra-cotta dress, and a chain of
+watch cocks, altogether rather youthful for the mother of a grown-up
+son, engaged in his father's business.
+
+She was extremely civil and polite, and everything went well except
+for a certain stiffness.  By and by the subject of the Whites came
+up, and Mr. Stebbing observed that Miss Merrifield seemed to know
+Miss White.
+
+'Oh yes,' said Gillian eagerly; 'her father was in my father's
+regiment, the Royal Wardours.'
+
+'A non-commissioned officer, I suppose,' said Mrs. Stebbing.
+
+'Not for a good many years,' said Gillian.  'He was lieutenant for
+six years, and retired with the rank of captain.'
+
+'I know they said he was a captain,' said Mrs. Stebbing; 'but it is
+very easy to be called so.'
+
+'Captain White was a real one,' said Gillian, with a tone of offence.
+'Every one in the Royal Wardours thought very highly of him.'
+
+'I am sure no one would have supposed it from his family,' said Mrs.
+Stebbing.  'You are aware, Miss Mohun, that it was under disgraceful
+circumstances that he ran away and enlisted.'
+
+'Many a youth who gets into a scrape becomes an excellent soldier,
+even an officer,' said Miss Mohun.
+
+'Exactly so,' said Mr. Stebbing.  'Those high-spirited lads are the
+better for discipline, and often turn out well under it.  But their
+promotion is an awkward thing for their families, who have not been
+educated up to the mark.'
+
+'It is an anomalous position, and I have a great pity for them,' said
+Miss Mohun.  'Miss White must be a very clever girl.'
+
+'Talented, yes,' said Mr. Stebbing.  'She is useful in her
+department.
+
+'That may be,' said Mrs. Stebbing; 'but it won't do to encourage her.
+She is an artful, designing girl, I know very well---'
+
+'Do you know anything against her?' asked Miss Mohun, looking volumes
+of repression at Gillian, whose brown eyes showed symptoms of glaring
+like a cat's, under her hat.
+
+'I do not speak without warrant, Miss Mohun.  She is one of those
+demure, proper-behaved sort that are really the worst flirts of all,
+if you'll excuse me.'
+
+Most thankful was Miss Mohun that the door opened at that moment to
+admit some more visitors, for she saw that Gillian might at any
+moment explode.
+
+'Aunt Jane,' she exclaimed, as soon as they had accomplished their
+departure, 'you don't believe it?'
+
+'I do not think Miss White looks like it,' said Miss Mohun.  'She
+seemed a quiet, simple girl.'
+
+'And you don't believe all that about poor Captain White?'
+
+'Not the more for Mrs. Stebbing's saying so.'
+
+'But you will find out and refute her.  There must be people who
+know.'
+
+'My dear, you had better not try to rake up such things.  You know
+that the man bore an excellent character for many years in the army,
+and you had better be satisfied with that,' said Miss Jane for once
+in her life, as if to provoke Gillian, not on the side of curiosity.
+
+'Then you do believe it!' went on Gillian, feeling much injured for
+her hero's sake, and wearing what looked like a pertinacious pout.
+
+'Truth compels me to say, Gillian, that the sons of men, even in a
+small way of business, are not apt to run away and enlist without
+some reason.'
+
+'And I am quite sure it was all that horrid old White's fault.'
+
+'You had better content yourself with that belief.'
+
+Gillian felt greatly affronted, but Fergus, who thought all this very
+tiresome, broke in, after a third attempt---
+
+'Aunt Jane, if the pulley of that crane---'
+
+And all the way home they discussed machinery, and Gillian's heart
+swelled.
+
+'I am afraid Gillian was greatly displeased with me,' said Miss Mohun
+that evening, talking it over with her sister.  'But her captain
+might have a fall if she went poking into all the gossip of the place
+about him.'
+
+'Most likely whatever he did would be greatly exaggerated,' said
+Adeline.
+
+'No doubt of it!  Besides, those young men who are meant by nature
+for heroes are apt to show some Beserkerwuth in their youth, like
+Hereward le Wake.'
+
+'But what did you think of the girl?'
+
+'I liked her looks very much.  I have seen her singing in the
+choruses at the choral society concert, and thought how nice her
+manner was.  She does justice to her classical extraction, and is
+modest and ladylike besides.  Mrs. Stebbing is spiteful!  I wonder
+whether it is jealousy.  She calls her artful and designing, which
+sounds to me very much as if Master Frank might admire the damsel.
+I have a great mind to have the two girls to tea, and see what they
+are made of.'
+
+'We had much better wait till we hear from Lily.  We cannot in the
+least tell whether she would wish the acquaintance to be kept up.
+And if there is anything going on with young Stebbing, nothing could
+be more unadvisable than for Gillian to be mixed up in any nonsense
+of that sort.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.  SINGLE MISFORTUNES NEVER COME ALONE
+
+
+
+On Sunday, Gillian's feet found their way to the top of the garden,
+where she paced meditatively up and down, hoping to see Kalliope; and
+just as she was giving up the expectation, the slender black figure
+appeared on the other side of the railings.
+
+'Oh, Miss Gillian, how kind!'
+
+'Kally, I am glad!'
+
+Wherewith they got into talk at once, for Lady Merrifield's safe
+arrival and Sir Jasper's improvement had just been telegraphed, and
+there was much rejoicing over the good news.  Gillian had nearly made
+up her mind to confute the enemy by asking why Captain White had left
+Rockquay; but somehow when it came to the point, she durst not make
+the venture, and they skimmed upon more surface subjects.
+
+The one point of union between the parishes of Rockstone and Rockquay
+was a choral society, whereof Mr. Flight of St. Kenelm's was a
+distinguished light, and which gave periodical concerts in the
+Masonic Hall.  It being musical, Miss Mohun had nothing to do with it
+except the feeling it needful to give her presence to the
+performances.  One of these was to take place in the course of the
+week, and there were programmes in all the shops, 'Mr. Alexis White'
+being set down for more than one solo, and as a voice in the glees.
+
+'Shall not you sing?' asked Gillian, remembering that her sisters had
+thought Kalliope had a good ear and a pretty voice.
+
+'I?  Oh, no!'
+
+'I thought you used to sing.'
+
+'Yes; but I have no time to keep it up.'
+
+'Not even in the choruses?'
+
+'No, I cannot manage it'---and there was a little glow in the clear
+brown cheek.
+
+'Does your designing take up so much time?'
+
+'It is not that, but there is a great deal to do at home in after
+hours.  My mother is not strong, and we cannot keep a really
+efficient servant.'
+
+'Oh! but you must be terribly hard-worked to have no time for
+relaxation.'
+
+'Not quite that, but---it seems to me,' burst out poor Kalliope, 'that
+relaxation does nothing but bring a girl into difficulties---an
+unprotected girl, I mean.'
+
+'What do you mean?' cried Gillian, quite excited; but Kalliope had
+caught herself up.
+
+'Never mind, Miss Gillian; you have nothing to do with that kind of
+thing.'
+
+'But do tell me, Kally; I do want to be your friend,' said Gillian,
+trying to put her hand through.
+
+'There's nothing to tell,' said Kalliope, smiling and evidently
+touched, but still somewhat red, 'only you know when a girl has
+nobody to look after her, she has to look after herself.'
+
+'Doesn't Alexis look after you?' said Gillian, not at all satisfied
+to be put off with this truism.
+
+'Poor Alex!  He is younger, you know, and he has quite enough to do.
+Oh, Miss Gillian, he is such a very dear, good boy.'
+
+'He has a most beautiful voice, Aunt Ada said.'
+
+'Yes, poor fellow, though he almost wishes he had not.  Oh dear I
+there's the little bell!  Good-bye, Miss Merrifield, I must run, or
+Mrs. Smithson will be gone to church, and I shall be locked in.'
+
+So Gillian was left to the enigma why Alexis should regret the beauty
+of his own voice, and what Kalliope could mean by the scrapes of
+unprotected girls.  It did not occur to her that Miss White was her
+elder by six or seven years, and possibly might not rely on her
+judgment and discretion as much as she might have done on those of
+Alethea.
+
+Meantime the concert was coming on.  It was not an amusement that
+Aunt Ada could attempt, but Miss Mohun took both her nieces, to the
+extreme pride and delight of Valetta, who had never been, as she
+said, 'to any evening thing but just stupid childish things, only
+trees and magic-lanterns'; and would not quite believe Gillian, who
+assured her in a sage tone that she would find this far less
+entertaining than either, judging by the manner in which she was wont
+to vituperate her music lesson.
+
+'Oh! but that's only scales, and everybody hates them!  And I do love
+a German band.'
+
+'Especially in the middle of lesson-time,' said Gillian.
+
+However, Fergus was to spend the evening with Clement Varley; and
+Kitty was to go with her mother and sister, the latter of whom was to
+be one of the performers; but it was decreed by the cruel authorities
+that the two bosom friends would have their tongues in better order
+if they were some chairs apart; and therefore, though the members of
+the two families at Beechcroft and the Tamarisks were consecutive,
+Valetta was quartered between her aunt and Gillian, with Mrs. Varley
+on the other side of Miss Mohun, and Major Dennis flanking Miss
+Merrifield.  When he had duly inquired after Sir Jasper, and heard of
+Lady Merrifield's arrival, he had no more conversation for the young
+lady; and Valetta, having perceived by force of example that in this
+waiting-time it was not like being in church, poured out her
+observations and inquiries on her sister.
+
+'What a funny room!  And oh! do look at the pictures!  Why has that
+man got on a blue apron?  Freemasons!  What are Freemasons?  Do they
+work in embroidered blue satin aprons because they are gentlemen?
+I'll tell Fergus that is what he ought to be; he is so fond of making
+things---only I am sure he would spoil his apron.  What's that curtain
+for?  Will they sing up there?  Oh, there's Emma Norton just come in!
+That must be her father.  That's Alice Gidding, she comes to our
+Sunday class, and do you know, she thought it was Joseph who was put
+into the den of lions.  Has not her mother got a funny head?'
+
+'Hush now, Val.  Here they come,' as the whole chorus trooped in and
+began the 'Men of Harlech.'
+
+Val was reduced to silence, but there was a long instrumental
+performance afterwards, during which bad examples of chattering
+emboldened her to whisper---
+
+'Did you see Beatrice Varley?  And Miss Berry, our singing-mistress---
+and Alexis White?  Maura says---'
+
+Aunt Jane gave a touch and a frown which reduced Valetta to silence
+at this critical moment; and she sat still through a good deal, only
+giving a little jump when Alexis White, with various others, came to
+sing a glee.
+
+Gillian could study the youth, who certainly was, as Aunt Ada said,
+remarkable for the cameo-like cutting of his profile, though perhaps
+no one without an eye for art would have remarked it, as he had the
+callow unformed air of a lad of seventeen or eighteen, and looked shy
+and grave; but his voice was a fine one, and was heard to more
+advantage in the solos to a hunting song which shortly followed.
+
+Valetta had been rather alarmed at the applause at first, but she
+soon found out what an opportunity it gave for conversation, and
+after a good deal of popping her head about, she took advantage of
+the encores to excuse herself by saying, 'I wanted to see if Maura
+White was there.  She was to go if Mrs. Lee---that's the lodger---would
+take her.  She says Kally won't go, or sing, or anything, because---'
+
+How tantalising! the singers reappeared, and Valetta was reduced to
+silence.  Nor could the subject be renewed in the interval between
+the parts, for Major Dennis came and stood in front, and talked to
+Miss Mohun; and after that Valetta grew sleepy, and nothing was to be
+got out of her till all was over, when she awoke into extra
+animation, and chattered so vehemently all the way home that her aunt
+advised Gillian to get her to bed as quietly as possible, or she
+would not sleep all night, and would be good for nothing the next
+day.
+
+Gillian, however, being given to think for herself in all cases of
+counsel from Aunt Jane, thought it could do no harm to beguile the
+brushing of the child's hair by asking why Kalliope would not come to
+the concert.
+
+'Oh, it's a great secret, but Maura told me in the cloakroom.  It is
+because Mr. Frank wants to be her---to be her---her admirer,' said
+Valetta, cocking her head on one side, and adding to the already
+crimson colour of her cheeks.
+
+'Nonsense, Val, what do you and Maura know of such things?'
+
+'We aren't babies, Gill, and it is very unkind of you, when you told
+me I was to make friends with Maura White; and Kitty Varley is quite
+cross with me about it.'
+
+'I told you to be kind to Maura, but not to talk about such foolish
+things.'
+
+'I don't see why they should be foolish.  It is what we all must come
+to.  Grown-up people do, as Lois says.  I heard Aunt Ada going on
+ever so long about Beatrice Varley and that gentleman.'
+
+'It is just the disadvantage of that kind of school that girls talk
+that sort of undesirable stuff.  Gillian said to herself; but
+curiosity, or interest in the Whites, prompted her to add, 'What did
+she tell you?'
+
+'If you are so cross, I shan't tell you.  You hurt my head, I say.'
+
+'Come, Val, I ought to know.'
+
+'It's a secret.'
+
+'Then you should not have told me so much.'
+
+Val laughed triumphantly, and called her sister Mrs. Curiosity, and
+at that moment Aunt Jane knocked at the door, and said Val was not to
+talk.
+
+Val made an impatient face and began to whisper, but Gillian had too
+much proper feeling to allow this flat disobedience, and would not
+listen, much as she longed to do so.  She heard her little sister
+rolling and tossing about a good deal, but made herself hard-hearted
+on principle, and acted sleep.  On her own judgment, she would not
+waken the child in the morning, and Aunt Jane said she was quite
+right, it would be better to let Val have her sleep out, than send
+her to school fretful and half alive.  'But you ought not to have let
+her talk last night.'
+
+As usual, reproof was unpleasing, and silenced Gillian.  She hoped to
+extract the rest of the story in the course of the day.  But before
+breakfast was over Valetta rushed in with her hat on, having
+scrambled into her clothes in a hurry, and consuming her breakfast in
+great haste, for she had no notion either of losing her place in the
+class, or of missing the discussion of the entertainment with Kitty,
+from whom she had been so cruelly parted.
+
+Tete-a-tetes were not so easy as might have been expected between two
+sisters occupying the same room, for Valetta went to bed and to sleep
+long before Gillian, and the morning toilette was a hurry; besides,
+Gillian had scruples, partly out of pride and partly out of
+conscientiousness, about encouraging Valetta in gossip or showing her
+curiosity about it.  Could she make anything out from Kalliope
+herself?  However, fortune favoured her, for she came out of her
+class only a few steps behind little Maura; and as some of Mr.
+Edgar's boys were about, the child naturally regarded her as a
+protector.
+
+Maura was quite as pretty as her elders, and had more of a southern
+look.  Perhaps she was proportionably precocious, for she returned
+Gillian's greeting without embarrassment, and was quite ready to
+enter into conversation and show her gratification at compliments
+upon her brother's voice.
+
+'And does not Kalliope sing?  I think she used to sing very nicely in
+the old times.'
+
+'Oh yes,' said Maura; 'but she doesn't now.'
+
+'Why not?  Has not she time?'
+
+'That's not all' said Maura, looking significant, and an interro-
+gative sound sufficed to bring out---'It is because of Mr. Frank.'
+
+'Mr. Frank Stebbing?'
+
+'Yes.  He was always after her, and would walk home with her after
+the practices, though Alexis was always there.  I know that was the
+reason for I heard la mamma mia trying to persuade her to go on with
+the society, and she was determined, and would not.  Alex said she
+was quite right, and it is very tiresome of him, for now she never
+walks with us on Sunday, and he used to come and give us bonbons and
+crackers.'
+
+'Then she does not like him?'
+
+'She says it is not right or fitting, because Mr. and Mrs. Stebbing
+would be against it; but mamma said he would get over them, if she
+would not be so stupid, and he could make her quite a lady, like an
+officer's daughter, as we are.  Is it not a pity she won't, Miss
+Gillian?'
+
+'I do not know.  I think she is very good,' said Gillian.
+
+'Oh! but if she would, we might all be well off again,' said little
+worldly-minded Maura; 'and I should not have to help her make the
+beds, and darn, and iron, and all sorts of horrid things, but we
+could live properly, like ladies.'
+
+'I think it is more ladylike to act uprightly,' said Gillian.
+
+Wherewith, having made the discovery, and escorted Maura beyond the
+reach of her enemies, she parted with the child, and turned
+homewards.  Gillian was at the stage in which sensible maidens have a
+certain repugnance and contempt for the idea of love and lovers as an
+interruption to the higher aims of life and destruction to family
+joys.  Romance in her eyes was the exaltation of woman out of reach,
+and Maura's communications inclined her to glorify Kalliope as a
+heroine, molested by a very inconvenient person, 'Spighted by a fool,
+spighted and angered both,' as she quoted Imogen to herself.
+
+It would be a grand history to tell Alethea of her friend, when she
+should have learnt a little more about it, as she intended to do on
+Sunday from Kalliope herself, who surely would be grateful for some
+sympathy and friendship.  Withal she recollected that it was Indian-
+mail day, and hurried home to see whether the midday post had brought
+any letters.  Her two aunts were talking eagerly, but suddenly broke
+off as she opened the door.
+
+'Well, Gillian---' began Aunt Ada.
+
+'No, no, let her see for herself,' said Aunt Jane.
+
+'Oh!  I hope nothing is the matter?' she exclaimed, seeing a letter
+to herself on the table.
+
+'No; rather the reverse.'
+
+A horrible suspicion, as she afterwards called it, came over Gillian
+as she tore open the letter.  There were two small notes.  The first
+was---
+
+
+'DEAR LITTLE GILL---I am going to give you a new brother.  Mother will
+tell you all.---Your loving sister,
+                                        'P. E. M.'
+
+
+She gasped, and looked at the other.
+
+
+'DEAREST GILLIAN---After all you have heard about Frank, perhaps you
+will know that I am very happy.  You cannot guess how happy, and it
+is so delightful that mamma is charmed with him.  He has got two
+medals and three clasps.  There are so many to write to, I can only
+give my poor darling this little word.  She will find it is only
+having another to be as fond of her as her old Alley.'
+
+
+Gillian looked up in a bewildered state, and gasped 'Both!'
+
+Aunt Jane could not help smiling a little, and saying, 'Yes, both at
+one fell swoop.'
+
+'It's dreadful,' said Gillian.
+
+'My dear, if you want to keep your sisters to yourself, you should
+not let them go to India, said Aunt Ada.
+
+'They said they wouldn't!  They were quite angry at the notion of
+being so commonplace,' said Gillian.
+
+'Oh, no one knows till her time comes!' said Aunt Jane.
+
+Gillian now applied herself to her mother's letter, which was also
+short.
+
+
+'MY DEAREST GILLYFLOWER---I know this will be a great blow to you, as
+indeed it was to me; but we must not be selfish, and must remember
+that the sisters' happiness and welfare is the great point.  I wish I
+could write to you more at length; but time will not let me,
+scattered as are all my poor flock at home.  So I must leave you to
+learn the bare public facts from Aunt Jane, and only say my especial
+private words to you.  You are used to being brevet eldest daughter
+to me, now you will have to be so to papa, who is mending fast, but,
+I think, will come home with me.  Isn't that news?
+                                        'Your loving mother.'
+
+
+'They have told you all about it, Aunt Jane!' said Gillian.
+
+'Yes; they have been so cruel as not even to tell you the names of
+these robbers?  Well, I dare say you had rather read my letter than
+hear it.'
+
+'Thank you very much, Aunt Jane!  May I take it upstairs with me?'
+
+Consent was readily given, and Gillian had just time for her first
+cursory reading before luncheon.
+
+
+'DEAREST JENNY---Fancy what burst upon me only the day after my
+coming---though really we ought to be very thankful.  You might
+perhaps have divined what was brewing from the letters.  Jasper knew
+of one and suspected the other before the accident, and he says it
+prevented him from telegraphing to stop me, for he was sure one or
+both the girls would want their mother.  Phyllis began it.  Hers is a
+young merchant just taken into the great Underwood firm.  Bernard
+Underwood, a very nice fellow, brother to the husband of one of Harry
+May's sisters---very much liked and respected, and, by the way, an
+uncommonly handsome man.  That was imminent before Jasper's accident,
+and the letter to prepare me must be reposing in Harry's care.  Mr.
+Underwood came down with Claude to meet me when I landed, and I
+scented danger in his eye.  But it is all right---only his income is
+entirely professional, and they will have to live out here for some
+time to come.
+
+'The other only spoke yesterday, having abstained from worrying his
+General.  He is Lord Francis Somerville, son to Lord Liddesdale, and
+a captain in the Glen Lorn Highlanders, who have not above a couple
+of years to stay in these parts.  He was with the riding party when
+Jasper fell, and was the first to lift him; indeed, he held him all
+the time of waiting, for poor Claude trembled too much.  He was an
+immense help through the nursing, and they came to know and depend on
+him as nothing else would have made them do; and they proved how
+sincerely right-minded and good he is.  There is some connection with
+the Underwoods, though I have not quite fathomed it.  There is no
+fear about home consent, for it seems that he is given to outpourings
+to his mother, and had heard that if he thought of Sir Jasper
+Merrifield's daughter his parents would welcome her, knowing what Sir
+J. is.  There's for you! considering that we have next to nothing to
+give the child, and Frank has not much fortune, but Alethea is
+trained to the soldierly life, and they will be better off than
+Jasper and I were.
+
+'The worst of it is leaving them behind; and as neither of the
+gentlemen can afford a journey home, we mean to have the double
+wedding before Lent.  As to outfit, the native tailors must be
+chiefly trusted to, or the stores at Calcutta, and I must send out
+the rest when I come home.  Only please send by post my wedding veil
+(Gillian knows where it is), together with another as like it as may
+be.  Any slight lace decorations to make us respectable which suggest
+themselves to you and her might come; I can't recollect or mention
+them now.  I wish Reginald could come and tell you all, but the poor
+fellow has to go home full pelt about those Irish.  Jasper is writing
+to William, and you must get business particulars from him, and let
+Gillian and the little ones hear, for there is hardly any time to
+write.  Phyllis, being used to the idea, is very quiet and matter-of-
+fact about it.  She hoped, indeed, that I guessed nothing till I was
+satisfied about papa, and had had time to rest.  Alethea is in a much
+more April condition, and I am glad Frank waited till I was here on
+her account and on her father's.  He is going on well, but must keep
+still.  He declares that being nursed by two pair of lovers is highly
+amusing.  However, such homes being found for two of the tribe is a
+great relief to his mind.  I suppose it is to one's rational mind,
+though it is a terrible tug at one's heart-strings.  You shall hear
+again by the next mail.  A brown creature waits to take this to be
+posted.---
+                                       Your loving sister,
+                                                       L. M.'
+
+
+Gillian came down to dinner quite pale, and to Aunt Ada's kind 'Well,
+Gillian?' she could only repeat, 'It is horrid.'
+
+'It is hard to lose all the pretty double wedding,' said Aunt Ada.
+
+'Gillian does not mean that,' hastily put in Miss Mohun.
+
+'Oh no,' said Gillian; 'that would be worse than anything.'
+
+'So you think,' said Aunt Jane; 'but believe those who have gone
+through it all, my dear, when the wrench is over, one feels the
+benefit.'
+
+Gillian shook her head, and drank water.  Her aunts went on talking,
+for they thought it better that she should get accustomed to the
+prospect; and, moreover, they were so much excited that they could
+hardly have spoken of anything else.  Aunt Jane wondered if Phyllis's
+betrothed were a brother of Mr. Underwood of St. Matthew's,
+Whittingtown, with whom she had corresponded about the consumptive
+home; and Aunt Ada regretted the not having called on Lady Liddesdale
+when she had spent some weeks at Rockstone, and consoled herself by
+recollecting that Lord Rotherwood would know all about the family.
+She had already looked it out in the Peerage, and discovered that
+Lord Francis Cunningham Somerville was the only younger son, that his
+age was twenty-nine, and that he had three sisters, all married, as
+well as his elder brother, who had children enough to make it
+improbable that Alethea would ever be Lady Liddesdale.  She would
+have shown Gillian the record, but received the ungracious answer,
+'I hate swells.'
+
+'Let her alone, Ada,' said Aunt Jane; 'it is a very sore business.
+She will be better by and by.'
+
+There ensued a little discussion how the veil at Silverfold was to be
+hunted up, or if Gillian and her aunt must go to do so.
+
+'Can you direct Miss Vincent?' asked Miss Mohun.
+
+'No, I don't think I could; besides, I don't like to set any one to
+poke and meddle in mamma's drawers.'
+
+'And she could hardly judge what could be available,' added Miss Ada.
+
+'Gillian must go to find it,' said Aunt Jane; 'and let me see, when
+have I a day?  Saturday is never free, and Monday--I could ask Mrs.
+Hablot to take the cutting out, and then I could look up Lily's
+Brussels---'
+
+There she caught a sight of Gillian's face.  Perhaps one cause of the
+alienation the girl felt for her aunt was, that there was a certain
+kindred likeness between them which enabled each to divine the
+other's inquiring disposition, though it had different effects on the
+elder and younger character.  Jane Mohun suspected that she had on
+her ferret look, and guessed that Gillian's disgusted air meant that
+the idea of her turning over Lady Merrifield's drawers was almost as
+distasteful as that of the governess's doing it.
+
+'Suppose Gillian goes down on Monday with Fanny,' she said.  'She
+could manage very well, I am sure.'
+
+Gillian cleared up a little.  There is much consolation in being of a
+little importance, and she liked the notion of a day at home, a quiet
+day, as she hoped in her present mood, of speaking to nobody.  Her
+aunt let her have her own way, and only sent a card to Macrae to
+provide for meeting and for food, not even letting Miss Vincent know
+that she was coming.  That feeling of not being able to talk about it
+or be congratulated would wear off, Aunt Jane said, if she was not
+worried or argued with, in which case it might become perverse
+affectation.
+
+It certainly was not shared by the children.  Sisters unseen for
+three years could hardly be very prominent in their minds.  Fergus
+hoped that they would ride to the wedding upon elephants, and Valetta
+thought it very hard to miss the being a bridesmaid, when Kitty
+Varley had already enjoyed the honour.  However, she soon began to
+glorify herself on the beauty of Alethea's future title.
+
+'What will Kitty Varley and all say?' was her cry.
+
+'Nothing, unless they are snobs, as girls always are,' said Fergus.
+
+'It is not a nice word,' said Miss Adeline.
+
+'But there's nothing else that expresses it, Aunt Ada,' returned
+Gillian.
+
+'I agree to a certain degree,' said Miss Mohun; 'but still I am not
+sure what it does express.'
+
+'Just what girls of that sort are,' said Gillian.  'Mere worshippers
+of any sort of handle to one's name.'
+
+'Gillian, Gillian, you are not going in for levelling,' cried Aunt
+Adeline.
+
+'No,' said Gillian; 'but I call it snobbish to make more fuss about
+Alethea's concern than Phyllis's---just because he calls himself
+Lord--'
+
+'That is to a certain degree true,' said Miss Mohun.  'The worth of
+the individual man stands first of all, and nothing can be sillier or
+in worse taste than to parade one's grand relations.'
+
+'To parade, yes,' said Aunt Adeline; 'but there is no doubt that good
+connections are a great advantage.'
+
+'Assuredly,' said Miss Mohun.  'Good birth and an ancestry above
+shame are really a blessing, though it has come to be the fashion to
+sneer at them.  I do not mean merely in the eyes of the world, though
+it is something to have a name that answers for your relations being
+respectable.  But there are such things as hereditary qualities, and
+thus testimony to the existence of a distinguished forefather is
+worth having.'
+
+'Lily's dear old Sir Maurice de Mohun to wit,' said Miss Adeline.
+'You know she used to tease Florence by saying the Barons of
+Beechcroft had a better pedigree than the Devereuxes.'
+
+'I'd rather belong to the man who made himself,' said Gillian.
+
+'Well done, Gill!  But though your father won his own spurs, you
+can't get rid of his respectable Merrifield ancestry wherewith he
+started in life.'
+
+'I don't want to.  I had rather have them than horrid robber
+Borderers, such as no doubt these Liddesdale people were.'
+
+There was a little laughing at this; but Gillian was saying in her
+own mind that it was a fine thing to be one's own Rodolf of Hapsburg,
+and in that light she held Captain White, who, in her present state
+of mind, she held to have been a superior being to all the
+Somervilles---perhaps to all the Devereuxes who ever existed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.  AN EMPTY NEST
+
+
+
+There had been no injunctions of secrecy, and though neither Miss
+Mohun nor Gillian had publicly mentioned the subject, all Rockquay
+who cared for the news knew by Sunday morning that Lady Merrifield's
+two elder daughters were engaged.
+
+Gillian, in the course of writing her letters, had become somewhat
+familiarised with the idea, and really looked forward to talking it
+over with Kalliope.  Though that young person could hardly be termed
+Alethea's best friend, it was certain that Alethea stood foremost
+with her, and that her interest in the matter would be very loving.
+
+Accordingly, Kalliope was at the place of meeting even before
+Gillian, and anxiously she looked as she said---
+
+'May I venture---may I ask if it is true?'
+
+'True?  Oh yes, Kally, I knew you would care.'
+
+'Indeed, I well may.  There is no expressing how much I owe to dear
+Miss Alethea and Lady Merrifield, and it is such a delight to hear of
+them.'
+
+Accordingly, Gillian communicated the facts as she knew them, and
+offered to give any message.
+
+'Only my dear love and congratulations,' said Kalliope, with a little
+sigh.  'I should like to have written, but---'
+
+'But why don't you, then?'
+
+'Oh no; she would be too much engaged to think of us, and it would
+only worry her to be asked for her advice.'
+
+'I think I know what it is about,' said Gillian.
+
+'How?  Oh, how do you know?  Did Mr. Flight say anything?'
+
+'Mr. Flight?' exclaimed Gillian.  'What has he to do with it?'
+
+'It was foolish, perhaps; but I did hope he might have helped Alexis,
+and now he seems only to care for his music.'
+
+'Helped him!  How?"
+
+'Perhaps it was unreasonable, but Alexis has always been to good
+schools.  He was getting on beautifully at Leeds, and we thought he
+would have gained a scholarship and gone on to be a clergyman.  That
+was what his mind has always been fixed upon.  You cannot think how
+good and devoted he is,' said Kalliope with a low trembling voice;
+'and my father wished it very much too.  But when the break-up came,
+Mr. White made our not being too fine, as he said, to work, a sort of
+condition of doing anything for us.  Mr. Moore did tell him what
+Alexis is, but I believe he thought it all nonsense, and there was
+nothing to be done.  Alexis--dear fellow---took it so nicely, said he
+was thankful to be able to help mother, and if it was his duty and
+God's will, it was sure to come right; and he has been plodding away
+at the marble works ever since, quite patiently and resolutely, but
+trying to keep up his studies in the evening, only now he has worked
+through all his old school-books.'
+
+'And does not Mr. Flight know that I will help him?'
+
+'Well, Mr. Flight means to be kind, and sometimes seems to think much
+of him; but it is all for his music, I am afraid.  He is always
+wanting new things to be learnt and practised, and those take up so
+much time; and though he does lend us books, they are of no use for
+study, though they only make the dear boy long and long the more to
+get on.'
+
+'Does not Mr. Flight know?'
+
+'I am not sure.  I think he does; but in his ardour for music he
+seems to forget all about it.  It does seem such a pity that all
+Alexis's time should be wasted in this drudgery.  If I could only be
+sure of more extra work for my designs, I could set him free; and if
+Sir Jasper were only at home, I am sure he would put the boy in the
+way of earning his education.  If it were only as a pupil teacher, he
+would be glad, but then he says he ought not to throw all on me.'
+
+'Oh, he must be very good!' exclaimed Gillian.  'I am sure papa will
+help him!  I wish I could.  Oh!'---with a sudden recollection---'I
+wonder what books he wants most.  I am going to Silverfold to-morrow,
+and there are lots of old school-books there of the boys', doing
+nothing, that I know he might have.'
+
+'Oh, Miss Gillian, how good of you!  How delighted he would be!'
+
+'Do you know what he wants most?'
+
+'A Greek grammar and lexicon most of all,' was the ready answer.  'He
+has been trying to find them at the second-hand shop ever so long,
+but I am afraid there is no hope of a lexicon. They are so large and
+expensive.'
+
+'I think there is an old one of Jasper's, if he would not mind its
+back being off, and lots of blots.'
+
+'He would mind nothing.  Oh, Miss Gillian, you can't think how happy
+he will be.
+
+'If there is anything else he wants very much, how could he let me
+know?' mused Gillian.  'Oh, I see!  What time are you at the works?'
+
+'Alex is there at seven; I don't go till nine.'
+
+'I am to be at the station at 8.40.  Could you or Maura meet me there
+and tell me?'
+
+To this Kalliope agreed, for she said she could be sure of getting to
+her post in time afterwards, and she seemed quite overjoyed.  No one
+could look at her without perceiving that Alexis was the prime
+thought of her heart, and Gillian delighted her by repeating Aunt
+Adeline's admiration of his profile, and the general opinion of his
+singing.
+
+'I am so sorry you have had to give it up,' she added.
+
+'It can't be helped,' Kalliope said; 'and I really have no time.'
+
+'But that's not all,' said Gillian, beginning to blush herself.
+
+'0h!  I hope there's no gossip or nonsense about _that_,' cried
+Kalliope, her cheeks flaming.
+
+'Only---'
+
+'Not Maura?  Naughty little girl, I did not think she knew anything.
+Not that there is anything to tell,' said Kalliope, much distressed;
+'but it is dreadful that there should be such talk.'
+
+'I thought it was _that_ you meant when you said you wanted advice.'
+
+'No one could advise me, I am afraid,' said the girl.  'If we could
+only go away from this place!  But that's impossible, and I dare say
+the fancy will soon go off!'
+
+'Then you don't care for him?'
+
+'My dear Miss Gillian, when I have seen _gentlemen_!' said Kalliope,
+in a tone that might have cured her admirer.
+
+They had, however, talked longer than usual, and the notes of the
+warning bell came up, just when Gillian had many more questions to
+ask, and she had to run down the garden all in a glow with eagerness
+and excitement, so that Aunt Ada asked if she had been standing in
+the sea wind.  Her affirmative was true enough, and yet she was
+almost ashamed of it, as not the whole truth, and there was a
+consciousness about her all the afternoon which made her soon regret
+that conversation was chiefly absorbed by the younger one's
+lamentations that they were not to accompany her to Silverfold, and
+by their commissions.  Fergus wanted a formidable amount of precious
+tools, and inchoate machines, which Mrs. Halfpenny had regarded as
+'mess,' and utterly refused to let his aunts be 'fashed' with; while
+Valetta's orders were chiefly for the visiting all the creatures, so
+as to bring an exact account of the health and spirits of Rigdum
+Funnidos, etc., also for some favourite story-books which she wished
+to lend to Kitty Varley and Maura White.
+
+'For do you know, Gill, Maura has never had a new story-book since
+mamma gave her Little Alice and her Sister, when she was seven years
+old!  Do bring her Stories They Tell Me, and On Angel's Wings.'
+
+'But is not that Mysie's?'
+
+'Oh yes, but I know Mysie would let her have it.  Mysie always let
+Maura have everything of hers, because the boys teased her.'
+
+'I will bring it; but I think Mysie ought to be written to before it
+is lent.'
+
+'That is right, Gillian,' said Miss Mohun; 'it is always wiser to be
+above-board when dealing with other people's things, even in
+trifles.'
+
+Why did this sound like a reproach, and as if it implied suspicion
+that Gillian was not acting on that principle?  She resented the
+feeling.  She knew she might do as she liked with the boys' old
+books, for which they certainly had no affection, and which indeed
+her mother had talked of offering to some of those charities which
+have a miscellaneous appetite, and wonderful power of adaptation of
+the disused.  Besides, though no one could have the least objection
+to their being bestowed on the Whites, the very fact of this being
+her third secret meeting with Kalliope was beginning to occasion an
+awkwardness in accounting for her knowledge of their needs.  It was
+obvious to ask why she had not mentioned the first meeting, and this
+her pride would not endure.  She had told her parents by letter.
+What more could be desired?
+
+Again, when she would not promise to see either Miss Vincent or the
+Miss Hackets, because 'she did not want to have a fuss,' Aunt Jane
+said she thought it a pity, with regard at least to the governess,
+who might feel herself hurt at the neglect, 'and needless secrets are
+always unadvisable.'
+
+Gillian could hardly repress a wriggle, but her Aunt Ada laughed,
+saying, 'Especially with you about, Jenny, for you always find them
+out.'
+
+At present, however, Miss Mohun certainly had no suspicion.  Gillian
+was very much afraid she would think proper to come to the station in
+the morning; but she was far too busy, and Gillian started off in the
+omnibus alone with Mrs. Mount in handsome black silk trim, to be
+presented to Mr. Macrae, and much enjoying the trip, having been well
+instructed by Fergus and Valetta in air that she was to see.
+
+Kalliope was descried as the omnibus stopped, and in a few seconds
+Gillian had shaken hands with her, received the note, and heard the
+ardent thanks sent from Alexis, and which the tattered books---even if
+they proved to be right---would scarcely deserve.  He would come with
+his sister to receive the parcel at the station on Gillian's return---
+at 5.29, an offer which obviated any further difficulties as to
+conveyance.
+
+Mrs. Mount was intent upon the right moment to run the gauntlet for
+the tickets; and had it been otherwise, would have seen nothing
+remarkable in her charge being accosted by a nice-looking ladylike
+girl.  So on they rushed upon their way, Gillian's spirits rising in
+a curious sense of liberty and holiday-making.
+
+In due time they arrived, and were received by Macrae with the pony
+carriage, while the trees of Silverfold looked exquisite in their
+autumn red, gold, and brown.
+
+But the dreariness of the deserted house, with no one on the steps
+but Quiz, and all the furniture muffled in sheets, struck Gillian
+more than she had expected, though the schoolroom had been wakened up
+for her, a bright fire on the hearth, and the cockatoo highly
+conversational, the cats so affectionate that it was difficult to
+take a step without stumbling over one of them.
+
+When the business had all been despatched, the wedding veil
+disinterred, and the best Brussels and Honiton safely disposed in a
+box, when an extremely dilapidated and much-inked collection of
+school-books had been routed out of the backstairs cupboard (commonly
+called Erebus) and duly packed, when a selection of lighter
+literature had been made with a view both to Valetta and Lilian; when
+Gillian had shown all she could to Mrs. Mount, visited all the
+animals, gone round the garden, and made two beautiful posies of
+autumn flowers, one for her little sister and the other for Kalliope,
+discovered that Fergus's precious machine had been ruthlessly made
+away with, but secured his tools,---she found eating partridge in
+solitary grandeur rather dreary work, though she had all the bread-
+sauce to herself, and cream to her apple tart, to say nothing of
+Macrae, waiting upon her as if she had been a duchess, and conversing
+in high exultation upon the marriages, only regretting that one
+gentleman should be a civilian; he had always augured that all his
+young ladies would be in the Service, and begging that he might be
+made aware of the wedding-day, so as to have the bells rung.
+
+To express her own feelings to the butler was not possible, and his
+glee almost infected her.  She was quite sorry when, having placed a
+choice of pears and October peaches before her, he went off to
+entertain Mrs. Mount; and after packing a substratum of the fruit in
+the basket for the Whites, she began almost to repent of having
+insisted on not returning to Rockstone till the four o'clock train,
+feeling her solitary liberty oppressive; and finally she found
+herself walking down the drive in search of Miss Vincent.
+
+She had to confess to herself that her aunt was quite right, and that
+the omission would have been a real unkindness, when she saw how worn
+and tired the governess looked, and the brightness that flashed over
+the pale face at sight of her.  Mrs. Vincent had been much worse, and
+though slightly better for the present was evidently in a critical
+state, very exhausting to her daughter.
+
+Good Miss Hacket at that moment came in to sit with her, and send the
+daughter out for some air; and it was well that Gillian had had some
+practice in telling her story not too disconsolately, for it was
+received with all the delight that the mere notion of a marriage
+seems to inspire, though Phyllis and Alethea had scarcely been seen
+at Silverfold before they had gone to India with their father.
+
+Miss Hacket had to be content with the names before she hastened up
+to the patient; but Miss Vincent walked back through the paddock with
+Gillian, talking over what was more personally interesting to the
+governess, the success of her own pupils, scattered as they were, and
+comparing notes upon Mysie's letters.  One of these Miss Vincent had
+just received by the second post, having been written to announce the
+great news, and it continued in true Mysie fashion:---
+
+
+'Cousin Rotherwood knows all about them, and says they will have a
+famous set of belongings.  He will take me to see some of them if we
+go to London before mamma comes home.  Bernard Underwood's sister is
+married to Mr. Grinstead, the sculptor who did the statue of Mercy at
+the Gate that Harry gave a photograph of to mamma, and she paints
+pictures herself.  I want to see them; but I do not know whether we
+shall stay in London, for they do not think it agrees with Fly.  I do
+more lessons than she does now, and I have read through all Autour de
+mon Jardin.  I have a letter from Dolores too, and she thinks that
+Aunt Phyllis and all are coming home to make a visit in England for
+Uncle Harry to see his father, and she wishes very much that they
+would bring her; but it is not to be talked about for fear they
+should be hindered, and old Dr. May hear of it and be disappointed;
+but you won't see any one to tell.'
+
+
+'There, what have I done?' exclaimed Miss Vincent in dismay.  'But I
+had only just got the letter, and had barely glanced through it.'
+
+'Besides, who would have thought of Mysie having any secrets?' said
+Gillian.
+
+'After all, I suppose no harm is done; for you can't have any other
+connection with these Mays.'
+
+'Oh yes, there will be; for I believe a brother of this man of
+Phyllis's married one of the Miss Mays, and I suppose we shall have
+to get mixed up with the whole lot.  How I do hate strangers!  But
+I'll take care, Miss Vincent, indeed I will.  One is not bound to
+tell one's aunts everything like one's mother.'
+
+'No,' said Miss Vincent decidedly, 'especially when it is another
+person's secret betrayed through inadvertence.'  Perhaps she thought
+Gillian looked dangerously gratified, for she added: 'However, you
+know poor Dolores did not find secrecy answer.'
+
+'Oh, there are secrets and secrets, and aunts and aunts!' said
+Gillian.  'Dolores had no mother.'
+
+'It makes a difference,' said Miss Vincent.  'I should never ask you
+to conceal anything from Lady Merrifield.  Besides, this is not a
+matter of conduct, only a report.'
+
+Gillian would not pursue the subject.  Perhaps she was a little
+disingenuous with her conscience, for she wanted to carry off the
+impression that Miss Vincent had pronounced concealment from her
+aunts to be justifiable; and she knew at the bottom of her heart that
+her governess would condemn a habit of secret intimacy with any one
+being carried on without the knowledge of her hostess and guardian
+for the time being,---above all when it was only a matter, of waiting.
+
+It is a fine thing for self-satisfaction to get an opinion without
+telling the whole of the facts of the case, and Gillian went home in
+high spirits, considerably encumbered with parcels, and surprising
+Mrs. Mount by insisting that two separate packages should be made of
+the books.
+
+Kalliope and Alexis were both awaiting her at the station, their
+gratitude unbounded, and finding useful vent by the latter fetching a
+cab and handing in the goods.
+
+It was worth something to see how happy the brother and sister
+looked, as they went off in the gaslight, the one with the big brown
+paper parcel, the other with the basket of fruit and flowers; and
+Gillian's explanation to Mrs. Mount that they were old friends of her
+soldiering days was quite satisfactory.
+
+There was a grand unpacking.  Aunt Ada was pleased with the late
+roses, and Aunt Jane that there had been a recollection of Lilian
+Giles, to whom she had thought her niece far too indifferent.
+Valetta fondled the flowers, and was gratified to hear of the ardent
+affection of the Begum and the health of Rigdum, though Gillian was
+forced to confess that she had not transferred to him the kiss that
+she had been commissioned to convey.  Nobody was disappointed except
+Fergus, who could not but vituperate the housemaids for the
+destruction of his new patent guillotine for mice, which was to have
+been introduced to Clement Varley.  To be sure it would hardly ever
+act, and had never cut off the head of anything save a dandelion, but
+that was a trifling consideration.
+
+A letter from Mysie was awaiting Gillian, not lengthy, for there was
+a long interval between Mysie's brains and her pen, and saying
+nothing about the New Zealand report.  The selection of lace was much
+approved, and the next day there was to be an expedition to endeavour
+to get the veil matched as nearly as possible.  The only dangerous
+moment was at breakfast the next day, when Miss Mohun said---
+
+'Fanny was delighted with Silverfold.  Macrae seems to have been the
+pink of politeness to her.'
+
+'She must come when the house is alive again,' said Gillian.  'What
+would she think of it then!'
+
+'Oh, that would be perfectly delicious,' cried Valetta.  'She would
+see Begum and Rigdum---'
+
+'And I could show her how to work the lawn cutter,' added Fergus.
+
+'By the bye,' said Aunt Jane, 'whom have you been lending books to?'
+
+'Oh, to the Whites,' said Gillian, colouring, as she felt more than
+she could wish.  'There were some old school-books that I thought
+would be useful to them, and I was sure mamma would like them to have
+some flowers and fruit.'
+
+She felt herself very candid, but why would Aunt Jane look at those
+tell-tale cheeks.
+
+Sunday was wet, or rather 'misty moisty,' with a raw sea-fog
+overhanging everything---not bad enough, however, to keep any one
+except Aunt Ada from church or school, though she decidedly
+remonstrated against Gillian's going out for her wandering in the
+garden in such weather; and, if she had been like the other aunt,
+might almost have been convinced that such determination must be for
+an object.  However, Gillian encountered the fog in vain, though she
+walked up and down the path till her clothes were quite limp and
+flabby with damp.  All the view that rewarded her was the outline of
+the shrubs looming through the mist like distant forests as
+mountains.  Moreover, she got a scolding from Aunt Ada, who met her
+coming in, and was horrified at the misty atmosphere which she was
+said to have brought in, and insisted on her going at once to change
+her dress, and staying by the fireside all the rest of the afternoon.
+
+'I cannot think what makes her so eager about going out in the
+afternoon,' said the younger aunt to the elder.  'It is impossible
+that she can have any reason for it.'
+
+'Only Sunday restlessness,' said Miss Mohun, 'added to the reckless
+folly of the "Bachfisch" about health.'
+
+'That's true,' said Adeline, 'girls must be either so delicate that
+they are quite helpless, or so strong as to be absolutely weather-
+proof.'
+
+Fortune, however, favoured Gillian when next she went to Lily Giles.
+She had never succeeded in taking real interest in the girl, who
+seemed to her to be so silly and sentimental that an impulse to
+answer drily instantly closed up all inclination to effusions of
+confidence.  Gillian had not yet learnt breadth of charity enough to
+understand that everybody does not feel, or express feeling, after
+the same pattern; that gush is not always either folly or
+insincerity; and that girls of Lily's class are about at the same
+stage of culture as the young ladies of whom her namesake in the
+Inheritance is the type.  When Lily showed her in some little
+magazine the weakest of poetry, and called it so sweet, just like
+'dear Mr. Grant's lovely sermon, the last she had heard.  Did he not
+look so like a saint in his surplice and white stole, with his holy
+face and beautiful blue eyes; it was enough to make any one feel good
+to look at him,' Gillian simply replied, 'Oh, _I_ never think of the
+clergyman's looks,' and hurried to her book, feeling infinitely
+disgusted and contemptuous, never guessing that these poor verses,
+and the curate's sermons and devotional appearance were, to the young
+girl's heart, the symbols of all that was sacred, and all that was
+refined, and that the thought of them was the solace of her lonely
+and suffering hours.  Tolerant sympathy is one of the latest lessons
+of life, and perhaps it is well that only
+
+
+          'The calm temper of our age should be
+           Like the high leaves upon the holly-tree,'
+
+
+for the character in course of formation needs to be guarded by
+prickles.
+
+However, on this day Undine was to be finished, for Gillian was in
+haste to begin Katharine Ashton, which would, she thought, be much
+more wholesome reality, so she went on later than usual, and came
+away at last, leaving her auditor dissolved in tears over poor
+Undine's act of justice.
+
+As Mrs. Giles, full of thanks, opened the little garden-gate just as
+twilight was falling, Gillian beheld Kalliope and Alexis White coming
+up together from the works, and eagerly met and shook hands with
+them.  The dark days were making them close earlier, they explained,
+and as Kalliope happened to have nothing to finish or purchase, she
+was able to come home with her brother.
+
+Therewith Alexis began to express, with the diffidence of extreme
+gratitude, his warm thanks for the benefaction of books, which were
+exactly what he had wanted and longed for.  His foreign birth enabled
+him to do this much more prettily and less clumsily than an English
+boy, and Gillian was pleased, though she told him that her brother's
+old ill-used books were far from worthy of such thanks.
+
+'Ah, you cannot guess how precious they are to me!' said Alexis.
+'They are the restoration of hope.'
+
+'And can you get on by yourself?' asked Gillian.  'Is it not very
+difficult without any teacher?'
+
+'People have taught themselves before,' returned the youth, 'so I
+hope to do so myself; but of course there are many questions I long
+to ask.'
+
+'Perhaps I could answer some,' said Gillian; 'I have done some
+classics with a tutor.'
+
+'Oh, thank you, Miss Merrifield,' he said eagerly.  'If you could
+make me understand the force of the aorist.
+
+It so happened that Gillian had the explanation at her tongue's end,
+and it was followed by another, and another, till one occurred which
+could hardly be comprehended without reference to the passage, upon
+which Alexis pulled a Greek Testament out of his pocket, and his
+sister could not help exclaiming---
+
+'Oh, Alexis, you can't ask Miss Merrifield to do Greek with you out
+in the street.'
+
+Certainly it was awkward, the more so as Mrs. Stebbing just then
+drove by in her carriage.
+
+'What a pity!' exclaimed Gillian.  'But if you would set down any
+difficulties, you could send them to me by Kalliope on Sunday.'
+
+'Oh, Miss Merrifield, how very good of you!' exclaimed Alexis, his
+face lighting up with joy.
+
+But Kalliope looked doubtful, and began a hesitating 'But---'
+
+'I'll tell you of a better way!' exclaimed Gillian.  'I always go
+once a week to read to this Lilian Giles, and if I come down
+afterwards to Kalliope's office after you have struck work, I could
+see to anything you wanted to ask.'
+
+Alexis broke out into the most eager thanks.  Kalliope said hardly
+anything, and as they had reached the place where the roads diverged,
+they bade one another good-evening.
+
+Gillian looked after the brother and sister just as the gas was being
+lighted, and could almost guess what Alexis was saying, by his
+gestures of delight.  She did not hear, and did not guess how
+Kalliope answered, 'Don't set your heart on it too much, dear fellow,
+for I should greatly doubt whether Miss Gillian's aunts will consent.
+Oh yes, of course, if they permit her, it will be all right.
+
+So Gillian went her way feeling that she had found her 'great thing.'
+Training a minister for the Church!  Was not that a 'great thing'?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.  GILLIAN'S PUPIL
+
+
+
+Gillian was not yet seventeen, and had lived a home life totally
+removed from gossip, so that she had no notion that she was doing a
+more awkward or remarkable thing than if she had been teaching a
+drummer-boy.  She even deliberated whether she should mention her
+undertaking to her mother, or produce the grand achievement of Alexis
+White, prepared for college, on the return from India; but a sense
+that she had promised to tell everything, and that, while she did so,
+she could defy any other interference, led her to write the design in
+a letter to Ceylon, and then she felt ready to defy any censure or
+obstructions from other Quarters.
+
+Mystery has a certain charm.  Infinite knowledge of human nature was
+shown in the text, 'Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in
+secret is pleasant'; and it would be hard to define how much
+Gillian's satisfaction was owing to the sense of benevolence, or to
+the pleasure of eluding Aunt Jane, when, after going through her
+chapter of Katharine Ashton, in a somewhat perfunctory manner, she
+hastened away to Miss White's office.  This, being connected with the
+showroom, could be entered without passing through the gate with the
+inscription---'No admittance except on business.'  Indeed, the office
+had a private door, which, at Gillian's signal, was always opened to
+her.  There, on the drawing-desk, lay a Greek exercise and a
+translation, with queries upon the difficulties for Gillian to
+correct, or answer in writing.  Kalliope had managed to make that
+little room a pleasant place, bare as it was, by pinning a few of her
+designs on the walls, and always keeping a terracotta vase of flowers
+or coloured leaves upon the table.  The lower part of the window she
+had blocked with transparencies delicately cut and tinted in
+cardboard---done, as she told Gillian, by her little brother Theodore,
+who learnt to draw at the National School, and had the same turn for
+art as herself.  Altogether, the perfect neatness and simplicity of
+the little room gave it an air of refinement, which rendered it by no
+means an unfit setting for the grave beauty of Kalliope's countenance
+and figure.
+
+The enjoyment of the meeting was great on both sides, partly from the
+savour of old times, and partly because there was really much that
+was uncommon and remarkable about Kalliope herself.  Her father's
+promotion had come exactly when she and her next brother were at the
+time of life when the changes it brought would tell most on their
+minds and manners.  They had both been sent to schools where they had
+associated with young people of gentle breeding, which perhaps their
+partly foreign extraction, and southern birth and childhood, made it
+easier for them to assimilate.  Their beauty and brightness had led
+to a good deal of kindly notice from the officers and ladies of the
+regiment, and they had thus acquired the habits and ways of the class
+to which they had been raised.  Their father, likewise, had been a
+man of a chivalrous nature, whose youthful mistakes had been the
+outcome of high spirit and romance, and who, under discipline,
+danger, suffering, and responsibility, had become earnestly
+religious.  There had besides been his Colonel's influence on him,
+and on his children that of Lady Merrifield and Alethea.
+
+It had then been a piteous change and darkening of life when, after
+the crushing grief of his death, the young people found themselves in
+such an entirely different stratum of society.  They were ready to
+work, but they could not help feeling the mortification of being
+relegated below the mysterious line of gentry, as they found
+themselves at Rockquay, and viewed as on a level with the clerks and
+shop-girls of the place.  Still more, as time went on, did they miss
+the companionship and intercourse to which they had been used.  Mr.
+Flight, the only person in a higher rank who took notice of them, and
+perceived that there was more in them than was usual, was after all
+only a patron---not a friend, and perhaps was not essentially enough
+of a gentleman to be free from all airs of condescension even with
+Alexis, while he might be wise in not making too much of an approach
+to so beautiful a girl as Kalliope.  Besides, after a fit of
+eagerness, and something very like promises, he had apparently let
+Alexis drop, only using him for his musical services, and not doing
+anything to promote the studies for which the young man thirsted, nor
+proposing anything for the younger boys, who would soon outgrow the
+National School.
+
+Alexis had made a few semi-friends among the musical youth of the
+place; but there was no one to sympathise with him in his studious
+tastes, and there was much in his appearance and manners to cause the
+accusation of being 'stuck-up'---music being really the only point of
+contact with most of his fellows of the lower professional class.
+
+Kalliope had less time, but she had, on principle, cultivated kindly
+terms with the young women employed under her.  Her severe style of
+beauty removed her from any jealousy of her as a rival, and she was
+admired---almost worshipped---by them as the glory of the workshop.
+They felt her superiority, and owned her ability; but nobody there
+was capable of being a companion to her.  Thus the sister and brother
+had almost wholly depended upon one another; and it was like a breath
+from what now seemed the golden age of their lives when Gillian
+Merrifield walked into the office, treating Kalliope with all the
+freedom of an equal and the affection of an old friend.  There was
+not very much time to spare after Gillian had looked at the
+exercises, noted and corrected the errors, and explained the
+difficulties or mistakes in the translation from Testament and
+Delectus, feeling all the time how much more mastery of the subject
+her pupil had than Mr. Pollock's at home had ever attained to.
+
+However, Kalliope always walked home with her as far as the opening
+of Church Cliff Road, and they talked of the cleverness and goodness
+of the brothers, except Richard at Leeds, who never seemed to be
+mentioned; how Theodore kept at the head of the school, and had hopes
+of the drawing prize, and how little Petros devoured tales of
+battles, and would hear of nothing but being a soldier.  Now and
+then, too, there was a castle in the air of a home for little Maura
+at Alexis's future curacy.  Kalliope seemed to look to working for
+life for poor mother, while Theodore should cultivate his art.
+Oftener the two recalled old adventures and scenes of their
+regimental days, and discussed the weddings of the two Indian
+sisters.
+
+Once, however, Kalliope was obliged to suggest, with a blushing
+apology, that she feared Gillian must go home alone, she was not
+ready.
+
+'Can't I help you? what have you to do?'
+
+Kalliope attempted some excuse of putting away designs, but presently
+peeped from the window, and Gillian, with excited curiosity, imitated
+her, and beheld, lingering about, a young man in the pink of fashion,
+with a tea-rose in his buttonhole and a cane in his hand.
+
+'Oh, Kally,' she cried, 'does he often hang about like this waiting
+for you?'
+
+'Not often, happily.  There! old Mr. Stebbing has come out, and they
+are walking away together.  We can go now.'
+
+'So he besets you, and you have to keep out of his way,' exclaimed
+Gillian, much excited.  'Is that the reason you come to the garden
+all alone on Sunday?'
+
+'Yes, though I little guessed what awaited me there,' returned
+Kalliope; 'but we had better make haste, for it is late for you to be
+returning.'
+
+It was disappointing that Kalliope would not discuss such an
+interesting affair; but Gillian was sensible of the danger of being
+so late as to cause questions, and she allowed herself to be hurried
+on too fast for conversation, and passing the two Stebbings, who, no
+doubt, took her for a 'hand.'
+
+'Does this often happen?' asked Gillian.
+
+'No; Alec walks home with me, and the boys often come and meet me.
+Oh, did I tell you that the master wants Theodore to be a pupil-
+teacher?  I wish I knew what was best for him.'
+
+'Could not he be an artist?'
+
+'I should like some one to tell me whether he really has talent worth
+cultivating, dear boy, or if he would be safer and better in an
+honourable occupation like a school-master.'
+
+'Do you call it honourable?'
+
+'Oh yes, to be sure.  I put it next to a clergyman's or a doctor's
+life.'
+
+'Not a soldier's?'
+
+'That depends,' said Kalliope.
+
+'On the service he is sent upon, you mean?  But that is his
+sovereign's look-out.  He "only has to obey, to do or die."'
+
+'Yes, it is the putting away of self, and possible peril of life,
+that makes all those grandest,' said Kalliope, 'and I think the
+schoolmaster is next in opportunities of doing good.'
+
+Gillian could not help thinking that none of all these could put away
+self more entirely than the girl beside her, toiling away her beauty
+and her youth in this dull round of toil, not able to exercise the
+instincts of her art to the utmost, and with no change from the
+monotonous round of mosaics, which were forced to be second rate, to
+the commonest household works, and the company of the Queen of the
+White Ants.
+
+Gillian perceived enough of the nobleness of such a life to fill her
+with a certain enthusiasm, and make her feel a day blank and
+uninteresting if she could not make her way to the little office.
+
+One evening, towards the end of the first fortnight, Alexis himself
+came in with a passage that he wanted to have explained.  His sister
+looked uneasy all the time, and hurried to put on her hat, and stand
+demonstratively waiting, telling Gillian that they must go, the
+moment the lesson began to tend to discursive talk, and making a most
+decided sign of prohibition to her brother when he showed a
+disposition to accompany them.
+
+'I think you are frightfully particular, Kally,' said Gillian, when
+they were on their way up the hill.  'Such an old friend, and you
+there, too.'
+
+'It would never do here!  It would be wrong,' answered Kalliope, with
+the authority of an older woman.  'He must not come to the office.'
+
+'Oh, but how could I ever explain to him?  One can't do everything in
+writing.  I might as well give up the lessons as never speak to him
+about them.'
+
+There was truth in this, and perhaps Alexis used some such arguments
+on his side, for at about every third visit of Gillian's he dropped
+in with some important inquiry necessary to his progress, which was
+rapid enough to compel Gillian to devote some time to preparation, in
+order to keep ahead of him.
+
+Kalliope kept diligent guard, and watched against lengthening the
+lessons into gossip, and they were always after hours when the hands
+had gone away.  The fear of being detected kept Gillian ready to
+shorten the time.
+
+'How late you are!' were the first words she heard one October
+evening on entering Beechcroft Cottage; but they were followed by
+'Here's a pleasure for you!'
+
+'It's from papa himself!  Open it!  Open it quick,' cried Valetta,
+dancing round her in full appreciation of the honour and delight.
+
+Sir Jasper said that his daughter must put up with him for a
+correspondent, since two brides at once were as much as any mother
+could be supposed to undertake.  Indeed, as mamma would not leave
+him, Phyllis was actually going to Calcutta, chaperoned by one of the
+matrons of the station, to make purchases for both outfits, since
+Alethea would not stir from under the maternal wing sooner than she
+could help.
+
+At the end came, 'We are much shocked at poor White's death. He was
+an excellent officer, and a good and sensible man, though much
+hampered with his family.  I am afraid his wife must be a very
+helpless being.  He used to talk about the good promise of one of his
+sons---the second, I think.  We will see whether anything can be done
+for the children when we come home.  I say we, for I find I shall
+have to be invalided before I can be entirely patched up, so that
+mamma and I shall have a sort of postponed silver wedding tour, a new
+variety for the old folks "from home."'
+
+'Oh, is papa coming home?' cried Valetta.
+
+'For good!  Oh, I hope it will be for good,' added Gillian.
+
+'Then we shall live at dear Silverfold all the days of our life,'
+added Fergus.
+
+'And I shall get back to Rigdum.'
+
+'And I shall make a telephone down to the stables,' were the cries of
+the children.
+
+The transcendent news quite swallowed up everything else for some
+time; but at last Gillian recurred to her father's testimony as to
+the White family.
+
+'Is the second son the musical one?' she was asked, and on her
+affirmative, Aunt Jane remarked, 'Well, though the Rev. Augustine
+Flight is not on a pinnacle of human wisdom, his choir practices,
+etc., will keep the lad well out of harm's way till your father can
+see about him.'
+
+This would have been an opportunity of explaining the youth's aims
+and hopes, and her own share in forwarding them; but it had become
+difficult to avow the extent of her intercourse with the brother and
+sister, so entirely without the knowledge of her aunts.  Even Miss
+Mohun, acute as she was, had no suspicions, and only thought with
+much satisfaction that her niece was growing more attentive to poor
+Lilian Giles, even to the point of lingering.
+
+'I really think, she said, in consultation with Miss Adeline, 'that
+we might gratify that damsel by having the White girls to drink tea.'
+
+'Well, we can add them to your winter party of young ladies in
+business.'
+
+'Hardly.  These stand on different ground, and I don't want to hurt
+their feelings or Gillian's by mixing them up with the shopocracy.'
+
+'Have you seen the Queen of the White Ants?'
+
+'Not yet; but I mean to reconnoitre, and if I see no cause to the
+contrary, I shall invite them for next Tuesday.'
+
+'The mother?  You might as well ask her namesake.'
+
+'Probably; but I shall be better able to judge when I have seen her.'
+
+So Miss Mohun trotted off, made her visit, and thus reported, 'Poor
+woman! she certainly is not lovely now, whatever she may have been;
+but I should think there was no harm in her, and she is effusive in
+her gratitude to all the Merrifield family.  It is plain that the
+absent eldest son is the favourite, far more so than the two useful
+children at the marble works; and Mr. White is spoken of as a sort of
+tyrant, whereas I should think they owed a good deal to his kindness
+in giving them employment.'
+
+'I always thought he was an old hunks.'
+
+'The town thinks so because he does not come and spend freely here;
+but I have my doubts whether they are right.  He is always ready to
+do his part in subscriptions; and the employing these young people as
+he does is true kindness.'
+
+'Unappreciated.'
+
+'Yes, by the mother who would expect to be kept like a lady in
+idleness, but perhaps not so by her daughter.  From all I can pick
+up, I think she must be a very worthy person, so I have asked her and
+the little schoolgirl for Tuesday evening, and I hope it will not be
+a great nuisance to you, Ada.'
+
+'Oh no,' said Miss Adeline, good humouredly, 'it will please Gillian,
+and I shall be interested in seeing the species, or rather the
+variety.'
+
+'Var Musa Groeca Hibernica Militaris,' laughed Aunt Jane.
+
+'By the bye, I further found out what made the Captain enlist.'
+
+'Trust you for doing that!' laughed her sister.
+
+'Really it was not on purpose, but old Zack Skilly was indulging me
+with some of his ancient smuggling experiences, in what he evidently
+views as the heroic age of Rockquay.  "Men was men, then," he says.
+"Now they be good for nought, but to row out the gentlefolks when the
+water is as smooth as glass."  You should hear the contempt in his
+voice.  Well, a promising young hero of his was Dick White, what used
+to work for his uncle, but liked a bit of a lark, and at last hit one
+of the coastguard men in a fight, and ran away, and folks said he had
+gone for a soldier.  Skilly had heard he was dead, and his wife had
+come to live in these parts, but there was no knowing what was true
+and what wasn't.  Folks would talk!  Dick was a likely chap, with
+more life about him than his cousin Jem, as was a great man now, and
+owned all the marble works, and a goodish bit of the town.  There was
+a talk as how the two lads had both been a courting of the same maid,
+that was Betsy Polwhele, and had fallen out about her, but how that
+might be he could not tell.  Anyhow, she was not wed to one nor
+t'other of them, but went into a waste and died.'
+
+'I wonder if it was for Dick's sake.  So Jem was not constant
+either.'
+
+'Except to his second love.  That was a piteous little story too.'
+
+'You mean his young wife's health failing as soon as he brought her
+to that house which he was building for her, and then his taking her
+to Italy, and never enduring to come back here again after she and
+her child died.  But he made a good thing of it with his quarries in
+the mountains.'
+
+'You sordid person, do you think that was all he cared for!'
+
+'Well, I always thought of him as a great, stout, monied man, quite
+incapable of romance and sensitiveness.'
+
+'If so, don't you think he would have let that house instead of
+keeping it up in empty state!  There is a good deal of character in
+those Whites.'
+
+'The Captain is certainly the most marked man, except Jasper, in that
+group of officers in Gillian's photograph-book.'
+
+'Partly from the fact that a herd of young officers always look so
+exactly alike---at least in the eyes of elderly spinsters.'
+
+'Jane!'
+
+'Let us hope so, now that it is all over.  This same Dick must have
+had something remarkable about him, to judge by the impression he
+seems to have left on all who came in his way, and I shall like to
+see his children.'
+
+'You always do like queer people.'
+
+'It is plain that we ought to take notice of them,' said Miss Mohun,
+'and it is not wholesome for Gillian to think us backward in kindness
+to friends about whom she plainly has a little romance.'
+
+She refrained from uttering a suspicion inspired by her visit that
+there had been more 'kindnesses' on her niece's part than she could
+quite account for.  Yet she believed that she knew how all the girl's
+days were spent; was certain that the Sunday wanderings never went
+beyond the garden, and, moreover, she implicitly trusted Lily's
+daughter.
+
+Gillian did not manifest as much delight and gratitude at the
+invitation as her aunts expected.  In point of fact, she resented
+Aunt Jane's making a visit of investigation without telling her, and
+she was uneasy lest there should have been or yet should be a dis-
+closure that should make her proceedings appear clandestine.  'And
+they are not!' said she to herself with vehemence.  'Do I not write
+them all to my own mother?  And did not Miss Vincent allow that one
+is not bound to treat aunts like parents?'
+
+Even the discovery of Captain White's antecedents was almost an
+offence, for if her aunt would not let her inquire, why should she do
+so herself, save to preserve the choice morceau for her own superior
+intelligence?  Thus all the reply that Gillian deigned was, 'Of
+course I knew that Captain White could never have done anything to be
+ashamed of.'
+
+The weather was too wet for any previous meetings, and it was on a
+wild stormy evening that the two sisters appeared at seven o'clock at
+Beechcroft Cottage.  While hats and waterproofs were being taken off
+upstairs, Gillian found opportunity to give a warning against
+mentioning the Greek lessons.  It was received with consternation.
+
+'Oh, Miss Merrifield, do not your aunts know?'
+
+'No.  Why should they?  Mamma does.'
+
+'Not yet.  And she is so far off!  I wish Miss Mohun knew!  I made
+sure that she did,' said Kalliope, much distressed.
+
+'But why?  It would only make a fuss.'
+
+'I should be much happier about it.'
+
+'And perhaps have it all upset.'
+
+'That is the point.  I felt that it must be all right as long as Miss
+Mohun sanctioned it; but I could not bear that we should be the means
+of bringing you into a scrape, by doing what she might disapprove
+while you are under her care.'
+
+'Don't you think you can trust me to know my own relations?' said
+Gillian somewhat haughtily.
+
+'Indeed, I did not mean that we are not infinitely obliged to you,'
+said Kalliope.  'It has made Alexis another creature to have some
+hope, and feel himself making progress.'
+
+'Then why do you want to have a fuss, and a bother, and a chatter?
+If my father and mother don't approve, they can telegraph.'
+
+With which argument she appeased or rather silenced Kalliope, who
+could not but feel the task of objecting alike ungracious and
+ungrateful towards the instructor, and absolutely cruel and unkind
+towards her brother, and who spoke only from a sense of the treachery
+of allowing a younger girl to transgress in ignorance.  Still she was
+conscious of not understanding on what terms the niece and aunts
+might be, and the St. Kenelm's estimate of the Beechcroft ladies was
+naturally somewhat different from that of the St. Andrew's
+congregation.  Miss Mohun was popularly regarded in those quarters as
+an intolerable busybody, and Miss Adeline as a hypochondriacal fine
+lady, so that Gillian might perhaps reasonably object to put herself
+into absolute subjection; so, though Kalliope might have a
+presentiment of breakers ahead, she could say no more, and Gillian,
+feeling that she had been cross, changed the subject by admiring the
+pretty short curly hair that was being tied back at the glass.
+
+'I wish it would grow long,' said Kalliope. 'But it always was rather
+short and troublesome, and ever since it was cut short in the fever,
+I have been obliged to keep it like this.'
+
+'But it suits you,' said Gillian.  'And it is exactly the thing now.'
+
+'That is the worst of it.  It looks as if I wore it so on purpose.
+However, all our hands know that I cannot help it, and so does Lady
+Flight.'
+
+The girl looked exceedingly well, though little Alice, the maid,
+would not have gone out to tea in such an ancient black dress, with
+no relief save a rim of white at neck and hands, and a tiny silver
+Maltese cross at the throat.  Maura had a comparatively new gray
+dress, picked out with black.  She was a pretty creature, the Irish
+beauty predominating over the Greek, in her great long-lashed brown
+eyes, which looked radiant with shy happiness.  Miss Adeline was
+perfectly taken by surprise at the entrance of two such uncommon
+forms and faces, and the quiet dignity of the elder made her for a
+moment suppose that her sister must have invited some additional
+guest of undoubted station.
+
+Valetta, who had grown fond of Maura in their school life, and who
+dearly loved patronising, pounced upon her guest to show her all
+manner of treasures and curiosities, at which she looked in great
+delight; and Fergus was so well satisfied with her comprehension of
+the principles of the letter balance, that he would have taken her
+upstairs to be introduced to all his mechanical inventions, if the
+total darkness and cold of his den had not been prohibitory.
+
+Kalliope looked to perfection, but was more silent than her sister,
+though, as Miss Mohun's keen eye noted, it was not the shyness of a
+conscious inferior in an unaccustomed world, but rather that of a
+grave, reserved nature, not chattering for the sake of mere talk.
+
+Gillian's photograph-book was well looked over, with all the brothers
+and sisters at different stages, and the group of officers.  Miss
+Mohun noted the talk that passed over these, as they were identified
+one by one, sometimes with little reminiscences, childishly full on
+Gillian's part, betraying on Kalliope's side friendly acquaintance,
+but all in as entirely ladylike terms as would have befitted Phyllis
+or Alethea.  She could well believe in the words with which Miss
+White rather hastened the turning of the page, 'Those were happy
+days---I dare not dwell on them too much!'
+
+'Oh, I like to do so!' cried Gillian.  'I don't want the little ones
+ever to forget them.'
+
+'Yes---you!  But with you it would not be repining.'
+
+This was for Gillian's ear alone, as at that moment both the aunts
+were, at the children's solicitation, engaged on the exhibition of a
+wonderful musical-box---Aunt Adeline's share of her mother's wedding
+presents---containing a bird that hovered and sung, the mechanical
+contrivance of which was the chief merit in Fergus's eyes, and which
+had fascinated generations of young people for the last sixty years.
+Aunt Jane, however, could hear through anything---even through the
+winding-up of what the family called 'Aunt Ada's Jackdaw,' and she
+drew her conclusions, with increasing respect and pity for the young
+girl over whose life such a change had come.
+
+But it was not this, but what she called common humanity, which
+prompted her, on hearing a heavy gust of rain against the windows, to
+go into the lower regions in quest of a messenger boy to order a
+brougham to take the guests home at the end of the evening.
+
+The meal went off pleasantly on the whole, though there loomed a
+storm as to the ritual of St. Kenelm's; but this chiefly was owing to
+the younger division of the company, when Valetta broke into an
+unnecessary inquiry why they did not have as many lights on the altar
+at St. Andrew's as at St. Kenelm's, and Fergus put her down with
+unceremoniously declaring that Stebbing said Flight was a donkey.
+
+Gillian came down with what she meant for a crushing rebuke, and the
+indignant colour rose in the cheeks of the guests; but Fergus
+persisted, 'But he makes a guy of himself and a mountebank.'
+
+Aunt Jane thought it time to interfere.  'Fergus,' she said, 'you had
+better not repeat improper sayings, especially about a clergyman.'
+
+Fergus wriggled.
+
+'And,' added Aunt Ada, with equal severity, 'you know Mr. Flight is a
+very kind friend to little Maura and her sister.'
+
+'Indeed he is,' said Kalliope earnestly; and Maura, feeling herself
+addressed, added, 'Nobody but he ever called on poor mamma, till Miss
+Mohun did; no, not Lady Flight.'
+
+'We are very grateful for his kindness,' put in Kalliope, in a
+repressive tone.
+
+'But,' said Gillian, 'I thought you said he had seemed to care less
+of late.'
+
+'I do not know,' said Miss White, blushing; 'music seems to be his
+chief interest, and there has not been anything fresh to get up since
+the concert.'
+
+'I suppose there will be for the winter,' said Miss Mohun, and
+therewith the conversation was safely conducted away to musical
+subjects, in which some of the sisters' pride and affection for their
+brothers peeped out; but Gillian was conscious all the time that
+Kalliope was speaking with some constraint when she mentioned Alexis,
+and that she was glad rather to dwell on little Theodore, who had
+good hopes of the drawing prize, and she seriously consulted Miss
+Mohun on the pupil-teachership for him, as after he had passed the
+seventh standard he could not otherwise go on with his education,
+though she did not think he had much time for teaching.
+
+'Would not Mr. White help him further?' asked Miss Mohun.
+
+'I do not know.  I had much rather not ask,' said Kalliope.  'We are
+too many to throw ourselves on a person who is no near relation, and
+he has not seemed greatly disposed to help.'
+
+'Your elder brother?'
+
+'Oh, poor Richard, he is not earning anything yet.  I can't ask him.
+If I only knew of some school I could be sure was safe and good and
+not too costly, Alexis and I would try to manage for Theodore after
+the examination in the spring.'
+
+The Woodward schools were a new light to her, and she was eagerly
+interested in Miss Mohun's explanations and in the scale of terms.
+
+Meantime Miss Adeline got on excellently with the younger ones, and
+when the others were free, proposed for their benefit a spelling
+game.  All sat round the table, made words, and abstracted one
+another's with increasing animation, scarcely heeding the roaring of
+the wind outside, till there was a ring at the bell.
+
+'My brother has come for us,' said Kalliope.
+
+'Oh, but it is not fit for you to walk home,' said Miss Mohun.  'The
+brougham is coming by and by; ask Mr. White to come in,' she added,
+as the maid appeared with the message that he was come for his
+sisters.
+
+There was a confusion of acknowledgments and disclaimers, and word
+was brought back that Mr. White was too wet to come in.  Miss Mohun,
+who was not playing, but prompting Fergus, jumped up and went out to
+investigate, when she found a form in an ancient military cloak,
+trying to keep himself from dripping where wet could do mischief.
+She had to explain her regret at his having had such a walk in vain;
+but she had taken alarm on finding that rain was setting in for the
+night, and had sent word by the muffin-boy that the brougham would be
+wanted, contriving to convey that it was not to be paid for.
+
+Nothing remained to be said except thanks, and Alexis emerged from
+the cloak, which looked as if it had gone through all his father's
+campaigns, took off his gaiters, did his best for his boots, and,
+though not in evening costume, looked very gentleman-like and
+remarkably handsome in the drawing-room, with no token of awkward
+embarrassment save a becoming blush.
+
+Gillian began to tremble inwardly again, but the game had just ended
+in her favour, owing to Fergus having lost all his advantages in Aunt
+Jane's absence, besides signalising himself by capturing Maura's
+'bury,' under the impression that an additional R would combine that
+and straw into a fruit.
+
+So the coast being cleared, Miss Adeline greatly relieved her niece's
+mind by begging, as a personal favour, to hear the song whose renown
+at the concert had reached her; and thus the time was safely spent in
+singing till the carriage was announced, and good-nights exchanged.
+
+Maura's eyes grew round with delight, and she jumped for joy at the
+preferment.
+
+'Oh!' she said, as she fervently kissed Valetta, 'it is the most
+delightful evening I ever spent in the whole course of my life,
+except at Lady Merrifield's Christmas-tree!  And now to go home in a
+carriage!  I never went in one since I can remember!'
+
+And Kalliope's 'Thank you, we have enjoyed ourselves very much,' was
+very fervent.
+
+'Those young people are very superior to what I expected,' said Aunt
+Adeline.  'What fine creatures, all so handsome; and that little
+Maura is a perfect darling.'
+
+'The Muse herself is very superior,' said Miss Mohun.  'One of those
+home heroines who do the work of Atlas without knowing it.  I do not
+wonder that the marble girls speak of her so enthusiastically.'
+
+How Gillian might have enjoyed all this, and yet she could not,
+except so far that she told herself that thus there could be no
+reasonable objection made by her aunts to intercourse with those whom
+they so much admired.
+
+Yet perhaps even then she would have told all, but that, after having
+bound over Kalliope to secrecy, it would be awkward to confess that
+she had told all.  It would be like owning herself in the wrong, and
+for that she was not prepared.  Besides, where would be the secrecy
+of her 'great thing'?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.  GAUGING AJEE
+
+
+
+Without exactly practising to deceive, Gillian began to find that
+concealment involved her in a tangled web; all the more since Aunt
+Jane had become thoroughly interested in the Whites, and was
+inquiring right and left about schools and scholarships for the
+little boys.
+
+She asked their master about them, and heard that they were among his
+best scholars, and that their home lessons had always been carefully
+attended to by their elder brother and sister.  In fact, he was most
+anxious to retain Theodore, to be trained for a pupil-teacher, the
+best testimony to his value!  Aunt Jane came home full of the
+subject, relating what the master said of Alexis White, and that he
+had begun by working with him at Latin and mathematics; but that they
+had not had time to go on with what needed so much study and
+preparation.
+
+'In fact, said Miss Mohun, 'I have a suspicion that if a certificated
+schoolmaster could own any such thing, the pupil knew more than the
+teacher.  When your father comes home, I hope he will find some way
+of helping that lad.'
+
+Gillian began to crimson, but bethought herself of the grandeur of
+its being found that she was the youth's helper.  'I am glad you have
+been lending him books,' added Aunt Jane.
+
+What business had she to know what had not been told her?  The sense
+of offence drove back any disposition to consult her.  Yet to teach
+Alexis was no slight task, for, though he had not gone far in Greek,
+his inquiries were searching, and explaining to him was a different
+thing from satisfying even Mr. Pollock.  Besides, Gillian had her own
+studies on hand.  The Cambridge examinations were beginning to assume
+larger proportions in the Rockquay mind, and 'the General Screw
+Company,' as Mr. Grant observed, was prevailing.
+
+Gillian's knowledge was rather discursive, and the concentration
+required by an examination was hard work to her, and the time for it
+was shortened by the necessity of doing all Alexis's Greek exercises
+and translations beforehand, and of being able to satisfy him why an
+error was not right, for, in all politeness, he always would know why
+it did not look right.  And there was Valetta, twisting and groaning.
+The screw was on her form, who, unless especially exempted, were to
+compete for a prize for language examination.
+
+Valetta had begun by despising Kitty Varley for being excepted by her
+mother's desire and for not learning Latin; but now she envied any
+one who had not to work double tides at the book of Caesar that was
+to be taken up, and Vercingetorix and his Arverni got vituperated in
+a way that would have made the hair of her hero-worshipping mother
+fairly stand on end.
+
+But then Lilias Mohun had studied him for love of himself, not for
+dread of failure.
+
+Gillian had been displeased when Fergus deserted her for Aunt Jane as
+an assistant, but she would not have been sorry if Valetta had been
+off her hands, when she was interrupted in researches after an idiom
+in St. John's Gospel by the sigh that this abominable dictionary had
+no verb oblo, or in the intricacies of a double equation by despair
+at this horrid Caesar always hiding away his nominatives out of
+spite.
+
+Valetta, like the American child, evidently regarded the Great Julius
+in no other light than as writer of a book for beginners in Latin,
+and, moreover, a very unkind one; and she fully reciprocated the
+sentiment that it was no wonder that the Romans conquered the world,
+since they knew the Latin grammar by nature.
+
+Nor was Gillian's hasty and sometimes petulant assistance very
+satisfactory to the poor child, since it often involved hearing 'Wait
+a minute,' and a very long one, 'How can you be so stupid?'  'I told
+you so long ago'; and sometimes consisted of a gabbling translation,
+with rapidly pointed finger, very hard to follow, and not quite so
+painstaking as when Alexis deferentially and politely pointed out the
+difficulties, with a strong sense of the favour that she was doing
+him.
+
+Not that these personal lessons often took place.  Kalliope never
+permitted them without dire necessity, and besides, there was always
+an uncertainty when Gillian might come down, or when Alexis might be
+able to come in.
+
+One day when Aunt Jane had come home with a story of how one of her
+'business girls' had confessed to Miss White's counsel having only
+just saved her from an act of folly, it occurred to Aunt Adeline to
+say---
+
+'It is a great pity you have not her help in the G.F.S.'
+
+'I did not understand enough about her before, and mixed her up with
+the ordinary class of business girls.  I had rather have her a member
+for the sake of example; but if not, she would be a valuable
+associate.  Could not you explain this to her without hurting her
+feelings, as I am afraid I did, Gill?  I did not understand enough
+about her when I spoke to her before.'
+
+Gillian started.  The conversation that should have been so pleasant
+to her was making her strangely uncomfortable.
+
+'I do not see how Gill is to get at her,' objected the other aunt.
+'It would be of no great use to call on her in the nest of the Queen
+of the White Ants.  I can't help recollecting the name, it was so
+descriptive.'
+
+'Yes; it was on her mother's account that she refused, and of course
+her office must not be invaded in business hours.'
+
+'I might call on her there before she goes home,' suggested Gillian,
+seeing daylight.
+
+'You cannot be walking down there at dusk, just as the workmen come
+away' exclaimed Aunt Ada, making the colour so rush into Gillian's
+cheeks that she was glad to catch up a screen.
+
+'No,' said Miss Mohun emphatically; 'but I could leave her there at
+five o'clock, and go to Tideshole to take old Jemmy Burnet his
+jersey, and call for her on the way back.'
+
+'Or she could walk home with me,' murmured the voice behind the
+screen.
+
+Gillian felt with dismay that all these precautions as to her escort
+would render her friend more scrupulous than ever as to her visits.
+To have said, 'I have several times been at the office,' would have
+been a happy clearance of the ground, but her pride would not bend to
+possible blame, nor would she run the risk of a prohibition.  'It
+would be the ruin of hope to Alexis, and mamma knows all,' said she
+to herself.
+
+It was decided that she should trust to Kalliope to go back with her,
+for when once Aunt Jane get into the very fishy hamlet of Tideshole,
+which lay beyond the quarries, there was no knowing when she might
+get away, since
+
+
+          'Alike to her were time and tide,
+           November's snow or July's pride.'
+
+
+So after a few days, too wet and tempestuous for any expedition, they
+set forth accompanied by Fergus, who rushed in from school in time to
+treat his aunt as a peripatetic 'Joyce's scientific dialogues.'
+Valetta had not arrived, and Gillian was in haste to elude her,
+knowing that her aunt would certainly not take her on to Tideshole,
+and that there would be no comfort in talking before her; but it was
+a new thing to have to regard her little sister in the light of a
+spy, and again she had to reason down a sense of guiltiness.
+However, her aunt wanted Valetta as little as she did; and she had
+never so rejoiced in Fergus's monologue, 'Then this small fly-wheel
+catches into the Targe one, and so--- Don't you see?' ---only pausing
+for a sound of assent.
+
+Unacquainted with the private door, Miss Mohun entered the office
+through the showroom, exchanging greetings with the young saleswomen,
+and finding Miss White putting away her materials.
+
+Shaking hands, Miss Mohun said---
+
+'I have brought your friend to make a visit to you while I go on to
+Tideshole.  She tells me that you will be kind enough to see her on
+her way home, if you are going back at the same time.'
+
+'I shall be delighted,' said Kalliope, with eyes as well as tongue,
+and no sooner were she and Gillian alone together than she joyfully
+exclaimed---
+
+'Then Miss Mohun knows!  You have told her.
+
+'No---'
+
+'Oh!' and there were volumes in the intonation.  'I was alarmed when
+she came in, and then so glad if it was all over.  Dear Miss
+Merrifield---'
+
+'Call me Gillian; I have told you to do so before!  Phyllis is Miss
+Merrifield, and I won't be so before my time,' said Gillian,
+interrupting in a tone more cross than affectionate.
+
+'I was going to say,' pursued Kalliope, 'that the shock her entrance
+gave to me proved all the more that we cannot be treating her
+properly.
+
+'Never mind that!  I did not come about that.  She is quite taken
+with you, Kally, and wants you more than ever to be a Friendly Girl,
+because she thinks it would be so good for the others who are under
+you.'
+
+'They have told me something about it,' said Kalliope thoughtfully.
+
+'She fancied' added Gillian, 'that perhaps she did not make you
+understand the rights of it, not knowing that you were different from
+the others.'
+
+'Oh no, it was not that,' said Kalliope.  'Indeed, I hope there is no
+such nonsense in me.   It was what my dear father always warned us
+against; only poor mamma always gets vexed if she does not think we
+are keeping ourselves up, and she had just been annoyed at---
+something, and we did not know then that it was Lady Merrifield's
+sister.'
+
+This was contradictory, but it was evident that, while Kalliope
+disowned conceit of station for herself, she could not always cross
+her mother's wishes.  It was further elicited that if Lady Flight had
+taken up the matter there would have been no difficulty.  Half a year
+ago the Flights had seemed to the young Whites angelic and
+infallible, and perhaps expectations had been founded on their
+patronage; but there had since been a shadow of disappointment, and
+altogether Kalliope was less disposed to believe that my Lady was
+correct in pronouncing Miss Mohun's cherished society as
+'dissentish,' and only calculated for low servant girls and ladies
+who wished to meddle in families.
+
+Clanship made Gillian's indignation almost bring down the office, and
+her eloquence was scarcely needed, since Kalliope had seen the value
+to some of her 'hands' from the class, the library, the recreation-
+room, and the influence of the ladies, above all, the showing them
+that it was possible to have variety and amusement free from vulgar
+and perilous dissipation; but still she hesitated.  She had no time,
+she said; she could not attend classes, and she was absolutely
+necessary at home in the evenings; but Gillian assured her that
+nothing was expected from her but a certain influence in the right
+direction, and the showing the younger and giddier that she did not
+think the Society beneath her.
+
+'I see all that,' said Kalliope; 'I wish I had not been mistaken at
+first; but, Miss Mer---Gillian, I do not see how I can join it now.'
+
+'Why not?  What do you mean?'
+
+Kalliope was very unwilling to speak, but at last it came.
+
+'How can I do this to please your aunt, who thinks better of me than
+I deserve, when---Oh! excuse me---I know it is all your kindness---but
+when I am allowing you to deceive her---almost, I mean---'
+
+'Deceive!  I never spoke an untrue word to my aunt in my life,' said
+Gillian, in proud anger; 'but if you think so, Miss White, I had
+better have no more to do with it.'
+
+'I feel,' said Kalliope, with tears in her eyes, 'as if it might be
+better so, unless Miss Mohun knew all about it.'
+
+'Well, if you think so, and like to upset all your brother's hopes---'
+
+'It would be a terrible grief to him, I know, and I don't undervalue
+your kindness, indeed I don't; but I cannot be happy about it while
+Miss Mohun does not know.  I don't understand why you do not tell
+her.'
+
+'Because I know there would be a worry and a fuss.  Either she would
+say we must wait for letters from mamma, or else that Alexis must
+come to Beechcroft, and all the comfort would be over, and it would
+be gossiped about all over the place.  Can't you trust me, when I
+tell you I have written it all to my own father and mother, and
+surely I know my own family best?'
+
+Kalliope looked half convinced, but she persisted---
+
+'I suppose you do; only please, till there is a letter from Lady
+Merrifield, I had rather not go into this Society.'
+
+'But, Kally, you don't consider.  What am I to say to my aunt?  What
+will she think of you?'
+
+'I can't help that!  I cannot do this while she could feel I was
+conniving at what she might not like.  Indeed, I cannot.  I beg your
+pardon, but it goes against me.  When shall you be able to hear from
+Lady Merrifield?'
+
+'I wrote three weeks ago.  I suppose I shall hear about half-way
+through December, and you know they could telegraph if they wanted to
+stop it, so I think you might be satisfied.'
+
+Still Kalliope could not be persuaded, and finally, as a sort of
+compromise, Gillian decided on saying that she would think about it
+and give her answer at Christmas; to which she gave a reluctant
+assent, with one more protest that if there were no objection to the
+lessons, she could not see why Miss Mohun should not know of them.
+
+Peace was barely restored before voices were heard, and in came
+Fergus, bringing Alexis with him.  They had met on the beach road in
+front of the works, and Fergus, being as usual full of questions
+about a crane that was swinging blocks of stone into a vessel close
+to the little pier, his aunt had allowed him to stay to see the work
+finished, after which Alexis would take him to join his sister.
+
+So it came about that they all walked home together very cheerfully,
+though Gillian was still much vexed under the surface at Kalliope's
+old-maidish particularity.
+
+However, the aunts were not as annoyed at the delay as she expected.
+Miss Mohun said she would look out some papers that would be
+convincing and persuasive, and that it might be as well not to enrol
+Miss White too immediately before the Christmas festivities, but to
+wait till the books were begun next year.  Plans began to prevail for
+the Christmas diversions and entertainments, but the young
+Merrifields expected to have nothing to do with these, as they were
+to meet the rest of the family at their eldest uncle's house at
+Beechcroft; all except Harry, who was to be ordained in the Advent
+Ember week, and at once begin work with his cousin David Merrifield
+in the Black Country.  Their aunts would not go with them, as
+Beechcroft breezes, though her native air, were too cold for Adeline
+in the winter, and Jane could leave neither her, nor her various
+occupations, and the festivities of all Rockstone.
+
+It is not easy to say which Gillian most looked forward to: Mysie's
+presence, or the absence of the supervision which she imagined
+herself to suffer from, because she had set herself to shirk it.  She
+knew she should feel more free.  But behold! a sudden change,
+produced by one morning's letters.
+
+'It is a beastly shame!'
+
+'Oh, Fergus!  That's not a thing to say,' cried Valetta.
+
+'I don't care!  It is a beastly shame not to go to Beechcroft, and be
+poked up here all the holidays.'
+
+'But you can't when Primrose has got the whooping-cough.'
+
+'Bother the whooping-cough.'
+
+'And welcome; but you would find it bother you, I believe.'
+
+'I shouldn't catch it.  I want Wilfred, and to ride the pony, and see
+the sluice that Uncle Maurice made.'
+
+'You couldn't if you had the cough.'
+
+'Then I should stay there instead of coming back to school!  I say it
+is horrid, and beastly, and abominable, and---'
+
+'Come, come, Fergus,' here put in Gillian, 'that is very wrong.'
+
+'You don't hear Gill and me fly out in that way,' added Valetta,
+'though we are so sorry about Mysie and Fly.'
+
+'Oh, you are girls, and don't know what is worth doing.  I _will_ say
+it is beast---'
+
+'Now don't, Fergus; it is very rude and ungrateful to the aunts.
+None of us like having to stay here and lose our holiday; but it is
+very improper to say so in their own house, and I thought you were so
+fond of Aunt Jane.'
+
+'Aunt Jane knows a thing or two, but she isn't Wilfred.'
+
+'And Wilfred is always teasing you.'
+
+'Fergus is quite right,' said Miss Mohun, who had been taking off her
+galoshes in the vestibule while this colloquy was ending in the
+dining-room; 'it is much better to be bullied by a brother than made
+much of by an aunt, and you know I am very sorry for you all under
+the infliction.'
+
+'Oh, Aunt Jane, we know you are very kind, and---' began Gillian.
+
+'Never mind, my dear; I know you are making the best of us, and I am
+very much obliged to you for standing up for us.  It is a great
+disappointment, but I was going to give Fergus a note that I think
+will console him.'
+
+And out of an envelope which she had just taken from the letter-box
+she handed him a note, which he pulled open and then burst out,
+'Cousin David!  Hurrah!  Scrumptious!' commencing a war-dance at the
+same moment.
+
+'What is it?  Has David asked you?' demanded both his sisters at the
+same moment.
+
+'Hurrah!  Yes, it is from him. "My dear Fergus, I hope"---hurrah---
+"Harry, mm---mm---mm---brothers, 20th mm---mm.  Your affectionate cousin,
+David Merrifield."'
+
+'Let me read it to you,' volunteered Gillian.
+
+'Wouldn't you like it?'
+
+'How can you be so silly, Ferg?  You can't read it yourself.  You
+don't know whether he really asks you.'
+
+Fergus made a face, and bolted upstairs to gloat, and perhaps peruse
+the letter, while Valetta rushed after him, whether to be teased or
+permitted to assist might be doubtful.
+
+'He really does ask him,' said Aunt Jane.  'Your cousin David, I
+mean.  He says that he and Harry can put up all the three boys
+between them, and that they will be very useful in the Christmas
+festivities of Coalham.'
+
+'It is very kind of him,' said Gillian in a depressed tone.
+
+'Fergus will be very happy.'
+
+'I only hope he will not be bent on finding a coal mine in the garden
+when he comes back,' said Aunt Jane, smiling; 'but it is rather
+dreary for you, my dear.  I had been hoping to have Jasper here for
+at least a few days.  Could he not come and fetch Fergus?'
+
+Gillian's eyes sparkled at the notion; but they fell at once, for
+Jasper would be detained by examinations until so late that he would
+only just be able to reach Coalham before Christmas Day.  Harry was
+to be ordained in a fortnight's time to work under his cousin, Mr.
+David Merrifield, and his young brothers were to meet him immediately
+after.
+
+'I wish I could go too,' sighed Gillian, as a hungry yearning for
+Jasper or for Mysie took possession of her.
+
+'I wish you could,' said Miss Mohun sympathetically; 'but I am afraid
+you must resign yourself to helping us instead.'
+
+'Oh, Aunt Jane, I did not mean to grumble.  It can't be helped, and
+you are very kind.'
+
+'Oh, dear!' said poor Miss Jane afterwards in private to her sister,
+'how I hate being told I am very kind!  It just means, "You are a not
+quite intolerable jailor and despot," with fairly good intentions.'
+
+'I am sure you are kindness itself, dear Jenny,' responded Miss
+Adeline.  'I am glad they own it!  But it is very inconvenient and
+unlucky that that unjustifiable mother should have sent her child to
+the party to carry the whooping-cough to poor little Primrose, and
+Mysie, and Phyllis.'
+
+'All at one fell swoop!  As for Primrose, the worthy Halfpenny is
+quite enough for her, and Lily is well out of it; but Fly is a little
+shrimp, overdone all round, and I don't like the notion of it for
+her.'
+
+'And Rotherwood is so wrapped up in her.  Poor dear fellow, I hope
+all will go well with her.'
+
+'There is no reason it should not.  Delicate children often have it
+the most lightly.  But I am sorry for Gillian, though, if she would
+let us, I think we could make her happy.'
+
+Gillian meantime, after her first fit of sick longing for her brother
+and sister, and sense of disappointment, was finding some consolation
+in the reflection that had Jasper discovered her instructions to
+Alexis White, he would certainly have 'made no end of a row about
+it,' and have laughed to scorn the bare notion of her teaching Greek
+to a counting-house clerk!  But then Jasper was wont to grumble and
+chafe at all employments---especially beneficent ones---that interfered
+with devotion to his lordly self, and on the whole, perhaps he was
+safer out of the way, as he might have set on the aunts to put a stop
+to her proceedings.  Of Mysie's sympathy she was sure, yet she would
+have her scruples about the aunts, and she was a sturdy person, hard
+to answer---poor Mysie, whooping away helplessly in the schoolroom at
+Rotherwood!  Gillian felt herself heroically good-humoured and
+resigned.  Moreover, here was the Indian letter so long looked for,
+likely by its date to be an answer to the information as to Alexis
+White's studies.  Behold, it did not appear to touch on the subject
+at all!  It was all about preparations for the double wedding,
+written in scraps by different hands, at different times, evidently
+snatched from many avocations and much interruption.  Of mamma there
+was really least of all; but squeezed into a corner, scarcely
+legible, Gillian read, 'As to lessons, if At. J. approves.'  It was
+evidently an afterthought; and Gillian _could_, and chose to refer it
+to a certain inquiry about learning the violin, which had never been
+answered---for the confusion that reigned at Columbo was plainly
+unfavourable to attending to minute details in home letters.
+
+The longest portions of the despatch were papa's, since he was still
+unable to move about.  He wrote:---'Our two "young men" think it
+probable you will have invitations from their kith and kin.  If this
+comes to pass, you had better accept them, though you will not like
+to break up the Christmas party at Beechcroft Court.'
+
+There being no Christmas party at Beechcroft Court, Gillian, in spite
+of her distaste to new people, was not altogether sorry to receive a
+couple of notes by the same post, the first enclosed in the second,
+both forwarded from thence.
+
+
+                                           'VALE LESTON PRIORY,
+                                             '9th December.
+
+'MY DEAR MISS MERRIFIELD---We are very anxious to make acquaintance
+with my brother Bernard's new belongings, since we cannot greet our
+new sister Phyllis ourselves.  We always have a family gathering at
+Christmas between this house and the Vicarage, and we much hope that
+you and your brother will join it.  Could you not meet my sister,
+Mrs. Grinstead, in London, and travel down with her on the 23rd?  I
+am sending this note to her, as I think she has some such proposal to
+make.---Yours very sincerely,
+                                           'WILMET U. HAREWOOD.'
+
+
+The other letter was thus---
+
+
+                                         'BROMPTON, 10th December.
+
+'MY DEAR GILLIAN---It is more natural to call you thus, as you are
+becoming a sort of relation---very unwillingly, I dare say---for "in
+this storm I too have lost a brother."  However, we will make the
+best of it, and please don't hate us more than you can help.  Since
+your own home is dispersed for the present, it seems less outrageous
+to ask you to spend a Christmas Day among new people, and I hope we
+may make you feel at home with us, and that you will enjoy our
+beautiful church at Vale Leston.  We are so many that we may be less
+alarming if you take us by driblets, so perhaps it will be the best
+way if you will come up to us on the 18th or 19th, and go down with
+us on the 23rd.  You will find no one with us but my nephew---almost
+son---Gerald Underwood, and my niece, Anna Vanderkist, who will be
+delighted to make friends with your brother Jasper, who might perhaps
+meet you here.  You must tell me all about Phyllis, and what she
+would like best for her Cingalese home.---Yours affectionately,
+
+                                           GERALDINE GRINSTEAD.
+
+
+Thus then affairs shaped themselves.  Gillian was to take Fergus to
+London, where Jasper would meet them at the station, and put the
+little boy into the train for Coalham, whither his brother Wilfred
+had preceded him by a day or two.
+
+Jasper and Gillian would then repair to Brompton for two or three
+days before going down with Mr. and Mrs. Grinstead to Vale Leston,
+and they were to take care to pay their respects to old Mrs.
+Merrifield, who had become too infirm to spend Christmas at
+Stokesley.
+
+What was to happen later was uncertain, whether they were to go to
+Stokesley, or whether Jasper would join his brothers at Coalham, or
+come down to Rockstone with his sister for the rest of the holidays.
+Valetta must remain there, and it did not seem greatly to distress
+her; and whereas nothing had been said about children, she was better
+satisfied to stay within reach of Kitty and mamma, and the Christmas-
+trees that began to dawn on the horizon, than to be carried into an
+unknown region of 'grown-ups.'
+
+While Gillian was not only delighted at the prospect of meeting
+Jasper, her own especial brother, but was heartily glad to make a
+change, and defer the entire question of lessons, confessions, and
+G.F.S. for six whole weeks.  She might get a more definite answer
+from her parents, or something might happen to make explanation to
+her aunt either unnecessary or much more easy---and she was safe from
+discovery.  But examinations had yet to be passed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.  AUT CAESAR AUT NIHIL
+
+
+
+Examinations were the great autumn excitement.  Gillian was going up
+for the higher Cambridge, and Valetta's form was under preparation
+for competition for a prize in languages.  The great Mr. White, on
+being asked to patronise the High School at its first start, four
+years ago, had endowed it with prizes for each of the four forms for
+the most proficient in two tongues.
+
+As the preparation became more absorbing, brows were puckered and
+looks were anxious, and the aunts were doubtful as to the effect upon
+the girls' minds or bodies.  It was too late, however, to withdraw
+them, and Miss Mohun could only insist on air and exercise, and
+permit no work after the seven-o'clock tea.
+
+She was endeavouring to chase cobwebs from the brains of the students
+by the humours of Mrs. Nickleby, when a message was brought that Miss
+Leverett, the head-mistress of the High School, wished to speak to
+her in the dining-room.  This was no unusual occurrence, as Miss
+Mohun was secretary to the managing committee of the High School.
+But on the announcement Valetta began to fidget, and presently said
+that she was tired and would go to bed.  The most ordinary effect of
+fatigue upon this young lady was to make her resemble the hero of the
+nursery poem---
+
+
+          'I do not want to go to bed,
+           Sleepy little Harry said.'
+
+
+Nevertheless, this willingness excited no suspicion, till Miss Mohun
+came to the door to summon Valetta.
+
+'Is there anything wrong!' exclaimed sister and niece together.
+
+'Gone to bed!  Oh!  I'll tell you presently.  Don't you come,
+Gillian.'
+
+She vanished again, leaving Gillian in no small alarm and vexation.
+
+'I wonder what it can be,' mused Aunt Ada.
+
+'I shall go and find out!' said Gillian, jumping up, as she heard a
+door shut upstairs.
+
+'No, don't,' said Aunt Ada, 'you had much better not interfere.'
+
+'It is my business to see after my own sister,' returned Gillian
+haughtily.
+
+'I see what you mean, my dear,' said her aunt, stretching out her
+hand, kindly; 'but I do not think you can do any good.  If she is in
+a scrape, you have nothing to do with the High School management, and
+for you to burst in would only annoy Miss Leverett and confuse the
+affair.  Oh, I know your impulse of defence, dear Gillian; but the
+time has not come yet, and you can't have any reasonable doubt that
+Jane will be just, nor that your mother would wish that you should be
+quiet about it.'
+
+'But suppose there is some horrid accusation against her!' said
+Gillian hotly.
+
+'But, dear child, if you don't know anything about it, how can you
+defend her?'
+
+'I ought to know!'
+
+'So you will in time; but the more people there are present, the more
+confusion there is, and the greater difficulty in getting at the
+rights of anything.''
+
+More by her caressing tone of sympathy than by actual arguments,
+Adeline did succeed in keeping Gillian in the drawing-room, though
+not in pacifying her, till doors were heard again, and something so
+like Valetta crying as she went upstairs, that Gillian was neither to
+have nor to hold, and made a dash out of the room, only to find her
+aunt and the head-mistress exchanging last words in the hall, and as
+she was going to brush past them, Aunt Jane caught her hand, and
+said---
+
+'Wait a moment, Gillian; I want to speak to you.'
+
+There was no getting away, but she was very indignant.  She tugged at
+her aunt's hand more than perhaps she knew, and there was something
+of a flouncing as she flung into the drawing-room and demanded---
+
+'Well, what have you been doing to poor little Val?'
+
+'We have done nothing,' said Miss Mohun quietly.  'Miss Leverett
+wanted to ask her some questions.  Sit down, Gillian.   You had
+better hear what I have to say before going to her.  Well, it appears
+that there has been some amount of cribbing in the third form.'
+
+'I'm sure Val never would,' broke out Gillian.  And her aunt
+answered---
+
+'So was I; but---'
+
+'Oh---'
+
+'My dear, do hush,' pleaded Adeline.  'You must let yourself listen.'
+
+Gillian gave a desperate twist, but let her aunt smooth her hand.
+
+'All the class---almost---seem to have done it in some telegraphic way,
+hard to understand,' proceeded Aunt Jane.  'There must have been some
+stupidity on the part of the class-mistress, Miss Mellon, or it could
+not have gone on; but there has of late been a strong suspicion of
+cribbing in Caesar in Valetta's class.  They had got rather
+behindhand, and have been working up somewhat too hard and fast to
+get through the portion for examination.  Some of them translated too
+well--used terms for the idioms that were neither literal, nor could
+have been forged by their small brains; so there was an examination,
+and Georgie Purvis was detected reading off from the marks on the
+margin of her notebook.'
+
+'But what has that to do with Val?'
+
+'Georgie, being had up to Miss Leverett, made the sort of confession
+that implicates everybody.'
+
+'Then why believe her?' muttered Gillian.  But her aunt went on---
+
+'She said that four or five of them did it, from the notes that
+Valetta Merrifield brought to school.'
+
+'Never!' interjected Gillian.
+
+'She said,' continued Miss Mohun, 'it was first that they saw her
+helping Maura White, and they thought that was not fair, and insisted
+on her doing the same for them.'
+
+'It can't be true!  Oh, don't believe it!' cried the sister.
+
+'I grieve to remind you that I showed you in the drawer in the
+dining-room chiffonier a translation of that very book of Caesar that
+your mother and I made years ago, when she was crazy upon
+Vercingetorix.'
+
+'But was that reason enough for laying it upon poor Val?'
+
+'She owned it.'
+
+There was a silence, and then Gillian said---
+
+'She must have been frightened, and not known what she was saying.'
+
+'She was frightened, but she was very straightforward, and told
+without any shuffling.  She saw the old copy-books when I was showing
+you those other remnants of our old times, and one day it seems she
+was in a great puzzle over her lessons, and could get no help or
+advice, because none of us had come in.  I suppose you were with
+Lilian, and she thought she might just look at the passage.  She
+found Maura in the same difficulty, and helped her; and then Georgie
+Purvis and Nelly Black found them out, and threatened to tell unless
+she showed them her notes; but the copying whole phrases was only
+done quite of late in the general over-hurry.'
+
+'She must have been bullied into it,' cried Gillian.  'I shall go and
+see about her.'
+
+Aunt Ada made a gesture as of deprecation; but Aunt Jane let her go
+without remonstrance, merely saying as the door closed---
+
+'Poor child!  Esprit de famille!'
+
+'Will it not be very bad for Valetta to be petted and pitied?'
+
+'I don't know.  At any rate, we cannot separate them at night, so it
+is only beginning it a little sooner; and whatever I say only
+exasperates Gillian the more.  Poor little Val, she had not a formed
+character enough to be turned loose into a High School without Mysie
+to keep her in order.'
+
+'Or Gillian.'
+
+'I am not so sure of Gillian.  There's something amiss, though I
+can't make out whether it is merely that I rub her down the wrong
+way.  I wonder whether this holiday time will do us good or harm!
+At any rate, I know how Lily felt about Dolores.'
+
+'It must have been that class-mistress's fault.'
+
+'To a great degree; but Miss Leverett has just discovered that her
+cleverness does not compensate for a general lack of sense and
+discipline.  Poor little Val---perhaps it is her turning-point!'
+
+Gillian, rushing up in a boiling state of indignation against
+everybody, felt the family shame most acutely of all; and though, as
+a Merrifield, she defended her sister below stairs, on the other hand
+she was much more personally shocked and angered at the disgrace than
+were her aunts, and far less willing to perceive any excuse for the
+culprit.
+
+There was certainly no petting or pitying in her tone as she stood
+over the little iron bed, where the victim was hiding her head on her
+pillow.
+
+'Oh, Valetta, how could you do such a thing?  The Merrifields have
+never been so disgraced before!'
+
+'Oh, don't, Gill!  Aunt Jane and Miss Leverett were---not so angry---
+when I said---I was sorry.'
+
+'But what will papa and mamma say?'
+
+'Must they---must they hear?'
+
+'You would not think of deceiving them, I hope.'
+
+'Not deceiving, only not telling.'
+
+'That comes to much the same.'
+
+'You can't say anything, Gill, for you are always down at Kal's
+office, and nobody knows.'
+
+This gave Gillian a great shock, but she rallied, and said with
+dignity, 'Do you think I do not write to mamma everything I do?'
+
+It sufficed for the immediate purpose of annihilating Valetta, who
+had just been begging off from letting mamma hear of her proceedings;
+but it left Gillian very uneasy as to how much the child might know
+or tell, and this made her proceed less violently, and more
+persuasively, 'Whatever I do, I write to mamma; and besides, it is
+different with a little thing like you, and your school work.  Come,
+tell me how you got into this scrape.'
+
+'Oh, Gill, it was so hard!  All about those tiresome Gauls, and there
+were bits when the nominative case would go and hide itself, and
+those nasty tenses one doesn't know how to look out, and I knew I was
+making nonsense, and you were out of the way, and there was nobody to
+help; and I knew mamma's own book was there---the very part too---
+because Aunt Jane had shown it to us, so I did not think there was
+any harm in letting her help me out of the muddle.'
+
+'Ah! that was the beginning.'
+
+'If you had been in, I would not have done it.  You know Aunt Jane
+said there was no harm in giving a clue, and this was mamma.'
+
+'But that was not all.'
+
+'Well, then, there was Maura first, as much puzzled, and her brother
+is so busy he hasn't as much time for her as he used to have, and it
+does signify to her, for perhaps if she does not pass, Mr. White may
+not let her go on at the High School, and that would be too dreadful,
+for you know you said I was to do all I could for Maura.  So I marked
+down things for her and she copied them off, and then Georgie and
+Nelly found it out, and, oh! they were dreadful!  I never knew it was
+wrong till they went at me.  And they were horrid to Maura, and said
+she was a Greek and I a Maltese, and so we were both false, and
+cheaty, and sly, and they should tell Miss Leverett unless I would
+help them.'
+
+'Oh!  Valetta, why didn't you tell me?'
+
+'I never get to speak to you, said Val.  'I did think I would that
+first time, and ask you what to do, but then you came in late, and
+when I began something, you said you had your Greek to do, and told
+me to hold my tongue.'
+
+'I am very sorry,' said Gillian, feeling convicted of having
+neglected her little sister in the stress of her own work and of the
+preparation for that of her pupil, who was treading on her heels;
+'but indeed, Val, if you had told me it was important, I should have
+listened.'
+
+'Ah I but when one is half-frightened, and you are always in a
+hurry,' sighed the child.  And, indeed, I did do my best over my own
+work before ever I looked; only those two are so lazy and stupid,
+they would have ever so much more help than Maura or I ever wanted;
+and at last I was so worried and hurried with my French and all the
+rest, that I did scramble a whole lot down, and that was the way it
+was found out.  And I am glad now it is over, whatever happens.'
+
+'Yes, that is right,' said Gillian, 'and I am glad you told no
+stories; but I wonder Emma Norton did not see what was going on.'
+
+'Oh, she is frightfully busy about her own.'
+
+'And Kitty Varley?'
+
+'Kitty is only going up for French and German.  Miss Leverett is so
+angry.  What do you think she will do to me, Gill?  Expel me?'
+
+'I don't know---I can't guess.  I don't know High School ways.'
+
+It would be so dreadful for papa and mamma and the boys to know,'
+sobbed Valetta.  'And Mysie! oh, if Mysie was but here!'
+
+'Mysie would have been a better sister to her,' said Gillian's
+conscience, and her voice said, 'You would never have done it if
+Mysie had been here.'
+
+'And Mysie would be nice,' said the poor child, who longed after her
+companion sister as much for comfort as for conscience.  'Is Aunt
+Jane very very angry?' she went on; 'do you think I shall be
+punished?'
+
+'I can't tell.  If it were I, I should think you were punished enough
+by having disgraced the name of Merrifield by such a dishonourable
+action.'
+
+'I---I didn't know it was dishonourable.'
+
+'Well,' said Gillian, perhaps a little tired of the scene, or mayhap
+dreading another push into her own quarters, 'I have been saying what
+I could for you, and I should think they would feel that no one but
+our father and mother had a real right to punish you, but I can't
+tell what the School may do.  Now, hush, it is of no use to talk any
+more.  Good-night; I hope I shall find you asleep when I come to
+bed.'
+
+Valetta would have detained her, but off she went, with a
+consciousness that she had been poor comfort to her little sister,
+and had not helped her to the right kind of repentance.  But then
+that highest ground---the strict rule of perfect conscientious
+uprightness---was just what she shrank from bringing home to herself,
+in spite of those privileges of seniority by which she had impressed
+poor Valetta.
+
+The worst thing further that was said that night, when she had
+reported as much of Valetta's confidence as she thought might soften
+displeasure, was Aunt Ada's observation: 'Maura!  That's the White
+child, is it not?  No doubt it was the Greek blood.'
+
+'The English girls were much worse,' hastily said Gillian, with a
+flush of alarm, as she thought of her own friends being suspected.
+
+'Yes; but it began with the little Greek,' said Aunt Ada.  'What a
+pity, for she is such an engaging child!  I would take the child away
+from the High School, except that it would have the appearance of her
+being dismissed.
+
+'We must consider of that,' said Aunt Jane.  'There will hardly be
+time to hear from Lilias before the next term begins.  Indeed, it
+will not be so very long to wait before the happy return, I hope.'
+
+'Only two months,' said Gillian; 'but it would be happier but for
+this.'
+
+'No,' said Aunt Jane.  'If we made poor little Val write her
+confession, and I do the same for not having looked after her better,
+it will be off our minds, and need not cloud the meeting.'
+
+'The disgrace!' sighed Gillian; 'the public disgrace!'
+
+'My dear, I don't want to make you think lightly of such a thing. It
+was very wrong in a child brought up as you have all been, with a
+sense of honour and uprightness; but where there has been no such
+training, the attempt to copy is common enough, for it is not to be
+looked on as an extraordinary and indelible disgrace.  Do you
+remember Primrose saying she had broken mamma's heart when she had
+knocked down a china vase?  You need not be in that state of mind
+over what was a childish fault, made worse by those bullying girls.
+It is of no use to exaggerate.  The sin is the thing---not the outward
+shame.'
+
+'And Valetta told at once when asked,' added Aunt Ada.
+
+'That makes a great difference.'
+
+'In fact, she was relieved to have it out,' said Miss Mohun.  'It is
+not at all as if she were in the habit of doing things underhand.'
+
+Everything struck on Gillian like a covert reproach.  It was pain and
+shame to her that a Merrifield should have lowered herself to the
+common herd so as to need these excuses of her aunts, and then in the
+midst of that indignation came that throb of self-conviction which
+she was always confuting with the recollection of her letter to her
+mother.
+
+She was glad to bid good-night and rest her head.
+
+The aunts ended by agreeing that it was needful to withdraw Valetta
+from the competition.  It would seem like punishment to her, but it
+would remove her from the strain that certainly was not good for her.
+Indeed, they had serious thoughts of taking her from the school
+altogether, but the holidays would not long be ended before her
+parents' return.
+
+'I am sorry we ever let her try for the prize,' said Ada.
+
+'Yes,' said Aunt Jane, 'I suppose it was weakness; but having opposed
+the acceptance of the system of prizes by competition at first, I
+thought it would look sullen if I refused to let Valetta try.
+Stimulus is all very well, but competition leads to emulation, wrath,
+strife, and a good deal besides.'
+
+'Valetta wished it too, and she knew so much Latin to begin with that
+I thought she would easily get it, and certainly she ought not to get
+into difficulties.'
+
+'After the silken rein and easy amble of Silverfold, the spur and the
+race have come severely.'
+
+'It is, I suppose, the same with Gillian, though there it is not
+competition.  Do you expect her to succeed?'
+
+'No.  She has plenty of intelligence, and a certain sort of
+diligence, but does not work to a point.  She wants a real hand over
+her!  She will fail, and it will be very good for her.'
+
+'I should say the work was overmuch for her, and had led her to
+neglect Valetta.'
+
+'Work becomes overmuch when people don't know how to set about it,
+and resent being told--- No, not in words, but by looks and shoulders.
+Besides, I am not sure that it is her proper work that oppresses her.
+I think she has some other undertaking in hand, probably for
+Christmas, or for her mother's return; but as secrecy is the very
+soul of such things, I shut my eyes.'
+
+'Somehow, Jane, I think you have become so much afraid of giving way
+to curiosity that you sometimes shut your eyes rather too much.'
+
+'Well, perhaps in one's old age one suffers from the reaction of
+one's bad qualities.  I will think about it, Ada.  I certainly never
+before realised how very different school supervision of young folks
+is from looking after them all round.  Moreover, Gillian has been
+much more attentive to poor Lily Giles of late, in spite of her
+avocations.'
+
+Valetta was not at first heartbroken on hearing that she was not to
+go in for the language examination.  It was such a relief from the
+oppression of the task, and she had so long given up hopes of having
+the prize to show to her mother, that she was scarcely grieved,
+though Aunt Jane was very grave while walking down to school with her
+in the morning to see Miss Leverett, and explain the withdrawal.
+
+That lady came to her private room as soon as she had opened the
+school.  From one point of view, she said, she agreed with Miss Mohun
+that it would be better that her niece should not go up for the
+examination.
+
+'But,' she said, 'it may be considered as a stigma upon her, since
+none of the others are to give up.'
+
+'Indeed!  I had almost thought it a matter of course.'
+
+'On the contrary, two of the mothers seem to think nothing at all of
+the matter.  Mrs. Black---'
+
+'The Surveyor's wife, isn't she?'
+
+'Yes, she writes a note saying that all children copy, if they can,
+and she wonders that I should be so severe upon such a frequent
+occurrence, which reflects more discredit on the governesses than the
+scholars.'
+
+'Polite that!  And Mrs. Purvis?  At least, she is a lady!'
+
+'She is more polite, but evidently has no desire to be troubled.  She
+hopes that if her daughter has committed a breach of school
+discipline, I will act as I think best.'
+
+'No feeling of the real evil in either!  How about Maura White?'
+
+'That is very different.  It is her sister who writes, and so nicely
+that I must show it to you.'
+
+
+'MY DEAR MADAM---I am exceedingly grieved that Maura should have acted
+in a dishonourable manner, though she was not fully aware how wrongly
+she was behaving.  We have been talking to her, and we think she is
+so truly sorry as not to be likely to fall into the same temptation
+again.  As far as we can make out, she has generally taken pains with
+her tasks, and only obtained assistance in unusually difficult
+passages, so that we think that she is really not ill-prepared.  If
+it is thought right that all the pupils concerned should abstain from
+the competition, we would of course readily acquiesce in the justice
+of the sentence; but to miss it this year might make so serious a
+difference to her prospects, that I hope it will not be thought a
+necessary act of discipline, though we know that we have no right to
+plead for any exemption for her.  With many thanks for the
+consideration you have shown for her, I remain, faithfully yours,
+
+                                                    K. WHITE.'
+
+
+'A very different tone indeed, and it quite agrees with Valetta's
+account,' said Miss Mohun.
+
+'Yes, the other two girls were by far the most guilty.'
+
+'And morally, perhaps, Maura the least; but I retain my view that,
+irrespective of the others, Valetta's parents had rather she missed
+this examination, considering all things.'
+
+Valetta came home much more grieved when she had found she was the
+only one left out, and declared it was unjust.
+
+No,' said Gillian, 'for you began it all.  None of the others would
+have got into the scrape but for you.'
+
+'It was all your fault for not minding me!'
+
+'As if I made you do sly things.'
+
+'You made me.  You were so cross if I only asked a question,' and Val
+prepared to cry.
+
+'I thought people had to do their own work and not other folks'!
+Don't be so foolish.'
+
+'Oh dear! oh dear! how unkind you are!  I wish---I wish Mysie was
+here; every one is grown cross!  Oh, if mamma would but come home!'
+
+'Now, Val, don't be such a baby!  Stop that!'
+
+And Valetta went into one of her old agonies of crying and sobbing,
+which brought Aunt Jane in to see what was the matter.  She instantly
+stopped the scolding with which Gillian was trying to check the
+outburst, and which only added to its violence.
+
+'It is the only thing to stop those fits,' said Gillian.  'She can if
+she will!  It is all temper.'
+
+'Leave her to me!' commanded Aunt Jane.  'Go!'
+
+Gillian went away, muttering that it was not the way mamma or Nurse
+Halfpenny treated Val, and quite amazed that Aunt Jane, of all
+people, should have the naughty child on her lap and in her arms,
+soothing her tenderly.
+
+The cries died away, and the long heaving sobs began to subside, and
+at last a broken voice said, on Aunt Jane's shoulder, 'It's---a---
+little bit---like mamma.'
+
+For Aunt Jane's voice had a ring in it like mamma's, and this little
+bit of tenderness was inexpressibly comforting.
+
+'My poor dear child,' she said, 'mamma will soon come home, and then
+you will be all right.'
+
+'I shouldn't have done it if mamma had been there!'
+
+'No, and now you are sorry.'
+
+'Will mamma be very angry?'
+
+'She will be grieved that you could not hold out when you were
+tempted; but I am sure she will forgive you if you write it all to
+her.  And, Val, you know you can have God's forgiveness at once if
+you tell Him.'
+
+'Yes,' said Valetta gravely; then, 'I did not before, because I
+thought every one made so much of it, and were so cross.  And Georgie
+and Nellie don't care at all.'
+
+'Nor Maura?'
+
+'Oh, Maura does, because of Kalliope.'
+
+'How do you mean?'
+
+Valetta sat up on her aunt's lap, and told.
+
+'Maura told me!  She said Kally and Alec both were at her, but her
+mamma was vexed with them, and said she would not have her scolded at
+home as well as at school about nothing; and she told Theodore to go
+and buy her a tart to make up to her, but Theodore wouldn't, for he
+said he was ashamed of her.  So she sent the maid.  But when Maura
+had gone to bed and to sleep, she woke up, and there was Kally crying
+over her prayers, and whispering half aloud, "Is she going too?  My
+poor child!  Oh, save her!  Give her the Spirit of truth--"'
+
+'Poor Kalliope!  She is a good sister.'
+
+'Yes; Maura says Kally is awfully afraid of their telling stories
+because of Richard---the eldest, you know.  He does it dreadfully. I
+remember nurse used to tell us not to fib like Dick White.  Maura
+said he used to tell his father stories about being late and getting
+money, and their mother never let him be punished.  He was her pet.
+And Maura remembers being carried in to see poor Captain White just
+before he died, when she was getting better, but could not stand, and
+he said, "Truth before all, children.  Be true to God and man."
+Captain White did care so much, but Mrs. White doesn't.  Isn't that
+very odd, for she isn't a Roman Catholic?' ended Valetta, obviously
+believing that falsehood was inherent in Romanists, and pouring out
+all this as soon as her tears were assuaged, as if, having heard it,
+she must tell.
+
+'Mrs. White is half a Greek, you know,' said Aunt Jane, 'and the
+Greeks are said not to think enough about truth.'
+
+'Epaminondas did,' said Valetta, who had picked up a good deal from
+the home atmosphere, 'but Ulysses didn't.'
+
+'No; and the Greeks have been enslaved and oppressed for a great many
+years, and that is apt to make people get cowardly and false.  But
+that is not our concern, Val, and I think with such a recollection of
+her good father, and such a sister to help her, Maura will not fall
+into the fault again.  And, my dear, I quite see that neither you nor
+she entirely realised that what you did was deception, though you
+never spoke a word of untruth.'
+
+'No, we did not,' said Valetta.
+
+'And so, my dear child, I do forgive you, quite and entirely, as we
+used to say, though I have settled with Miss Leverett that you had
+better not go up for the examination, since you cannot be properly up
+to it.  And you must write the whole history to your mother.  Yes; I
+know it will be very sad work, but it will be much better to have it
+out and done with, instead of having it on your mind when she comes
+home.'
+
+'Shall you tell her!'
+
+'Yes, certainly,' said the aunt, well knowing that this would clench
+the matter.  'But I shall tell her how sorry you are, and that I
+really think you did not quite understand what you were about at
+first.  And I shall write to Miss White, and try to comfort her about
+her sister.'
+
+'You won't say I told!'
+
+'Oh no; but I shall have quite reason enough for writing in telling
+her that I am sorry my little niece led her sister into crooked
+paths.'
+
+Gillian knew that this letter was written and sent, and it did not
+make her more eager for a meeting with Kalliope.  So that she was not
+sorry that the weather was a valid hindrance, though a few weeks ago
+she would have disregarded such considerations.  Besides, there was
+her own examination, which for two days was like a fever, and kept
+her at her little table, thinking of nothing but those questions, and
+dreaming and waking over them at night.
+
+It was over; and she was counselled on all sides to think no more
+about it till she should hear of success or failure.  But this was
+easier said than done, and she was left in her tired state with a
+general sense of being on a wrong tack, and of going on amiss,
+whether due to her aunt's want of assimilation to herself, or to her
+mother's absence, she did not know, and with the further sense that
+she had not been the motherly sister she had figured to herself, but
+that both the children should show a greater trust and reliance on
+Aunt Jane than on herself grieved her, not exactly with jealousy, but
+with sense of failure and dissatisfaction with herself.  She had a
+universal distaste to her surroundings, and something very like dread
+of the Whites, and she rejoiced in the prospect of quitting Rockstone
+for the present.
+
+She felt bound to run down to the office to wish Kalliope good-bye.
+There she found an accumulation of exercises and translations waiting
+for her.
+
+'Oh, what a quantity!  It shows how long it is since I have been
+here.'
+
+'And indeed,' began Kalliope, 'since your aunt has been so very kind
+about poor little Maura---'
+
+'Oh, please don't talk to me!  There's such a lot to do, and I have
+no time.  Wait till I have done.'
+
+And she nervously began reading out the Greek exercise, so as
+effectually to stop Kalliope's mouth.  Moreover, either her own
+uneasy mind, or the difficulty of the Greek, brought her into a
+dilemma.  She saw that Alexis's phrase was wrong, but she did not
+clearly perceive what the sentence ought to be, and she perplexed
+herself over it till he came in, whether to her satisfaction or not
+she could not have told, for she had not wanted to see him on the one
+hand, though, on the other, it silenced Kalliope.
+
+She tried to clear her perceptions by explanations to him, but he did
+not seem to give his mind to the grammar half as much as to the
+cessation of the lessons and her absence.
+
+'You must do the best you can,' she said, 'and I shall find you gone
+quite beyond me.'
+
+'I shall never do that, Miss Merrifield.'
+
+'Nonsense!' she said, laughing uncomfortably 'a pretty clergyman you
+would be if you could not pass a girl.  There! good-bye.  Make a list
+of your puzzles and I will do my best with them when I come back.'
+
+'Thank you,' and he wrung her hand with an earnestness that gave her
+a sense of uneasiness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.  LADY MERRIFIELD'S CHRISTMAS LETTER-BAG
+
+
+
+                         (PRIMROSE.)
+
+'MY DEAR MAMMA---I wish you a merry Christmas, and papa and sisters
+and Claude too.  I only hooped once to-day, and Nurse says I may go
+out when it gets fine.  Fly is better.  She sent me her dolls' house
+in a big box in a cart, and Mysie sent a new frock of her own making
+for Liliana, and Uncle William gave me a lovely doll, with waxen arms
+and legs, that shuts her eyes and squeals, and says Mamma; but I do
+not want anything but my own dear mamma, and all the rest. I am
+mamma's own little                                 PRIMROSE.'
+
+
+                         (FERGUS.)
+
+                                                   'COALHAM.
+'MY DEAR MAMMA---I wish you and papa, and all, a happy Crismas, and I
+send a plan of the great coal mine for a card.  It is much jollier
+here than at Rockquay, for it is all black with cinders, and there
+are little fires all night, and there are lots of oars and oxhide and
+fossils and ferns and real curiozitys, and nobody minds noises nor
+muddy boots, and they aren't at one to wash your hands, for they
+can't be clean ever; and there was a real row in the street last
+night just outside.  We are to go down a mine some day when Cousin
+David has time.  I mean to be a great jeologist and get lots of
+specimens, and please bring me home all the minerals in Ceylon.
+Harry gave me a hammer.---I am, your affectionate son,
+                                                FERGUS MERRIFIELD.'
+
+
+                         (VALETTA.)
+
+'MY DEAREST MAMMA---I hope you will like my card.  Aunt Ada did none
+of it, only showed me how, and Aunt Jane says I may tell you I am
+really trying to be good.  I am helping her gild fir-cones for a
+Christmas-tree for the quire, and they will sing carols.  Macrae
+brought some for us the day before yesterday, and a famous lot of
+holly and ivy and mistletoe and flowers, and three turkeys and some
+hams and pheasants and partridges.  Aunt Jane sent the biggest turkey
+and ham in a basket covered up with holly to Mrs. White, and another
+to Mrs. Hablot, and they are doing the church with the holly and ivy.
+We are to eat the other the day after to-morrow, and Mr. Grant and
+Miss Burne, who teaches the youngest form, are coming.  It was only
+cold beef to-day, to let Mrs. Mount go to church; but we had mince
+pies, and I am going to Kitty's Christmas party to-morrow, and we
+shall dance---so Aunt Ada has given me a new white frock and a lovely
+Roman sash of her own.  Poor old Mrs. Vincent is dead, and Fergus's
+great black rabbit, and poor little Mary Brown with dip---(blot).  I
+can't spell it, and nobody is here to tell me how, but the thing in
+people's throats, and poor Anne has got it, and Dr. Ellis says it was
+a mercy we were all away from home, for we should have had it too,
+and that would have been ever so much worse than the whooping-cough.
+
+'I have lots of cards, but my presents are waiting for my birthday,
+when Maura is to come to tea.  It is much nicer than I thought the
+holidays would be.  Maura White has got the prize for French and
+Latin.  It is a lovely Shakespeare.  I wish I had been good, for I
+think I should have got it.  Only she does want more help than I do---
+so perhaps it is lucky I did not.  No, I don't mean lucky either.---
+Your affectionate little daughter,                   VAL.'
+
+
+                         (WILFRED.)
+
+'DEAR MOTHER---Fergus is such a little ape that he will send you that
+disgusting coal mine on his card, as if you would care for it.  I
+know you will like mine much better---that old buffer skating into a
+hole in the ice.  I don't mind being here, for though Harry and Davy
+get up frightfully early to go to church, they don't want us down
+till they come back, and we can have fun all day, except when Harry
+screws me down to my holiday task, which is a disgusting one, about
+the Wars of the Roses.  Harry does look so rum now that he is got up
+for a parson that we did not know him when he met us at the station.
+There was an awful row outside here last night between two sets of
+Waits.  David went out and parted them, and I thought he would have
+got a black eye.  All the choir had supper here, for there was a
+service in the middle of the night; but they did not want us at it,
+and on Tuesday we are to have a Christmas ship, and a magic-lantern,
+and Rollo and Mr. Bowater are coming to help---he is the clergyman at
+the next place---and no end of fun, and the biggest dog you ever saw.
+Fergus has got one of his crazes worse than ever about old stones,
+and is always in the coal hole, poking after ferns and things.
+Wishing you a merry Christmas.---Your affectionate son,
+                                             'WILFRED MERRIFIELD.'
+
+
+                         (MYSIE.)
+
+                                       'ROTHERWOOD, Christmas Day.
+
+'MY OWN DEAREST MAMMA---A very happy Christmas to you, and papa and
+Claude and my sisters, and here are the cards, which Miss Elbury
+helped me about so kindly that I think they are better than usual: I
+mean that she advised me, for no one touched them but myself.  You
+will like your text, I hope, I chose it because it is so nice to
+think we are all one, though we are in so many different places.  I
+did one with the same for poor Dolores in New Zealand.  Uncle William
+was here yesterday, and he said dear little Primrose is almost quite
+well.  Fly is much better to-day; her eyes look quite bright, and she
+is to sit up a little while in the afternoon, but I may not talk to
+her for fear of making her cough; but she slept all night without one
+whoop, and will soon be well now.  Cousin Rotherwood was so glad that
+he was quite funny this morning, and he gave me the loveliest
+writing-case you ever saw, with a good lock and gold key, and gold
+tops to everything, and my three M's engraved on them all.  I have so
+many presents and cards that I will write out a list when I have
+finished my letter.  I shall have plenty of time, for everybody is
+gone to church except Cousin Florence, who went early.
+
+'I am to dine at the late dinner, which will be early, because of the
+church singers, and Cousin Rotherwood says he and I will do
+snapdragon, if I will promise not to whoop.
+
+'4.30.---I had to stop again because of the doctor.  He says he does
+not want to have any more to do with me, and that I may go out the
+first fine day, and that Fly is much better.  And only think!  He
+says Rockquay is the very place for Fly, and as soon as we are not
+catching, we are all to go there.  Cousin Rotherwood told me so for a
+great secret, but he said I might tell you, and that he would ask
+Aunt Alethea to let Primrose come too.  It does warm one up to think
+of it, and it is much easier to feel thankful and glad about all the
+rest of the right sort of Christmas happiness, now I am so near
+having Gill and Val again.---Your very loving child,
+                                               M. M. MERRIFIELD.'
+
+
+                         (JASPER.)
+
+                                             'VALE LESTON PRIORY,
+                                                '25th December.
+'DEAREST MOTHER---Here are my Christmas wishes that we may all be
+right again at home this year, and that you could see the brace of
+pheasants I killed.  However, Gill and I are in uncommonly nice
+quarters.  I shall let her tell the long story about who is who, for
+there is such a swarm of cousins, and uncles, and aunts, and when you
+think you have hold of the right one, it turns out to be the other
+lot.  There are three houses choke full of them, and more floating
+about, and all running in and out, till it gets like the little pig
+that could not be counted, it ran about so fast.  They are all
+Underwood or Harewood, more or less, except the Vanderkists, who are
+all girls except a little fellow in knickerbockers.  Poor little
+chap, his father was a great man on the turf, and ruined him horse
+and foot before he was born, and then died of D. T., and his mother
+is a great invalid, and very badly off, with no end of daughters---the
+most stunning girls you ever saw---real beauties, and no mistake,
+especially Emily, who is great fun besides.  She is to be Helena when
+we act Midsummer Night's Dream on Twelfth Night for all the natives,
+and I am Demetrius, dirty cad that he is!  She lives with the
+Grinsteads, and Anna with the Travis Underwoods, Phyllis's young
+man's bosses.  If he makes as good a thing of it as they have done,
+she will be no end of a swell.  Mr. Travis Underwood has brought down
+his hunters and gives me a mount.  Claude would go stark staring mad
+to see his Campeador.
+
+'They are awfully musical here, and are always at carols or
+something, and that's the only thing against them.  As to Gill, she
+is in clover, in raptures with every one, especially Mrs. Grinstead,
+and I think it is doing her good.---Your affectionate son,
+                                                     J. R. M.'
+
+
+                         (GILLIAN.)
+
+'DEAREST MAMMA---All Christmas love, and a message to Phyllis that I
+almost forgive her desertion for the sake of the set of connections
+she has brought us, like the nearest and dearest relations or more,
+but Geraldine---for so she told me to call her---is still the choicest
+of all.  It is so pretty to see her husband---the great sculptor---wait
+on her, as if she was a queen and he her knight!  Anna told me that
+he had been in love with her ever so long, and she refused him once;
+but after the eldest brother died, and she was living at St.
+Wulstan's, he tried again, and she could not hold out.  I told you of
+her charming house, so full of lovely things, and about Gerald, all
+cleverness and spirit, but too delicate for a public school.  He is
+such a contrast to Edward Harewood, a great sturdy, red-haired
+fellow, who is always about with Jasper, except when he---Japs, I
+mean---is with Emily Vanderkist.  She is the prettiest of the
+Vanderkists.  There are eight of them besides little Sir Adrian.
+Mary always stays to look after her mother, who is in very bad
+health, and has weak eyes.  They call Mary invaluable and so very
+good, but she is like a homely little Dutchwoman, and nobody would
+think she was only twenty.  Sophy, the next to her, calls herself
+pupil-teacher to Mrs. William Harewood, and together they manage the
+schoolroom for all the younger sisters the two little girls at the
+Vicarage, and Wilmet, the only girl here at the Priory; but, of
+course, no lessons are going on now, only learning and rehearsing the
+parts, and making the dresses, painting the scenes, and learning
+songs.  They all do care so much about music here that I find I
+really know hardly anything about it, and Jasper says it is their
+only failing.
+
+'They say Mr. Lancelot Underwood sings and plays better than any of
+them; but he is at Stoneborough.  However, he is coming over with all
+the Mays for our play, old Dr. May and all.  I was very much
+surprised to find he was an organist and a bookseller, but Geraldine
+told me about it, and how it was for the sake of the eldest brother---
+"my brother," they all say; and somehow it seems as if the house was
+still his, though it is so many years since he died.  And yet they
+are all such happy, merry people.  I wish I could let you know how
+delightful it all is.  Sometimes I feel as if I did not deserve to
+have such a pleasant time.  I can't quite explain, but to be with
+Geraldine Grinstead makes one feel one's self to be of a ruder, more
+selfish mould, and I know I have not been all I ought to be at
+Rockstone; but I don't mind telling you, now you are so soon to be at
+home, Aunt Jane seems to worry me---I can't tell how, exactly---while
+there is something about Geraldine that soothes and brightens, and
+all the time makes one long to be better.
+
+'I never heard such sermons as Mr. Harewood's either; it seems as if
+I had never listened before, but these go right down into one.  I
+cannot leave off thinking about the one last Sunday, about "making
+manifest the counsels of all hearts."  I see now that I was not as
+much justified in not consulting Aunt Jane about Kalliope and Alexis
+as I thought I was, and that the concealment was wrong.  It came over
+me before the beautiful early Celebration this morning, and I could
+not feel as if I ought to be there till I had made a resolution to
+tell her all about it, though I should like it not to be till you are
+come home, and can tell her that I am not really like Dolores, as she
+will be sure to think me, for I really did it, not out of silliness
+and opposition, but because I knew how good they were, and I did tell
+you.  Honestly, perhaps there was some opposition in the spirit of
+it; but I mean to make a fresh start when I come back, and you will
+be near at hand then, and that will help me.
+
+'26th.---The afternoon service of song began and I was called off.  I
+never heard anything so lovely, and we had a delightful evening.  I
+can't tell you about it now, for I am snatching a moment when I am
+not rehearsing, as this must go to-day.  Dr. and Miss May, and the
+Lances, as they call them, are just come.  The Doctor is a beautiful
+old man.  All the children were round him directly, and he kissed me,
+and said that he was proud to meet the daughter of such a
+distinguished man.
+
+'This must go.---Your loving daughter,       'JULIANA MERRIFIELD.'
+
+
+                         (HARRY.)
+
+                                         'COALHAM, Christmas Day.
+'It is nearly St. Stephen's Day, for, dear mother, I have not had a
+minute before to send you or my father my Christmas greeting.  We
+have had most joyous services, unusually well attended, David tells
+me, and that makes up for the demonstration we had outside the door
+last night.  David is the right fellow for this place, though we are
+disapproved of as south country folk.  The boys are well and amused,
+Wilfred much more comfortable for being treated more as a man, and
+Fergus greatly come on, and never any trouble, being always dead-set
+on some pursuit.  It is geology, or rather mineralogy, at present,
+and if he carries home all the stones he has accumulated in the back
+yard, he will have a tolerable charge for extra luggage.  David says
+there is the making of a great man in him, I think it is of an Uncle
+Maurice.  Macrae writes to me in a state of despair about the drains
+at Silverfold; scarlet fever and diphtheria abound at the town, so
+that he says you cannot come back there till something has been done,
+and he wants me to come and look at them; but I do not see how I can
+leave David at present, as we are in the thick of classes for Baptism
+and Confirmation in Lent, and I suspect Aunt Jane knows more about
+the matter than I do.
+
+'Gillian and Jasper seem to be in a state of great felicity at Vale
+Leston---and Mysie getting better, but poor little Phyllis Devereux
+has been seriously ill.---Your affectionate son,   H. MERRIFIELD.'
+
+
+                 (AUNT JANE AND AUNT ADELINE.)
+
+                                             '11.30, Christmas Eve.
+'MY DEAREST LILY---This will be a joint letter, for Ada will finish it
+to-morrow, and I must make the most of my time while waiting for the
+Waits to dwell on unsavoury business.  Macrae came over here with a
+convoy of all sorts of "delicacies of the season," for which thank
+you heartily in the name of Whites, Hablots, and others who partook
+thereof, according, no doubt, to your kind intention.  He was greatly
+perturbed, poor man, for your cook has been very ill with diphtheria,
+and the scarlet fever is severe all round; there have been some
+deaths, and the gardener's child was in great danger.  The doctor has
+analysed the water, and finds it in a very bad state, so that your
+absence this autumn is providential.  If you are in haste, telegraph
+to me, and I will meet your landlord there, and the sanitary
+inspector, and see what can be done, without waiting for Jasper.
+At any rate, you cannot go back there at once.  Shall I secure a
+furnished house for you here?  The Rotherwoods are coming to the
+hotel next door to us, as soon as Phyllis is fit to move and
+infection over.  Victoria will stay there with the children, and he
+go back and forwards.  If Harry and Phyllis May should come home, I
+suppose their headquarters will be at Stoneborough; but still this
+would be the best place for a family gathering.  Moreover, Fergus
+gets on very nicely at Mrs. Edgar's, and it would be a pity to
+disturb him.  On the other hand, I am not sure of the influences of
+the place upon the---
+
+'Christmas Day, 3 P.M.---There came the Waits I suppose, and Jane had
+to stop and leave me to take up the thread.  Poor dear Jenny, the
+festival days are no days of rest to her, but I am not sure that she
+would enjoy repose, or that it would not be the worse possible
+penance to her.  She is gone down now to the workhouse with Valetta
+to take cards and tea and tobacco to the old people, not sending
+them, because she says a few personal wishes and the sight of a
+bright child will be worth something to the old bodies.  Then comes
+tea for the choir-boys, before Evensong and carols, and after that my
+turn may come for what remains of the evening.  I must say the church
+is lovely, thanks to your arums and camellias, which Macrae brought
+us just in time.  It is very unfortunate that Silverfold should be in
+such a state, but delightful for us if it sends you here; and this
+brings me to Jenny's broken thread, which I must spin on, though I
+tell her to take warning by you, when you so repented having brought
+Maurice home by premature wails about Dolores.  Perhaps impatience is
+a danger to all of us, and I believe there is such a thing as over-
+candour.
+
+'What Jane was going to say was that she did not think the place had
+been good for either of the girls; but all that would be obviated by
+your presence.  If poor Miss Vincent joins you, now that she is free,
+you would have your own schoolroom again, and the locality would not
+make much difference.  Indeed, if the Rotherwood party come by the
+end of the holidays, I have very little doubt that Victoria will
+allow Valetta to join Phyllis and Mysie in the schoolroom, and that
+would prevent any talk about her removal from the High School.  The
+poor little thing has behaved as well as possible ever since, and is
+an excellent companion; Jane is sure that it has been a lesson that
+will last her for life, and I am convinced that she was under an
+influence that you can put an end to---I mean that White family.  Jane
+thinks well of the eldest daughter, in spite of her fringe and of her
+refusal to enter the G.F.S.; but I have good reason for knowing that
+she holds assignations in Mr. White's garden on Sunday afternoons
+with young Stebbing, whose mother knows her to be a most artful and
+dangerous girl, though she is so clever at the mosaic work that there
+is no getting her discharged.  Mrs. Stebbing called to warn us
+against her, and, as I was the only person at home, told me how she
+had learnt from Mr. White's housekeeper that this girl comes every
+Sunday alone to walk in the gardens---she was sure it must be to meet
+somebody, and they are quite accessible to an active young man on the
+side towards the sea.  He is going in a few days to join the other
+partner at the Italian quarries, greatly in order that the connection
+may be broken off.  It is very odd that Jane, generally so acute,
+should be so blind here.  All she said was, "That's just the time
+Gillian is so bent on mooning in the garden."  It is a mere
+absurdity; Gillian always goes to the children's service, and
+besides, she was absent last Sunday, when Miss White was certainly
+there.  But Gillian lends the girl books, and altogether patronises
+her in a manner which is somewhat perplexing to us; though, as it
+cannot last long, Jane thinks it better not to interfere before your
+return to judge for yourself.  These young people are members of the
+Kennel Church congregation, and I had an opportunity of talking to
+Mr. Flight about them.  He says he had a high opinion of the brother,
+and hoped to help him to some higher education, with a view perhaps
+to Holy Orders; but that it was so clearly the youth's duty to
+support his mother, and it was so impossible for her to get on
+without his earnings, that he (Mr. Flight, I mean) had decided to let
+him alone that his stability might be proved, or till some opening
+offered; and of late there had been reason for disappointment, tokens
+of being unsettled, and reports of meetings with some young woman at
+his sister's office.  It is always the way when one tries to be
+interested in those half-and-half people,---the essential vulgarity is
+sure to break out, generally in the spirit of flirtation conducted in
+an underhand manner.  And oh! that mother!  I write all this because
+you had better be aware of the state of things before your return.  I
+am afraid, however, that between us we have not written you a very
+cheering Christmas letter.
+
+'There is a great question about a supply of water to the town.  Much
+excitement is caused by the expectation of Rotherwood's visit, and it
+is even said that he is to be met here by the great White himself,
+whom I have always regarded as a sort of mythical personage, not to
+say a harpy, always snatching away every promising family of Jane's
+to the Italian quarries.
+
+'You will have parted with the dear girls by this time, and be
+feeling very sad and solitary; but it is altogether a good
+connection, and a great advantage.  I have just addressed to Gillian,
+at Vale Leston, a coroneted envelope, which must be an invitation
+from Lady Liddesdale.  I am very glad of it.  Nothing is so likely as
+such society to raise her above the tone of these Whites.---Your
+loving                                                 A. M.'
+
+
+'10.30 P.M.--These Whites!  Really I don't think it as bad as Ada
+supposes, so don't be uneasy, though it is a pity she has told you so
+much of the gossip respecting them.  I do not believe any harm of
+that girl Kalliope; she has such an honest, modest pair of eyes.  I
+dare say she is persecuted by that young Stebbing, for she is very
+handsome, and he is an odious puppy.  But as to her assignations in
+the garden, if they are with any one, it is with Gillian, and I see
+no harm in them, except that we might have been told---only that would
+have robbed the entire story of its flavour, I suppose.  Besides, I
+greatly disbelieve the entire story, so don't be worried about it!
+There---as if we had not been doing our best to worry you!  But come
+home, dearest old Lily.  Gather your chicks under your wing, and when
+you cluck them together again, all will be well.  I don't think you
+will find Valetta disimproved by her crisis.  It is curious to hear
+how she and Gillian both declare that Mysie would have prevented it,
+as if naughtiness or deceit shrank from that child's very face.
+
+'It has been a very happy, successful Christmas Day, full of
+rejoicing.  May you be feeling the same; that joy has made us one in
+many a time of separation.---Your faithful old Brownie,
+                                                       J. MOHUN.'
+
+
+                         (GILLIAN AGAIN.)
+
+                                         'ROWTHORPE, 20th January.
+
+'DEAREST MAMMA---This is a Sunday letter.  I am writing it in a
+beautiful place, more like a drawing-room than a bed-room, and it is
+all very grand; such long galleries, such quantities of servants, so
+many people staying in the house, that I should feel quite lost but
+for Geraldine.  We came so late last night that there was only just
+time to dress for dinner at eight o'clock.  I never dined with so
+many people before, and they are all staying in the house.  I have
+not learnt half of them yet, though Lady Liddesdale, who is a nice,
+merry old lady, with gray hair, called her eldest granddaughter,
+Kitty Somerville, and told her to take care of me, and tell me who
+they all were.  One of them is that Lord Ormersfield, whom Mysie ran
+against at Rotherwood, and, do you know, I very nearly did the same;
+for there is early Celebration at the little church just across the
+garden.  Kitty talked of calling for me, but I did not make sure,
+because I heard some one say she was not to go if she had a cold;
+and, when I heard the bell, I grew anxious and started off, and I
+lost my way, and thought I should never get to the stairs; but just
+as I was turning back, out came Lord and Lady Ormersfield.  He looks
+quite young, though he is rather lame---I shall like all lame people,
+for the sake of Geraldine---and Lady Ormersfield has such a motherly
+face.  He laughed, and said I was not the first person who had lost
+my way in the labyrinths of passages, so I went on with them, and
+after all Kitty was hunting for me!  I sat next him at breakfast,
+and, do you know, he asked me whether I was the sister of a little
+downright damsel he met at Rotherwood two years ago, and said he had
+used her truthfulness about the umbrella for a favourite example to
+his small youngest!
+
+'When I hear of truthfulness I feel a sort of shock. "Oh, if you
+knew!" I am ready to say, and I grow quite hot.  That is what I am
+really writing about to-day.  I never had time after that Christmas
+Day at Vale Leston to do more than keep you up to all the doings; but
+I did think: and there were Mr. Harewood's sermons, which had a real
+sting in them, and a great sweetness besides.  I have tried to set
+some down for you, and that is one reason I did not say more.  But
+to-day, after luncheon, it is very quiet, for Kitty and Constance are
+gone to their Sunday classes, and the gentlemen and boys are out
+walking, except Lord Somerville, who has a men's class of his own,
+and all the old ladies are either in their rooms, or talking in
+pairs.  So I can tell you that I see now that I did not go on in a
+right spirit with Aunt Jane, and that I did poor Val harm by my
+example, and went very near deception, for I did not choose to
+believe that when you said "If Aunt J. approves," you meant about
+Alexis White's lessons; so I never told her or Kalliope, and I
+perceive now that it was not right towards either; for Kally was very
+unhappy about her not knowing.  I am very sorry; I see that I was
+wrong all round, and that I should have understood it before, if I
+had examined myself in the way Mr. Harewood dwelt upon in his last
+Sunday in Advent sermon, and never gone on in such a way.
+
+'I am not going to wait for you now, but shall confess it all to Aunt
+Jane as soon as I go home, and try to take it as my punishment if she
+asks a terrible number of questions.  Perhaps I shall write it, but
+it would take such a quantity of explanation, and I don't want Aunt
+Ada to open the letter, as she does any that come while Aunt Jane is
+out.
+
+'Please kiss my words and forgive me, as you read this, dear mamma; I
+never guessed I was going to be so like Dolores.
+
+'Kitty has come to my door to ask if I should like to come and read
+something nice and Sundayish with them in her grandmamma's dressing-
+room.---So no more from your loving                GILL.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.  TRANSFORMATION
+
+
+
+'Well, now for the second stage of our guardianship!' said Aunt Ada,
+as the two sisters sat over the fire after Valetta had gone to bed.
+'Fergus comes back to-morrow, and Gillian---when?'
+
+'She does not seem quite certain, for there is to be a day or two at
+Brompton with this delightful Geraldine, so that she may see her
+grandmother---also Mr. Clement Underwood's church, and the Merchant of
+Venice---an odd mixture of ecclesiastics and dissipations.'
+
+'I wonder whether she will be set up by it.'
+
+'So do I!  They are all remarkably good people; but then good people
+do sometimes spoil the most of all, for they are too unselfish to
+snub.  And on the other hand, seeing the world sometimes has the
+wholesome effect of making one feel small---'
+
+'My dear Jenny!'
+
+'Oh! I did not mean you, who are never easily effaced; but I was
+thinking of youthful bumptiousness, fostered by country life and
+elder sistership.'
+
+'Certainly, though Valetta is really much improved, Gillian has not
+been as pleasant as I expected, especially during the latter part of
+the time.'
+
+'Query, was it her fault or mine, or the worry of the examination, or
+all three?'
+
+'Perhaps you did superintend a little too much at first.  More than
+modern independence was prepared for, though I should not have
+expected recalcitration in a young Lily; but I think there was more
+ruffling of temper and more reserve than I can quite understand.'
+
+'It has not been a success.  As dear old Lily would have said, "My
+dream has vanished," of a friend in the younger generation, and now
+it remains to do the best I can for her in the few weeks that are
+left, before we have her dear mother again.'
+
+'At any rate, you have no cause to be troubled about the other two.
+Valetta is really the better for her experience, and you have always
+got on well with the boy.'
+
+Fergus was the first of the travellers to appear at Rockstone.  Miss
+Mohun, who went to meet him at the station, beheld a small figure
+lustily pulling at a great canvas bag, which came bumping down the
+step, assisted by a shove from the other passengers, and threatening
+for a moment to drag him down between platform and carriages.
+
+'Fergus, Fergus, what have you got there?  Give it to me.  How
+heavy!'
+
+'It's a few of my mineralogical specimens,' replied Fergus.  'Harry
+wouldn't let me put any more into my portmanteau---but the peacock and
+the dendrum are there.'
+
+Already, without special regard to peacock or dendrum, whatever that
+article might be, Miss Mohun was claiming the little old military
+portmanteau, with a great M and 110th painted on it, that held
+Fergus's garments.
+
+He would scarcely endure to deposit the precious bag in the omnibus,
+and as he walked home his talk was all of tertiary formations, and
+coal measures, and limestones, as he extracted a hammer from his
+pocket, and looked perilously disposed to use it on the vein of
+crystals in a great pink stone in a garden wall.  His aunt was
+obliged to begin by insisting that the walls should be safe from
+geological investigations.
+
+'But it is such waste, Aunt Jane.  Only think of building up such
+beautiful specimens in a stupid old wall.'
+
+Aunt Jane did not debate the question of waste, but assured him that
+equally precious specimens could be honestly come by; while she felt
+renewed amusement and pleasure at anything so like the brother
+Maurice of thirty odd years ago being beside her.
+
+It made her endure the contents of the bag being turned out like a
+miniature rockery for her inspection on the floor of the glazed
+verandah outside the drawing-room, and also try to pacify Mrs.
+Mount's indignation at finding the more valuable specimens, or, as
+she called them, 'nasty stones' and bits of dirty coal, within his
+socks.
+
+Much more information as to mines, coal, or copper, was to be gained
+from him than as to Cousin David, or Harry, or Jasper, who had spent
+the last ten days of his holidays at Coalham, which had procured for
+Fergus the felicity of a second underground expedition.  It was left
+to his maturer judgment and the next move to decide how many of his
+specimens were absolutely worthless; it was only stipulated that he
+and Valetta should carry them, all and sundry, up to the lumber-room,
+and there arrange them as he chose;---Aunt Jane routing out for him a
+very dull little manual of mineralogy, and likewise a book of Maria
+Hack's, long since out of print, but wherein 'Harry Beaufoy' is
+instructed in the chief outlines of geology in a manner only perhaps
+inferior to that of "Madame How and Lady Why," which she reserved for
+a birthday present.  Meantime Rockstone and its quarries were almost
+as excellent a field of research as the mines of Coalham, and in a
+different line.
+
+'How much nicer it is to be a boy than a girl!' sighed Valetta, as
+she beheld her junior marching off with all the dignity of hammer and
+knapsack to look up Alexis White and obtain access to the heaps of
+rubbish, which in his eyes held as infinite possibilities as the
+diamond fields of Kimberley.  And Alexis was only delighted to bestow
+on him any space of daylight when both were free from school or from
+work, and kept a look-out for the treasures he desired.  Of course,
+out of gratitude to his parents---or was it out of gratitude to his
+sister?  Perhaps Fergus could have told, if he had paid the slightest
+attention to such a trifle, how anxiously Alexis inquired when Miss
+Gillian was expected to return.  Moreover, he might have told that
+his other model, Stebbing, pronounced old Dick White a beast and a
+screw, with whom his brother Frank was not going to stop.
+
+Gillian came back a fortnight later, having been kept at Rowthorpe,
+together with Mrs. Grinstead, for a family festival over the double
+marriage in Ceylon, after which she spent a few days in London, so as
+to see her grandmother, Mrs. Merrifield, who was too infirm for an
+actual visit to be welcome, since her attendant grandchild, Bessie
+Merrifield, was so entirely occupied with her as to have no time to
+bestow upon a guest of more than an hour or two.  Gillian was met at
+the station by her aunt, and when all her belongings had been duly
+extracted, proving a good deal larger in bulk than when she had left
+Rockstone, and both were seated in the fly to drive home through a
+dismal February Fill-dyke day, the first words that were spoken were,
+
+'Aunt Jane, I ought to tell you something.'
+
+Hastily revolving conjectures as to the subject of the coming
+confession, Miss Mohun put herself at her niece's service.
+
+'Aunt Jane, I know I ought to have told you how much I was seeing of
+the Whites last autumn.'
+
+'Indeed, I know you wished to do what you could for them.'
+
+'Yes,' said Gillian, finding it easier than she expected.  'You know
+Alexis wants very much to be prepared for Holy Orders, and he could
+not get on by himself, so I have been running down to Kalliope's
+office after reading to Lily Giles, to look over his Greek
+exercises.'
+
+'Meeting him?'
+
+'Only sometimes.  But Kally did not like it.  She said you ought to
+know, and that was the reason she would not come into the G.F.S.  She
+is so good and honourable, Aunt Jane.'
+
+'I am sure she is a very excellent girl,' said Aunt Jane warmly.
+'But certainly it would have been better to have these lessons in our
+house.  Does your mother know?'
+
+'Yes,' said Gillian, 'I wrote to her all I was doing, and how I have
+been talking to Kally on Sunday afternoons through the rails of Mr.
+White's garden.  I thought she could telegraph if she did not
+approve, but she does not seem to have noticed it in my letters, only
+saying something I could not make out--about "if you approved."'
+
+'And is that the reason you have told me?'
+
+'Partly, but I got the letter before the holidays.  I think it has
+worked itself up, Aunt Jane, into a sense that it was not the thing.
+There was Kally, and there was poor Valetta's mess, and her
+justifying herself by saying I did more for the Whites than you knew,
+and altogether, I grew sorry I had begun it, for I was sure it was
+not acting honestly towards you, Aunt Jane, and I hope you will
+forgive me.'
+
+Miss Mohun put her arm round the girl and kissed her heartily.
+
+'My dear Gill, I am glad you have told me!  I dare say I seemed to
+worry you, and that you felt as if you were watched; I will do my
+very best to help you, if you have got into a scrape.  I only want to
+ask you not to do anything more till I can see Kally, and settle with
+her the most suitable way of helping the youth.'
+
+But do you think there is a scrape, aunt?  I never thought of that,
+if you forgave me.'
+
+'My dear, I see you did not; and that you told me because you are my
+Lily's daughter, and have her honest heart.  I do not know that there
+is anything amiss, but I am afraid young ladies can't do---well,
+impulsive things without a few vexations in consequence.  Don't be so
+dismayed, I don't know of anything, and I cannot tell you how glad I
+am of your having spoken out in this way.'
+
+'I feel as if a load were off my back!' said Gillian.
+
+And a bar between her and her aunt seemed to have vanished, as they
+drove up the now familiar slope, and under the leafless copper
+beeches.  Blood is thinker than water, and what five months ago had
+seemed to be exile, had become the first step towards home, if not
+home itself, for now, like Valetta, she welcomed the sound of her
+mother's voice in her aunt's.  And there were Valetta and Fergus
+rushing out, almost under the wheels to fly at her, and Aunt Ada's
+soft embraces in the hall.
+
+The first voice that came out of the melee was Valetta's.  'Gill is
+grown quite a lady!'
+
+'How much improved!' exclaimed Aunt Ada.
+
+'The Bachfisch has swum into the river,' was Aunt Jane's comment.
+
+'She'll never be good for anything jolly---no scrambling!' grumbled
+Fergus.
+
+'Now Fergus! didn't Kitty Somerville and I scramble when we found the
+gate locked, and thought we saw the spiteful stag, and that he was
+going to run at us?'
+
+'I'm afraid that was rather on compulsion, Gill.'
+
+'It wasn't the spiteful stag after all, but we had such a long way to
+come home, and got over the park wall at last by the help of the limb
+of a tree.  We had been taking a bit of wedding-cake to Frank
+Somerville's old nurse, and Kitty told her I was her maiden aunt, and
+we had such fun---her uncle's wife's sister, you know.'
+
+'We sent a great piece of our wedding-cake to the Whites,' put in
+Valetta.  'Fergus and I took it on Saturday afternoon, but nobody was
+at home but Mrs. White, and she is fatter than ever.'
+
+'I say, Gill, which is the best formation, Vale Leston or Rowthorpe?'
+
+'Oh, nobody is equal to Geraldine; but Kitty is a dear thing.'
+
+'I didn't mean that stuff, but which had the best strata and
+specimens ?'
+
+'Geological, he means---not of society,' interposed Aunt Jane.
+
+'Oh yes!  Harry said he had gone geology mad, and I really did get
+you a bit of something at Vale Leston, Fergus, that Mr. Harewood said
+was worth having.  Was it an encrinite?  I know it was a stone-lily.'
+
+'An encrinite!  Oh, scrumptious!'
+
+Then ensued such an unpacking as only falls to the lot of home-comers
+from London, within the later precincts of Christmas, gifts of
+marvellous contrivance and novelty, as well as cheapness, for all and
+sundry, those reserved for others almost as charming to the beholders
+as those which fell to their own lot.  The box, divided into
+compartments, transported Fergus as much as the encrinite; Valetta
+had a photograph-book, and, more diffidently, Gillian presented Aunt
+Ada with a graceful little statuette in Parian, and Aunt Jane with
+the last novelty in baskets.  There were appropriate keepsakes for
+the maids, and likewise for Kalliope and Maura.  Aunt Jane was glad
+to see that discretion had prevailed so as to confine these gifts to
+the female part of the White family.  There were other precious
+articles in reserve for the absent; and the display of Gillian's own
+garments was not without interest, as she had been to her first ball,
+under the chaperonage of Lady Somerville, and Mrs. Grinstead had made
+her white tarletan available by painting it and its ribbons with
+exquisite blue nemophilas, too lovely for anything so fleeting.
+
+Mrs. Grinstead and her maid had taken charge of the damsel's toilette
+at Rowthorpe, had perhaps touched up her dresses, and had certainly
+taught her how to put them on, and how to manage her hair, so that
+though it had not broken out into fringes or tousles, as if it were
+desirable to imitate savages 'with foreheads marvellous low,' the
+effect was greatly improved.  The young brown-skinned, dark-eyed
+face, and rather tall figure were the same, even the clothes the very
+same chosen under her aunt Ada's superintendence, but there was an
+indescribable change, not so much that of fashion as of distinction,
+and something of the same inward growth might be gathered from her
+conversation.
+
+All the evening there was a delightful outpouring.  Gillian had been
+extremely happy, and considerably reconciled to her sisters'
+marriages; but she had been away from home and kin long enough to
+make her feel her nearness to her aunts, and to appreciate the
+pleasure of describing her enjoyment without restraint, and of being
+with those whose personal family interests were her own, not only
+sympathetic, like her dear Geraldine's.  They were ready for any
+amount of description, though, on the whole, Miss Mohun preferred to
+hear of the Vale Leston charities and church details, and Miss
+Adeline of the Rowthorpe grandees and gaieties, after the children
+had supped full of the diversions of their own kind at both places,
+and the deeply interesting political scraps and descriptions of great
+men had been given.
+
+It had been, said Aunt Jane, a bit of education.  Gillian had indeed
+spent her life with thoughtful, cultivated, and superior people; but
+the circumstances of her family had confined her to a schoolroom sort
+of existence ever since she had reached appreciative years,
+retarding, though not perhaps injuring, her development; nor did
+Rockquay society afford much that was elevating, beyond the Bureau de
+Charite that Beechcroft Cottage had become.  Details were so much in
+hand that breadth of principle might be obscured.
+
+At Vale Leston, however, there was a strong ecclesiastical
+atmosphere; but while practical parish detail was thoroughly kept up,
+there was a wider outlook, and constant conversation and discussion
+among superior men, such as the Harewood brothers, Lancelot
+Underwood, Mr. Grinstead, and Dr. May, on the great principles and
+issues of Church and State matters, religion, and morals, together
+with matters of art, music, and literature, opening new vistas to
+her, and which she could afterwards go over with Mrs. Grinstead and
+Emily and Anna Vanderkist with enthusiasm and comprehension.  It was
+something different from grumbling over the number of candles at St.
+Kenelm's, or the defective washing of the St. Andrew's surplices.
+
+At Rowthorpe she had seen and heard people with great historic names,
+champions in the actual battle.  There had been a constant coming and
+going of guests during her three weeks' visit, political meetings,
+entertainments to high and low, the opening of a public institute in
+the next town, the exhibition of tableaux in which she had an
+important share, parties in the evenings, and her first ball.  The
+length of her visit and her connection with the family had made her
+share the part of hostess with Lady Constance and Lady Katharine
+Somerville, and she had been closely associated with their intimates,
+the daughters of these men of great names.  Of course there had been
+plenty of girlish chatter and merry trifling, perhaps some sharp
+satirical criticism, and the revelations she had heard had been a
+good deal of the domestic comedy of political and aristocratic life;
+but throughout there had been a view of conscientious goodness, for
+the young girls who gave a tone to the rest had been carefully
+brought up, and were earnest and right-minded, accepting
+representation, gaiety, and hospitality as part of the duty of their
+position, often involving self-denial, though there was likewise
+plenty of enjoyment.
+
+Such glimpses of life had taught Gillian more than she yet realised.
+As has been seen, the atmosphere of Vale Leston had deepened her
+spiritual life, and the sermons had touched her heart to the quick,
+and caused self-examination, which had revealed to her the secret of
+her dissatisfaction with herself, and her perception was the clearer
+through her intercourse on entirely equal terms with persons of a
+high tone of refinement.
+
+The immediate fret of sense of supervision and opposition being
+removed, she had seen things more justly, and a distaste had grown on
+her for stolen expeditions to the office, and for the corrections of
+her pupil's exercises.  She recoiled from the idea that this was the
+consequence either of having swell friends, or of getting out of her
+depth in her instructions; but reluctance recurred, while advance in
+knowledge of the world made her aware that Alexis White, after hours,
+in his sister's office, might justly be regarded by her mother and
+aunts as an undesirable scholar for her, and that his sister's
+remonstrances ought not to have been scouted.  She had done the thing
+in her simplicity, but it was through her own wilful secretiveness
+that her ignorance had not been guarded.
+
+Thus she had, as a matter of truth, conscience, and repentance, made
+the confession which had been so kindly received as to warm her heart
+with gratitude to her aunt, and she awoke the next morning to feel
+freer, happier, and more at home than she had ever yet done at
+Rockstone.
+
+When the morning letters were opened, they contained the startling
+news that Mysie might be expected that very evening, with Fly, the
+governess, and Lady Rotherwood,---at least that was the order of
+precedence in which the party represented itself to the minds of the
+young Merrifields.  Primrose had caught a fresh cold, and her uncle
+and aunt would not part with her till her mother's return, but the
+infection was over with the other two, and sea air was recommended as
+soon as possible for Lady Phyllis; so, as the wing of the hotel,
+which was almost a mansion in itself, had been already engaged, the
+journey was to be made at once, and the arrival would take place in
+the afternoon.  The tidings were most rapturously received; Valetta
+jumped on and off all the chairs in the room unchidden, while Fergus
+shouted, 'Hurrah for Mysie and Fly!' and Gillian's heart felt free to
+leap.
+
+This made it a very busy day, since Lady Rotherwood had begged to
+have some commissions executed for her beforehand, small in
+themselves, but, with a scrupulously thorough person, occupying all
+the time left from other needful engagements; so that there was no
+chance of the promised conversation with Kalliope, nor did Gillian
+trouble herself much about it in her eagerness, and hardly heard
+Fergus announce that Frank Stebbing had come home, and the old boss
+was coming, 'bad luck to him.'
+
+All the three young people were greatly disappointed that their aunts
+would not consent to their being on the platform nor in front of the
+hotel, nor even in what its mistress termed the reception-room, to
+meet the travellers.
+
+'There was nothing Lady Rotherwood would dislike more than a rush of
+you all,' said Aunt Adeline, and they had to submit, though Valetta
+nearly cried when she was dragged in from demonstratively watching at
+the gate in a Scotch mist.
+
+However, in about a quarter of an hour there was a ring at the door,
+and in another moment Mysie and Gillian were hugging one smother,
+Valetta hanging round Mysie's neck, Fergus pulling down her arm.  The
+four creatures seemed all wreathed into one like fabulous snakes for
+some seconds, and when they unfolded enough for Mysie to recollect
+and kiss her aunts, there certainly was a taller, better-equipped
+figure, but just the same round, good-humoured countenance, and the
+first thing, beyond happy ejaculations, that she was heard in a
+dutiful voice to say was, 'Miss Elbury brought me to the door.  I may
+stay as long as my aunts like to have me this evening, if you will be
+so kind as to send some one to see me back.'
+
+Great was the jubilation, and many the inquiries after Primrose, who
+had once been nearly well, but had fallen back again, and Fly, who,
+Mysie said, was quite well and as comical as ever when she was well,
+but quickly tired.  She had set out in high spirits, but had been
+dreadfully weary all the latter part of the journey, and was to go to
+bed at once.  She still coughed, but Mysie was bent on disproving
+Nurse Halfpenny's assurance that the recovery would not be complete
+till May, nor was there any doubt of her own air of perfect health.
+
+It was an evening of felicitous chatter, of showing off Christmas
+cards, of exchanging of news, of building of schemes, the most
+prominent being that Valetta should be in the constant companionship
+of Mysie and Fly until her own schoolroom should be re-established.
+This had been proposed by Lord Rotherwood, and was what the aunts
+would have found convenient; but apparently this had been settled by
+Lord Rotherwood and the two little girls, but Lady Rotherwood had not
+said anything about it, and quoth Mysie, 'Somehow things don't happen
+till Lady Rotherwood settles them, and then they always do.'
+
+'And shall I like Miss Elbury?' asked Valetta.
+
+'Yes, if---if you take pains,' said Mysie; 'but you mustn't bother her
+with questions in the middle of a lesson, or she tells you not to
+chatter.  She likes to have them all kept for the end; and then, if
+they aren't foolish, she will take lots of trouble.'
+
+'Oh, I hate that!' said Valetta.  'I shouldn't remember them, and I
+like to have done with it.  Then she is not like Miss Vincent?'
+
+'Oh no!  She couldn't be dear Miss Vincent; but, indeed, she is very
+kind and nice.'
+
+'How did you get on altogether, Mysie!  Wasn't it horrid?' asked
+Gillian.
+
+'I was afraid it was going to be horrid,' said Mysie.  'You see, it
+wasn't like going in holiday time as it was before.  We had to be
+almost always in the schoolroom; and there were lots of lessons---more
+for me than Fly.'
+
+'Just like a horrid old governess to slake her thirst on you,' put in
+Fergus; and though his aunts shook their heads at him, they did not
+correct him.
+
+'And one had to sit bolt upright all the time, and never twist one's
+ankles,' continued Mysie; 'and not speak except French and German---
+good, mind!  It wouldn't do to say, "La jambe du table est sur mon
+exercise?"'
+
+
+'Oh, oh!  No wonder Fly got ill!'
+
+'Fly didn't mind one bit.  French and German come as naturally to her
+as the days of the week, and they really begin to come to me in the
+morning now when I see Miss Elbury.'
+
+'But have you to go on all day?' asked Valetta disconsolately.
+
+'Oh no!  Not after one o'clock.'
+
+'And you didn't say that mamma thinks it only leads to slovenly bad
+grammar!' said Gillian.
+
+'That would have been impertinent,' said Mysie; 'and no one would
+have minded either.'
+
+'Did you never play?'
+
+'We might play after our walk---and after tea; but it had to be quiet
+play, not real good games, even before Fly was ill---at least we did
+have some real games when Primrose came over, or when Cousin
+Rotherwood had us down in his study or in the hall; but Fly got
+tired, and knocked up very soon even then.  Miss Elbury wanted us
+always to play battledore and shuttlecock, or Les Graces, if we
+couldn't go out.'
+
+'Horrid woman!' said Valetta.
+
+'No, she isn't horrid,' said Mysie stoutly; 'I only fancied her so
+when she used to say, "Vos coudes, mademoiselle," or "Redresses-
+vous," and when she would not let us whisper; but really and truly
+she was very, very kind, and I came to like her very much and see she
+was not cross---only thought it right.'
+
+'And redressez-vous has been useful, Mysie,' said Aunt Ada; 'you are
+as much improved as Gillian.'
+
+'I thought it would be dreadful,' continued Mysie, 'when the grown-
+ups went out on a round of visits, and we had no drawing-room, and no
+Cousin Rotherwood; but Cousin Florence came every day, and once she
+had us to dinner, and that was nice; and once she took us to
+Beechcroft to see Primrose, and if it was not fine enough for Fly to
+go out, she came for me, and I went to her cottages with her.  Oh, I
+did like that!  And when the whooping-cough came, you can't think how
+very kind she was, and Miss Elbury too.  They both seemed only to
+think how to make me happy, though I didn't feel ill a bit, except
+when I whooped, but they seemed so sorry for me, and so pleased that
+I didn't make more fuss.  I couldn't, you know, when poor Fly was so
+ill.  And when she grew better, we were all so glad that somehow it
+made us all like a sort of a kind of a home together, though it could
+not be that.'
+
+Mysie's English had scarcely improved, whatever her French had done;
+but Gillian gathered that she had had far more grievances to
+overcome, and had met them in a very different spirit from herself.
+
+As to the schoolroom arrangements, which would have been so
+convenient to the aunts, it was evident that the matter had not yet
+been decisively settled, though the children took it for granted.
+It was pretty to see how Mysie was almost devoured by Fergus and
+Valetta, hanging on either side of her as she sat, and Gillian, as
+near as they would allow, while the four tongues went on unceasingly.
+
+It was only horrid, Valetta said, that Mysie should sleep in a
+different house; but almost as much of her company was vouchsafed on
+the ensuing day, Sunday, for Miss Elbury had relations at Rockquay,
+and was released for the entire day; and Fly was still so tired in
+the morning that she was not allowed to get up early in the day.
+
+Her mother, however, came in to go to church with Adeline Mohun, and
+Gillian, who had heard so much of the great Marchioness, was
+surprised to see a small slight woman, not handsome, and worn-looking
+about the eyes.  At the first glance, she was plainly dressed; but
+the eye of a connoisseur like Aunt Ada could detect the exquisiteness
+of the material and the taste, and the slow soft tone of her voice;
+and every gesture and phrase showed that she had all her life been in
+the habit of condescending---in fact, thought Gillian, revolving her
+recent experience, though Lady Liddesdale and all her set are taller,
+finer-looking people, they are not one bit so grand---no, not that---
+but so unapproachable, as I am sure she is.  She is gracious, while
+they are just good-natured!
+
+Aunt Ada was evidently pleased with the graciousness, and highly
+delighted to have to take this distinguished personage to church.
+Mysie was with her sisters, Valetta was extremely anxious to take her
+to the Sunday drawing-room class---whether for the sake of showing her
+to Mrs. Hablot, or Mrs. Hablot to her, did not appear.
+
+Gillian was glad to be asked to sit with Fly in the meantime.  It was
+a sufficient reason for not repairing to the garden, and she hoped
+that Kalliope was unaware of her return, little knowing of the
+replies by which Fergus repaid Alexis for his assistance in mineral
+hunting.  She had no desire to transgress Miss Mohun's desire that no
+further intercourse should take place till she herself had spoken
+with Kalliope.
+
+She found little Phyllis Devereux a great deal taller and thinner
+than the droll childish being who had been so amusing two years
+before at Silverfold, but eagerly throwing herself into her arms with
+the same affectionate delight.  All the table was spread with pretty
+books and outlined illuminations waiting to be painted, and some
+really beautiful illustrated Sunday books; but as Gillian touched the
+first, Fly cried out, 'Oh, don't! I am so tired of all those things!
+And this is such a stupid window.  I thought at least I should see
+the people going to church, and this looks at nothing but the old sea
+and a tiresome garden.'
+
+'That is thought a special advantage,' said Gillian, smiling.
+
+'Then I wish some one had it who liked it!'
+
+'You would not be so near us.'
+
+'No, and that is nice, and very nice for Mysie.  How are all the dear
+beasts at Silverfold---Begum, and all?'
+
+'I am afraid I do not know more about them than Mysie does.  Aunt
+Jane heard this morning that she must go down there to-morrow to meet
+the health-man and see what he says; but she won't take any of us
+because of the diphtheria and the scarlet fever being about.'
+
+'Oh dear, how horrid those catching things are!  I've not seen
+Ivinghoe all this winter!  Ah! but they are good sometimes!  If it
+had not been for the measles, I should never have had that most
+delicious time at Silverfold, nor known Mysie.  Now, please tell me
+all about where you have been, and what you have been doing.'
+
+Fly knew some of the younger party that Gillian had met at Rowthorpe;
+but she was more interested in the revels at Vale Leston, and
+required a precise description of the theatricals, or still better,
+of the rehearsals.  Never was there a more appreciative audience, of
+how it all began from Kit Harewood, the young sailor, having sent
+home a lion's skin from Africa, which had already served for tableaux
+of Androcles and of Una---how the boy element had insisted on fun, and
+the child element on fairies, and how Mrs. William Harewood had
+suggested Midsummer Night's Dream as the only combination of the
+three essentials, lion, fun, and fairy, and pronounced that education
+had progressed far enough for the representation to be 'understanded
+of the people,' at least by the 6th and 7th standards.  On the whole,
+however, comprehension seemed to have been bounded by intense
+admiration of the little girl fairies, whom the old women appeared to
+have taken for angels, for one had declared that to hear little Miss
+Cherry and Miss Katie singing their hymns like the angels they was,
+was just like Heaven.  She must have had an odd notion of 'Spotted
+snakes with double tongues.'  Moreover, effect was added to the said
+hymns by Uncle Lance behind the scenes.
+
+Then there was the account of how it had been at first intended that
+Oberon should be represented by little Sir Adrian, with his Bexley
+cousin, Pearl Underwood, for his Titania; but though she was fairy
+enough for anything, he turned out so stolid, and uttered 'Well met
+by moonlight, proud Titania,' the only lines he ever learnt, exactly
+like a lesson, besides crying whenever asked to study his part, that
+the attempt had to be given up, and the fairy sovereigns had to be of
+large size, Mr. Grinstead pronouncing that probably this was intended
+by Shakespeare, as Titania was a name of Diana, and he combined
+Grecian nymphs with English fairies.  So Gerald Underwood had to
+combine the part of Peter Quince (including Thisbe) with that of
+Oberon, and the queen was offered to Gillian.
+
+'But I had learnt Hermia,' she said, 'and I saw it was politeness, so
+I wouldn't, and Anna Vanderkist is ever so much prettier, besides
+being used to acting with Gerald.  She did look perfectly lovely,
+asleep on the moss in the scene Mrs. Grinstead painted and devised
+for her!  There was---'
+
+'Oh! not only the prettiness, I don't care for that.  One gets enough
+of the artistic, but the fun---the dear fun.'
+
+'There was fun enough, I am sure,' said Gillian.  'Puck was Felix---
+Pearl's brother, you know---eleven years old, so clever, and an awful
+imp---and he was Moon besides; but the worst of it was that his dog---
+it was a funny rough terrier at the Vicarage---was so furious at the
+lion, when Adrian was roaring under the skin, that nobody could hear,
+and Adrian got frightened, as well he might, and crept out from under
+it, screaming, and there fell the lion, collapsing flat in the middle
+of the place.  Even Theseus---Major Harewood, you know, who had tried
+to be as grave as a judge, and so polite to the actors---could not
+stand that interpolation, as he called it, of "the man in the moon---
+not to say the dog," came down too soon---Why, Fly---'
+
+For Fly was in such a paroxysm of laughter as to end in a violent fit
+of coughing, and to bring Lady Rotherwood in, vexed and anxious.
+
+'Oh, mother! it was only---it was only the lion's skin---' and off went
+Fly, laughing and coughing again.
+
+'I was telling her about the acting or Midsummer Night's Dream at
+Vale Leston,' explained Gillian.
+
+'I should not have thought that a suitable subject for the day,' said
+the Marchioness gravely, and Fly's endeavour to say it was her fault
+for asking about it was silenced by choking; and Gillian found
+herself courteously dismissed in polite disgrace, and, as she felt,
+not entirely without justice.
+
+It was a great disappointment that Aunt Jane did not think it well to
+take any of the young people to their home with her.  As she said,
+she did not believe that they would catch anything; but it was better
+to be on the safe side, and she fully expected that they would spend
+most of the day with Mysie and Fly.
+
+'I wish I could go and talk to Kalliope, my dear,' she said to
+Gillian; 'but I am afraid it must wait another day.'
+
+'Oh, never mind,' said Gillian, as they bade each other good-night at
+their doors; 'they don't know that I am come home, so they will not
+expect me.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.  ST. VALENTINE'S DAY
+
+
+
+Miss Mohun came back in the dark after a long day, for once in her
+life quite jaded, and explaining that the health-officer and the
+landlord had been by no means agreed, and that nothing could be done
+till Sir Jasper came home and decided whether to retain the house or
+not.
+
+All that she was clear about, and which she had telegraphed to Aden,
+was, that there must be no going back to Silverfold for the present,
+and she was prepared to begin lodging-hunting as soon as she received
+an answer.
+
+'And how have you got on?' she asked, thinking all looked rather
+blank.
+
+'We haven't been to see Fly,' broke out Valetta, 'though she went out
+on the beach, and Mysie must not stay out after dark, for fear she
+should cough.'
+
+'Mysie says they are afraid of excitement,' said Gillian gloomily.
+
+'Then you have seen nothing of the others?'
+
+'Yes, I have seen Victoria, said Aunt Adeline, with a meaning smile.
+
+Miss Mohun went up to take off her things, and Gillian followed her,
+shutting the door with ominous carefulness, and colouring all over.
+
+'Aunt Jane, I ought to tell you.  A dreadful thing has happened!'
+
+'Indeed, my dear!  What?'
+
+'I have had a valentine.'
+
+'Oh!' repressing a certain inclination to laugh at the bathos from
+the look of horror and shame in the girl's eyes.
+
+'It is from that miserable Alexis!  Oh, I know I brought it on
+myself, and I have been so wretched and so ashamed all day.'
+
+'Was it so very shocking!  Let me see---'
+
+'Oh!  I sent it back at once by the post, in an envelope, saying,
+"Sent by mistake."'
+
+'But what was it like?  Surely it was not one of the common shop
+things?'
+
+'Oh no; there was rather a pretty outline of a nymph or muse, or
+something of that sort, at the top---drawn, I mean---and verses written
+below, something about my showing a lodestar of hope, but I barely
+glanced at it.  I hated it too much.'
+
+'I am sorry you were in such a hurry,' said Aunt Jane.  'No doubt it
+was a shock; but I am afraid you have given more pain than it quite
+deserved.'
+
+'It was so impertinent!' cried Gillian, in astonished, shame-stricken
+indignation.
+
+'So it seems to you,' said her aunt, 'and it was very bad taste; but
+you should remember that this poor lad has grown up in a stratum of
+society where he may have come to regard this as a suitable
+opportunity of evincing his gratitude, and perhaps it may be very
+hard upon him to have this work of his treated as an insult.'
+
+'But you would not have had me keep it and tolerate it?' exclaimed
+Gillian.
+
+'I can hardly tell without having seen it; but you might have done
+the thing more civilly, through his sister, or have let me give it
+back to him.  However, it is too late now; I will make a point of
+seeing Kalliope to-morrow, but in the meantime you really need not be
+so horribly disgusted and ashamed.'
+
+'I thought he was quite a different sort!'
+
+'Perhaps, after all, your thoughts were not wrong; and he only
+fancied, poor boy, that he had found a pretty way of thanking you.'
+
+This did not greatly comfort Gillian, who might prefer feeling that
+she was insulted rather than that she had been cruelly unkind, and
+might like to blame Alexis rather than herself.  And, indeed, in any
+case, she had sense enough to perceive that this very unacceptable
+compliment was the consequence of her own act of independence of more
+experienced heads.
+
+The next person Miss Mohun met was Fergus, lugging upstairs, step by
+step, a monstrous lump of stone, into which he required her to look
+and behold a fascinating crevice full of glittering spar.
+
+'Where did you get that, Fergus?'
+
+'Up off the cliff over the quarry.'
+
+'Are you sure that you may have it?'
+
+'Oh yes; White said I might.  It's so jolly, auntie!  Frank Stebbing
+is gone away to the other shop in the Apennines, where the old boss
+lives.  What splendiferous specimens he must have the run of!  Our
+Stebbing says 'tis because Kally White makes eyes at him; but any
+way, White has got to do his work while he's away, and go all the
+rounds to see that things are right, so I go after him, and he lets
+me have just what I like---such jolly crystals.'
+
+'I am sure I hope it is all right.'
+
+'Oh yes, I always ask him, as you told me; but he is awfully slow and
+mopy and down in the mouth to-day.  Stebbing says he is sweet upon
+Gill; but I told him that couldn't be, White knew better.  A
+general's daughter, indeed! and Will remembers his father a
+sergeant.'
+
+'It is very foolish, Fergus.  Say no more about it, for it is not
+nice talk about your sister.'
+
+'I'll lick any one who does,' said Fergus, bumping his stone up
+another step.
+
+Poor Aunt Jane!  There was more to fall on her as soon as the door
+was finally shut on the two rooms communicating with one another,
+which the sisters called their own.  Mrs. Mount's manipulations of
+Miss Adeline's rich brown hair were endured with some impatience,
+while Miss Mohun leant back in her chair in her shawl-patterned
+dressing-gown, watching, with a sort of curious wonder and
+foreboding, the restlessness that proved that something was in store,
+and meantime somewhat lazily brushing out her own thinner darker
+locks.
+
+'You are tired, Miss Jane,' said the old servant, using the pet name
+in private moments.  'You had better let me do your hair.'
+
+'No, thank you, Fanny; I have very nearly done,' she said, marking
+the signs of eagerness on her sister's part.  'Oh, by the bye, did
+that hot bottle go down to Lilian Giles?'
+
+'Yes, ma'am; Mrs. Giles came up for it.'
+
+'Did she say whether Lily was well enough to see Miss Gillian?'
+
+Mrs. Mount coughed a peculiar cough that her mistresses well knew to
+signify that she could tell them something they would not like to
+hear, if they chose to ask her, and it was the younger who put the
+question---
+
+'Fanny, did she say anything?'
+
+'Well, Miss Ada, I told her she must be mistaken, but she stuck to
+it, though she said she never would have breathed a word if Miss
+Gillian had not come back again, but she thought you should know it.'
+
+'Know what?' demanded Jane.
+
+'Well, Miss Jane, she should say 'tis the talk that Miss Gillian,
+when you have thought her reading to the poor girl, has been running
+down to the works---and 'tis only the ignorance of them that will
+talk, but they say it is to meet a young man.  She says, Mrs. Giles
+do, that she never would have noticed such talk, but that the young
+lady did always seem in a hurry, only just reading a chapter, and
+never stopping to talk to poor Lily after it; and she has seen her
+herself going down towards the works, instead of towards home, ma'am.
+And she said she could not bear that reading to her girl should be
+made a colour for such doings.'
+
+'Certainly not, if it were as she supposes,' said Miss Mohun, sitting
+very upright, and beating her own head vigorously with a very prickly
+brush; 'but you may tell her, Fanny, that I know all about it, and
+that her friend is Miss White, who you remember spent an evening
+here.'
+
+Fanny's good-humoured face cleared up.  'Yes, ma'am, I told her that
+I was quite sure that Miss Gillian would not go for to do anything
+wrong, and that it could be easy explained; but people has tongues,
+you see.'
+
+'You were quite right to tell us, Fanny.  Good-night.'
+
+'People has tongues!' repeated Adeline, when that excellent person
+had disappeared.  'Yes, indeed, they have.  But, Jenny, do you really
+mean to say that you know all about this?'
+
+'Yes, I believe so.'
+
+'Oh, I wish you had been at home to-day when Victoria came in.  It
+really is a serious business.'
+
+'Victoria!  What has she to do with it?  I should have thought her
+Marchioness-ship quite out of the region of gossip, though, for that
+matter, grandees like it quite as much as other people.'
+
+'Don't, Jane , you know it does concern her through companionship for
+Phyllis, and she was very kind.'
+
+'Oh yes, I can see her sailing in, magnificently kind from her
+elevation.  But how in the world did she manage to pick up all this
+in the time?' said poor Jane, tired and pestered into the sharpness
+of her early youth.
+
+'Dear Jenny, I wish I had said nothing to-night.  Do wait till you
+are rested.'
+
+'I am not in the least tired, and if I were, do you think I could
+sleep with this half told?'
+
+'You said you knew.'
+
+'Then it is only about Gillian being so silly as to go down to Miss
+White's office at the works to look over the boy's Greek exercises.'
+
+'You don't mean that you allowed it!'
+
+'No, Gillian's impulsiveness, just like her mother's, began it, as a
+little assertion of modern independence; but while she was away that
+little step from brook to river brought her to the sense that she had
+been a goose, and had used me rather unfairly, and so she came and
+confessed it all to me on the way home from the station the first
+morning after her return.  She says she had written it all to her
+mother from the first.'
+
+'I wonder Lily did not telegraph to put a stop to it.'
+
+'Do you suppose any mother, our poor old Lily especially, can marry a
+couple of daughters without being slightly frantic!  Ten to one she
+never realised that this precious pupil was bigger than Fergus.  But
+do tell me what my Lady had heard, and how she heard it.'
+
+'You remember that her governess, Miss Elbury, has connections in the
+place.'
+
+'"The most excellent creature in the world."  Oh yes, and she spent
+Sunday with them.  So that was the conductor.'
+
+'I can hardly say that Miss Elbury was to be blamed, considering that
+she had heard the proposal about Valetta!  It seems that that High
+School class-mistress, Miss Mellon, who had the poor child under her,
+is her cousin.'
+
+'Oh dear!'
+
+'It is exactly what I was afraid of when we decided on keeping
+Valetta at home.  Miss Mellon told all the Caesar story in plainly
+the worst light for poor Val, and naturally deduced from her removal
+that she was the most to blame.'
+
+'Whereas it was Miss Mellon herself!  But nobody could expect
+Victoria to see that, and no doubt she is quite justified in not
+wishing for the child in her schoolroom!  But, after all, Valetta is
+only a child; it won't hurt her to have this natural recoil of
+consequences, and her mother will be at home in three weeks' time.
+It signifies much more about Gillian.  Did I understand you that the
+gossip about her had reached those august ears?'
+
+'Oh yes, Jane, and it is ever so much worse.  That horrid Miss Mellon
+seems to have told Miss Elbury that Gillian has a passion for low
+company, that she is always running after the Whites at the works,
+and has secret meetings with the young man in the garden on Sunday,
+while his sister carries on her underhand flirtation with another
+youth, Frank Stebbing, I suppose.  It really was too preposterous,
+and Victoria said she had no doubt from the first that there was
+exaggeration, and had told Miss Elbury so; but still she thought
+Gillian must have been to blame.  She was very nice about it, and
+listened to all my explanation most kindly, as to Gillian's interest
+in the Whites, and its having been only the sister that she met, but
+plainly she is not half convinced.  I heard something about a letter
+being left for Gillian, and really, I don't know whether there may
+not be more discoveries to come.  I never felt before the force of
+our dear father's saying, apropos of Rotherwood himself, that no one
+knows what it is to lose a father except those who have the care of
+his children.'
+
+'Whatever Gillian did was innocent and ladylike, and nothing to be
+ashamed of,' said Aunt Jane stoutly; 'of that I am sure.  But I
+should like to be equally sure that she has not turned the head of
+that poor foolish young man, without in the least knowing what she
+was about.  You should have seen her state of mind at his sending her
+a valentine, which she returned to him, perfectly ferociously, at
+once, and that was all the correspondence somebody seems to have
+smelt out.'
+
+'A valentine!  Gillian must have behaved very ill to have brought
+that upon herself!  Oh dear!  I wish she had never come here; I wish
+Lily could have stayed at home, instead of scattering her children
+about the world.  The Rotherwoods will never get over it.'
+
+'That's the least part of the grievance, in my eyes,' said her
+sister.  'It won't make a fraction of difference to the dear old
+cousin Rotherwood; and as to my Lady, it is always a liking from the
+teeth outwards.'
+
+'How can you say so!  I am sure she has always been most cordial.'
+
+'Most correct, if you please.  Oh, did she say anything about Mysie?'
+
+'She said nothing but good of Mysie; called her delightful, and
+perfectly good and trustworthy, said they could never have got so
+well through Phyllis's illness without her, and that they only wished
+to keep her altogether.'
+
+'I dare say, to be humble companion to my little lady, out of the way
+of her wicked sisters.'
+
+'Jane!'
+
+'My dear, I don't think I can stand any more defence of her just now!
+No, she is an admirable woman, I know.  That's enough.  I really must
+go to bed, and consider which is to be faced first, she or Kalliope.'
+
+It was lucky that Miss Mohun could exist without much sleep, for she
+was far too much worried for any length of slumber to visit her that
+night, though she was afoot as early as usual.  She thought it best
+to tell Gillian that Lady Rotherwood had heard some foolish reports,
+and that she was going to try to clear them up, and she extracted an
+explicit account as to what the extent of her intercourse with the
+Whites had been, which was given willingly, Gillian being in a very
+humble frame, and convinced that she had acted foolishly.  It
+surprised her likewise that Aunt Adeline, whom she had liked the
+best, and thought the most good-natured, was so much more angry with
+her than Aunt Jane, who, as she felt, forgave her thoroughly, and was
+only anxious to help her out of the scrape she had made for herself.
+
+Miss Mohun thought her best time for seeing Kalliope would be in the
+dinner-hour, and started accordingly in the direction of the marble
+works.  Not far from them she met that young person walking quickly
+with one of her little brothers.
+
+'I was coming to see you,' Miss Mohun said.  'I did not know that you
+went home in the middle of the day.'
+
+'My mother has been so unwell of late that I do not like to be
+entirely out of reach all day,' returned Kalliope, who certainly
+looked worn and sorrowful; 'so I manage to run home, though it is but
+for a quarter of an hour.'
+
+'I will not delay you, I will walk with you,' and when Petros had
+been dismissed, 'I am afraid my niece has not been quite the friend
+to you that she intended.'
+
+'Oh, Miss Mohun, do you know all about it?  It is such a relief!  I
+have felt so guilty towards you, and yet I did not know what to do.'
+
+'I have never thought that the concealment was your fault,' said
+Jane.
+
+'I did think at first that you knew,' said Kalliope, 'and when I
+found that was not the case, I suppose I should have insisted on your
+being told; but I could not bear to seem ungrateful, and my brother
+took such extreme delight in his lessons and Miss Merrifield's
+kindness, that---that I could not bear to do what might prevent them.
+And now, poor fellow, it shows how wrong it was, since he has
+ventured on that unfortunate act of presumption, which has so
+offended her.  Oh, Miss Mohun, he is quite broken-hearted.'
+
+'I am afraid Gillian was very discourteous.  I was out, or it should
+not have been done so unkindly.  Indeed, in the shock, Gillian did
+not recollect that she might be giving pain.'
+
+'Yes, yes!  Poor Alexis!  He has not had any opportunity of
+understanding how different things are in your class of life, and he
+thought it would show his gratitude and---and---Oh, he is so
+miserable!' and she was forced to stop to wipe away her tears.
+
+'Poor fellow!  But it was one of those young men's mistakes that are
+got over and outgrown, so you need not grieve over it so much, my
+dear.  My brother-in-law is on his way home, and I know he means to
+see what can be done for Alexis, for your father's sake.'
+
+'Oh, Miss Mohun, how good you are!  I thought you could never forgive
+us.  And people do say such shocking things.'
+
+'I know they do, and therefore I am going to ask you to tell me
+exactly what intercourse there has been with Gillian.'
+
+Kalliope did so, and Miss Mohun was struck with the complete
+accordance of the two accounts, and likewise by the total absence of
+all attempt at self-justification on Miss White's part.  If she had
+in any way been weak, it had been against her will, and her position
+had been an exceedingly difficult one.  She spoke in as guarded a
+manner as possible; but to such acute and experienced ears as those
+of her auditor, it was impossible not to perceive that, while Gillian
+had been absolutely simple, and unconscious of all but a kind act of
+patronage, the youth's imagination had taken fire, and he had become
+her ardent worshipper; with calf-love, no doubt, but with a distant,
+humble adoration, which had, whether fortunately or unfortunately,
+for once found expression in the valentine so summarily rejected.
+The drawing and the composition had been the work of many days, and
+so much against his sister's protest that it had been sent without
+her knowledge, after she had thought it given up.  She had only
+extracted the confession through his uncontrollable despair, which
+made him almost unfit to attend to his increased work, perhaps by his
+southern nature exaggerated.
+
+'The stronger at first, the sooner over,' thought Miss Mohun; but she
+knew that consolation betraying her comprehension would not be safe.
+
+One further discovery she made, namely, that on Sunday, Alexis,
+foolish lad, had been so wildly impatient at their having had no
+notice from Gillian since her return, that he had gone to the garden
+to explain, as he said, his sister's non-appearance there, since she
+was detained by her mother's illness.  It was the only time he had
+ever been there, and he had met no one; but Miss Mohun felt a sinking
+of heart at the foreboding that the mauvaises langues would get hold
+of it.
+
+The only thing to be decided on was that there must be a suspension
+of intercourse, at any rate, till Lady Merrifield's arrival; not in
+unkindness, but as best for all.  And, indeed, Kalliope had no time
+to spare from her mother, whose bloated appearance, poor woman, was
+the effect of long-standing disease.
+
+The daughter's heart was very full of her, and evidently it would
+have been a comfort to discuss her condition with this kind friend;
+but no more delay was possible; and Miss Mohun had to speed home, in
+a quandary how much or how little about Alexis's hopeless passion
+should be communicated to its object, and finally deciding that
+Gillian had better only be informed that he had been greatly
+mortified by the rude manner of rejection, but that the act itself
+proved that she must abstain from all renewal of the intercourse till
+her parents should return.
+
+But that was not all the worry of the day.  Miss Mohun had still to
+confront Lady Rotherwood, and, going as soon as the early dinner was
+over, found the Marchioness resting after an inspection of houses in
+Rockquay.  She did not like hotels, she said, and she thought the top
+of the cliff too bleak for Phyllis, so that they must move nearer the
+sea if the place agreed with her at all, which was doubtful.  Miss
+Mohun was pretty well convinced that the true objection was the
+neighbourhood of Beechcroft Cottage.  She said she had come to give
+some explanation of what had been said to her sister yesterday.
+
+'Oh, my dear Jane, Adeline told me all about it yesterday.  I am very
+sorry for you to have had such a charge, but what could you expect of
+girls cast about as they have been, always with a marching regiment?'
+
+'I do not think Mysie has given you any reason to think her ill
+brought up.'
+
+'A little uncouth at first, but that was all.  Oh, no!  Mysie is a
+dear little girl.  I should be very glad to have her with Phyllis
+altogether, and so would Rotherwood.  But she was very young when Sir
+Jasper retired.'
+
+'And Valetta was younger.  Poor little girl!  She was naughty, but I
+do not think she understood the harm of what she was doing.'
+
+Lady Rotherwood smiled.
+
+'Perhaps not; but she must have been deeply involved, since she was
+the one amongst all the guilty to be expelled.'
+
+'Oh, Victoria!  Was that what you heard?'
+
+'Miss Elbury heard it from the governess she was under.  Surely she
+was the only one not permitted to go up for the examination and
+removed.'
+
+'True, but that was our doing---no decree of the High School.  Her own
+governess is free now, and her mother on her way, and we thought she
+had better not begin another term.  Yes, Victoria, I quite see that
+you might doubt her fitness to be much with Phyllis.  I am not asking
+for that---I shall try to get her own governess to come at once; but
+for the child's sake and her mother's I should like to get this
+cleared up.  May I see Miss Elbury?'
+
+'Certainly; but I do not think you will find that she has
+exaggerated, though of course her informant may have done so.
+
+Miss Elbury was of the older generation of governesses, motherly,
+kind, but rather prim and precise, the accomplished element being
+supplied with diplomaed foreigners, who, since Lady Phyllis's failure
+in health, had been dispensed with.  She was a good and sensible
+woman, as Jane could see, in spite of the annoyance her report had
+occasioned, and it was impossible not to assent when she said she had
+felt obliged, under the circumstances, to mention to Lady Rotherwood
+what her cousin had told her.
+
+'About both my nieces,' said Jane.  'Yes, I quite understand.  But,
+though of course the little one's affair is the least important, we
+had better get to the bottom of that first, and I should like to tell
+you what really happened.'
+
+She told her story, and how Valetta had been tempted and then bullied
+into going beyond the first peeps, and finding she did not produce
+the impression she wished, she begged Miss Elbury to talk it over
+with the head-mistress.  It was all in the telling.  Miss Elbury's
+young cousin, Miss Mellon, had been brought under rebuke, and into
+great danger of dismissal, through Valetta Merrifield's lapse; and it
+was no wonder that she had warned her kinswoman against 'the horrid
+little deceitful thing,' who had done so much harm to the whole
+class.  'Miss Mohun was running about over the whole place, but not
+knowing what went on in her own house!'  And as to Miss White, Miss
+Elbury mentioned at last, though with some reluctance, that it was
+believed that she had been on the point of a private marriage, and of
+going to Italy with young Stebbing, when her machinations were
+detected, and he was forced to set off without her.
+
+With this in her mind, the governess could not be expected to accept
+as satisfactory what was not entire confutation or contradiction, and
+Miss Mohun saw that, politely as she was listened to, it was all only
+treated as excuse; since there could be no denial of Gillian's folly,
+and it was only a question of degree.
+
+And, provoking as it was, the disappointment might work well for
+Valetta.  The allegations against Gillian were a far more serious
+affair, but much more of these could be absolutely disproved and
+contradicted; in fact, all that Miss Mohun herself thought very
+serious, i.e. the flirtation element, was shown to be absolutely
+false, both as regarded Gillian and Kalliope; but it was quite
+another thing to convince people who knew none of the parties, when
+there was the residuum of truth undeniable, that there had been
+secret meetings not only with the girl, but the youth.  To acquit
+Gillian of all but modern independence and imprudent philanthropy was
+not easy to any one who did not understand her character, and though
+Lady Rotherwood said nothing more in the form of censure, it was
+evident that she was unconvinced that Gillian was not a fast and
+flighty girl, and that she did not desire more contact than was
+necessary.
+
+No doubt she wished herself farther off!  Lord Rotherwood, she said,
+was coming down in a day or two, when he could get away, and then
+they should decide whether to take a house or to go abroad, which,
+after all, might be the best thing for Phyllis.
+
+'He will make all the difference,' said Miss Adeline, when the
+unsatisfactory conversation was reported to her.
+
+'I don't know!  But even if he did, and I don't think he will, I
+won't have Valetta waiting for his decision and admitted on
+sufferance.'
+
+'Shall you send her back to school?'
+
+'No.  Poor Miss Vincent is free, and quite ready to come here.
+Fergus shall go and sleep among his fossils in the lumber-room, and I
+will write to her at once.  She will be much better here than waiting
+at Silverton, though the Hacketts are very kind to her.'
+
+'Yes, it will be better to be independent.  But all this is very
+unfortunate.  However, Victoria will see for herself what the
+children are.  She has asked me to take a drive with her to-morrow if
+it is not too cold.'
+
+'Oh yes, she is not going to make an estrangement.  You need not fear
+that, Ada.  She does not think it your fault.'
+
+Aunt Jane pondered a little as to what to say to the two girls, and
+finally resolved that Valetta had better be told that she was not to
+do lessons with Fly, as her behaviour had made Lady Rotherwood doubt
+whether she was a good companion.  Valetta stamped and cried, and
+said it was very hard and cross when she had been so sorry and every
+one had forgiven her; but Gillian joined heartily with Aunt Jane in
+trying to make the child understand that consequences often come in
+spite of pardon and repentance.  To Gillian herself, Aunt Jane said
+as little as possible, not liking even to give the veriest hint of
+the foolish gossip, or of the extent of poor Alexis White's
+admiration; for it was enough for the girl to know that concealment
+had brought her under a cloud, and she was chiefly concerned as to
+how her mother would look on it.  She had something of Aunt Jane's
+impatience of patronage, and perhaps thought it snobbish to seem
+concerned at the great lady's displeasure.
+
+Mysie was free to run in and out to her sisters, but was still to do
+her lessons with Miss Elbury, and Fly took up more of her time than
+the sisters liked.  Neither she nor Fly were formally told why their
+castles vanished into empty air, but there certainly was a continual
+disappointment and fret on both sides, which Fly could not bear as
+well as when she was in high health, and poor Mysie's loving heart
+often found it hard to decide between her urgent claims and those of
+Valetta!
+
+But was not mamma coming? and papa?  Would not all be well then?
+Yes, hearts might bound at the thought.  But where was Gillian's
+great thing?'
+
+Miss Vincent's coming was really like a beginning of home, in spite
+of her mourning and depressed look.  It was a great consolation to
+the lonely woman to find how all her pupils flew at her, with
+infinite delight.  She had taken pains to bring a report of all the
+animals for Valetta, and she duly admired all Fergus's geological
+specimens, and even undertook to print labels for them.
+
+Mysie would have liked to begin lessons again with her; but this
+would have been hard on Fly, and besides, her mother had committed
+her to the Rotherwoods, and it was better still to leave her with
+them.
+
+The aunts were ready with any amount of kindness and sympathy for the
+governess's bereavement, and her presence was a considerable relief
+in the various perplexities.
+
+Even Lady Rotherwood and Miss Elbury had been convinced, and by no
+means unwillingly, that Gillian had been less indiscreet than had
+been their first impression; but she had been a young lady of the
+period in her independence, and was therefore to be dreaded.  No more
+garden trystes would have been possible under any circumstances, for
+the house and garden were in full preparation for the master, who was
+to meet Lord Rotherwood to consult about the proposed water-works and
+other designs for the benefit of the town where they were the chief
+landowners.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.  THE PARTNER
+
+
+
+The expected telegram arrived two days later, requesting Miss Mohun
+to find a lodging at Rockstone sufficient to contain Sir Jasper and
+Lady Merrifield, and a certain amount of sons and daughters, while
+they considered what was to be done about Silverfold.
+
+'So you and I will go out house-hunting, Gillian?' said Aunt Jane,
+when she had opened it, and the exclamations were over.
+
+'I am afraid there is no house large enough up here,' said her
+sister.
+
+'No, it is an unlucky time, in the thick of the season.'
+
+'Victoria said she had been looking at some houses in Bellevue.'
+
+'I am afraid she will have raised the prices of them.'
+
+'But, oh, Aunt Jane, we couldn't go to Bellevue Church!' cried
+Gillian.
+
+'Your mother would like to be so near the daily services at the
+Kennel,' said Miss Mohun.  'Yes, we must begin with those houses.
+There's nothing up here but Sorrento, and I have heard enough of its
+deficiencies!'
+
+At that moment in came a basket of game, grapes, and flowers, with
+Lady Rotherwood's compliments.
+
+'Solid pudding,' muttered Miss Mohun.  'In this case, I should almost
+prefer empty praise.  Look here, Ada, what a hamper they must have
+had from home!  I think I shall, as I am going that way, take a
+pheasant and some grapes to the poor Queen of the White Ants; I
+believe she is really ill, and it will show that we do not want to
+neglect them.'
+
+'Oh, thank you, Aunt Jane!' cried Gillian, the colour rising in her
+face, and she was the willing bearer of the basket as she walked down
+the steps with her aunt, and along the esplanade, only pausing to
+review the notices of palatial, rural, and desirable villas in the
+house-agent's window, and to consider in what proportion their claims
+to perfection might be reduced.
+
+As they turned down Ivinghoe Terrace, and were approaching the rusty
+garden-gate, they overtook Mrs. Lee, the wife of the organist of St.
+Kenelm's, who lodged at Mrs. White's.  In former times, before her
+marriage, Mrs. Lee had been a Sunday-school teacher at St. Andrew's,
+and though party spirit considered her to have gone over to the
+enemy, there were old habits of friendly confidence between her and
+Miss Mohun, and there was an exchange of friendly greetings and
+inquiries.  When she understood their errand she rejoiced in it,
+saying that poor Mrs. White was very poorly, and rather fractious,
+and that this supply would be most welcome both to her and her
+daughter.
+
+'Ah, I am afraid that poor girl goes through a great deal!'
+
+'Indeed she does, Miss Mohun; and a better girl never lived.  I
+cannot think how she can bear up as she does; there she is at the
+office all day with her work, except when she runs home in the middle
+of the day---all that distance to dish up something her mother can
+taste, for there's no dependence on the girl, nor on little Maura
+neither.  Then she is slaving early and late to keep the house in
+order as well as she can, when her mother is fretting for her
+attention; and I believe she loses more than half her night's rest
+over the old lady.  How she bears up, I cannot guess; and never a
+cross word to her mother, who is such a trial, nor to the boys, but
+looking after their clothes and their lessons, and keeping them as
+good and nice as can be.  I often say to my husband, I am sure it is
+a lesson to live in the house with her.'
+
+'I am sure she is an excellent girl,' said Miss Mohun.  'I wish we
+could do anything to help her.'
+
+'I know you are a real friend, Miss Mohun, and never was there any
+young person who was in greater need of kindness; though it is none
+of her fault.  She can't help her face, poor dear; and she has never
+given any occasion, I am sure, but has been as guarded and correct as
+possible.'
+
+'Oh, I was in hopes that annoyance was suspended at least for a
+time!'
+
+'You are aware of it then, Miss Mohun?  Yes, the young gentleman is
+come back, not a bit daunted.  Yesterday evening what does he do but
+drive up in a cab with a great bouquet, and a basketful of grapes,
+and what not!  Poor Kally, she ran in to me, and begged me as a
+favour to come downstairs with her, and I could do no less.  And I
+assure you, Miss Mohun, no queen could be more dignified, nor more
+modest than she was in rejecting his gifts, and keeping him in check.
+Poor dear, when he was gone she burst out crying---a thing I never
+knew of her before; not that she cared for him, but she felt it a
+cruel wrong to her poor mother to send away the grapes she longed
+after; and so she will feel these just a providence.'
+
+'Then is Mrs. White confined to her room?'
+
+'For more than a fortnight.  For that matter the thing was easier,
+for she had encouraged the young man as far as in her lay, poor
+thing, though my husband and young Alexis both told her what they
+knew of him, and that it would not be for Kally's happiness, let
+alone the offence to his father.'
+
+'Then it really went as far as that?'
+
+'Miss Mohun, I would be silent as the grave if I did not know that
+the old lady went talking here and there, never thinking of the harm
+she was doing.  She was so carried away by the idea of making a lady
+of Kally.  She says she was a beauty herself, though you would not
+think it now, and she is perfectly puffed up about Kally.  So she
+actually lent an ear when the young man came persuading Kally to get
+married and go off to Italy with him, where he made sure he could
+come over Mr. White with her beauty and relationship and all---among
+the myrtle groves---that was his expression--where she would have an
+association worthy of her.  I don't quite know how he meant it to be
+brought about, but he is one who would stick at nothing, and of
+course Kally would not hear of it, and answered him so as one would
+think he would never have had the face to address her again, but poor
+Mrs. White has done nothing but fret over it, and blame her daughter
+for undutifulness, and missing the chance of making all their
+fortunes---breaking her heart and her health, and I don't know what
+besides.  She is half a foreigner, you see, and does not understand,
+and she is worse than no one to that poor girl.'
+
+'And you say he is come back as bad as ever.'
+
+'Or worse, you may say, Miss Mohun; absence seems only to have set
+him the more upon her, and I am afraid that Mrs. White's talk, though
+it may not have been to many, has been enough to set it about the
+place; and in cases like that, it is always the poor young woman as
+gets the blame---especially with the gentleman's own people.'
+
+'I am afraid so.'
+
+'And you see she is in a manner at his mercy, being son to one of the
+heads of the firm, and in a situation of authority.'
+
+'What can she do all day at the office?'
+
+'She keeps one or two of the other young ladies working with her,'
+said Mrs. Lee; 'but if any change could be made, it would be very
+happy for her; though, after all, I do not see how she could leave
+this place, the house being family property, and Mr. White their
+relation, besides that Mrs. White is in no state to move; but, on the
+other hand, Mr. and Mrs. Stebbing know their son is after her, and
+the lady would not stick at believing or saying anything against her,
+though I will always bear witness, and so will Mr. Lee, that never
+was there a more good, right-minded young woman, or more prudent and
+guarded.'
+
+'So would Mr. Flight and his mother, I have no doubt.'
+
+'Mr. Flight would, Miss Mohun, but'---with an odd look---'I fancy my
+lady thinks poor Kally too handsome for it to be good for a young
+clergyman to have much to say to her.  They have not been so cordial
+to them of late, but that is partly owing to poor Mrs. White's
+foolish talk, and in part to young Alexis having been desultory and
+mopy of late---not taking the interest in his music he did.  Mr. Lee
+says he is sure some young woman is at the bottom of it.'
+
+Miss Mohun saw her niece's ears crimson under her hat, and was afraid
+Mrs. Lee would likewise see them.  They had reached the front of the
+house, and she made haste to take out a visiting-card and to beg Mrs.
+Lee kindly to give it with the basket, saying that she would not give
+trouble by coming to the door.
+
+And then she turned back with Gillian, who was in a strange tumult of
+shame and consternation, yet withal, feeling that first strange
+thrill of young womanhood at finding itself capable of stirring
+emotion, and too much overcome by these strange sensations---above all
+by the shock of shame---to be able to utter a word.
+
+I must make light of it, but not too light, thought Miss Mohun, and
+she broke the ice by saying, 'Poor foolish boy----'
+
+'Oh, Aunt Jane, what shall I do?'
+
+'Let it alone, my dear.'
+
+'But that I should have done so much harm and upset him so'---in a
+voice betraying a certain sense of being flattered.  'Can't I do
+anything to undo it?'
+
+'Certainly not.  To be perfectly quiet and do nothing is all you can
+do.  My dear, boys and young men have such foolish fits---more in that
+station than in ours, because they have none of the public school and
+college life which keeps people out of it.  You were the first lady
+this poor fellow was brought into contact with, and---well, you were
+rather a goose, and he has been a greater one; but if he is let
+alone, he will recover and come to his senses.  I could tell you of
+men who have had dozens of such fits.  I am much more interested
+about his sister.  What a noble girl she is!'
+
+'Oh, isn't she, Aunt Jane.  Quite a real heroine!  And now mamma is
+coming, she will know what to do for her!'
+
+'I hope she will, but it is a most perplexing case altogether.'
+
+'And that horrid young Stebbing is come back too.  I am glad she has
+that nice Mrs. Lee to help her.'
+
+'And to defend her,' added Miss Mohun.  'Her testimony is worth a
+great deal, and I am glad to know where to lay my hand upon it.  And
+here is our first house, "Les Rochers."  For Madame de Sevigne's
+sake, I hope it will do!'
+
+But it didn't!  Miss Mohun got no farther than the hall before she
+detected a scent of gas; and they had to betake themselves to the
+next vacant abode.  The investigating nature had full scope in the
+various researches that she made into parlour, kitchen, and hall,
+desperately wearisome to Gillian, whose powers were limited to
+considering how the family could sit at ease in the downstairs rooms,
+how they could be stowed away in the bedrooms, and where there were
+the prettiest views of the bay.  Aunt Jane, becoming afraid that
+while she was literally 'ferreting' in the offices Gillian might be
+meditating on her conquest, picked up the first cheap book that
+looked innocently sensational, and left her to study it on various
+sofas.  And when daylight failed for inspections, Gillian still had
+reason to rejoice in the pastime devised for her, since there was an
+endless discussion at the agent's, over the only two abodes that
+could be made available, as to prices, repairs, time, and terms.
+They did not get away till it was quite dark and the gas lighted, and
+Miss Mohun did not think the ascent of the steps desirable, so that
+they went round by the street.
+
+'I declare,' exclaimed Miss Mohun, 'there's Mr. White's house lighted
+up.  He must be come!'
+
+'I wonder whether he will do anything for Kalliope,' sighed Gillian.
+
+'Oh, Jenny,' exclaimed Miss Adeline, as the two entered the drawing-
+room.  'You have had such a loss; Rotherwood has been here waiting to
+see you for an hour, and such an agreeable man he brought with him!'
+
+'Who could it have been?'
+
+'I didn't catch his name---Rotherwood was mumbling in his quick way---
+indeed, I am not sure he did not think I knew him.  A distinguished-
+looking man, like a picture, with a fine white beard, and he was
+fresh from Italy; told me all about the Carnival and the curious
+ceremonies in the country villages.'
+
+'From Italy?  It can't have been Mr. White.'
+
+'Mr. White!  My dear Jane! this was a gentleman---quite a grand-
+looking man.  He might have been an Italian nobleman, only he spoke
+English too well for that, though I believe those diplomates can
+speak all languages.  However, you will see, for we are to go and
+dine with them at eight o'clock---you, and I, and Gillian.'
+
+'You, Ada!'
+
+'Oh!  I have ordered the chair round; it won't hurt me with the
+glasses up.  Gillian, my dear, you must put on the white dress that
+Mrs. Grinstead's maid did up for you---it is quite simple, and I
+should like you to look nice!  Well---oh, how tired you both look!
+Ring for some fresh tea, Gillian.  Have you found a house?'
+
+So excited and occupied was Adeline that the house-hunting seemed to
+have assumed quite a subordinate place in her mind.  It really was an
+extraordinary thing for her to dine out, though this was only a
+family party next door; and she soon sailed away to hold counsel with
+Mrs. Mount on dresses and wraps, and to get her very beautiful hair
+dressed.  She made by far the most imposing appearance of the three
+when they shook themselves out in the ante-room at the hotel, in her
+softly-tinted sheeny pale-gray dress, with pearls in her hair, and
+two beautiful blush roses in her bosom; while her sister, in black
+satin and coral, somehow seemed smaller than ever, probably from
+being tired, and from the same cause Gillian had dark marks under her
+brown eyes, and a much more limp and languid look than was her wont.
+
+Fly was seated on her father's knee, looking many degrees better and
+brighter, as if his presence were an elixir of life, and when he put
+her down to greet the arrivals, both she and Mysie sprang to Gillian
+to ask the result of the quest of houses.  The distinguished friend
+was there, and was talking to Lady Rotherwood about Italian progress,
+and there was only time for an inquiry and reply as to the success of
+the search for a house before dinner was announced---the little girls
+disappeared, and the Marquess gave his arm to his eldest cousin.
+
+'Grand specimen of marble, isn't he!' he muttered.
+
+'Ada hasn't the least idea who he is.  She thinks him a great
+diplomate,' communicated Jane in return, and her arm received an
+ecstatic squeeze.
+
+It was amusing to Jane Mohun to see how much like a dinner at
+Rotherwood this contrived to be, with my lady's own footman, and my
+lord's valet waiting in state.  She agreed mentally with her sister
+that the other guest was a very fine-looking man, with a picturesque
+head, and he did not seem at all out of place or ill-at-ease in the
+company in which he found himself.  Lord Rotherwood, with a view,
+perhaps, to prolonging Adeline's mystification, turned the
+conversation to Italian politics, and the present condition and the
+industries of the people, on all of which subjects much ready
+information was given in fluent, good English, with perhaps rather
+unnecessarily fine words.  It was only towards the end of the dinner
+that a personal experience was mentioned about the impossibility of
+getting work done on great feast days, or of knowing which were the
+greater---and the great dislike of the peasant mind to new methods.
+
+When it came to 'At first, I had to superintend every blasting with
+gelatine,' the initiated were amused at the expression of Adeline's
+countenance, and the suppressed start of frightful conviction that
+quivered on her eyelids and the corners of her mouth, though kept in
+check by good breeding, and then smoothed out into a resolute
+complacency, which convinced her sister that having inadvertently
+exalted the individual into the category of the distinguished, she
+meant to abide staunchly by her first impression.
+
+Lady Rotherwood, like most great ladies in public life, was perfectly
+well accustomed to have all sorts of people brought home to dinner,
+and would have been far less astonished than her cousins at sitting
+down with her grocer; but she gave the signal rather early, and on
+reaching the sitting-room, where Miss Elworthy was awaiting them,
+said---
+
+'We will leave them to discuss their water-works at their ease.
+Certainly residence abroad is an excellent education.'
+
+'A very superior man,' said Adeline.
+
+'Those self-made men always are.'
+
+'In the nature of things, added Miss Mohun, 'or they would not have
+mounted.'
+
+'It is the appendages that are distressing,' said Lady Rotherwood,
+'and they seldom come in one's way.  Has this man left any in Italy?'
+
+'Oh no, none alive.  He took his wife there for her health, and that
+was the way he came to set up his Italian quarries; but she and his
+child both died there long ago, and he has never come back to this
+place since,' explained Ada.
+
+'But he has relations here,' said Jane.  'His cousin was an officer
+in Jasper Merrifield's regiment.'
+
+She hoped to have been saying a word in the cause of the young
+people, but she regretted her attempt, for Lady Rotherwood replied---
+
+'I have heard of them.  A very undeserving family, are they not?'
+
+Gillian, whom Miss Elworthy was trying to entertain, heard, and could
+not help colouring all over, face, neck, and ears, all the more for
+so much hating the flush and feeling it observed.
+
+Miss Mohun's was a very decided, 'I should have said quite the
+reverse.'
+
+'Indeed!  Well, I heard the connection lamented, for his sake, by---
+what was her name?  Mrs. Stirling---or---'
+
+'Mrs. Stebbing,' said Adeline.  'You don't mean that she has actually
+called on you?'
+
+'Is there any objection to her?' asked Lady Rotherwood, with a glance
+to see whether the girl was listening.
+
+'Oh no, no! only he is a mere mason---or quarryman, who has grown
+rich,' said Adeline.
+
+The hostess gave a little dry laugh.
+
+'Is that all?  I thought you had some reason for disapproving of her.
+I thought her rather sensible and pleasing'
+
+Cringing and flattering, thought Jane; and that is just what these
+magnificent ladies like in the wide field of inferiors.  But aloud
+she could not help saying, 'My principal objection to Mrs. Stebbing
+is that I have always thought her rather a gossip---on the scandalous
+side.'  Then, bethinking herself that it would not be well to pursue
+the subject in Gillian's presence, she explained where the Stebbings
+lived, and asked how long Lord Rotherwood could stay.
+
+'Only over Sunday.  He is going to look over the place to-morrow, and
+next day there is to be a public meeting about it.  I am not sure
+that we shall not go with him.  I do not think the place agrees with
+Phyllis.'
+
+The last words were spoken just as the two gentlemen had come in from
+the dining-room, rather sooner than was expected, and they were taken
+up.
+
+'Agrees with Phyllis!  She looks pounds---nay, hundred-weights better
+than when we left home.  I mean to have her down to-morrow on the
+beach for a lark---castle-building, paddling---with Mysie and Val, and
+Fergus and all.  That's what would set her up best, wouldn't it,
+Jane?'
+
+Jane gave a laughing assent, wondering how much of this would indeed
+prove castle-building, though adding that Fergus was at school, and
+that it was not exactly the time of year for paddling.
+
+'Oh, ah, eh!  Well, perhaps not---forestalling sweet St. Valentine---
+stepping into their nests they paddled.  Though St. Valentine is
+past, and I thought our fortunes had been made, Mr. White, by calling
+this the English Naples, and what not.'
+
+'Those are the puffs, my lord.  There is a good deal of difference
+even between this and Rocca Marina, which is some way up the
+mountain.'
+
+'It must be very beautiful,' said Miss Ada.
+
+'Well, Miss Mohun, people do say it is striking.'  And he was drawn
+into describing the old Italian mansion, purchased on the extinction
+of an ancient family of nobles, perched up on the side of a mountain,
+whose feet the sea laved, with a terrace whence there was a splendid
+view of the Gulf of Genoa, and fine slopes above and below of
+chestnut-trees and vineyards; and therewith he gave a hearty
+invitation to the company present to visit him there if ever they
+went to Italy, when he would have great pleasure in showing them many
+bits of scenery, and curious remains that did not fall in the way of
+ordinary tourists.
+
+Lady Rotherwood gratefully said she should remember the invitation if
+they went to the south, as perhaps they should do that very spring.
+
+'And,' said Ada, 'you are not to be expected to remain long in this
+climate when you have a home like that awaiting you.'
+
+'Don't call it home, Miss Mohun,' he said.  'I have not had that
+these many years; but I declare, the first sound of our county
+dialect, when I got out at the station, made my heart leap into my
+mouth.  I could have shaken hands with the fellow.'
+
+'Then I hope you will remain here for some time.  There is much
+wanting to be set going,' said Jane.
+
+'So I thought of doing, and I had out a young fellow, who I thought
+might take my place---my partner's son, young Stebbing.  They wrote
+that he had been learning Italian, with a view to being useful to me,
+and so on; but when he came out, what was he but a fine gentleman---
+never had put his hand to a pick, nor a blasting-iron; and as to his
+Italian, he told me it was the Italian of Alfieri and Leopardi.
+Leopardi's Italian it might be, for it was a very mottled or motley
+tongue, but he might as well have talked English or Double-Dutch to
+our hands, or better, for they had picked up the meaning of some
+orders from me before I got used to their lingo.  And then he says
+'tis office work and superintendence he understands.  How can you
+superintend, I told him, what you don't know yourself?  No, no; go
+home and bring a pair of hands fit for a quarryman, before I make you
+overlooker.'
+
+This was rather delightful, and it further appeared that he could
+answer all Jane's inquiries after her beloved promising lads whom he
+had deported to the Rocca Marina quarries.
+
+They were evidently kindly looked after, and she began to perceive
+that it was not such a bad place after all for them, more especially
+as he was in the act of building them a chapel, and one of his
+objects in coming to England was to find a chaplain; and as Lord
+Rotherwood said, he had come to the right shop, since Rockquay in the
+spring was likely to afford a choice of clergy with weak chests, or
+better still, with weak-chested wives, to whom light work in a genial
+climate would be the greatest possible boon.
+
+Altogether the evening was very pleasant, only too short.  It was a
+curious study for Jane Mohun how far Lady Rotherwood would give way
+to her husband.  She always seemed to give way, but generally
+accomplished her own will in the end, and it was little likely that
+she would allow the establishment to await the influx of Merrifields,
+though certainly Gillian had done nothing displeasing all that
+evening except that terrible blushing, for which piece of
+ingenuousness her aunt loved her all the better.
+
+At half-past ten next morning, however, Lord Rotherwood burst in to
+borrow Valetta for a donkey-ride, for which his lady had compounded
+instead of the paddling and castle-building, and certainly poor Val
+could not do much to corrupt Fly on donkey back, and in his presence.
+He further routed out Gillian, nothing loth, from her algebra,
+bidding her put on her seven-leagued boots, and not get bent double---
+and he would fain have seized on his cousin Jane, but she was already
+gone off for an interview with the landlord of the most eligible of
+the two houses.
+
+Gillian and Valetta came back very rosy, and in fits of merriment.
+Lord Rotherwood had paid the donkey-boys to stay at home, and let him
+and Gillian take their place.  They had gone out on the common above
+the town, with most amusing rivalries as to which drove the beast
+worst, making Mysie umpire.  Then having attained a delightfully
+lonely place, Fly had begged for a race with Valetta, which failed,
+partly because Val's donkey would not stir, and partly because Fly
+could not bear the shaking; and then Lord Rotherwood himself insisted
+on riding the donkey that wouldn't go, and racing Gillian on the
+donkey that would---and he made his go so effectually that it ran away
+with him, and he pulled it up at last only just in time to save
+himself from being ignominiously stopped by an old fishwoman!
+
+He had, as Aunt Jane said, regularly dipped Gill back into childhood,
+and she looked, spoke, and moved all the better for it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.  THE ROCKS OF ROCKSTONE
+
+
+
+Lord Rotherwood came in to try to wile his cousin to share in the
+survey of the country; but she declared it to be impossible, as all
+her avocations had fallen into arrear, and she had to find a couple
+of servants as well as a house for the Merrifields.  This took her in
+the direction of the works, and Gillian proposed to go with her as
+far as the Giles's, there to sit a little while with Lilian, for whom
+she had a new book.
+
+'My dear, surely you must be tired out!' exclaimed the stay-at-home
+aunt.
+
+'Oh no, Aunt Ada!  Quite freshened by that blow on the common.'
+
+And Miss Mohun was not sorry, thinking that to leave Gillian free to
+come home by herself would be the best refutation of Mrs. Mount's
+doubts of her.
+
+They had not, however, gone far on their way---on the walk rather
+unfrequented at this time of day---before Gillian exclaimed, 'Is that
+Kally?  Oh! and who is that with her?'  For there certainly was a
+figure in somewhat close proximity, the ulster and pork-pie hat being
+such as to make the gender doubtful.
+
+'How late she is!  I am afraid her mother is worse,' said Miss Mohun,
+quickening her steps a little, and, at the angle of the road, the
+pair in front perceived them.  Kalliope turned towards them; the
+companion---about whom there was no doubt by that time---gave a
+petulant motion and hastened out of sight.
+
+In another moment they were beside Kalliope, who looked shaken and
+trembling, with tears in her eyes, which sprang forth at the warm
+pressure of her hand.
+
+'I am afraid Mrs. White is not so well,' said Miss Mohun kindly.
+
+'She is no worse, I think, thank you, but I was delayed.  Are you
+going this way?  May I walk with you?'
+
+'I will come with you to the office,' said Miss Mohun, perceiving
+that she was in great need of an escort and protector.
+
+'Oh, thank you, thank you, if it is not too much out of your way.'
+
+A few more words passed about Mrs. White's illness and what advice
+she was having.  Miss Mohun could not help thinking that the daughter
+did not quite realise the extent of the illness, for she added---
+
+'It was a good deal on the nerves and mind.  She was so anxious about
+Mr. James White's arrival.'
+
+'Have you not seen him?'
+
+'Oh no!  Not yet.'
+
+'I think you will be agreeably surprised,' said Gillian.  And here
+they left her at Mrs. Giles's door.
+
+'Yes,' added Miss Mohun, 'he gave me the idea of a kind, just man.'
+
+'Miss Mohun,' said the poor girl, as soon as they were tete-a-tete,
+'I know you are very good.  Will you tell me what I ought to do?  You
+saw just now---'
+
+'I did; and I have heard.'
+
+Her face was all in a flame and her voice choked.  'He says---Mr.
+Frank does---that his mother has found out, and that she will tell her
+own story to Mr. White; and---and we shall all get the sack, as he
+calls it; and it will be utter misery, and he will not stir a finger
+to vindicate me; but if I will listen to him, he will speak to Mr.
+White, and bear me through; but I can't---I can't.  I know he is a bad
+man; I know how he treated poor Edith Vane.  I never can; and how
+shall I keep out of his way?'
+
+'My poor child,' said Miss Mohun, 'it is a terrible position for you;
+but you are doing quite right.  I do not believe Mr. White would go
+much by what that young man says, for I know he does not think highly
+of him.'
+
+'But he does go altogether by Mr. Stebbing---altogether, and I know
+he---Mr. Stebbing, I mean---can't bear us, and would not keep us on if
+he could help it.  He has been writing for another designer---an
+artist---instead of me.'
+
+'Still, you would be glad to have the connection severed?'
+
+'Oh yes, I should be glad enough to be away; but what would become of
+my mother and the children?'
+
+'Remember your oldest friends are on their way home; and I will try
+to speak to Mr. White myself.'
+
+They had reached the little door of Kalliope's office, which she
+could open with a latch-key, and Miss Mohun was just about to say
+some parting words, when there was a sudden frightful rumbling sound,
+something between a clap of thunder and the carting of stones, and
+the ground shook under their feet, while a cry went up---loud, horror-
+struck men and women's voices raised in dismay.
+
+Jane had heard that sound once before.  It was the fall of part of
+the precipitous cliff, much of which had been quarried away.  But in
+spite of all precautions, frost and rain were in danger of loosening
+the remainder, and wire fences were continually needing to be placed
+to prevent the walking above on edges that might be perilous.
+
+Where was it?  What had it done? was the instant thought.  Kalliope
+turned as pale as death; the girls came screaming and thronging out
+of their workshop, the men from their sheds, the women from the
+cottages, as all thronged to the more open space beyond the buildings
+where they could see, while Miss Mohun found herself clasped by her
+trembling niece.
+
+Others were rushing up from the wharf.  One moment's glance showed
+all familiar with the place that a projecting point, forming a sort
+of cusp in the curve of the bay, had gone, and it lay, a great
+shattered mass, fragments spreading far and wide, having crashed
+through the roof of a stable that stood below.
+
+There was a general crowding forward to the spot, and crying and
+exclamation, and a shouting of 'All right' from above and below.  Had
+any one come down with it?  A double horror seized Miss Mohun as she
+remembered that her cousin was to inspect those parts that very
+afternoon.
+
+She caught at the arm of a man and demanded, 'Was any one up there?'
+
+'Master's there, and some gentlemen; but they hain't brought down
+with it,' said the man.  'Don't be afraid, miss.  Thank the Lord, no
+one was under the rock---horses even out at work.'
+
+'Thank God, indeed!' exclaimed Miss Mohun, daring now to look up, and
+seeing, not very distinctly, some figures of men, who, however, were
+too high up and keeping too far from the dangerous broken edge for
+recognition.
+
+Room was made for the two ladies, by the men who knew Miss Mohun, to
+push forward, so as to have a clearer view of the broken wall and
+roof of the stable, and the great ruddy blue and white veined mass of
+limestone rock, turf, and bush adhering to what had been the top.
+
+There was a moment's silence through the crowd, a kind of awe at the
+spectacle and the possibilities that had been mercifully averted.
+
+Then one of the men said---
+
+'That was how it was.  I saw one of them above---not Stebbing---No---
+coming out to the brow; and after this last frost, not a doubt but
+that must have been enough to bring it down.'
+
+'Not railed off, eh?' said the voice of young Stebbing from among the
+crowd.
+
+'Well, it were marked with big stones where the rail should go,' said
+another.  'I know, for I laid 'em myself; but there weren't no orders
+given.'
+
+'There weren't no stones either.  Some one been and took 'em away,'
+added the first speaker.
+
+'I see how it is,' Frank Stebbing's metallic voice could plainly be
+heard, flavoured with an oath.  'This is your neglect, White,
+droning, stuck-up sneak as you always were and will be!  I shall
+report this.  Damage to property, and maybe life, all along of your
+confounded idleness.'
+
+And there were worse imprecations, which made Miss Mohun break out in
+a tone of shocked reproof---
+
+'Mr. Stebbing!'
+
+'I beg your pardon, Miss Mohun; I was not aware of your presence---'
+
+'Nor of a Higher One,' she could not help interposing, while he went
+on justifying himself.
+
+'It is the only way to speak to these fellows; and it is enough to
+drive one mad to see what comes of the neglect of a conceited young
+ass above his business.  Life and property---'
+
+'But life is safe, is it not?' she interrupted with a shudder.
+
+'Ay, ay, ma'am,' said the voice of the workman, 'or we should know it
+by this time.'
+
+But at that moment a faint, gasping cry caught Jane's ear.
+
+Others heard it too.  It was a child's voice, and grew stronger after
+a moment.  It came from the corner of the shed outside the stable.
+
+'Oh, oh!' cried the women, pressing forward, 'the poor little
+Fields!'
+
+Then it was recollected that Mrs. Field---one of those impracticable
+women on whom the shafts of school officers were lost, and who was
+always wandering in the town---had been seen going out, leaving two
+small children playing about, the younger under the charge of the
+elder.  The father was a carter, and had been sent on some errand
+with the horses.
+
+This passed while anxious hands were struggling with stones and
+earth, foremost among them Alexis White.  The utmost care was needful
+to prevent the superincumbent weight from falling in and crushing the
+life there certainly was beneath, happily not the rock from above,
+but some of the debris of the stable.  Frank Stebbing and the foreman
+had to drive back anxious crowds, and keep a clear space.
+
+Then came running, shrieking, pushing her way through the men, the
+poor mother, who had to be forcibly withheld by Miss Mohun and one of
+the men from precipitating herself on the pile of rubbish where her
+children were buried, and so shaking it as to make their destruction
+certain.
+
+Those were terrible moments; but when the mother's voice penetrated
+to the children, a voice answered---
+
+'Mammy, mammy get us out, there's a stone on Tommy,'--at least so the
+poor woman understood the lispings, almost stifled; and she shrieked
+again, 'Mammy's coming, darlings!'
+
+The time seemed endless, though it was probably only a few minutes
+before it was found that the children were against the angle of the
+shed, where the wall and a beam had protected the younger, a little
+girl of five, who seemed to be unhurt.  But, alas! though the boy's
+limbs were not crushed, a heavy stone had fallen on his temple.
+
+The poor woman would not believe that life was gone.  She disregarded
+the little one, who screamed for mammy and clutched her skirts, in
+spite of the attempts of the women to lift her up and comfort her;
+and gathering the poor lifeless boy in her arms, she alternately
+screamed for the doctor and uttered coaxing, caressing calls to the
+child.
+
+She neither heard nor heeded Miss Mohun, with whom, indeed, her
+relations had not been agreeable; and as a young surgeon, sniffing
+the accident from afar, had appeared on the scene, and had, at the
+first glance, made an all too significant gesture, Jane thought it
+safe to leave the field to him and a kind, motherly, good neighbour,
+who promised her to send up to Beechcroft Cottage in case there was
+anything to be done for the unhappy woman or the poor father.  Mr.
+Hablot, who now found his way to the spot, promised to walk on and
+prepare him: he was gone with a marble cross to a churchyard some
+five miles off.
+
+Gillian had not spoken a word all this time.  She felt perfectly
+stunned and bewildered, as if it was a dream, and she could not
+understand it.  Only for a moment did she see the bleeding face and
+prone limbs of the poor boy, and that sent a shuddering horror over
+her, so that she felt like fainting; but she had so much recollection
+and self-consciousness, that horror of causing a sensation and giving
+trouble sent the blood back to her heart, and she kept her feet by
+holding hard to her aunt's arm and presently Miss Mohun felt how
+tight and trembling was the grasp, and then saw how white she was.
+
+'My dear, we must get home directly,' she said kindly.  'Lean on me---
+there.'
+
+There was leisure now, as they turned away, for others to see the
+young lady's deadly paleness, and there were invitations to houses
+and offers of all succours at hand, but the dread of 'a fuss' further
+revived Gillian, and all that was accepted was a seat for a few
+moments and a glass of water, which Aunt Jane needed almost as much
+as she did.
+
+Though the girl's colour was coming back, and she said she could walk
+quite well, both had such aching knees and such shaken limbs that
+they were glad to hold by each other as they mounted the sloping
+road, and half-way up Gillian came to a sudden stop.
+
+'Aunt Jane,' she said, panting and turning pale again, 'you heard
+that dreadful man.  Oh! do you think it was true?  Fergus's bit of
+spar---Alexis not minding.  Oh! then it is all our doing!'
+
+'I can't tell.  Don't you think about it now,' said Aunt Jane,
+feeling as if the girl were going to swoon on the spot in the shock.
+'Consequences are not in our hands.  Whatever it came from, and very
+sad it was, there was great mercy, and we have only to thank God it
+was no worse.'
+
+When at last aunt and niece reached home, they had no sooner opened
+the front door than Adeline came almost rushing out of the drawing-
+room.
+
+'Oh! my dearest Jane,' she cried, clasping and kissing her sister,
+'wasn't it dreadful?  Where were you?  Mr. White knows no one was
+hurt below, but I could not be easy till you came in.'
+
+'Mr. White!'
+
+'Yes; Mr. White was so kind as to come and tell me---and about
+Rotherwood.'
+
+'What about Rotherwood?' exclaimed Miss Mohun, advancing into the
+drawing-room, where Mr. White had risen from his seat.
+
+'Nothing to be alarmed about.  Indeed, I assure you, his
+extraordinary presence of mind and agility---'
+
+'What was it?' as she and Gillian each sank into a chair, the one
+breathless, the other with the faintness renewed by the fresh shock,
+but able to listen as Mr. White told first briefly, then with more
+detail, how---as the surveying party proceeded along the path at the
+top of the cliffs, he and Lord Rotherwood comparing recollections of
+the former outline, now much changed by quarrying---the Marquis had
+stepped out to a slightly projecting point; Mr. Stebbing had uttered
+a note of warning, knowing how liable these promontories were to
+break away in the end of winter, and happily Lord Rotherwood had
+turned and made a step or two back, when the rock began to give way
+under his feet, so that, being a slight and active man, a spring and
+bound forward had actually carried him safely to the firm ground, and
+the others, who had started back in self-preservation, then in
+horror, fully believing him borne down to destruction, saw him the
+next instant lying on his face on the path before them.  When on his
+feet, he had declared himself unhurt, and solely anxious as to what
+the fall of rock might have done beneath; but he was reassured by
+those cries of 'All right' which were uttered before the poor little
+Fields were discovered; and then, when the party were going to make
+their way down to inspect the effects of the catastrophe, he had
+found that he had not escaped entirely unhurt.  Of course he had been
+forced to leap with utter want of heed, only as far and wide as he
+could, and thus, though he had lighted on his feet, he had fallen
+against a stone, and pain and stiffness of shoulder made themselves
+apparent; though he would accept no help in walking back to the
+hotel, and was only anxious not to frighten his wife and daughter,
+and desired Mr. White, who had volunteered to go, to tell the ladies
+next door that he was convinced it was nothing, or, if anything, only
+a trifle of a collar-bone.  Mr. White had, since the arrival of the
+surgeon, made an expedition of inquiry, and heard this verdict
+confirmed, with the further assurance that there was no cause for
+anxiety.  The account of the damage and disaster below was new to
+him, as his partner had declared the stables to be certain to be
+empty, and moreover in need of being rebuilt; and he departed to find
+Mr. Stebbing and make inquiries.
+
+Miss Mohun, going to the hotel, saw the governess, and heard that all
+was going on well, and that Lord Rotherwood insisted that nothing was
+the matter, and would not hear of going to bed, but was lying on the
+sofa in the sitting-room.  Her ladyship presently came out, and
+confirmed the account; but Jane agreed with her that, if possible,
+the knowledge of the poor child's death should be kept from him that
+night, lest the shock should make him feverish.  However, in that
+very moment when she was off guard, the communication had been made
+by his valet, only too proud to have something to tell, and with the
+pleasing addition that Miss Mohun had had a narrow escape.  Whereupon
+ensued an urgent message to Miss Mohun to come and tell him all about
+it.
+
+Wife and cousin exchanged glances of consternation, and perhaps each
+knew she might be thankful that he did not come himself instead of
+sending, and yet feared that the abstinence was a proof more of
+incapacity than of submission.
+
+Lying there in a dressing-gown over a strapped shoulder, he showed
+his agitation by being more than usually unable to finish a sentence.
+
+'Jenny, Jenny---you are---are you all safe? not frightened?'
+
+'Oh no, no, I was a great way off; I only heard the noise, and I did
+not know you were there.'
+
+'Ah! there must be---something must be meant for me to do.  Heaven
+must mean---thank Him!  But is it true---a poor child?  Can't one ever
+be foolish without hurting more than one's self?'
+
+Jane told him the truth calmly and quietly, explaining that the
+survivor was entirely unhurt, and the poor little victim could not
+have suffered; adding with all her heart, 'The whole thing was full
+of mercy, and I do not think you need blame yourself for
+heedlessness, for it was an accident that the place was not marked.'
+
+'Shameful neglect' said Lady Rotherwood.
+
+'The partner---what's-his-name---Stebbing---said something about his son
+being away.  An untrustworthy substitute, wasn't there?' said Lord
+Rotherwood.
+
+'The son was the proficient in Leopardine Italian we heard of last
+night,' said Jane.  'I don't know what he may be as an overlooker
+here.  He certainly fell furiously on the substitute, a poor cousin
+of Mr. White's own, but I am much afraid the origin of the mischief
+was nearer home---Master Fergus's geological researches.'
+
+'Fergus!  Why, he is a mite.'
+
+'Yes, but Maurice encore.  However, I must find out from him whether
+this is only a foreboding of my prophetic soul!'
+
+'Curious cattle,' observed Lord Rotherwood.
+
+'Well,' put in his wife, 'I do not think Ivinghoe has ever given us
+cause for anxiety.'
+
+'Exactly the reason that I am always expecting him to break out in
+some unexpected place!  No, Victoria,' he added, seeing that she did
+not like this, 'I am quite ready to allow that we have a model son,
+and I only pity him for not having a model father.'
+
+'Well, I am not going to stay and incite you to talk nonsense,' said
+Jane, rising to depart; 'I will let you know my discoveries.'
+
+She found Fergus watching for her at the gate, with the appeal, 'Aunt
+Jane, there's been a great downfall of cliff, and I want to see what
+formations it has brought to light, but they won't let me through to
+look at it, though I told them White always did.'
+
+'I do not suppose that they will allow any one to meddle with it at
+present,' said Aunt Jane; then, as Fergus made an impatient
+exclamation, she added, 'Do you know that a poor little boy was
+killed, and Cousin Rotherwood a good deal hurt?'
+
+'Yes,' said Fergus, 'Big Blake said so.'
+
+'And now, Fergus, I want to know where you took that large stone from
+that you showed me with the crack of spar.'
+
+'With the micaceous crystals,' corrected Fergus.  'It was off the top
+of that very cliff that fell down, so I am sure there must be more in
+it; and some one else will get them if they won't let me go and see
+for them.'
+
+'And Alexis White gave you leave to take it?'
+
+'Oh yes, I always ask him.'
+
+'Were you at the place when you asked him, Fergus?'
+
+'At the place on the cliff?  No.  For I couldn't find him for a long
+time, and I carried it all the way down the steps.'
+
+'And you did not tell him where it came from?'
+
+'He didn't ask.  Indeed, Aunt Jane, I always did show him what I
+took, and he would have let me in now, only he was not at the office;
+and the man at the gate, Big Blake, was as savage as a bear, and
+slammed the door on me, and said they wouldn't have no idle boys
+loafing about there.  And when I said I wasn't an idle boy but a
+scientific mineralogist, and that Mr. Alexis White always let me in,
+he laughed in my face, and said Mr. Alexis had better look out for
+himself.  I shall tell Stebbing how cheeky he was.'
+
+'My dear Fergus, there was good reason for keeping you out.  You did
+not know it, nor Alexis; but those stones were put to show that the
+cliff was getting dangerous, and to mark where to put an iron fence;
+and it was the greatest of mercies that Rotherwood's life was saved.'
+
+The boy looked a little sobered, but his aunt had rather that his
+next question had not been: 'Do you think they will let me go there
+again!'
+
+However, she knew very well that conviction must slowly soak in, and
+that nothing would be gained by frightening him, so that all she did
+that night was to send a note by Mysie to her cousin, explaining her
+discovery; and she made up her mind to take Fergus to the inquest the
+next day, since his evidence would exonerate Alexis from the most
+culpable form of carelessness.
+
+Only, however, in the morning, when she had ascertained the hour of
+the inquest, did she write a note to Mrs. Edgar to explain Fergus's
+absence from school, or inform the boy of what she intended.  On the
+whole he was rather elated at being so important as to be able to
+defend Alexis White, and he was quite above believing that scientific
+research could be reckoned by any one as mischief.
+
+Just as Miss Mohun had gone up to get ready, Mysie ran in to say that
+Cousin Rotherwood would be at the door in a moment to take Fergus
+down.
+
+'Lady Rotherwood can't bear his going,' said Mysie, 'and Mr. White
+and Mr. Stebbing say that he need not; but he is quite determined,
+though he has got his arm in a sling, for he says it was all his
+fault for going where he ought not.  And he won't have the carriage,
+for he says it would shake his bones ever so much more than Shank's
+mare.'
+
+'Just like him,' said Aunt Jane.  'Has Dr. Dagger given him leave?'
+
+'Yes; he said it wouldn't hurt him; but Lady Rotherwood told Miss
+Elbury she was sure he persuaded him.'
+
+Mysie's confused pronouns were cut short by Lord Rotherwood's own
+appearance.
+
+'You need not go, Jane,' he said.  'I can take care of this little
+chap.  They'll not chop off his head in the presence of one of the
+Legislature.'
+
+'Nice care to begin by chaffing him out of his wits,' she retorted.
+'The question is, whether you ought to go.'
+
+'Yes, Jenny, I must go.  It can't damage me; and besides, to tell the
+truth, it strikes me that things will go hard with that unlucky young
+fellow if some one is not there to stand up for him and elicit
+Fergus's evidence.'
+
+'Alexis White!'
+
+'White---ay, a cousin or something of the exemplary boss.  He's been
+dining with his partners---the old White, I mean---and they've been
+cramming him---I imagine with a view to scapegoat treatment---jealousy,
+and all the rest of it.  If there is not a dismissal, there's a
+hovering on the verge.'
+
+'Exactly what I was afraid of,' said Jane.  'Oh, Rotherwood, I could
+tell you volumes.  But may I not come down with you?  Could not I do
+something?'
+
+'Well, on the whole, you are better away, Jenny.  Consider William's
+feelings.  Womankind, even Brownies, are better out of it.  Prejudice
+against proteges, whether of petticoats or cassocks---begging your
+pardon.  I can fight battles better as an unsophisticated stranger
+coming down fresh, though I don't expect any one from the barony of
+Beechcroft to believe it, and maybe the less I know of your volumes
+the better till after---
+
+'Oh, Rotherwood, as if I wasn't too thankful to have you to send for
+me!'
+
+'There!  I've kept the firm out there waiting an unconscionable time.
+They'll think you are poisoning my mind.  Come along, you imp of
+science.  Trust me, I'll not bully him, though it's highly tempting
+to make the chien chasser de race.'
+
+'Oh, Aunt Jane, won't you go?' exclaimed Gillian in despair, as her
+cousin waved a farewell at the gate.
+
+'No, my dear; it is not for want of wishing, but he is quite right.
+He can do much better than I could.'
+
+'But is he in earnest, aunt?'
+
+'Oh yes, most entirely, and I quite see that he is right---indeed I
+do, Gillian.  People pretend to defer to a lady, but they really
+don't like her poking her nose in, and, after all, I could have no
+right to say anything.  My only excuse for going was to take care of
+Fergus.'
+
+A further token of Lord Rotherwood's earnestness in the cause was the
+arrival of his servant, who was to bring down the large stone which
+Master Merrifield had moved, and who conveyed it in a cab, being much
+too grand to carry it through the streets.
+
+Gillian was very unhappy and restless, unable to settle to anything,
+and linking cause and effect together disconsolately in a manner
+Mysie, whom she admitted to her confidence, failed to understand.
+
+'It was a great pity Fergus did not show Alexis where the stone came
+from, but I don't see what your not giving him his lessons had to do
+with it.  Made him unhappy?  Oh! Gilly dear, you don't mean any one
+would be too unhappy to mind his business for such nonsense as that!
+I am sure none of us would be so stupid if Mr. Pollock forgot our
+Greek lessons.'
+
+'Certainly not,' said Gillian, almost laughing; 'but you don't
+understand, Mysie.  It was the taking him up and letting him down,
+and I could not explain it, and it looked so nasty and capricious.'
+
+'Well, I suppose you ought to have asked Aunt Jane's leave; but I do
+think he must be a ridiculous young man if he could not attend to his
+proper work because you did not go after him when you were only just
+come home.'
+
+'Ah, Mysie, you don't understand!'
+
+Mysie opened a round pair of brown eyes, and said, 'Oh! I did think
+people were never so silly out of poetry.  There was Wilfrid in
+Hokeby, to be sure.  He was stupid enough about Matilda; but do you
+mean that he is like that!'
+
+'Don't, don't, you dreadful child; I wish I had never spoken to you,'
+cried Gillian, overwhelmed with confusion.  'You must never say a
+word to any living creature.'
+
+'I am sure I shan't,' said Mysie composedly; 'for, as far as I can
+see, it is all stuff.  This Alexis never found out what Fergus was
+about with the stone, and so the mark was gone, and Cousin Rotherwood
+trod on it, and the poor little boy was killed; but as to the rest,
+Nurse Halfpenny would say it was all conceited maggots; and how you
+can make so much more fuss about that than about the poor child being
+crushed, I can't make out.'
+
+'But if I think it all my fault?'
+
+'That's maggots,' returned Mysie with uncompromising common-sense.
+'You aren't old enough, nor pretty enough, for any of that kind of
+stuff, Gill!'
+
+And Gillian found that either she must go without comprehension, or
+have a great deal more implied, if she turned for sympathy to any one
+save Aunt Jane, who seemed to know exactly how the land lay.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.  VANISHED
+
+
+
+It seemed to be a very long time before the inquest was over, and
+Aunt Jane had almost yielded to her niece's impatience and her own,
+and consented to walk down to meet the intelligence, when Fergus came
+tearing in, 'I've seen the rock, and there is a flaw of crystal-
+lisation in it!  And the coroner-man called me an incipient
+geologist.'
+
+'But the verdict?'
+
+'They said it was accidental death, and something about more care
+being taken and valuable lives endangered.'
+
+'And Alexis White---'
+
+'Oh! there was a great bother about his not being there.  They said
+it looked very bad; but they could not find him.'
+
+'Not find him!  Oh!  Where is Cousin Rotherwood?'
+
+'He is coming home, and he said I might run on, and tell you that if
+you had time to come in to the hotel he would tell you about it.'
+
+With which invitation Miss Mohun hastened to comply; Gillian was
+ardent to come too, and it seemed cruel to prevent her; but, besides
+that Jane thought that her cousin might be tired enough to make his
+wife wish him to see as few people as possible, she was not sure that
+Gillian might not show suspicious agitation, and speech and action
+would not be free in her presence.  So the poor girl was left to
+extract what she could from her little brother, which did not amount
+to much.
+
+It was a propitious moment, for Jane met Lord Rotherwood at the door
+of the hotel, parting with Mr. White; she entered with him, and his
+wife, after satisfying herself that he was not the worse for his
+exertions, was not sorry that he should have his cousin to keep him
+quiet in his easy-chair while she went off to answer a pile of
+letters which had just been forwarded from home.
+
+'Well, Jenny,' he said, 'I am afraid your protege does not come out
+of it very well; that is, if he is your protege.  He must be an
+uncommonly foolish young man.'
+
+'I reserve myself on that point.  But is it true that he never
+appeared?'
+
+'Quite true.'
+
+'Didn't they send for him?'
+
+'Yes; but he could not be found, either at the works or at home.
+However, the first might be so far accounted for, since he met at his
+desk a notice of dismissal from White and Stebbing.'
+
+'No!  Really.  Concocted at that unlucky dinner yesterday!  But, of
+course, it was not immediate.'
+
+'Of course not, and perhaps something might have been done for him;
+but a man who disappears condemns himself.'
+
+'But what for?  I hope Fergus explained that the stone was not near
+the spot when he showed it.'
+
+'Yes; Fergus spoke up like a little man, and got more credit than he
+deserved.  If they had known that of all varieties of boys the
+scientific is the worst imp of mischief!  It all went in order due---
+surgeon explained injuries to poor little being---men how the stone
+came down and they dug him out---poor little baby-sister made out her
+sad little story.  That was the worst part of all.  Something must be
+done for that child---orphanage or something---only unluckily there's
+the father and mother.  Poor father! he is the one to be pitied.  I
+mean to get at him without the woman.  Well, then came my turn, and
+how I am afflicted with the habit of going where I ought not, and,
+only by a wonderful mercy, was saved from being part of the general
+average below.  Then we got to the inquiry, Were not dangerous places
+railed off?  Yes, Stebbing explained that it was the rule of the firm
+to have the rocks regularly inspected once a month, and once a
+fortnight in winter and spring, when the danger is greater.  If they
+were ticklish, the place was marked at the moment with big stones,
+reported, and railed off.  An old foreman-sort of fellow swore to
+having detected the danger, and put stones.  He had reported it.  To
+whom?  To Mr. Frank.  Yes, he thought it was Mr. Frank, just before
+he went away.  It was this fellow's business to report it and send
+the order, it seems, and in his absence Alexander White, or whatever
+they call him, took his work.  Well, the old man doesn't seem to know
+whether he mentioned the thing to young White or not, which made his
+absence more unlucky; but, anyway, the presence of the stones was
+supposed to be a sufficient indication of the need of the rail, or to
+any passenger to avoid the place.  In fact, if Master White had been
+energetic, he would have seen to the thing.  I fancy that is the long
+and short of it.  But when the question came how the stones came to
+be removed, I put Fergus forward.  The foreman luckily could identify
+his stone by the precious crack of spar; and the boy explained how he
+had lugged it down, and showed it to his friend far away from its
+place---had, in fact, turned over and displaced all the lot.'
+
+'Depend upon it, Alexis has gone out of the way to avoid accusing
+Fergus!'
+
+'Don't make me start, it hurts; but do you really believe that, Jane-
+--you, the common-sense female of the family?'
+
+'Indeed I do, he is a romantic, sensitive sort of fellow, who would
+not defend himself at the boy's expense.'
+
+'Whew!  He might have stood still and let Fergus defend him, then,
+instead of giving up his own cause.'
+
+'And how did it end?'
+
+'Accidental death, of course; couldn't be otherwise; but censure on
+the delay and neglect of precaution, which the common opinion of the
+Court naturally concentrated on the absent; though, no doubt, the
+first omission was young Stebbing's; but owing to the hurry of his
+start for Italy, that was easily excused.  And even granting that
+Fergus did the last bit of mischief, your friend may be romantically
+generous, if you please; but he must have been very slack in his
+work.'
+
+'Poor fellow---yes.  Now before I tell you what I know about him, I
+should like to hear how Mr. Stebbing represents him.  You know his
+father was a lieutenant in the Royal Wardours.'
+
+'Risen from the ranks, a runaway cousin of White's.  Yes, and there's
+a son in a lawyer's office always writing to White for money.'
+
+'Oh!  I never had much notion of that eldest---'
+
+'They have no particular claim on White; but when the father died he
+wrote to Stebbing to give those that were old enough occupation at
+the works, and see that the young ones got educated.'
+
+'So he lets the little boys go to the National School, though there's
+no great harm in that as yet.'
+
+'He meant to come and see after them himself, and find out what they
+are made of.  But meantime this youth, who did well at first, is
+always running after music and nonsense of all kinds, thinking
+himself above his business, neglecting right and left; while as to
+the sister, she is said to be very clever at designing---both ways in
+fact---so determined to draw young Stebbing in, that, having got proof
+of it at last, they have dismissed her too.  And, Jane, I hardly like
+to tell you, but somehow they mix Gillian up in the business.  They
+ate it up again when I cut them short by saying she was my cousin,
+her mother and you like my sisters.  I am certain it is all nonsense,
+but had you any notion of any such thing?  It is insulting you,
+though, to suppose you had not,' he added, as he saw her air of
+acquiescence; 'so, of course, it is all right.'
+
+'It is not all right, but not so wrong as all that.  Oh no! and I
+know all about it from poor Gill herself and the girl.  Happily they
+are both too good girls to need prying.  Well, the case is this.
+There was a quarrel about a love story between the two original
+Whites, who must both have had a good deal of stuff in them.  Dick
+ran away, enlisted, rose, and was respected by Jasper, etc., but was
+married to a Greco-Hibernian wife, traditionally very beautiful, poor
+woman, though rather the reverse at present.  Lily and her girls did
+their best for the young people with good effect on the eldest girl,
+who really in looks and ways is worthy of her Muse's name, Kalliope.
+Father had to retire with rank of captain, and died shortly after.
+Letters failed to reach the Merrifields, who were on the move.  This
+Quarry cousin was written to, and gave the help he described to you.
+Perhaps it was just, but it disappointed them, and while the father
+lived, Alexis had been encouraged to look to getting to the
+University and Holy Orders.  He has a good voice, and the young
+curate at the Kennel patronised him, perhaps a little capriciously,
+but I am not quite sure.  All this was unknown to me till the
+Merrifield children came, and Gillian, discovering these Whites, flew
+upon them in the true enthusiastic Lily-fashion, added to the
+independence of the modern maiden mistrustful of old cats of aunts.
+Like a little goose, she held trystes with Kalliope, through the
+rails at the top of the garden on Sunday afternoons.'
+
+'Only Kalliope!'
+
+'Cela va sans dire.  The brother was walking the young ones on the
+cliffs whence she had been driven by the attentions of Master Frank
+Stebbing.  Poor thing, she is really beautiful enough to be a
+misfortune to her, and so is the youth---Maid of Athens, Irish eyes,
+plus intellect.  Gill lent books, and by and by volunteered to help
+the lad with his Greek.'
+
+'Whew---'
+
+'Just as she would teach a night-school class.  She used to give him
+lessons at his sister's office.  I find that as soon as Kalliope
+found it was unknown to me she protested, and did all in her power to
+prevent it, but Gillian had written all to her mother, and thought
+that sufficient.'
+
+'And Lily---? Victoria would have gone crazy---supposing such a thing
+possible,' he added, sotto voce.
+
+'Lily was probably crazy already between her sick husband and her
+bridal daughters, for she answered nothing intelligible.  However,
+absence gave time for reflection, and Gillian came home after her
+visits convinced by her own good sense and principle that she had not
+acted fairly towards us, so that, of her own accord, the first thing
+she did was to tell me the whole, and how much the sister had always
+objected.  She was quite willing that I should talk it over with
+Kalliope before she went near them again, but I have never been able
+really to do so.'
+
+'Then it was all Greek and---"Lilyism!"  Lily's grammar over again,
+eh!'
+
+'On her side, purely so---but I am afraid she did upset the boy's
+mind.  He seems to have been bitterly disappointed at what must have
+appeared like neglect and offence---and oh! you know how silly youths
+can be---and he had Southern blood too, poor fellow, and he went
+mooning and moping about, I am afraid really not attending to his
+business; and instead of taking advantage of the opening young
+Stebbing's absence gave him of showing his abilities, absolutely gave
+them the advantage against him, by letting them show him up as an
+idle fellow.'
+
+'Or worse.  Stebbing talked of examining the accounts, to see if
+there were any deficiency.'
+
+'That can be only for the sake of prejudicing Mr. White---they cannot
+really suspect him.'
+
+'If not, it was very good acting, and Stebbing appears to me just the
+man to suspect a parson's pet, and a lady's---as he called this
+unlucky fellow.'
+
+'Ask any of the workmen---ask Mr. Flight.'
+
+'Well, I wish he had come to the front.  It looks bad for him, and
+your plea, Jenny, is more like Lily than yourself.'
+
+'Thank you; I had rather be like Lily than myself.'
+
+'And you are equally sure that the sister is maligned?'
+
+'Quite sure---on good evidence---the thing is how to lay it all before
+Mr. White, for you see these Stebbings evidently want to prevent him
+from taking to his own kindred---you must help me, Rotherwood.'
+
+'When I am convinced,' he said.  'My dear Jenny, I beg your pardon---I
+have an infinite respect for your sagacity, but allow me to observe,
+though your theory holds together, still it has rather an ancient and
+fish-like smell.'
+
+'I only ask you to investigate, and make him do so.  Listen to any
+one who knows, to any one but the Stebbings, and you will find what
+an admirable girl the sister is, and that the poor boy is perfectly
+blameless of anything but being forced into a position for which he
+was never intended, and of all his instincts rebelling.'
+
+They were interrupted by the arrival of the doctor, whom Lady
+Rotherwood had bound over to come and see whether her husband was the
+worse for his exertions.  He came in apologising most unnecessarily
+for his tardiness.  And in the midst of Miss Mohun's mingled greeting
+and farewell, she stood still to hear him say that he had been
+delayed by being called in to that poor woman, Mrs. White, who had
+had a fit on hearing the policeman inquiring for that young scamp,
+her son.
+
+'The policeman!' ejaculated Jane in consternation.
+
+'It was only to summon him to attend the inquest,' explained Dr.
+Dagger, 'but there was no one in the house with her but a little
+maid, and the shock was dreadful.  If he has really absconded, it
+looks exceedingly ill for him.'
+
+'I believe he has only been inattentive,' said Jane firmly, knowing
+that she ought to go, and yet feeling constrained to wait long enough
+to ask what was the state of the poor mother, and if her daughter
+were with her.
+
+'The daughter was sent for, and seems to be an effective person---
+uncommonly handsome, by the bye.  The attack was hysteria, but there
+is evidently serious disease about her, which may be accelerated.'
+
+'I thought so.  I am afraid she has had no advice.'
+
+'No; I promised the daughter to come and examine her to-morrow when
+she is calmer, and if that son is good for anything, he may have
+returned.'
+
+And therewith Jane was forced to go away, to carry this wretched news
+to poor Gillian.
+
+Aunt and niece went as soon as the mid-day meal was over to inquire
+for poor Mrs. White, and see what could be done.  She was sleeping
+under an opiate, and Kalliope came down, pale as marble, but
+tearless.  She knew nothing of her brother since she had given him
+his breakfast that morning.  He had looked white and haggard, and had
+not slept, neither did he eat.  She caught at the theory that had
+occurred to Miss Mohun, that he did not like to accuse Fergus, for
+even to her he had not mentioned who had removed the stone.  In that
+case he might return at night.  Yet it was possible that he did not
+know even now whence the stone had come, and it was certain that he
+had been at his office that morning, and opened the letter announcing
+his dismissal.  Kalliope, going later, had found the like notice, but
+had had little time to dwell on it before she had been summoned home
+to her mother.  Poor Mrs. White had been much shaken by the first
+reports of yesterday's accident, which had been so told to her as to
+alarm her for both her children; and when her little maid rushed in
+to say that 'the pelis was come after Mr. Alec,' it was no wonder
+that her terror threw her into a most alarming state, which made good
+Mrs. Lee despatch her husband to bring home Kalliope; and as the
+attack would not yield to the soothing of the women or to their
+domestic remedies, but became more and more delirious and convulsive,
+the nearest doctor was sent for, and Dr. Dagger, otherwise a higher
+flight than would have been attempted, was caught on his way and
+brought in to discover how serious her condition already was.
+
+This Kalliope told them with the desperate quietness of one who could
+not afford to give way.  Her own affairs were entirely swallowed up
+in this far greater trouble, and for the present there were no means
+of helping her.  Mr. and Mrs. Lee were thoroughly kind, and ready to
+give her efficient aid in her home cares and her nursing; and it
+could only be hoped that Alexis might come back in the evening, and
+set the poor patient's mind at rest.
+
+'We will try to make Mr. White come to a better understanding,' said
+Miss Mohun kindly.
+
+'Thank you' said Kalliope, pushing back her hair with a half-
+bewildered look.  'I remember my poor mother was very anxious about
+that.  But it seems a little thing now.'
+
+'May God bless and help you, my dear,' said Miss Mohun, with a
+parting kiss.
+
+Gillian had not spoken all the time; but outside she said--'Oh, aunt!
+is this my doing?'
+
+'Not quite,' said Aunt Jane kindly.  'There were other causes.'
+
+'Oh, if I could do anything!'
+
+'Alas! it is easier to do than to undo.'
+
+Aunt Jane was really kind, and Gillian was grateful, but oh, how she
+longed for her mother!
+
+There was no better news the next morning.  Nothing had been heard of
+Alexis, and nothing would persuade his mother in her half-delirious
+and wholly unreasonable state that he had not been sent to prison,
+and that they were not keeping it from her.  She was exceedingly ill,
+and Kalliope had been up all night with her.
+
+Such was the report in a note sent up by Mrs. Lee by one of the
+little boys early in the morning, and, as soon as she could
+reasonably do so, Miss Mohun carried the report to Lord Rotherwood,
+whom she found much better, and anxious to renew the tour of
+inspection which had been interrupted.
+
+Before long, Mr. White was shown in, intending to resume the business
+discussion, and Miss Mohun was about to retreat with Lady Rotherwood,
+when her cousin, taking pity on her anxiety, said---
+
+'If you will excuse me for speaking about your family matters, Mr.
+White, my cousin knows these young people well, and I should like you
+to hear what she has been telling me.'
+
+'A gentleman has just been calling on me about them,' said Mr. White,
+not over-graciously.
+
+'Mr. Flight?' asked Jane anxiously.
+
+'Yes; a young clergyman, just what we used to call Puseyite when I
+left England; but that name seems to be gone out now.'
+
+'Anyway,' said Jane, 'I am sure he had nothing but good to say of
+Miss White, or indeed of her brother; and I am afraid the poor mother
+is very ill.'
+
+'That's true, Miss Mohun; but you see there may be one side to a lady
+or a parson, and another to a practical man like my partner.  Not but
+that I should be willing enough to do anything in reason for poor
+Dick's widow and children, but not to keep them in idleness, or
+letting them think themselves too good to work.'
+
+'That I am sure these two do not.  Their earnings quite keep the
+family.  I know no one who works harder than Miss White, between her
+business, her lodgers, the children, and her helpless mother.'
+
+'I saw her mosaics---very fair, very clever, some of them; but I'm
+afraid she is a sad little flirt, Miss Mohun.'
+
+'Mr. White,' said Lord Rotherwood, 'did ever you hear of a poor girl
+beset by an importunate youth, but his family thought it was all her
+fault?'
+
+'If Mr. White would see her,' said Jane, 'he would understand at a
+glance that the attraction is perfectly involuntary; and I know from
+other sources how persistently she has avoided young Stebbing; giving
+up Sunday walks to prevent meeting him, accepting nothing from him,
+always avoiding tete-a-tetes.'
+
+'Hum!  But tell me this, madam,' said Mr. White eagerly, 'how is it
+that, if these young folks are so steady and diligent as you would
+make out, that eldest brother writes to me every few months for help
+to support them?'
+
+'Oh!' Jane breathed out, then, rallying, 'I know nothing about that
+eldest.  Yes, I do though!  His sister told my niece that all the
+rents of the three houses went to enable Richard to appear as he
+ought at the solicitor's office at Leeds.'
+
+'There's a screw loose somewhere plainly,' said Lord Rotherwood.
+
+'The question is, where it is,' said Mr. White.
+
+'And all I hope, said Jane, 'is that Mr. White will judge for himself
+when he has seen Kalliope and made inquiries all round.  I do not say
+anything for the mother, poor thing, except that she is exceedingly
+ill just now, but I do thoroughly believe in the daughter.'
+
+'And this runaway scamp, Miss Mohun?'
+
+'I am afraid he is a runaway; but I am quite sure he is no scamp,'
+said Jane.
+
+'Only so clever as to be foolish, eh?' said the Marquis, rather
+provokingly.
+
+'Exactly so,' she answered; 'and I am certain that if Mr. White will
+trust to his own eyes and his own inquiries, he will find that I am
+right.'
+
+She knew she ought to go, and Lord Rotherwood told her afterwards,
+'That was not an ill-aimed shaft, Jane.  Stebbing got more than one
+snub over the survey.  I see that White is getting the notion that
+there's a system of hoodwinking going on, and of not letting him
+alone, and he is not the man to stand that.'
+
+'If he only would call on Kalliope!'
+
+'I suspect he is afraid of being beguiled by such a fascinating young
+woman.'
+
+It was a grievous feature in the case to Gillian that she could
+really do nothing.  Mrs. White was so ill that going to see Kalliope
+was of no use, and Maura was of an age to be made useful at home; and
+there were features in the affair that rendered it inexpedient for
+Gillian to speak of it except in the strictest confidence to Aunt
+Jane or Mysie.  It was as if she had touched a great engine, and it
+was grinding and clashing away above her while she could do nothing
+to stay its course.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.  'THEY COME, THEY COME'
+
+
+
+Dr. Dagger examined Mrs. White and pronounced that there had been
+mortal disease of long standing, and that she had nearly, if not
+quite, reached the last stage.  While people had thought her selfish,
+weak, and exacting, she must really have concealed severe suffering,
+foolishly perhaps, but with great fortitude.
+
+And from hearing this sentence, Kalliope had turned to find at last
+tidings of her brother in a letter written from Avoncester, the
+nearest garrison town.  He told his sister that, heart-broken already
+at the result of what he knew to be his own presumption, and
+horrified at the fatal consequences of his unhappy neglect, he felt
+incapable of facing any of those whom he had once called his friends,
+and the letter of dismissal had removed all scruples.  Had it not
+been for his faith and fear, he would have put an end to his life,
+but she need have no alarms on that score.  He had rushed away,
+scarce knowing what he was doing, till he had found himself on the
+road to Avoncester and then had walked on thither and enlisted in the
+regiment quartered there, where he hoped to do his duty, having no
+other hope left in life!
+
+Part of this letter Kalliope read to Miss Mohun, who had come down to
+hear the doctor's verdict.  It was no time to smile at the heart
+being broken by the return of a valentine, or all hope in life being
+over before twenty.  Kalliope, who knew what the life of a private
+was, felt wretched over it, and her poor mother was in despair; but
+Miss Mohun tried to persuade her that it was by no means an
+unfortunate thing, since Alexis would be thus detained safely and
+within reach till Sir Jasper arrived to take up the matter, and Mr.
+White had been able to understand it.
+
+'Yes; but he cannot come to my poor mother.  And Richard will be so
+angry---think it such a degradation.'
+
+'He ought not.  Your father---'
+
+'Oh! but he will.  And I must write to him.  Mother has been asking
+for him.'
+
+'Tell me, my dear, has Richard ever helped you?'
+
+'Oh no, poor fellow, he could not.  He wants all we can send him, or
+we would have put the little boys to a better school.'
+
+'I would not write before it is absolutely necessary,' said Miss
+Mohun.  'A young man hanging about with nothing to do, even under
+these circumstances, might make things harder.'
+
+'Yes, I know,' said Kalliope, with a trembling lip.  'And if it was
+urgent, even Alexis might come.  Indeed, I ought to be thankful that
+he is safe, after all my dreadful fears, and not far off.'
+
+Miss Mohun refrained from grieving the poor girl by blaming Alexis
+for the impetuous selfish folly that had so greatly added to the
+general distress of his family, and rendered it so much more
+difficult to plead his cause.  In fact, she felt bound to stand up as
+his champion against all his enemies, though he was less easy of
+defence than his sister; and Mr. Flight, the first person she met
+afterwards, was excessively angry and disappointed, speaking of such
+a step as utter ruin.
+
+'The lad was capable of so much better things,' said he.  'I had
+hoped so much of him, and had so many plans for him, that it is a
+grievous pity; but he had no patience, and now he has thrown himself
+away.  I told him it was his first duty to maintain his mother, and
+if he had stuck to that, I would have done more for him as soon as he
+was old enough, and I could see what was to be done for the rest of
+them; but he grew unsettled and impatient, and this is the end of
+it!'
+
+'Not the end, I hope,' said Miss Mohun.  'It is not exactly slavery
+without redemption.'
+
+'He does not deserve it.'
+
+'Who does?  Besides, remember what his father was.'
+
+'His father must have been of the high-spirited, dare-devil sort.
+This lad was made for a scholar---for the priesthood, in fact, and the
+army will be more uncongenial than these marble works!  Foolish
+fellow, he will soon have had enough of it, with his refinement,
+among such associates.'
+
+Jane wondered that the young clergyman did not regret that he had
+sufficiently tried the youth's patience to give the sense of neglect
+and oblivion.  There had been many factors in the catastrophe, and
+this had certainly been one, since the loan of a few books, and an
+hour a week of direction of study, would have kept Alexis contented,
+and have obviated all the perilous intercourse with Gillian; but she
+scarcely did the Rev. Augustine Flight injustice in thinking that in
+the aesthetic and the emotional side of religion he somewhat lost
+sight of the daily drudgery that works on character chiefly as a
+preventive.  'He was at the bottom of it, little as he knows it,' she
+said to herself as she walked up the hill.  'How much harm is done by
+good beginnings of a skein left to tangle.'
+
+Lady Flight provided a trained nurse to help Kalliope, and sent hosts
+of delicacies; and plenty of abuse was bestowed on Mr. James White
+for his neglect.  Meanwhile Mrs. White, though manifestly in a
+hopeless state, seemed likely to linger on for some weeks longer.
+
+In the meantime, Miss Mohun at last found an available house, and was
+gratified by the young people's murmur that 'Il Lido' was too far off
+from Beechcroft.  But then their mother would be glad to be so near
+St. Andrew's, for she belonged to the generation that loved and
+valued daily services.
+
+Lord Rotherwood, perhaps owing to his exertions, felt the accident
+more than he had done at first, and had to be kept very quiet, which
+he averred to be best accomplished by having the children in to play
+with him; and as he always insisted on sending for Valetta to make up
+the party, the edict of separation fell to the ground, when Lady
+Rotherwood, having written his letters for him, went out for a drive,
+taking sometimes Miss Elbury, but more often Adeline Mohun, who
+flattered herself that her representations had done much to subdue
+prejudice and smooth matters.
+
+'Which always were smooth,' said Jane; 'smooth and polished as a
+mahogany table, and as easy to get into.'
+
+However, she was quite content that Ada should be the preferred one,
+and perhaps no one less acute than herself would have felt that the
+treatment as intimates and as part of the family was part of the duty
+of a model wife.  Both sisters were in request to enliven the
+captive, and Jane forebore to worry him with her own anxieties about
+the present disgrace of the Whites.  Nothing could be done for
+Kalliope in her mother's present state, Alexis must drink of his own
+brewst, and Sir Jasper and Lady Merrifield were past Brindisi!  As to
+Mr. White, he seemed to be immersed in business, and made no sign of
+relenting; Jane had made one or two attempts to see him, but had not
+succeeded.  Only one of her G.F.S. maidens, who was an enthusiastic
+admirer of Kalliope, and in perfect despair at her absence, mentioned
+that Mr. White had looked over all their work and had been immensely
+struck with Miss White's designs, and especially with the table
+inlaid with autumn leaves, which had been set aside as expensive,
+unprofitable, and not according to the public taste, and not shown to
+him on his first visit to the works with Mr. Stebbing.  There were
+rumours in the air that he was not contented with the state of
+things, and might remain for some time to set them on a different
+footing.
+
+Miss Adeline had been driving with Lady Rotherwood, and on coming in
+with her for the afternoon cup of tea, found Mr. White conversing
+with Lord Rotherwood, evidently just finishing the subject---a
+reading-room or institute of some sort for the men at the works.
+
+'All these things are since my time,' said Mr. White.  'We were left
+pretty much to ourselves in those days.'
+
+'And what do you think?  Should you have been much the better for
+them?' asked the Marquis.
+
+'Some of us would,' was the answer.
+
+'You would not have thought them a bore!'
+
+'There were some who would, as plenty will now; but we were a rough
+set---we had not so much to start with as the lads, willy nilly, have
+now.  But I should have been glad of books, and diversion free from
+lawlessness might have prevented poor Dick's scrapes.  By the bye,
+that daughter of his can do good work.'
+
+'Poor thing,' said Miss Adeline, 'she is a very good girl, and in
+great trouble.  I was much pleased with her, and I think, she has
+behaved remarkably well under very trying circumstances.'
+
+'I observed that the young women in the mosaic department seemed to
+be much attached to her,' said Mr. White.
+
+'My sister thinks she has been an excellent influence there.'
+
+'She was not there,' said Mr. White.
+
+'No; her mother is too ill to be left---dying, I should think, from
+what I hear.'
+
+'From the shock of that foolish lad's evasion?' asked Lord
+Rotherwood.
+
+'She was very ill before, I believe, though that brought it to a
+crisis.  No one would believe how much that poor girl has had
+depending on her.  I wish she had been at the works---I am sure you
+would have been struck with her.'
+
+'Have you any reason to think they are in any distress, Miss Mohun?'
+
+'Not actually at present; but I do not know what they are to do in
+future, with the loss of the salaries those two have had,' said
+Adeline, exceedingly anxious to say neither too much nor too little.
+
+'There is the elder brother.'
+
+'Oh! he is no help, only an expense.'
+
+'Miss Mohun, may I ask, are you sure of that?'
+
+'As sure as I can be of anything.  I have always heard that the rents
+of their two or three small houses went to support Richard, and that
+they entirely live on the earnings of the brother and sister, except
+that you are so good as to educate the younger girl.  It has come out
+casually---they never ask for anything.'
+
+Mr. White looked very thoughtful.  Adeline considered whether
+importunity would do most harm or good; but thought her words might
+work.  When she rose to take leave, Mr. White did the same,
+'evidently,' thought she, 'for the sake of escorting her home,' and
+she might perhaps say another word in confidence for the poor young
+people.  She had much reliance, and not unjustly, on her powers of
+persuasion, and she would make the most of those few steps to her own
+door.
+
+'Indeed, Mr. White,' she began, 'excuse me, but I cannot help being
+very much interested in those young people we were speaking of.'
+
+'That is your goodness, Miss Mohun.  I have no doubt they are
+attractive---there's no end to the attractiveness of those Southern
+folk they belong to---on one side of the house at least, but
+unfortunately you never know where to have them---there's no truth in
+them; and though I don't want to speak of anything I may have done
+for them, I can't get over their professing never to have had
+anything from me.'
+
+'May I ask whether you sent it through that eldest brother?'
+
+'Certainly; he always wrote to me.'
+
+'Then, Mr. White, I cannot help believing that the family here never
+heard of it.  Do you know anything of that young man?'
+
+'No; I will write to his firm and inquire.  Thank you for the hint,
+Miss Mohun.'
+
+They were at Beechcroft Cottage gate, and he seemed about to see her
+even to the door.  At that instant a little girlish figure advanced
+and was about to draw back on perceiving that Miss Adeline was not
+alone, when she exclaimed, 'Maura, is it you, out so late!  How is
+your mother?'
+
+'Much the same, thank you, Miss Adeline!'
+
+'Here is one of the very young folks we were mentioning,' said Ada,
+seeing her opportunity and glad that there was light enough to show
+the lady-like little figure.  'This is Maura, Mr. White, whom you are
+kindly educating.'
+
+Mr. White took the hand, which was given with a pretty respectful
+gesture, and said something kind about her mother's illness, while
+Adeline took the girl into the house and asked if she had come on any
+message.
+
+'Yes, if you please,' said Maura, blushing; 'Miss Mohun was so kind
+as to offer to lend us an air-cushion, and poor mamma is so restless
+and uncomfortable that Kally thought it might ease her a little.'
+
+'By all means, my dear.  Come in, and I will have it brought,' said
+Adeline, whose property the cushion was, and who was well pleased
+that Mr. White came in likewise, and thus had a full view of Maura's
+great wistful, long-lashed eyes, and delicate refined features, under
+a little old brown velvet cap, and the slight figure in a gray
+ulster.  He did not speak while Maura answered Miss Adeline's
+inquiries, but when the cushion had been brought down, and she had
+taken it under her arm, he exclaimed---
+
+'Is she going back alone?'
+
+'Oh yes,' said Maura cheerfully; 'it is not really dark out of doors
+yet.'
+
+'I suppose it could not be helped,' said Miss Adeline.
+
+'No; Theodore is at the school.  They keep him late to get things
+ready for the inspection, and Petros had to go to the doctor's to
+fetch something; but he will meet me if he is not kept waiting.'
+
+'It is not fit for a child like that to go alone so late,' said Mr.
+White, who perhaps had imbibed Italian notions of the respectability
+of an escort.  'I will walk down with her.'
+
+Maura looked as if darkness were highly preferable to such a
+cavalier; but Miss Adeline was charmed to see them walk off together,
+and when her sister presently came in with Gillian and Fergus, she
+could not but plume herself a little on her achievement.
+
+'Then it was those two!' exclaimed Jane.  'I thought so from the
+other side of the street, but it was too dark to be certain; and
+besides, there was no believing it.'
+
+'Did not they acknowledge you?'
+
+'Oh no; they were much too busy.'
+
+'Talking.  Oh, what fun!' Adeline could not help observing in such
+glee that she looked more like 'our youngest girl' than the handsome
+middle-aged aunt.
+
+'But,' suggested Fergus, somewhat astonished, 'Stebbing says he is no
+end of a horrid brute of a screw.'
+
+'Indeed.  What has he been doing?'
+
+'He only tipped him a coach wheel.'
+
+'Well, to tip over as a coach wheel is the last thing I should have
+expected of Mr. White,' said Aunt Jane, misunderstanding on purpose.
+
+'A crown piece then,' growled Fergus; 'and of course he thought it
+would be a sovereign, and so he can't pay me my two ten--shillings, I
+mean, that I lent him, and so I can't get the lovely ammonite I saw
+at Nott's.'
+
+'How could you be so silly as to lend him any money?'
+
+'I didn't want to; but he said he would treat us all round if I
+wouldn't be mean, and after all I only got half a goody, with all the
+liqueur out of it.'
+
+'It served you right,' said Gillian.  'I doubt whether you would see
+the two shillings again, even if he had the sovereign.'
+
+'He faithfully promised I should,' said Fergus, whose allegiance was
+only half broken.  'And old White is a beast, and no mistake.  He was
+perfectly savage to Stebbing's major, and he said he wouldn't be
+under him, at no price.'
+
+'Perhaps Mr. White might say the same,' put in Aunt Ada.
+
+'He is a downright old screw and a bear, I tell you,' persisted
+Fergus.  'He jawed Frank Stebbing like a pickpocket for just having a
+cigar in the quarry.'
+
+'Close to the blasting powder, eh?' said Miss Mohun.
+
+'And he is boring and worrying them all out of their lives over the
+books,' added Fergus.  'Poking his nose into everything, so that
+Stebbing says his governor vows he can't stand it, and shall cut the
+concern it the old brute does not take himself off to Italy before
+long.'
+
+'What a good thing!' thought both sisters, looking into each other's
+eyes and auguring well for the future.
+
+All were anxious to hear the result of Maura's walk, and Gillian set
+out in the morning on a voyage of discovery with a glass of jelly for
+Mrs. White; but all she could learn was that the great man had been
+very kind to Maura, though he had not come in, at which Gillian was
+indignant.
+
+'Men are often shy of going near sickness and sorrow,' said her aunt
+Ada.  'You did not hear what they talked about?'
+
+'No; Maura was at school, and Kally is a bad person to pump.'
+
+'I should like to pump Mr. White,' was Aunt Jane's comment.
+
+'If I could meet him again,' said Aunt Ada, 'I feel sure he would
+tell me.'
+
+Her sister laughed a little, so well did she know that little half-
+conscious, half-gratified tone of assumption of power over the other
+sex; but Miss Adeline proved to be right.  Nay, Mr. White actually
+called in the raw cold afternoon, which kept her in when every one
+else was out.  He came for the sake of telling her that he was much
+pleased with the little girl---a pretty creature, and simple and true,
+he really believed.  Quite artlessly, in answer to his inquiries, she
+had betrayed that her eldest brother never helped them.  'Oh no!
+Mamma was always getting all the money she could to send to him,
+because he must keep up appearances at his office at Leeds, and live
+like a gentleman, and it did not signify about Kalliope and Alexis
+doing common work.'
+
+'That's one matter cleared up,' rejoiced Jane.  'It won't be brought
+up against them now.'
+
+'And then it seems he asked the child about her sister's lovers.'
+
+'Oh!'
+
+'It was for a purpose.  Don't be old maidish, Jenny!'
+
+'Well, he isn't a gentleman.'
+
+'Now, Jane, I'm sure---'
+
+'Never mind.  I want to hear; only I should have thought you would
+have been the first to cry out.'
+
+'Little Maura seems to have risen to the occasion, and made a full
+explanation as far as she knew---and that was more than the child
+ought to have known, by the bye---of how Mr. Frank was always after
+Kally, and how she could not bear him, and gave up the Sunday walk to
+avoid him, and how he had tried to get her to marry him, and go to
+Italy with him; but she would not hear of it.'
+
+'Just the thing the little chatterbox would be proud of, but it is no
+harm that "Mon oncle des iles Philippines" should know.'
+
+'"I see his little game" was what Mr. White said,' repeated Adeline.
+'"The young dog expected to come over me with this pretty young wife-
+--my relation, too; but he would have found himself out in his
+reckoning."'
+
+'So far so good; but it is not fair.'
+
+'However, the ice is broken.  What's that?  Is the house coming
+down?'
+
+No; but Gillian and Valetta came rushing in, almost tumbling over one
+another, and each waving a sheet of a letter.  Papa and mamma would
+land in three days' time if all went well; but the pity was that they
+must go to London before coming to Rockquay, since Sir Jasper must
+present himself to the military and medical authorities, and likewise
+see his mother, who was in a very failing state.
+
+The children looked and felt as if the meeting were deferred for
+years; but Miss Mohun, remembering the condition of 'Il Lido,' alike
+as to the presence of workmen and absence of servants, felt relieved
+at the respite, proceeded to send a telegram to Macrae, and became
+busier than ever before in her life.
+
+The Rotherwoods were just going to London.  The Marquis was wanted
+for a division, and though both he and Dr. Dagger declared his
+collar-bone quite repaired, his wife could not be satisfied without
+hearing for herself a verdict to the same effect from the higher
+authorities, being pretty sure that whatever their report might be,
+his abstract would be 'All right.  Never mind.'
+
+Fly had gained so much in flesh and strength, and was so much more
+like her real self, that she was to remain at the hotel with Miss
+Elbury, the rooms being kept for her parents till Easter.  Mysie was,
+however, to go with them to satisfy her mother, 'with a first
+mouthful of children,' said Lord Rotherwood.  'Gillian had better
+come too; and we will write to the Merrifields to come to us, unless
+they are bound to the old lady.'
+
+This, however, was unlikely, as she was very infirm, and her small
+house was pretty well filled by her attendants.  Lady Rotherwood
+seconded the invitation like a good wife, and Gillian was grateful.
+Such a forestalling was well worth even the being the Marchioness's
+guest, and being treated with careful politeness and supervision as a
+girl of the period, always ready to break out.  However, she would
+have Mysie, and she tried to believe Aunt Jane, who told her that she
+had conjured up a spectre of the awful dame.  There was a melancholy
+parting on the side of poor little Lady Phyllis.  'What shall I do
+without you, Mysie dear?'
+
+'It is only for a few days.'
+
+'Yes; but then you will be in a different house, all down in the
+town---it will be only visiting---not like sisters.'
+
+'Sisters are quite a different thing,' said Mysie stoutly; 'but we
+can be the next thing to it in our hearts.'
+
+'It is not equal,' said Fly.  'You don't make a sister of me, and I
+do of you.'
+
+'Because you know no better!  Poor Fly, I do wish I could give you a
+sister of your own.'
+
+'Do you know, Mysie, I think---I'm quite sure, that daddy is going to
+ask your father and mother to give you to us, out and out.'
+
+'Oh!  I'm sure they won't do that,' cried Mysie in consternation.
+'Mamma never would!'
+
+'And wouldn't you?  Don't you like me as well as Gill and Val?'
+
+'I _like_ you better.  Stop, don't, Fly; you are what people call
+more of a companion to me---my friend; but friends aren't the same as
+sisters, are they?  They may be more, or they may be less, but it is
+not the same kind.  And then it is not only you, there are papa and
+mamma and all my brothers.'
+
+'But you _do_ love daddy, and you have not seen yours for four years,
+and Aunt Florence and all the cousins at Beechcroft say they were
+quite afraid of him.'
+
+'Because he is so--- Oh! I don't know how to say it, but he is just
+like Epaminondas, or King Arthur, or Robert Bruce, or---'
+
+'Well, that's enough' said Fly; 'I am sure my daddy would laugh if
+you said he was like all those.'
+
+'To be sure he would!' said Mysie.  'And do you think I would give
+mine for him, though yours is so kind and good and such fun?'
+
+'And I'm sure I'd rather have him than yours,' said Fly.
+
+'Well, that's right.  It would be wicked not to like one's own father
+and mother best.'
+
+'But if they thought it would be good for you to have all my
+governesses and advantages, and they took pity on my loneliness.
+What then?'
+
+'Then?  Oh! I'd try to bear it,' said unworldly and uncomplimentary
+Mysie.  'And you need not be lonely now.  There's Val!'
+
+The two governesses had made friends, and the embargo on intercourse
+with Valetta had been allowed to drop; but Fly only shook her head,
+and allowed that Val was better than nothing.'
+
+Mysie had a certain confidence that mamma would not give her away if
+all the lords and ladies in the world wanted her; and Gillian
+confirmed her in that belief, so that no misgiving interfered with
+her joy at finding herself in the train, where Lord Rotherwood
+declared that the two pair of eyes shone enough to light a candle by.
+
+'I feel,' said Mysie, jumping up and down in her seat, 'like the man
+who said he had a bird in his bosom.'
+
+'Or a bee in his bonnet, eh?' said Lord Rotherwood, while Mysie
+obeyed a sign from my lady to moderate the restlessness of her
+ecstasies.
+
+'It really was a bird in his bosom,' said Gillian gravely, 'only he
+said so when he was dying in battle, and he meant his faith to his
+king.'
+
+'And little Mysie has kept her faith to her mother,' said their
+cousin, putting out his hand to turn the happy face towards him.
+'So the bird may well sing to her.'
+
+'In spite of parting with Phyllis?' asked Lady Rotherwood.
+
+'I can't help it, _indeed_,' said Mysie, divided between her
+politeness and her dread of being given away; 'it has been very nice,
+but one's own, own papa and mamma must be more than any one.'
+
+'So they ought,' said Lord Rotherwood, and there it ended, chatter in
+the train not being considered desirable.
+
+Gillian longed to show Mysie and Geraldine Grinstead to each other,
+and the first rub with her hostess occurred when the next morning she
+proposed to take a cab and go to Brompton.
+
+'Is not your first visit due to your grandmother?' said Lady
+Rotherwood.  'You might walk there, and I will send some one to show
+you the way.'
+
+'We must not go there till after luncheon,' said Gillian.  'She is
+not ready to see any one, and Bessie Merrifield cannot be spared; but
+I know Mrs. Grinstead will like to see us, and I do so want Mysie to
+see the studio.'
+
+'My dear' (it was not a favourable my dear), 'I had rather you did
+not visit any one I do not know while you are under my charge.'
+
+'She is Phyllis's husband's sister,' pleaded Gillian.
+
+Lady Rotherwood made a little bend of acquiescence, but said no more,
+and departed, while Gillian inly raged.  A few months ago she would
+have acted on her own responsibility (if Mysie would not have been
+too much shocked), but she had learnt the wisdom of submission in
+fact, if not in word, for she growled about great ladies and
+exclusiveness, so that Mysie looked mystified.
+
+It was certainly rather dull in the only half-revivified London
+house, and Belgrave Square in Lent did not present a lively scene
+from the windows.  The Liddesdales had a house there, but they were
+not to come up till the season began; and Gillian was turning with a
+sigh to ask if there might not be some books in Fly's schoolroom,
+when Mysie caught the sound of a bell, and ventured on an expedition
+to find her ladyship and ask leave to go to church.
+
+There, to their unexpected delight, they beheld not only Bessie, but
+a clerical-looking back, which, after some watching, they so
+identified that they looked at one another with responsive eyes, and
+Gillian doubted whether this were recompense for submission, or
+reproof for discontent.
+
+Very joyful was the meeting on the steps of St. Paul's,
+Knightsbridge, and an exchange of 'Oh! how did you come here?  Where
+are you?'
+
+Harry had come up the day before, and was to go and meet the
+travellers at Southampton with his uncle, Admiral Merrifield, who had
+brought his eldest daughter Susan to relieve her sister or assist
+her.  Great was the joy and eager the talk, as first Bessie was
+escorted by the whole party back to grandmamma's house, and then
+Harry accompanied his sisters to Belgrave Square, where he was kept
+to luncheon, and Lady Rotherwood was as glad to resign his sisters to
+his charge as he could be to receive them.
+
+He had numerous commissions to execute for his vicar, and Gillian had
+to assist the masculine brains in the department of Church
+needlework, actually venturing to undertake some herself, trusting to
+the tuition of Aunt Ada, a proficient in the same; while Mysie
+reverently begged at least to hem the borders.
+
+Then they revelled in the little paradises of books and pictures in
+Northumberland Avenue and Westminster Sanctuary, and went to Evensong
+at the Abbey, Mysie's first sight thereof, and nearly the like to
+Gillian, since she only remembered before a longing not to waste time
+in a dull place instead of being in the delightful streets.
+
+'It is a thing never to forget,' she said under her breath, as they
+lingered in the nave.
+
+'I never guessed anything could make one feel so,' added Mysie, with
+a little sigh of rapture.
+
+'That strange unexpected sense of delight always seems to me to
+explain, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered
+into the heart of man to conceive,"' said Harry.
+
+Mysie whispered---
+
+
+          'Beneath thy contemplation
+           Sink heart and voice opprest!'
+
+
+'Oh, Harry, can't we stay and see Henry VII.'s Chapel, and Poets'
+Corner, and Edward I.'s monument?' pleaded the sister.
+
+'I am afraid we must not, Gill.  I have to see after some vases, and
+to get a lot of things at the Stores, and it will soon be dark.  If I
+don't go to Southampton to-morrow, I will take you then.  Now then,
+feet or cab?'
+
+'Oh, let us walk!  It is ten times the fun.'
+
+'Then mind you don't jerk me back at the crossings.'
+
+There are few pleasures greater of their kind than that of the
+youthful country cousin under the safe escort of a brother or father
+in London streets.  The sisters looked in at windows, wondered and
+enjoyed, till they had to own their feet worn out, and submit to a
+four-wheeler.
+
+'An hour of London is more than a month of Rockquay, or a year of
+Silverfold,' cried Gillian.
+
+'Dear old Silverfold,' said Mysie; 'when shall we go back?'
+
+'By the bye,' said Harry, 'how about the great things that were to be
+done for mother?'
+
+'Primrose is all right,' said Mysie.  'The dear little thing has
+written a nice copybook, and hemmed a whole set of handkerchiefs for
+papa.  She is so happy with them.'
+
+'And you, little Mouse?'
+
+'I have done my translation---not quite well, I am afraid, and made
+the little girl's clothes.  I wonder if I may go and take them to
+her.'
+
+'And Val has finished her crewel cushion, thanks to the aunts,' said
+Gillian.
+
+'Fergus's machine, how about that?  Perpetual motion, wasn't it?'
+
+'That has turned into mineralogy, worse luck,' said Gillian.
+
+'Gill has done a beautiful sketch of Rockquay,' added Mysie.
+
+'Oh! don't talk of me,' said Gillian.  'I have only made a most
+unmitigated mess of everything.'
+
+But here attention was diverted by Harry's exclaiming---
+
+'Hullo! was that Henderson?'
+
+'Nonsense; the Wardours are at Cork.'
+
+'He may be on leave.'
+
+'Or retired.  He is capable of it.'
+
+'I believe it was old Fangs.'
+
+The discussion lasted to Belgrave Square.
+
+And then Sunday was spent upon memorable churches and services under
+the charge of Harry, who was making the most of his holiday.  The
+trio went to Evensong at St. Wulstan's, and a grand idea occurred to
+Gillian---could not Theodore White become one of those young
+choristers, who had their home in the Clergy House.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.  FATHER AND MOTHER
+
+
+
+The telegram came early on Monday morning.  Admiral Merrifield and
+Harry started by the earliest train, deciding not to take the girls;
+whereupon their kind host, to mitigate the suspense, placed himself
+at the young ladies' disposal for anything in the world that they
+might wish to see.  It was too good an opportunity of seeing the
+Houses of Parliament to be lost, and the spell of Westminster Abbey
+was upon Mysie.
+
+Cousin Rotherwood was a perfect escort, and declared that he had not
+gone through such a course of English history since he had taken his
+cousin Lilias and his sister Florence the same round more years ago
+than it was civil to recollect.  He gave a sigh to the great men he
+had then let them see and hear, and regretted the less that there was
+no possibility of regaling the present pair with a debate.  It was
+all like a dream to the two girls.  They saw, but suspense was
+throbbing in their hearts all the time, and qualms were crossing
+Gillian as she recollected that in some aspects her father could be
+rather a terrible personage when one was wilfully careless, saucy to
+authorities, or unable to see or confess wrong-doing; and the element
+of dread began to predominate in her state of expectation.  The bird
+in the bosom fluttered very hard as the possible periods after the
+arrivals of trains came round; and it was not till nearly eight
+o'clock that the decisive halt of wheels was heard, and in a few
+moments Mysie was in the dearest arms in the world, and Gillian
+feeling the moustached kiss she had not known for nearly four long
+years, and which was half-strange, half-familiar.
+
+In drawing-room light, there was the mother looking none the worse
+for her journey, her clear brown skin neither sallow nor lined, and
+the soft brown eyes as bright and sweet as ever; but the father must
+be learnt over again, and there was awe enough as well as
+enthusiastic love to make her quail at the thought of her record of
+self-will.
+
+There was, however, no disappointment in the sight of the fine, tall
+soldierly figure, broad shouldered, but without an ounce of
+superfluous flesh, and only altered by his hair having become thinner
+and whiter, thus adding to the height of his forehead, and making his
+very dark eyebrows and eyes have a different effect, especially as he
+was still pallid beneath the browning of many years, though he
+declared himself so well as to be ashamed of being invalided.
+
+Time was short.  Harry and the Admiral, who were coming to dinner,
+had rushed home to dress and to fetch Susan; and Lady Merrifield was
+conducted in haste to her bedroom, and left to the almost too excited
+ministrations of her daughters.
+
+It was well that attentive servants had unfastened the straps, for
+when Gillian had claimed the keys of the dear old familiar box, her
+hand shook so much that they jingled; the key would not go into the
+hole, and she had to resign them to sober Mysie, who had been untying
+the bonnet, with a kiss, and answering for the health of Primrose,
+whom Uncle William was to bring to London in two days' time.
+
+'My dear silly child,' said her mother, surprised at Gillian's
+emotion.
+
+And the reply was a burst of tears.  'Oh, so silly! so wrong!  I have
+so wanted you.'
+
+'I know all about it.  You told us all, like an honest child.'
+
+'Oh, such dreadful things---the rock---the poor child killed---Cousin
+Rotherwood hurt.'
+
+'Yes, yes, I heard!  We can't have it out now.  Here's papa! she is
+upset about these misadventures,' added Lady Merrifield, looking up
+to her husband, who stood amazed at the sobs that greeted him.
+
+'You must control yourself, Gillian,' he said gravely.  'Stop that!
+Your mother is tired, and has to dress!  Don't worry her.  Go, if you
+cannot leave off.'
+
+The bracing tone made Gillian swallow her tears, the more easily
+because of the familiarity of home atmosphere, confidence, and
+protection; and a mute caress from her mother was a promise of
+sympathy.
+
+The sense of that presence was the chief pleasure of the short
+evening, for there were too many claimants for the travellers'
+attention to enable them to do more than feast their eyes on their
+son and daughters, while they had to talk of other things, the
+weddings, the two families, the home news, all deeply interesting in
+their degree, though not touching Gillian quite so deeply as the
+tangle she had left at Rockstone, and mamma's view of her behaviour;
+even though it was pleasant to hear of Phyllis's beautiful home in
+Ceylon, and Alethea's bungalow, and how poor Claude had to go off
+alone to Rawul Pindee.  She felt sure that her mother was far more
+acceptable to her hostess than either of the aunts, and that, indeed,
+she might well be so!
+
+Gillian's first feeling was like Mysie's in the morning, that nothing
+could go wrong with her again, but she must perforce have patience
+before she could be heard.  Harry could not be spared for another day
+from his curacy, and to him was due the first tete-a-tete with his
+mother, after that most important change his life had yet known, and
+in which she rejoiced so deeply.  'The dream of her heart,' she said,
+'had always been that one of her sons should be dedicated;' and now
+that the fulfilment had come in her absence, it was precious to her
+to hear all those feelings and hopes and trials that the young man
+could have uttered to no other ears.
+
+Sir Jasper, meantime, had gone out on business, and was to meet the
+rest at luncheon at his mother's house, go with them to call on the
+Grinsteads, and then do some further commissions, Lady Rotherwood
+placing the carriage at their disposal.  As to 'real talk,' that
+seemed impossible for the girls, they could only, as Mysie expressed
+it, 'bask in the light of mamma's eyes' and after Harry was gone on
+an errand for his vicar, there were no private interviews for her.
+
+Indeed, the mother did not know how much Gillian had on her mind, and
+thought all she wanted was discussion, and forgiveness for the
+follies explained in the letter, the last received.  Of any
+connection between that folly and the accident to Lord Rotherwood of
+course she was not aware, and in fact she had more on her hands than
+she could well do in the time allotted, and more people to see.
+Gillian had to find that things could not be quite the same as when
+she had been chief companion in the seclusion of Silverfold.
+
+And just as she was going out the following letter was put into her
+hands, come by one of the many posts from Rockstone:---
+
+
+'MY DEAR GILLIAN---I write to you because you can explain matters, and
+I want your father's advice, or Cousin Rotherwood's.  As I was on the
+way to Il Lido just now I met Mr. Flight, looking much troubled and
+distressed.  He caught at me, and begged me to go with him to tell
+poor Kalliope that her brother Alexis is in Avoncester Jail.  He knew
+it from having come down in the train with Mr. Stebbing.  The charge
+is for having carried away with him L15 in notes, the payment for a
+marble cross for a grave at Barnscombe.  You remember that on the day
+of the accident poor Field was taking it in the waggon, when he came
+home to hear of his child's death.
+
+'The receipt for the price was inquired for yesterday, and it
+appeared that the notes had been given to Field in an envelope.  In
+his trouble, the poor man forgot to deliver this till the morning;
+when on his way to the office he met young White and gave it to him.
+Finding it had not been paid in, nor entered in the books, and
+knowing the poor boy to have absconded, off went Mr. Stebbing, got a
+summons, and demanded to have him committed for trial.
+
+'Alexis owned to having forgotten the letter in the shock of the
+dismissal, and to having carried it away with him, but said that as
+soon as he had discovered it he had forwarded it to his sister, and
+had desired her to send it to the office.  He did not send it direct,
+because he could only, at the moment, get one postage-stamp.  On this
+he was remanded till Saturday, when his sisters' evidence can be
+taken at the magistrates meeting.  This was the news that Mr. Flight
+and I had to take to that poor girl, who could hardly be spared from
+her mother to speak to us, and how she is to go to Avoncester it is
+hard to say; but she has no fear of not being able to clear her
+brother, for she says she put the dirty and ragged envelope that no
+doubt contained the notes into another, with a brief explanation,
+addressed it to Mr. Stebbing, and sent it by Petros, who told her
+that he had delivered it.
+
+'I thought nothing could be clearer, and so did Mr. Flight, but
+unluckily Kalliope had destroyed her brother's letter, and had not
+read me this part of it, so that she can bring no actual tangible
+proof, and it is a much more serious matter than it appeared when we
+were talking to her.  Mr. White has just been here, whether to
+condole or to triumph I don't exactly know.  He has written to Leeds,
+and heard a very unsatisfactory account of that eldest brother, who
+certainly has deceived him shamefully, and this naturally adds to the
+prejudice against the rest of the family.  We argued about Kalliope's
+high character, and he waved his hand and said, "My dear ladies, you
+don't understand those Southern women---the more pious, devoted doves
+they are, the blacker they will swear themselves to get off their
+scamps of men."  To represent that Kalliope is only one quarter Greek
+was useless, especially as he has been diligently imbued by Mrs.
+Stebbing with all last autumn's gossip, and, as he confided to Aunt
+Ada, thinks "that they take advantage of his kindness!"
+
+'Of course Mr. Flight, and all who really know Alexis and Kalliope,
+feel the accusation absurd; but it is only too possible that the
+Avoncester magistrates may not see the evidence in the same light, as
+its weight depends upon character, and the money is really missing,
+so that I much fear their committing him for trial at the Quarter
+Sessions.  It will probably be the best way to employ a solicitor to
+watch the case at once, and I shall speak to Mr. Norton tomorrow,
+unless your father can send me any better advice by post.  I hope it
+is not wicked to believe that the very fact of Mr. Norton's being
+concerned might lead to the notes finding themselves.
+
+'Meantime, I am of course doing what I can.  Kally is very brave in
+her innocence and her brother's, but, shut up in her mother's
+sickroom, she little guesses how bad things are made to look, or how
+Greek and false are treated as synonymous.
+
+'Much love to your mother.  I am afraid this is a damper on your
+happiness, but I am sure that your father would wish to know.  Aunt
+Ada tackles Mr. White better than I do, and means if possible to make
+him go to Avoncester himself when the case comes on, so that he
+should at least see and hear for himself.---Your affectionate aunt,
+                                                J. M.'
+
+
+What a letter for poor Gillian!  She had to pocket it at first, and
+only opened it while taking off her hat at grandmamma's house, and
+there was only time for a blank feeling of uncomprehending
+consternation before she had to go down to luncheon, and hear her
+father and uncle go on with talk about India and Stokesley, to which
+she could not attend.
+
+Afterwards, Lady Merrifield was taken to visit grandmamma, and Bessie
+gratified the girls with a sight of her special den, where she wrote
+her stories, showing them the queer and flattering gifts that had
+come to her in consequence of her authorship, which was becoming less
+anonymous, since her family were growing hardened to it, and
+grandmamma was past hearing of it or being distressed.  It was in
+Bessie's room that Gillian gathered the meaning of her aunt's letter,
+and was filled with horror and dismay.  She broke out with a little
+scream, which brought both Mysie and Bessie to her side; but what
+could they do?  Mysie was shocked and sympathising enough, and Bessie
+was trying to understand the complicated story, when the summons came
+for the sisters.  There were hopes of communicating the catastrophe
+in the carriage; but no, the first exclamation of 'Oh, mamma!' was
+lost.
+
+Sir Jasper had something so important to tell his wife about his
+interviews at the Horse Guards, that the attempt to interrupt was
+silenced by a look and sign.  It was a happy thing to have a father
+at home, but it was different from being mamma's chief companion and
+confidante, and poor Gillian sat boiling over with something very
+like indignation at not being allowed even to allow that she had
+something to tell at least as important as anything papa could be
+relating.
+
+She hardly knew whether to be glad or sorry that the Grinsteads
+proved to be out of town; but at any rate she might be grateful to
+Lady Rotherwood for preventing a vain expedition---a call on another
+old friend, Mrs. Crayon, the Marianne Weston of early youth, and now
+a widow, as she too was out.  Then followed some shopping that the
+parents wanted to do together, but at the door of the stores Lady
+Merrifield said---
+
+'I have a host of things to get here for the two brides.  Suppose,
+papa, that you walk home with Gillian across the Park.  It will suit
+you better than this fearful list.'
+
+Lady Merrifield only thought of letting father and daughter renew
+their acquaintance, and though she saw that Gillian was in an agony
+to speak about something, did not guess what an ordeal the girl felt
+it to have to begin with the father, unseen for four years, and whose
+searching eyes and grave politeness gave a sense of austerity, so
+that trepidation was spoiling all the elation at having a father, and
+such a father, to walk with.
+
+'Well, Gillian,' he said, 'we have a great deal of lee way to make
+up.  I want to hear of poor White's children.  I am glad you have had
+the opportunity of showing them some kindness.'
+
+'Oh, papa! it is so dreadful!  If you would read this letter.'
+
+'I cannot do so here,' said Sir Jasper, who could not well make trial
+of his new spectacles in Great George Street.  What is dreadful?'
+
+'This accusation.  Poor Alexis!  Oh! you don't know.  The accident
+and all---our fault---mine really,' gasped Gillian.
+
+'I am not likely to know at this rate,' said Sir Jasper.  'I hope you
+have not caught the infection of incoherency from Lord Rotherwood.
+Do you mean his accident?'
+
+'Yes; they have turned them both off, and now they have gone and put
+Alexis in prison.'
+
+'For the accident?  I thought it was a fall of rock.'
+
+'Oh no---I mean yes---it wasn't for that; but it came of that, and
+Fergus and I were at the bottom of it,' said Gillian, in such
+confusion that her words seemed to tumble out without her own
+control.
+
+'How did you escape with your lives?'
+
+Was he misunderstanding her on purpose, or giving a lesson on
+slipslop at such a provoking moment?  Perhaps he was really only
+patient with the daughter who must have seemed to him half-foolish,
+but she was forced to collect her senses and say---
+
+'I only meant that we were the real cause.  Fergus is wild about
+geology, and took away a stone that was put to show where the cliff
+was unsafe.  He showed the stone to Alexis White, who did not know
+where it came from and let him have it, and that was the way Cousin
+Rotherwood came to tread on the edge of the precipice.'
+
+'What had you to do with it?'
+
+'I---oh!  I had disappointed Alexis about the lessons,' said Gillian,
+blushing a little;' and he was out of spirits, and did not mind what
+he was about.'
+
+'H'm!  But you cannot mean that this youth can have been imprisoned
+for such a cause.'
+
+'No; that was about the money, but of course he sent it back.  He ran
+away when he was dismissed, because he was quite in despair, and did
+not know what he was about.'
+
+'I think not, indeed!'
+
+'Papa,' said Gillian, steadying her voice, 'you must not, please,
+blame him so much, for it was really very much my fault, and that is
+what makes me doubly unhappy.  Did you read my last letter to mamma?'
+
+'Yes.  I understood that you thought you had not treated your aunts
+rightly by not consulting them about your intercourse with the
+Whites, and that you had very properly resolved to tell them all.
+I hope you did so.'
+
+'Indeed I did, and Aunt Jane was very kind, or else I should have had
+no comfort at all.  Was mamma very much shocked at my teaching
+Alexis?'
+
+'I do not remember.  We concluded that whatever you did had your
+aunts' sanction.'
+
+'Ah! that was the point.'
+
+'Did these young people persuade you to secrecy?'
+
+'Oh no, no; Kalliope protested, and I overpowered her, because---
+because I was foolish, and I thought Aunt Jane interfering.'
+
+'I see,' said Sir Jasper, with perhaps more comprehension of the
+antagonism than sisterly habit and affection would have allowed to
+his wife.  'I am glad you saw your error, and tried to repair it; but
+what could you have done to affect this boy so much.  How old is he?
+We thought of him as twelve or fourteen, but one forgets how time
+goes on, and you speak of him as in a kind of superintendent's
+position.'
+
+'He is nineteen.'
+
+Sir Jasper twirled his moustache.
+
+'I begin to perceive,' he said, 'you rushed into an undertaking that
+became awkward, and when you had to draw off, the young fellow was
+upset and did not mind his business.  So far I understand, but you
+said something about prison.'
+
+The worst part of the personal confession was over now, and Gillian
+could go on to tell the rest of the Stebbing enmity, of Mr. White's
+arrival, and of the desire to keep his relations aloof from him.
+
+'This is guess work,' said Sir Jasper.
+
+'I think Cousin Rotherwood would say the same' rejoined Gillian, and
+then she explained the dismissal, the flight, and the unfortunate
+consequences, and that Aunt Jane hoped for advice by the morning's
+post.
+
+'I am afraid it is too late for that,' said Sir Jasper, looking at
+his watch.  'I must read her letter and consider.'
+
+Gillian gave a desperate sigh, and felt more desperate when at that
+moment the very man they had had a glimpse of on Saturday met them,
+exclaiming in a highly delighted tone---
+
+'Sir Jasper Merrifield!'
+
+Any Royal Wardour ought to have been welcome to the Merrifields, but
+this individual had not been a particular favourite with the young
+people.  They knew he was the son of a popular dentist, who had made
+his fortune, and had put his son into the army to make a gentleman of
+him, and prevent him from becoming an artist.  In the first object
+there had been very fair success; but the taste for art was
+unquenchable, and it had been the fashion of the elder half of the
+Merrifield family to make a joke, and profess to be extremely bored,
+when 'Fangs,' as they naughtily called him among themselves, used to
+arrive from leave, armed with catalogues, or come in with his
+drawings to find sympathy in his colonel's wife.  Gillian had caught
+enough from her four elders to share in an unreasoning way their
+prejudice, and she felt doubly savage and contemptuous when she
+heard---
+
+'Yes, I retired.'
+
+'And what are you doing now?'
+
+'My mother required me as long as she lived' (then Gillian noticed
+that he was in mourning).  'I think I shall go abroad, and take
+lessons at Florence or Rome, though it is too late to do anything
+seriously---and there are affairs to be settled first.'
+
+Then came a whole shoal of other inquiries, and even though they
+actually included 'poor White' and his family, Gillian was angered
+and dismayed at the wretch being actually asked by her father to come
+in with them and see Lady Merrifield, who would be delighted to see
+him.
+
+'What would Lady Rotherwood think of the liberty?' the displeased
+mood whispered to Gillian.
+
+But Lady Rotherwood, presiding over her pretty Worcester tea-set, was
+quite ready to welcome any of the Merrifield friends.  There were
+various people in the room besides Lady Merrifield and Mysie, who had
+just come in.  There was the Admiral talking politics with Lord
+Rotherwood, and there was Clement Underwood, who had come with Harry
+from the city, and Bessie discussing with them boys' guilds and their
+amusements.
+
+Gillian felt frantic.  Would no one cast a thought on Alexis in
+prison?  If he had been to be hanged the next day, her secret
+annoyance at their indifference to his fate could not have been
+worse.
+
+And yet at the first opportunity Harry brought Mr. Underwood to talk
+to her about his choir-boys, and to listen to her account of the 7th
+Standard boy, a member of the most musical choir in Rockquay, and the
+highest of the high.
+
+'I hope not cockiest of the cocky,' said Mr. Underwood, smiling.
+'Our experience is that superlatives may often be so translated.'
+
+'I don't think poor Theodore is cocky,' said Gillian; 'the Whites
+have always been so bullied and sat upon.'
+
+'Is his name Theodore?' asked Mr. Underwood, as if he liked the name,
+which Gillian remembered to have seen on a cross at Vale Leston.
+
+'Being sat upon is hardly the best lesson in humility,' said Harry.
+
+'There's apt to be a reaction,' said Mr. Underwood; 'but the crack
+voice of a country choir is not often in that condition, as I know
+too well.  I was the veriest young prig myself under those
+circumstances!'
+
+'Don't be too hard on cockiness,' said Lord Rotherwood, who had come
+up to them, 'there must be consciousness of powers.  How are you to
+fly, if you mustn't flap your wings and crow a little?'
+
+'On a les defauts de ses qualites,' put in Lady Merrifield.
+
+'Yes,' added Mr. Underwood.  'It is quite true that needful self-
+assertion and originality, and sense of the evils around---'
+
+'Which the old folk have outgrown and got used to,' said Lord
+Rotherwood.
+
+'May be condemned as conceit,' concluded Mr. Underwood.
+
+'Ay, exactly as Eliab knew David's pride and the naughtiness of his
+heart,' said Lord Rotherwood.  'If you won't fight your giant
+yourself, you've no business to condemn those who feel it in them to
+go at him.'
+
+'Ah! we have got to the condemnation of others, instead of the
+exaltation of self,' said Lady Merrifield.
+
+'It is better to cultivate humility in one's self than other people,
+eh?' said the Marquis, and his cousin thought, though she did not
+say, that he was really the most humble and unself-conscious man she
+had ever known.  What she did say was, 'It is a plant that grows best
+uncultivated.'
+
+'And if you have it not by happy nature, what then?' said Clement
+Underwood.
+
+'Then I suppose you must plant it, and there will be plenty of tears
+of repentance to water it,' returned she.
+
+'Thank you,' said Clement.  'That is an idea to work upon.'
+
+'All very fine!' sighed Gillian to Mysie, 'but oh, how about Alexis
+in prison!  There's papa, now he has got rid of Fangs, actually going
+to walk off with Uncle Sam, and mamma has let Lady Rotherwood get
+hold of her.  Will no-body care for anybody?'
+
+'I think I would trust papa,' said Mysie.
+
+He was not long gone, and when he came back he said, 'You may give me
+that letter, Gillian.   I posted a card to tell your aunt she should
+hear to-morrow.'
+
+All that Gillian could say to her mother in private that evening
+consisted of, 'Oh, mamma, mamma,' but the answer was, 'I have heard
+about it from papa, my dear; I am glad you told him.  He is thinking
+what to do.  Be patient.'
+
+Externally, awe and good manners forced Gillian to behave herself;
+but internally she was so far from patient, and had so many bitter
+feelings of indignation, that she felt deeply rebuked when she came
+down next morning to find her father hurrying through his breakfast,
+with a cab ordered to convey him to the station, on his way to see
+what could be done for Alexis White.
+
+That day Gillian had her confidential talk with her mother---a talk
+that she never forgot, trying to dig to the roots of her failures in
+a manner that only the true mother-confessor of her own child can
+perhaps have patience and skill for, and that only when she has
+studied the creature from babyhood.  The concatenation, ending (if it
+was so to end) in the committal to Avoncester Jail, and beginning
+with the interview over the rails, had to be traced link by link, and
+was almost as long as 'the house that Jack built.'
+
+'And now I see,' said Gillian, 'that it all came of a nasty sort of
+antagonism to Aunt Jane.  I never guessed how like I was to Dolores,
+and I thought her so bad.  But if I had only trusted Aunt Jane, and
+had no secrets, she would have helped me in it all, I know now, and
+never have brought the Whites into trouble.'
+
+'Yes,' said Lady Merrifield; 'perhaps I should have warned you a
+little more, but I went off in such a hurry that I had no time to
+think.  You children are all very loyal to us ourselves; but I
+suppose you are all rather infected by the modern spirit, that
+criticises when it ought to submit to authorities.'
+
+'But how can one help seeing what is amiss?  As some review says, how
+respect what does not make itself respectable?  You know I don't mean
+that for my aunts.  I have learnt now what Aunt Jane really is---how
+very kind and wise and clever and forgiving---but I was naughty enough
+to think her at first---'
+
+'Well, what?  Don't be afraid.'
+
+'Then I did think she was fidgety and worrying---always at one, and
+wanting to poke her nose into everything.'
+
+'Poor Aunt Jane!  Those are the faults of her girlhood, which she has
+been struggling against all her life!'
+
+'But in your time, mamma, would such difficulties really not have
+been seen---I mean, if she had been actually what I thought her?'
+
+'I think the difference was that no faults of the elders were dwelt
+upon by a loyal temper.  To find fault was thought so wrong that the
+defects were scarcely seen, and were concealed from ourselves as well
+as others.  It would scarcely, I suppose, be possible to go back to
+that unquestioning state, now the temper of the times is changed; but
+I belong enough to the older days to believe that the true safety is
+in submission in the spirit as well as the letter.'
+
+'I am sure I should have found it so,' said Gillian.  'And oh! I
+hope, now that papa is come, the Whites may be spared any more of the
+troubles I have brought on them.'
+
+'We will pray that it may be so.' said her mother.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.  THE KNIGHT AND THE DRAGON
+
+
+
+A telegram had been received in the morning, which kept Valetta and
+Fergus on the qui vive all day.  Valetta was an unspeakable worry to
+the patient Miss Vincent, and Fergus arranged his fossils and
+minerals.
+
+Both children flew out to meet their father at the gate, but words
+failed them as he came into the house, greeted the aunts, and sat
+down with Fergus on his knee, and Valetta encircled by his arm.
+
+'Yes, Lilias is quite well, very busy and happy---with her first
+instalment of children.'
+
+'I am so thankful that you are come,' said Adeline.  'Jane ventured
+to augur that you would, but I thought it too much to hope for.'
+
+'There was no alternative,' said Sir Jasper.
+
+'I infer that you halted at Avoncester.'
+
+'I did so; I saw the poor boy.'
+
+'What a comfort for his sister!'
+
+'Poor fellow!  Mine was the first friendly face he had seen, and he
+was almost overcome by it'---and the strong face quivered with emotion
+at the recollection of the boy's gratitude.
+
+'He is a nice fellow,' said Jane.  'I am glad you have seen him, for
+neither Mr. White nor Rotherwood can believe that he is not utterly
+foolish, if not worse.'
+
+'A boy may do foolish things without being a fool,' said Sir Jasper.
+'Not that this one is such another as his father.  I wish he were.'
+
+'I suppose he has more of the student scholarly nature.'
+
+'Yes.  The enlistment, which was the making of his father, was a sort
+of moral suicide in him.  I got him to tell me all about it, and I
+find that the idea of the inquest, and of having to mention you, you
+monkey, drove him frantic, and the dismissal completed the business.'
+
+'I told them about it,' said Fergus.
+
+'Quite right, my boy; the pity was that he did not trust to your
+honour, but he seems to have worked himself into the state of mind
+when young men run amuck.  I saw his colonel, Lydiard, and the
+captain and sergeant of his company, who had from the first seen that
+he was a man of a higher class under a cloud, and had expected
+further inquiry, though, even from the little that had been seen of
+him, there was a readiness to take his word.  As the sergeant said,
+he was not the common sort of runaway clerk, and it was a thousand
+pities that he must go to the civil power---in which I am disposed to
+agree.  What sort of man is the cousin at the marble works?'
+
+'A regular beast,' murmured Fergus.
+
+'I think,' said Jane, 'that he means to be good and upright.'
+
+'More than means,' said Ada, 'but he is cautious, and says he has
+been so often deceived.'
+
+'As far as I can understand,' said Jane, 'there was originally
+desperate enmity between him and his cousin.'
+
+'He forgave entirely,' said Ada; 'and he really has done a great deal
+for the family, who own that they have no claim upon him.'
+
+'Yes,' said Jane, 'but from a distance, with no personal knowledge,
+and a contempt for the foreign mother, and the pretensions to
+gentility.  He would have been far kinder if his cousin had remained
+a sergeant.'
+
+'He only wished to try them,' said Adeline, 'and he always meant to
+come and see about them; besides, that eldest son has been begging of
+him on false pretences all along.'
+
+'That I can believe,' said Sir Jasper.  'I remember his father's
+distress at his untruth in the regimental school, and his foolish
+mother shielding him.  No doubt he might do enough to cause distrust
+of his family; but has Mr. White actually never gone near them, as
+Gillian told me?'
+
+'Excepting once walking Maura home,' said Jane, 'no; but I ascribe
+all that to the partner, Mr. Stebbing, who has had it all his own way
+here, and seems to me to have systematically kept Alexis down to
+unnecessarily distasteful drudgery.  Kalliope's talent gave her a
+place; but young Stebbing's pursuit of her, though entirely
+unrequited, has roused his mother's bitter enmity, and there are all
+manner of stories afloat.  I believe I could disprove every one of
+them; but together they have set Mr. White against her, and he cannot
+see her in her office, as her mother is too ill to be left.  I do
+believe that if the case against Alexis is discharged, they will
+think she has the money.'
+
+'Stebbing said Maura changed a five-pound note,' put in Fergus; 'and
+when I told him to shut up, for it was all bosh, he punched me.'
+
+I hope Richard sent it' said Ada, 'but you see the sort of report
+that is continually before Mr. White---not that I think he believes
+half, or is satisfied--with the Stebbings.'
+
+'I am sure he is not with Frank Stebbing,' said Jane.  'I do think
+and hope that he is only holding off in order to judge; and I think
+your coming may have a great effect upon him, Jasper.'
+
+The Rotherwoods had requested Sir Jasper to use their apartments at
+the hotel, and he went thither to dress, being received, as he said,
+by little Lady Phyllis with much grace and simplicity.
+
+The evening passed brightly, and when the children were gone to bed,
+their father said rather anxiously that he feared the aunts had had a
+troublesome charge hastily thrust on them.
+
+'We enjoyed it very much,' said Adeline politely.
+
+'We were thankful to have a chance of knowing the young people,'
+added Jane.  'I am only glad you did not come home at Christmas, when
+I was not happy about the two girls.'
+
+'Yes, Valetta got into trouble and wrote a piteous little letter of
+confession about copying.'
+
+'Yes, but you need not be uneasy about that; it was one of those
+lapses that teach women without any serious loss.  She did not know
+what she was about, and she told no falsehoods; indeed, each one of
+your children has been perfectly truthful throughout.'
+
+'That is the great point, after all.  Lilias could hardly fail to
+make her children true.'
+
+'Fergus is really an excellent little boy, and Gillian---poor Gillian-
+--I think she really did want more experience, and was only too
+innocent.'
+
+'That is what you really think,' said the father anxiously.
+
+'Yes, I do,' said Jane.  'If she had been a fast girl, she would have
+been on her guard against the awkward situation, and have kept out of
+this mess; but very likely would have run into a worse one.'
+
+'I do not think that her elder sisters would have done like her.'
+
+'Perhaps not; but they were living in your regimental world at the
+age when her schoolroom life was going on.  I think you have every
+reason to be satisfied with her tone of mind.  As you said of the
+boy, a person may commit an imprudence without being imprudent.'
+
+'I quite agree to that,' he said, 'and, indeed, I see that you have
+managed her most wisely, and obtained her affection and gratitude, as
+indeed you have mine!' he added, with a tone in his voice that
+touched Jane to the core of her heart.
+
+'I never heard anything like it before,' she said to her sister over
+their fire at night, with a dew of pleasure in her eyes.
+
+'I never liked Jasper so well before.  He is infinitely pleasanter
+and more amiable.  Do you remember our first visit?  No, it was not
+you who went with me, it was Emily.  I am sure he felt bound to be on
+guard all the time against any young officer's attentions to his poor
+little sister-in-law,' said Ada, with her Maid-of-Athens look.  'The
+smallest approach brought those hawk's eyes of his like a dart right
+through one's backbone.  It all came back to me to-night, and the way
+he used to set poor Lily to scold me.'
+
+'So that you rejoiced to be grown old.  I beg your pardon, but I did.
+My experience was when I went to help Lily pack for foreign service,
+when I suppose my ferret look irritated him, for he snubbed me
+extensively, and I am sure he rejoiced to carry his wife out of reach
+of all the tribe.  I dare say I richly deserved it, but I hope we are
+all "mellered down," as Wat Greenwood used to say of his brewery for
+the pigs.'
+
+'My dear, what a comparison!'
+
+'Redolent of the Old Court, and of Lily, waiting for her swan's nest
+among the reeds, till her stately warrior came, and made her day
+dreams earnest in a way that falls to the lot of few.  I don't think
+his severity ever dismayed her for a moment, there was always such
+sweetness in it.
+
+'True knight and lady!  Yes.  He is grown handsomer than ever, too!'
+
+'I hope he will get those poor children out of their hobble!  It is
+chivalrous enough of him to come down about it, in the midst of all
+his business in London.'
+
+Sir Jasper started the next morning with Fergus on his way to school,
+getting on the road a good deal of information, mingled together
+about forms and strata, cricket and geology.  Leaving his little son
+at Mrs. Edgar's door, he proceeded to Ivinghoe Terrace, where he
+waited long at the blistered door of the dilapidated house before the
+little maid informed him that Mr. Richard was gone out, and missus
+was so ill that she didn't know as Miss White could see nobody; but
+she took his card and invited him to walk into the parlour, where the
+breakfast things were just left.
+
+Down came Kalliope, with a wan face and eyes worn with sleeplessness,
+but a light of hope and gratitude flashing over her features as she
+met the kind eyes, and felt the firm hand of her father's colonel, a
+sort of king in the eyes of all Royal Wardours.
+
+'My poor child,' he said gently, 'I am come to see if I can help
+you.'
+
+'Oh! so good of you,' and she squeezed his hand tightly, in the
+effort perhaps not to give way.
+
+'I fear your mother is very ill.'
+
+'Very ill,' said Kalliope. 'Richard came last night, and he let her
+know what we had kept from her; but she is calmer now.'
+
+'Then your brother Richard is here.'
+
+'Yes; he is gone up to Mr. White's.'
+
+'He is in a solicitor's office, I think.  Will he be able to
+undertake the case?'
+
+'Oh no, no'---the white cheek flushed, and the hand trembled.  'There
+is a Leeds family here, and he is afraid of their finding out that he
+has any connection with this matter.  He says it would be ruin to his
+prospects.'
+
+'Then we must do our best without him,' Sir Jasper said in a fatherly
+voice, inexpressively comforting to the desolate wounded spirit.  'I
+will not keep you long from your mother, but will you answer me a few
+questions?  Your brother tells me---'
+
+She looked up almost radiantly, 'You have seen him?'
+
+'Yes.  I saw him yesterday,' and as she gazed as if the news were
+water to a thirsty soul---'he sent his love, and begged his mother and
+you to forgive the distress his precipitancy has caused.  I did not
+think him looking ill; indeed, I think the quiet of his cell is
+almost a rest to him, as he makes sure that he can clear himself.'
+
+'Oh, Sir Jasper! how can we ever be grateful enough!'
+
+'Never mind that now, only tell me what is needful, for time is
+short.  Your brother sent these notes in their own envelope, he
+says.'
+
+'Yes, a very dirty one.  I did not open it or see them, but enclosed
+it in one of my own, and sent it by my youngest brother, Petros.'
+
+'How was yours addressed?'
+
+'Francis Stebbing, Esq., Marble Works; and I put in a note in
+explanation.'
+
+'Is the son's name likewise Francis?'
+
+'Francis James.'
+
+'Petros delivered it?'
+
+'Yes, certainly.'
+
+Here they were interrupted by Maura's stealing timidly in with the
+message that poor mamma had heard that Sir Jasper was here, and would
+he be so very good as to come up for one minute and speak to her.
+
+'It is asking a great deal,' said Kalliope, 'but it would be very
+kind, and it might ease her mind.'
+
+He was taken to the poor little bedroom full of oppressive
+atmosphere, though the window was open to relieve the labouring
+breath.  It seemed absolutely filled with the enormous figure of the
+poor dropsical woman with white ghastly face, sitting pillowed up,
+incapable of lying down.
+
+'Oh, so good! so angelic!' she gasped.
+
+'I am sorry to see you so ill, Mrs. White.'
+
+'Ah! 'tis dying I am, Colonel Merrifield---begging your pardon, but
+the sight of you brings back the times when my poor captain was
+living, and I was the happy woman.  'Tis the thought of my poor
+orphans that is vexing me, leaving them as I am in a strange land
+where their own flesh and blood is unnatural to them,' she cried,
+trying to clasp her swollen hands, in the excitement that brought out
+the Irish substructure of her nature.  'Ah, Colonel dear, you'll bear
+in mind their father that would have died for you, and be good to
+them.'
+
+'Indeed, I hope to do what I can for them.'
+
+'They are good children, Sir Jasper, all of them, even the poor boy
+that is in trouble out of the very warmth of his heart; but 'tis
+Richard who would be the credit to you, if you would lend him the
+helping hand.  Where is the boy, Kally?'
+
+'He is gone to call on Mr. White.'
+
+'Ah! and you'll say a good word for him with his cousin,' she
+pleaded, 'and say how 'tis no discredit to him if things are laid on
+his poor brother that he never did.'
+
+The poor woman was evidently more anxious to bespeak patronage for
+her first-born, the pride and darling of her heart, than for those
+who might be thought to need it more, but she became confused and
+agitated when she thought of Alexis, declaring that the poor boy
+might have been hasty, and have disgraced himself, but it was hard,
+very hard, if they swore away his liberty, and she never saw him
+more, and she broke into distressing sobs.  Sir Jasper, in a decided
+voice, assured her that he expected with confidence that her son
+would be freed the next day, and able to come to see her.
+
+'It's the blessing of a dying mother will be on you, Colonel dear!
+Oh! bring him back, that his mother's eyes may rest on the boy that
+has always been dutiful.  No---no, Dick, I tell you 'tis no disgrace
+to wear the coat his father wore.'  Wandering was beginning, and she
+was in no condition for Kalliope to leave her.  The communicative
+Maura, who went downstairs with him, said that Richard was so angry
+about Alexis that it had upset poor mamma sadly.  And could Alexis
+come?' she asked, 'even when he is cleared?'
+
+'I will ask for furlough for him.'
+
+'Oh! thank you---that would do mamma more good than anything.  She is
+so fond of Richard, he is her favourite, but Alexis is the real help
+and comfort.'
+
+'I can quite believe so.  And now will you tell me where I shall find
+your brother who took the letter, Peter or Petros?'
+
+'Petros is his name, but the boys call him Peter.  He is at school---
+the Bellevue National School---up that street.'
+
+Repairing to that imposing building, Sir Jasper knocked at the door,
+and sent in his card by an astonished pupil-teacher with a request to
+the master that he might speak to Petros White, waiting in the porch
+till a handsome little fellow appeared, stouter, rosier, and more
+English looking than the others of his family, but very dusty, and
+rather scared.
+
+'You don't remember me,' said Sir Jasper, 'but I was your father's
+colonel, and I want to find some way of helping your brother.  Your
+sister tells me she gave you a letter to carry to Mr. Stebbing.'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'Where did you take it?'
+
+'To his house, Carrara.'
+
+'Was it not directed to the Marble Works?'
+
+'Yes, but---'
+
+'But what?  Speak out, my man.'
+
+'At the gate Blake, the porter, was very savage, and would not let us
+in.  He said he would have no boys loafing about, we had done harm
+enough for one while, and he would set his dog at us.'
+
+'Then you did not give him the letter?'
+
+'No.  I wouldn't after the way he pitched into me.  I didn't know if
+he would give it.  And he wouldn't hear a word, so we went up to
+Rockstone to the house.'
+
+'Whom did you give it to there?'
+
+'I dropped it into the slit in the door.'
+
+'You only told your sister that you delivered it.'
+
+'Yes, sir.  Theodore said I must not tell sister; it would only vex
+her more to hear how every one pitches into us, right and left,' he
+said, with trembling lip.
+
+'Is Theodore your next brother?'
+
+'Yes sir.'
+
+'Was he with you?'
+
+'No; it was Sydney Grove.'
+
+'Is he here?  Or---Did any one else see you leave the letter?'
+
+'Mr. Stebbing's son---the young one, George, was in the drive and
+slanged us for not going to the back door.'
+
+'That is important. Thank you, my boy. Give my---my compliments to
+your master, and ask him to be kind enough to spare this Sydney Grove
+to me for a few moments.'
+
+This proved to be an amphibious-looking boy, older and rougher than
+Petros, and evidently his friend and champion.  He was much less shy,
+and spoke out boldly, saying how he had gone with little Peter, and
+the porter had rowed them downright shameful, but it was nothing to
+that there young Stebbing ordering them out of the grounds for a
+couple of beastly cads, after no good.  He (Grove) had a good mind to
+ha' give 'un a good warming, only 'twas school time, and they was
+late as it was.  Everybody was down upon the Whites, and it was a
+shame when they hadn't done nothing, and he didn't see as they was
+stuck up, not he.
+
+Sir Jasper made a note of Master Grove's residence, and requested an
+interview with the master, from whom he obtained an excellent
+character of both the Whites, especially Theodore.  The master
+lamented that this affair of their brother should have given a handle
+against them, for he wanted the services of the elder one as a
+monitor, eventually as a pupil-teacher, but did not know whether the
+choice would be advisable under the present circumstances.  The boys'
+superiority made them unpopular, and excited jealousy among a certain
+set, though they were perfectly inoffensive, and they had much to go
+through in consequence of the suspicion that had fallen on their
+brother.  Petros and Sydney should have leave from school whenever
+their testimony was wanted.
+
+As Sir Jasper walked down the street, his elder sister-in-law emerged
+from a tamarisk-flanked gateway.  'This is our new abode, Jasper,'
+she said.  'Come in and see what you think of it!  Well, have you had
+any success?'
+
+He explained how the letter could be traced to Mr. Stebbing's house,
+and then consulted her whether to let all come out at the examination
+before the magistrates, or to induce the Stebbings to drop the
+prosecution.
+
+'It would serve them right if it all came out in public,' she said.
+
+'But would it be well?'
+
+'One must not be vindictive!  And to drag poor Kalliope to Avoncester
+would be a dreadful business in her mother's state.  Besides, Frank
+Stebbing is young, and it may be fair to give them a chance of
+hushing it up.  I ought to be satisfied with clearing Alexis.'
+
+'Then I will go to the house.  When shall I be likely to find Mr.
+Stebbing!'
+
+'Just after luncheon, I should say.'
+
+'And shall I take the lawyer?'
+
+'I should say not.  If they hope to keep the thing secret, they will
+be the more amenable, but you should have the two boys within reach.
+Let us ask for them to come up after their dinner to Beechcroft.  No,
+it must not be to dinner.  Petros must not be sent to the kitchen,
+and Ada would expire if the other came to us!  Now, do you like to
+see your house?  Here is Macrae dying to see you.'
+
+The old soldier had changed his quarters too often to be keenly
+interested in any temporary abode, provided it would hold the
+requisite amount of children, and had a pleasant sitting-room for his
+Lily, but he inspected politely and gratefully, and had a warmly
+affectionate interview with Macrae, who had just arrived with a great
+convoy of needfuls from Silverfold, and who undertook to bring up and
+guard the two boys from any further impertinences that might excite
+Master Grove's pugnacity.
+
+It was a beautiful day, of the lamb-like entrance weather of March,
+and on the way home Miss Adeline was met taking advantage of the
+noontide sunshine to exchange her book at the library, 'where,' she
+said, 'I found Mr. White reading the papers, so I asked him to meet
+Jasper at luncheon, thinking that may be useful.'
+
+If Sir Jasper would rather have managed matters by himself, he
+forebore to say so, and he got on very well with Mr. White on
+subjects of interest, but, to the ladies' vexation, he waited to be
+alone before he began, 'I have come down to see what can be done for
+this poor young man, Mr. White, a connection of yours, I believe.
+
+'A bad business, Sir Jasper, a bad business.'
+
+'I am sorry to hear you say so. I have seen a great deal of service
+with his father, and esteemed him very highly---'
+
+'Ay, ay, very likely.  I had a young man's differences with my
+cousin, as lads will fall out, but there was the making of a fine
+fellow in him.  But it was the wife, bringing in that Greek taint,
+worse even than the Italian, so that there's no believing a word out
+of any of their mouths.'
+
+'Well, the schoolmaster has just given me a high character of the
+younger one, for truthfulness especially.'
+
+'All art, Sir Jasper, all art.  They are deeper than your common
+English sort, and act it out better.  I'll just give you an instance
+or two.  That eldest son has been with me just now, a smart young
+chap, who swears he has been keeping his mother all this time---he has
+written to me often enough for help to do so.  On the other hand, the
+little sister tells me, "Mamma always wants money to send to poor
+Richard."  Then again, Miss Mohun assures me that the elder one vows
+that she never encouraged Frank Stebbing for a moment, and to his
+mother's certain knowledge she is keeping up the correspondence.'
+
+'Indeed,' said Sir Jasper.  'And may I ask what is your opinion as to
+this charge?  I never knew a young man enlist with fifteen pounds in
+his pocket.'
+
+'Spent it by the way, sir.  Ran through it at billiards.  Nothing
+more probable; it is the way with those sober-looking lads when
+something upsets them.  Then when luck went against him, enlisted out
+of despair.  Sister, like all women, ready to lie through thick and
+thin to save him, most likely even on oath.'
+
+'However,' said Sir Jasper, 'I can produce independent witness that
+the youngest boy set off with the letter for the office, and the
+porter not admitting him, carried it to the house.'
+
+'What became of it then?'
+
+'Mr. Stebbing will have to answer that.  I propose to lay the
+evidence before him in his own house, so that he may make inquiry,
+and perhaps find it, and drop the prosecution.  Will you come with
+me?'
+
+'Certainly, Sir Jasper.  I should be very glad to think as you do.  I
+came prepared to act kindly by these children, the only relations I
+have in the world; but I confess that what I have seen and heard has
+made me fear that they, at least the elder ones, are intriguing and
+undeserving.  I should be glad of any proof to the contrary.'
+
+Carrara was not far off, and they were just in time to catch Mr.
+Stebbing in his arm-chair, looking over his newspaper, before
+repairing to his office.  Mrs. Stebbing stood up, half-flattered,
+half-fluttered, at the call of this stately gentleman, and was
+scarcely prepared to hear him say---
+
+'I have come down about this affair of young White's.  His father was
+my friend and brother-officer, and I am very anxious about him.'
+
+'I have been greatly disappointed in those young people, Sir Jasper,'
+said Mr. Stebbing uneasily.
+
+'I understand that you are intending to prosecute Alexis White for
+the disappearance of the fifteen pounds he received on behalf of the
+firm.'
+
+'Exactly so, Sir Jasper.  There's no doubt that the carter, Field,
+handed it to him; he acknowledges as much, but he would have us
+believe that after running away with it, he returned it to his sister
+to send to me.  Where is it? I ask.'
+
+'Yes,' put in Mrs. Stebbing, 'and the girl, the little one, changed a
+five-pound note at Glover's.'
+
+'I can account for that,' said Mr. White, with somewhat of an effort.
+'I gave her one for her sister, and charged them not to mention it.'
+
+He certainly seemed ashamed to mention it before those who accounted
+it a weakness; and Sir Jasper broke the silence by proposing to
+produce his witnesses.
+
+'Really, Sir Jasper, this should be left for the court,' said Mr.
+Stebbing.
+
+'It might be well to settle the matter in private, without dragging
+Miss White into Avoncester away from her dying mother.'
+
+'Those things are so exaggerated,' said the lady.
+
+'I have seen her,' said Sir Jasper gravely.
+
+'May I ask who these witnesses are?' demanded Mr. Stebbing.
+
+'Two are waiting here---the messenger and his companion.  Another is
+your porter at the marble works, and the fourth is your youngest
+son.'
+
+This caused a sensation, and Mrs. Stebbing began---
+
+'I am sure I can't tell what you mean, Sir Jasper.'
+
+'Is he in the house?'
+
+'Yes; he has a bad cold.'
+
+Mrs. Stebbing opened the door and called 'George,' and on the boy's
+appearance, Sir Jasper asked him---
+
+'Do you remember the morning of the 17th of last month---three days
+after the accident?  I want to know whether you saw any one in the
+approach to the house.'
+
+'I don't know what day it was,' said the boy, somewhat sulkily.
+
+'You did see some one, and warned them off!'
+
+'I saw two little ca---two boys out of the town on the front door
+steps.'
+
+'Did you know them?'
+
+'No---that is to say, one was a fisherman's boy.'
+
+'And the other?'
+
+'I thought he belonged to the lot of Whites.'
+
+'Should you know them again?'
+
+'I suppose so.'
+
+'Will you excuse me, and I will call them into the hall?' said Sir
+Jasper.
+
+This was effected, and Master George had to identify the boys, after
+which Sir Jasper elicited that Petros had seen the dirty envelope
+come out of his brother's letter, and that his sister had put it into
+another, which she addressed as he described, and gave into his
+charge to deliver.  Then came the account of the way he had been
+refused admittance by the porter.
+
+'Why didn't you give him the letter?' demanded Mr. Stebbing.
+
+'Catch us,' responded Sydney Grove, rejoiced at the opportunity,
+'when what we got was, "Get out, you young rascals!"'
+
+Petros more discreetly added---
+
+'My sister wanted it to be given to Mr. Stebbing, so we went up to
+the house to wait for him, but it got late for school, and I saw the
+postman drop the letters into the slit in the door, so I thought that
+would be all right.'
+
+'Did you see him do so?' asked Sir Jasper of the independent witness.
+
+'Yes, sir, and he there'---pointing to George---'saw it too, and---'
+
+'Did you?'
+
+'Ay, and thought it like their impudence.'
+
+'That will do, my boys,' said Sir Jasper.  'Now run away.'
+
+Mr. White put something into each paw as the door was opened and the
+pair made their exit.
+
+If Sir Jasper acted as advocate, Mr. White seemed to take the
+position of judge.
+
+'There can be no doubt,' he said, 'that the letter containing the
+notes reached this house.'
+
+'No,' said Mr. Stebbing hotly.  'Why was I not told?  Who cleared the
+letter-box?'
+
+It was the page's business, but to remember any particular letter on
+any particular day was quite beyond him, and he only stared wildly
+and said, 'Dun no,' on which he was dismissed to the lower regions.
+
+'The address was "Francis Stebbing, Esq.,"' said Sir Jasper
+meditatively, perhaps like a spider pulling his cord.  'Francis---your
+son's name.  Can he---'
+
+'Mr. White, I'll thank you to take care what you say of my son!'
+exclaimed Mrs. Stebbing; but there was a blank look of alarm on the
+father's face.
+
+'Where is he?' asked Mr. White.
+
+'He may be able to explain'---courtesy and pity made the General add.
+
+'No, no,' burst out the mother.  'He knows nothing of it.  Mr.
+Stebbing, can't you stand up for your own son?'
+
+'Perhaps,' began the poor man, his tone faltering with a terrible
+anxiety, but his wife exclaimed hastily---
+
+'He never saw nor heard of it.  I put it in the fire.'
+
+There was a general hush, broken by Mr. Stebbing saying slowly---
+
+'You---put---it---in---the---fire.'
+
+'Yes; I saw those disreputable-looking boys put it into the box.  I
+wasn't going to have that bold girl sending billy-doos on the sly to
+my son.'
+
+'Under these circumstances,' drily said Sir Jasper, 'I presume that
+you will think it expedient to withdraw the prosecution.'
+
+'Certainly, certainly,' said Mr. Stebbing, in the tone of one
+delivered from great alarm.  'I will write at once to my solicitor at
+Avoncester.'  Then turning on his wife, 'How was it that I never
+heard this before, and you let me go and make a fool of myself?'
+
+'How was I to know, Mr. Stebbing?  You started off without a word to
+me, and all you told me when you came back was that the young man
+said he had posted the letter to his sister.  I should like to know
+why he could not send it himself to the proper place!'
+
+'Well, Mrs. Stebbing,' said her husband, 'I hope it will be a lesson
+to you against making free with other people's letters.'
+
+She tossed her head, and was about to retire, when Sir Jasper said---
+
+'Before leaving us, madam, in justice to my old friend's daughter, I
+should be much obliged if you would let me know your grounds for
+believing the letter to be what you say.'
+
+'Why---why, Sir Jasper, it has been going on this year or more!  She
+has perfectly infatuated the poor boy.'
+
+'I am not asking about your son's sentiments but can you adduce any
+proof of their being encouraged!'
+
+'Sir Jasper! a young man doesn't go on in that way without
+encouragement.'
+
+'What encouragement can you prove?'
+
+'Didn't I surprise a letter from her---?'
+
+'Well'---checked the tone of triumphant conviction.
+
+'A refusal, yes, but we all know what that means, and that there must
+have been something to lead to it'---and as there was an unconvinced
+silence---'Besides---oh, why, every one knew of her arts.  You did, Mr.
+Stebbing, and of poor Frank's infatuation.  It was the reason of her
+dismissal.'
+
+'I knew what you told me, Mrs. Stebbing,' he answered grimly, not at
+all inclined to support her at this moment of anger.  'I am sure I
+wish I had never listened to you.  I never saw anything amiss in the
+girl's behaviour, and they are all at sixes and sevens without her at
+the mosaic work---though she is only absent from her mother's illness
+at present.'
+
+'You! of course she would not show her goings on before you, said the
+lady.
+
+'Is Master Frank in the house?' put in Mr. White; 'I should like to
+put the question before him.'
+
+'You can't expect a young man to make mortifying admissions,'
+exclaimed the mother, and as she saw smiles in answer she added, 'Of
+course, the girl has played the modest and proper throughout!  That
+was her art, to draw him on, till he did not know what he was about.'
+
+'Setting aside the supposed purpose,' said Sir Jasper, 'you admit,
+Mrs. Stebbing, that of your own knowledge, Miss White has never
+encouraged your son's attentions.'
+
+'N---no; but we all know what those girls are.'
+
+'Fatherless and unprotected,' said Sir Jasper, 'dependent on their
+own character and exertion, and therefore in especial need of kind
+construction.  Good morning, Mrs. Stebbing; I have learnt all that I
+wish to know.'
+
+Overpowered, but not convinced, Mrs. Stebbing saw her visitors
+depart.
+
+'And I hope her husband will give it to her well,' said Mr. White, as
+they left the house.
+
+They looked in at Beechcroft Cottage with the tidings.
+
+'All safe, I see!' cried Miss Jane.  'Is the money found?'
+
+'No; Mrs. Stebbing burnt it, under the impression that it was a love-
+letter,' drily said Sir Jasper.
+
+Miss Mohun led the way in the hearty fit of laughter, to which the
+gentlemen gave way the more heartily for recent suppression; and Mr.
+White added---
+
+'I assure you, it was as good as a play to hear Sir Jasper worm it
+out.  One would think he had been bred a lawyer.'
+
+'And now,' said the General, 'I must go and relieve that poor girl's
+suspense.'
+
+'I will come with you,' volunteered Mr. White.  'I fully believe that
+she is a good girl, though this business and Master Richard's
+applications staggered me; and this soldier fellow must be an ass if
+he is not a scamp.'
+
+'Scarcely that, I think,' said Miss Adelaide, with her pleading
+smile.
+
+'Well, discipline will be as good for him as for his father,' said
+Mr. White.  'He has done for himself, but that was a nice little lad
+that you had up---too good for a common national school.'
+
+Wherewith they departed, and found that Kalliope must have been on
+the watch, for she ran down to open the door to them, and the
+gladness which irradiated her face as Sir Jasper's first 'All right,'
+lighted up her features, which were so unlike the shop-girl
+prettiness that Mr. White expected as quite to startle him.
+
+Richard was in the parlour in a cloud of smoke, and began to do the
+honours.
+
+'Our acknowledgments are truly due to Sir Jasper.  Mr. White, we are
+much honoured.  Pray be seated, please to excuse---'
+
+They paid little attention to him, while Sir Jasper told as much to
+his sister as could well be explained as to the fate of her envelope,
+and added---
+
+'You will not be wanted at Avoncester, as the case will not come on.
+I shall go and see all safe, then on to town, but I mean to see your
+brother's commanding officer, and you may tell your mother that I
+have no doubt that he will be allowed a furlough.'
+
+'But, Sir Jasper' broke in Richard, 'I beg your pardon; but there is
+a family from Leeds at Bellevue, the Nortons, and imagine what it
+would be if they reported me as connected with a common private
+soldier, just out of prison too!'
+
+'Let him come to me then,' exclaimed Mr. White.
+
+In spite of appearances of disgust, Richard took the invitation to
+himself, and looked amiable and gratified.
+
+'Thank you, Mr. White, that will obviate the difficulty.  When shall
+I move up?'
+
+'You, sir? Did you think I meant you?' said Mr. White contemptuously.
+'No; I prefer a fool to a knave!'
+
+'Mr. White,' interposed Sir Jasper, 'whatever you may have to say to
+Richard White, consider his sister.  Or had you not better report our
+success to your mother, my dear?'
+
+'One moment,' said Mr. White.  'Tell me, young lady, if you do not
+object, what assistance have you ever received from me.'
+
+'You have most kindly employed us, and paid for Maura's education,'
+said Kalliope.
+
+'Is that all?  Has nothing been transmitted through this brother?'
+
+'I do not understand,' said Kalliope, trembling, as Richard scowled
+at her.
+
+'Sir,' said he, 'I always intended, but unforeseen circumstances---'
+
+'That's enough for the present, sir,' said Mr. White.  'I have heard
+all I wish, and more too.'
+
+'Sir,' said Kalliope, still trembling, 'indeed, Richard is a kind son
+and brother.  My mother is much attached to him.  I am generally out
+all day, and it is quite possible that she did not tell me all that
+passed between them, as she knew that I did not like you to be
+applied to.'
+
+'That will do, my dear,' said Mr. White.  'I don't want to say any
+more about it.  You shall have your brother to-morrow, if Sir Jasper
+can manage it.  I will bring him back to Rockstone as my guest, so
+that his brother need not be molested with his company.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.  IVINGHOE TERRACE
+
+
+
+On an east-windy Friday afternoon Valetta and Fergus were in a
+crowning state of ecstasy.  Rigdum Funnidos was in a hutch in the
+small garden under the cliff, Begum and two small gray kittens were
+in a basket under the kitchen stairs, Aga was purring under
+everybody's feet, Cocky was turning out the guard upon his perch---in
+short, Il Lido was made as like Silverfold as circumstances would
+permit.  Aunt Ada with Miss Vincent was sitting on the sofa in the
+drawing-room, with a newly-worked cosy, like a giant's fez, over the
+teapot, and Valetta's crewel cushion fully displayed.  She was
+patiently enduring a rush in and out of the room of both children and
+Quiz once every minute, and had only requested that it should not be
+more than once, and that the door should neither be slammed nor left
+open.
+
+Macrae and the Silverfold carriage were actually gone to the station,
+and, oh! oh! oh! here it really was with papa on the box, and heaps
+of luggage, and here were Primrose and Gillian and mamma and Mrs.
+Halfpenny, all emerging one after another, and Primrose, looking---oh
+dear! more like a schoolroom than a nursery girl---such a great piece
+of black leg below the little crimson skirt; but the dear little face
+as plump as ever.
+
+That was the first apparent fact after the disengaging from the
+general embrace, when all had subsided into different seats, and Aunt
+Jane, who had appeared from somewhere in her little round sealskin
+hat, had begun to pour out the tea.  The first sentence that emerged
+from the melee of greetings and intelligence was---
+
+'Fly met her mother at the station; how well she looks!'
+
+'Then Victoria came down with you?'
+
+'Yes; I am glad we went to her.  I really do like her very much.'
+
+Then Primrose and Valetta varied the scene by each laying a kitten in
+their mother's lap; and Begum, jumping after her progeny, brushed
+Lady Merrifield's face with her bushy tail, interrupting the
+information about names.
+
+'Come, children,' said Sir Jasper, 'that's enough; take away the
+cats.'  It was kindly said, but it was plain that liberties with
+mamma would not continue before him.
+
+'The Whites?' was Gillian's question, as she pressed up to Aunt Jane.
+
+'Poor Mrs. White died the night before last,' was the return.  'I
+have just come from Kally.  She is in a stunned state now---actually
+too busy to think and feel, for the funeral must be to-morrow.'
+
+Sir Jasper heard, and came to ask further questions.
+
+'She saw Alexis,' went on Miss Mohun.  'They dressed him in his own
+clothes, and she seemed greatly satisfied when he came to sit by her,
+and had forgotten all that went before.  However, the end came very
+suddenly at last, and all those poor children show their southern
+nature in tremendous outbursts of grief---all except Kalliope, who
+seems not to venture on giving way, will not talk, or be comforted,
+and is, as it were, dried up for the present.  The big brothers give
+way quite as much as the children, in gusts, that is to say.  Poor
+Alexis reproaches himself with having hastened it, and I am afraid
+his brother does not spare him.  But Mr. White has bought his
+discharge.'
+
+'You don't mean it.'
+
+'Yes; whether it was the contrast between Alexis's air of refinement
+and his private soldier's turn-out, or the poor fellow's patience and
+submission, or the brother's horrid behaviour to him, Mr. White has
+taken him up, and bought him out.'
+
+'All because of Richard's brutal speech.  That is good!  Though I
+confess I should have let the lad have at least a year's discipline
+for his own good, since he had put himself into it; but I can't be
+sorry.  There is something engaging about the boy.'
+
+'And Mr. White is the right man to dispose of them.'
+
+No more passed, for here were the children eager and important, doing
+the honours of the new house, and intensely happy at the sense of
+home, which with them depended more on persons than on place.
+
+One schoolroom again,' said Mysie.  'One again with Val and Prim and
+Miss Vincent.  Oh, it is happiness!'
+
+Even Mrs. Halfpenny was a delightful sight, perhaps the more so that
+her rightful dominion was over; the nursery was no more, and she was
+only to preside in the workroom, be generally useful, wait on my
+lady, and look after Primrose as far as was needful.
+
+The bustle and excitement of settling in prevented much thought of
+the Whites, even from Gillian, during that evening and the next
+morning; and she was ashamed of her own oblivion of her friend in the
+new current of ideas, when she found that her father meant to attend
+the funeral out of respect to his old fellow-soldier.
+
+Rockquay had outgrown its churchyard, and had a cemetery half a mile
+off, so that people had to go in carriages.  Mr. White had made
+himself responsible for expenses, and thus things were not so utterly
+dreary as poverty might have made them.  It was a dreary, gusty March
+day, with driving rushes of rain, which had played wildly with
+Gillian's waterproof while she was getting such blossoms and
+evergreen leaves as her aunt's garden afforded, not out of love for
+the poor Queen of the White Ants herself, but thinking the attention
+might gratify the daughters; and her elders moralised a little on the
+use and abuse of wreaths, and how the manifestation of tender
+affection and respect had in many cases been imitated in empty and
+expensive compliment.
+
+'The world spoils everything with its coarse finger,' said Lady
+Merrifield.
+
+'I hope the custom will not be exaggerated altogether out of
+fashion,' said Jane.  'It is a real comfort to poor little children
+at funerals to have one to carry, and it is as Mrs. Gaskell's
+Margaret said of mourning, something to prevent settling to doing
+nothing but crying; besides that afterwards there is a wholesome
+sweetness in thus keeping up the memory.'
+
+Sir Jasper shared a carriage with Mr. White, and returned somewhat
+wet and very cold, and saying that it had been sadly bleak and
+wretched for the poor young people, who stood trembling, so far as he
+could see; and he was anxious to know how the poor girls were after
+it.  It had seemed to him as if Kalliope could scarcely stand.  He
+proved to be right.  Kalliope had said nothing, not wept
+demonstratively, perhaps not at all; but when the carriage stopped at
+the door, she proved to be sunk back in her corner in a dead faint.
+She was very long in reviving, and no sooner tried to move than she
+swooned again, and this time it lasted so long that the doctor was
+sent for.  Miss Mohun arrived just as he had partially restored her,
+and they had a conversation.
+
+'They must get that poor girl to bed as soon as it is possible to
+undress her,' he said.  'I have seen that she must break down sooner
+or later, and I'm afraid she is in for a serious illness; but as yet
+there is no knowing.'
+
+Nursing was not among Jane's accomplishments, except of her sister
+Ada's chronic, though not severe ailments; but she fetched Mrs.
+Halfpenny as the most effective person within reach, trusting to that
+good woman's Scotch height, strong arms, great decision, and the
+tenderness which real illness always elicited.
+
+Nor was she wrong.  Not only did Mrs. Halfpenny get the half-
+unconscious girl into bed, but she stayed till evening, and then came
+back to snatch a meal and say---
+
+'My leddy, if you have no objection, I will sit up with that puir
+lassie the night.  They are all men-folk or bairns there, except the
+lodger-lady, who is worn out with helping the mother, and they want
+some one with a head on her shoulders.'
+
+Lady Merrifield consented with all her heart; but the Sunday
+morning's report was no better, when Mrs. Halfpenny came home to
+dress Primrose, and see her lady.
+
+'That eldest brother, set him up, the idle loon, was off by the mail
+train that night, and naething wad serve him but to come in and bid
+good-bye to his sister just as I had gotten her off into something
+more like a sleep.  It startled her up, and she went off her head
+again, poor dearie, and began to talk about prison and disgrace, and
+what not, till she fainted again; and when she came to, I was fain to
+call the other lad to pacify her, for I could see the trouble in her
+puir een, though she could scarce win breath to speak.'
+
+'Is Alexis there?'
+
+'Surely he is, my leddy; he's no the lad to leave his sister in sic a
+strait.  It was all I could do to gar him lie down when she dozed off
+again, but there's sair stress setting in for all of them, puir
+things.  I have sent the little laddie off to beg the doctor to look
+in as soon as he can, for I am much mistaken if there be not fever
+coming on.'
+
+'Indeed!  And what can those poor children do?'
+
+'That's what I'm thinking, my leddy.  And since 'tis your pleasure
+that the nursery be done awa' wi', and I have not ta'en any fresh
+work, I should like weel to see the puir lassie through wi' it.
+Ye'll no mind that Captain White and my puir Halfpenny listed the
+same time, and always forgathered as became douce lads.  The twa of
+them got their stripes thegither, and when Halfpenny got his
+sunstroke in that weary march, 'twas White who gave him his last sup
+of water, and brought me his bit Bible.  So I'd be fain to tend his
+daughter in her sickness, if you could spare me, my leddy, and I'd
+aye rin home to dress Missie Primrose and pit her to bed, and see to
+matters here.'
+
+'There's no better nurse in the world, dear old Halfpenny,' said Lady
+Merrifield, with tears in her eyes.  'I do feel most thankful to you
+for proposing it.  Never mind about Primrose, only you must have your
+meals and a good rest here, and not knock yourself up.'
+
+Mrs. Halfpenny smiled grimly at the notion of her being sooner
+knocked up than a steam-engine.  Dr. Dagger entirely confirmed her
+opinion that poor Kalliope was likely to have a serious illness, low
+nervous fever, and failing action of the heart, no doubt from the
+severe strain that she had undergone, more or less, for many months,
+and latterly fearfully enhanced by her mother's illness, and the
+shock and suspense about Alexis, all borne under the necessity of
+external composure and calmness, so that even Mrs. Lee had never
+entirely understood how much it cost her.  The doctor did not
+apprehend extreme danger to one young and healthy, but he thought
+much would depend on good nursing, and on absolute protection from
+any sort of excitement, so that such care as Mrs. Halfpenny's was
+invaluable, since she was well known to be a dove to a patient, but a
+dragon to all outsiders.
+
+Every one around grieved at having done so little to lighten these
+burthens, and having even increased them, her brother Alexis above
+all; but on the other hand, he was the only person who was of any use
+to her, or was suffered to approach her, since his touch and voice
+calmed the recurring distress, lest he were still in prison and
+danger.
+
+Alexis went back dutifully on the Monday morning to his post at the
+works.  The young man was much changed by his fortnight's
+experiences, or rather he had been cured of a temporary fit of
+distraction, and returned to his better self.  How many discussions
+his friends held about him cannot be recorded, but after a
+conversation with Mr. Flight, with whom he was really more unreserved
+than any other being except Kalliope, this was the understanding at
+which Miss Mohun and Lady Merrifield arrived as to his nature and
+character.
+
+Refined, studious, and sensitive, thoroughly religious-minded, and of
+a high tone of thought, his aspirations had been blighted by his
+father's death, his brother's selfishness, and his mother's
+favouritism.  In a brave spirit of self-abnegation, he had turned to
+the uncongenial employment set before him for the sake of his family,
+and which was rendered specially trying by the dislike of his fellows
+to 'the gentleman cove,' and the jealousy of the Stebbings.  Alike
+for his religious and his refined habits he had suffered patiently,
+as Mr. Flight had always known more or less, and now bore testimony.
+The curate, who had opened to him the first door of hope and comfort,
+had in these weeks begun to see that the apparent fitfulness of his
+kindness had been unsettling.
+
+Then came the brief dream of felicity excited by Gillian and the
+darkness of its extinction, just as Frank Stebbing's failure and the
+near approach of Mr. White had made the malice of his immediate
+superiors render his situation more intolerable than ever.  There was
+the added sting of self-reproach for his presumption towards Gillian,
+and the neglect caused by his fit of low spirits.  Such a sensitive
+being, in early youth, wearied and goaded on all sides, might
+probably have persevered through the darkness till daylight came; but
+the catastrophe, the dismissal, and the perception that he could only
+defend himself at the expense of his idol's little brother, all
+exaggerated by youthful imagination, were too much for his balance of
+judgment, and he fled without giving himself time to realise how much
+worse he made it for those he left behind him.
+
+Of course he perceived it all now, and the more bitterly from his
+sister's wanderings, but the morbid exaggeration was gone.  The
+actual taste of a recruit's life had shown him that there were worse
+things than employment at the quarries with his home awaiting him,
+and his cell had been a place of thought and recovery of his senses.
+He had never seriously expected conviction, and Sir Jasper's visit
+had given him a spring of hopeful resignation, in which thoughts
+stirred of doing his duty, and winning his way after his father's
+example, and taking the trials of his military life as the just cross
+of his wrong-doing in entering it.
+
+His liberation and Mr. White's kindness had not altered this frame.
+He was too unhappy to feel his residence in the great house anything
+but a restraint; he could not help believing that he had hastened his
+mother's death, and could only bow his head meekly under his
+brother's reproaches, alike for that and for his folly and imprudence
+and the disgrace he had brought on the family.
+
+'And now you'll, be currying favour and cutting out every one else,'
+had been a sting which added fresh force to Alexis's desire to escape
+from his kinsman's house to sleep at home as soon as his brother had
+gone; and Richard had seen enough of Sir Jasper and of Mr. White to
+be anxious to return to his office at Leeds as soon as possible, and
+to regulate his affairs beyond their reach.
+
+Alexis knew that he had avoided a duty in not working out his three
+months' term, and likewise that his earnings were necessary to the
+family all the more for his sister being laid aside.  He knew that he
+hardly deserved to resume his post, and he merely asked permission so
+to do, and it was granted at once, but curtly and coldly.
+
+Mr. Flight had asked if he had not found the going among the other
+clerks very trying.
+
+'I had other things to think of,' said Alexis sadly, then recalling
+himself.  'Yes; Jones did sneer a little, but the others stopped
+that.  They knew I was down, you see.'
+
+'And you mean to go on?'
+
+'If I may.  That, and for my sister to get better, is all I can dare
+to hope.  My madness and selfishness have shown me unworthy of all
+that I once dreamt of.'
+
+In that resolution it was assuredly best to leave him, only giving
+him such encouragement and sympathy as might prevent that more
+dangerous reaction of giving up all better things; and Sir Jasper
+impressed on Mr. Flight, the only friend who could have aided him in
+fulfilling his former aspirations, that Mr. White had in a manner
+purchased the youth by buying his discharge, and that interference
+would not only be inexpedient, but unjust.  The young clergyman
+chafed a little over not being allowed to atone for his neglect; but
+Sir Jasper was not a person to be easily gainsayed.  Nor could there
+be any doubt that Mr. White was a good man, though in general so much
+inclined to reserve his hand that his actions were apt to take people
+by surprise at last, as they had never guessed his intentions, and he
+had a way of sucking people's brains without in the least letting
+them know what use he meant to make of their information.  The
+measures he was taking for the temporal, intellectual, and spiritual
+welfare of the people at the works would hardly have been known
+except for the murmurs of Mrs. Stebbing, although, without their
+knowing what he was about with them, Mr. Stebbing himself, Mr.
+Hablot, Miss Mohun, to say nothing of Alexis, the foremen and the men
+and their wives, had given him the groundwork of his reforms.
+Meantime, he came daily to inquire for Kalliope, and lavished on her
+all that could be an alleviation, greatly offending Mrs. Halfpenny by
+continually proffering the services of a hospital nurse.
+
+'A silly tawpie that would be mair trouble than half a dozen sick,'
+as she chose to declare.
+
+She was a born autocrat, and ruled as absolutely in No. l as in her
+nursery, ordering off the three young ones to their schools, in spite
+of Maura's remonstrances and appeals to Lady Merrifield, who agreed
+with nurse that the girl was much better away and occupied than where
+she could be of very little use.
+
+Indeed, Mrs. Halfpenny banished every one from the room except Mrs.
+Lee and Alexis, whom she would allow to take her place, while she
+stalked to Il Lido for her meals, and the duties she would not drop.
+As to rest, she always, in times of sickness, seemed to be made of
+cast iron, and if she ever slept at all, it was in a chair, while
+Alexis sat by his sister in the evening.
+
+The fever never ran very high, but constant vigilance was wanted from
+the extreme exhaustion and faintness.  There was no violent delirium,
+but more of delusion and distress; nor was it easy to tell when she
+was conscious or otherwise, for she hardly spoke, and as yet the
+doctor forbade any attempt to rouse her more than was absolutely
+needful.  They were only to give nourishment, watch her, and be
+patient.
+
+A few months ago Gillian would have fussed herself into a frantic
+state of anxiety and self-reproach, but her parents, when her mother
+had once heard as much outpouring as she thought expedient, would not
+permit what Sir Jasper called 'perpetual harping.'
+
+'You have to do your duties all the same, and not worry your mother
+and all the family with your feelings,' he said.  She thought it very
+unkind, and went away crying.
+
+'Nobody could hinder her from thinking about Kalliope,' she said to
+herself, and think she did at her prayers, and when the bulletins
+came in, but the embargo on discussion prevented her from being so
+absolutely engrossed, as in weaker hands she might have been, and
+there was a great deal going on to claim her attention.  For one
+thing, the results of the Cambridge Examination showed that while
+Emma Norton and a few others had passed triumphantly, she had failed,
+and conscience carried her back to last autumn's disinclination to do
+just what Aunt Jane especially recommended.
+
+She cried bitterly over the failure, for she had a feeling that
+success there would redeem her somewhat in her parents' eyes; but
+here again she experienced the healing kindness of her father.  He
+would not say that he should not have been much pleased by her
+success, but he said failure that taught her to do her best without
+perverseness was really a benefit; and as arithmetic and mathematics
+had been her weakest points, he would work at them with her and Mysie
+for an hour every morning.
+
+It was somewhat formidable, but the girls soon found that what their
+father demanded was application, and that inattention displeased him
+much more than stupidity.  His smile, though rare, was one of the
+sweetest things in the world, and his approbation was delightful, and
+gave a stimulus to the entire day's doings.  Mysie was more than ever
+in dread of being handed over to the Rotherwoods, though her love for
+poor Fly and pity for her solitude were so strong.  She would have
+been much relieved if she had known what had passed; when the offer
+was seriously made, Lord Rotherwood insisted that his wife should do
+it.
+
+'Then they will believe in it,' he said.
+
+'I do not know why you should say that,' she returned, always
+dutifully blinding herself to that which all their intimates knew
+perfectly well.  However, perhaps from having a station and dignity
+of her own, together with great simplicity, Lady Merrifield had from
+her first arrival got on so well with her hostess as not quite to
+enter into Jane's sarcastic descriptions of her efforts at
+cordiality; and it was with real warmth that Lady Rotherwood begged
+for Mysie as a permanent companion and adopted sister to Phyllis, who
+was to be taken back to London after Easter, and in the meantime
+spent every possible moment with her cousins.
+
+Tears at the unkindness to lonely Fly came into Lady Merrifield's
+eyes as she said---
+
+'I cannot do it, Victoria; I do not think I ought to give away my
+child, even if I could.'
+
+'It is not only our feelings,' added Sir Jasper, 'but it is our duty
+to bring up our own child in her natural station; and though we know
+she would learn nothing but good in your family, I cannot think it
+well that a girl should acquire habits, and be used to society ways
+and of life beyond those which she can expect to continue.'
+
+They both cried out at this, Lord Rotherwood with a halting
+declaration of perfect equality, which his lady seconded, with a
+dexterous reference to connections.
+
+'We will not put it on rank then,' said Sir Jasper, 'but on wealth.
+With you, Maria must become accustomed to much that she could not
+continue, and had better not become natural to her.  I know there are
+great advantages to manners and general cultivation in being with
+you, and we shall be most thankful to let her pay long visits, and be
+as much with Phyllis as is consistent with feeling her home with us,
+but I cannot think it right to do more.'
+
+'But with introductions,' pleaded Lady Rotherwood, 'she might marry
+well.  With her family and connections, she would be a match for any
+one.'
+
+'I hope so,' said Sir Jasper; 'but at the same time it would not be
+well for her to look on such a marriage as the means of continuing
+the habits that would have become second nature.'
+
+'Poor Mysie,' exclaimed Lord Rotherwood, bursting out laughing at the
+idea, and at Lady Merrifield's look as she murmured, 'My Mysie!'
+
+'You misunderstand me,' said the Marchioness composedly.  'I was as
+far as possible from proposing marriage as a speculation for her.'
+
+'I know you were,' said Sir Jasper.  'I know you would deal by Maria
+as by your own daughter, and I am very grateful to you, Lady
+Rotherwood, but I can only come back to my old decision, that as
+Providence did not place her in your rank of life, she had better not
+become so accustomed to it as to render her own distasteful to her.'
+
+'Exactly what I expected,' said Lord Rotherwood.
+
+'Yes,' returned his wife, with an effort of generosity; 'and I
+believe you are right, Jasper, though I am sorry for my little
+solitary girl, and I never saw a friend so perfectly suitable for her
+as your Mysie.'
+
+'They may be friends still,' said Lord Rotherwood, 'and we will be
+grateful to you whenever you can spare her to us.'
+
+'Perhaps,' added Sir Jasper, 'all the more helpful friends for seeing
+different phases of life.'
+
+'And, said his wife, with one of her warm impulses, 'I do thank you,
+Victoria, for so loving my Mysie.'
+
+'As if any one could help it, after last winter,' said that lady, and
+an impromptu kiss passed between the two mothers, much to the
+astonishment of the Marquis, who had never seen his lady so moved
+towards any one.
+
+The Merrifields were somewhat on the world, for Sir Jasper, on going
+to Silverfold and corresponding with the trustees of the landlord,
+had found that the place could not be put in a state either of repair
+or sanitation, such as he approved, without more expense than either
+he or the trustees thought advisable, and he decided on giving it up,
+and remaining at Il Lido till he could find something more suitable.
+
+The children, who had been there during the special homemaking age,
+bewailed the decision, and were likely always to look back on
+Silverfold as a sort of Paradise; but the elder ones had been used to
+changes from infancy, and had never settled down, and their mother
+said that place was little to her as long as she had her Jasper by
+her side, and as to the abstract idea of home as a locality, that
+would always be to her under the tulip-tree and by the pond at the
+Old Court at Beechcroft, just as her abstract idea of church was in
+the old family pew, with the carved oak panels, before the
+restoration, in which she had been the most eager of all.
+
+Thus a fortnight passed, and then the fever was decidedly wearing
+off, but returning at night.  Kalliope still lay weak, languid,
+silent, fainting at any attempt to move her, not apparently able to
+think enough to ask how time passed, or to be uneasy about anything,
+simply accepting the cares given to her, and lying still.  One
+morning, however, Alexis arrived in great distress to speak to Sir
+Jasper, not that his sister was worse, as he explained, but Richard
+had been selling the house.  The younger ones at home had never
+troubled themselves as to whose property the three houses in Ivinghoe
+Terrace were.  Perhaps Kalliope knew, but she could not be asked; but
+the fact was that Captain White had been so lost sight of, that he
+had not known that this inheritance had fallen to him under the will
+of his grandfather, who was imbecile at the time of his flight.  On
+his deathbed, the Captain had left the little he owned to his wife,
+and she had died intestate, as Richard had ascertained before leaving
+home, so that he, as eldest son, was heir to the ground.  He had
+written to Kalliope, a letter which Alexis had opened, informing her
+that he had arranged to sell the houses to a Mr. Gudgeon, letting to
+him their own till the completion of the legal business necessary,
+and therefore desiring his brothers and sisters to move out with
+their lodgers, if not by Lady Day itself, thus giving only a week's
+spare notice, at latest by Old Lady Day.
+
+'Is he not aware of your sister's state?'
+
+'I do not imagine that he has read the letter that I wrote to him.
+He was very much displeased with me, and somewhat disposed to be
+angry at my sister's fainting, and to think that we were all trying
+to work on his feelings.  He used to be rather fond of Maura, so I
+told her to write to him, but he has taken no notice, and he can have
+no conception of Kalliope's condition, or he would not have addressed
+his letter to her.  I came to ask if you would kindly write to him
+how impossible it is to move her.'
+
+'You had better get a certificate from Dr. Dagger.  Either I or Lady
+Merrifield will meet him, and see to that.  That will serve both to
+stay him and the purchaser.'
+
+'That is another misfortune.  This Gudgeon is the chief officer, or
+whatever they call it, of the Salvation Army.  I knew they had been
+looking out for a place for a barracks, and could not get one because
+almost everything belongs to Lord Rotherwood or to Mr. White.'
+
+Sir Jasper could only reply that he would see what could be done in
+the matter, and that, at any rate, Kalliope should not be disturbed.
+
+Accordingly Lady Merrifield repaired to Ivinghoe Terrace for the
+doctor's visit, and obtained from him the requisite certificate that
+the patient could not be removed at present.  He gave it, saying,
+however, to Lady Merrifield's surprise, that though he did not think
+it would be possible to remove her in a week's time, yet after that
+he fully believed that she would have more chance of recovering
+favourably if she could be taken out of the small room and the warm
+atmosphere beneath the cliffs---though of course all must depend on
+her state at the time.
+
+Meantime there was a council of the gentlemen about outbidding the
+Salvation Army.  Lord Rotherwood was spending already as much as he
+could afford, in the days of agricultural depression, on the
+improvements planned with Mr. White.  That individual was too good a
+man of business to fall, as he said, into the trap, and make a
+present to that scamp Richard of more than the worth of the houses,
+and only Mr. Flight was ready to go to any cost to keep off the
+Salvation Army; but the answer was curt.  Richard knew he had no
+chance with Mr. White, and did not care to keep terms with him.
+
+'Mr. Richard White begs to acknowledge the obliging offer of the Rev.
+Augustine Flight, and regrets that arrangements have so far
+progressed with Mr. Gudgeon that he cannot avail himself of it.'
+
+Was this really regret or was the measure out of spite?  Only the
+widest charity could accept the former suggestion, and even Sir
+Jasper Merrifield's brief and severe letter and Dr. Dagger's
+certificate did not prevent a letter to Alexis, warning him not to
+make their sister's illness a pretext for unreasonable delay.
+
+What was to be done?  Kalliope was still unfit to be consulted or
+even informed, and she had been hitherto so entirely the real head
+and manager of the family that Alexis did not like to make any
+decision without her; and even the acceptance of the St. Wulstan's
+choristership for Theodore had been put off for her to make it, look
+to his outfit, and all that only the woman of the family could do for
+them.
+
+And here they were at a loss for a roof over their heads, and nowhere
+to bestow the battered old furniture, of which Richard magnanimously
+renounced his sixth share; while she who had hitherto toiled,
+thought, managed, and contrived for all the other four, without care
+of their own, still lay on her bed, sensible indeed and no longer
+feverish, but with the perilous failure of heart, renewed by any kind
+of exertion or excitement, a sudden movement, or a startling sound in
+the street; and Mrs. Halfpenny, guarding her as ferociously as ever,
+and looking capable of murdering any one of her substitutes if they
+durst hint a word of their perplexities.  Happily she asked no
+questions; she was content when allowed to be kissed by the others,
+and to see they were well.  Nature was enforcing repose, and so far
+"her senses was all as in a dream bound up."  Alexis remembered that
+it had been somewhat thus at Leeds, when, after nursing all the rest,
+she had succumbed to the epidemic; but then the mother had been able
+to watch over her, and had been a more effective parent to the rest
+than she had since become.
+
+The first practical proposal was Mrs. Lee's.  They thought of
+reversing the present position, and taking a small house where their
+present hosts might become their lodgers.  Moreover, Miss Mohun
+clenched the affair about Theodore, and overcame Alexis's scruples,
+while Lady Merrifield, having once or twice looked in, and been
+smiled at and thanked by Kalliope, undertook to prepare her for his
+farewell.
+
+Alexis and Maura both declared that she would instantly jump up, and
+want to begin looking over his socks; but she got no further than---
+
+'Dear boy!  It is the sort of thing I always wished for him.  People
+are very good!  But his things---'
+
+'Oh yes, dearie, ye need not fash yourself.  I've mended them as I
+sat by you, and packed them all.  Lie still.  They are all right.'
+
+There was an atmosphere of the Royal Wardours about Mrs. Halfpenny,
+which was at once congenial and commanding; and Kalliope's mind at
+once relinquished the burthen of socks, shirts, and even the elbows
+of the outgrown jacket, nor did any of the family ever know how the
+deficiencies had been supplied.
+
+And when Theodore, well admonished, came softly and timidly for the
+parting kiss, his face quivering all over with the effort at self-
+control, she lay and smiled; but with a great crystal tear on each
+dark eyelash, and her thin transparent fingers softly stroked his
+cheeks, as the low weak voice said---
+
+'Be a good boy, dear---speak truth.  Praise God well.  Write; I'll
+write when I am better.'
+
+It was the first time she had spoken of being better, and they told
+Theodore to take comfort from it when all the other three walked him
+up to the station.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.  BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
+
+
+
+In the search for a new abode Mrs. Lee was in much difficulty, for it
+was needful to be near St. Kenelm's, and the only vacant houses
+within her means were not desirable for the reception of a feeble
+convalescent; moreover, Mr. Gudgeon grumbled and inquired, and was
+only withheld by warnings enhanced by the police from carrying the
+whole charivari of the Salvation Army along Ivinghoe Terrace on
+Sunday afternoon.
+
+Perhaps it was this, perhaps it was the fact of having discussed the
+situation with the two Miss Mohuns, that made Mr. White say to
+Alexis, 'There are two rooms ready for your sister, as soon as Dagger
+says she can be moved safely.  The person who nurses her had better
+come with her, and you may as well come back to your old quarters.'
+
+Alexis could hardly believe his ears, but Mr. White waved off all
+thanks.  The Mohun sisters were delighted and triumphant, and Jane
+came down to talk it over with her elder sister, auguring great
+things from that man who loved to deal in surprises.
+
+'That is true,' said Sir Jasper.
+
+'What does that mean, Jasper?' said his wife.  'It sounds
+significant.'
+
+'I certainly should not be amazed if he did further surprise us all.
+Has it never struck you how that noontide turn of Adeline's
+corresponds with his walk home from the reading-room?'
+
+Lady Merrifield looked rather startled, but Jane only laughed, and
+said, 'My dear Jasper, if you only knew Ada as well as I do!  Yes, I
+have seen far too many of those little affairs to be taken in by
+them.  Poor Ada!  I know exactly how she looks, but she is only
+flattered, like a pussy-cat waggling the end of its tail---it means
+nothing, and never comes to anything.  The thing that is likely and
+hopeful is, that he may adopt those young people as nephews and
+nieces.'
+
+'Might it not spoil them?' said Lady Merrifield.
+
+'Oh!  I did not mean that.  They might work with him still.  However,
+there is no use in settling about that.  The only thing to be
+expected of him is the unexpected!'
+
+'And the thing to be done,' added her sister, 'is to see how and when
+that poor girl can be got up to Cliff House.'
+
+To the general surprise, Dr. Dagger wished the transit to take place
+without loss of time.  A certain look of resigned consternation
+crossed Kalliope's face on being informed of her destiny, but she
+justified Mrs. Halfpenny's commendation of her as the maist douce and
+conformable patient in the world, for she had not energy enough even
+to plead against anything so formidable, and she had not yet been
+told that Ivinghoe Terrace was her home no longer.
+
+The next day she was wrapped in cloaks and carried downstairs between
+her brother and Mrs. Halfpenny, laid on a mattress in the Merrifield
+waggonette, which went up the hill at a foot's pace, and by the same
+hands, with her old friend the caretaker's wife going before, was
+taken upstairs to a beautiful large room, with a window looking out
+on vernal sky and sea.  She was too much exhausted on her arrival to
+know anything but the repose on the fresh comfortable bed, whose
+whiteness was almost rivalled by her cheek, and Mrs. Halfpenny
+ordered off Alexis, who was watching her in great anxiety.  However,
+when he came back after his afternoon's work, it was to find that she
+had eaten and slept, and now lay, with her eyes open, in quiet
+interested admiration of a spacious and pleasant bedroom, such as to
+be a great novelty to one whose life had been spent in cheap lodging
+houses.  The rooms had been furnished twenty years before as a
+surprise intended for the wife who never returned to occupy them, and
+though there was nothing extraordinary in them, there was much to
+content the eyes accustomed to something very like squalidness, for
+had not Kalliope's lot always been the least desirable chamber in the
+family quarters?
+
+At any rate, from that moment she began to recover, ate with
+appetite, slept and woke to be interested, and to enjoy Theodore's
+letter of description of St. Wulstan's, and even to ask questions.
+Alexis was ready to dance for joy when she first began really to talk
+to him; and could not forbear imparting his gladness to the Miss
+Mohuns that very evening, as well as to Mr. White, and running down
+after dinner with the good news to Maura, Mrs. Lee, and Lady
+Merrifield.  Dinners with Mr. White had, on his first sojourn in that
+house, been a great penance, though there were no supercilious
+servants, for all the waiting was by the familiar housekeeper, Mrs.
+Osborne, who had merely added an underling to her establishment on
+her master's return; but Alexis then had been utterly miserable,
+feeling guilty and ashamed, as one only endured on sufferance out of
+compassion, because his brother cast him out, and fresh from the
+sight of his mother's dying bed; a terrible experience altogether,
+which had entirely burnt out and effaced his foolish fit of romantic
+calf-love, and rendered him much more of a man.  Now, though not a
+month had passed, he seemed to be on a different footing.  He was
+doing his work steadily, and the hope of his sister's recovery had
+brightened him.  Mr. White had begun to talk to him, to ask him
+questions about the doings of the day, and to tell him in return some
+of his own experiences in Italy, and in the earlier days of the town.
+Maura came up to see her sister every day, and tranquillised her mind
+when the move was explained, and anxiety as to the transport of all
+their worldly goods began to set in.  Mrs. Lee had found a house
+where she could place two bedrooms and a sitting-room at the disposal
+of the Whites if things were to continue as before, and no hint had
+been given of any change, or of what was to happen when the three
+months' notice given to Kalliope and Alexis should have expired.
+
+By the Easter holidays Mrs. Halfpenny began to get rather restless as
+to the overlooking of the boys' wardrobes; and, indeed, she thought
+so well of her patient's progress as to suggest to Mr. White that the
+lassie would do very well if she had her sister to be with her in the
+holidays, and she herself would come up every day to help at the
+getting up, for Kalliope was now able to be dressed and to lie on a
+couch in the dressing-room, where she could look out over the bay,
+and she had even asked for some knitting.
+
+'And really, Miss Gillian, you could not do her much harm if you came
+up to see her,' said the despot.  'So you may come this very
+afternoon, if ye'll be douce, and not fash her with any of your
+cantrips.'
+
+Gillian did not feel at all in a mood for cantrips as she slowly
+walked up the broad staircase, and was ushered into the dressing-
+room, cheerful with bright fire and April sunshine, and with a large
+comfortable sofa covered with a bright rug, where Kalliope could
+enjoy both window and fire without glare.  The beauty of her face so
+much depended on form and expression that her illness had not
+lessened it.  Gillian had scarcely seen her since the autumn, and the
+first feeling was what an air of rest and peace had succeeded the
+worn, harassed look then almost perpetual.  There was a calmness now
+that far better suited the noble forehead, dark pencilled eyebrows,
+and classical features in their clear paleness; and with a sort of
+reverence Gillian bent over her, to kiss her and give her a bunch of
+violets.  Then, when the thanks had passed, Gillian relieved her own
+shyness by exclaiming with admiration at a beautiful water-coloured
+copy of an early Italian fresco, combining the Nativity and Adoration
+of the Magi, that hung over the mantelpiece.
+
+'Is it not exquisite?' returned Kalliope.  'I do so much enjoy making
+out each head and dwelling on them!  Look at that old shepherd's
+simple wonder and reverence, and the little child with the lamb, and
+the contrast with the Wise Man from the East, whose eyes look as if
+he saw so much by faith.'
+
+'Can you see it from there?' asked Gillian, who had got up to look at
+these and further details dwelt on by Kalliope.
+
+'Yes.  Not at first; but they come out on me by degrees.  It is such
+a pleasure, and so kind of Mr. White to have put it there.  He had it
+hung there, Mrs. Halfpenny told me, instead of his own picture just
+before I came in here.'
+
+'Well, he is not a bad-looking man, but it is no harm to him or his
+portrait to say that this is better to look at!'
+
+'It quite does me good!  And see,' pointing to a photograph of the
+Arch of Titus hung on the screen that shielded her from the door, 'he
+sends in a fresh one by Alexis every other day.
+
+'How very nice!  He really seems to be a dear old man.  Don't you
+think so?'
+
+'I am sure he is wonderfully kind, but I have only seen him that once
+when he came with Sir Jasper, and then I knew nothing but that when
+Sir Jasper was come things must go right.'
+
+'Of course; but has he never been to see you now that you are up and
+dressed?'
+
+'No, he lavishes anything on me that I can possibly want, but I have
+only seen him once---never here.'
+
+'It is like Beauty and the Beast!'
+
+'Oh no, no ; don't say that!'
+
+'Well, George Stebbing really taught Fergus to call him a beast, and
+you---Kally---I won't tease you with saying what you are.'
+
+'I wish I wasn't, it would be all so much easier.'
+
+'Never mind!  I do believe the Stebbings are going away!  Does Maura
+never see him?'
+
+'She has met him on the stairs and in the garden, but she has her
+meals here.  I trust by the time her Easter holidays are over I may
+be fit to go back with her.  But I do hope I may be able to copy a
+bit of that picture first, though, any way, I can never forget it.'
+
+'To go on as before?' exclaimed Gillian, with an interrogative sigh
+of wonder.
+
+'If that notice of dismissal can be revoked,' said Kalliope.
+
+But would you like it---must you?'
+
+'I _should_ like to go back to my girls,' said Kalliope; 'and things
+come into my head, now I am doing nothing, that I want to work out,
+if I might.  So, you see, it is not at all a pity that I _must_.'
+
+And why is it must?' said Gillian wistfully.  'You have to get well
+first.'
+
+Yes, I know that; but, you see, there are Maura and Petros.  They
+must not be thrown on Alexis, poor dear fellow!  And if he could only
+be set free, he might go on with what he once hoped for, though he
+thinks it is his duty to give all that entirely up now and work
+obediently on.  But I know the longing will revive, and if I only
+could improve myself, and be worth more, it might still be possible.'
+
+'Only you must not begin too soon and work yourself to death.'
+
+'Hardly after such a rest,' said Kalliope.  'It is not work I mind,
+but worry'---and then a sadder look crossed her for a moment, and she
+added, 'I am so thankful.'
+
+'Thankful?' echoed Gillian.
+
+'Yes, indeed!  For Sir Jasper's coming and saving us at that dreadful
+moment, and my being able to keep up as long as dear mamma wanted me,
+and then Mrs. Halfpenny being spared by dear Lady Merrifield to give
+me such wonderful care and kindness, and little Theodore being so
+happily placed, and this rest---such a strange quiet rest as I never
+knew before.  Oh! it is all so thankworthy'---and the great tears came
+to dim her eyes.  'It seems sent to help me to take strength and
+courage for the future.  "He hath helped me hitherto."'
+
+'And you are better?'
+
+'Yes, much better.  Quite comfortable as long as I am quite still.'
+
+'And content to be still?'
+
+'Yes, I'm very lazy.'
+
+It was a tired voice, and Gillian feared her half-hour was nearly
+over, but she could not help saying---
+
+'Do you know, I think it will be all nicer now.  Mr. White is doing
+so much, and Mr. Stebbing hates it so, that Mrs. Stebbing says he is
+going to dissolve the partnership and go away.'
+
+'Then it would all be easier.  It seems too good to be true.'
+
+'And that man Mr. White.  He must do something for you!  He ought.'
+
+'Oh no!  He has done a great deal already, and has not been well
+used.  Don't talk of that.'
+
+'I believe he is awfully rich.  You know he is building an Institute
+for the workmen, and a whole row of model cottages.'
+
+'Yes, Alexis told me.  What a difference it will make!  I hope he
+will build a room where the girls can dine and rest and read, or have
+a piano; it would be so good for them.'
+
+'You had better talk to him about it.'
+
+'I never see him, and I should not dare.'
+
+'I'll tell my aunts.  He always does what Aunt Ada tells him.  Is
+that really all you wish?'
+
+'Oh! I don't wish for anything much---I don't seem able to care now
+dear mamma is where they cease from troubling, and I have Alec
+again.'
+
+'Well, I can't help having great hopes.  I can't see why that man
+should not make a daughter of you!  Then you would travel and see
+mountains and pictures and everything.  Oh, should you not like
+that?'
+
+'Like?  Oh, one does not think about liking things impossible!  And
+for the rest, it is nonsense.  I should not like to be dependent, and
+I ought not.'
+
+'You don't think what is to come next?'
+
+'No, it would be taking thought for the morrow, would it not?  I
+don't want to, while I can't do anything, it would only make me fret,
+and I am glad I am too stupid still to begin vexing myself over it.
+I suppose energy and power of considering will come when my heart
+does not flutter so.  In the meantime, I only want to keep quiet, and
+I hope that's not all laziness, but some trust in Him who has helped
+me all this time.'
+
+'Miss Gillian, you've clavered as long as is good for Miss White, and
+here are the whole clanjamfrie waiting in the road for you.  Now be
+douce, my bairn, and mind you are not in the woods at home, and don't
+let the laddies play their tricks with Miss Primrose.'
+
+'I must go,' said Gillian, hastily kissing Kalliope.  'The others
+were going to call for me.  When Lady Phyllis was riding with her
+father she spied a wonderful field of daffodils and a valley full of
+moss at a place called Clipston, two miles off, and we are all going
+to get some for the decorations.  I'll send you some.  Good-bye.'
+
+The clanjamfrie, as Mrs. Halfpenny called it, mustered strong, and
+Gillian's heart leapt at the resumption of the tumultuous family
+life, as she beheld the collection of girls, boys, dogs, and donkeys
+awaiting her in the approach; and, in spite of the two governesses'
+presence, her mind misgave her as to the likelihood of regard to the
+hint that her mother had given that she hoped the elder ones would
+try to be sober in their ways, and not quite forget what week it was.
+It was in their favour that Jasper, now in his last term at school,
+was much more of a man and less of a boy than hitherto, and was
+likely to be on the side of discretion, so that he might keep in
+order that always difficult element, Wilfred, whose two years of
+preparatory school as yet made him only more ingenious in the arts of
+teasing, and more determined to show his superiority to petticoat
+government.  He had driven Fergus nearly distracted by threatening to
+use all his mineralogical specimens to make ducks and drakes, and
+actually confusing them together, so that Fergus repented of having
+exhibited them, and rejoiced that Aunt Jane had let them continue in
+her lumber-room till they could find a permanent home.
+
+Wilfred had a shot for Mrs. Halfpenny, when she came down with
+Gillian and looked for Primrose to secure that there were no
+interstices between the silk handkerchief and fur collar.
+
+'Ha, ha, old Small Change, don't you wish you may get it?'---as
+Primrose proved to be outside the drive on one of the donkeys.
+'You've got nothing to do but gnaw your fists at us like old Giant
+Pope.'
+
+'For shame, Wilfred!' said Jasper.  'My mother did Primrose's throat,
+nurse, so she is all right.'
+
+'Bad form,' observed Lord Ivinghoe, shaking his head.
+
+'I'm not going to Eton,' replied Wilfred audaciously.
+
+'I should hope not!'---in a tone of ineffable contempt, not for
+Wilfred's person, but his manners, and therewith his Lordship
+exclaimed, 'Who's that?' as Maura came flying down with Gillian's
+forgotten basket.
+
+'Oh, that's Maura White!' said Valetta.
+
+'I say, isn't she going with us?'
+
+'Oh no, she has to look after her sister!'
+
+'Don't you think we might take her, Gill?' said Fly.  'She never gets
+any fun.'
+
+'I don't think she ought to leave Kalliope to-day, Fly, for nurse is
+going down to Il Lido; and besides, Aunt Jane said we must not take
+_all_ Rockquay with us.'
+
+'No, they would not let us ask Kitty and Clement Varley, said Fergus
+disconsolately.
+
+'I am sure she is five times as pretty as your Kitty!' returned
+Ivinghoe.  'She is a regular stunner.'  Whereby it may be perceived
+that a year at Eton had considerably modified his Lordship's
+correctness of speech, if not of demeanour.  Be it further observed
+that, in spite of the escort of the governesses, the young people
+were as free as if those ladies had been absent, for, as Jasper
+observed, the donkeys neutralised them.  Miss Elbury, being a bad
+walker, rode one, and Miss Vincent felt bound to keep close to
+Primrose upon the other; and as neither animal could be prevailed on
+to moderate its pace, they kept far ahead of all except Valetta, who
+was mounted on the pony intended for Lady Phyllis, but disdained by
+her until she should be tired.  Lord Ivinghoe's admiration of Maura
+was received contemptuously by Wilfred, who was half a year younger
+than his cousin, and being already, in his own estimation, a
+Wykehamist, had endless rivalries with him.
+
+'She!  She's nothing but a cad!  Her sister is a shop-girl, and her
+brother is a quarryman.'
+
+'She does not look like it,' observed Ivinghoe, while Mysie and Fly,
+with one voice, exclaimed that her father was an officer in the Royal
+Wardours.
+
+'A private first,' said Wilfred, with boyhood's reiteration.  'Cads
+and quarrymen all of them---the whole boiling, old White and all,
+though he has got such a stuck-up house!'
+
+'Nonsense, Will,' said Fly.  'Why, Mr. White has dined with us.'
+
+'A patent of nobility, said Jasper, smiling.
+
+'I don't care,' said Wilfred; 'if other people choose to chum with
+old stonemasons and convicts, I don't.'
+
+'Wilfred, that is too bad,' said Gillian.  'It is very wrong to talk
+in that way.'
+
+'Oh!' said the audacious Wilfred, 'we all know who is Gill's Jack!'
+
+'Shut up, Will!' cried Fergus, flying at him.  'I told you not to--'
+
+But Wilfred bounded up a steep bank, and from that place of vantage
+went on---
+
+'Didn't she teach him Greek, and wasn't he spoony; and didn't she
+send back his valentine, so that---'
+
+Fergus was scrambling up the bank after him, enraged at the betrayal
+of his confidence, and shouting inarticulately, while poor Gillian
+moved on, overwhelmed with confusion, and Fly uttered the cutting
+words, 'Perfectly disgusting!'
+
+'Ay, so it was!' cried the unabashed Wilfred, keeping on at the top
+of the bank, and shaking the bushes at every pause.  'So he broke
+down the rocks, and ran away with the tin, and enlisted, and went to
+prison.  Such a sweet young man for Gill!'
+
+Poor Gillian! was her punishment never to end?  That scrape of hers,
+hitherto so tenderly and delicately hinted at, and which she would
+have given worlds to have kept from her brothers, now shouted all
+over the country!  Sympathy, however, she had, if that would do her
+any good.  Mysie and Fly came on each side of Ivinghoe, assuring him,
+in low eager voices, of the utter nonsense of the charge, and
+explaining ardently; and Jasper, with one bound, laid hold of the
+tormentor, dragged him down, and, holding his stick over him, said---
+
+'Now, Wilfred, if you don't hold your tongue, and not behave like a
+brute, I shall send you straight home.'
+
+'It's quite true,' growled Wilfred.  'Ask her.'
+
+'What does that signify?  I'm ashamed of you!  I've a great mind to
+thrash you this instant.  If you speak another word of that sort, I
+shall.  Now then, there are the governesses trying to stop to see
+what's the row.  I shall give you up to Miss Vincent, if you choose
+to behave so like a spiteful girl.'
+
+A sixth-form youth was far too great a man to be withstood by one who
+was not yet a public schoolboy at all; and Wilfred actually obeyed,
+while Jasper added to Fergus---
+
+'How could you be such a little ass as to go and tell him all that
+rot?'
+
+'It was true,' grumbled Fergus.
+
+'The more reason not to go cackling about it like an old hen, or a
+girl!  Your own sister!  I'm ashamed of you both.  Mind, I shall
+thrash you if you mention it again.'
+
+Poor Fergus felt the accusation of cackling unjust, since he had only
+told Wilfred in confidence, and that had been betrayed, but he had
+got his lesson on family honour, and he subsided into his wonted
+look-out for curious stones, while Gillian was overtaken by Jasper---
+whether willingly or not, she hardly knew---but his first word was,
+'Little beast!'
+
+'You didn't hurt him, I hope,' said Gill, accepting the invitation to
+take his arm.
+
+'Oh no!  I only threatened to make him walk with the governesses and
+the donkeys.'
+
+'Asses and savants to the centre,' said Gillian; 'like the orders to
+the French army in Egypt.'
+
+'But what's all this about?  You wanted me to look after you!  Is it
+that Alexis?'
+
+'Oh, Japs!  Mamma knows all about it and papa.  It was only that he
+was ridiculous because I was so silly as to think I could help him
+with his Greek.'
+
+'You!  With his Greek!  I pity him!'
+
+'Yes.  I found he soon knew too much for me,' said Gillian meekly;
+'but, indeed, Japs, it wasn't very bad!  He only sent me a valentine,
+and Aunt Jane says I need not have been so angry.'
+
+'A cat may look at a king,' said Jasper loftily.  'It is a horrid bad
+thing for a girl to be left to herself without a brother worth
+having.'
+
+So Gillian got off pretty easily, and after all the walk was not
+greatly spoilt.  They coalesced again with the other three, who were
+tolerably discreet, and found the debate on the White gentility had
+been resumed.  Ivinghoe was philosophically declaring 'that in these
+days one must take up with everybody, so it did not matter if one was
+a little more of a cad than another; he himself was fag at Eton to a
+fellow whose father was an oilman, and who wasn't half a bad lot.'
+
+'An oilman, Ivy,' said his sister; 'I thought he imported petroleum.'
+
+'Well, it's all the same.  I believe he began as an oilman.'
+
+'We shall have Fergus reporting that he's a petroleuse,' put in
+Jasper.
+
+'No, a petroleuse is a woman.'
+
+'I like Mr. White,' said Fly; 'but, Gillian, you don't think it is
+true that he is going to marry your Aunt Jane?'
+
+There was a great groan, and Japs observed---
+
+'Some one told us Rockquay was a hotbed of gossip, and we seem to
+have got it strong.'
+
+'Where did this choice specimen come from, Fly!' demanded Ivinghoe,
+in his manner most like his mother.
+
+Fly nodded her head towards her governess in the advanced guard.
+
+'She had a cousin to tea with her, and they thought I didn't know
+whom they meant, and they said that he was always up at Rockstone.'
+
+'Well, he is; and Aunt Jane always stands up for him,' said Gillian;
+'but that was because he is so good to the workpeople, and Aunt Ada
+took him for some grand political friend of Cousin Rotherwood's.'
+
+'Aunt Jane!' said Jasper.  'Why, she is the very essence and epitome
+of old maids.'
+
+'Yes,' said Gillian.  'If it came to that, she would quite as soon
+marry the postman.'
+
+'That's lucky' said Ivinghoe.  'One can swallow a good deal, but not
+quite one's own connections.'
+
+'In fact,' said Jasper, 'you had rather be an oilman's fag than a
+quarryman's---what is it?---first cousin once removed in law?'
+
+'It is much more likely,' said Gillian, as they laughed over this,
+'that Kalliope and Maura will be his adopted daughters, only he never
+comes near them.'
+
+Wherewith there was a halt.  Miss Elbury insisted that Phyllis should
+ride, the banks began to show promise of flowers, and, in the search
+for violets, dangerous topics were forgotten, and Wilfred was
+forgiven.  They reached the spot marked by Fly, a field with a border
+of sloping broken ground and brushwood, which certainly fulfilled all
+their desires, steeply descending to a stream full of rocks, the
+ground white with wood anemones, long evergreen trails of periwinkles
+and blue flowers between, primroses clustering under the roots of the
+trees, daffodils gilding the grass above, and the banks verdant with
+exquisite feather-moss.  Such a springtide wood was joy to all,
+especially as the first cuckoo of the season came to add to their
+delights and set them counting for the augury of happy years, which
+proved so many that Mysie said they would not know what to do with
+them.
+
+'I should,' said Ivinghoe.  'I should like to live to be a great old
+statesman, as Lord Palmerston did, and have it all my own way.
+Wouldn't I bring things round again!'
+
+'Perhaps they would have gone too far,' suggested Jasper, 'and then
+you would have to gnaw your hand like Giant Pope, as Wilfred says.'
+
+'Catch me, while I could do something better.'
+
+'If one only lived long enough,' speculated Fergus, 'one might find
+out what everything was made of, and how to do everything.'
+
+'I wonder if the people did before the Flood, when they lived eight
+or nine hundred years,' said Fly.
+
+'Perhaps that is the reason there is nothing new under the sun,'
+suggested Valetta, as many a child has before suggested.
+
+'But then,' said Mysie, they got wicked.'
+
+'And then after the Flood it had all to be begun over again,' said
+Ivinghoe.  'Let me see, Methuselah lived about as long as from
+William the Conqueror till now.  I think he might have got to steam
+and electricity.'
+
+'And dynamite,' said Gillian.  'Oh, I don't wonder they had to be
+swept away, if they were clever and wicked both!'
+
+'And I suppose they were,' said Jasper.  'At least the giants, and
+that they handed on some of their ability through Ham, to the
+Egyptians, and all those queer primeval coons, whose works we are
+digging up.'
+
+'From the Conquest till now,' repeated Gillian.  'I'm glad we don't
+live so long now.  It tires one to think of it.'
+
+'But we shall,' said Fly.
+
+'Yes,' said Mysie, 'but then we shall be rid of this nasty old self
+that is always getting wrong.'
+
+'That little lady's nasty old self does so as little as any one's,'
+Jasper could not help remarking to his sister; and Fly, pouncing on
+the first purple orchis spike amid its black-spotted leaves, cried---
+
+'At any rate, these dear things go on the same, without any tiresome
+inventing.'
+
+'Except God's just at first,' whispered Mysie.
+
+'And the gardeners do invent new ones,' said Valetta.
+
+'Invent!  No; they only fuss them and spoil them, and make ridiculous
+names for them,' said Fly.  These darling creatures are ever so much
+better.  Look at Primrose there.'
+
+'Yes,' said Gillian, as she saw her little sister in quiet ecstasy
+over the sparkling bells of the daffodils; 'one would not like to
+live eight hundred years away from that experience.'
+
+'But mamma cares just as much still as Primrose does,' said Mysie.
+'We must get some for her own self as well as for the church.'
+
+'Mine are all for mamma,' proclaimed Primrose; and just then there
+was a shout that a bird's nest had been found---a ring-ousel's nest on
+the banks.  Fly and her brother shared a collection of birds' eggs,
+and were so excited about robbing the ousels of a single egg, that
+Gillian hoped that Fergus would not catch the infection and abandon
+minerals for eggs, which would be ever so much worse---only a degree
+better than butterflies, towards which Wilfred showed a certain
+proclivity.
+
+'I shall be thirteen before next holidays,' he observed, after making
+a vain dash with his hat at a sulphur butterfly, looking like a
+primrose flying away.
+
+'Mamma won't allow any "killing collection" before thirteen years
+old,' explained Mysie.
+
+'She says,' explained Gillian, 'by that time one ought to be old
+enough to discriminate between the lawfulness of killing the
+creatures for the sake of studying their beauty and learning them,
+and the mere wanton amusement of hunting them down under the excuse
+of collecting.'
+
+'I say,' exclaimed Valetta, who had been exploring above, 'here is
+such a funny old house.'
+
+There was a rush in that direction, and at the other end of the wide
+home-field was perceived a picturesque gray stone house, with large
+mullioned windows, a dilapidated low stone wall, with what had once
+been a handsome gateway, overgrown with ivy, and within big double
+daffodils and white narcissus growing wild.
+
+'It's like the halls of Ivor,' said Mysie, awestruck by the
+loneliness; 'no dog, nor horse, nor cow, not even a goose,'
+
+'And what a place to sketch!' cried Miss Vincent.  'Oh, Gillian, we
+must come here another day.'
+
+'Oh, may we gather the flowers?' exclaimed the insatiable Primrose.
+
+'Those poetic narcissuses would be delicious for the choir screen,'
+added Gillian.
+
+'Poetic narcissus---poetic grandmother,' said Wilfred.  'It's old
+butter and eggs.'
+
+'I say!' cried Mysie.  'Look, Ivy---I know that pair of fighting
+lions---ain't these some of your arms over the door?'
+
+'By which you mean a quartering of our shield,' said Ivinghoe. 'Of
+course it is the Clipp bearing.  Or, two lions azure, regardant
+combatant, their tails couped.'
+
+'Two blue Kilkenny cats, who have begun with each other's tails,'
+commented Jasper.
+
+'Ivinghoe glared a little, but respected the sixth form, and Gillian
+added---
+
+'They clipped them!  Then did this place belong to our ancestors?'
+
+'Poetic grandmother, really!' said Mysie.
+
+'Great grandmother,' corrected Ivinghoe.  'To be sure.  It was from
+the Clipps that we got all this Rockstone estate!'
+
+'And I suppose this was their house?  What a shame to have deserted
+it!'
+
+'Oh, it has been a farmhouse,' said Fly.  'I heard something about
+farms that wouldn't let.'
+
+'Then is it yours?' cried Valetta, 'and may we gather the flowers?'
+
+'And mayn't we explore?' asked Mysie.  'Oh, what fun!'
+
+'Holloa!' exclaimed Wilfred, transfixed, as if he had seen the ghosts
+of all the Clipps.  For just as Valetta and Mysie threw themselves on
+the big bunches of hepatica and the white narcissus, a roar, worthy
+of the clip-tailed lions, proceeded from the window, and the demand,
+'Who is picking my roses?'
+
+Primrose in terror threw herself on Gillian with a little scream.
+Wilfred crept behind the walls, but after the general start there was
+an equally universal laugh, for between the stout mullions of the
+oriel window Lord Rotherwood's face was seen, and Sir Jasper's behind
+him.
+
+Great was the jubilation, and there was a rush to the tall door, up
+the dilapidated steps, where curls of fern were peeping out; but the
+gentlemen called out that only the back-door could be opened, and the
+intention of a 'real grand exploration' was cut short by Miss
+Elbury's declaring that she was bound not to let Phyllis stay out
+till six o'clock.
+
+Fly, in her usual good-humoured way, suppressed her sighs and begged
+the others to explore without her, but the general vote declared this
+to be out of the question.  Fly had too short a time to remain with
+her cousins to be forsaken even for the charms of 'the halls of
+Ivor,' or the rival Beast's Castle, as Gillian called it, which,
+after all, would not run away.
+
+'But it might be let,' said Mysie.
+
+'Yes, I've got a tenant in agitation,' said Lord Rotherwood
+mischievously.  'Never mind, I dare say he won't inquire what you
+have done with his butter and eggs.'
+
+So with a parting salute to the ancestral halls, the cavalry was set
+in order, big panniers full of moss and flowers disposed on the
+donkeys, Fly placed on her pony, and every maiden taking her basket
+of flowers, Jasper and Ivinghoe alone being amiable, or perhaps
+trustworthy enough to assist in carrying.  Fly's pony demurred to the
+extra burthen, so Jasper took hers; and when Gillian declared herself
+too fond of her flowers to part with them, Ivinghoe astonished Miss
+Vincent, on whom some stones of Fergus's, as well as her own share of
+flowers, had been bestowed, by taking one handle of her most cumbrous
+basket.
+
+Sir Jasper and Lord Rotherwood rode together through the happy young
+troop on the homeward way.  Perhaps Ivinghoe was conscious of a
+special nod of approval from his father.
+
+On passing Rock House, the youthful public was rather amused at his
+pausing, and saying---
+
+'Aren't you going to leave some flowers there?'
+
+'Oh yes!' said Gillian.  'I have a basket on purpose.'
+
+'And I have some for Maura,' said Valetta.
+
+Valetta's was an untidy bunch; Gillian's a dainty basket, where white
+violets reposed on moss within a circle of larger blossoms.
+
+'That's something like!' quoth Ivinghoe.
+
+He lingered with them as if he wanted to see that vision again, but
+only the caretaker appeared, and promised to take the flowers
+upstairs.
+
+Maura afterwards told how they were enjoyed, and they knew of
+Kalliope's calm restfulness in Holy Week thoughts and Paschal Joys.
+
+It was on Easter Tuesday that Mr. White first sent a message asking
+to see his guest, now of nearly three weeks.
+
+He came in very quietly and gently---perhaps the sight of the room he
+had prepared for his young wife was in itself a shock to him, and he
+had lived so long without womankind that he had all a lonely man's
+awe of an invalid.  He took with a certain respect the hand that
+Kalliope held out, as she said, with a faint flush in her cheeks---
+
+'I am glad to thank you, sir.  You have been very good to me.'
+
+'I am glad to see you better,' he said, with a little embarrassment.
+
+'I ought to be, in this beautiful air, and with these lovely things
+to look at,' and she pointed to the reigning photograph on the stand-
+--the facade of St. Mark's.
+
+'You should see it as I did.'  And he began to describe it to her,
+she putting in a question or two here and there, which showed her
+appreciation.
+
+'You know something about it already,' he said.
+
+'Yes; when I was quite a little girl one of the officers in the Royal
+Wardours brought some photographs to Malta, and told me about them.'
+
+'But,' he said, recalling himself, that is not my object now.  Your
+brother says he does not feel competent to decide without you.'  And
+he laid before her two or three prospectuses of grammar schools.  'It
+is time to apply,' he added, 'if that little fellow---Peter, you call
+him, don't you?---is to begin next term.'
+
+'Petros!  Oh, sir, this is kindness!'
+
+'I desired that the children's education should be attended to,' said
+Mr. White.  'I did not intend their being sent to an ordinary
+National school.'
+
+'Indeed,' said Kalliope; 'I do not think much time has been lost, for
+they have learnt a good deal there; but I am particularly glad that
+Petros should go to a superior school just now that he has been left
+alone, for he is more lively and sociable than Theodore, and it might
+be less easy for him to keep from bad companions.'
+
+The pros and cons of the several schools were discussed, and
+Hurstpierpoint finally fixed on.
+
+'Never mind about his outfit,' added Mr. White.  'I'll give that
+fellow down in Bellevue an order to rig him out.  He is a sharp
+little sturdy fellow, who will make his way in the world.'
+
+'Indeed, I trust so, now that his education is secured.  It is
+another load off my mind,' said Kalliope, with a smile of exceeding
+sweetness and gratitude, her hands clasped, and her eyes raised for a
+moment in higher thankfulness,---a look that so enhanced her beauty
+that Mr. White gazed for a moment in wonder.  The next moment,
+however, the dark eyes turned on him with a little anxiety, and she
+said---
+
+'One thing more, sir.  Perhaps you will be so kind as to relieve my
+mind again.  That notice of dismissal at the quarter's end.  Was it
+not in some degree from a mistake?'
+
+'An utter mistake, my dear,' he said hastily.  'Never trouble your
+head about it.'
+
+'Then it does not hold?'
+
+'Certainly not.'
+
+'And I may go back to my office as soon as I am well enough?'
+
+'Is that your wish?'
+
+'Yes, sir.  I love my work and my assistants, and I think I could do
+better if a little more scope could be allowed me.'
+
+'Very well, we will see about that---you have to get well first of
+all.'
+
+'I am so much better that I ought to go home.  Mr. Lee is quite ready
+for me.'
+
+Nonsense!  You must be much stronger before Dagger would hear of your
+going.'
+
+After this Mr. White came to sit with Kalliope for a time in the
+course of each day, bringing with him something that would interest
+her, and seeming gratified by her responsiveness, quiet as it was,
+for she was still very feeble, and exertion caused a failure of
+breath and fluttering of heart that were so distressing that ten days
+more passed before she was brought downstairs and drawn out in the
+garden in a chair, where she could sit on the sheltered terrace
+enjoying the delicious spring air and soft sea-breezes, sometimes
+alone, sometimes with the company of one friend or another.  Gillian
+and Aunt Jane had, with the full connivance of Mr. White, arranged a
+temporary entrance from one garden to the other for the convenience
+of attending to Kalliope, and here one afternoon Miss Mohun was
+coming in when she heard through the laurels two voices speaking to
+the girl.  As she moved forward she saw they were the elder and
+younger Stebbings, and that Kalliope had risen to her feet, and was
+leaning on the back of her chair.  While she was considering whether
+to advance Kalliope heard her, and called in a breathless voice,
+'Miss Mohun! oh, Miss Mohun, come!'
+
+'Miss Mohun!  You will do us the justice---' began Mr. Stebbing,
+speaking more to her indignant face and gesture than to any words.
+
+'Miss White is not well,' she said.  'You had better leave her to
+me.'
+
+And as they withdrew through the house, Kalliope sank back in her
+chair in one of those alarming attacks of deadly faintness that had
+been averted for many days past.  Happily an electric bell was always
+at hand, and the housekeeper knew what remedies to bring.  Kalliope
+did not attempt a word for many long minutes, though the colour came
+back gradually to her lips.  Her first words were,
+
+'Thank you!  Oh, I did hope that persecution was over!'
+
+'My poor child!  Don't tell me unless you like!  Only---it wasn't
+about your work?'
+
+'Oh no, the old story!  But he brought his father---to say he
+consented---and wished it---now.'
+
+There was no letting her say any more at that time, but it was all
+plain enough.  This had been one more attempt of the Stebbing family
+to recover their former power; Kalliope was assumed to be Mr. White's
+favoured niece; Frank could make capital of having loved her when
+poor and neglected, and his parents were ready to back his suit.  The
+father and son had used their familiarity with the house to obtain
+admittance to the garden without announcement or preparation, and had
+pressed the siege, with a confidence that could only be inspired by
+their own self-opinion.  Kalliope had been kept up by her native
+dignity and resolution, and had at first gently, then firmly,
+declined the arguments, persuasions, promises, and final reproaches
+with which they beset her--even threatening to disclose what they
+called encouragement, and assuring her that she need not reckon on
+Mr. White, for the general voice declared him likely to marry again,
+and then where would she be?'
+
+'I don't know what would have become of me, if you had not come,' she
+said.
+
+And when she had rested long enough, and crept into the house, and
+Alexis had come home to carry her upstairs, it was plain that she had
+been seriously thrown back, and she was not able to leave her room
+for two or three days.
+
+Mr. White was necessarily told what had been the cause of the
+mischief.  He smiled grimly.  'Ay! ay! Master Frank thought he would
+come round the old man, did he?  He will find himself out.  Ha, ha! a
+girl like that in the house is like a honey-pot near a wasps' nest,
+and the little sister will be as bad.  Didn't I see the young lord,
+smart little prig as he looks, holding an umbrella over her with a
+smile on his face, as much as to say, "I know who is a pretty girl!
+No one to look after them either!"  But maybe they will all find
+themselves mistaken,' and his grim smile relaxed into a highly
+amiable one.
+
+Miss Mohun was not at all uneasy as to the young lord.  An Eton boy's
+admiration of a pretty face did not amount to much, even if Ivinghoe
+had not understood 'Noblesse oblige' too well to leave a young girl
+unsheltered.  Besides, he and all the rest were going away the next
+day.  But what did that final hint mean?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.  THE MAIDEN ALL FORLORN
+
+
+
+One secret was soon out, even before the cruel parting of Fly and
+Mysie, which it greatly mitigated.
+
+Clipston was to be repaired and put in order, to be rented by the
+Merrifields.  It was really a fine old substantial squire's house,
+though neglected and consigned to farmers for four generations.  It
+had great capabilities---a hall up to the roof, wainscoted rooms---at
+present happy hunting-grounds to boys and terriers---a choked
+fountain, numerous windows, walled up in the days of the 'tax on
+light,' and never reopened, and, moreover, a big stone barn, with a
+cross on the gable, and evident traces of having once been a chapel.
+
+The place was actually in Rockstone Parish, and had a hamlet of six
+or seven houses, for which cottage services were held once a week,
+but the restoration of the chapel would provide a place for these,
+and it would become a province for Lady Merrifield's care, while Sir
+Jasper was absolutely entreated, both by Lord Rotherwood and the
+rector of Rockstone, to become the valuable layman of the parish, nor
+was he at all unwilling thus to bestow his enforced leisure.
+
+It was a beautiful place.  The valley of daffodils already visited
+narrowed into a ravine, where the rivulet rushed down from moorlands,
+through a ravine charmingly wooded, and interspersed with rock.  It
+would give country delights to the children, and remove them from the
+gossip of the watering-place society, and yet not be too far off for
+those reading-room opportunities beloved of gentlemen.
+
+The young people were in ecstasies, only mourning that they could not
+live there during the repairs, and that those experienced in the
+nature of workmen hesitated to promise that Clipston would be
+habitable by the summer vacation.  In the meantime, most of the
+movables from Silverfold were transported thither, and there was a
+great deal of walking and driving to and fro, planning for the
+future, and revelling in the spring outburst of flowers.
+
+Schoolroom work had begun again, and Lady Merrifield was hearing
+Mysie read the Geruasalemme Liberata, while Miss Vincent
+superintended Primrose's copies, and Gillian's chalks were striving
+to portray a bust of Sophocles, when the distant sounds of the piano
+in the drawing-room stopped, and Valetta came in with words always
+ominous---
+
+'Aunt Jane wants to speak to you, mamma.'
+
+Lady Merrifield gathered up her work and departed, while Valetta,
+addressing the public, said, 'Something's up.'
+
+'Oh!' cried Primrose, 'Sofi hasn't run away again?'
+
+'I hope Kalliope isn't worse,' said Mysie anxiously.
+
+'I guess,' said Valetta, 'somebody said something the other day!'
+
+'Something proving us the hotbeds of gossip,' muttered Gillian.
+
+'You had better get your German exercise, Valetta,' said Miss
+Vincent.  'Mysie, you have not finished your sums.'
+
+And a sigh went round; but Valetta added one after-clap.
+
+'Aunt Jane looked---I don't know how!'
+
+Whereat Gillian nodded her head, and looked up at Miss Vincent, who
+was as curious as the rest, but restrained the manifestation
+manfully.
+
+Meantime Lady Merrifield found her sister standing at the window,
+and, without turning round, the words were uttered---
+
+'Jasper was right, Lily.'
+
+'You don't mean it?'
+
+'Yes; he is after her!'---with a long breath.
+
+'Mr. White!'
+
+'Yes'---then sitting down.  'I did not think much of it before.  They
+always are after Ada more or less---and she likes it; but it never has
+come to anything.'
+
+'Why should it now?'
+
+'It has!  At least, it has gone further than ever anything did
+before, except Charlie Scott, that ridiculous boy at Beechcroft that
+William was so angry with, and who married somebody else.'
+
+'You don't say that he has proposed to her?'
+
+'Yes, he has---the man!  By a letter this morning, and I could see she
+expected it---not that that's any wonder!'
+
+'But, my dear, she can't possibly be thinking of it.'
+
+'Well, I should have said it was impossible; but I see she has not
+made up her mind.  Poor dear Ada!  It is too bad to laugh; but she
+does like the having a real offer at last, and a great Italian castle
+laid at her feet.'
+
+'But he isn't a gentleman!  I don't mean only his birth---and I know
+he is a good man really---but Jasper said he could feel he was not a
+gentleman by the way he fell on Richard White before his sister.'
+
+'I know!  I know!  I wonder if it would be for her happiness?'
+
+'Then she has not answered him?'
+
+'No; or, rather, I left her going to write.  She won't accept him
+certainly now; but I believe she is telling him that she must have
+time to consider and consult her family.'
+
+'She must know pretty well what her family will say.  Fancy William!
+Fancy Emily!  Fancy Reginald!'
+
+'Yes, oh yes!  But Ada---I must say it---she does like to prolong the
+situation.'
+
+'It is not fair on the poor man.'
+
+'Well, she will act as she chooses; but I think she really does want
+to see what amount of opposition--- No, not that, but of estrangement
+it would cause.'
+
+'Did you see the letter?'
+
+'Yes; no doubt you will too.  I told her I should come to you, and
+she did not object.  I think she was glad to be saved broaching the
+subject, for she is half ashamed.'
+
+'I should have thought she would have been as deeply offended at the
+presumption as poor Gillian was with the valentine.'
+
+'Lily, my dear, forty-two is not all one with seventeen, especially
+when there's an estate with an Italian countship attached to it!
+Though I'm sure I'd rather marry Alexis than this man.  _He_ is a
+gentleman in grain!'
+
+'Oh, Jenny, you are very severe!'
+
+'I'm afraid it is bitterness, Lily; so I rushed down to have it all
+out with you, and make up my mind what part to take.'
+
+'It is very hard on you, my dear, after you have nursed and waited on
+her all these years.'
+
+'It is the little titillation of vanity---exactly like the Ada of
+sixteen, nay, of six, that worries me, and makes me naughty,' said
+Jane, dashing off a tear.  'Oh, Lily! how could I have borne it if
+you had not come home!'
+
+'But what do you mean about the part to take?'
+
+'Well, you see, Lily, I really do not know what I ought to do.  I
+want to clear my mind by talking to you.'
+
+'I am afraid it would make a great difference to you in the matter of
+means.'
+
+'I don't mean about that; but I am not sure whether I ought to stand
+up for her.  You see the man is really good at heart, and religious,
+and he is taking out this chaplain.  The climate, mountains, and sea
+might really suit her health, and she could have all kinds of
+comforts and luxuries; and if she can get over his birth, and the
+want of fine edge of his manners, I don't know that we have any right
+to set ourselves against it.'
+
+'I should have thought those objections would have weighed most of
+all with her.'
+
+'And I do believe that if the whole family are unanimous in scouting
+the very idea, she will give it up.  She _is_ proud of Mohun blood,
+and the Rotherwood connection and all, and if there were a desperate
+opposition---well, she would be rather flattered, and give in; but I
+am not sure that she would not always regret it, and pine after what
+she might have had.'
+
+'Rotherwood likes the man.'
+
+'Like---but that's not liking him to marry his cousin.'
+
+'Rotherwood will not be the person most shocked.'
+
+'No.  We shall have a terrible time, however it ends.  Oh.  I wish it
+was all over!'
+
+'Do you think she really cares for the man---loves him, in fact?'
+
+'My dear Lily, if Ada ever was in love with anybody, it was with
+Harry May, and that was all pure mistake.  I never told anybody, but
+I believe it was that which upset her health.  But they are both too
+old to concern themselves about such trifles.  He does not expect
+it!'
+
+'I have seen good strong love in a woman over forty.'
+
+'Yes; but this is quite another thing.  A lady of the house wanted!
+That's the motive.  I should not wonder if he came home as much to
+look for a lady-wife as to set the Stebbings to rights; or, if not,
+he is driven to it by having the Whites on his hands.'
+
+'I don't quite see that.  I was going to ask you how it would affect
+them.'
+
+'Well, you see, though she is perfectly willing and anxious to begin
+again, poor dear Kally really can't.  She did try to arrange a design
+that had been running in her head for a long time, and she was so bad
+after it that Dr. Dagger said she must not attempt it.  Then, though
+she is discreet enough for anything, Mr. White is not really her
+uncle, and could not take her about with him alone or even with
+Maura; so I gather from some expressions in his letter that he would
+like to take her out with them, spend the summer at Rocca Marina, and
+let her have a winter's study at Florence.  Then, I suppose she might
+come back and superintend on quite a different footing.
+
+'So he wants Ada as a chaperon for Kalliope?'
+
+'That is an element in the affair, and not a bad one, and I don't
+think Ada will object.  She won't be left entirely to his
+companionship.'
+
+'My dear Jane!  Then I'm sure she ought not to marry him!' cried Lady
+Merrifield indignantly.  'Here comes Jasper.  May I tell him?'
+
+'You will, whether you may or not.'
+
+And what Sir Jasper said was---
+
+
+          '"Who married the maiden all forlorn---"'
+
+
+At which both sisters, though rather angry, could not help laughing,
+and Lady Merrifield explained that they had always said the events
+had gone on in a concatenation, like the house that Jack built, from
+Gillian's peep through the rails.  However, he was of opinion that it
+was better not to make a strenuous opposition.
+
+'Adeline is quite old enough to judge for herself whether the
+incongruities will interfere with her happiness,' he said; 'and this
+is really a worthy man who ought not to be contemned.  Violent
+contradiction might leave memories that would make it difficult to be
+on affectionate terms afterwards.'
+
+'Yes,' said Jane; 'that is what I feel.  Thank you, Jasper.  Now I
+must go to my district.  Happily those things run on all the same for
+the present.'
+
+But when she was gone Sir Jasper told his wife that he thought it
+ought to be seriously put before Adeline that Jane ought to be
+considered.  She had devoted herself to the care of her sister for
+many years, and the division of their means would tell seriously upon
+her comfort.
+
+'If it were a matter of affection, there would be nothing to say,' he
+observed; 'but nobody pretends that it is so, and surely Jane
+deserves consideration.
+
+'I should think her a much more comfortable companion than Mr.
+White,' said Lady Merrifield.  'I can't believe it will come to
+anything.  Whatever the riches or the castle at Rocca Marina may be,
+Ada would, in a worldly point of view, give up a position of some
+consideration here, and I think that will weigh with her.'
+
+As soon as possible, Lady Merrifield went up to see her sister, and
+found her writing letters in a great flutter of importance.  It was
+quite plain that the affair was not to be quashed at once, and that,
+whether the suit were granted or not, all the family were to be aware
+that Adeline had had her choice.  Warned by her husband, Lady
+Merrifield guarded the form of her remonstrances.
+
+'Oh yes, dear Lily, I know!  It is a sacrifice in many points of
+view, but think what a field is open to me!  There are all those
+English workmen and their wives and families living out there, and
+Mr. White does so need a lady to influence them.'
+
+'You have not done much work of that kind.  Besides, I thought this
+chaplain was married.'
+
+'Yes, but the moral support of a lady at the head must be needful,'
+said Ada.  'It is quite a work.'
+
+'Perhaps so,' said her sister, who had scarcely been in the habit of
+looking on Ada as a great moral influence.  'But have you thought
+what this will be to Jane?'
+
+'Really, Lily, it is a good deal for Jane's sake.  She will be so
+much more free without being bound to poor me!'---and Ada's head went
+on one side.  'You know she would never have lived here but for me;
+and now she will be able to do what she pleases.'
+
+'Not pecuniarily.'
+
+'Oh, it will be quite possible to see to all that!  Besides, think of
+the advantage to her schemes.  Oh yes, dear Jenny, it will be a
+wrench to her, of course, and she will miss me; but, when that is
+once got over, she will feel that I have acted for the best.  Nor
+will it be such a separation; he means always to spend the summer
+here, and the winter and spring at Florence or Rocca Marina.'  It was
+grand to hear the Italian syllables roll from Adeline's tongue.  'You
+know he could take the title if he pleased.'
+
+'I am sure I hope he will not do anything so ridiculous!'
+
+'Oh no, of course not!'  But it was plain that the secret
+consciousness of being Countess of Rocca Marina was an offset against
+being plain Mrs. White, and Adeline continued: 'There is another
+thing---I do not quite see how it can be managed about Kalliope
+otherwise, poor girl!'
+
+It was quite true that the care of Kalliope would be greatly
+facilitated by Mr. White's marriage; but what was absurd was to
+suppose that Ada would have made any sacrifice for her sake, or any
+one else's, and there was something comical as well as provoking in
+this pose of devotion to the public good.
+
+'You are decided, then?'
+
+'Oh no!  I am only showing you what inducements there are to give up
+so much as I should do here---if I make up my mind to it.'
+
+'There's only one inducement, I should think, valid for a moment.'
+
+'Yes'---bridling a little.  'But, Lily, you always had your romance.
+We don't all meet with a Jasper at the right moment, and---and'---the
+Maid of Athens drooped her eyelids, and ingenuously curved her lips.
+'I do think the poor man has it very much at heart.'
+
+'Then you ought not to keep him in suspense.'
+
+'And you---you really are not against it, Lily?' (rather in a
+disappointed tone), as if she expected to have her own value
+enhanced.
+
+'I think you ought to do whatever is most right and just by him, and
+everybody else.  If you really care for the man enough to overlook
+his origin, and his occasional betrayals of it, and think he will
+make you better and happier, take him at once; but don't pretend to
+call it a sacrifice, or for anybody's sake but for your own; and, any
+way, don't trifle with him and his suspense.'
+
+Lady Merrifield spoke with unwonted severity, for she was really
+provoked.
+
+'But, Lily, I must see what the others say---William and Emily.  I
+told him that William was the head of our family.'
+
+'If you mean to be guided by them, well and good; if not, I see no
+sense in asking them.'
+
+After all, the family commotion fell short of what was expected by
+either of the sisters.  The eldest brother, Mr. Mohun, of Beechcroft
+Court, wrote to the lady herself that she was quite old enough to
+know what was for her own happiness, and he had no desire to
+interfere with her choice if she preferred wealth to station.  To
+Lady Merrifield his letter began: 'It is very well it is no worse,
+and as Jasper vouches for this being a worthy man, and of substantial
+means, there is no valid objection.  I shall take care to overhaul
+the settlements, and, if possible, I must make up poor Jane's
+income.'
+
+The sister, Lady Henry Grey, in her dowager seclusion at Brighton,
+contented herself with a general moan on the decadence of society,
+and the levelling up that made such an affair possible.  She had been
+meditating a visit to Rockquay, to see her dear Lilias (who, by the
+bye, had run down to her at Brighton for a day out of the stay in
+London), but now she would defer it till this matter was over.  It
+would be too trying to have to accept this stonemason as one of the
+family.
+
+As to Colonel Mohun, being one of the younger division of the family,
+there was no idea of consulting him, and he wrote a fairly civil
+little note to Adeline, hoping that she had decided for the best, and
+would be happy; while to the elder of the pair of sisters he said:
+'So Ada has found her crooked stick at last.  I always thought it
+inevitable.  Keep up heart, old Jenny, and hold on till Her Majesty
+turns me off, and then we will see what is to be done.'
+
+Perhaps this cool acquiescence was less pleasing to Adeline Mohun
+than a contest that would have proved her value and importance, and
+her brother William's observation that she was old enough to know her
+own mind was the cruellest cut of all.  On the other hand, there was
+no doubt of her swain's devotion.  If he had been influenced in his
+decision by convenience or calculation, he was certainly by this time
+heartily in love.  Not only was Adeline a handsome, graceful woman,
+whose airs and affectations seemed far more absurd to those who had
+made merry over them from childhood than to a stranger of an inferior
+grade; but there was a great charm to a man, able to appreciate
+refinement, in his first familiar intercourse with thorough ladies.
+Jane began to be touched by the sight of his devotion, and convinced
+of his attachment, and sometimes wondered with Lady Merrifield
+whether Adeline would rise to her opportunities and responsibilities,
+or be satisfied to be a petted idol.
+
+One difficulty in this time of suspense was, that the sisters had no
+right to take into their confidence the young folks, who were quite
+sharp-eyed enough to know that something was going on, and, not being
+put on honour, were not withheld from communicating their discoveries
+to one another in no measured words, though fortunately they had
+sense enough, especially under the awe of their father, not to let
+them go any further than Mysie, who was entertaining because she was
+shocked at their audacious jokes and speculations, all at first on
+the false scent of their elder aunt, who certainly was in a state of
+excitement and uncertainty enough to throw her off the even tenor of
+her way and excite some suspicion.  When she actually brought down a
+number of the Contemporary Review instead of Friendly Work for the
+edification of her G.F.S., Gillian tried not to look too conscious
+when some of the girls actually tittered in the rear; and she
+absolutely blushed when Aunt Jane deliberately stated that Ascension
+Day would fall on a Tuesday.  So Gillian averred as she walked up the
+hill with Jasper and Mysie.  It seemed a climax to the diversion she
+and Jasper had extracted from it in private, both wearing Punch's
+spectacles for the nonce, and holding such aberrations as proof
+positive.  Mysie, on the other hand, was much exercised.
+
+'Do you think she is in love, then?'
+
+'Oh yes!  People always do those things in love.  Besides, the Sofi
+hasn't got a single white hair in her, and you know what that always
+means!'
+
+'I can't make it out!  I can't think how Aunt Jane can be in love
+with a great man like that.  His voice isn't nice, you know---'
+
+'Not even as sweet as Bully Bottom's,' suggested Gillian.
+
+'You're a chit,' said Jasper, 'or you'd be superior to the notion of
+love being indispensable.'
+
+'When people are so _very_ old,' said Mysie in a meditative voice,
+'perhaps they can't; but Aunt Jane is very good---and I thought it was
+only horrid worldly people that married without love.'
+
+'Trust your good woman for looking to the main chance,' said Jasper,
+who was better read in Trollope and Mrs. Oliphant than his sisters.
+
+''Tis not main chance,' said Gillian.  'Think of the lots of good she
+would do!  What a recreation room for the girls, and what schools she
+would set up at Rocca Marina!  Depend upon it, it's for that!'
+
+'I suppose it is right if Aunt Jane does it,' said Mysie.
+
+'Well done, Mysie!  So, Aunt Jane is your Pope!'
+
+'No; she's the King that can do no wrong,' said Gillian, laughing.
+
+'Wrong---I didn't say wrong---but things aren't always real wrong that
+aren't somehow quite right, said Mysie, with the bewildered reasoning
+of perceptions that outran her powers of expression.
+
+'Mysie's speeches, for instance,' said Jasper.
+
+'Oh, Japs, what did I say wrong?'
+
+'Don't tease her, Japs.  He didn't mean morally, but correctly.'
+
+The three were on their way up the hill when they met Primrose, who
+had accompanied Mrs. Halfpenny to see Kalliope, and who was evidently
+in a state of such great discomposure that they all stood round to
+ask what was the matter; but she hung down her head and would not
+say.
+
+'Hoots! toots!  I tell her she need not make such a work about it,'
+said Mrs. Halfpenny.  'The honest man did but kiss her, and no harm
+for her uncle that is to be.'
+
+'He's a nasty man!  And he snatched me up!  And he is all scrubby and
+tobacco-ey, and I won't have him for an uncle,' cried Primrose.
+
+'I hope he is not going to proceed in that way,' said Gillian sotto
+voce to Mysie.
+
+'People always do snatch up primroses,' said Jasper.
+
+'Don't, Japs!  I don't like marble men.  I wish they would stay
+marble.'
+
+'You don't approve of the transformation?'
+
+'Oh, Japs, is it true?  Mysie, you know the statue at Rotherwood,
+where Pig-my-lion made a stone figure and it turned into a woman.'
+
+'Yes; but it was a woman and this is a man.'
+
+Mysie began an exposition of classic fable to her little sister,
+while Mrs. Halfpenny explained that this came of Christian folk
+setting up heathen idols in their houses as 'twas a shame for decent
+folk to look at, let alone puir bairnies; while Jasper and Gillian
+gasped in convulsions of laughter, and bandied queries whether their
+aunt were the statue 'Pig-my-lion' had animated, as nothing could be
+less statuesque than she, whether the reverse had taken place, as
+Primrose observed, and she had been the Pygmalion to awaken the soul
+in the man of marble.  Here, however, Mrs. Halfpenny became
+scandalised at such laughter in the open street; and, perceiving some
+one in the distance, she carried off Primrose, and enjoined the
+others to walk on doucely and wiselike.
+
+Gillian was on her way to visit Kalliope and make an appointment for
+her mother to take her out for a drive; but as they passed the gate
+at Beechcroft out burst Valetta and Fergus, quite breathless.
+
+'Oh, Gill, Gill!  Mr. White is in the drawing-room, and he has
+brought Aunt Ada the most beautiful box you ever saw, with all the
+stoppers made of gold !'
+
+'And he says I may get all the specimens I like at Rocca Marina,'
+shouted Fergus.
+
+'Ivory brushes, and such a ring---sparkling up to the ceiling!' added
+Valetta.
+
+'But, Val, Ferg, whom did you say?' demanded the elders, coming
+within the shadow of the copper beeches.
+
+'Aunt Ada,' said Valetta; 'there's a great A engraved on all those
+dear, lovely bottles, and---oh, they smell!'
+
+'Aunt Ada!  Oh, I thought----'
+
+'What did you think, Gill?' said Aunt Jane, coming from the grass-
+plat suddenly on them.
+
+'Oh, Aunt Jane, I am so glad!' cried Gillian.  'I thought'---and she
+blushed furiously.
+
+'They made asses of themselves,' said Jasper.
+
+'They said it was you,' added Mysie.  'Miss Mellon told Miss Elbury,'
+she added in excuse.
+
+'Me?  No, I thank you!  So you are glad, Gillian?'
+
+'Oh yes, aunt!  I couldn't have borne for you to do anything---queer'-
+--and there was a look in Gillian's face that went to Jane's heart,
+and under other circumstances would have produced a kiss, but she
+rallied to her line of defence.
+
+'My dear, you must not call this queer.  Mr. White is very much
+attached to your aunt Ada, and I think he will make her very happy,
+and give her great opportunities of doing good.'
+
+'That's just what Gillian said when she was afraid it was you,' said
+Mysie.  'I suppose that's it?  And that makes it real right.'
+
+'And the golden stoppers!' said Valetta innocently, but almost
+choking Jasper with laughter, which must be suppressed before his
+aunt.
+
+'May one know it now?' asked Gillian, sensible of the perilous
+ground.
+
+'Yes, my dears; you must have been on tenter-hooks all this time,
+for, of course, you saw there was a crisis, and you behaved much
+better than I should have done at your age; but it was only a fait
+accompli this very day, and we couldn't tell you before.'
+
+'When he brought down the golden stoppers,' Jasper could not help
+saying.
+
+'No, no, you naughty boy!  He would not have dared to bring it in
+before; he came before luncheon---all that came after.  Oh, my dear,
+that dressing-case is perfectly awful!  I wouldn't have such a
+burthen on my mind---for---for all the orphans in London!  I hope there
+are no banditti at Rocca Marina.'
+
+'Only accepted to-day!  How did he get all his great A's engraved?'
+said Jasper practically.
+
+'He could not have had many doubts,' said Gillian.  'Does Kalliope
+know?'
+
+'I cannot tell; I think he has probably told her.'
+
+'He must have met Primrose there,' said Jasper.  'Poor Prim!'  And
+the offence and the Pig-my-lion story were duly related, much to Aunt
+Jane's amusement.
+
+'But,' she said, 'I think that the soul in the marble man is very
+real, and very warm; and, dear children, don't get into the habit of
+contemning him.  Laugh, I suppose you must; I am afraid it must look
+ridiculous at our age; but please don't despise.  I am going down to
+your mother.
+
+'May I come with you! said Gillian.  'I don't think I can go to Kally
+till I have digested this a little; and, if you are going to mamma,
+she won't drive her out.'
+
+Jane was much gratified by this volunteer, though Jasper did suggest
+that Gill was afraid of Primrose's treatment.  He went on with the
+other three to Clipston, while Gillian exclaimed---
+
+'Oh, Aunt Jane, shall not you be very lonely?'
+
+'Not nearly so much so as if you were not all here,' said her aunt
+cheerfully.  'When you bemoaned your sisters last year we did not
+think the same thing was coming on me.'
+
+'Phyllis and Alethea!  It was a very different thing,' said Gillian.
+'Besides, though I hated it so much, I had got used to being without
+them.'
+
+'And to tell you the truth, Gill, nothing in that way ever was so bad
+to me as your own mother going and marrying; and now, you see, I have
+got her back again---and more too.'
+
+Aunt Jane's smile and softened eyes told that the young niece was
+included in the 'more too'; and Gillian felt a thrill of pleasure and
+affection in this proof that after all she was something to the aunt,
+towards whom her feelings had so entirely changed.  She proceeded,
+however, to ask with considerable anxiety what would be done about
+the Whites, Kalliope especially; and in return she was told about the
+present plan of Kalliope's being taken to Italy to recover first, and
+then to pursue her studies at Florence, so as to return to her work
+more capable, and in a higher position.
+
+'Oh, how exquisite!' cried Gillian.  'But how about all the others?'
+
+'The very thing I want to see about, and talk over with your mother.
+I am sure she ought to go; and it will not even be wasting time, for
+she cannot earn anything.'
+
+Talking over things with Lady Merrifield was, however, impeded, for,
+behold, there was a visitor in the drawing-room.  Aunt and niece
+exchanged glances of consternation as they detected a stranger's
+voice through the open window, and Gillian uttered a vituperative
+whisper.
+
+'I do believe it is that dreadful Fangs;' then, hoping her aunt had
+not heard---'Captain Henderson, I mean.  He threatened to come down
+after us, and now he will always be in and out; and we shall have no
+peace.  He has got nothing on earth to do '
+
+Gillian's guess was right.  The neat, trim, soldierly figure, with a
+long fair moustache and pleasant gray eyes, was introduced to Miss
+Mohun as 'Captain Henderson, one of my brother officers,' by Sir
+Jasper, who stood on the rug talking to him.  Looks and signs among
+the ladies were token enough that the crisis had come; and Lady
+Merrifield soon secured freedom of speech by proposing to drive her
+sister to Clipston, while Sir Jasper asked his visitor to walk with
+him.
+
+'You will be in haste to sketch the place,' he said, 'before the
+workmen have done their best to demolish its beauty.'
+
+As for Gillian, she saw her aunt hesitating on account of a parochial
+engagement for that afternoon; and, as it was happily not beyond her
+powers, she offered herself as a substitute, and was thankfully
+accepted.  She felt quite glad to do anything obliging towards her
+aunt Jane, and in a mood very unlike last year's grudging service; it
+was only reading to the 'mothers' meeting,' since among the good
+ladies there prevailed such a strange incapacity of reading aloud,
+that this part of the business was left to so few that for one to
+fail, either in presence or in voice, was very inconvenient.  All
+were settled down to their needlework, with their babies disposed of
+as best they might be.  Mr. Hablot had finished his little lecture,
+and the one lady with a voice had nearly exhausted it, and there was
+a slight sensation at the absence of the unfailing Miss Mohun, when
+Gillian came in with the apologies about going to drive with her
+mother.
+
+'And,' as she described it afterwards 'didn't those wretched beings
+all grin and titter, even the ladies, who ought to have had more
+manners, and that old Miss Mellon, who is a real growth of the hotbed
+of gossip, simpered and supposed we must look for such things now;
+and, though I pretended not to hear, my cheeks would go and flame up
+as red as---that tasconia, just with longing to tell them Aunt Jane
+was not so ridiculous; and so I took hold of For Half a Crown, and
+began to read it as if I could bite them all!'
+
+She read herself into a state of pacification, but did not attempt to
+see Kalliope that day, being rather shy of all that might be
+encountered in that house, especially after working hours.  The next
+day, however, Lady Merrifield's services were required to chaperon
+the coy betrothed in an inspection of Cliff House and furniture,
+which was to be renovated according to her taste, and Gillian was to
+take that time for a visit to Kalliope, whom she expected to find in
+the garden.  The usual corner was, however, vacant; and Mr. White was
+heard making a growl of 'Foolish girl!  Doesn't know which way her
+bread is buttered.'
+
+Maura, however, came running up, and said to Gillian, 'Please come
+this way.  She is here.'
+
+'What has she hidden herself for?' demanded Mr. White.  'I thought
+she might have been here to welcome this---Miss Adeline.'
+
+'She is not very well to-day,' faltered Maura.
+
+'Oh! ay, fretting.  Well, I thought she had more sense.'
+
+Gillian followed Maura, who was no sooner out of hearing than she
+began: 'It is too bad of him to be so cross.  Kally really is so
+upset!  She did not sleep all night, and I thought she would have
+fainted quite away this morning!'
+
+'Oh dear! has he been worrying her?'
+
+'She is very glad and happy, of course, about Miss Ada! and he won't
+believe it, because he wants her to go out to Italy with them for all
+next winter.'
+
+'And won't she?  Oh, what a pity!'
+
+'She said she really could not because of us; she could not leave us,
+Petros and all, without a home.  She thought it her duty to stay and
+look after us.  And then he got cross, and said that she was
+presuming on the hope of living in idleness here, and making him keep
+us all, but she would find herself mistaken, and went off very
+angry.'
+
+'Oh, horrid! how could he?'
+
+'I believe, if Kally could have walked so far, she would have gone
+down straight to Mr. Lee's.  She wanted to, but she was all in a
+tremble, and I persuaded her not, though she did send me down to ask
+Mrs. Lee when she can be ready.  Then when Alexis came home, Mr.
+White told him that he didn't in the least mean all that, and would
+not hear of her going away, though he was angry at her being so
+foolish, but he would give her another chance of not throwing away
+such advantages.  And Alexis says she ought not.  He wants her to go,
+and declares that he and I can very well manage with Mrs. Lee, and
+look after Petros, and that she must not think of rushing off in a
+huff for a few words said in a passion.  So, between the two, she was
+quite upset and couldn't sleep, and, oh, if she were to be ill
+again!'
+
+By this time they were in sight of Kalliope lying back in a basket-
+chair, shaded by the fence of the kitchen-garden, and her weary face
+and trembling hand showed how much this had shaken her in her
+weakness.  She sent Maura away, and spoke out her troubles freely to
+Gillian.  'I thought at first my duty was quite clear, and that I
+ought not to go away and enjoy myself and leave the others to get on
+without me.  Alec would find it so dreary; and though Mr. and Mrs.
+Lee are very good and kind, they are not quite companions to him.
+Then Maura has come to think so much about people being ladies that I
+don't feel sure that she would attend to Mrs. Lee; and the same with
+Petros in the holidays.  If I can't work at first, still I can make a
+home and look after them.'
+
+'But it is only one winter, and Alexis thinks you ought; and, oh,
+what it would be, and how you would get on!'
+
+'That is what puzzles me.  Alexis thinks Mr. White has a right to
+expect me to improve myself, and not go on for ever making white
+jessamines with malachite leaves, and that he can look after Maura
+and Petros.  I see, too, that I ought to try to recover, or I might
+be a burthen on Alexis for ever, and hinder all his better hopes.
+Then, there's the not liking to accept a favour after Mr. White said
+such things, though I ought not to think about it since he made that
+apology; but it is a horrid feeling that I ought not to affront him
+for the sake of the others.  Altogether I do feel so tossed.  I can't
+get back the feeling I had when I was ill that I need not worry, for
+that God will decide.'
+
+And there were tears in her eyes.
+
+'Can't you ask some one's advice?' said Gillian.
+
+'If I were sure they quite understood!  My head is quite tired with
+thinking about it.'
+
+Not many moments had passed before there were steps that made
+Kalliope start painfully, and Maura appeared, piloting another
+visitor.  It was Miss Mohun, who had escaped from the survey of the
+rooms,---so far uneasy at what she had gathered from Mr. White, that
+she was the more anxious to make the offer previously agreed to.
+
+'My dear,' she said, 'I am afraid you look tired.'
+
+'They have worried her and knocked her up,' said Gillian indignantly.
+
+'I see!  Kally, my dear, we are connections now, you know, and I have
+heard of Mr. White's plan.  It made me think whether you would find
+the matter easier if you let me have Maura while you are away to
+cheer my solitude.  Then I could see that she did her lessons, and,
+between all Gillian's brothers, we could see that Petros was happy in
+the holidays.'
+
+'Oh, Miss Mohun! how can I be grateful enough?  There is an end of
+all difficulties.'
+
+And when the inspecting party came round, and Adeline bent to kiss
+the white, weary, but no longer distressed face, and kindly said, 'We
+shall see a great deal of each other, I hope,' she replied, with an
+earnest 'thank you,' and added to Mr. White, 'Miss Mohun has made it
+all easy to me, sir, and I am very grateful!'
+
+'Ay, ay!  You're a good girl at the bottom, and have some sense!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.  FANGS
+
+
+
+Events came on rapidly that spring.  Mr. White was anxious that his
+marriage should take place quickly---afraid, perhaps, that his prize
+would escape him, and be daunted by the passive disapproval of her
+family, though this was only manifested to him in a want of
+cordiality.  This, being sincere people, they could not help; and
+that outbreak to Kalliope had made the sisters so uneasy, that they
+would have willingly endured the ridicule of a broken engagement to
+secure Adeline from the risks of a rough temper where gentlemanly
+instincts were not inbred.
+
+Adeline, however, knew she had gone too far to recede, though she
+would willingly have delayed, in enjoyment of the present homage and
+shrinking from the future plunge away from all her protectors.
+Though the strong, manly will overpowered hers, and made her submit
+to the necessities of the case and fix a day early in July, she clung
+the more closely to her sisters, and insisted on being accompanied by
+Jane on going to London to purchase the outfit that she had often
+seen in visions before.  So Miss Mohun's affairs were put in
+commission, Gillian taking care of them, and the two sisters were to
+go to Mrs. Craydon, once, as Marianne Weston, their first friend out
+of their own family, and now a widow with a house in London, well
+pleased at any recall of old times, though inclined, like all the
+rest, to speak of 'poor Ada.'
+
+Lord Rotherwood was, as his cousins had predicted, less disgusted
+than the rest, as in matters of business he had been able to test the
+true worth that lay beneath the blemishes of tone and of temper; and
+his wife thought the Italian residence and foreign tincture made the
+affair much more endurable than could have been expected.  She chose
+an exquisite tea-service for their joint wedding present; but she
+would not consent to let Lady Phyllis be a bridesmaid; though the
+Marquis, discovering that her eldest brother hated the idea of giving
+her away to the stonemason, offered 'not to put too fine a point on
+it, but to act the part of Cousin Phoenix.'
+
+Bridesmaids would have been rather a difficulty; but then the deep
+mourning of Kalliope and Maura made a decided reason for excluding
+them; and Miss Adeline, who knew that a quiet wedding would be in
+much the best taste, resolved to content herself with two tiny
+maidens, Primrose and the contemporary Hablot, her own goddaughter,
+who, being commonly known as Belle, made a reason for equipping each
+in the colour and with the flowers of her name, and the idea was
+carried out with great taste.
+
+Valetta thought it hard that an outsider should be chosen.  The young
+Merrifields had the failing of large families in clannish
+exclusiveness up to the point of hating and despising more or less
+all who interfered with their enjoyment of one another, and of their
+own ways.  The absence of society at Silverfold had intensified this
+farouche tone, and the dispersion, instead of curing it, had rendered
+them more bent on being alone together.  Worst of all was Wilfred,
+who had been kept at home very inconveniently by some recurring
+delicacy of brain and eyes, and who, at twelve years old, was enough
+of an imp to be no small torment to his sisters.  Valetta was
+unmercifully teased about her affection for Kitty Varley and Maura
+White, and, whenever he durst, there were attempts at stings about
+Alexis, until new game offered itself on whom no one had any mercy.
+
+Captain Henderson was as much in the way as a man could be who knew
+but one family in the place, and had no resource but sketching.  His
+yellow moustache was to be seen at all manner of unexpected and
+unwelcome times.  If that great honour, a walk with papa, was
+granted, out he popped from Marine Hotel, or a seat in the public
+gardens, evidently lying in ambush to spoil their walk.  Or he was
+found tete-a-tete with mamma before the five-o'clock tea, talking, no
+doubt, 'Raphaels, Correggios, and stuff,' as in the Royal Wardour
+days.  Even at Clipston, or in the coves on the beach, he was only
+too apt to start up from some convenient post for sketching.  He
+really did draw beautifully, and Mysie would have been thankful for
+his counsels if public opinion had not been so strong.
+
+Moreover, Kitty Varley conveyed to Valetta the speculations of
+Rockstone whether Gillian was the attraction.
+
+'Now, Val,' said Mysie, 'how can you listen to such nonsense!'
+
+'You said so before, and it wasn't nonsense.'
+
+'It wasn't Aunt Jane.'
+
+'No, but it was somebody.'
+
+'Everybody does marry somebody; but it is no use for us to think
+about it, for it always turns out just the contrary to all the books
+one ever read; so there's no going by anything, and I don't believe
+it right to talk about it.'
+
+'Why not?  Every one does.'
+
+'All the good teachings say one should not talk of what one does not
+want one's grown-ups to hear.'
+
+'Oh, but then one would never talk of anything!'
+
+'Oh, Val!  I won't be sure, but I don't believe I should mind mamma's
+hearing all I say.'
+
+'Yes; but you've never been to school, and I heard Bee Varley say she
+never saw anybody so childishly simple for her age.'
+
+This brought the colour into Mysie's face, but she said---
+
+'I'd rather be simple than talk as mamma does not like; and, Val, do
+on no account tell Gillian.'
+
+'I haven't.'
+
+'And don't; don't tell Wilfred, or you know how horrid he would be.'
+
+There was a tell-tale colour in Valetta's cheeks, by which Mysie
+might have discerned that Valetta had not resisted the charm of
+declaring 'that she knew something,' even though this was sure to
+lead to tortures of various kinds from Wilfred until it was
+extracted.  Still the youth as yet was afraid to do much worse than
+look preternaturally knowing at his sister and give hints about
+Fangs' holding fast and the like, but quite enough to startle her
+into something between being flattered and indignant.  She was
+scarcely civil to the Captain, and felt bound to express her dislike
+on every possible occasion, though only to provoke a grin from
+Wilfred and a giggle from Valetta.
+
+Lady Merrifield's basket-carriage and little rough pony had been
+brought from Silverfold, and she took Kalliope out for quiet drives
+whenever it was possible; but a day of showers having prevented this,
+she was concerned to find herself hindered on a second afternoon.
+Gillian offered to be her substitute.
+
+'You know I always drive you, mamma.'
+
+'These are worse hills than at Silverfold, and I don't want you to
+come down by the sea-wall.'
+
+'I am sure I would not go there for something, among all the stupid
+people.'
+
+'If you keep to the turnpike you can't come to much harm with Bruno.'
+
+'That is awfully---I mean horribly dusty!  There's the cliff road
+towards Arnscombe.'
+
+'That is safe enough.  I don't think you could come to much real
+damage; but remember that for Kally a start or an alarm would be
+really as hurtful as an accident to a person in health.'
+
+'Poor old Bruno could hardly frighten a mouse,' said Gillian.
+
+'Only take care, and don't be enterprising.'
+
+Gillian drove up to the door of Cliff House, and Kalliope took her
+seat.  It was an enjoyable afternoon, with the fresh clearness of
+June sunshine after showers, great purple shadows of clouds flitting
+over the sea, dimpled by white crests of wave that broke the golden
+path of sunshine into sparkling ripples, while on the other side of
+the cliff road lay the open moorland, full of furze, stunted in
+growth, but brilliant in colour, and relieved by the purple browns of
+blossoming grasses and the white stars of stitchwort.
+
+'This is delicious!' murmured Kalliope, with a gesture of enjoyment.
+
+'Much nicer than down below!'
+
+'Oh yes; it seems to stretch one's very soul!'
+
+'And the place is so big and wide that no one can worry with
+sketching.'
+
+'Yes, it defies that!' said Kalliope, laughing.
+
+'So, Fa---Captain Henderson won't crop up as he does at every
+sketchable place.  Didn't you know he was here?'
+
+'Yes, Alexis told me he had seen him.'
+
+'Everybody has seen him, I should think; he is always about with
+nothing to do but that everlasting sketching.'
+
+'He must have been very sorry to be obliged to retire.'
+
+'Horrid!  It was weak, and he might have been in Egypt, well out of
+the way.  No, I didn't mean that'---as Kalliope looked shocked---'but
+he might have been getting distinction and promotion.'
+
+'He used to be very kind,' said Kalliope, in a tone of regretful
+remonstrance.  'It was he who taught me first to draw.'
+
+'He!  What, Fa---Captain Henderson?'
+
+'Yes; when I was quite a little girl, and he had only just joined.
+He found me out before our quarters at Gibraltar trying to draw an
+old Spaniard selling oranges, and he helped me, and showed me how to
+hold my pencil.  I have got it still---the sketch.  Then he used to
+lend me things to copy, and give me hints till---oh, till my father
+said I was too old for that sort of thing!  Then, you know, my father
+got his commission, and I went to school at Belfast.'
+
+'And you have never seen him since?'
+
+'Scarcely.  Sometimes he was on leave in my holidays, and you know we
+were at the depot afterwards, but I shall always feel that all that I
+have been able to do since has been owing to him.'
+
+'And how you will enjoy studying at Florence!'
+
+'Oh, think what it would be if I could ever do a reredos for a
+church!  I keep on dreaming and fancying them, and now there really
+seems a hope.  Is that Arnscombe Church?'
+
+'Yes, you know it has been nicely restored.'
+
+'We had the columns to do.  The reredos is alabaster, I believe, and
+we had nobody fit to undertake that.  I so longed for the power!  I
+almost saw it.'
+
+'Have you seen what it is?'
+
+'No; I never had time.'
+
+'I suppose it would be too tiring for you now; but we could see the
+outside.'
+
+Gillian forgot that Arnscombe, whose blunt gray spire protruded
+through the young green elms, lay in a little valley through which a
+stream rushed to the sea.  The lane was not very steep, but there
+were loose stones.  Bruno stumbled, he was down; the carriage stood
+still, and the two girls were out on opposite sides in a moment,
+Gillian crying out---
+
+'Don't be frightened---no harm done!'---as she ran to the pony's head.
+He lay quite still with heaving sides, and she felt utterly alone and
+helpless in the solitary road with an invalid companion whom she did
+not like to leave.
+
+'I am afraid I cannot run for help,' said Kalliope quietly, though
+breathlessly; 'but I could sit by the horse and hold his head while
+you go for help.'
+
+'I don't like.  Oh, here's some one coming!'
+
+'Can I be of any use?'
+
+Most welcome sound!---though it was actually Captain Henderson the
+ubiquitous wheeling his bicycle up the hill, knapsack of sketching
+materials on his back.
+
+'Miss Merrifield!  Miss White!  I trust no one is hurt!'
+
+'Oh no, thank you, unless it is the poor pony!  Kally, sit down on
+the bank, I insist!  Oh, I am so glad you are come!'
+
+'Can you sit on his head while I cut the traces?'
+
+Gillian did that comfortable thing till released, when the pony
+scrambled up again, but with bleeding knees, hip, and side, though
+the Captain did not think any serious harm was done; but it was even
+more awkward at the moment that both the shafts were broken!
+
+'What is to be done?' sighed Gillian.  'Miss White can't walk.  Can I
+run down to the village to get something to take her home?'
+
+'The place did not look likely to supply any conveyance better than a
+rough cart,' said their friend.
+
+'It is quite impossible to put the poor pony in anyhow!  I don't mind
+walking in the least; but you know how ill she has been.'
+
+'I see.  Only one thing to be done,' said the Captain, who had
+already turned the carriage round by the stumps of the shafts; 'you
+must accept me in lieu of your pony.'
+
+'Oh yes, thank you!' cried Gillian eagerly.  'I can lead poor Bruno,
+and take care of your bicycle.  Jump in, Kally!'
+
+Kalliope, who had wisely abstained from adding a useless voice to the
+discussion, here demurred.  She could not think of such a thing; they
+could very well wait in the carriage while Captain Henderson went on
+to the town on his bicycle and sent out a midge.
+
+But there were showers about, and a damp feeling in the lane.  Both
+the others thought this perilous; besides that, there might be rude
+passengers to laugh at their predicament; and Captain Henderson
+protested that the weight was nothing.  He prevailed at last; and she
+allowed him to hand her into the basket, when she could hardly stand,
+and wrap the dust-cloth about her.  Thus the procession set forth,
+Gillian with poor drooping Bruno's rein in one hand and the other on
+the bicycle, and the Captain gallantly drawing the carriage with
+Kalliope seated in the midst.  He tramped on so vigorously as quite
+to justify his declaration that it was no burthen to him.  It was not
+a frequented road, and they met no one in the least available to do
+more than stare or ask a question or two, until, as they approached
+the town and Rockstone Church was full in view, who should appear
+before their eyes but Sir Jasper, Wilfred carrying on his back a huge
+kite that had been for many evenings in course of construction, and
+Fergus acting as trainbearer.
+
+Thus came on the first moment of Gillian's explanation, as Sir Jasper
+took the poor pony from her and held counsel over the damage, with
+many hearty thanks to Captain Henderson.
+
+'I am sure, sir, no one could have shown greater presence of mind
+than the young ladies,' said that gentleman; and her father's 'I am
+glad to hear it!' would have gratified Gillian the more, but for the
+impish grimace with which Wilfred favoured her behind Kalliope's
+impassive back.
+
+The kite-fliers turned, not without an entreaty from the boys that
+they might go on alone and fly their kite.
+
+'No, no, boys,' said their father---'not here; we shall have the kite
+pulling you into the sea over the cliffs.  I must take the pony home;
+but I will come if possible to-morrow.'
+
+Much disappointed, they went dolefully in the rear, grumbling sotto
+voce their conviction that there would be no wind to-morrow, and that
+it was all 'Fangs's' fault in some incomprehensible manner.
+
+At Cliff House Kalliope was carefully handed out by Sir Jasper,
+trying, but with failing voice, to thank Captain Henderson, and
+declaring herself not the worse, though her hand shook so much that
+the General was not content without giving her his arm up the stairs,
+and telling Maura that he should send Mrs. Halfpenny up to see after
+her.  The maimed carriage was left in the yard, and Captain Henderson
+then took charge of his iron horse, and the whole male party
+proceeded to the livery stables; so that Gillian was able to be
+alone, when she humbly repeated to her mother the tale parents have
+so often to hear of semi-disobedience leading to disaster, but with
+the self-reproach and sorrow that drew the sting of displeasure.
+Pity for Bruno, grief for her mother's deprivation, and anxiety for
+Kalliope might be penance and rebuke sufficient for a bit of
+thoughtlessness.  Lady Merrifield made no remark; but there was an
+odd expression in her face when she heard who had come so opportunely
+to the rescue.
+
+Sir Jasper brought a reassuring account of the poor little steed,
+which would be usable again after a short rest, and the blemish was
+the less important as there was no intention of selling him.  Mrs.
+Halfpenny, too, reported that her patient was as quiet as a lamb.
+'She wasn't one to fash herself for nothing and go into screaming
+cries, but kenned better what was fitting for one born under Her
+Majesty's colours.'
+
+So there was nothing to hinder amusement when at dinner Sir Jasper
+comically described the procession as he met it.  Kalliope White,
+looking only too like Minerva, or some of those Greek goddess statues
+they used to draw about, sitting straight and upright in her
+triumphal car, drawn by her votary; while poor Gillian came behind
+with the pony on one side and the bicycle on the other, very much as
+if she were conducting the wheel on which she was to be broken, as an
+offering to the idol.
+
+'I think,' said Mysie, 'Captain Henderson was like the two happy sons
+in Solon's story, who dragged their mother to the temple.'
+
+'Only they died of it,' said Gillian.
+
+'And nobody asked how the poor mother felt afterwards,' added Lady
+Merrifield.
+
+'I thought they all had an apotheosis together,' said Sir Jasper.
+'Let us hope that devotion may have its reward.'
+
+There was a little lawn outside the drawing-room windows at Il Lido.
+Lady Merrifield was sitting just within, and her husband had just
+brought her a letter to read, when they heard Wilfred's impish voice.
+
+'Jack---no, not Jack---Fangs!'
+
+'But Fangs's name is Jack, so it will do as well,' said Valetta's
+voice.
+
+'Hurrah---so it is!  Jack---'
+
+'Hush, Wilfred---this is too foolish!' came Gillian's tones in
+remonstrance.
+
+
+          'Jack and Jill went up the hill
+             To draw---'
+
+
+'To draw!  Oh, that's lovely!' interrupted Valetta.
+
+'He is always drawing,' said Gillian, with an odd laugh.
+
+'He was brought up to it.  First teeth, and then "picturs," and then--
+-oh, my---ladies home from the wash!' went on Wilfred.
+
+'But go on, Will!' entreated Valetta.
+
+
+          'Jack and Jill went up the hill
+             To draw a piece of water---'
+
+
+'No, no,' put in Wilfred---'that's wrong!
+
+
+            'To draw the sergeant's daughter;
+          Fangs dragged down unto the town,
+             And Jill came moaning after!'
+
+
+'I didn't moan---'
+
+'Oh, you don't know how disconsolate you looked!  Moaning, you know,
+because her Fangs had to draw the other young woman---eh, Gill?  Fangs
+always leave an aching void, you know.'
+
+'You ridiculous boy!  I'm sure I wish Fangs would leave a void.  It
+wouldn't ache!'
+
+The two parents had been exchanging glances of something very like
+consternation, and of the mute inquiry on one side, 'Were you aware
+of this sort of thing? and an emphatic shake of the head on the
+other.  Then Sir Jasper's voice exclaimed aloud---
+
+'Children, we hear every word you say, and are shocked at your
+impertinence and bad taste!'
+
+There was a scatter.  Wilfred and Valetta, who had been pinioning
+Gillian on either side by her dress, released her, and fled into the
+laurels that veiled the guinea-pigs; but their father's long strides
+pursued them, and he gravely said---
+
+'I am very sorry to find this is your style of so-called wit!'
+
+'It was only chaff,' said Valetta, the boldest in right of her
+girlhood.
+
+'Very improper chaff!  I am the last person to object to harmless
+merriment; but you are both old enough to know that on these subjects
+such merriment is not harmless.'
+
+'Everybody does it,' whined Valetta, beginning one of her crying
+fits.
+
+'I am sorry you have been among people who have led you to think so.
+No nicely-minded girl will do so, nor any brother who wishes to see
+his sisters refined, right-feeling women.  Go in, Valetta---I can't
+suffer this howling!  Go, I say!  Your mother will talk to you.  Now,
+Wilfred, do you wish to see your sisters like your mother?'
+
+'They'll never be that, if they live to a hundred!'
+
+'Do not you hinder it, then; and never let that insulting nickname
+pass your lips again.'
+
+Wilfred's defence as to universal use in the family was inaudible,
+and he was allowed to slouch away.
+
+Gillian had fled to her mother, entreating her to explain to her
+father that such jests were abhorrent to her.
+
+'But you know, mamma, if I was cross and dignified, Wilfred would
+enjoy it all the more, and be ten times worse.'
+
+'Quite true, my dear.  Papa will understand; but we are sorry to hear
+that nickname.
+
+'It was an old Royal Wardour name, mamma.  Harry and Claude both used
+it, and---oh, lots of the young officers!'
+
+'That does not make it more becoming in you.'
+
+'N---no.  But oh, mamma, he was very kind to-day!  But I do wish it
+had been anybody else!'
+
+And her colour rose so as to startle her mother.
+
+'Why, my dear, I thought you would have been glad that a stranger did
+not find you in that plight!'
+
+'But it makes it all the worse.  He does beset us, mamma; and it is
+hard on me, after all the other nonsense!'
+
+Lady Merrifield burst out laughing.
+
+'My dear child, he thinks as much of you as of old Halfpenny!'
+
+'Oh, mamma, are you sure?' said Gillian, still hiding her face.  'It
+was not silliness of my own; but Kitty Varley told Val that everybody
+said it---her sister, and Miss Mohun, and all.  Why can't he go away,
+and not be always bothering about this horrid place with nothing to
+do?'
+
+'How thankful I shall be to have you all safe at Clipston!'
+
+'But, mamma, can't you keep him off us?'
+
+Valetta's sobbing entrance here prevented more; but while explaining
+to her the causes of her father's displeasure, her mother extracted a
+good deal more of the gossip, to which she finally returned answer---
+
+'There is no telling the harm that is done by chattering gossip in
+this way.  You might have learnt by what happened before what
+mistakes are made.  What am I to do, Valetta?  I don't want to hinder
+you from having friends and companions; but if you bring home such
+mischievous stories, I shall have to keep you entirely among
+ourselves till you are older and wiser.'
+
+'I never---never will believe---anybody who says anybody is going to
+marry anybody!' sobbed Valetta desperately and incoherently.
+
+'Certainly no one who knows nothing about the matter.  There is
+nothing papa and I dislike much more than such foolish talk; and to
+tease your sister about it is even worse; but I will say no more
+about that, as I believe it was chiefly Wilfred's doing.'
+
+'I---told---Will,' murmured Valetta.  'Mysie begged me not, but I had
+done it.'
+
+'How much you would have saved yourself and everybody else if you had
+let the foolish word die with you!  Now, good-night, my dear.  Bathe
+your eyes well, or they will be very uncomfortable to-morrow; and do
+try to cure yourself of roaring when you cry.  It vexes papa so much
+more.'
+
+Another small scene had to follow with the boy, who was quite willing
+to go off to bed, having no desire to face his father again, though
+his mother had her fears that he was not particularly penitent for
+'what fellows always did when people were spooning.'  He could only
+be assured that he would experience unpleasant consequences if he
+recurred to the practice; but Wilfred had always been the problem in
+the family.
+
+The summer twilight was just darkening completely, and Lady
+Merrifield had returned to the drawing-room, and was about to ring
+for lights, when Sir Jasper came in through the window, saying---
+
+'No question now about renewal.  Angelic features, more than angelic
+calmness and dignity.  Ha! you there, young ladies!' he added in some
+dismay as two white dresses struck his eye.
+
+'There's no harm done,' said Lady Merrifield, laughing.  'I was
+thinking whether to relieve Gillian's mind by telling her the state
+of the case, and Mysie is to be trusted.'
+
+'Oh, mamma, then it is Kalliope!' exclaimed Gillian, already
+relieved, for even love could not have perceived calmness and dignity
+in her sitting upon Bruno's head.
+
+'Has she ever talked about him?' asked Lady Merrifield.
+
+'No; except to-day, when I said I hoped she was safe from him on that
+road.  She said he had always been very kind to her, and taught her
+to draw when she was quite a little girl.'
+
+'Just so,' said Lady Merrifield.  'Well, when she was a little older,
+poor Mr. White, who was one of the most honourable and scrupulous of
+men, took alarm, and saw that it would never do to have the young
+officers running after her.'
+
+'It was an uncommonly awkward position,' added Sir Jasper, 'with such
+a remarkable-looking girl, and a foolish unmanageable mother.  It
+made poor White's retirement the more reasonable when the girl was
+growing too old to be kept at school any longer.'
+
+'And has he been constant to her all these years?  How nice!' cried
+Mysie.
+
+'After a fashion,' said Lady Merrifield.  'He made me the receptacle
+of a good deal of youthful despair.'
+
+'All the lads did,' said her husband.
+
+'But he got over it, and it seemed to have passed out of his life.
+However, he asked after the Whites as soon as we met him in London;
+and now he tells me that he never forgot Kalliope---her face always
+came between him and any one whom his mother threw in his way; and he
+came down here, knowing her history, and with the object of seeing
+her again.'
+
+'And he has not, till now?'
+
+'No.  Besides the absolute need of keeping her quiet, it would not
+exactly do for him to visit her while she is alone with Maura at
+Cliff House, and I wished him first to see her casually amongst us,
+for I dreaded her not fulfilling his ideal.'
+
+'Oh!'
+
+'When I think of her at fourteen or fifteen, with that exquisite
+bloom and the floating wavy hair, I see a very different creature
+from what she is now.'
+
+'Peach or ivory carving,' said Sir Jasper.
+
+'Yes; she is nobler, finer altogether, and has gained in countenance
+greatly; but he may not think so, and I should like her to be looking
+a little less ill.'
+
+'Well, I can't help hoping he will be disappointed, and be too stupid
+to care for her!' exclaimed Gillian.
+
+'Indeed?' said her father in a tone of displeased surprise.
+
+'He is so insignificant; he does not seem to suit with her,' said
+Gillian in a tone of defence;' and there does not seem to be anything
+in him.'
+
+'That only shows the effect of nursing prejudice by using foolish
+opprobrious nicknames.  Henderson was a good officer, he has shown
+himself an excellent son, always sacrificing his own predilections
+for the sake of duty.  He is a right-minded, religious, sensible man,
+his own master, and with no connections to take umbrage at Miss
+White's position.  It is no commonplace man who knows how to honour
+her for it.  Nothing could be a happier fate for her; and you will be
+no friend to her if you use any foolish terms of disparagement of him
+because he does not happen to please your fancy.'
+
+'I am sure Gillian will do no such thing, now that she understands
+the case' said her mother.
+
+'Oh no, indeed! said Gillian.  'It was only a first feeling.'
+
+'And you will allow for a little annoyance, papa,' added Lady
+Merrifield.  'We really have had a great deal of him, and he does
+spoil the children's walks with you.'
+
+Sir Jasper laughed.
+
+'I agree that the sooner this is over the better.  You need have no
+doubts as to the first view, now that Gillian has effected the
+introduction.  No words can do justice to her beauty, though, by the
+bye, he must have contemplated her through the back of his head!'
+
+'Well, won't that do!  Can't he be sent off for the present, for as
+to love-making now, with all the doubts and scruples in the way, it
+would be the way to kill her outright.'
+
+'You must take that in hand, my lady---it is past me!  Come, girls,
+give us some music!'
+
+The two girls went up at bed-time to their room, Mysie capering and
+declaring that here was real, true, nice love, like people in
+stories, and Gillian still bemoaning a little that, whatever papa
+might say, Fa---Captain Henderson would always be too poor a creature
+for Kalliope.
+
+'If I was quite sure it was not only her beauty,' added Gillian
+philosophically.
+
+Lady Merrifield went up to Cliff House as early as she could the next
+day.  She found her patient there very white and shaken, but not so
+much by the adventure of yesterday as by a beautiful bouquet of the
+choicest roses which lay on the table before her sofa, left by
+Captain Henderson when he had called to inquire after her.
+
+'What ought I to do, dear Lady Merrifield?' she asked.  'They came
+while I was dressing, and I did not know.'
+
+'You mean about a message of thanks?'
+
+'Yes; my dear father was so terribly displeased when I wore a rose
+that he gave me before the great review at Belfast that I feel as if
+I ought not to touch these; and yet it is so kind, and after all his
+wonderful kindness yesterday.'
+
+The hand on the side and the trembling lip showed the painful
+fluttering of heart, and the voice died away.
+
+'My dear, things are very different now.  Take my word for it, your
+father could not be displeased for a moment at any kindness between
+you and Captain Henderson.  Ten years ago he was a very young man,
+and his parents were living, and your father was bound in honour, and
+for your sake too, to prevent attentions from the young officers.'
+
+'Oh yes, I know it would have been shocking to have got into that
+sort of thing!'
+
+'But now he is entirely at his own disposal, and a man of four or
+five-and-thirty, who has gone through a great deal, and I do not
+think that to send him a friendly message of thanks for a bunch of
+flowers to his old fellow-soldier's daughter would be anything but
+what Captain White would think his due.'
+
+'Oh,'---a sigh of relief,---'please tell him, dear Lady Merrifield!'
+And she stretched out her hand for the flowers, and lovingly cooled
+her cheek with their petals, and tenderly admired them singly,
+venturing now to enjoy them and even caress them.
+
+Lady Merrifield ventured on no more; but she carried off ultimately
+hopeful auguries for the gentleman who had been watching for her,
+very anxious to hear her report.  She was, however, determined on
+persuading him to patience, reinforcing her assurances with Dr.
+Dagger's opinion, that though Kalliope's constitution needed only
+quiet and rest entirely to shake off the effects of the overstrain of
+that terrible half-year, yet that renewed agitation would probably
+entail chronic heart-complaint; and she insisted that without making
+any sign the lover should go out of reach for several months, making,
+for instance, the expedition to Norway of which he had been talking.
+He could not understand at first that what he meant to propose would
+not be the best means of setting that anxious heart at rest; and Lady
+Merrifield had to dwell on the swarm of conscientious scruples and
+questions that would arise about saddling him with such a family, and
+should not be put to rest as easily as he imagined.  At last, by the
+further representation that she would regard her mother's death as
+far too recent for such matters to occupy her, and by the assertion
+of the now fixed conviction that attentions from him at present could
+only agitate and distress her harmfully, and bring on her malicious
+remarks, the Captain was induced to believe that Rocca Marina or
+Florence would be a far better scene for his courtship, and to defer
+it till he could find her there in better health.
+
+He was brought at last to promise to leave Rockquay at once, and
+dispose of himself in Norway, if only Lady Merrifield would procure
+him one meeting with Kalliope, in which he solemnly promised to do
+nothing that could startle her or betray his intentions.
+
+Lady Merrifield managed it cunningly.  It had been already fixed that
+Kalliope should come down to a brief twelve-o'clock service held at
+St. Kenelm's for invalids, there to return thanks for her recovery,
+in what she felt as her own church; and she was to come to Il Lido
+and rest there afterwards.  Resolving to have no spectators, Lady
+Merrifield sent off the entire family for a picnic at Clipston,
+promising them with some confidence that they would not be haunted by
+Captain Henderson, and that she would come in the waggonette,
+bringing Fergus as soon as he was out of school, drink tea, and fetch
+home the tired.
+
+Sir Jasper went too, telling her, with a smile, that he was far too
+shy to assist her in acting chaperon.
+
+'Dragon, you had better say---I mean to put on all my teeth and
+claws.'
+
+These were not, however, very visible at the church door when she met
+Kalliope, who had come down in a bath-chair, but was able afterwards
+to walk slowly to Il Lido.  Perhaps Captain Henderson was, however,
+aware of them; for Kalliope had no knowledge of his presence in the
+church or in the street, somewhat in the rear, nor did he venture to
+present himself till there had been time for luncheon and for rest,
+and till Kalliope had been settled in the cool eastern window under
+the verandah, with an Indian cushion behind her that threw out her
+profile like a cameo.
+
+Then, as if to call on Lady Merrifield, Captain Henderson appeared
+armed, according to a wise suggestion, with his portfolio; and there
+was a very quiet and natural overlooking of his drawings, which
+evidently gave Kalliope immense pleasure, quite unsuspiciously.
+Precautions had been taken against other visitors, and all went off
+so well and happily that Lady Merrifield felt quite triumphant when
+the waggonette came round, and, after picking up Fergus, she set
+Kalliope down at her own door, with something like a colour in her
+cheeks and lips, and thanks for a happy afternoon, and the great
+pleasure in seeing one of the dear old Royal Wardours again.
+
+But, oh mamma,' said Gillian, feeling as if the thorn in her thoughts
+must be extracted, 'are you sure it is not all her beauty?'
+
+'Her beauty, no doubt, began it, and gratifies the artist eye; but I
+am sure his perseverance is due to appreciation of her noble
+character,' said Lady Merrifield.
+
+'Oh, mamma, would he if she had been ever so good, and no prettier
+than other people?'
+
+'Don't pick motives so, my child; her beauty helps to make up the sum
+and substance of his adoration, and she would not have the
+countenance she has without the goodness.  Let that satisfy you.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.  CONCLUSION
+
+
+
+The wedding was imminent by this time.  The sisters returned from
+London, the younger looking brilliant and in unusual health, and the
+elder fagged and weary.  Shopping, or rather looking on at shopping,
+had been a far more wearying occupation than all the schools and
+districts in Rockquay afforded.
+
+And besides the being left alone, there was the need of considering
+her future.  The family had certainly expected that a rich and open-
+handed man like Mr. White would bethink him that half what was
+sufficient for two was not enough for one to live in the same style,
+and would have resigned his bride's fortune to her sister, but, as a
+rule, he never did what was expected of him, and he had, perhaps,
+been somewhat annoyed by Mr. Mohun's pertinacity about settlements,
+showing a certain distrust of commercial wealth.  At any rate, all he
+did was to insist on paying handsomely for Maura's board; but still
+Miss Mohun believed she should have to give up the pretty house built
+by themselves, and go into smaller quarters, more especially as it
+was universally agreed that Adeline must have Mrs. Mount with her,
+and Mrs. Mount would certainly be miserable in 'foreign parts' unless
+her daughter went with her.  It was demonstrated that the remaining
+means would just suffice to keep up Beechcroft; but Jane knew that it
+could be only done at the cost of her subscriptions and charities,
+and she merely undertook to take no measures till winter---the
+Rockquay season.
+
+Sir Jasper, who thought she behaved exceedingly well about it,
+authorised an earnest invitation to make her home at Clipston; but
+though she was much gratified, she knew she should be in his way,
+and, perhaps, in that of the boys, and it was too far from the work
+to which she meant to devote herself even more completely, when it
+would be no longer needful to be companionable to a semi-invalid fond
+of society.
+
+However, just then her brother, the Colonel, came at last for his
+long leave.  He knew that his retirement was only a matter of months,
+and declared his intention of joining forces with her, if she would
+have him, and, in the meantime, he was desirous of contributing his
+full share in keeping up the home.  Nor did Jane feel it selfish to
+accept his offer, for she knew that Clipston would give him congenial
+society and shooting, and that there was plenty of useful layman work
+for him in the town; and that 'old Reggie' should wish to set up his
+staff with her raised her spirits, so that cheerfulness was no longer
+an effort.
+
+The wedding was to be very quiet.  Only just after the day was
+finally fixed, Mrs. Merrifield's long decay ended unexpectedly, and
+Sir Jasper had to hasten to London, and thence to the funeral at
+Stokesley.  She was a second wife, and he her only son, so that he
+inherited from her means that set him much more at his ease with
+regard to his large family than he had ever been before.  The
+intention that Lady Merrifield should act mistress of the house at
+the wedding breakfast had, of course, to be given up, and only
+Primrose's extreme youth made it possible to let her still be a
+bridesmaid.
+
+So the whole party, together with the Whites, were only spectators in
+the background, and the procession into church consisted of just the
+absolutely needful persons---the bride in a delicate nondescript
+coloured dress, such as none but a French dressmaker could describe,
+and covered with transparent lace, like, as Mysie averred, a
+hedgeback full of pig-nut flowers, the justice of the comparison
+being lost in the ugliness of the name; and as all Rockquay tried to
+squeeze into the church to see and admire, the beauty was not thrown
+away.
+
+No tears were shed there; but afterwards, in her own familiar room,
+between her two sisters, Adeline White shed floods of tears, and,
+clinging to Jane's neck, asked how she could ever have consented to
+leave her, extracting a promise of coming to her in case of illness.
+Nothing but a knock at the door by Valetta, with a peremptory message
+that Mr. White said they should be late for the train, induced her to
+dry her tears and tear herself away.
+
+Kalliope and Maura remained with Miss Mohun during the bridal journey
+to Scotland, and by the time it was ended the former had shaken off
+the invalid habits, and could hardly accept the doctor's assurance
+that she ought not to resume her work, though she was grateful for
+the delights before her, and the opportunities of improvement that
+she was promised at Florence.  Her health had certainly been improved
+by Frank Stebbing's departure for America.  Something oozed out that
+made Miss Mohun suspect that he had been tampering with the accounts,
+and then it proved that there had been a crisis and discovery, which
+Mr. White had consented to hush up for his partner's sake.  Alexis
+had necessarily known of the investigation and disclosure, but had
+kept absolute silence until it had been brought to light in other
+ways, and the culprit was beyond seas.  Mr. Stebbing was about to
+retire from the business, but for many reasons the dissolution of the
+partnership was deferred.
+
+Alexis was now in a post of trust, with a larger salary.  He lodged
+at Mrs. Lee's, and was, in a manner, free of Miss Mohun's house; but
+he spent much of his leisure time in study, being now able to pay
+regularly for instruction from the tutor who taught at Mrs. Edgar's
+school.
+
+Maura asked him rather pertly what was the use of troubling himself
+about Latin and Greek, if he held himself bound to the marble works.
+
+'It is not trouble---it is rest,' he said; and at her gasp, 'Besides,
+marble works or no, one ought to make the best of one's self.'
+
+By the time Mr. and Mrs. White came back from Scotland, the repairs
+at Clipston had been accomplished, and the Merrifields had taken
+possession.  It all was most pleasant in that summer weather going
+backwards and forwards between the houses; the Sunday coming into
+church and lunching at Aunt Jane's, where Valetta and Primrose stayed
+for Mrs. Hablot's class, and were escorted home by Macrae in time for
+evening service at Clipston, where their mother, Gillian, and Mysie
+reigned over their little school.  There was a kind of homely ease
+and family life, such that Adeline once betrayed that she sometimes
+felt as if she was going into banishment.  However, there was no
+doubt that she enjoyed her husband's pride in and devotion to her, as
+well as all the command of money and choice of pretty things that she
+had obtained, and she looked well, handsome, and dignified.
+
+Still it was evident that she was very glad of Kalliope's
+companionship, and that the pair were not on those exclusively
+intimate terms that would make a third person de trop.
+
+By Sir Jasper's advice, Lady Merrifield did not mention the
+possibility of a visit from Captain Henderson, who would come upon
+Mr. White far better on his own merits, and had better not be
+expected either by Adeline or Kalliope.
+
+Enthusiastic letters from both ladies described the delights of the
+journey, which was taken in a leisurely sight-seeing manner; and as
+to Rocca Marina, it seemed to be an absolute paradise.  Mr. White had
+taken care to send out an English upholsterer, so that insular ideas
+of comfort might be fulfilled within.  Without, the combination of
+mountain and sea, the vine-clad terraces, the chestnut slopes, the
+magical colours of the barer rocks, the coast-line trending far away,
+the azure Mediterranean, with the white-sailed feluccas skimming
+across it, filled Kalliope with the more transport because it
+satisfied the eyes that had unconsciously missed such colouring
+scenes ever since her early childhood.
+
+The English workmen and their families hailed with delight an English
+lady.  The chaplain and his wife were already at work among them, and
+their little church only waiting for the bride to lay the first
+stone.
+
+The accounts of Kalliope's walks as Mrs. White's deputy among these
+people, of her scrambles and her sketching made her recovery evident.
+Adeline had just been writing that the girl was too valuable to both
+herself and Mr. White ever to be parted with, when Captain Henderson
+came back from Norway, and had free permission from Lady Merrifield
+to put his fate to the touch.
+
+English tourists who know how to behave themselves were always
+welcome to enliven the seclusion of Rocca Marina, and admire all, of
+which Adeline was as proud as Mr. White himself.  Recommendations to
+its hospitality did not fail, and the first of Adeline's long letters
+showed warm appreciation of this pleasant guest, who seemed enchanted
+with the spot.
+
+Next, Mrs. White's sagacity began to suspect his object, and there
+ensued Kalliope's letter, full of doubts and scruples, unable to help
+being happy, but deferring her reply till she should hear from Lady
+Merrifield, whether it could be right to burthen any man with such a
+family as hers.
+
+The old allegiance to her father's commanding officer, as well as the
+kindness she had received, seemed to make her turn to ask their
+approval as if they were her parents; and of course it was heartily
+given, Sir Jasper himself writing to set before her that John
+Henderson was no suddenly captivated youth unable to calculate
+consequences, but a man of long-tried affection and constancy, free
+from personal ties, and knowing all her concerns.  The younger ones
+all gave promise of making their own way, and a wise elder brother
+was the best thing she could give them.  Even Richard might be the
+better for the connection, and Sir Jasper had taken care that there
+should be some knowledge of what he was.
+
+There was reason to think that all hesitation had been overcome even
+before the letters arrived.  For it appeared that Captain Henderson
+had fraternised greatly with Mr. White, and that having much wished
+for an occupation, he had decided to become a partner in the marble
+works, bringing the art-knowledge and taste that had been desirable,
+and Kalliope hoped still to superintend the mosaic workers.  It was
+agreed that the marriage had far better take place away from
+Rockquay, and it was resolved that it should be at Florence, and that
+the couple should remain there for the winter, studying art, and
+especially Florentine mosaic, and return in the spring, when the
+Stebbings would have concluded their arrangements and vacated their
+house.
+
+Mr. White, in great delight, franked out Alexis and Maura to be
+present at the wedding, and a longing wish of Kalliope's that Mr.
+Flight would officiate was so far expressed that Lady Merrifield
+mentioned it to him.  He was very much moved, for he had been feeling
+that his relations with the Whites had been chiefly harmful, though,
+as Alexis now assured him, his notice had been their first ray of
+comfort in their changed life at Rockquay.  The experience had
+certainly made him older and wiser.  Mrs. White---or, as her nieces
+could not help calling her among themselves, the Contessa di Rocca
+Marina---urged that her sister Jane should join the company, and bring
+Gillian to act as the other bridesmaid.  This, after a little
+deliberation, was accepted, and the journey was the greatest treat to
+all concerned.  Mr. Flight, the only one of the party who had
+travelled before in the sense of being a tourist, was amused by the
+keen and intense delight of Miss Mohun as well as the younger ones in
+all they beheld, and he steered them with full experience of hotels
+and of what ought to be visited, so as to be an excellent courier.
+
+As to Rocca Marina, where they spent a few days, no words would
+describe their admiration, though they brought home a whole book of
+sketches to back their descriptions.  They did not, however, bring
+back Maura.  Mrs. White had declared that she must remain to supply
+the place of her sister.  She was nearly fifteen years old, and
+already pretty well advanced in her studies, she would pick up
+foreign languages, the chaplain would teach her when at Rocca Marina,
+and music and drawing would be attainable in the spring at Florence.
+Moreover, Mr. White promised to regard her as a daughter.
+
+Another point was settled.  Alexis had worked in earnest for eight
+months, and had convinced himself that the marble works were not his
+vocation, though he had acquitted himself well enough to induce Mr.
+White to offer him a share in the business, and he would have
+accepted it if needful.  He had, however, made up his mind to
+endeavour to obtain a scholarship at Oxford, and Captain Henderson
+promised that whether successful in this or not, he should be enabled
+to keep his terms there.  Mr. White could not understand how a man
+could prefer being a poor curate to being a rich quarrymaster, but
+his wife and the two sisters had influence enough to prevent him from
+being offended, and this was the easier, because Theodore had tastes
+and abilities that made it likely that he would be thoroughly
+available at the works.
+
+What shall be said of the return to Rockstone?  Mr. Flight came home
+first, then, after many happy days of appreciative sightseeing, Aunt
+Jane and Gillian.  They had not been ashamed of being British
+spinsters with guide-books in their hands; nor, on the other hand,
+had they been obliged to see what they did not care about, and Mr.
+White had put them in the way of the best mode of seeing what they
+cared about; and above all, the vicissitudes of travel, even in easy-
+going modern fashion, had made them one with each other according to
+Jane's best hopes.  It was declared that the aunt looked five years
+younger for such recreation as she had never known before, and she
+set to work with double energy.
+
+When, in May, Captain and Mrs. Henderson took possession of the
+pretty house that had been fitted up for them, though Miss Mellon
+might whisper to a few that she had only been one of the mosaic
+hands, there was not much inclination to attend to the story among
+the society to which Lady Merrifield introduced her.  These
+acquaintances would gladly have seen more of her than she had time to
+give them, between family claims and home cares, her attention to the
+artistic side of the business, for which she had not studied in vain,
+and her personal and individual care for the young women concerned
+therein.  For years to come, even, it was likely that visitors to
+Rockstone would ask one another if they had seen that remarkably
+beautiful Mrs. Henderson.
+
+Mrs. White, reigning there in the summer, in her fine house and
+gardens, though handsome as ever, had the good sense to resign the
+palm of beauty, and be gratified with the admiration for one whom she
+accepted as a protegee and appendage, whose praise reflected upon
+herself.  And Cliff House under the new regime was a power in
+Rockstone, with its garden-parties, drawing-room meetings on behalf
+of everything good and desirable, its general superintendence and
+promotion of all that could aid in the welfare of the place.  There
+was general rejoicing when it was occupied.
+
+Adeline, in better health than she had enjoyed since her early
+girlhood, and feeling her consequence both in Italy and at Rockstone,
+was often radiant, always kind and friendly and ready with patronage
+and assistance.  Her sisters wondered at times how absolute her
+happiness was; they sometimes thought she said too much about it, and
+about her dear husband's indulgence, in her letters, to be quite
+satisfactory; and when she came to Rockstone there was an
+effusiveness of affection towards her family, an unwillingness to
+spare her sisters or nieces from her side, an earnest desire to take
+one back to Italy with her, that betrayed something lacking in
+companionship.  Jane detected likewise such as the idolising husband
+felt this attachment a little over much.
+
+It was not quite possible to feel him one with her family, or make
+him feel himself one.  He would always be 'company' with them.  He
+had indeed been invited to Beechcroft Court, but it was plain that
+the visit had been stiff and wearisome to both parties, even more so
+than that to Rotherwood, where there was no reason to look for much
+familiarity.
+
+In the same way, to Reginald Mohun, who had been obliged to retire as
+full Colonel, Mr. White was so absolutely distasteful that it was his
+sister's continual fear that he would encourage the young people's
+surreptitious jokes about their marble uncle.  Sir Jasper, always
+feeling accountable for having given the first sanction, did his best
+for the brother-in-law; but in spite of regard, there was no getting
+over the uncongeniality that would always be the drop in Adeline's
+cup.  The perfect ease and confidence of family intercourse would
+alter on his entrance!
+
+Nobody got on with him so well as Captain Harry May.  For I do not
+speak to that dull elf who cannot figure to himself the great family
+meeting that came to pass when the colonists came home---how sweet and
+matronly 'Aunt Phyllis' looked, how fresh and bright her daughters
+were, and how surprised Valetta was to find them as well instructed
+and civilised as herself, though she did not like Primrose, expect to
+see them tattooed.  One of the party was no other than Dolores Mohun.
+She had been very happy with her father for three years.  They had
+been at Kotorua at the time of the earthquake, and Dolores had
+acquired much credit for her reasonableness and self-possession, but
+there had been also a young lady, not much above her own age, who had
+needed protection and comfort, and the acquaintance there begun had
+ended in her father deciding on a marriage with a pretty gentle
+creature as unlike the wife of his youth as could be imagined.
+
+Dolores had behaved very well, as her Aunt Phyllis warmly testified,
+but it was a relief to all parties when the proposal was made that,
+immediately after the wedding, she should go home under her aunt's
+escort to finish her education.  She had learnt to love and trust
+Aunt Phyllis; but to be once more with Aunt Lily and Mysie was the
+greatest peace and bliss she could conceive.  And she was a very
+different being from the angular defiant girl of those days which
+seemed so long ago.
+
+There is no need to say more at present of these old friends.  There
+is no material for narrative in describing how the 'calm decay' of
+Dr. May in old age was cheered by the presence of his sailor son, nor
+in the scenes where the brothers, sisters, and friends exchanged
+happy recollections, brightened each other's lives with affection and
+stimulated one another in serving God in their generation.
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, BEECHCROFT AT ROCKSTONE ***
+
+This file should be named brock10.txt or brock10.zip
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, brock11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, brock10a.txt
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04
+
+Or /etext03, 02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+
diff --git a/old/2004-02-brock10.zip b/old/2004-02-brock10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0e24cd4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/2004-02-brock10.zip
diff --git a/old/2004-02-brock10h.htm b/old/2004-02-brock10h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1bdc7af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/2004-02-brock10h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,16054 @@
+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
+<html>
+<head>
+<title>New File</title>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content=
+"text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+<style type="text/css">
+<!--
+body {margin:10%; text-align:justify}
+blockquote {font-size:14pt}
+P {font-size:14pt}
+-->
+</style>
+</head>
+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg EBook of Beechcroft
+<br>at Rockstone, by
+Charlotte M. Yonge</h1>
+
+<h2>(#29 in our series by Charlotte M. Yonge)</h2>
+
+<pre>
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: Beechcroft at Rockstone
+
+Author: Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+Release Date: February, 2004  [EBook #5156]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on May 18, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, BEECHCROFT AT ROCKSTONE ***
+</pre>
+
+<center><i><font size="+2">Beechcroft at Rockstone<br>
+</font></i><font size="+1">by Charlotte M Yonge</font></center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<center>London: Macmillan, 1889.</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<center>This Project Gutenberg Etext was prepared by Sandra
+Laythorpe, laythorpe@tiscali.co.uk.</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<hr align="LEFT">
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<center>CHAPTER I. A DISPERSION</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>'A telegram! Make haste and open it, Jane; they always make me
+so nervous! I believe that is the reason Reginald always
+<i>will</i> telegraph when he is coming,' said Miss Adeline
+Mohun, a very pretty, well preserved, though delicate-looking
+lady of some age about forty, as her elder sister, brisk and
+lively and some years older, came into the room.</p>
+
+<p>'No, it is not Reggie. It is from Lily. Poor Lily!
+Jasper--accident--Come.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor dear Lily! Is it young Jasper or old Jasper, I
+wonder?'</p>
+
+<p>'If it were young Jasper she would have put Japs. I am afraid
+it is her husband. If so, she will be going off to him. I must
+catch the 11.20 train. Will you come, Ada?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no; I should be knocked up, and on your hands. The
+suspense is bad enough at home.'</p>
+
+<p>'If it is old Jasper, we shall see in the paper to-day. I will
+send it down to you from the station. Supposing it is Sir Jasper,
+and she wants to go out to him, we must take in some of the
+children.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! Dear little Primrose would be nice enough, but what
+should we do with that Halfpenny woman? If we had the other
+girls, I suppose they would be at school all day; but surely some
+might go to Beechcroft. And mind, Jane, I will not have you
+overtasking yourself! Do not take any of them without having
+Gillian to help you. That I stipulate.'</p>
+
+<p>Jane Mohun seemed as if she did not hear as these sentences
+were uttered at intervals, while she stood dashing off postcards
+at her davenport. Then she said, on her way to the door--</p>
+
+<p>'Don't expect me to-night. I will send Fanny to ask one of the
+Wellands to come in to you, and telegraph if I bring any one home
+with me.'</p>
+
+<p>'But, Jane dear--'</p>
+
+<p>However, the door was shut, and by the time Miss Adeline had
+reached her sister's room, the ever-ready bag was nearly
+packed.</p>
+
+<p>'I only wanted to say, dear Jane, that you must give my love
+to dear Lily. I am grieved---grieved for her; but indeed you must
+not undertake anything rash.' (A shake of the head, as the shoes
+went into their neat bag.) 'Do not let her persuade you to stay
+at Silverfold in her absence. You cannot give up everything
+here'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, yes, Ada, I know it does not suit you. Never fear.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is not that, but you are much too useful here to drop
+everything, especially now every one is away. I would willingly
+sacrifice myself, but--'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I know, Ada dear. Now, good-bye, and take care of
+yourself, and don't be nervous. It may mean only that young Japs
+has twisted his little finger.'</p>
+
+<p>And with a kiss, Miss Mohun ran downstairs as fast and lightly
+as if her years had been half their amount, and accomplished her
+orders to Fanny--otherwise Mrs. Mount--a Beechcroft native, who,
+on being left a widow, had returned to her former mistresses,
+bringing with her a daughter, who had grown up into an efficient
+housemaid. After a few words with her, Miss Mohun sped on,
+finding time at the station to purchase a morning paper just come
+down, and to read among the telegrams--</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>'COLOMBO, Sept. 3rd.<br>
+ 'Lieutenant-General Sir Jasper Merrifield, G.C.B., has been
+thrown from his horse, and received severe injuries.'</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>She despatched this paper to her sister by a special
+messenger, whom she had captured by the way, and was soon after
+in the train, knitting and pondering.</p>
+
+<p>At Silverton station she saw the pony carriage, and in it her
+niece Gillian, a girl not quite seventeen, with brown eyes
+showing traces of tears.</p>
+
+<p>'Mamma knew you would come,' she said.</p>
+
+<p>'You have heard direct, of course.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; Claude telegraphed. The horse fell over a precipice.
+Papa's leg and three ribs are broken. Not dangerous. That is all
+it says; and mamma is going out to him directly.'</p>
+
+<p>'I was quite sure she would. Well, Gillian, we must do the
+best we can. Has she any plans?'</p>
+
+<p>'I think she waited for you to settle them. Hal is come; he
+wanted to go with her, but she says it will cost too much, and
+besides, there is his Ordination in Advent.'</p>
+
+<p>'Has she telegraphed to your uncles?'</p>
+
+<p>'To Beechcroft and to Stokesley; but we don't quite know where
+Uncle Reginald is. Perhaps he will see the paper.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian's tears were flowing again, and her aunt said--</p>
+
+<p>'Come, my dear, you must not give way; you must do all you can
+to make it better for your mother.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know,' she answered. 'Indeed, I didn't cry till I sat
+waiting, and it all came over me. Poor papa! and what a journey
+mamma will have, and how dreadful it will be without her! But I
+know that it is horrid of me, when papa and my sisters must want
+her so much more.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's right--quite right to keep up before her. It does not
+sound to me so bad, after all; perhaps they will telegraph again
+to stop her. Did Claude ask her to come out?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no! There were only those few words.'</p>
+
+<p>No more could be learnt till the pony stopped at the door, and
+Hal ran out to hand out his aunt, and beg her privately to
+persuade his mother to take him, or, if she would not consent to
+that, at least to have Macrae, the old soldier-servant, with
+her---it was not fit for her to travel alone.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Merrifield looked very pale, and squeezed her sister
+close in her arms as she said--</p>
+
+<p>'You are my great help, Jenny.'</p>
+
+<p>'And must you go?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, certainly.'</p>
+
+<p>'Without waiting to hear more?'</p>
+
+<p>'There is no use in losing time. I cannot cross from
+Folkestone till the day after to-morrow, at night. I must go to
+London to-morrow, and sleep at Mrs. Merrifield's.'</p>
+
+<p>'But this does not seem to me so very bad.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, no, no! but when I get there in three weeks' time, it
+will be just when I shall be most wanted. The nursing will have
+told on the girls, and Jasper will be feeling weary of being laid
+up, and wanting to take liberties.'</p>
+
+<p>'And what will you be after such a journey?'</p>
+
+<p>'Just up to keeping him in order. Come, you have too much
+sense to expostulate, Jenny.'</p>
+
+<p>'No; you would wear yourself to fiddle-strings if you stayed
+at home. I only want you to take Hal, or Macrae.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hal is out of the question, I would not interfere with his
+preparation on any account. Macrae would be a very costly
+article; and, moreover, I want him to act major-domo here, unless
+you would, and that I don't dare to hope for.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, you must not, Lily; Ada never feels well here, nor always
+at Brighton, and Emily would be too nervous to have her without
+me. But we will take as many children as you please, or we have
+room for.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is like you, Jenny. I know William will offer to take
+them in at home, but I cannot send them without Miss Vincent; and
+she cannot leave her mother, who has had a sort of stroke.
+Otherwise I should try leaving them here while I am away, but the
+poor old lady is in no state for it--in fact, I doubt her living
+long.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know; you have been governess by yourself these last weeks;
+it will be well to relieve her. The best way will be for us to
+take Mysie and Valetta, and let them go to the High School; and
+there is a capital day-school for little boys, close to St.
+Andrew's, for Fergus, and Gillian can go there too, or join
+classes in whatever she pleases.'</p>
+
+<p>'My Brownie! Have you really room for all those?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes! The three girls in the spare room and dressing-room,
+and Fergus in the little room over the porch. I will write to
+Fanny; I gave her a hint.'</p>
+
+<p>'And I have no doubt that Primrose will be a delight to her
+aunt Alethea, poor little dear! Yes, that makes it all easy, for
+in the holidays I know the boys are sure of a welcome at the dear
+old home, or Hal might have one or two of them at his
+Curacy.'</p>
+
+<p>The gong sounded for the melancholy dinner that had to go on
+all the same, and in the midst all were startled by the arrival
+of a telegram, which Macrae, looking awestruck, actually
+delivered to Harry instead of to his mistress; but it was not
+from Ceylon. It was from Colonel Mohun, from Beechcroft: 'Coming
+6.30. Going with you. Send children here.'</p>
+
+<p>Never were twenty words, including addresses, more
+satisfactory. The tears came, for the first time, to Lady
+Merrifield's eyes at the kindness of her brothers, and Harry was
+quite satisfied that his uncle would be a far better escort than
+himself or Macrae. Aunt Jane went off to send her telegram home
+and write some needful letters, and Lady Merrifield announced her
+arrangements to those whom they concerned.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! mamma, don't,' exclaimed Valetta; 'all the guinea-pigs
+will die.'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought,' said Gillian, 'that we might stay here with Miss
+Vincent to look after us.'</p>
+
+<p>'That will not do in her mother's state. Mrs. Vincent cannot
+be moved up here, and I could not lay such a burthen on
+them.'</p>
+
+<p>'We would be very good,' said Val.</p>
+
+<p>'That, I hope, you will be any way; but I think it will be
+easier at Rockstone, and I am quite sure that papa and I shall be
+better satisfied about you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mayn't we take Quiz!' asked Fergus.</p>
+
+<p>'And Rigdum Funnidos?' cried Valetta.</p>
+
+<p>'And Ruff and Ring?' chimed in Mysie.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear children, I don't see how Aunt Jane can be troubled
+with any more animals than your four selves. You must ask her,
+only do not be surprised or put out if she refuses, for I don't
+believe you can keep anything there.'</p>
+
+<p>Off the three younger ones went, Gillian observing, 'I don't
+see how they can, unless it was Quiz; but, mamma, don't you think
+I might go to Beechcroft with Primrose? I should be so much
+quieter working for the examination there, and I could send my
+exercises to Miss Vincent; and then I should keep up Prim's
+lessons.'</p>
+
+<p>'Your aunt Alethea will, I know, like doing that, my dear; and
+I am afraid to turn those creatures loose on the aunts without
+some one to look after them and their clothes. Fanny will be very
+helpful; but it will not do to throw too much on her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! I thought they would have Lois--'</p>
+
+<p>'There would not be room for her; besides that, I don't think
+it would suit your aunts. You and Mysie ought to do all the
+mending for yourselves and Fergus, and what Valetta cannot
+manage. I know you would rather be at Beechcroft, my dear; but in
+this distress and difficulty, some individual likings must be
+given up.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, mamma.'</p>
+
+<p>Lady Merrifield looked rather dubiously at her daughter. She
+had very little time, and did not want to have an argument, nor
+to elicit murmurs, yet it might be better to see what was in
+Gillian's mind before it was too late. Mothers, very fond of
+their own sisters, cannot always understand why it is not the
+same with their daughters, who inherit another element of
+inherited character, and of another generation, and who have not
+been welded together with the aunts in childhood. 'My dear,' she
+said, 'you know I am quite ready to hear if you have any real
+reasonable objection to this arrangement.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, mamma, I don't think I have,' said Gillian thoughtfully.
+'The not liking always meeting a lot of strangers, nor the
+general bustle, is all nonsense, I know quite well. I see it is
+best for the children, but I should like to know exactly who is
+to be in authority over them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly Aunt Jane,' replied Lady Merrifield. 'She must be
+the ultimate authority. Of course you will check the younger ones
+in anything going wrong, as you would here, and very likely there
+will be more restrictions. Aunt Ada has to be considered, and it
+will be a town life; but remember that your aunt is mistress of
+the house, and that even if you do think her arrangements
+uncalled for, it is your duty to help the others to submit
+cheerfully. Say anything you please fully and freely in your
+letters to me, but don't let there be any collisions of
+authority. Jane will listen kindly, I know, in private to any
+representation you may like to make, but to say before the
+children, "Mamma always lets them," would be most
+mischievous.'</p>
+
+<p>'I see,' said Gillian. 'Indeed, I will do my best, mamma, and
+it will not be for very long.'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope and trust not, my dear child. Perhaps we shall all
+meet by Easter--papa, and all; but you must not make too sure.
+There may be delays. Now I must see Halfpenny. I cannot talk to
+you any more, my Gillyflower, though I am leaving volumes
+unsaid.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian found Aunt Jane emerging from her room, and beset by
+her three future guests.</p>
+
+<p>'Aunt Jane, may we bring Quiz?'</p>
+
+<p>'And Rigdum Funnidos and Lady Rigdum?'</p>
+
+<p>'And Ruff and Ring? They are the sweetest doves in the
+world.'</p>
+
+<p>'Doves! Oh, Mysie, they would drive your aunt Ada distracted,
+with coo-roo-roo at four o'clock in the morning, just as she goes
+off to sleep.'</p>
+
+<p>'The Rigdums make no noise but a dear little chirp,'
+triumphantly exclaimed Valetta.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you mean the kittens? We have a vacancy for one cat, you
+know.'</p>
+
+<p>Oh yes, we want you to choose between Artaxerxes and the Sofy.
+But the Rigdums are the eldest pair of guinea-pigs. They are so
+fond of me, that I know poor old Funnidos will die of grief if I
+go away and leave him.'</p>
+
+<p>'I sincerely hope not, Valetta, for, indeed, there is no place
+to put him in.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't think he would mind living in the cellar if he only
+saw me once a day,' piteously pleaded Valetta.</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, Val, the dark and damp would surely kill the poor
+thing, in spite of your attentions. You must make up your mind to
+separation from your pets, excepting the kitten.'</p>
+
+<p>Valetta burst out crying at this last drop that made the
+bucket overflow, but Fergus exclaimed: 'Quiz! Aunt Jane! He
+always goes about with us, and always behaves like a gentleman,
+don't you, Quizzy?' and the little Maltese, who perfectly well
+understood that there was trouble in the air, sat straight up,
+crossed his paws, and looked touchingly wistful.</p>
+
+<p>'Poor dear little fellow!' said Aunt Jane; 'yes, I knew he
+would be good, but Kunz would be horribly, jealous, you see; he
+is an only dog, and can't bear to have his premises invaded.'</p>
+
+<p>'He ought to be taught better,' said Fergus gravely.</p>
+
+<p>'So he ought,' Aunt Jane confessed; 'but he is too old to
+begin learning, and Aunt Ada and Mrs. Mount would never bear to
+see him disturbed. Besides, I really do not think Quiz would be
+half so well off there as among his own friends and places here,
+with Macrae to take care of him.' Then as Fergus began to pucker
+his face, she added, 'I am really very sorry to be so
+disagreeable.'</p>
+
+<p>'The children must not be unreasonable,' said Gillian sagely,
+as she came up.</p>
+
+<p>'And I am to choose between Xerxes and Artaxerxes, is it?'
+said Aunt Jane.</p>
+
+<p>'No, the Sofy,' said Mysie. 'A Sofy is a Persian philosopher,
+and this kitten has got the wisest face.'</p>
+
+<p>'Run and fetch them,' suggested her aunt, 'and then we can
+choose. Oh,' she added, with some relief at the thought, 'if it
+is an object to dispose of Cockie, we could manage him.'</p>
+
+<p>The two younger ones were gratified, but Gillian and Mysie
+both exclaimed that Cockie's exclusive affections were devoted to
+Macrae, and that they could not answer for his temper under the
+separation. To break up such a household was decidedly the Goose,
+Fox, and Cabbage problem. As Mysie observed, in the course of the
+search for the kittens, in the make-the-best-of-it tone, 'It was
+not so bad as the former moves, when they were leaving a place
+for good and all.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, but no place was ever so good as this,' said poor
+Valetta.</p>
+
+<p>'Don't be such a little donkey,' said Fergus consequentially.
+'Don't you know we are going to school, and I am three years
+younger than Wilfred was?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is only a petticoat school,' said Val, 'kept by
+ladies.'</p>
+
+<p>'It isn't.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is; I heard Harry say so.'</p>
+
+<p>'And yours is all butchers and bakers and candlestick
+makers.'</p>
+
+<p>On which they fell on each other, each with a howl of
+defiance. Fergus grabbed at Val's pigtail, and she was buffeting
+him vehemently when Harry came out, held them apart, and demanded
+if this were the way to make their mother easy in leaving
+them.</p>
+
+<p>'She said it was a pet-pet-petticoat school,' sobbed
+Fergus.</p>
+
+<p>'And so it ought to be, for boys that fight with girls.'</p>
+
+<p>'And he said mine was all butchers and bakers and candlestick
+makers,' whined Valetta.</p>
+
+<p>'Then you'd better learn manners, or they'll take you for a
+tramp,' observed Harry; but at that moment Mysie broke in with a
+shout at having discovered the kittens making a plaything of the
+best library pen-wiper, their mother, the sleek Begum, abetting
+them, and they were borne off to display the coming glories of
+their deep fur to Aunt Jane.</p>
+
+<p>Her choice fell upon the Sofy, as much because of the
+convenience of the name as because of the preternatural wisdom of
+expression imparted by the sweep of the black lines on the gray
+visage. Mr. Pollock's landlady was to be the happy possessor of
+Artaxerxes, and the turbulent portion of the Household was
+disposed of to bear him thither, and to beg Miss Hacket to give
+Buff and Ring the run of her cage, whence they had originally
+come, also to deliver various messages and notes.</p>
+
+<p>By the time they returned, Colonel Mohun was met in the hall
+by his sister. 'Oh, Reggie, it is too good in you!' were the
+words that came with her fervent kiss. 'Remember how many years I
+have been seasoned to being "cockit up on a baggage waggon."
+Ought not such an old soldier as I to be able to take care of
+myself?'</p>
+
+<p>'And what would your husband say to you when you got there?
+And should not I catch it from William? Well, are you packing up
+the youthful family for Beechcroft, except that at Rotherwood
+they are shrieking for Mysie?'</p>
+
+<p>'I know how good William and Alethea would be. This child,'
+pointing to Primrose, who had been hanging on her all day in
+silence, 'is to go to them; but as I can't send Miss Vincent,
+educational advantages, as the advertisements say, lie on the
+side of Rockstone; so Jenny here undertakes to be troubled with
+the rabble.'</p>
+
+<p>'But Mysie? Rotherwood met me at the station and begged me to
+obtain her from you. They really wish it.'</p>
+
+<p>'He does, I have no doubt.'</p>
+
+<p>'So does Madame la Marquise. They have been anxious about
+little Phyllis all the summer. She was languid and off her feed
+in London, and did not pick up at home as they expected. My
+belief is that it is too much governess and too little play, and
+that a fortnight here would set her up again. Rotherwood himself
+thinks so, and Victoria has some such inkling. At any rate, they
+are urgent to have Mysie with the child, as the next best
+thing.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor dear little Fly!' ejaculated Lady Merrifield; 'but I am
+afraid Mysie was not very happy there last year.'</p>
+
+<p>'And what would be the effect of all the overdoing?' said Miss
+Mohun.</p>
+
+<p>'Mysie is tougher than that sprite, and I suppose there is
+some relaxation,' said Lady Merrifield.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; the doctors have frightened them sufficiently for the
+present.</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose Mysie is a prescription, poor child,' said her
+aunt, in a tone that evoked from her brother--</p>
+
+<p>'Jealous, Jenny?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Jane,' said Lady Merrifield, 'you know how thankful I
+am to you and Ada, but I am inclined to let it depend on the
+letters I get to-morrow, and the way Victoria takes it. If it is
+really an earnest wish on that dear little Fly's account, I could
+not withstand old Rotherwood, and though Mysie might be less
+happy than she would be with you, I do not think any harm will be
+done. Everything there is sound and conscientious, and if she
+picks up a little polish, it won't hurt her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Shall you give her the choice?'</p>
+
+<p>'I see no good in rending the poor child's mind between two
+affections, especially as there will be a very short time to
+decide in, for I shall certainly not send her if Victoria's is a
+mere duty letter.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are quite right there, Lily,' said the Colonel. 'The less
+choice the greater comfort.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well done, sir soldier,' said his sister Jane. 'I say quite
+right too; only, for my own sake, I wish it had been
+Valetta.'</p>
+
+<p>'So no doubt does she,' said the mother; 'but unluckily it
+isn't. And, indeed, I don't think I wish it. Val is safer with
+you. As Gillian expressed it the other day, "Val does right when
+she likes it; Mysie does right when she knows it."'</p>
+
+<p>'You have the compliment after all, Jane,' said the Colonel.
+'Lily trusts you with the child she doesn't trust!'</p>
+
+<p>There was no doubt the next morning, for Lady Rotherwood wrote
+an earnest, affectionate letter, begging for Mysie, who, she
+said, had won such golden opinions in her former visit that it
+would be a real benefit to Phyllis, as much morally as
+physically, to have her companionship. It was the tenderest
+letter that either of the sisters had ever seen from the
+judicious and excellent Marchioness, full of warm sympathy for
+Lady Merrifield's anxiety for her husband, and betraying much
+solicitude for her little girl.</p>
+
+<p>'It has done her good,' said Jane Mohun. 'I did not think she
+had such a soft spot.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Victoria,' said Lady Merrifield, 'that is a shame. You
+know she is an excellent mother.'</p>
+
+<p>'Too excellent, that's the very thing,' muttered Aunt Jane.
+'Well, Mysie's fate is settled, and I dare say it will turn out
+for the best.'</p>
+
+<p>So Mysie was to go with Mrs. Halfpenny and Primrose to
+Beechcroft, whence the Rotherwoods would fetch her. If the lady's
+letter had been much less urgent, who could have withstood her
+lord's postscript: 'If you could see the little pale face light
+up at the bare notion of seeing Mysie, you would know how
+grateful we shall be for her.'</p>
+
+<p>Mysie herself heard her destiny without much elation, though
+she was very fond of Lady Phyllis, and the tears came into her
+eyes at the thought of her being unwell and wanting her.</p>
+
+<p>'Mamma said we must not grumble,' she said to Gillian; 'but I
+shall feel so lost without you and Val. It is so unhomish, and
+there's that dreadful German Fraulein, who was not at home last
+time.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you told mamma, perhaps she would let you stay,' returned
+Gillian. 'I know I should hate it, worse than I do going to
+Rockstone and without you.'</p>
+
+<p>'That would be unkind to poor Fly,' said Mysie. 'Besides,
+mamma said she could not have settling and unsettling for ever.
+And I shall see Primrose sometimes; besides, I do love Fly. It's
+marching orders, you know.'</p>
+
+<p>It was Valetta who made the most objection. She declared that
+it was not fair that Mysie, who had been to the ball at
+Rotherwood, should go again to live with lords and ladies, while
+she went to a nasty day-school with butchers' and bakers'
+daughters. She hoped she should grow horridly vulgar, and if
+mamma did not like it, it would be her own fault!</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Halfpenny, who did not like to have to separate Mysie's
+clothes from the rest after they were packed, rather favoured
+this naughtiness by observing: 'The old blue merino might stay at
+home. Miss Mysie would be too set up to wear that among her fine
+folk. Set her up, that she should have all the treats, while her
+own Miss Gillian was turned over to the auld aunties!'</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense, nurse,' said Gillian. 'I'm much better pleased to
+go and be of some use! Val, you naughty child, how dare you make
+such a fuss?' for Valetta was crying again.</p>
+
+<p>'I hate school, and I hate Rockstone, and I don't see why
+Mysie should always go everywhere, and wear new frocks, and I go
+to the butchers and bakers and wear horrid old ones.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish you could come too,' said Mysie; 'but indeed old
+frocks are the nicest, because one is not bothered to take so
+much care of them; and lords and ladies aren't a bit better to
+play with than, other people. In fact, Ivy is what Japs calls a
+muff and a stick.'</p>
+
+<p>Valetta, however, cried on, and Mysie went the length of
+repairing to her mother, in the midst of her last notes and
+packings, to entreat to change with Val, who followed on
+tip-toe.</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly not,' was the answer from Lady Merrifield, who was
+being worried on all sides, 'Valetta is not asked, and she is not
+behaving so that I could accept for her if she were.'</p>
+
+<p>And Val had to turn away in floods of tears, which redoubled
+on being told by the united voices of her brothers and sisters
+that they were ashamed of her for being so selfish as to cry for
+herself when all were in so much trouble about papa.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Merrifield caught some of the last words. 'No, my dear,'
+she said. 'That is not quite just or kind. It is being unhappy
+that makes poor Val so ready to cry about her own grievances.
+Only, Val, come here, and remember that fretting is not the way
+to meet such things. There is a better way, my child, and I think
+you know what I mean. Now, to help you through the time in an
+outer way, suppose you each set yourself some one thing to
+improve in while I am away. Don't tell me what it is, but let me
+find out when I come home.' With that she obeyed an urgent
+summons to speak to the gardener.</p>
+
+<p>'I shall! I shall,' cried little Primrose, 'write a whole
+copy-book in single lines! And won't mamma be pleased? What shall
+you do, Fergus? and Val? and Mysie?'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall get to spin my peg-top so as it will never tumble
+down, and will turn an engine for drawing water,' was the prompt
+answer of Fergus.</p>
+
+<p>'What nonsense!' said Val; 'you'd better settle to get your
+long division sums right.'</p>
+
+<p>'That s girls' stuff,' replied Fergus; 'you'd better settle to
+leave off crying for nothing.'</p>
+
+<p>'That you had!' said several voices, and Val very nearly cried
+again as she exclaimed: 'Don't be all so tiresome. I shall make
+mamma a beautiful crewel cushion, with all the battles in history
+on it. And won't she be surprised!'</p>
+
+<p>'I think mamma meant more than that,' said Mysie.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Mysie, what shall you do?' asked Primrose.</p>
+
+<p>'I did think of getting to translate one of mamma's favourite
+German stories quite through to her without wanting the
+dictionary or stumbling one bit,' said Mysie; 'but I am sure she
+meant something better and better, and I'm thinking what it
+is---Perhaps it is making all little Flossie Maddin's clothes, a
+whole suit all oneself--Or perhaps it is manners. What do you
+think, Gill?'</p>
+
+<p>'I should say most likely it was manners for you,' volunteered
+Harry, 'and the extra you are most likely to acquire at
+Rotherwood.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'm so glad,' said Mysie.</p>
+
+<p>'And you, Gill,' inquired Primrose, 'what will you do? Mine is
+a copy-book, and Fergus's is the spinning-top-engines, and rule
+of three; and Val's is a crewel battle cushion and not crying;
+and Mysie's is German stories and manners; and what's yours,
+Gill?'</p>
+
+<p>'Gill is so grown up, she is too good to want an inside thing'
+announced Primrose.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Prim, you dear little thing,' cried both elder brother
+and sister, as they thought with a sort of pang of the child's
+opinion of grown-up impeccability.</p>
+
+<p>'Harry is grown up more,' put in Fergus; 'why don't you ask
+him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Because I know,' said Primrose, with a pretty shyness, and as
+they pressed her, she whispered, 'He is going to be a
+clergyman.'</p>
+
+<p>There was a call for Mysie and Val from upstairs, and as the
+younger population scampered off, Gillian said to her
+brother--</p>
+
+<p>'Is not it like "occupy till I come"?'</p>
+
+<p>'So I was thinking,' said Harry gravely. 'But one must be as
+young as Mysie to throw one's "inside things" into the general
+stock of resolutions.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Gillian, with uplifted eyes. 'I do---I do hope to
+do something.'</p>
+
+<p>Some great thing was her unspoken thought--some great and
+excellent achievement to be laid before her mother on her return.
+There was a tale begun in imitation of Bessie Merrifield, called
+"Hilda's Experiences". Suppose that was finished, printed,
+published, splendidly reviewed. Would not that be a great thing?
+But alas, she was under a tacit engagement never to touch it in
+the hours of study.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>CHAPTER II. ROCKQUAY</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>The actual moment of a parting is often softened by the
+confusion of departure. That of the Merrifield family took place
+at the junction, where Lady Merrifield with her brother remained
+in the train, to be carried on to London.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian, Valetta, and Fergus, with their aunt, changed into a
+train for Rockstone, and Harry was to return to his theological
+college, after seeing Mysie and Primrose off with nurse on their
+way to the ancestral Beechcroft, whence Mysie was to be fetched
+to Rotherwood. The last thing that met Lady Merrifield's eyes was
+Mrs. Halfpenny gesticulating wildly, under the impression that
+Mysie's box was going off to London.</p>
+
+<p>And Gillian's tears were choked in the scurry to avoid a
+smoking-carriage, while Harry could not help thinking--half
+blaming himself for so doing---that Mysie expended more feeling
+in parting with Sofy, the kitten, than with her sisters, not
+perceiving that pussy was the safety-valve for the poor child's
+demonstrations of all the sorrow that was oppressing her.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian, in the corner of a Rockstone carriage, had time for
+the full heart-sickness and tumult of fear that causes such acute
+suffering to young hearts. It is quite a mistake to say that
+youth suffers less from apprehension than does age; indeed, the
+very inexperience and novelty add to the alarms, where there is
+no background of anxieties that have ended happily, only a crowd
+of examples of other people's misfortunes. The difference is in
+the greater elasticity and power of being distracted by outward
+circumstances; and thus lookers-on never guess at the terrific
+possibilities that have scared the imagination, and the secret
+ejaculations that have met them. How many times on that brief
+journey had not Gillian seen her father dying, her sisters in
+despair, her mother crushed in the train, wrecked in the steamer,
+perishing of the climate, or arriving to find all over and dying
+of the shock; yet all was varied by speculations on the great
+thing that was to offer itself to be done, and the delight it
+would give, and when the train slackened, anxieties were merged
+in the care for bags, baskets, and umbrellas.</p>
+
+<p>Rockstone and Rockquay had once been separate places---a
+little village perched on a cliff of a promontory, and a small
+fishing hamlet within the bay, but these had become merged in
+one, since fashion had chosen them as a winter resort.
+Speculators blasted away such of the rocks as they had not
+covered with lodging-houses and desirable residences. The
+inhabitants of the two places had their separate churches, and
+knew their own bounds perfectly well; but to the casual observer,
+the chief distinction between them was that Rockstone was the
+more fashionable, Rockquay the more commercial, although the one
+had its shops, the other its handsome crescents and villas. The
+station was at Rockquay, and there was an uphill drive to reach
+Rockstone, where the two Miss Mohuns had been early
+inhabitants--had named their cottage Beechcroft after their
+native home, and, to justify the title, had flanked the gate with
+two copper beeches, which had attained a fair growth, in spite of
+sea winds, perhaps because sheltered by the house on the other
+side.</p>
+
+<p>The garden reached out to the verge of the cliff, or rather to
+a low wall, with iron rails and spikes at the top, and a narrow,
+rather giddy path beyond. There was a gate in the wall, the key
+of which Aunt Jane kept in her own pocket, as it gave near access
+to certain rocky steps, about one hundred and thirty in number,
+by which, when in haste, the inhabitants of Rockstone could
+descend to the lower regions of the Quay.</p>
+
+<p>There was a most beautiful sea-view from the house, which
+compensated for difficulties in gardening in such a situation,
+though a very slight slope inwards from the verge of the cliff
+gave some protection to the flower-beds; and there was not only a
+little conservatory attached to the drawing-room at the end, but
+the verandah had glass shutters, which served the purpose of
+protecting tender plants, and also the windows, from the full
+blast of the winter storms. Miss Mohun was very proud of these
+shutters, which made a winter garden of the verandah for Miss
+Adeline to take exercise in. The house was their own, and, though
+it aimed at no particular beauty, had grown pleasant and pretty
+looking by force of being lived in and made comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>It was a contrast to its neighbours on either side of its pink
+and gray limestone wall. On one side began the grounds of the
+Great Rockstone Hotel; on the other was Cliff House, the big and
+seldom-inhabited house of one of the chief partners in the marble
+works, which went on on the other side of the promontory, and
+some people said would one day consume Rockstone altogether. It
+was a very fine house, and the gardens were reported to be
+beautifully kept up, but the owner was almost always in Italy,
+and had so seldom been at Rockstone that it was understood that
+all this was the ostentation of a man who did not know what to do
+with his money.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Adeline met the travellers at the door with her charming
+welcome. Kunz, all snowy white, wagged his tight-curled tail amid
+his barks, at sight of Aunt Jane, but capered wildly about the
+Sofy's basket, much to Valetta's agony; while growls, as
+thunderous as a small kitten could produce, proceeded
+therefrom.</p>
+
+<p>'Kunz, be quiet,' said Aunt Jane, in a solemn, to-be-minded
+voice, and he crouched, blinking up with his dark eye.</p>
+
+<p>'Give me the basket. Now, Kunz, this is our cat. Do you hear?
+You are not to meddle with her.'</p>
+
+<p>Did Kunz really wink assent--a very unwilling assent?</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Aunt Jane!' from Val, as her aunt's fingers undid the
+cover of the basket.</p>
+
+<p>'Once for all!' said Aunt Jane.</p>
+
+<p>'M-m-m-m-ps-pss-psss!' from the Sofy, two screams from Val and
+Fergus, a buffeting of paws, a couple of wild bounds, first on a
+chair-back, then on the mantelpiece, where, between the bronze
+candlestick and the vase, the Persian philosopher stood hissing
+and swearing, while Kunz danced about and barked.</p>
+
+<p>'Take her down, Gillian,' said Aunt Jane; and Gillian, who had
+some presence of mind, accomplished it with soothing words, and,
+thanks to her gloves, only one scratch.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime Miss Mohun caught up Kunz, held up her finger to him,
+stopped his barks; and then, in spite of the 'Oh, don'ts,' and
+even the tears of Valetta, the two were held up---black nose to
+pink nose, with a resolute 'Now, you are to behave well to each
+other, from Aunt Jane.</p>
+
+<p>Kunz sniffed, the Sofy hissed; but her claws were captive. The
+dog was the elder and more rational, and when set down again took
+no more notice of his enemy, whom Valetta was advised to carry
+into Mrs. Mount's quarters to be comforted and made at home
+there; the united voice of the household declaring that the
+honour of the Spitz was as spotless as his coat!</p>
+
+<p>Such was the first arrival at Rockstone, preceding even Aunt
+Adeline's inquiries after Mysie, and the full explanation of the
+particulars of the family dispersion. Aunt Ada's welcome was not
+at all like that of Kunz. She was very tender and caressing, and
+rejoiced that her sister could trust her children to her. They
+should all get on most happily together, she had no doubt.</p>
+
+<p>True-hearted as Gillian was, there was something hopeful and
+refreshing in the sight of that fair, smiling face, and the touch
+of the soft hand, in the room that was by no means unfamiliar,
+though she had never slept in the house before. It was growing
+dark, and the little fire lighted it up in a friendly manner.
+Wherever Aunt Jane was, everything was neat; wherever Aunt
+Adeline was, everything was graceful. Gillian was old enough to
+like the general prettiness; but it somewhat awed Val and Fergus,
+who stood straight and shy till they were taken upstairs. The two
+girls had a very pretty room and dressing-room--the guest
+chamber, in fact; and Fergus was not far off, in a small
+apartment which, as Val said, 'stood on legs,' and formed the
+shelter of the porch.</p>
+
+<p>'But, oh dear! oh dear!' sighed Val, as Gillian unpacked their
+evening garments, 'Isn't there any nice place at all where one
+can make a mess?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know whether the aunts will ever let us make a mess,'
+said Gillian; 'they don't look like it.'</p>
+
+<p>At which Valetta's face puckered up in the way only too
+familiar to her friends.</p>
+
+<p>'Come, don't be silly, Val. You won't have much time, you
+know; you will go to school, and get some friends to play with,
+and not want to make messes here.'</p>
+
+<p>'I hate friends!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Val!'</p>
+
+<p>'All but Fly, and Mysie is gone to her. I want Mysie.'</p>
+
+<p>So in truth did Gillian, almost as much as her mother. Her
+heart sank as she thought of having Val and Fergus to save from
+scrapes without Mysie's readiness and good humour. If Mysie were
+but there she should be free for her 'great thing.' And oh! above
+all, Val's hair---the brown bush that Val had a delusion that she
+'did' herself, but which her 'doing' left looking rather worse
+than it did before, and which was not permitted in public to be
+in the convenient tail. Gillian advanced on her with the brush,
+but she tossed it and declared it all right!</p>
+
+<p>However, at that moment there was a knock. Mrs. Mount's kindly
+face and stout form appeared. She had dressed Miss Ada and came
+to see what she could do for the young people, being of that
+delightful class of old servants who are charmed to have anything
+young in the house, especially a boy. She took Valetta's
+refractory mane in hand, tied her sash, inspected Fergus's hands,
+which had succeeded in getting dirty in their inevitable fashion,
+and undertook all the unpacking and arranging. To Val's inquiry
+whether there was any place for making 'a dear delightful mess'
+she replied with a curious little friendly smile, and wonder that
+a young lady should want such a thing.</p>
+
+<p>'I'm afraid we are all rather strange specimens of young
+ladies,' replied Gillian; 'very untidy, I mean.'</p>
+
+<p>'And I'm sure I don't know what Miss Mohun and Miss Ada will
+say' said good Mrs. Mount.</p>
+
+<p>'What's that? What am I to say?' asked Aunt Jane, coming into
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>But, after all, Aunt Jane proved to have more sympathy with
+'messes' than any of the others. She knew very well that the
+children would be far less troublesome if they had a place to
+themselves, and she said, 'Well, Val, you shall have the boxroom
+in the attics. And mind, you must keep all your goods there, both
+of you. If I find them about the house, I shall--'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, what, Aunt Jane?'</p>
+
+<p>'Confiscate them,' was the reply, in a very awful voice, which
+impressed Fergus the more because he did not understand the
+word.</p>
+
+<p>'You need not look so much alarmed, Fergus,' said Gillian;
+'you are not at all the likely one to transgress.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Valetta gravely. 'Fergus is what Lois calls a
+regular old battledore.'</p>
+
+<p>'I won't be called names,' exclaimed Fergus.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Lois said so---when you were so cross because the poker
+had got on the same side as the tongs! She said she never saw
+such an old battledore, and you know how all the others took it
+up.'</p>
+
+<p>'Shuttlecock yourself then!' angrily responded Fergus, while
+both aunt and sister were laughing too much to interfere.</p>
+
+<p>'I shall call you a little Uncle Maurice instead,' said Aunt
+Jane. 'How things come round! Perhaps you would not believe,
+Gill, that Aunt Ada was once in a scrape, when she was our Mrs.
+Malaprop, for applying that same epithet on hearsay to
+Maurice.'</p>
+
+<p>This laugh made Gillian feel more at home with her aunt, and
+they went up happily together for the introduction to the
+lumber-room, not a very spacious place, and with a window leading
+out to the leads. Aunt Jane proceeded to put the children on
+their word of honour not to attempt to make an exit thereby,
+which Gillian thought unnecessary, since this pair were not
+enterprising.</p>
+
+<p>The evening went off happily. Aunt Jane produced one of the
+old games which had been played at the elder Beechcroft, and had
+a certain historic character in the eyes of the young people. It
+was one of those variations of the Game of the Goose that were
+once held to be improving, and their mother had often told them
+how the family had agreed to prove whether honesty is really the
+best policy, and how it had been agreed that all should cheat as
+desperately as possible, except 'honest Phyl,' who
+<i>couldn't</i>; and how, by some extraordinary combination, good
+for their morals, she actually was the winner. It was immensely
+interesting to see the identical much-worn sheet of dilapidated
+pictures with the padlock, almost close to the goal, sending the
+counter back almost to the beginning in search of the key. Still
+more interesting was the imitation, "in very wonderful drawing,
+devised by mamma, of the career of a true knight--from pagedom
+upwards---in pale watery Prussian-blue armour, a crimson scarf,
+vermilion plume, gamboge spurs, and very peculiar arms and legs.
+But, as Valetta observed, it must have been much more interesting
+to draw such things as that than stupid freehand lines and twists
+with no sense at all in them.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Ada, being subject to asthmatic nights, never came down
+to breakfast, and, indeed, it was at an hour that Gillian thought
+fearfully early; but her Aunt Jane was used to making every hour
+of the day available, and later rising would have prevented the
+two children from being in time for the schools, to which they
+were to go on the Monday. Some of Aunt Jane's many occupations on
+Saturday consisted in arranging with the two heads of their
+respective schools, and likewise for the mathematical class
+Gillian was to join at the High School two mornings in the week,
+and for her lessons on the organ, which were to be at St.
+Andrew's Church. Somehow Gillian felt as if she were as entirely
+in her aunt's hands as Kunz and the Sofy had been!</p>
+
+<p>After the early dinner, which suited the invalid's health,
+Aunt Jane said she would take Valetta and Fergus to go down to
+the beach with the little Varleys, while she went to her
+district, leaving Gillian to read to Aunt Ada for half an hour,
+and then to walk with her for a quiet turn on the beach.</p>
+
+<p>It was an amusing article in a review that Gillian was set to
+read, and she did it so pleasantly that her aunt declared that
+she looked forward to many such afternoon pastimes, and then, by
+an easier way than the hundred and a half steps, they proceeded
+down the hill, the aunt explaining a great deal to the niece in a
+manner very gratifying to a girl beginning to be admitted to an
+equality with grown-up people.</p>
+
+<p>'There is our old church,' said Aunt Ada, as they had a
+glimpse of a gray tower with a curious dumpy steeple.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you go to church there!'</p>
+
+<p>'I do---always. I could not undertake the hill on Sundays; but
+Jane takes the school-children to the St. Andrew's service in the
+afternoon.'</p>
+
+<p>'But which is the parish church?'</p>
+
+<p>'In point of fact, my dear; it is all one parish. Good
+morning, Mr. Hablot. My niece, Miss Gillian Merrifield. Yes, my
+sister is come home. I think she will be at the High School. He
+is the vicar of St. Andrew's,' as the clergyman went off in the
+direction of the steps.</p>
+
+<p>'I thought you said it was all one parish.'</p>
+
+<p>'St. Andrew's is only a district. Ah, it was all before your
+time, my dear.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know dear Uncle Claude was the clergyman here, and got St.
+Andrew's built.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, my dear. It was the great work and thought with him and
+Lord Rotherwood in those days that look so bright now,' said Aunt
+Ada. 'Yes, and with us all.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do tell me all about it,' entreated Gillian; and her aunt,
+nothing loth, went on.</p>
+
+<p>'Dear Claude was only five-and-twenty when he had the living.
+Nobody would take it, it was such a neglected place. All Rockquay
+down there had grown up with only the old church, and nobody
+going to it. It was a great deal through Rotherwood. Some
+property here came to him, and he was shocked at the state of
+things. Then we all thought the climate might be good for dear
+Claude, and Jane came to live with him and help him, and look
+after him. You see there were a great many of us, and
+Jane---well, she didn't quite get on with Alethea, and Claude
+thought she wanted a sphere of her own, and that is the way she
+comes to have more influence than any one else here. And as I am
+always better in this air than anywhere else, I came soon
+after---even before my dear fathers death. And oh! what an eager,
+hopeful time it was, setting everything going, and making St.
+Andrew's all we could wish! We were obliged to be cautious at the
+old church, you know, because of not alarming the old-fashioned
+people. And so we are still--'</p>
+
+<p>'Is that St. Andrew's? Oh, it is beautiful. May I look
+in?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not now, my dear. You will see it another time.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish it were our church.'</p>
+
+<p>'You will find the convenience of having one so near. And our
+services are very nice with our present rector, Mr. Ellesmere, an
+excellent active man, but his wife is such an invalid that all
+the work falls on Jane. I am so glad you are here to help her a
+little. St. Andrew's has a separate district, and Mr. Hablot is
+the vicar; but as it is very poor, we keep the charities all in
+one. Rotherwood built splendid schools, so we only have an infant
+school for the Rockstone children. On Sunday, Jane assembles the
+older children there and takes them to church; but in the
+afternoon they all go to the National Schools, and then to a
+children's service at St. Andrew's. She gets on so well with Mr.
+Hablot---he was dear Claude's curate, you see, and little Mrs.
+Hablot was quite a pupil of ours. What do you think little Gerald
+Hablot said---he is only five---"Isn't Miss Mohun the most
+consultedest woman in Rockquay?"'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose it is true,' said Gillian, laughing, but rather
+awestruck.</p>
+
+<p>'I declare it makes me quite giddy to count up all she has on
+her hands. Nobody can do anything without her. There are so few
+permanent inhabitants, and when people begin good works, they go
+away, or marry, or grow tired, and then we can't let them
+drop!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! what's that pretty spire, on the rise of the other
+hill?'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, that was the Kennel Mission Chapel, a horrid little
+hideous iron thing, but Lady Flight mistook and called it St.
+Kenelm's, and St. Kenelm's it will be to the end of the chapter.'
+And as she exchanged bows with a personage in a carriage, 'There
+she is, my dear.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who? Did she build that church?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is not consecrated. It really is only a mission chapel,
+and he is nothing but a curate of Mr. Hablot's,' said Aunt Ada,
+Gillian thought a little venomously.</p>
+
+<p>She asked, 'Who?'</p>
+
+<p>'The Reverend Augustine Flight, my dear. I ought not to say
+anything against them, I am sure, for they mean to be very good;
+but she is some City man's widow, and he is an only son, and they
+have more money than their brains can carry. They have made that
+little place very beautiful, quite oppressed with ornament---City
+taste, you know, and they have all manner of odd doings there,
+which Mr. Hablot allows, because he says he does not like to
+crush zeal, and he thinks interference would do more harm than
+good. Jane thinks he ought not to stand so much, but--'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian somehow felt a certain amusement and satisfaction in
+finding that Aunt Jane had one disobedient subject, but they were
+interrupted by two ladies eagerly asking where to find Miss
+Mohun, and a few steps farther on a young clergyman accosted
+them, and begged that Miss Mohun might be told the hour of some
+meeting. Also that 'the Bellevue Church people would not
+co-operate in the coal club.'</p>
+
+<p>Then it was explained that Bellevue Church was within the
+bounds of another parish, and had been built by, and for, people
+who did not like the doctrine at the services of St.
+Andrew's.</p>
+
+<p>By this time aunt and niece had descended to the Marine
+esplanade, a broad road, on one side of which there was a low sea
+wall, and then the sands and rocks stretched out to the sea, on
+the other a broad space of short grass, where there was a cricket
+ground, and a lawn-tennis ground, and the volunteers could
+exercise, and the band played twice a week round a Russian gun
+that stood by the flagstaff.</p>
+
+<p>The band was playing now, and the notes seemed to work on
+Gillian's feet, and yet to bring her heart into her throat, for
+the last time she had heard that march was from the band of her
+father's old regiment, when they were all together!</p>
+
+<p>Her aunt was very kind, and talked to her affectionately and
+encouragingly of the hopes that her mother would find her father
+recovering, and that it would turn out after all quite an
+expedition of pleasure and refreshment. Then she said how much
+she rejoiced to have Gillian with her, as a companion to herself,
+while her sister was so busy, and she was necessarily so much
+left alone.</p>
+
+<p>'We will read together, and draw, and play duets, and have
+quite a good account of our employment to give,' she said,
+smiling.</p>
+
+<p>'I shall like it very much,' said Gillian heartily.</p>
+
+<p>'Dear child, the only difficulty will be that you will spoil
+me, and I shall never be able to part with you. Besides, you will
+be such a help to my dear Jane. She never spares herself, you
+know, and no one ever spares her, and I can do so little to help
+her, except with my head.'</p>
+
+<p>'Surely here are plenty of people,' said Gillian, for they
+were in the midst of well-dressed folks, and Aunt Ada had more
+than once exchanged nods and greetings.</p>
+
+<p>'Quite true, my dear; but when there is anything to be done,
+then there is a sifting! But now we have you, with all our own
+Lily's spirit, I shall be happy about Jane for this winter at
+least.</p>
+
+<p>They were again interrupted by meeting a gentleman and lady,
+to whom Gillian was introduced, and who walked on with her aunt
+conversing. They had been often in India, and made so light of
+the journey that Gillian was much cheered. Moreover, she
+presently came in sight of Val and Fergus supremely happy over a
+castle on the beach, and evidently indoctrinating the two little
+Varleys with some of the dramatic sports of Silverfold.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Ada found another acquaintance, a white moustached old
+gentleman, who rose from a green bench in a sunny corner, saying,
+'Ah, Miss Mohun, I have been guarding your seat for you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, Major Dennis. My niece, Miss Merrifield.'</p>
+
+<p>He seemed to be a very courteous old gentleman, for he bowed,
+and made some polite speech about Sir Jasper, and, as he was
+military, Gillian hoped to have heard some more about the journey
+when they sat down, and room was made for her; but instead of
+that he and her aunt began a discussion of the comings and goings
+of people she had never heard of, and the letting or not letting
+of half the villas in Rockstone; and she found it so dull that
+she had a great mind to go and join the siege of Sandcastle. Only
+her shoes and her dress were fitter for the esplanade than the
+shore with the tide coming in; and when one has just begun to buy
+one's own clothes, that is a consideration.</p>
+
+<p>At last she saw Aunt Jane's trim little figure come out on the
+sands and make as straight for the children as she could, amid
+greetings and consultations, so with an exclamation, she jumped
+up and went over the shingle to meet them, finding an endeavour
+going on to make them tolerably respectable for the walk home, by
+shaking off the sand, and advising Val to give up her intention
+of dragging home a broad brown ribbon of weed with a frilled
+edge, all polished and shiny with wet. She was not likely to
+regard it as such a curiosity after a few days' experience of
+Rockquay, as her new friends told her.</p>
+
+<p>Kitty Varley went to the High School, which greatly modified
+Valetta's disgust to it, for the little girls had already vowed
+to be the greatest chums in the world, and would have gone home
+with arms entwined, if Aunt Jane had not declared that such
+things could not be done in the street, and Clem Varley, with
+still more effect, threatened that if they were such a pair of
+ninnies, he should squirt at them with the dirtiest water he
+could find.</p>
+
+<p>Valetta had declared that she infinitely preferred Kitty to
+Fly, and Kitty was so flattered at being adopted by the second
+cousin of a Lady Phyllis, and the daughter of a knight, that she
+exalted Val above all the Popsys and Mopsys of her present
+acquaintance, and at parting bestowed on her a chocolate cream,
+which tasted about equally of salt water and hot hand---at least
+if one did not feel it a testimonial of ardent friendship.</p>
+
+<p>Fergus and Clement had, on the contrary, been so much inclined
+to punch and buffet one another, that Miss Mohun had to make them
+walk before her to keep the peace, and was by no means sorry when
+the gate of 'The Tamarisks' was reached, and the Varleys could be
+disposed of.</p>
+
+<p>However, the battery must have been amicable, for Fergus was
+crazy to go in and see Clement's little pump, which he declared
+'would do it'---an enigmatical phrase supposed to refer to the
+great peg-top-perpetual-motion invention. He was dragged away
+with difficulty on the plea of its being too late by Aunt Jane,
+who could not quite turn two unexpected children in on Mrs.
+Varley, and had to effect a cruel severance of Val and Kitty in
+the midst of their kisses.</p>
+
+<p>'Sudden friendships,' said Gillian, from the superiority of
+her age.</p>
+
+<p>'I do not think you are given that way,' said Aunt Jane.</p>
+
+<p>'Does the large family suffice for all of you? People are so
+different,' added Aunt Ada.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Gillian. 'We have never been in the way of caring
+for any outsider. I don't reckon Bessie Merrifield so---nor Fly
+Devereux, nor Dolores, because they are cousins.'</p>
+
+<p>'Cousins may be everything or nothing,' asserted Miss Mohun.
+'You have been about so much that you have hardly had time to
+form intimacies. But had you no friends in the officers'
+families?'</p>
+
+<p>'People always retired before their children grew up to be
+companionable, said Gillian. 'There was nobody except the Whites.
+And that wasn't exactly friendship.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who were they?' said Aunt Jane, who always liked to know all
+about everybody.</p>
+
+<p>'He rose from the ranks,' said Gillian. 'He was very much
+respected, and nobody would have known that he was not a
+gentleman to begin with. But his wife was half a Greek. Papa said
+she had been very pretty; but, oh! she had grown so awfully fat.
+We used to call her the Queen of the White Ants. Then Kally---her
+name was really Kalliope---was very nice, and mamma got them to
+send her to a good day-school at Dublin, and Alethea and Phyllis
+used to have her in to try to make a lady of her. There used to
+be a great deal of fun about their Muse, I remember; Claude
+thought her very pretty, and always stood up for her, and Alethea
+was very fond of her. But soon after we went to Belfast, Mr.
+White was made to retire with the rank of captain. I think papa
+tried to get something for him to do; but I am not sure whether
+he succeeded, and I don't know any more about them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not exactly friendship, certainly,' said Aunt Jane, smiling.
+'After all, Gillian, in your short life, you have had wider
+experiences than have befallen your old aunts!'</p>
+
+<p>'Wider, perhaps, not deeper, Jane,' suggested Miss
+Adeline.</p>
+
+<p>And Gillian thought---though she felt it would be too
+sentimental to say---that in her life, persons and scenes outside
+her own family had seemed to 'come like shadows and so depart';
+and there was a general sense of depression at the partings, the
+anxiety, and the being unsettled again when she was just
+beginning to have a home.</p>
+
+<p>CHAPTER III. PERPETUAL MOTION</p>
+
+<p>If Fergus had not yet discovered the secret of perpetual
+motion, Gillian felt as if Aunt Jane had done so, and moreover
+that the greater proportion of parish matters were one vast
+machine, of which she was the moving power.</p>
+
+<p>As she was a small spare woman, able to do with a very
+moderate amount of sleep, her day lasted from 6 A.M. to some
+unnamed time after midnight; and as she was also very methodical,
+she got through an appalling amount of business, and with such
+regularity that those who knew her habits could tell with
+tolerable certainty, within reasonable limits, where she would be
+found and what she would be doing at any hour of the seven days
+of the week. Everything she influenced seemed to recur as
+regularly as the motions of the great ruthless-looking engines
+that Gillian had seen at work at Belfast; the only loose cog
+being apparently her sister Adeline, who quietly took her own
+way, seldom came downstairs before eleven o'clock, went out and
+came in, made visits or received them, wrote letters, read and
+worked at her own sweet will. Only two undertakings seemed to
+belong to her---a mission working party, and an Italian class of
+young ladies; and even the presidency of these often lapsed upon
+her sister, when she had had one of those 'bad nights' of asthma,
+which were equally sleepless to both sisters. She was principally
+useful by her exquisite needlework, both in church embroidery and
+for sales; and likewise as the recipient of all the messages left
+for Miss Mohun, which she never forgot, besides that, having a
+clear sensible head, she was useful in consultation.</p>
+
+<p>She was thoroughly interested in all her sister's doings, and
+always spoke of herself as the invalid, precluded from all
+service except that of being a pivot for Jane, the stationary leg
+of the compasses, as she sometimes called herself. This repose,
+together with her prettiness and sweetness of manner, was very
+attractive; especially to Gillian, who had begun to feel herself
+in the grip of the great engine which bore her along without
+power of independent volition, and with very little time for
+'Hilda's Experiences'.</p>
+
+<p>At home she had gone on harmoniously in full acquiescence with
+household arrangements; but before the end of the week the very
+same sensations came over her which had impelled her and Jasper
+into rebellion and disgrace, during the brief reign of a very
+strict daily governess, long ago at Dublin. Her reason and sense
+approved of all that was set before her, and much of it was
+pleasant and amusing; but this was the more provoking by
+depriving her of the chance of resistance or the solace of
+complaint. Moreover, with all her time at Aunt Jane's disposal,
+how was she to do her great thing? Valetta's crewel battle
+cushion had been reduced to a delicious design of the battle of
+the frogs and mice, drawn by Aunt Ada, and which she delighted in
+calling at full length 'the Batrachyomachia,' sparing none of the
+syllables which she was to work below. And it was to be worked at
+regularly for half an hour before bed-time. Trust Aunt Jane for
+seeing that any one under her dominion did what had been
+undertaken! Only thus the spontaneity seemed to have departed,
+and the work became a task. Fergus meanwhile had set his
+affections on a big Japanese top he had seen in a window, and was
+eagerly awaiting his weekly threepence, to be able to complete
+the purchase, though no one but Valetta was supposed to
+understand what it had to do with his 'great thing.'</p>
+
+<p>It was quite pleasant to Gillian to have a legitimate cause of
+opposition when Miss Mohun made known that she intended Gillian
+to take a class at the afternoon Sunday-school, while the two
+children went to Mrs. Hablot's drawing-room class at St. Andrew's
+Vicarage, all meeting afterwards at church.</p>
+
+<p>'Did mamma wish it?' asked Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'There was no time to mention it, but I knew she would.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't think so,' said Gillian. 'We don't teach on Sundays,
+unless some regular person fails. Mamma likes to have us all at
+home to do our Sunday work with her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Alas, I am not mamma! Nor could I give you the time.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have brought the books to go on with Val and Ferg. I always
+do some of their work with them, and I am sure mamma would not
+wish them to be turned over to a stranger.'</p>
+
+<p>'The fact is, that young ladies have got beyond
+Sunday-schools!'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no, Jane,' said her sister; 'Gillian is quite willing to
+help you; but it is very nice in her to wish to take charge of
+the children.'</p>
+
+<p>'They would be much better with Mrs. Hablot than dawdling
+about here and amusing themselves in the new Sunday fashion.
+Mind, I am not going to have them racketing about the house and
+garden, disturbing you, and worrying the maids.'</p>
+
+<p>'Aunt Jane!' cried Gillian indignantly, 'you don't think that
+is the way mamma brought us up to spend Sunday?'</p>
+
+<p>'We shall see,' said Aunt Jane; then more kindly, 'My dear,
+you are right to use your best judgment, and you are welcome to
+do so, as long as the children are orderly and learn what they
+ought.'</p>
+
+<p>It was more of a concession than Gillian expected, though she
+little knew the effort it cost, since Miss Mohun had been at much
+pains to set Mrs. Hablot's class on foot, and felt it a slight
+and a bad example that her niece and nephew should be defaulters.
+The motive might have worked on Gillian, but it was a lower one,
+therefore mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>She had seen Mrs. Hablot at the Italian class, and thought her
+a mere girl, and an absolute subject of Aunt Jane's stumbling
+pitifully, moreover, in a speech of Adelchi's; therefore
+evidently not at all likely to teach Sunday subjects half so well
+as herself!</p>
+
+<p>Nor was there anything amiss on that first Sunday. The lessons
+were as well and quietly gone through as if with mamma, and there
+was a pleasant little walk on the esplanade before the children's
+service at St. Andrew's; after which there was a delightful
+introduction to some of the old books mamma had told them of.</p>
+
+<p>They were all rather subdued by the strangeness and newness of
+their surroundings, as well as by anxiety. If the younger ones
+were less anxious about their parents than was their sister, each
+had a plunge to make on the morrow into a very new world, and the
+Varleys' information had not been altogether reassuring. Valetta
+had learnt how many marks might be lost by whispering or bad
+spelling, and how ferociously cross Fraulein Adler looked at a
+mistake in a German verb; while Fergus had heard a dreadful
+account of the ordeals to which Burfield and Stebbing made new
+boys submit, and which would be all the worse for him, because he
+had a 'rum' Christian name, and his father was a swell.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian had some experience through her elder brothers, and
+suspected Master Varley of being guilty of heightening the
+horrors; so she assured Fergus that most boys had the same sort
+of Christian names, but were afraid to confess them to one
+another, and so called each other Bill and Jack. She advised him
+to call himself by his surname, not to mention his father's title
+if he could help it, and, above all, not to seem to mind
+anything.</p>
+
+<p>Her own spirits were much exhilarated the next morning by a
+note from Harry, the recipient of all telegrams, with tidings
+that the doctors were quite satisfied with Sir Jasper, and that
+Lady Merrifield had reached Brindisi.</p>
+
+<p>There was great excitement at sight of a wet morning, for it
+appeared that an omnibus came round on such occasions to pick up
+the scholars; and Valetta thought this so delightful that she
+danced about exclaiming, 'What fun!' and only wishing for Mysie
+to share it. She would have rushed down to the gate umbrellaless
+if Aunt Jane had not caught and conducted her, while Gillian
+followed with Fergus. Aunt Jane looked down the vista of young
+faces--five girls and three boys---nodding to them, and saying to
+the senior, a tall damsel of fifteen,</p>
+
+<p>'Here are my children, Emma. You will take care of them,
+please. You are keeping order here, I suppose?'</p>
+
+<p>There was a smile and bow in answer as the door closed, and
+the omnibus jerked away its ponderous length.</p>
+
+<p>'I'm sorry to see that Stebbing there,' observed the aunt, as
+she went back; 'but Emma Norton ought to be able to keep him in
+order. It is well you have no lessons out of the house to-day,
+Gillian.'</p>
+
+<p>'Are you going out then?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes!' said Miss Mohun, running upstairs, and presently
+coming back with a school-bag and a crackling waterproof cloak,
+but pausing as she saw Gillian at the window, nursing the Sofy,
+and gazing at the gray cloud over the gray sea. 'You are not at a
+loss for something to do,' she said, 'you said you meant to write
+to your mother.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes!' said Gillian, suddenly fretted, and with a sense of
+being hunted, 'I have plenty to do.'</p>
+
+<p>'I see,' said Miss Mohun, turning over the books that lay on
+the little table that had been appropriated to her niece, in a
+way that, unreasonably or not, unspeakably worried the girl,
+'Brachet's French Grammar--that's right. Colenso's Algebra---I
+don't think they use that at the High School. Julius Caesar---you
+should read that up in Merivale.'</p>
+
+<p>'I did,' said Gillian, in a voice that very nearly said, 'Do
+let them alone.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, you have materials for a very useful, sensible
+morning's work, and when Ada comes down, very likely she will
+like to be read to.'</p>
+
+<p>Off went the aunt, leaving the niece stirred into an absolute
+desire, instead of spending the sensible morning, to take up
+'Near Neighbours', and throw herself into an easy-chair; and when
+she had conscientiously resisted that temptation, her pen would
+hover over 'Hilda's Experiences', even when she had actually
+written 'Dearest Mamma.' She found she was in no frame to write
+such a letter as would be a comfort to her mother, so she gave
+that up, and made her sole assertion of liberty the working out
+of a tough double equation in Colenso, which actually came right,
+and put her in such good humour that she was no longer afraid of
+drumming the poor piano to death and Aunt Ada upstairs to
+distraction, but ventured on learning one of the Lieder ohne
+Worte; and when her Aunt Ada came down and complimented her on
+the sounds that had ascended, she was complacent enough to write
+a very cheerful letter, whilst her aunt was busied with her own.
+She described the Sunday-school question that had arisen, and
+felt sure that her father would pronounce his Gill to be a
+sensible young woman. Afterwards Miss Adeline betook herself to a
+beautiful lily of church embroidery, observing, as Gillian sat
+down to read to her Alphonse Karr's Voyage autour de mon Jardin,
+that it was a real pleasure to listen to such prettily-pronounced
+French. Kunz lay at her feet, the Sofy nestled in Gillian's lap,
+and there was a general sense of being rubbed down the right
+way.</p>
+
+<p>By and by there loomed through the rain two dripping shiny
+forms under umbrellas strongly inclined to fly away from
+them---Miss Mohun and Mr. Grant, the junior curate, whom she had
+brought home to luncheon. Both were full of the irregularities of
+the two churches of Bellevue and St. Kenelm's on the recent
+harvest-thanksgiving Sunday. It was hard to tell which was most
+reprobated, what St. Kenelm's did or what Bellevue did not do. If
+the one blew trumpets in procession, the other collected the
+offertory in a warming-pan. Gillian had already begun to find
+that these misdoings supplied much conversation at Beechcroft
+Cottage, and began to get half weary, half curious to judge for
+herself of all these enormities; nor did she feel more interested
+in the discussion of who had missed church or school, and who
+needed tickets for meat, or to be stirred up to pay for their
+coal club.</p>
+
+<p>At last she heard, 'Well, I think you might read to her,
+Gillian! Oh! were not you listening? A very nice girl near here,
+a pupil teacher, who has developed a hip complaint, poor child.
+She will enjoy having visits from you, a young thing like
+herself.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian did not like it at all, but she knew that it would be
+wrong to refuse, and answered, 'Very well,' with no
+alacrity---hoping that it was not an immediate matter, and that
+something might happen to prevent it. But at that moment the sun
+came out, the rain had ceased, and there were glistening drops
+all over the garden; the weather quarter was clear, and after
+half an hours rest after dinner Aunt Jane jumped up, decreeing
+that it was time to go out, and that she would introduce Gillian
+to Lilian Giles before going on to the rest of her district.</p>
+
+<p>She gathered a few delicate flowers in the little
+conservatory, and put them in a basket with a peach from the
+dessert, then took down a couple of books from the shelf. Gillian
+could not but acquiesce, though she was surprised to find that
+the one given to her was a translation of Undine.</p>
+
+<p>'The child is not badly off,' explained Miss Mohun. 'Her
+father is a superior workman. She does not exactly want comforts,
+but she is sadly depressed and disappointed at not being able to
+go on with her work, and the great need is to keep her from
+fretting over her troubles, and interested in something.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian began to think of one of the graceful hectic invalids
+of whom she had read, and to grow more interested as she followed
+Aunt Jane past the old church with the stout square steeple,
+constructed to hold, on a small side turret window, a light for
+the benefit of ships at sea. Then the street descended towards
+the marble works. There was a great quarry, all red and raw with
+recent blasting, and above, below, and around, rows of new little
+stuccoed, slated houses, for the work-people, and a large range
+of workshops and offices fronting the sea. This was Miss Mohun's
+district, and at a better-looking house she stopped and used the
+knocker.</p>
+
+<p>That was no distinction; all had doors with knockers and sash
+windows, but this was a little larger, and the tiny strip of
+garden was well kept, while a beautiful myrtle and pelargonium
+peeped over the muslin blind; and it was a very nice-looking
+woman who opened the door, though she might have been the better
+for a cap. Aunt Jane shook hands with her, rather to Gillian's
+surprise, and heard that Lily was much the same.</p>
+
+<p>'It is her spirits are so bad, you see, Miss Mohun,' she
+added, as she ushered them into a somewhat stuffy little parlour,
+carpeted and bedecked with all manner of knick-knacks,
+photographs, and framed certificates of various societies of
+temperance and providence on the gaily-papered walls. The girl
+lay on a couch near the fire, a sallow creature, with a big
+overhanging brow, made heavier by a dark fringe, and an
+expression that Gillian not unjustly decided was fretful, though
+she smiled, and lighted up a little when she saw Miss Mohun.</p>
+
+<p>There was a good deal said about her bad nights, and her
+appetite, and how the doctor wanted her to take as much as she
+could, and how everything went against her--even lardy cake and
+roly-poly pudding with bacon in it!</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mohun put the flowers on the little table near the girl,
+who smiled a little, and thanked her in a languid dreary manner.
+Finding that she had freshly been visited by the rector, Miss
+Mohun would not stop for any serious reading, but would leave
+Miss Merrifield to read a story to her.</p>
+
+<p>'And you ought to get on together,' she said, smiling. 'You
+are just about the same age, and your names rhyme--Gillian and
+Lilian. And Gillians mother is a Lily too.'</p>
+
+<p>This the young lady lid not like, for she was already feeling
+it a sort of presumption in the girl to bear a name so nearly
+resembling her mother's. She had seen a little cottage poverty,
+and had had a class of little maidservants; but this level of
+life which is in no want, keeps a best parlour, and does not say
+ma'am, was quite new to her, and she did not fancy it. When the
+girls were left together, while Mrs. Giles returned to her
+ironing, Gillian was the shyer of the two, and began rather
+awkwardly and reluctantly--</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Mohun thought you would like to hear this. It is a sort
+of German fairy tale.'</p>
+
+<p>Lilian said, 'Yes, Miss Merrifield' in a short dry tone,
+completing Gillian's distaste, and she began to read, not quite
+at her best, and was heartily glad when at the end of half an
+hour Mrs. Giles was heard in parley with another visitor, so that
+she had an excuse for going away without attempting conversation.
+She was overtaken by the children on their way home from their
+schools, where they had dined. They rushed upon her, together
+with the two Varleys, who wanted to take them home to tea; and
+Gillian giving her ready consent, Fergus dashed home to fetch his
+beloved humming-top, which was to be introduced to Clement
+Varley's pump, and in a few minutes they were off, hardly
+vouchsafing an answer to such comparatively trifling inquiries as
+how they were placed at their schools.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian found, however, that neither of her aunts was pleased
+at her having consented to the children's going out without
+reference to their authority. How did she suppose they were to
+come home?</p>
+
+<p>'I did not think, can't they be fetched?' said Gillian,
+startled.</p>
+
+<p>'It is not far,' said Adeline, pitying her. 'One of the
+maids--'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Ada!' exclaimed Aunt Jane. 'You know that Fanny
+cannot go out at night with her throat, and I never will send out
+those young girls on any account.'</p>
+
+<p>'Can't I go?' said Gillian desperately.</p>
+
+<p>'Are not you a young girl? I must go myself.'</p>
+
+<p>And go she did at a quarter to eight, and brought home the
+children, looking much injured. Gillian went upstairs with them,
+and there was an outburst.</p>
+
+<p>'It was horrid to be fetched home so soon, just as there was a
+chance of something nice; when all the tiresome big ones had gone
+to dress, and we could have had some real fun,' said Valetta.</p>
+
+<p>'Real fun! Real sense!' said Fergus.</p>
+
+<p>'But what had you been about all this time?'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, their sisters and a man that was there <i>would</i> come
+and drink tea in the nursery, where nobody wanted them, and make
+us play their play.</p>
+
+<p>'Wasn't that nice? You are always crying out for Harry and me
+to come and play with you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, it wasn't like that,' said Val, 'you play with us, and
+they only pretended, and played with each other. It wasn't
+nice.'</p>
+
+<p>'Clem said it was---forking,' said Fergus.</p>
+
+<p>'No, spooning,' said Val. 'The dish ran after the spoon, you
+know.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, but you haven't told me about the schools,' said
+Gillian, in elder sisterly propriety, thinking the subject had
+better be abandoned.</p>
+
+<p>'Jolly, jolly, scrumptious!' cried Fergus.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! Fergus, mamma doesn't like slang words. Jasper doesn't
+say them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not at home, but men say what they like at school, and the
+'bus was scrumptious and splendiferous!'</p>
+
+<p>'I'm sure it wasn't,' said Valetta; 'I can't bear being boxed
+up with horrid rude boys.'</p>
+
+<p>'Because you are only a girl!'</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Gill, they shot with--'</p>
+
+<p>'Val, if you tell--'</p>
+
+<p>'Telling Gill isn't telling. Is it, Gill?'</p>
+
+<p>She assented.</p>
+
+<p>'They did, Gill. They shot at us with pea-shooters,' sighed
+the girl.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! it was jolly, jolly, jolly!' cried the boy. 'Stebbing hit
+the girl who made the sour face on her cheeks, and they all
+squealed, and the cad looked in and tried to jaw us.'</p>
+
+<p>'But that dreadful boy shot right into his mouth,' said Val,
+while Fergus went into an ecstasy of laughter. 'Wasn't it a
+shame, Gill?'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed it was' said Gillian. 'Such ungentlemanly boys ought
+not to be allowed in the omnibus.'</p>
+
+<p>'Girls shouldn't be allowed in the 'bus, they are so stupid,'
+said Fergus. 'That one---as cross as old Halfpenny--who was she,
+Val?'</p>
+
+<p>'Emma Norton! Up in the highest form!'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, she is a prig, and a tell-tale-tit besides; only
+Stebbing said if she did, her junior would catch it.'</p>
+
+<p>'What a dreadful bully he must be!' exclaimed Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>I'll tell you what,' said Fergus, in a tone of profound
+admiration, 'no one can hold a candle to him at batting! He
+snowballed all the Kennel choir into fits, and he can brosier old
+Tilly's stall, and go on just the same.'</p>
+
+<p>'What a greedy boy!' exclaimed Val.</p>
+
+<p>'Disgusting,' added Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'You're girls,' responded Fergus, lengthening the syllable
+with infinite contempt; but Valetta had spirit enough to reply,
+'Much better be a girl than rude and greedy.'</p>
+
+<p>'Exactly,' said Gillian; 'it is only little silly boys who
+think such things fine. Claude doesn't, nor Harry, nor Japs.'</p>
+
+<p>'You know nothing about it,' said Fergus.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, but you've never told me about school--how you are
+placed, and whom you are under.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! I'm in middle form, under Miss Edgar. Disgusting! It's
+only the third form that go up to Smiler. She knows it is no use
+to try to take Stebbing and Burfield.'</p>
+
+<p>'And, Gill,' added Val, 'I'm in second class too, and I took
+three places for knowing where Teheran was, and got above Kitty
+Varley and a girl there two years older than I am, and her name
+is Maura.'</p>
+
+<p>'Maura, how very odd! I never heard of any one called Maura
+but one of the Whites,' said Gillian. 'What was her surname?'</p>
+
+<p>This Valetta could not tell, and at the moment Mrs. Mount came
+up with intent to brush Miss Valetta's hair, and to expedite the
+going to bed.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian, not very happy about the revelations she had heard,
+went downstairs, and found her younger aunt alone, Miss Mohun
+having been summoned to a conference with one of her clients in
+the parish room. In her absence Gillian always felt more free and
+communicative, and she had soon told whatever she did not feel as
+a sort of confidence, including Valetta's derivation of spooning,
+and when Miss Mohun returned it was repeated to her.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' was her comment, 'children's play is a convenient cover
+to the present form of flirtation. No doubt Bee Varley and Mr.
+Marlowe believe themselves to have been most good-natured.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who is he, and will it come to anything?' asked Aunt Ada,
+taking her sister's information for granted.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, it is nothing. A civil service man, second cousin's
+brother-in-law's stepson. That's quite enough in these days to
+justify fraternal romping.'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought Beatrice Varley a nice girl.'</p>
+
+<p>'So she is, my dear. It is only the spirit of the age, and,
+after all, this deponent saith not which was the dish and which
+was the spoon. Have the children made any other acquaintances, I
+wonder? And how did George Stebbing comport himself in the
+omnibus? I was sorry to see him there; I don't trust that
+boy.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wonder they didn't send him in solitary grandeur in the
+brougham,' said Miss Ada.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian held the history of the pea-shooting as a confidence,
+even though Aunt Jane seemed to have been able to see through the
+omnibus, so she contented herself with asking who George Stebbing
+was.</p>
+
+<p>'The son of the manager of the marble works; partner, I
+believe.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Aunt Ada. 'the Co. means Stebbing primarily.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is he a gentleman?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, as much as old Mr. White himself, I suppose. He is come
+up here--more's the pity---to the aristocratic quarter, if you
+please,' said Aunt Jane, smiling, 'and if garden parties are not
+over, Mr. Stebbing may show you what they can be.'</p>
+
+<p>'That boy ought to be at a public school,' said her sister. 'I
+hope he doesn't bully poor little Fergus.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't think he does,' said Gillian. 'Fergus seemed rather
+to admire him.'</p>
+
+<p>'I had rather hear of bullying than patronage in that
+quarter,' said Miss Mohun. 'But, Gillian, we must impress on the
+children that they are to go to no one's house without express
+leave. That will avoid offence, and I should prefer their
+enjoying the society of even the Varleys in this house.'</p>
+
+<p>Did Aunt Jane repent of her decision on the Thursday
+half-holiday granted to Mrs. Edgar's pupils, when, in the midst
+of the working party round the dining-room table, in a pause of
+the reading, some one said, 'What's that!'--and a humming,
+accompanied by a drip, drop, drip, drop, became audible?</p>
+
+<p>Up jumped Miss Mohun, and so did Gillian, half in
+consternation, half to shield the boy from her wrath. In a few
+moments they beheld a puddle on the mat at the bottom of the oak
+stairs, while a stream was descending somewhat as the water comes
+down at Lodore, while Fergus's voice could be heard above--</p>
+
+<p>'Don't, Varley! You see how it will act. The string of the
+humming-top moves the pump handle, and that spins. Oh!'</p>
+
+<p>'Master Fergus! Oh---h, you bad boy!'</p>
+
+<p>The shriek was caused by the avenging furies who had rushed up
+the back stairs just as Miss Mohun had darted up the front, so as
+to behold, on the landing between the two, the boys, one spinning
+the top, the other working the pump which stood in its own trough
+of water, receiving a reckless supply from the tap in the
+passage. The maid's scream of 'What will your aunt say?' was
+answered by her appearance, and rush to turn the cock.</p>
+
+<p>'Don't, don't, Aunt Jane,' shouted Fergus; 'I've almost done
+it! Perpetual motion.' He seemed quite unconscious that the
+motion was kept up by his own hands, and even dismay could not
+turn him from being triumphant.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! Miss Jane,' cried Mrs. Mount, 'if I had thought what they
+boys was after.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mop it up, Alice,' said Aunt Jane to the younger girl. 'No
+don't come up, Ada; it is too wet for you. It is only a
+misdirected experiment in hydraulics.'</p>
+
+<p>'I told him not,' said Clement Varley, thinking affairs
+serious.</p>
+
+<p>'Fergus, I am shocked at you,' said Gillian sternly. 'You are
+frightfully wet. You must be sent to bed.'</p>
+
+<p>'You must go and change,' said Aunt Jane, preventing the howl
+about to break forth. 'My dear boy, that tap must be let alone.
+We can't have cataracts on the stairs.'</p>
+
+<p>'I didn't mean it, Aunt Jane; I thought it was an invention,'
+said Fergus.</p>
+
+<p>'I know; but another time come and ask me where to try your
+experiments. Go and take off those clothes; and you, Clement, you
+are soaking too. Run home at once.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian, much scandalised, broke out--</p>
+
+<p>'It is very naughty. At home, he would be sent to bed at
+once.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am not Mrs. Halfpenny, Gillian,' said Aunt Jane coldly.</p>
+
+<p>'Jane has a soft spot for inventions, for Maurice's sake,'
+said her sister.</p>
+
+<p>'I can't confound ingenuity and enterprise with wanton
+mischief, or crush it out for want of sympathy,' said Miss Mohun.
+'Come, we must return to our needles.'</p>
+
+<p>If Aunt Jane had gone into the state of wrath to be naturally
+expected, Gillian would have risen in arms on her brother's
+behalf, and that would have been much pleasanter than the
+leniency which made her views of justice appear like
+unkindness.</p>
+
+<p>This did not dispose her to be the better pleased at an
+entreaty from the two children to be allowed to join Mrs.
+Hablot's class on Sunday. It appeared that they had asked Aunt
+Jane, and she had told them that their sister knew what their
+mother would like.</p>
+
+<p>'But I am sure she would not mind,' said Valetta. 'Only think,
+she has got a portfolio with pictures of everything all through
+the Bible!'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' added Fergus, 'Clem told me. There are the dogs eating
+Jezebel, and such a jolly picture of the lion killing the
+prophet.<br>
+ I do want to see them! Varley told me!'</p>
+
+<p>'And Kitty told me,' added Valetta. 'She is reading such a
+book to them. It is called The Beautiful Face, and is all about
+two children in a wood, and a horrid old grandmother and a dear
+old hermit, and a wicked baron in a castle! Do let us go,
+Gillyflower.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Fergus; 'it would be ever so much better fun than
+poking here'</p>
+
+<p>'You don't want fun on Sunday.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not fun exactly, but it is nicer.'</p>
+
+<p>'To leave me, the last bit of home, and mamma's own
+lessons.'</p>
+
+<p>'They ain't mamma's,' protested Fergus; but Valetta was
+touched by the tears in Gillian's eyes, kissed her, and declared,
+'Not that.'</p>
+
+<p>Whether it were on purpose or not, the next Sunday was
+eminently unsuccessful; the Collects were imperfect, the answers
+in the Catechism recurred to disused babyish blunders; Fergus
+twisted himself into preternatural attitudes, and Valetta teased
+the Sofy to scratching point, they yawned ferociously at The
+Birthday, and would not be interested even in the pony's death.
+Then when they went out walking, they would not hear of the sober
+Rockstone lane, but insisted on the esplanade, where they fell in
+with the redoubtable Stebbing, who chose to patronise instead of
+bullying 'little Merry'---and took him off to the tide mark--to
+the agony of his sisters, when they heard the St. Andrew's
+bell.</p>
+
+<p>At last, when the tempter had gone off to higher game,
+Fergus's Sunday boots and stockings were such a mass of black mud
+that Gillian had to drag him home in disgrace, sending Valetta
+into church alone. She would have put him to bed on her own
+responsibility, but she could not master him; he tumbled about
+the room, declaring Aunt Jane would do no such thing, rolled up
+his stockings in a ball, and threw them in his sister's face.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian retired in tears, which she let no one see, not even
+Aunt Ada, and proceeded to record in her letter to India that
+those dreadful boys were quite ruining Fergus, and Aunt Jane was
+spoiling him.</p>
+
+<p>However, Aunt Jane, having heard what had become of the youth,
+met him in no spoiling mood; and though she never knew of his
+tussle with Gillian, she spoke to him very seriously, shut him
+into his own room, to learn thoroughly what he had neglected in
+the morning, and allowed him no jam at tea. She said nothing to
+Gillian, but there were inferences.</p>
+
+<p>The lessons went no better on the following Sunday; Gillian
+could neither enforce her authority nor interest the children.
+She avoided the esplanade, thinking she had found a nice country
+walk to the common beyond the marble works; but, behold, there
+was an outbreak of drums and trumpets and wild singing. The
+Salvation Army was marching that way, and, what was worse, yells
+and cat-calls behind showed that the Skeleton Army was on its way
+to meet them. Gillian, frightened almost out of her wits, managed
+to fly over an impracticable-looking gate into a field with her
+children, but Fergus wanted to follow the drum. After that she
+gave in. The children went to Mrs. Hablot, and Gillian thought
+she saw 'I told you so' in the corners of Aunt Jane's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>It was a further offence that her aunt strongly recommended
+her going regularly to the High School instead of only attending
+certain classes. It would give her far more chance of success at
+the examination to work with others and her presence would be
+good for Valetta. But to reduce her to a schoolgirl was to be
+resented on Miss Vincent's account as well as her own.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>CHAPTER IV. THE QUEEN OF THE WHITE ANTS</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>The High School was very large. It stood at present at the end
+of a budding branch of Rockquay, where the managers, assisted by
+the funds advanced by Lord Rotherwood and that great invisible
+potentate, the head of the marble works, had secured and adapted
+a suitable house, and a space round it well walled in.</p>
+
+<p>The various classes of students did not see much of each
+other, except those who were day boarders and spent the midday
+recreation time together. Even those in the same form were only
+together in school, as the dressing-room of those who dined there
+was separate from that of the others, and they did not come in
+and out at the same time. Valetta had thus only really made
+friends with two or three more Rockstone girls of about her own
+age besides Kitty Yarley, with whom she went backwards and
+forwards every day, under the escort provided in turn by the
+families of the young ladies.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian's studies were for three hours in the week at the High
+School, and on two afternoons she learnt from the old organist at
+Rockstone Church. She went and came alone, except when Miss Mohun
+happened to join her, and that was not often, 'For,' said that
+lady to her sister, 'Gillian always looks as if she thought I was
+acting spy upon her. I wish I could get on with that girl; I
+begin to feel almost as poor Lily did with Dolores.'</p>
+
+<p>'She is a very good girl,' said Miss Adeline.</p>
+
+<p>'So she is; and that makes it all the more trying to be
+treated like the Grand Inquisitor.'</p>
+
+<p>'Shall I speak to her? She is always as pleasant as possible
+with me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, don't. It would only make it worse, and prevent you
+from having her confidence.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, Jane, I have often thought your one want was gentleness,'
+said Miss Ada, with the gesture of her childhood--her head a
+little on one side. 'And, besides, don't you know what Reggie
+used to call your ferret look? Well, I suppose you can't help it,
+but when you want to know a thing and are refraining from asking
+questions, you always have it more or less.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, Ada. There's nothing like brothers and sisters for
+telling one home-truths. I suppose it is the penalty of having
+been a regular Paul Pry in my childhood, in spite of poor Eleanor
+making me learn "Meddlesome Matty" as soon as I could speak. I
+always <i>do</i> and always <i>shall</i> have ringing in my
+ears--</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>'"Oh! what a pretty box is this,<br>
+ I'll open it," said little Miss.'</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>'Well, you know you always do know or find out everything
+about everybody, and it is very useful.'</p>
+
+<p>'Useful as a bloodhound is, eh?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, not that, Jenny.'</p>
+
+<p>'As a ferret, or a terrier, perhaps. I suppose I cannot help
+that, though,' she added, rather sadly. 'I have tried hard to
+cure the slander and gossip that goes with curiosity. I am sorry
+it results in repulsion with that girl; but I suppose I can only
+go on and let her find out that my bark, or my eye, is worse than
+my bite.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are so good, so everything, Jenny,' said Adeline, 'that I
+am sure you will have her confidence in time, if only you won't
+poke after it.'</p>
+
+<p>Which made Miss Mohun laugh, though her heart was heavy, for
+she had looked forward to having a friend and companion in the
+young generation.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian meantime went her way.</p>
+
+<p>One morning, after her mathematical class was over, she was
+delayed for about ten minutes by the head mistress, to whom she
+had brought a message from her aunt, and thus did not come out at
+noon at the same time as the day scholars. On issuing into the
+street, where as yet there was hardly any traffic, except what
+was connected with the two schools, she perceived that a party of
+boys were besetting a little girl who was trying to turn down the
+cross road to Bellevue, barring her way, and executing a derisive
+war-dance around her, and when she, almost crying, made an
+attempt to dash by, pulling at her plaited tail, with derisive
+shouts, even Gillian's call, 'Boys, boys, how can you be so
+disgraceful!' did not check them. One made a face and put his
+tongue out, while the biggest called out, 'Thank you, teacher,'
+and Gillian perceived to her horror, that they were no street
+boys, but Mrs. Edgar's, and that Fergus was one of them. That he
+cried in dismay, 'Don't, Stebbing! It's my sister,' was no
+consolation, as she charged in among them, catching hold of her
+brother, as she said,</p>
+
+<p>'I could not believe that you could behave in such a
+disgraceful manner!'</p>
+
+<p>All the other tormentors rushed away headlong, except
+Stebbing, who, in some compunction, said--</p>
+
+<p>'I beg your pardon, Miss Merrifield, I had no notion it was
+you.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are making it no better,' said Gillian. 'The gentlemen I
+am used to know how to behave properly to any woman or girl. My
+father would be very sorry that my brother has been thrown into
+such company.'</p>
+
+<p>And she walked away with her head extremely high, having
+certainly given Master Stebbing a good lesson. Fergus ran after
+her. 'Gill, Gill, you won't tell.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't think I ever was more shocked in my life,' returned
+Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'But, Gill, she's a nasty, stuck-up, conceited little ape,
+that Maura White, or whatever her ridiculous name is. They
+pretend her father was an officer, but he was really a bad cousin
+of old Mr. White's that ran away; and her mother is not a
+lady---a great fat disgusting woman, half a nigger; and Mr. White
+let her brother and sister be in the marble works out of charity,
+because they have no father, and she hasn't any business to be at
+the High School.'</p>
+
+<p>'White, did you say? Maura White!' exclaimed Gillian. 'Captain
+White dead! Oh, Fergus! it must be Captain White. He was in the
+dear old Royal Wardours, and papa thought so much of him! To
+think of your going and treating his daughter in that shocking
+way!'</p>
+
+<p>'It was what Stebbing said,' gruffly answered Fergus.</p>
+
+<p>'If you let yourself be led by these horrid cads--'</p>
+
+<p>'He is no such thing! He is the crack bat of Edgar's---'</p>
+
+<p>'A boy is a cad who can't behave himself to a girl because she
+is poor. I really think the apology to me was the worst part or
+the matter. He only treats people well when he sees they can take
+care of themselves.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'll tell him about Captain White,' said Fergus, a little
+abashed.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. And I will get the aunts to call on Mrs. White, and that
+may help them to a better level among these vulgar folk.'</p>
+
+<p>'But you won't---' said Fergus, with an expressive pause.</p>
+
+<p>'I won't get you into trouble, for I think you are sorry you
+treated one of our own in such a manner.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wouldn't, indeed, if I had known.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall only explain that I have found out whom Maura belongs
+to.<br>
+ I should go and see them at once, only I must make Val find out
+where she lives.'</p>
+
+<p>So Gillian returned home, communicating the intelligence with
+some excitement that she had discovered that Valetta's
+schoolmate, Maura White, was none other than the daughter of her
+father's old fellow-soldier, whose death shocked her greatly, and
+she requested to go and call on Mrs. White as soon as she could
+learn her abode.</p>
+
+<p>However, it seemed to be impossible that any one should live
+in Rockstone unknown to Aunt Jane.</p>
+
+<p>'White?' she said. 'It can't be the Whites down by Cliffside.
+No; there's a father there, though he generally only comes down
+for Sunday.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure there are some Whites on the Library list,' said
+Miss Ada.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes; but she washes! I know who they must be. I know in
+Bellevue there are some; but they go to the Kennel Church. Didn't
+you come home, Ada, from that function you went to with Florence,
+raving about the handsome youth in the choir?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, we thought it such an uncommon, foreign face, and he
+looked quite inspired when he was singing his solo.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; I found out that his name was White, a clerk or
+something in the marble works, and that he had a mother and
+sister living at Bellevue. I did see the sister when I went to
+get the marble girls into the G.F.S., but she said something
+foolish about her mother not liking it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; nobody under the St. Kenelm influence ever will come
+into the G.F.S.'</p>
+
+<p>'But what is she doing?' asked Gillian. 'Do you mean
+Kalliope?'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose I do. I saw a rather nice-looking young woman in
+the department where they make Florentine mosaic, and I believe
+they said she was Miss White, but she cut me off very short with
+her mother, so I had no more to do with her.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure mamma would wish me to call on Mrs. White,' said
+Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'There's no reason against it,' said Aunt Jane. 'I will go
+with you the first day I can.'</p>
+
+<p>When would that be, wondered Gillian. She told Valetta to talk
+to Maura and learn the name of the house; and this was
+ascertained to be 3 Ivinghoe Terrace, Bellevue Road, but Val had
+very little opportunity of cultivating the acquaintance of town
+girls, who did not stay to dinner, as she had to go home
+immediately after school, under Emma Norton's escort, and perhaps
+she was not very ardent in the cause, for Kitty Varley and her
+other friends did not like the child, and she was more swayed by
+them than perhaps she liked to confess to her sister.</p>
+
+<p>Each morning at breakfast Gillian hoped that Aunt Jane would
+lay out her day so as to call on Mrs. White; but first there was
+the working party, then came the mothers' meeting, followed by
+afternoon tea at Mrs. Hablot's for some parish council. On the
+third day, which might have been clear, 'a miserable creature,'
+as Gillian mentally called her, wrote to beg the Misses Mohun to
+bring themselves and her niece to make up a lawn-tennis set,
+since some one had failed. Gillian vainly protested that she did
+not care about lawn tennis, and could not play unless Jasper was
+her partner; and Aunt Jane so far sided with her as to say it was
+very inconvenient, and on such short notice they ought not to be
+expected. But Aunt Ada clearly wanted to go; and so they went. It
+was a beautiful place, but Gillian could not enjoy herself,
+partly because she knew so few of the people, but more because
+she was vexed and displeased about the Whites. She played very
+badly; but Aunt Jane, when pressed into the service, skipped
+about with her little light figure and proved herself such a
+splendid player, doing it so entirely con amore, that Gillian
+could not but say to herself, 'She was bent on going; it was all
+humbug her pretending to want to refuse.'</p>
+
+<p>That afternoon's dissipation had made it needful to do double
+work the next day, and Gillian was again disappointed. Then came
+Saturday, when Miss Mohun was never available, nor was she on
+Monday; and when it appeared that she had to go to a meeting at
+the Cathedral town on Tuesday, Gillian grew desperate, and at her
+tete-a-tete meal with Aunt Ada, related the whole history of the
+Whites, and her great desire to show kindness to her father's old
+brother-officer's family, and how much she was disappointed.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Adeline was touched, and indeed, fond as she was of her
+sister, she could not help being flattered by Gillian's
+preference and confidence.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, my deal, this is a nice day, not too hot or too cold; I
+do not see why I should not walk down with you and call. If I
+find it too far, we can take a cab to go back.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, thank you, Aunt Ada; it is very very kind of you, and
+there is no knowing when Aunt Jane may be able to go. I don't
+like to close up my Indian letter till I can say I have seen
+them.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian fidgeted a good deal lest, before her aunt's
+postprandial repose was over, visitors should come and put a stop
+to everything, and she looked ready to cut the throat of a poor
+lady in a mushroom hat, who came up to leave a message for Miss
+Mohun about a possible situation for one of her class of
+boys.</p>
+
+<p>However, at last they started, Kunz and all, Miss Adeline
+quite infected by Gillian's excitement.</p>
+
+<p>'So your father and mother were very fond of them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Papa thought very highly of him, and was very sorry he had to
+return,' said Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'And she was a beautiful Greek.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian began to be quite afraid of what she might have
+said.</p>
+
+<p>'I don't think she is more than half Greek,' she said. 'I
+believe her mother was a Gorfiote, but her father was English or
+Irish. I believe he kept a shop in Malta.'</p>
+
+<p>'Quite a mixture of nationalities then, and no wonder she is
+beautiful. That youth had a very striking profile; it quite
+reminded me of a gem as I saw it against the dark pillar.'</p>
+
+<p>'I did not say she was very beautiful now,' said Gillian,
+feeling a qualm as she recollected the Queen of the White Ants,
+and rather oddly divided between truthfulness, fear of alarming
+her aunt into turning back, and desire of giving her a little
+preparation.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! those southern beauties soon go on. Some one told me that
+Lord Byron's "Maid of Athens," whose portrait I used to think the
+loveliest thing in the world, became a great stout woman, but was
+quite a mother to all the young Englishmen about. I remember I
+used to try to hold my head and keep my eyelids down like the
+engraving in an old book that had been my mother's.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! I think I have seen it at Beechcroft,' said Gillian, very
+much amused, for she now perceived whence arose Aunt Ada's
+peculiar turn of the head and droop of the eyelashes, and how the
+conscious affectation of childhood had become unconsciously
+crystallised.</p>
+
+<p>She grew more and more anxious as they found some difficulty
+in making out Ivinghoe Terrace, and found it at last to be a row
+of rather dilapidated little houses, apparently built of lath and
+stucco, and of that peculiar meanness only attained by the modern
+suburb. Aunt Ada evidently did not like it at all, and owned
+herself almost ready to turn back, being sure that Valetta must
+have made some mistake. Gillian repeated that she had always said
+the Whites were very poor, but she began to feel that her
+impatience had misled her, and that she would have been better
+off with the aunt who was used to such places, and whose trim
+browns and crimsons were always appropriate everywhere, rather
+than this dainty figure in delicate hues that looked only fit for
+the Esplanade or the kettledrum, and who was becoming seriously
+uneasy, as Kunz, in his fresh snowiness, was disposed to make
+researches among vulgar remains of crabs and hakes, and was with
+difficulty restrained from disputing them with a very ignoble and
+spiteful yellow cur of low degree.</p>
+
+<p>No. 3, with its blistered wall and rusty rail, was attained,
+Kunz was brought within the enclosure, and Gillian knocked as
+sharply and fast as she could, in the fear that her aunt might
+yet turn about and escape.</p>
+
+<p>The door was opened with a rapidity that gave the impression
+that they had been watched, but it was by a very untidy-looking
+small maid, and the parlour into which they were turned had most
+manifestly been lately used as the family dining-room, and was
+redolent of a mixture of onion, cabbage, and other indescribable
+odours.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody was there, except a black and white cat, who showed
+symptoms of flying at Kunz, but thought better of it, and escaped
+by the window, which fortunately was open, though the little maid
+would have shut it, but for Miss Adeline's gasping and peremptory
+entreaty to the contrary. She sat on the faded sofa, looking as
+if she just existed by the help of her fan and scent-bottle, and
+when Gillian directed her attention to the case of clasps and
+medals and the photograph of the fine-looking officer, she could
+only sigh out,<br>
+ 'Oh, my dear!'</p>
+
+<p>There was a certain air of taste in the arrangement of the few
+chimney-piece ornaments, and Gillian was pleased to see the two
+large photographs of her father and mother which Captain White
+had so much valued as parting gifts. A few drawings reminded her
+of the School of Art at Belfast, and there was a vase of wild
+flowers and ferns prettily arranged, but otherwise everything was
+wretchedly faded and dreary.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the opening of the door, and into the room rolled,
+rather than advanced, something of stupendous breadth, which
+almost took Gillian's breath away, as she durst not look to see
+the effect on her aunt. If the Queen of the White Ants had been
+stout before, what was she now? Whatever her appearance had been
+in the days of comparative prosperity, with a husband to keep her
+up to the mark, and a desire to rank with the officers' wives,
+she had let everything go in widowhood, poverty, and neglect; and
+as she stood panting in her old shiny black alpaca, the only
+thing Gillian recalled about her like old times was the black
+lace veil thrown mantilla fashion over her head; but now it was
+over a widow's cap, and a great deal rustier than of old. Of the
+lovely foreigner nothing else remained except the dark eyes, and
+that sort of pasty sallow whiteness that looks at if for
+generations past cold water and fresh air had been unknown. There
+was no accent more interesting in her voice than a soupcon of her
+Irish father as she began, 'I am sorry to have kept the lady so
+long waiting. Was it about the girl's character that you
+came?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, Mrs. White, interrupted Gillian, her shyness
+overpowered by the necessity of throwing herself into the breach.
+'Don't you remember me? I am Gillian Merrifield, and this is my
+aunt, Miss Adeline Mohun.'</p>
+
+<p>The puffy features lighted up into warmth. 'Little Miss
+Gillian! And I am proud to see you! My little Maura did tell me
+that Miss Valetta was in her class at the High School; but I
+thought there was no one now who would come near the poor widow.
+And is your dear mamma here, Miss Gillian, and are she and your
+papa quite well?'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian could hardly believe in such dense remoteness that her
+father's accident should be unknown, but she explained all, and
+met with abundant sympathy, the dark eyes filled with tears, and
+the voice broke into sobs, as Mrs. White declared that Sir Jasper
+and Lady Merrifield had been the best friends she ever had in her
+life.</p>
+
+<p>But oh! that the handkerchief had been less grimy with which
+she mopped her eyes, as she spoke of the happy days that were
+gone! Gillian saw that poor Aunt Ada was in an agony to get away,
+and hurried out her questions for fear of being stopped. 'How was
+Kalliope---was she at home?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, poor Kally, she is the best girl in the world. I
+always say that, with all my sorrows, no one ever was more blest
+in their children than poor little me. Richard, my eldest, is in
+a lawyer's office at Leeds. Kally is employed in the art
+department, just as a compliment to her relation, Mr. White.
+Quite genteel, superior work, though I must say he does not do as
+much for us as he might. Such a youth as my Alexis now was surely
+worthy of the position of a gentleman.'</p>
+
+<p>The good lady was quite disposed to talk; but there was no
+making out, through her cloud of confused complaints, what her
+son and daughter were actually doing; and Aunt Ada, while
+preserving her courtesy, was very anxious to be gone, and rose to
+take leave at the first moment possible, though after she was on
+her feet Mrs. White detained her for some time with apologies
+about not returning her visit. She was in such weak health, so
+unequal to walking up the cliff, that she was sure Miss Mohun
+would excuse her, though Alexis and Kally would be perfectly
+delighted to hear of Miss Gillian's kindness.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian had not made out half what she wanted to know, nor
+effected any arrangement for seeing Kalliope, when she found
+herself out in the street, and her aunt panting with relief. 'My
+dear, that woman! You don't mean that your mother was fond of
+her.'</p>
+
+<p>'I never said mamma was fond of her.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, excuse me. It was the only reason for letting you
+drag me here. I was almost stifled. What a night I shall
+have!'</p>
+
+<p>'I am very sorry, Aunt Ada, but, indeed, I never said that
+mamma was fond of her, only that papa thought very highly of her
+husband, and wished us to be kind to her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, you gave me that impression, whether you wished it or
+not! Such a hole; and I'm sure she drinks gin!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, aunt!'</p>
+
+<p>'I can't be mistaken! I really was afraid she was going to
+kiss you!'</p>
+
+<p>'I do wish I could have made out about Alexis and
+Kalliope.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, my dear, just working like all the lot, though she
+shuffled about it. I see what they are like, and the less you see
+of them the better. I declare I am more tired than if I had
+walked a mile. How am I ever to get up the hill again?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sorry, aunt,' said Gillian. 'Will you take my arm?
+Perhaps we may meet Kalliope, if the marble people come out at
+four or five. What's that bell?' as a little tinkle was
+heard.</p>
+
+<p>'That's St. Kenelm's! Oh! you would like to go there, and it
+would rest me; only there's Kunz.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should like to see it very much,' said Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' said Aunt Ada, who certainly seemed to have something
+of the 'cat's away' feeling about her, and, moreover, trusted to
+avoid meeting Kalliope. 'Just round the corner here is Mrs.
+Webb's, who used to live with us before she married, Kunz will be
+happy with her. Won't he, my doggie, like to go and see his old
+Jessie?'</p>
+
+<p>So Kunz was disposed of with a very pleasant, neat-looking
+woman, who begged Miss Adeline to come and have some tea after
+the service.</p>
+
+<p>It was really a beautiful little church--'a little gem' was
+exactly the term that suggested itself---very ornate, and the
+chief lack being of repose, for there seemed not an inch devoid
+of colour or carving. There was a choir of boys in short
+surplices and blue cassocks, and a very musical service, in the
+course of which it was discovered to be the Feast of St.
+Remigius, for after the Lesson a short discourse was given on the
+Conversion of Clovis, not forgetting the sacred ampulla.</p>
+
+<p>There were about five ladies present and six old women,
+belonging to a home maintained by Lady Flight. The young priest,
+her son, had a beautiful voice, and Gillian enjoyed all very
+much, and thought the St. Andrew's people very hard and unjust;
+but all this went out of her head in the porch, for while Lady
+Flight was greeting Miss Mohun with empressement, and inviting
+her to come in to tea, Gillian had seen a young woman who had
+come in late and had been kneeling behind them.</p>
+
+<p>Turning back and holding out her hands, she exclaimed--</p>
+
+<p>'Kalliope! I so wanted to see you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Gillian Merrifield,' was the response. 'Maura told me
+you were here, but I hardly hoped to see you.'</p>
+
+<p>'How can I see you? Where are you? Busy?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am at the marble works all day---in the mosaic department.
+Oh, Miss Gillian, I owe it all to Miss Merrifield's encouraging
+me to go to the School of Art. How is she? And I hope you have
+good accounts of Sir Jasper?'</p>
+
+<p>'He is better, and I hope my mother is just arriving. That's
+why we are here; and Alethea and Phyllis are out there. They will
+want to know all about you.'</p>
+
+<p>At that moment Aunt Adeline looked round, having succeeded in
+persuading Lady Flight that she had another engagement. She saw a
+young woman in a shabby black dress, with a bag in her hand, and
+a dark fringe over a complexion of clear brown, straight
+features, to whom Gillian was eagerly talking.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah!' she said, as Mr. Flight now came up from the vestry; 'do
+you know anything of that girl?'</p>
+
+<p>'Second-rate people, somewhere in Bellevue,' said the
+lady.</p>
+
+<p>'The brother is my best tenor,' said Mr. Flight. 'She is very
+often at St. Kenelm's, but I do not know any more of her. The
+mother either goes to Bellevue or nowhere. They are in Bellevue
+Parish.'</p>
+
+<p>This was quite sufficient answer, for any interference with
+parochial visiting in the Bellevue district was forbidden.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Ada called to Gillian, and when she eagerly said, 'This
+is Kalliope, aunt,' only responded with a stiff bow.</p>
+
+<p>'I do not know what these people might have been, Gillian,'
+she said, as they pursued their way to Mrs. Webb's; 'but--they
+must have sunk so low that I do not think your mother can wish
+you to have anything to do with them.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Aunt Ada! Kalliope was always such a good girl!'</p>
+
+<p>'She has a fringe. And she would not belong to the G.F.S.,'
+said Aunt Ada. 'No, my dear, I see exactly the sort of people
+they are. Your aunt Jane might be useful to them, if they would
+let her, but they are not at all fit for you to associate
+with.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian chafed inwardly, but she was beginning to learn that
+Aunt Ada was more impenetrable than Aunt Jane, and, what was
+worse, Aunt Jane always stood by her sister's decision, whether
+she would have herself originated it or not.</p>
+
+<p>When the elder aunt came home, and heard the history of their
+day, and Gillian tried to put in a word, she said--</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, we all know that rising from the ranks puts a man's
+family in a false position, and they generally fall back again.
+All this is unlucky, for they do not seem to be people it is
+possible to get at, and now you have paid your kind act of
+attention, there is no more to be done till you can hear from
+Ceylon about them.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian was silenced by the united forces of the aunts.</p>
+
+<p>'It really was a horrid place,' said Aunt Ada, when alone with
+her sister; 'and such a porpoise of a woman! Gillian should not
+have represented her as a favourite.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not remember that she did so,' returned Aunt Jane. 'I
+wish she had waited for me. I have seen more of the kind of thing
+than you have, Ada.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure I wish she had. I don't know when I shall get over
+the stifling of that den; but it was just as if they were her
+dearest friends.'</p>
+
+<p>'Girls will be silly! And there's a feeling about the old
+regiment too. I can excuse her, though I wish she had not been so
+impatient. I fancy that eldest daughter is really a good girl and
+the mainstay of the family.'</p>
+
+<p>'But she would have nothing to do with you or the G.F.S.'</p>
+
+<p>'If I had known that her father had been an officer, I might
+have approached her differently. However, I will ask Lily about
+their antecedents, and in six weeks we shall know what is to be
+done about them.'</p>
+
+<center>CHAPTER V. MARBLES</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<p>Six weeks seem a great deal longer to sixteen than to
+six-and-forty, and Gillian groaned and sighed to herself as she
+wrote her letters, and assured herself that so far from her
+having done enough in the way of attention to the old soldier's
+family, she had simply done enough to mark her neglect and
+disdain.</p>
+
+<p>'Grizzling' (to use an effective family phrase) under
+opposition is a grand magnifier; and it was not difficult to
+erect poor Captain White into a hero, his wife into a patient
+sufferer, and Alethea's kindness to his daughter into a bosom
+friendship; while the aunts seemed to be absurdly fastidious and
+prejudiced. 'I don't wonder at Aunt Ada,' she said to herself; 'I
+know she has always been kept under a glass case; but I thought
+better things of Aunt Jane. It is all because Kalliope goes to
+St. Kenelm's, and won't be in the G.F.S.'</p>
+
+<p>And all the time Gillian was perfectly unaware of her own
+family likeness to Dolores. Other matters conduced to a certain
+spirit of opposition to Aunt Jane. That the children should have
+to use the back instead of the front stair when coming in with
+dusty or muddy shoes, and that their possessions should be
+confiscated for the rest of the day when left about in the
+sitting-rooms and hall, were contingencies she could accept as
+natural, though they irritated her; but she agreed with Valetta
+that it was hard to insist on half an hour's regular work at the
+cushion, which was not a lesson, but play. She was angered when
+Aunt Jane put a stop to some sportive passes and chatter on the
+stairs between Valetta and Alice Mount, and still more so when
+her aunt took away Adam Bede from the former, as not desirable
+reading at eleven years old.</p>
+
+<p>It was only the remembrance of her mother's positive orders
+that withheld Gillian from the declaration that mamma always let
+them read George Eliot; and in a cooler moment of reflection she
+was glad she had abstained, for she recollected that
+<i>always</i> was limited to mamma's having read most of Romola
+aloud to her and Mysie, and to her having had Silas Marner to
+read when she was unwell in lodgings, and there was a scarcity of
+books.</p>
+
+<p>Such miffs about her little sister were in the natural order
+of things, and really it was the 'all pervadingness,' as she
+called it in her own mind, of Aunt Jane that chiefly worried her,
+the way that the little lady knew everything that was done, and
+everything that was touched in the house; but as long as Valetta
+took refuge with herself, and grumbled to her, it was
+bearable.</p>
+
+<p>It was different with Fergus. There had been offences
+certainly; Aunt Jane had routed him out of preparing his lessons
+in Mrs. Mount's room, where he diversified them with teaching the
+Sofy to beg, and inventing new modes of tying down jam pots.
+Moreover, she had declared that Gillian's exemplary patience was
+wasted and harmful when she found that they had taken
+three-quarters of an hour over three tenses of a Greek verb, and
+that he said it worse on the seventh repetition than on the
+first. After an evening, when Gillian had gone to a musical party
+with Aunt Ada, and Fergus did his lessons under Aunt Jane's
+superintendence, he utterly cast off his sister's aid. There was
+something in Miss Mohun's briskness that he found inspiring, and
+she put in apt words or illustrations, instead of only rousing
+herself from a book to listen, prompt, and sigh. He found that he
+did his tasks more thoroughly in half the time, and rose in his
+class; and busy as his aunt was, she made the time not only for
+this, but for looking over with him those plates of mechanics in
+the Encyclopaedia, which were a mere maze to Gillian, but of
+which she knew every detail, from ancient studies with her
+brother Maurice. As Fergus wrote to his mother, 'Aunt Jane is the
+only woman who has any natural <i>scence</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian could not but see this as she prepared the letters for
+the post, and whatever the ambiguous word might be meant for, she
+had rather not have seen it, for she really was ashamed of her
+secret annoyance at Fergus's devotion to Aunt Jane, knowing how
+well it was that Stebbing should have a rival in his affections.
+Yet she could not help being provoked when the boy followed his
+aunt to the doors of her cottages like a little dog, and waited
+outside whenever she would let him, for the sake of holding forth
+to her about something which wheels and plugs and screws were to
+do. Was it possible that Miss Mohun followed it all? His great
+desire was to go over the marble works, and she had promised to
+take him when it could be done; but, unfortunately, his
+half-holiday was on Saturday, when the workmen struck off early,
+and when also Aunt Jane always had the pupil-teachers for
+something between instruction and amusement.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian felt lonely, for though she got on better with her
+younger than her elder aunt, and had plenty of surface
+intercourse of a pleasant kind with both, it was a very poor
+substitute for her mother, or her elder sisters, and Valetta was
+very far from being a Mysie.</p>
+
+<p>The worst time was Sunday, when the children had deserted her
+for Mrs. Hablot, and Aunt Ada was always lying down in her own
+room to rest after morning service. She might have been at the
+Sunday-school, but she did not love teaching, nor do it well, and
+she did not fancy the town children, or else there was something
+of opposition to Aunt Jane.</p>
+
+<p>It was a beautiful afternoon, of the first Sunday in October,
+and she betook herself to the garden with the 'Lyra Innocentium'
+in her hand, meaning to learn the poem for the day. She wandered
+up to the rail above the cliff, looking out to the sea. Here,
+beyond the belt of tamarisks and other hardy low-growing shrubs
+which gave a little protection from the winds, the wall dividing
+the garden of Beechcroft Cottage from that of Cliff House became
+low, with only the iron-spiked railing on the top, as perhaps
+there was a desire not to overload the cliff. The sea was of a
+lovely colour that day, soft blue, and with exquisite purple
+shadows of clouds, with ripples of golden sparkles here and there
+near the sun, and Gillian stood leaning against the rail, gazing
+out on it, with a longing, yearning feeling towards the dear ones
+who had gone out upon it, when she became conscious that some one
+was in the other garden, which she had hitherto thought quite
+deserted, and looking round, she saw a figure in black near the
+rail. Their eyes met, and both together exclaimed--</p>
+
+<p>'Kalliope!'---'Miss Gillian! Oh, I beg your pardon!'</p>
+
+<p>'How did you come here? I thought nobody did!'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. White's gardener lets us walk here. It is so nice and
+quiet. Alexis has taken the younger ones for a walk, but I was
+too much tired. But I will not disturb you--'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! don't go away. Nobody will disturb us, and I do so want
+to know about you all. I had no notion, nor mamma either, that
+you were living here, or--'</p>
+
+<p>'Or of my dear father's death!' said Kalliope, as Gillian
+stopped short, confused. 'I did write to Miss Merrifield, but the
+letter was returned.'</p>
+
+<p>'But where did you write?'</p>
+
+<p>'To Swanage, where she had written to me last.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! we were only there for six weeks, while we were looking
+for houses; I suppose it was just as the Wardours were gone to
+Natal too?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, we knew they were out of reach.'</p>
+
+<p>'But do tell me about it, if you do not mind. My father will
+want to hear.'</p>
+
+<p>Kalliope told all in a calm, matter-of-fact way, but with a
+strain of deep suppressed feeling. She was about twenty-three, a
+girl with a fine outline of features, beautiful dark eyes, and a
+clear brown skin, who would have been very handsome if she had
+looked better fed and less hardworked. Her Sunday dress showed
+wear and adaptation, but she was altogether ladylike, and even
+the fringe that had startled Aunt Ada only consisted of little
+wavy curls on the temples, increasing her classical look.</p>
+
+<p>'It was fever---at Leeds. My father was just going into a
+situation in the police that we had been waiting for ever so
+long, and there were good schools, and Richard had got into a
+lawyer's office, when there began a terrible fever in our
+street---the drains were to blame, they said---and every one of
+us had it, except mother and Richard, who did not sleep at home.
+We lost poor little Mary first, and then papa seemed to be
+getting better; but he was anxious about expense, and there was
+no persuading him to take nourishment enough. I do believe it was
+that. And he had a relapse--and--'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, poor Kalliope! And we never heard of it!'</p>
+
+<p>'I did feel broken down when the letter to Miss Merrifield
+came back,' said Kalliope. 'But my father had made me write to
+Mr. James White--not that we had any idea that he had grown so
+rich. He and my father were first cousins, sons of two brothers
+who were builders; but there was some dispute, and it ended by my
+father going away and enlisting. There was nobody nearer to him,
+and he never heard any more of his home; but when he was so ill,
+he thought he would like to be reconciled to "Jem," as he said,
+so he made me write from his dictation. Such a beautiful letter
+it was, and he added a line at the end himself. Then at last,
+when it was almost too late, Mr. White answered. I believe it was
+a mere chance---or rather Providence---that he ever knew it was
+meant for him, but there were kind words enough to cheer up my
+father at the last. I believe then the clergyman wrote to
+him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did not he come near you?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, I have never seen him; but there was a correspondence
+between him and Mr. Moore, the clergyman, and Richard, and he
+said he was willing to put us in the way of working for
+ourselves, if--if---we were not too proud.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then he did it in an unkind way,' said Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'I try to think he did not mean to be otherwise than good to
+us. I told Mr. Moore that I was not fit to be a governess, and I
+did not think they could get on without me at home, but that I
+could draw better than I would do anything else, and perhaps I
+might get Christmas cards to do, or something like that. Mr.
+Moore sent a card or two of my designing, and then Mr. White said
+he could find work for me in the mosaic department here; and
+something for my brothers, if we did not give ourselves airs. So
+we came.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not Richard?' said Gillian, who remembered dimly that Richard
+had not been held in great esteem by her own brothers.</p>
+
+<p>'No; Richard is in a good situation, so it was settled that he
+should stay on there.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you---'</p>
+
+<p>'I am in the mosaic department. Oh, Miss Gillian, I am so
+grateful to Miss Merrifield. Don't you remember her looking at my
+little attempts, and persuading Lady Merrifield to get mother to
+let me go to the School of Art? I began only as the girls do who
+are mere hands, and now I have to prepare all the designs for
+them, and have a nice little office of my own for it. Sometimes I
+get one of my own designs taken, and then I am paid extra.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then do you maintain them all?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no; we have lodgers, the organist and his wife,' said
+Kalliope, laughing, 'and Alexis is in the telegraph office, at
+the works; besides, it turned out that this house and two more
+belong to us, and we do very well when the tenants pay their
+rents.'</p>
+
+<p>'But Maura is not the youngest of you,' said Gillian, who was
+rather hazy about the family.</p>
+
+<p>'No, there are the two little boys. We let them go to the
+National School for the present. It is a great trial to my poor
+mother, but they do learn well there, and we may be able to do
+something better for them by the time they are old enough for
+further education.'</p>
+
+<p>Just then the sound of a bell coming up from the town below
+was a warning to both that the conversation must be broken off. A
+few words--'I am so glad to have seen you,' and 'It has been such
+a pleasure'--passed, and then each hastened down her separate
+garden path.</p>
+
+<p>'Must I tell of this meeting?' Gillian asked herself. 'I shall
+write it all to mamma and Alethea, of course. How delightful that
+those lessons that Kalliope had have come to be of so much use!
+How pleased Alethea will be! Poor dear thing! How much she has
+gone through! But can there be any need to tell the aunts? Would
+it not just make Aunt Ada nervous about any one looking through
+her sweet and lovely wall? And as to Aunt Jane, I really don't
+see that I am bound to gratify her passion for knowing
+everything. I am not accountable to her, but to my own mother. My
+people know all about Kalliope, and she is prejudiced. Why should
+I be unkind and neglectful of an old fellow-soldier's family,
+because she cannot or will not understand what they really are?
+It would not be the slightest use to tell her the real story.
+Mrs. White is fat, and Kalliope has a fringe, goes to St.
+Kenelm's, and won't be in the G.F.S., and that's enough to make
+her say she does not believe a word of it, or else to make it a
+fresh ground for poking and prying, in the way that drives one
+distracted! It really is quite a satis-faction to have something
+that she can't find out, and it is not underhand while I write
+every word of it to mamma.'</p>
+
+<p>So Gillian made her conscience easy, and she did write a long
+and full account of the Whites and their troubles, and of her
+conversation with Kalliope.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of that week Fergus had a holiday, asked for by
+some good-natured visitor of Mrs. Edgar's. He rushed home on the
+previous day with the news, to claim Aunt Jane's promise; and she
+undertook so to arrange matters as to be ready to go with him to
+the marble works at three o'clock. Valetta could not go, as she
+had her music lesson at that time, and she did not regret it, for
+she had an idea that blasting with powder or dynamite was always
+going on there. Gillian was not quite happy about the dynamite,
+but she did not like to forego the chance of seeing what the work
+of Kalliope and Alexis really was, so she expressed her
+willingness to join the party, and in the meantime did her best
+to prevent Aunt Ada from being driven distracted by Fergus's
+impatience, which began at half-past two.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mohun had darted out as soon as dinner was over, and he
+was quite certain some horrible cad would detain her till four
+o'clock, and then going would be of no use. Nevertheless he was
+miserable till Gillian had put on her hat, and then she could do
+nothing that would content him and keep him out of Aunt Ada's
+way, but walk him up and down in the little front court with the
+copper beeches, while she thought they must present to the
+neighbours a lively tableau of a couple of leopards in a
+cage.</p>
+
+<p>However, precisely as the clock struck three, Aunt Jane walked
+up to the iron gate. She had secured an order from Mr. Stebbing,
+the managing partner, without which they would not have
+penetrated beyond the gate where 'No admittance except on
+business' was painted.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Stebbing himself, a man with what Valetta was wont to call
+a grisly beard, met them a little within the gate, and did the
+honours of the place with great politeness. He answered all the
+boy's questions, and seemed much pleased with his intelligence
+and interest, letting him see what he wished, and even having the
+machinery slacked to enable him to perceive how it acted, and
+most delightful of all, in the eyes of Fergus, letting him behold
+some dynamite, and explaining its downward explosion. He
+evidently had a great respect for Miss Mohun, because she entered
+into it all, put pertinent questions, and helped her nephew if he
+did not understand.</p>
+
+<p>It was all dull work to Gillian, all that blasting and hewing
+and polishing, which made the place as busy as a hive. She only
+wished she could have seen the cove as once it was, with the
+weather-beaten rocks descending to the sea, overhung with wild
+thrift and bramble, and with the shore, the peaceful haunts of
+the white sea-birds; whereas now the fresh-cut rock looked red
+and wounded, and all below was full of ugly slated or iron-roofed
+sheds, rough workmen, and gratings and screeches of
+machinery.</p>
+
+<p>It was the Whites whom she wanted to see, and she never came
+upon the brother at all, nor on the sister, till Mr. Stebbing,
+perhaps observing her listless looks, said that they were coming
+to what would be more interesting to Miss Merrifield, and took
+them into the workrooms, where a number of young women were busy
+over the very beautiful work by which flowers and other devices
+were represented by inlaying different coloured marbles and
+semi-precious stones in black and white, so as to make tables,
+slabs, and letter-weights, and brooches for those who could not
+aspire to the most splendid and costly productions.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mohun shook hands with 'the young ladies' within the
+magic circle of the G.F.S., and showed herself on friendly terms
+of interest with all. From a little inner office Miss White was
+summoned, came out, and met an eager greeting from Gillian, but
+blushed a little, and perhaps had rather not have had her unusual
+Christian name proclaimed by the explanation--</p>
+
+<p>'This is Kalliope White, Aunt Jane.'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mohun shook hands with her, and said her niece had been
+much pleased at the meeting, and her sister would be glad to hear
+of her, explaining to Mr. Stebbing that Captain White had been a
+brother-officer of Sir Jasper Merrifield.</p>
+
+<p>Kalliope had a very prettily-shaped head, with short hair in
+little curls and rings all over it. Her whole manner was very
+quiet and unassuming, as she explained and showed whatever Mr.
+Stebbing wished. It was her business to make the working drawings
+for the others, and to select the stones used, and there could be
+no doubt that she was a capable and valuable worker.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian asked her to show something designed by herself, and
+she produced an exquisite table-weight, bearing a spray of sweet
+peas. Gillian longed to secure it for her mother, but it was very
+expensive, owing to the uncommon stones used in giving the tints,
+and Mr. Stebbing evidently did not regard it with so much favour
+as the jessamines and snowdrops, which, being of commoner
+marbles, could be sold at a rate fitter for the popular purse.
+Several beautiful drawings in her office had been laid aside as
+impracticable, 'unless we had a carte blanche wedding order,' he
+said, with what Gillian thought a sneer.</p>
+
+<p>She would gladly have lingered longer, but this was a very
+dull room in Fergus's estimation, and perhaps Aunt Jane did not
+desire a long continuance of the conversation under Mr.
+Stebbing's eyes, so Gillian found herself hurried on.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Stebbing begged Miss Mohun to come in to his wife, who
+would have tea ready, and this could not be avoided without
+manifest incivility. Fergus hoped to have been introduced to the
+haunts of his hero, but Master George was gone off in attendance
+on his brother, who was fishing, and there was nothing to relieve
+the polite circle of the drawing-room---a place most
+aesthetically correct, from cornice to the little rugs on the
+slippery floor. The little teacups and the low Turkish table were
+a perfect study to those who did not---like Fergus---think more
+of the dainty doll's muffins on the stand, or the long-backed
+Dachshund who looked for them beseechingly.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Stebbing was quite in accordance with the rest, with a
+little row of curls over her forehead, a terra-cotta dress, and a
+chain of watch cocks, altogether rather youthful for the mother
+of a grown-up son, engaged in his father's business.</p>
+
+<p>She was extremely civil and polite, and everything went well
+except for a certain stiffness. By and by the subject of the
+Whites came up, and Mr. Stebbing observed that Miss Merrifield
+seemed to know Miss White.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes,' said Gillian eagerly; 'her father was in my father's
+regiment, the Royal Wardours.'</p>
+
+<p>'A non-commissioned officer, I suppose,' said Mrs.
+Stebbing.</p>
+
+<p>'Not for a good many years,' said Gillian. 'He was lieutenant
+for six years, and retired with the rank of captain.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know they said he was a captain,' said Mrs. Stebbing; 'but
+it is very easy to be called so.'</p>
+
+<p>'Captain White was a real one,' said Gillian, with a tone of
+offence. 'Every one in the Royal Wardours thought very highly of
+him.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure no one would have supposed it from his family,'
+said Mrs. Stebbing. 'You are aware, Miss Mohun, that it was under
+disgraceful circumstances that he ran away and enlisted.'</p>
+
+<p>'Many a youth who gets into a scrape becomes an excellent
+soldier, even an officer,' said Miss Mohun.</p>
+
+<p>'Exactly so,' said Mr. Stebbing. 'Those high-spirited lads are
+the better for discipline, and often turn out well under it. But
+their promotion is an awkward thing for their families, who have
+not been educated up to the mark.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is an anomalous position, and I have a great pity for
+them,' said Miss Mohun. 'Miss White must be a very clever
+girl.'</p>
+
+<p>'Talented, yes,' said Mr. Stebbing. 'She is useful in her
+department.</p>
+
+<p>'That may be,' said Mrs. Stebbing; 'but it won't do to
+encourage her. She is an artful, designing girl, I know very
+well---'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you know anything against her?' asked Miss Mohun, looking
+volumes of repression at Gillian, whose brown eyes showed
+symptoms of glaring like a cat's, under her hat.</p>
+
+<p>'I do not speak without warrant, Miss Mohun. She is one of
+those demure, proper-behaved sort that are really the worst
+flirts of all, if you'll excuse me.'</p>
+
+<p>Most thankful was Miss Mohun that the door opened at that
+moment to admit some more visitors, for she saw that Gillian
+might at any moment explode.</p>
+
+<p>'Aunt Jane,' she exclaimed, as soon as they had accomplished
+their departure, 'you don't believe it?'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not think Miss White looks like it,' said Miss Mohun.
+'She seemed a quiet, simple girl.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you don't believe all that about poor Captain White?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not the more for Mrs. Stebbing's saying so.'</p>
+
+<p>'But you will find out and refute her. There must be people
+who know.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, you had better not try to rake up such things. You
+know that the man bore an excellent character for many years in
+the army, and you had better be satisfied with that,' said Miss
+Jane for once in her life, as if to provoke Gillian, not on the
+side of curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>'Then you do believe it!' went on Gillian, feeling much
+injured for her hero's sake, and wearing what looked like a
+pertinacious pout.</p>
+
+<p>'Truth compels me to say, Gillian, that the sons of men, even
+in a small way of business, are not apt to run away and enlist
+without some reason.'</p>
+
+<p>'And I am quite sure it was all that horrid old White's
+fault.'</p>
+
+<p>'You had better content yourself with that belief.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian felt greatly affronted, but Fergus, who thought all
+this very tiresome, broke in, after a third attempt--</p>
+
+<p>'Aunt Jane, if the pulley of that crane--'</p>
+
+<p>And all the way home they discussed machinery, and Gillian's
+heart swelled.</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid Gillian was greatly displeased with me,' said
+Miss Mohun that evening, talking it over with her sister. 'But
+her captain might have a fall if she went poking into all the
+gossip of the place about him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Most likely whatever he did would be greatly exaggerated,'
+said Adeline.</p>
+
+<p>'No doubt of it! Besides, those young men who are meant by
+nature for heroes are apt to show some Beserkerwuth in their
+youth, like Hereward le Wake.'</p>
+
+<p>'But what did you think of the girl?'</p>
+
+<p>'I liked her looks very much. I have seen her singing in the
+choruses at the choral society concert, and thought how nice her
+manner was. She does justice to her classical extraction, and is
+modest and ladylike besides. Mrs. Stebbing is spiteful! I wonder
+whether it is jealousy. She calls her artful and designing, which
+sounds to me very much as if Master Frank might admire the
+damsel.<br>
+ I have a great mind to have the two girls to tea, and see what
+they are made of.'</p>
+
+<p>'We had much better wait till we hear from Lily. We cannot in
+the least tell whether she would wish the acquaintance to be kept
+up. And if there is anything going on with young Stebbing,
+nothing could be more unadvisable than for Gillian to be mixed up
+in any nonsense of that sort.'</p>
+
+<center>CHAPTER VI. SINGLE MISFORTUNES NEVER COME ALONE</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<p>On Sunday, Gillian's feet found their way to the top of the
+garden, where she paced meditatively up and down, hoping to see
+Kalliope; and just as she was giving up the expectation, the
+slender black figure appeared on the other side of the
+railings.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Miss Gillian, how kind!'</p>
+
+<p>'Kally, I am glad!'</p>
+
+<p>Wherewith they got into talk at once, for Lady Merrifield's
+safe arrival and Sir Jasper's improvement had just been
+telegraphed, and there was much rejoicing over the good news.
+Gillian had nearly made up her mind to confute the enemy by
+asking why Captain White had left Rockquay; but somehow when it
+came to the point, she durst not make the venture, and they
+skimmed upon more surface subjects.</p>
+
+<p>The one point of union between the parishes of Rockstone and
+Rockquay was a choral society, whereof Mr. Flight of St. Kenelm's
+was a distinguished light, and which gave periodical concerts in
+the Masonic Hall. It being musical, Miss Mohun had nothing to do
+with it except the feeling it needful to give her presence to the
+performances. One of these was to take place in the course of the
+week, and there were programmes in all the shops, 'Mr. Alexis
+White' being set down for more than one solo, and as a voice in
+the glees.</p>
+
+<p>'Shall not you sing?' asked Gillian, remembering that her
+sisters had thought Kalliope had a good ear and a pretty
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>'I? Oh, no!'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought you used to sing.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; but I have no time to keep it up.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not even in the choruses?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, I cannot manage it'---and there was a little glow in the
+clear brown cheek.</p>
+
+<p>'Does your designing take up so much time?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is not that, but there is a great deal to do at home in
+after hours. My mother is not strong, and we cannot keep a really
+efficient servant.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! but you must be terribly hard-worked to have no time for
+relaxation.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not quite that, but---it seems to me,' burst out poor
+Kalliope, 'that relaxation does nothing but bring a girl into
+difficulties---an unprotected girl, I mean.'</p>
+
+<p>'What do you mean?' cried Gillian, quite excited; but Kalliope
+had caught herself up.</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind, Miss Gillian; you have nothing to do with that
+kind of thing.'</p>
+
+<p>'But do tell me, Kally; I do want to be your friend,' said
+Gillian, trying to put her hand through.</p>
+
+<p>'There's nothing to tell,' said Kalliope, smiling and
+evidently touched, but still somewhat red, 'only you know when a
+girl has nobody to look after her, she has to look after
+herself.'</p>
+
+<p>'Doesn't Alexis look after you?' said Gillian, not at all
+satisfied to be put off with this truism.</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Alex! He is younger, you know, and he has quite enough
+to do. Oh, Miss Gillian, he is such a very dear, good boy.'</p>
+
+<p>'He has a most beautiful voice, Aunt Ada said.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, poor fellow, though he almost wishes he had not. Oh dear
+I there's the little bell! Good-bye, Miss Merrifield, I must run,
+or Mrs. Smithson will be gone to church, and I shall be locked
+in.'</p>
+
+<p>So Gillian was left to the enigma why Alexis should regret the
+beauty of his own voice, and what Kalliope could mean by the
+scrapes of unprotected girls. It did not occur to her that Miss
+White was her elder by six or seven years, and possibly might not
+rely on her judgment and discretion as much as she might have
+done on those of Alethea.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the concert was coming on. It was not an amusement
+that Aunt Ada could attempt, but Miss Mohun took both her nieces,
+to the extreme pride and delight of Valetta, who had never been,
+as she said, 'to any evening thing but just stupid childish
+things, only trees and magic-lanterns'; and would not quite
+believe Gillian, who assured her in a sage tone that she would
+find this far less entertaining than either, judging by the
+manner in which she was wont to vituperate her music lesson.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! but that's only scales, and everybody hates them! And I
+do love a German band.'</p>
+
+<p>'Especially in the middle of lesson-time,' said Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>However, Fergus was to spend the evening with Clement Varley;
+and Kitty was to go with her mother and sister, the latter of
+whom was to be one of the performers; but it was decreed by the
+cruel authorities that the two bosom friends would have their
+tongues in better order if they were some chairs apart; and
+therefore, though the members of the two families at Beechcroft
+and the Tamarisks were consecutive, Valetta was quartered between
+her aunt and Gillian, with Mrs. Varley on the other side of Miss
+Mohun, and Major Dennis flanking Miss Merrifield. When he had
+duly inquired after Sir Jasper, and heard of Lady Merrifield's
+arrival, he had no more conversation for the young lady; and
+Valetta, having perceived by force of example that in this
+waiting-time it was not like being in church, poured out her
+observations and inquiries on her sister.</p>
+
+<p>'What a funny room! And oh! do look at the pictures! Why has
+that man got on a blue apron? Freemasons! What are Freemasons? Do
+they work in embroidered blue satin aprons because they are
+gentlemen? I'll tell Fergus that is what he ought to be; he is so
+fond of making things--only I am sure he would spoil his apron.
+What's that curtain for? Will they sing up there? Oh, there's
+Emma Norton just come in! That must be her father. That's Alice
+Gidding, she comes to our Sunday class, and do you know, she
+thought it was Joseph who was put into the den of lions. Has not
+her mother got a funny head?'</p>
+
+<p>'Hush now, Val. Here they come,' as the whole chorus trooped
+in and began the 'Men of Harlech.'</p>
+
+<p>Val was reduced to silence, but there was a long instrumental
+performance afterwards, during which bad examples of chattering
+emboldened her to whisper--</p>
+
+<p>'Did you see Beatrice Varley? And Miss Berry, our
+singing-mistress---and Alexis White? Maura says--'</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Jane gave a touch and a frown which reduced Valetta to
+silence at this critical moment; and she sat still through a good
+deal, only giving a little jump when Alexis White, with various
+others, came to sing a glee.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian could study the youth, who certainly was, as Aunt Ada
+said, remarkable for the cameo-like cutting of his profile,
+though perhaps no one without an eye for art would have remarked
+it, as he had the callow unformed air of a lad of seventeen or
+eighteen, and looked shy and grave; but his voice was a fine one,
+and was heard to more advantage in the solos to a hunting song
+which shortly followed.</p>
+
+<p>Valetta had been rather alarmed at the applause at first, but
+she soon found out what an opportunity it gave for conversation,
+and after a good deal of popping her head about, she took
+advantage of the encores to excuse herself by saying, 'I wanted
+to see if Maura White was there. She was to go if Mrs.
+Lee---that's the lodger---would take her. She says Kally won't
+go, or sing, or anything, because--'</p>
+
+<p>How tantalising! the singers reappeared, and Valetta was
+reduced to silence. Nor could the subject be renewed in the
+interval between the parts, for Major Dennis came and stood in
+front, and talked to Miss Mohun; and after that Valetta grew
+sleepy, and nothing was to be got out of her till all was over,
+when she awoke into extra animation, and chattered so vehemently
+all the way home that her aunt advised Gillian to get her to bed
+as quietly as possible, or she would not sleep all night, and
+would be good for nothing the next day.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian, however, being given to think for herself in all
+cases of counsel from Aunt Jane, thought it could do no harm to
+beguile the brushing of the child's hair by asking why Kalliope
+would not come to the concert.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, it's a great secret, but Maura told me in the cloakroom.
+It is because Mr. Frank wants to be her--to be her--her admirer,'
+said Valetta, cocking her head on one side, and adding to the
+already crimson colour of her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense, Val, what do you and Maura know of such
+things?'</p>
+
+<p>'We aren't babies, Gill, and it is very unkind of you, when
+you told me I was to make friends with Maura White; and Kitty
+Varley is quite cross with me about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I told you to be kind to Maura, but not to talk about such
+foolish things.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't see why they should be foolish. It is what we all
+must come to. Grown-up people do, as Lois says. I heard Aunt Ada
+going on ever so long about Beatrice Varley and that
+gentleman.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is just the disadvantage of that kind of school that girls
+talk that sort of undesirable stuff. Gillian said to herself; but
+curiosity, or interest in the Whites, prompted her to add, 'What
+did she tell you?'</p>
+
+<p>'If you are so cross, I shan't tell you. You hurt my head, I
+say.'</p>
+
+<p>'Come, Val, I ought to know.'</p>
+
+<p>'It's a secret.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then you should not have told me so much.'</p>
+
+<p>Val laughed triumphantly, and called her sister Mrs.
+Curiosity, and at that moment Aunt Jane knocked at the door, and
+said Val was not to talk.</p>
+
+<p>Val made an impatient face and began to whisper, but Gillian
+had too much proper feeling to allow this flat disobedience, and
+would not listen, much as she longed to do so. She heard her
+little sister rolling and tossing about a good deal, but made
+herself hard-hearted on principle, and acted sleep. On her own
+judgment, she would not waken the child in the morning, and Aunt
+Jane said she was quite right, it would be better to let Val have
+her sleep out, than send her to school fretful and half alive.
+'But you ought not to have let her talk last night.'</p>
+
+<p>As usual, reproof was unpleasing, and silenced Gillian. She
+hoped to extract the rest of the story in the course of the day.
+But before breakfast was over Valetta rushed in with her hat on,
+having scrambled into her clothes in a hurry, and consuming her
+breakfast in great haste, for she had no notion either of losing
+her place in the class, or of missing the discussion of the
+entertainment with Kitty, from whom she had been so cruelly
+parted.</p>
+
+<p>Tete-a-tetes were not so easy as might have been expected
+between two sisters occupying the same room, for Valetta went to
+bed and to sleep long before Gillian, and the morning toilette
+was a hurry; besides, Gillian had scruples, partly out of pride
+and partly out of conscientiousness, about encouraging Valetta in
+gossip or showing her curiosity about it. Could she make anything
+out from Kalliope herself? However, fortune favoured her, for she
+came out of her class only a few steps behind little Maura; and
+as some of Mr. Edgar's boys were about, the child naturally
+regarded her as a protector.</p>
+
+<p>Maura was quite as pretty as her elders, and had more of a
+southern look. Perhaps she was proportionably precocious, for she
+returned Gillian's greeting without embarrassment, and was quite
+ready to enter into conversation and show her gratification at
+compliments upon her brother's voice.</p>
+
+<p>'And does not Kalliope sing? I think she used to sing very
+nicely in the old times.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes,' said Maura; 'but she doesn't now.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why not? Has not she time?'</p>
+
+<p>'That's not all' said Maura, looking significant, and an
+interro-gative sound sufficed to bring out---'It is because of
+Mr. Frank.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Frank Stebbing?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. He was always after her, and would walk home with her
+after the practices, though Alexis was always there. I know that
+was the reason for I heard la mamma mia trying to persuade her to
+go on with the society, and she was determined, and would not.
+Alex said she was quite right, and it is very tiresome of him,
+for now she never walks with us on Sunday, and he used to come
+and give us bonbons and crackers.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then she does not like him?'</p>
+
+<p>'She says it is not right or fitting, because Mr. and Mrs.
+Stebbing would be against it; but mamma said he would get over
+them, if she would not be so stupid, and he could make her quite
+a lady, like an officer's daughter, as we are. Is it not a pity
+she won't, Miss Gillian?'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not know. I think she is very good,' said Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! but if she would, we might all be well off again,' said
+little worldly-minded Maura; 'and I should not have to help her
+make the beds, and darn, and iron, and all sorts of horrid
+things, but we could live properly, like ladies.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think it is more ladylike to act uprightly,' said
+Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>Wherewith, having made the discovery, and escorted Maura
+beyond the reach of her enemies, she parted with the child, and
+turned homewards. Gillian was at the stage in which sensible
+maidens have a certain repugnance and contempt for the idea of
+love and lovers as an interruption to the higher aims of life and
+destruction to family joys. Romance in her eyes was the
+exaltation of woman out of reach, and Maura's communications
+inclined her to glorify Kalliope as a heroine, molested by a very
+inconvenient person, 'Spighted by a fool, spighted and angered
+both,' as she quoted Imogen to herself.</p>
+
+<p>It would be a grand history to tell Alethea of her friend,
+when she should have learnt a little more about it, as she
+intended to do on Sunday from Kalliope herself, who surely would
+be grateful for some sympathy and friendship. Withal she
+recollected that it was Indian-mail day, and hurried home to see
+whether the midday post had brought any letters. Her two aunts
+were talking eagerly, but suddenly broke off as she opened the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Gillian--' began Aunt Ada.</p>
+
+<p>'No, no, let her see for herself,' said Aunt Jane.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! I hope nothing is the matter?' she exclaimed, seeing a
+letter to herself on the table.</p>
+
+<p>'No; rather the reverse.'</p>
+
+<p>A horrible suspicion, as she afterwards called it, came over
+Gillian as she tore open the letter. There were two small notes.
+The first was--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>'DEAR LITTLE GILL---I am going to give you a new brother.
+Mother will tell you all.---Your loving sister,<br>
+ 'P. E. M.'</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>She gasped, and looked at the other.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>'DEAREST GILLIAN--After all you have heard about Frank,
+perhaps you will know that I am very happy. You cannot guess how
+happy, and it is so delightful that mamma is charmed with him. He
+has got two medals and three clasps. There are so many to write
+to, I can only give my poor darling this little word. She will
+find it is only having another to be as fond of her as her old
+Alley.'</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Gillian looked up in a bewildered state, and gasped
+'Both!'</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Jane could not help smiling a little, and saying, 'Yes,
+both at one fell swoop.'</p>
+
+<p>'It's dreadful,' said Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, if you want to keep your sisters to yourself, you
+should not let them go to India, said Aunt Ada.</p>
+
+<p>'They said they wouldn't! They were quite angry at the notion
+of being so commonplace,' said Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, no one knows till her time comes!' said Aunt Jane.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian now applied herself to her mother's letter, which was
+also short.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>'MY DEAREST GILLYFLOWER---I know this will be a great blow to
+you, as indeed it was to me; but we must not be selfish, and must
+remember that the sisters' happiness and welfare is the great
+point. I wish I could write to you more at length; but time will
+not let me, scattered as are all my poor flock at home. So I must
+leave you to learn the bare public facts from Aunt Jane, and only
+say my especial private words to you. You are used to being
+brevet eldest daughter to me, now you will have to be so to papa,
+who is mending fast, but, I think, will come home with me. Isn't
+that news?<br>
+ 'Your loving mother.'</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>'They have told you all about it, Aunt Jane!' said
+Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; they have been so cruel as not even to tell you the
+names of these robbers? Well, I dare say you had rather read my
+letter than hear it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you very much, Aunt Jane! May I take it upstairs with
+me?'</p>
+
+<p>Consent was readily given, and Gillian had just time for her
+first cursory reading before luncheon.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>'DEAREST JENNY---Fancy what burst upon me only the day after
+my coming---though really we ought to be very thankful. You might
+perhaps have divined what was brewing from the letters. Jasper
+knew of one and suspected the other before the accident, and he
+says it prevented him from telegraphing to stop me, for he was
+sure one or both the girls would want their mother. Phyllis began
+it. Hers is a young merchant just taken into the great Underwood
+firm. Bernard Underwood, a very nice fellow, brother to the
+husband of one of Harry May's sisters--very much liked and
+respected, and, by the way, an uncommonly handsome man. That was
+imminent before Jasper's accident, and the letter to prepare me
+must be reposing in Harry's care. Mr. Underwood came down with
+Claude to meet me when I landed, and I scented danger in his eye.
+But it is all right--only his income is entirely professional,
+and they will have to live out here for some time to come.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>'The other only spoke yesterday, having abstained from
+worrying his General. He is Lord Francis Somerville, son to Lord
+Liddesdale, and a captain in the Glen Lorn Highlanders, who have
+not above a couple of years to stay in these parts. He was with
+the riding party when Jasper fell, and was the first to lift him;
+indeed, he held him all the time of waiting, for poor Claude
+trembled too much. He was an immense help through the nursing,
+and they came to know and depend on him as nothing else would
+have made them do; and they proved how sincerely right-minded and
+good he is. There is some connection with the Underwoods, though
+I have not quite fathomed it. There is no fear about home
+consent, for it seems that he is given to outpourings to his
+mother, and had heard that if he thought of Sir Jasper
+Merrifield's daughter his parents would welcome her, knowing what
+Sir J. is. There's for you! considering that we have next to
+nothing to give the child, and Frank has not much fortune, but
+Alethea is trained to the soldierly life, and they will be better
+off than Jasper and I were.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>'The worst of it is leaving them behind; and as neither of the
+gentlemen can afford a journey home, we mean to have the double
+wedding before Lent. As to outfit, the native tailors must be
+chiefly trusted to, or the stores at Calcutta, and I must send
+out the rest when I come home. Only please send by post my
+wedding veil (Gillian knows where it is), together with another
+as like it as may be. Any slight lace decorations to make us
+respectable which suggest themselves to you and her might come; I
+can't recollect or mention them now. I wish Reginald could come
+and tell you all, but the poor fellow has to go home full pelt
+about those Irish. Jasper is writing to William, and you must get
+business particulars from him, and let Gillian and the little
+ones hear, for there is hardly any time to write. Phyllis, being
+used to the idea, is very quiet and matter-of-fact about it. She
+hoped, indeed, that I guessed nothing till I was satisfied about
+papa, and had had time to rest. Alethea is in a much more April
+condition, and I am glad Frank waited till I was here on her
+account and on her father's. He is going on well, but must keep
+still. He declares that being nursed by two pair of lovers is
+highly amusing. However, such homes being found for two of the
+tribe is a great relief to his mind. I suppose it is to one's
+rational mind, though it is a terrible tug at one's
+heart-strings. You shall hear again by the next mail. A brown
+creature waits to take this to be posted.---<br>
+ Your loving sister,<br>
+ L. M.'</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Gillian came down to dinner quite pale, and to Aunt Ada's kind
+'Well, Gillian?' she could only repeat, 'It is horrid.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is hard to lose all the pretty double wedding,' said Aunt
+Ada.</p>
+
+<p>'Gillian does not mean that,' hastily put in Miss Mohun.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no,' said Gillian; 'that would be worse than
+anything.'</p>
+
+<p>'So you think,' said Aunt Jane; 'but believe those who have
+gone through it all, my dear, when the wrench is over, one feels
+the benefit.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian shook her head, and drank water. Her aunts went on
+talking, for they thought it better that she should get
+accustomed to the prospect; and, moreover, they were so much
+excited that they could hardly have spoken of anything else. Aunt
+Jane wondered if Phyllis's betrothed were a brother of Mr.
+Underwood of St. Matthew's, Whittingtown, with whom she had
+corresponded about the consumptive home; and Aunt Ada regretted
+the not having called on Lady Liddesdale when she had spent some
+weeks at Rockstone, and consoled herself by recollecting that
+Lord Rotherwood would know all about the family. She had already
+looked it out in the Peerage, and discovered that Lord Francis
+Cunningham Somerville was the only younger son, that his age was
+twenty-nine, and that he had three sisters, all married, as well
+as his elder brother, who had children enough to make it
+improbable that Alethea would ever be Lady Liddesdale. She would
+have shown Gillian the record, but received the ungracious
+answer,<br>
+ 'I hate swells.'</p>
+
+<p>'Let her alone, Ada,' said Aunt Jane; 'it is a very sore
+business. She will be better by and by.'</p>
+
+<p>There ensued a little discussion how the veil at Silverfold
+was to be hunted up, or if Gillian and her aunt must go to do
+so.</p>
+
+<p>'Can you direct Miss Vincent?' asked Miss Mohun.</p>
+
+<p>'No, I don't think I could; besides, I don't like to set any
+one to poke and meddle in mamma's drawers.'</p>
+
+<p>'And she could hardly judge what could be available,' added
+Miss Ada.</p>
+
+<p>'Gillian must go to find it,' said Aunt Jane; 'and let me see,
+when have I a day? Saturday is never free, and Monday--I could
+ask Mrs. Hablot to take the cutting out, and then I could look up
+Lily's Brussels--'</p>
+
+<p>There she caught a sight of Gillian's face. Perhaps one cause
+of the alienation the girl felt for her aunt was, that there was
+a certain kindred likeness between them which enabled each to
+divine the other's inquiring disposition, though it had different
+effects on the elder and younger character. Jane Mohun suspected
+that she had on her ferret look, and guessed that Gillian's
+disgusted air meant that the idea of her turning over Lady
+Merrifield's drawers was almost as distasteful as that of the
+governess's doing it.</p>
+
+<p>'Suppose Gillian goes down on Monday with Fanny,' she said.
+'She could manage very well, I am sure.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian cleared up a little. There is much consolation in
+being of a little importance, and she liked the notion of a day
+at home, a quiet day, as she hoped in her present mood, of
+speaking to nobody. Her aunt let her have her own way, and only
+sent a card to Macrae to provide for meeting and for food, not
+even letting Miss Vincent know that she was coming. That feeling
+of not being able to talk about it or be congratulated would wear
+off, Aunt Jane said, if she was not worried or argued with, in
+which case it might become perverse affectation.</p>
+
+<p>It certainly was not shared by the children. Sisters unseen
+for three years could hardly be very prominent in their minds.
+Fergus hoped that they would ride to the wedding upon elephants,
+and Valetta thought it very hard to miss the being a bridesmaid,
+when Kitty Varley had already enjoyed the honour. However, she
+soon began to glorify herself on the beauty of Alethea's future
+title.</p>
+
+<p>'What will Kitty Varley and all say?' was her cry.</p>
+
+<p>'Nothing, unless they are snobs, as girls always are,' said
+Fergus.</p>
+
+<p>'It is not a nice word,' said Miss Adeline.</p>
+
+<p>'But there's nothing else that expresses it, Aunt Ada,'
+returned Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'I agree to a certain degree,' said Miss Mohun; 'but still I
+am not sure what it does express.'</p>
+
+<p>'Just what girls of that sort are,' said Gillian. 'Mere
+worshippers of any sort of handle to one's name.'</p>
+
+<p>'Gillian, Gillian, you are not going in for levelling,' cried
+Aunt Adeline.</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Gillian; 'but I call it snobbish to make more fuss
+about Alethea's concern than Phyllis's--just because he calls
+himself<br>
+ Lord--'</p>
+
+<p>'That is to a certain degree true,' said Miss Mohun. 'The
+worth of the individual man stands first of all, and nothing can
+be sillier or in worse taste than to parade one's grand
+relations.'</p>
+
+<p>'To parade, yes,' said Aunt Adeline; 'but there is no doubt
+that good connections are a great advantage.'</p>
+
+<p>'Assuredly,' said Miss Mohun. 'Good birth and an ancestry
+above shame are really a blessing, though it has come to be the
+fashion to sneer at them. I do not mean merely in the eyes of the
+world, though it is something to have a name that answers for
+your relations being respectable. But there are such things as
+hereditary qualities, and thus testimony to the existence of a
+distinguished forefather is worth having.'</p>
+
+<p>'Lily's dear old Sir Maurice de Mohun to wit,' said Miss
+Adeline. 'You know she used to tease Florence by saying the
+Barons of Beechcroft had a better pedigree than the
+Devereuxes.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'd rather belong to the man who made himself,' said
+Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'Well done, Gill! But though your father won his own spurs,
+you can't get rid of his respectable Merrifield ancestry
+wherewith he started in life.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't want to. I had rather have them than horrid robber
+Borderers, such as no doubt these Liddesdale people were.'</p>
+
+<p>There was a little laughing at this; but Gillian was saying in
+her own mind that it was a fine thing to be one's own Rodolf of
+Hapsburg, and in that light she held Captain White, who, in her
+present state of mind, she held to have been a superior being to
+all the Somervilles--perhaps to all the Devereuxes who ever
+existed.</p>
+
+<center>CHAPTER VII. AN EMPTY NEST</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<p>There had been no injunctions of secrecy, and though neither
+Miss Mohun nor Gillian had publicly mentioned the subject, all
+Rockquay who cared for the news knew by Sunday morning that Lady
+Merrifield's two elder daughters were engaged.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian, in the course of writing her letters, had become
+somewhat familiarised with the idea, and really looked forward to
+talking it over with Kalliope. Though that young person could
+hardly be termed Alethea's best friend, it was certain that
+Alethea stood foremost with her, and that her interest in the
+matter would be very loving.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, Kalliope was at the place of meeting even before
+Gillian, and anxiously she looked as she said--</p>
+
+<p>'May I venture---may I ask if it is true?'</p>
+
+<p>'True? Oh yes, Kally, I knew you would care.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, I well may. There is no expressing how much I owe to
+dear Miss Alethea and Lady Merrifield, and it is such a delight
+to hear of them.'</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, Gillian communicated the facts as she knew them,
+and offered to give any message.</p>
+
+<p>'Only my dear love and congratulations,' said Kalliope, with a
+little sigh. 'I should like to have written, but--'</p>
+
+<p>'But why don't you, then?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no; she would be too much engaged to think of us, and it
+would only worry her to be asked for her advice.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think I know what it is about,' said Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'How? Oh, how do you know? Did Mr. Flight say anything?'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Flight?' exclaimed Gillian. 'What has he to do with
+it?'</p>
+
+<p>'It was foolish, perhaps; but I did hope he might have helped
+Alexis, and now he seems only to care for his music.'</p>
+
+<p>'Helped him! How?"</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps it was unreasonable, but Alexis has always been to
+good schools. He was getting on beautifully at Leeds, and we
+thought he would have gained a scholarship and gone on to be a
+clergyman. That was what his mind has always been fixed upon. You
+cannot think how good and devoted he is,' said Kalliope with a
+low trembling voice; 'and my father wished it very much too. But
+when the break-up came, Mr. White made our not being too fine, as
+he said, to work, a sort of condition of doing anything for us.
+Mr. Moore did tell him what Alexis is, but I believe he thought
+it all nonsense, and there was nothing to be done. Alexis--dear
+fellow--took it so nicely, said he was thankful to be able to
+help mother, and if it was his duty and God's will, it was sure
+to come right; and he has been plodding away at the marble works
+ever since, quite patiently and resolutely, but trying to keep up
+his studies in the evening, only now he has worked through all
+his old school-books.'</p>
+
+<p>'And does not Mr. Flight know that I will help him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Mr. Flight means to be kind, and sometimes seems to
+think much of him; but it is all for his music, I am afraid. He
+is always wanting new things to be learnt and practised, and
+those take up so much time; and though he does lend us books,
+they are of no use for study, though they only make the dear boy
+long and long the more to get on.'</p>
+
+<p>'Does not Mr. Flight know?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am not sure. I think he does; but in his ardour for music
+he seems to forget all about it. It does seem such a pity that
+all Alexis's time should be wasted in this drudgery. If I could
+only be sure of more extra work for my designs, I could set him
+free; and if Sir Jasper were only at home, I am sure he would put
+the boy in the way of earning his education. If it were only as a
+pupil teacher, he would be glad, but then he says he ought not to
+throw all on me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, he must be very good!' exclaimed Gillian. 'I am sure papa
+will help him! I wish I could. Oh!'---with a sudden
+recollection---'I wonder what books he wants most. I am going to
+Silverfold to-morrow, and there are lots of old school-books
+there of the boys', doing nothing, that I know he might
+have.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Miss Gillian, how good of you! How delighted he would
+be!'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you know what he wants most?'</p>
+
+<p>'A Greek grammar and lexicon most of all,' was the ready
+answer. 'He has been trying to find them at the second-hand shop
+ever so long, but I am afraid there is no hope of a lexicon. They
+are so large and expensive.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think there is an old one of Jasper's, if he would not mind
+its back being off, and lots of blots.'</p>
+
+<p>'He would mind nothing. Oh, Miss Gillian, you can't think how
+happy he will be.</p>
+
+<p>'If there is anything else he wants very much, how could he
+let me know?' mused Gillian. 'Oh, I see! What time are you at the
+works?'</p>
+
+<p>'Alex is there at seven; I don't go till nine.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am to be at the station at 8.40. Could you or Maura meet me
+there and tell me?'</p>
+
+<p>To this Kalliope agreed, for she said she could be sure of
+getting to her post in time afterwards, and she seemed quite
+overjoyed. No one could look at her without perceiving that
+Alexis was the prime thought of her heart, and Gillian delighted
+her by repeating Aunt Adeline's admiration of his profile, and
+the general opinion of his singing.</p>
+
+<p>'I am so sorry you have had to give it up,' she added.</p>
+
+<p>'It can't be helped,' Kalliope said; 'and I really have no
+time.'</p>
+
+<p>'But that's not all,' said Gillian, beginning to blush
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>'0h! I hope there's no gossip or nonsense about <i>that</i>,'
+cried Kalliope, her cheeks flaming.</p>
+
+<p>'Only--'</p>
+
+<p>'Not Maura? Naughty little girl, I did not think she knew
+anything. Not that there is anything to tell,' said Kalliope,
+much distressed; 'but it is dreadful that there should be such
+talk.'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought it was <i>that</i> you meant when you said you
+wanted advice.'</p>
+
+<p>'No one could advise me, I am afraid,' said the girl. 'If we
+could only go away from this place! But that's impossible, and I
+dare say the fancy will soon go off!'</p>
+
+<p>'Then you don't care for him?'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Miss Gillian, when I have seen <i>gentlemen</i>!'
+said Kalliope, in a tone that might have cured her admirer.</p>
+
+<p>They had, however, talked longer than usual, and the notes of
+the warning bell came up, just when Gillian had many more
+questions to ask, and she had to run down the garden all in a
+glow with eagerness and excitement, so that Aunt Ada asked if she
+had been standing in the sea wind. Her affirmative was true
+enough, and yet she was almost ashamed of it, as not the whole
+truth, and there was a consciousness about her all the afternoon
+which made her soon regret that conversation was chiefly absorbed
+by the younger one's lamentations that they were not to accompany
+her to Silverfold, and by their commissions. Fergus wanted a
+formidable amount of precious tools, and inchoate machines, which
+Mrs. Halfpenny had regarded as 'mess,' and utterly refused to let
+his aunts be 'fashed' with; while Valetta's orders were chiefly
+for the visiting all the creatures, so as to bring an exact
+account of the health and spirits of Rigdum Funnidos, etc., also
+for some favourite story-books which she wished to lend to Kitty
+Varley and Maura White.</p>
+
+<p>'For do you know, Gill, Maura has never had a new story-book
+since mamma gave her Little Alice and her Sister, when she was
+seven years old! Do bring her Stories They Tell Me, and On
+Angel's Wings.'</p>
+
+<p>'But is not that Mysie's?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, but I know Mysie would let her have it. Mysie always
+let Maura have everything of hers, because the boys teased
+her.'</p>
+
+<p>'I will bring it; but I think Mysie ought to be written to
+before it is lent.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is right, Gillian,' said Miss Mohun; 'it is always wiser
+to be above-board when dealing with other people's things, even
+in trifles.'</p>
+
+<p>Why did this sound like a reproach, and as if it implied
+suspicion that Gillian was not acting on that principle? She
+resented the feeling. She knew she might do as she liked with the
+boys' old books, for which they certainly had no affection, and
+which indeed her mother had talked of offering to some of those
+charities which have a miscellaneous appetite, and wonderful
+power of adaptation of the disused. Besides, though no one could
+have the least objection to their being bestowed on the Whites,
+the very fact of this being her third secret meeting with
+Kalliope was beginning to occasion an awkwardness in accounting
+for her knowledge of their needs. It was obvious to ask why she
+had not mentioned the first meeting, and this her pride would not
+endure. She had told her parents by letter. What more could be
+desired?</p>
+
+<p>Again, when she would not promise to see either Miss Vincent
+or the Miss Hackets, because 'she did not want to have a fuss,'
+Aunt Jane said she thought it a pity, with regard at least to the
+governess, who might feel herself hurt at the neglect, 'and
+needless secrets are always unadvisable.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian could hardly repress a wriggle, but her Aunt Ada
+laughed, saying, 'Especially with you about, Jenny, for you
+always find them out.'</p>
+
+<p>At present, however, Miss Mohun certainly had no suspicion.
+Gillian was very much afraid she would think proper to come to
+the station in the morning; but she was far too busy, and Gillian
+started off in the omnibus alone with Mrs. Mount in handsome
+black silk trim, to be presented to Mr. Macrae, and much enjoying
+the trip, having been well instructed by Fergus and Valetta in
+air that she was to see.</p>
+
+<p>Kalliope was descried as the omnibus stopped, and in a few
+seconds Gillian had shaken hands with her, received the note, and
+heard the ardent thanks sent from Alexis, and which the tattered
+books---even if they proved to be right--would scarcely deserve.
+He would come with his sister to receive the parcel at the
+station on Gillian's return--at 5.29, an offer which obviated any
+further difficulties as to conveyance.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Mount was intent upon the right moment to run the
+gauntlet for the tickets; and had it been otherwise, would have
+seen nothing remarkable in her charge being accosted by a
+nice-looking ladylike girl. So on they rushed upon their way,
+Gillian's spirits rising in a curious sense of liberty and
+holiday-making.</p>
+
+<p>In due time they arrived, and were received by Macrae with the
+pony carriage, while the trees of Silverfold looked exquisite in
+their autumn red, gold, and brown.</p>
+
+<p>But the dreariness of the deserted house, with no one on the
+steps but Quiz, and all the furniture muffled in sheets, struck
+Gillian more than she had expected, though the schoolroom had
+been wakened up for her, a bright fire on the hearth, and the
+cockatoo highly conversational, the cats so affectionate that it
+was difficult to take a step without stumbling over one of
+them.</p>
+
+<p>When the business had all been despatched, the wedding veil
+disinterred, and the best Brussels and Honiton safely disposed in
+a box, when an extremely dilapidated and much-inked collection of
+school-books had been routed out of the backstairs cupboard
+(commonly called Erebus) and duly packed, when a selection of
+lighter literature had been made with a view both to Valetta and
+Lilian; when Gillian had shown all she could to Mrs. Mount,
+visited all the animals, gone round the garden, and made two
+beautiful posies of autumn flowers, one for her little sister and
+the other for Kalliope, discovered that Fergus's precious machine
+had been ruthlessly made away with, but secured his tools,--she
+found eating partridge in solitary grandeur rather dreary work,
+though she had all the bread-sauce to herself, and cream to her
+apple tart, to say nothing of Macrae, waiting upon her as if she
+had been a duchess, and conversing in high exultation upon the
+marriages, only regretting that one gentleman should be a
+civilian; he had always augured that all his young ladies would
+be in the Service, and begging that he might be made aware of the
+wedding-day, so as to have the bells rung.</p>
+
+<p>To express her own feelings to the butler was not possible,
+and his glee almost infected her. She was quite sorry when,
+having placed a choice of pears and October peaches before her,
+he went off to entertain Mrs. Mount; and after packing a
+substratum of the fruit in the basket for the Whites, she began
+almost to repent of having insisted on not returning to Rockstone
+till the four o'clock train, feeling her solitary liberty
+oppressive; and finally she found herself walking down the drive
+in search of Miss Vincent.</p>
+
+<p>She had to confess to herself that her aunt was quite right,
+and that the omission would have been a real unkindness, when she
+saw how worn and tired the governess looked, and the brightness
+that flashed over the pale face at sight of her. Mrs. Vincent had
+been much worse, and though slightly better for the present was
+evidently in a critical state, very exhausting to her
+daughter.</p>
+
+<p>Good Miss Hacket at that moment came in to sit with her, and
+send the daughter out for some air; and it was well that Gillian
+had had some practice in telling her story not too
+disconsolately, for it was received with all the delight that the
+mere notion of a marriage seems to inspire, though Phyllis and
+Alethea had scarcely been seen at Silverfold before they had gone
+to India with their father.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Hacket had to be content with the names before she
+hastened up to the patient; but Miss Vincent walked back through
+the paddock with Gillian, talking over what was more personally
+interesting to the governess, the success of her own pupils,
+scattered as they were, and comparing notes upon Mysie's letters.
+One of these Miss Vincent had just received by the second post,
+having been written to announce the great news, and it continued
+in true Mysie fashion:--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>'Cousin Rotherwood knows all about them, and says they will
+have a famous set of belongings. He will take me to see some of
+them if we go to London before mamma comes home. Bernard
+Underwood's sister is married to Mr. Grinstead, the sculptor who
+did the statue of Mercy at the Gate that Harry gave a photograph
+of to mamma, and she paints pictures herself. I want to see them;
+but I do not know whether we shall stay in London, for they do
+not think it agrees with Fly. I do more lessons than she does
+now, and I have read through all Autour de mon Jardin. I have a
+letter from Dolores too, and she thinks that Aunt Phyllis and all
+are coming home to make a visit in England for Uncle Harry to see
+his father, and she wishes very much that they would bring her;
+but it is not to be talked about for fear they should be
+hindered, and old Dr. May hear of it and be disappointed; but you
+won't see any one to tell.'</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>'There, what have I done?' exclaimed Miss Vincent in dismay.
+'But I had only just got the letter, and had barely glanced
+through it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Besides, who would have thought of Mysie having any secrets?'
+said Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'After all, I suppose no harm is done; for you can't have any
+other connection with these Mays.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, there will be; for I believe a brother of this man of
+Phyllis's married one of the Miss Mays, and I suppose we shall
+have to get mixed up with the whole lot. How I do hate strangers!
+But I'll take care, Miss Vincent, indeed I will. One is not bound
+to tell one's aunts everything like one's mother.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Miss Vincent decidedly, 'especially when it is
+another person's secret betrayed through inadvertence.' Perhaps
+she thought Gillian looked dangerously gratified, for she added:
+'However, you know poor Dolores did not find secrecy answer.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, there are secrets and secrets, and aunts and aunts!' said
+Gillian. 'Dolores had no mother.'</p>
+
+<p>'It makes a difference,' said Miss Vincent. 'I should never
+ask you to conceal anything from Lady Merrifield. Besides, this
+is not a matter of conduct, only a report.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian would not pursue the subject. Perhaps she was a little
+disingenuous with her conscience, for she wanted to carry off the
+impression that Miss Vincent had pronounced concealment from her
+aunts to be justifiable; and she knew at the bottom of her heart
+that her governess would condemn a habit of secret intimacy with
+any one being carried on without the knowledge of her hostess and
+guardian for the time being,---above all when it was only a
+matter, of waiting.</p>
+
+<p>It is a fine thing for self-satisfaction to get an opinion
+without telling the whole of the facts of the case, and Gillian
+went home in high spirits, considerably encumbered with parcels,
+and surprising Mrs. Mount by insisting that two separate packages
+should be made of the books.</p>
+
+<p>Kalliope and Alexis were both awaiting her at the station,
+their gratitude unbounded, and finding useful vent by the latter
+fetching a cab and handing in the goods.</p>
+
+<p>It was worth something to see how happy the brother and sister
+looked, as they went off in the gaslight, the one with the big
+brown paper parcel, the other with the basket of fruit and
+flowers; and Gillian's explanation to Mrs. Mount that they were
+old friends of her soldiering days was quite satisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>There was a grand unpacking. Aunt Ada was pleased with the
+late roses, and Aunt Jane that there had been a recollection of
+Lilian Giles, to whom she had thought her niece far too
+indifferent. Valetta fondled the flowers, and was gratified to
+hear of the ardent affection of the Begum and the health of
+Rigdum, though Gillian was forced to confess that she had not
+transferred to him the kiss that she had been commissioned to
+convey. Nobody was disappointed except Fergus, who could not but
+vituperate the housemaids for the destruction of his new patent
+guillotine for mice, which was to have been introduced to Clement
+Varley. To be sure it would hardly ever act, and had never cut
+off the head of anything save a dandelion, but that was a
+trifling consideration.</p>
+
+<p>A letter from Mysie was awaiting Gillian, not lengthy, for
+there was a long interval between Mysie's brains and her pen, and
+saying nothing about the New Zealand report. The selection of
+lace was much approved, and the next day there was to be an
+expedition to endeavour to get the veil matched as nearly as
+possible. The only dangerous moment was at breakfast the next
+day, when Miss Mohun said--</p>
+
+<p>'Fanny was delighted with Silverfold. Macrae seems to have
+been the pink of politeness to her.'</p>
+
+<p>'She must come when the house is alive again,' said Gillian.
+'What would she think of it then!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, that would be perfectly delicious,' cried Valetta. 'She
+would see Begum and Rigdum--'</p>
+
+<p>'And I could show her how to work the lawn cutter,' added
+Fergus.</p>
+
+<p>'By the bye,' said Aunt Jane, 'whom have you been lending
+books to?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, to the Whites,' said Gillian, colouring, as she felt more
+than she could wish. 'There were some old school-books that I
+thought would be useful to them, and I was sure mamma would like
+them to have some flowers and fruit.'</p>
+
+<p>She felt herself very candid, but why would Aunt Jane look at
+those tell-tale cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>Sunday was wet, or rather 'misty moisty,' with a raw sea-fog
+overhanging everything--not bad enough, however, to keep any one
+except Aunt Ada from church or school, though she decidedly
+remonstrated against Gillian's going out for her wandering in the
+garden in such weather; and, if she had been like the other aunt,
+might almost have been convinced that such determination must be
+for an object. However, Gillian encountered the fog in vain,
+though she walked up and down the path till her clothes were
+quite limp and flabby with damp. All the view that rewarded her
+was the outline of the shrubs looming through the mist like
+distant forests as mountains. Moreover, she got a scolding from
+Aunt Ada, who met her coming in, and was horrified at the misty
+atmosphere which she was said to have brought in, and insisted on
+her going at once to change her dress, and staying by the
+fireside all the rest of the afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>'I cannot think what makes her so eager about going out in the
+afternoon,' said the younger aunt to the elder. 'It is impossible
+that she can have any reason for it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Only Sunday restlessness,' said Miss Mohun, 'added to the
+reckless folly of the "Bachfisch" about health.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's true,' said Adeline, 'girls must be either so delicate
+that they are quite helpless, or so strong as to be absolutely
+weather-proof.'</p>
+
+<p>Fortune, however, favoured Gillian when next she went to Lily
+Giles. She had never succeeded in taking real interest in the
+girl, who seemed to her to be so silly and sentimental that an
+impulse to answer drily instantly closed up all inclination to
+effusions of confidence. Gillian had not yet learnt breadth of
+charity enough to understand that everybody does not feel, or
+express feeling, after the same pattern; that gush is not always
+either folly or insincerity; and that girls of Lily's class are
+about at the same stage of culture as the young ladies of whom
+her namesake in the Inheritance is the type. When Lily showed her
+in some little magazine the weakest of poetry, and called it so
+sweet, just like 'dear Mr. Grant's lovely sermon, the last she
+had heard. Did he not look so like a saint in his surplice and
+white stole, with his holy face and beautiful blue eyes; it was
+enough to make any one feel good to look at him,' Gillian simply
+replied, 'Oh, <i>I</i> never think of the clergyman's looks,' and
+hurried to her book, feeling infinitely disgusted and
+contemptuous, never guessing that these poor verses, and the
+curate's sermons and devotional appearance were, to the young
+girl's heart, the symbols of all that was sacred, and all that
+was refined, and that the thought of them was the solace of her
+lonely and suffering hours. Tolerant sympathy is one of the
+latest lessons of life, and perhaps it is well that only</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>'The calm temper of our age should be<br>
+ Like the high leaves upon the holly-tree,'</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>for the character in course of formation needs to be guarded
+by prickles.</p>
+
+<p>However, on this day Undine was to be finished, for Gillian
+was in haste to begin Katharine Ashton, which would, she thought,
+be much more wholesome reality, so she went on later than usual,
+and came away at last, leaving her auditor dissolved in tears
+over poor Undine's act of justice.</p>
+
+<p>As Mrs. Giles, full of thanks, opened the little garden-gate
+just as twilight was falling, Gillian beheld Kalliope and Alexis
+White coming up together from the works, and eagerly met and
+shook hands with them. The dark days were making them close
+earlier, they explained, and as Kalliope happened to have nothing
+to finish or purchase, she was able to come home with her
+brother.</p>
+
+<p>Therewith Alexis began to express, with the diffidence of
+extreme gratitude, his warm thanks for the benefaction of books,
+which were exactly what he had wanted and longed for. His foreign
+birth enabled him to do this much more prettily and less clumsily
+than an English boy, and Gillian was pleased, though she told him
+that her brother's old ill-used books were far from worthy of
+such thanks.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, you cannot guess how precious they are to me!' said
+Alexis. 'They are the restoration of hope.'</p>
+
+<p>'And can you get on by yourself?' asked Gillian. 'Is it not
+very difficult without any teacher?'</p>
+
+<p>'People have taught themselves before,' returned the youth,
+'so I hope to do so myself; but of course there are many
+questions I long to ask.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps I could answer some,' said Gillian; 'I have done some
+classics with a tutor.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, thank you, Miss Merrifield,' he said eagerly. 'If you
+could make me understand the force of the aorist.</p>
+
+<p>It so happened that Gillian had the explanation at her
+tongue's end, and it was followed by another, and another, till
+one occurred which could hardly be comprehended without reference
+to the passage, upon which Alexis pulled a Greek Testament out of
+his pocket, and his sister could not help exclaiming--</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Alexis, you can't ask Miss Merrifield to do Greek with
+you out in the street.'</p>
+
+<p>Certainly it was awkward, the more so as Mrs. Stebbing just
+then drove by in her carriage.</p>
+
+<p>'What a pity!' exclaimed Gillian. 'But if you would set down
+any difficulties, you could send them to me by Kalliope on
+Sunday.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Miss Merrifield, how very good of you!' exclaimed Alexis,
+his face lighting up with joy.</p>
+
+<p>But Kalliope looked doubtful, and began a hesitating
+'But--'</p>
+
+<p>'I'll tell you of a better way!' exclaimed Gillian. 'I always
+go once a week to read to this Lilian Giles, and if I come down
+afterwards to Kalliope's office after you have struck work, I
+could see to anything you wanted to ask.'</p>
+
+<p>Alexis broke out into the most eager thanks. Kalliope said
+hardly anything, and as they had reached the place where the
+roads diverged, they bade one another good-evening.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian looked after the brother and sister just as the gas
+was being lighted, and could almost guess what Alexis was saying,
+by his gestures of delight. She did not hear, and did not guess
+how Kalliope answered, 'Don't set your heart on it too much, dear
+fellow, for I should greatly doubt whether Miss Gillian's aunts
+will consent. Oh yes, of course, if they permit her, it will be
+all right.</p>
+
+<p>So Gillian went her way feeling that she had found her 'great
+thing.' Training a minister for the Church! Was not that a 'great
+thing'?</p>
+
+<center>CHAPTER VIII. GILLIAN'S PUPIL</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<p>Gillian was not yet seventeen, and had lived a home life
+totally removed from gossip, so that she had no notion that she
+was doing a more awkward or remarkable thing than if she had been
+teaching a drummer-boy. She even deliberated whether she should
+mention her undertaking to her mother, or produce the grand
+achievement of Alexis White, prepared for college, on the return
+from India; but a sense that she had promised to tell everything,
+and that, while she did so, she could defy any other
+interference, led her to write the design in a letter to Ceylon,
+and then she felt ready to defy any censure or obstructions from
+other Quarters.</p>
+
+<p>Mystery has a certain charm. Infinite knowledge of human
+nature was shown in the text, 'Stolen waters are sweet, and bread
+eaten in secret is pleasant'; and it would be hard to define how
+much Gillian's satisfaction was owing to the sense of
+benevolence, or to the pleasure of eluding Aunt Jane, when, after
+going through her chapter of Katharine Ashton, in a somewhat
+perfunctory manner, she hastened away to Miss White's office.
+This, being connected with the showroom, could be entered without
+passing through the gate with the inscription---'No admittance
+except on business.' Indeed, the office had a private door,
+which, at Gillian's signal, was always opened to her. There, on
+the drawing-desk, lay a Greek exercise and a translation, with
+queries upon the difficulties for Gillian to correct, or answer
+in writing. Kalliope had managed to make that little room a
+pleasant place, bare as it was, by pinning a few of her designs
+on the walls, and always keeping a terracotta vase of flowers or
+coloured leaves upon the table. The lower part of the window she
+had blocked with transparencies delicately cut and tinted in
+cardboard--done, as she told Gillian, by her little brother
+Theodore, who learnt to draw at the National School, and had the
+same turn for art as herself. Altogether, the perfect neatness
+and simplicity of the little room gave it an air of refinement,
+which rendered it by no means an unfit setting for the grave
+beauty of Kalliope's countenance and figure.</p>
+
+<p>The enjoyment of the meeting was great on both sides, partly
+from the savour of old times, and partly because there was really
+much that was uncommon and remarkable about Kalliope herself. Her
+father's promotion had come exactly when she and her next brother
+were at the time of life when the changes it brought would tell
+most on their minds and manners. They had both been sent to
+schools where they had associated with young people of gentle
+breeding, which perhaps their partly foreign extraction, and
+southern birth and childhood, made it easier for them to
+assimilate. Their beauty and brightness had led to a good deal of
+kindly notice from the officers and ladies of the regiment, and
+they had thus acquired the habits and ways of the class to which
+they had been raised. Their father, likewise, had been a man of a
+chivalrous nature, whose youthful mistakes had been the outcome
+of high spirit and romance, and who, under discipline, danger,
+suffering, and responsibility, had become earnestly religious.
+There had besides been his Colonel's influence on him, and on his
+children that of Lady Merrifield and Alethea.</p>
+
+<p>It had then been a piteous change and darkening of life when,
+after the crushing grief of his death, the young people found
+themselves in such an entirely different stratum of society. They
+were ready to work, but they could not help feeling the
+mortification of being relegated below the mysterious line of
+gentry, as they found themselves at Rockquay, and viewed as on a
+level with the clerks and shop-girls of the place. Still more, as
+time went on, did they miss the companionship and intercourse to
+which they had been used. Mr. Flight, the only person in a higher
+rank who took notice of them, and perceived that there was more
+in them than was usual, was after all only a patron--not a
+friend, and perhaps was not essentially enough of a gentleman to
+be free from all airs of condescension even with Alexis, while he
+might be wise in not making too much of an approach to so
+beautiful a girl as Kalliope. Besides, after a fit of eagerness,
+and something very like promises, he had apparently let Alexis
+drop, only using him for his musical services, and not doing
+anything to promote the studies for which the young man thirsted,
+nor proposing anything for the younger boys, who would soon
+outgrow the National School.</p>
+
+<p>Alexis had made a few semi-friends among the musical youth of
+the place; but there was no one to sympathise with him in his
+studious tastes, and there was much in his appearance and manners
+to cause the accusation of being 'stuck-up'---music being really
+the only point of contact with most of his fellows of the lower
+professional class.</p>
+
+<p>Kalliope had less time, but she had, on principle, cultivated
+kindly terms with the young women employed under her. Her severe
+style of beauty removed her from any jealousy of her as a rival,
+and she was admired--almost worshipped--by them as the glory of
+the workshop. They felt her superiority, and owned her ability;
+but nobody there was capable of being a companion to her. Thus
+the sister and brother had almost wholly depended upon one
+another; and it was like a breath from what now seemed the golden
+age of their lives when Gillian Merrifield walked into the
+office, treating Kalliope with all the freedom of an equal and
+the affection of an old friend. There was not very much time to
+spare after Gillian had looked at the exercises, noted and
+corrected the errors, and explained the difficulties or mistakes
+in the translation from Testament and Delectus, feeling all the
+time how much more mastery of the subject her pupil had than Mr.
+Pollock's at home had ever attained to.</p>
+
+<p>However, Kalliope always walked home with her as far as the
+opening of Church Cliff Road, and they talked of the cleverness
+and goodness of the brothers, except Richard at Leeds, who never
+seemed to be mentioned; how Theodore kept at the head of the
+school, and had hopes of the drawing prize, and how little Petros
+devoured tales of battles, and would hear of nothing but being a
+soldier. Now and then, too, there was a castle in the air of a
+home for little Maura at Alexis's future curacy. Kalliope seemed
+to look to working for life for poor mother, while Theodore
+should cultivate his art. Oftener the two recalled old adventures
+and scenes of their regimental days, and discussed the weddings
+of the two Indian sisters.</p>
+
+<p>Once, however, Kalliope was obliged to suggest, with a
+blushing apology, that she feared Gillian must go home alone, she
+was not ready.</p>
+
+<p>'Can't I help you? what have you to do?'</p>
+
+<p>Kalliope attempted some excuse of putting away designs, but
+presently peeped from the window, and Gillian, with excited
+curiosity, imitated her, and beheld, lingering about, a young man
+in the pink of fashion, with a tea-rose in his buttonhole and a
+cane in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Kally,' she cried, 'does he often hang about like this
+waiting for you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not often, happily. There! old Mr. Stebbing has come out, and
+they are walking away together. We can go now.'</p>
+
+<p>'So he besets you, and you have to keep out of his way,'
+exclaimed Gillian, much excited. 'Is that the reason you come to
+the garden all alone on Sunday?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, though I little guessed what awaited me there,' returned
+Kalliope; 'but we had better make haste, for it is late for you
+to be returning.'</p>
+
+<p>It was disappointing that Kalliope would not discuss such an
+interesting affair; but Gillian was sensible of the danger of
+being so late as to cause questions, and she allowed herself to
+be hurried on too fast for conversation, and passing the two
+Stebbings, who, no doubt, took her for a 'hand.'</p>
+
+<p>'Does this often happen?' asked Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'No; Alec walks home with me, and the boys often come and meet
+me. Oh, did I tell you that the master wants Theodore to be a
+pupil-teacher? I wish I knew what was best for him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Could not he be an artist?'</p>
+
+<p>'I should like some one to tell me whether he really has
+talent worth cultivating, dear boy, or if he would be safer and
+better in an honourable occupation like a school-master.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you call it honourable?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, to be sure. I put it next to a clergyman's or a
+doctor's life.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not a soldier's?'</p>
+
+<p>'That depends,' said Kalliope.</p>
+
+<p>'On the service he is sent upon, you mean? But that is his
+sovereign's look-out. He "only has to obey, to do or die."'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, it is the putting away of self, and possible peril of
+life, that makes all those grandest,' said Kalliope, 'and I think
+the schoolmaster is next in opportunities of doing good.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian could not help thinking that none of all these could
+put away self more entirely than the girl beside her, toiling
+away her beauty and her youth in this dull round of toil, not
+able to exercise the instincts of her art to the utmost, and with
+no change from the monotonous round of mosaics, which were forced
+to be second rate, to the commonest household works, and the
+company of the Queen of the White Ants.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian perceived enough of the nobleness of such a life to
+fill her with a certain enthusiasm, and make her feel a day blank
+and uninteresting if she could not make her way to the little
+office.</p>
+
+<p>One evening, towards the end of the first fortnight, Alexis
+himself came in with a passage that he wanted to have explained.
+His sister looked uneasy all the time, and hurried to put on her
+hat, and stand demonstratively waiting, telling Gillian that they
+must go, the moment the lesson began to tend to discursive talk,
+and making a most decided sign of prohibition to her brother when
+he showed a disposition to accompany them.</p>
+
+<p>'I think you are frightfully particular, Kally,' said Gillian,
+when they were on their way up the hill. 'Such an old friend, and
+you there, too.'</p>
+
+<p>'It would never do here! It would be wrong,' answered
+Kalliope, with the authority of an older woman. 'He must not come
+to the office.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, but how could I ever explain to him? One can't do
+everything in writing. I might as well give up the lessons as
+never speak to him about them.'</p>
+
+<p>There was truth in this, and perhaps Alexis used some such
+arguments on his side, for at about every third visit of
+Gillian's he dropped in with some important inquiry necessary to
+his progress, which was rapid enough to compel Gillian to devote
+some time to preparation, in order to keep ahead of him.</p>
+
+<p>Kalliope kept diligent guard, and watched against lengthening
+the lessons into gossip, and they were always after hours when
+the hands had gone away. The fear of being detected kept Gillian
+ready to shorten the time.</p>
+
+<p>'How late you are!' were the first words she heard one October
+evening on entering Beechcroft Cottage; but they were followed by
+'Here's a pleasure for you!'</p>
+
+<p>'It's from papa himself! Open it! Open it quick,' cried
+Valetta, dancing round her in full appreciation of the honour and
+delight.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Jasper said that his daughter must put up with him for a
+correspondent, since two brides at once were as much as any
+mother could be supposed to undertake. Indeed, as mamma would not
+leave him, Phyllis was actually going to Calcutta, chaperoned by
+one of the matrons of the station, to make purchases for both
+outfits, since Alethea would not stir from under the maternal
+wing sooner than she could help.</p>
+
+<p>At the end came, 'We are much shocked at poor White's death.
+He was an excellent officer, and a good and sensible man, though
+much hampered with his family. I am afraid his wife must be a
+very helpless being. He used to talk about the good promise of
+one of his sons--the second, I think. We will see whether
+anything can be done for the children when we come home. I say
+we, for I find I shall have to be invalided before I can be
+entirely patched up, so that mamma and I shall have a sort of
+postponed silver wedding tour, a new variety for the old folks
+"from home."'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, is papa coming home?' cried Valetta.</p>
+
+<p>'For good! Oh, I hope it will be for good,' added Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'Then we shall live at dear Silverfold all the days of our
+life,' added Fergus.</p>
+
+<p>'And I shall get back to Rigdum.'</p>
+
+<p>'And I shall make a telephone down to the stables,' were the
+cries of the children.</p>
+
+<p>The transcendent news quite swallowed up everything else for
+some time; but at last Gillian recurred to her father's testimony
+as to the White family.</p>
+
+<p>'Is the second son the musical one?' she was asked, and on her
+affirmative, Aunt Jane remarked, 'Well, though the Rev. Augustine
+Flight is not on a pinnacle of human wisdom, his choir practices,
+etc., will keep the lad well out of harm's way till your father
+can see about him.'</p>
+
+<p>This would have been an opportunity of explaining the youth's
+aims and hopes, and her own share in forwarding them; but it had
+become difficult to avow the extent of her intercourse with the
+brother and sister, so entirely without the knowledge of her
+aunts. Even Miss Mohun, acute as she was, had no suspicions, and
+only thought with much satisfaction that her niece was growing
+more attentive to poor Lilian Giles, even to the point of
+lingering.</p>
+
+<p>'I really think, she said, in consultation with Miss Adeline,
+'that we might gratify that damsel by having the White girls to
+drink tea.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, we can add them to your winter party of young ladies in
+business.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hardly. These stand on different ground, and I don't want to
+hurt their feelings or Gillian's by mixing them up with the
+shopocracy.'</p>
+
+<p>'Have you seen the Queen of the White Ants?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not yet; but I mean to reconnoitre, and if I see no cause to
+the contrary, I shall invite them for next Tuesday.'</p>
+
+<p>'The mother? You might as well ask her namesake.'</p>
+
+<p>'Probably; but I shall be better able to judge when I have
+seen her.'</p>
+
+<p>So Miss Mohun trotted off, made her visit, and thus reported,
+'Poor woman! she certainly is not lovely now, whatever she may
+have been; but I should think there was no harm in her, and she
+is effusive in her gratitude to all the Merrifield family. It is
+plain that the absent eldest son is the favourite, far more so
+than the two useful children at the marble works; and Mr. White
+is spoken of as a sort of tyrant, whereas I should think they
+owed a good deal to his kindness in giving them employment.'</p>
+
+<p>'I always thought he was an old hunks.'</p>
+
+<p>'The town thinks so because he does not come and spend freely
+here; but I have my doubts whether they are right. He is always
+ready to do his part in subscriptions; and the employing these
+young people as he does is true kindness.'</p>
+
+<p>'Unappreciated.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, by the mother who would expect to be kept like a lady in
+idleness, but perhaps not so by her daughter. From all I can pick
+up, I think she must be a very worthy person, so I have asked her
+and the little schoolgirl for Tuesday evening, and I hope it will
+not be a great nuisance to you, Ada.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no,' said Miss Adeline, good humouredly, 'it will please
+Gillian, and I shall be interested in seeing the species, or
+rather the variety.'</p>
+
+<p>'Var Musa Groeca Hibernica Militaris,' laughed Aunt Jane.</p>
+
+<p>'By the bye, I further found out what made the Captain
+enlist.'</p>
+
+<p>'Trust you for doing that!' laughed her sister.</p>
+
+<p>'Really it was not on purpose, but old Zack Skilly was
+indulging me with some of his ancient smuggling experiences, in
+what he evidently views as the heroic age of Rockquay. "Men was
+men, then," he says. "Now they be good for nought, but to row out
+the gentlefolks when the water is as smooth as glass." You should
+hear the contempt in his voice. Well, a promising young hero of
+his was Dick White, what used to work for his uncle, but liked a
+bit of a lark, and at last hit one of the coastguard men in a
+fight, and ran away, and folks said he had gone for a soldier.
+Skilly had heard he was dead, and his wife had come to live in
+these parts, but there was no knowing what was true and what
+wasn't. Folks would talk! Dick was a likely chap, with more life
+about him than his cousin Jem, as was a great man now, and owned
+all the marble works, and a goodish bit of the town. There was a
+talk as how the two lads had both been a courting of the same
+maid, that was Betsy Polwhele, and had fallen out about her, but
+how that might be he could not tell. Anyhow, she was not wed to
+one nor t'other of them, but went into a waste and died.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wonder if it was for Dick's sake. So Jem was not constant
+either.'</p>
+
+<p>'Except to his second love. That was a piteous little story
+too.'</p>
+
+<p>'You mean his young wife's health failing as soon as he
+brought her to that house which he was building for her, and then
+his taking her to Italy, and never enduring to come back here
+again after she and her child died. But he made a good thing of
+it with his quarries in the mountains.'</p>
+
+<p>'You sordid person, do you think that was all he cared
+for!'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I always thought of him as a great, stout, monied man,
+quite incapable of romance and sensitiveness.'</p>
+
+<p>'If so, don't you think he would have let that house instead
+of keeping it up in empty state! There is a good deal of
+character in those Whites.'</p>
+
+<p>'The Captain is certainly the most marked man, except Jasper,
+in that group of officers in Gillian's photograph-book.'</p>
+
+<p>'Partly from the fact that a herd of young officers always
+look so exactly alike---at least in the eyes of elderly
+spinsters.'</p>
+
+<p>'Jane!'</p>
+
+<p>'Let us hope so, now that it is all over. This same Dick must
+have had something remarkable about him, to judge by the
+impression he seems to have left on all who came in his way, and
+I shall like to see his children.'</p>
+
+<p>'You always do like queer people.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is plain that we ought to take notice of them,' said Miss
+Mohun, 'and it is not wholesome for Gillian to think us backward
+in kindness to friends about whom she plainly has a little
+romance.'</p>
+
+<p>She refrained from uttering a suspicion inspired by her visit
+that there had been more 'kindnesses' on her niece's part than
+she could quite account for. Yet she believed that she knew how
+all the girl's days were spent; was certain that the Sunday
+wanderings never went beyond the garden, and, moreover, she
+implicitly trusted Lily's daughter.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian did not manifest as much delight and gratitude at the
+invitation as her aunts expected. In point of fact, she resented
+Aunt Jane's making a visit of investigation without telling her,
+and she was uneasy lest there should have been or yet should be a
+dis-closure that should make her proceedings appear clandestine.
+'And they are not!' said she to herself with vehemence. 'Do I not
+write them all to my own mother? And did not Miss Vincent allow
+that one is not bound to treat aunts like parents?'</p>
+
+<p>Even the discovery of Captain White's antecedents was almost
+an offence, for if her aunt would not let her inquire, why should
+she do so herself, save to preserve the choice morceau for her
+own superior intelligence? Thus all the reply that Gillian
+deigned was, 'Of course I knew that Captain White could never
+have done anything to be ashamed of.'</p>
+
+<p>The weather was too wet for any previous meetings, and it was
+on a wild stormy evening that the two sisters appeared at seven
+o'clock at Beechcroft Cottage. While hats and waterproofs were
+being taken off upstairs, Gillian found opportunity to give a
+warning against mentioning the Greek lessons. It was received
+with consternation.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Miss Merrifield, do not your aunts know?'</p>
+
+<p>'No. Why should they? Mamma does.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not yet. And she is so far off! I wish Miss Mohun knew! I
+made sure that she did,' said Kalliope, much distressed.</p>
+
+<p>'But why? It would only make a fuss.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should be much happier about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'And perhaps have it all upset.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is the point. I felt that it must be all right as long
+as Miss Mohun sanctioned it; but I could not bear that we should
+be the means of bringing you into a scrape, by doing what she
+might disapprove while you are under her care.'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't you think you can trust me to know my own relations?'
+said Gillian somewhat haughtily.</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, I did not mean that we are not infinitely obliged to
+you,' said Kalliope. 'It has made Alexis another creature to have
+some hope, and feel himself making progress.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then why do you want to have a fuss, and a bother, and a
+chatter? If my father and mother don't approve, they can
+telegraph.'</p>
+
+<p>With which argument she appeased or rather silenced Kalliope,
+who could not but feel the task of objecting alike ungracious and
+ungrateful towards the instructor, and absolutely cruel and
+unkind towards her brother, and who spoke only from a sense of
+the treachery of allowing a younger girl to transgress in
+ignorance. Still she was conscious of not understanding on what
+terms the niece and aunts might be, and the St. Kenelm's estimate
+of the Beechcroft ladies was naturally somewhat different from
+that of the St. Andrew's congregation. Miss Mohun was popularly
+regarded in those quarters as an intolerable busybody, and Miss
+Adeline as a hypochondriacal fine lady, so that Gillian might
+perhaps reasonably object to put herself into absolute
+subjection; so, though Kalliope might have a presentiment of
+breakers ahead, she could say no more, and Gillian, feeling that
+she had been cross, changed the subject by admiring the pretty
+short curly hair that was being tied back at the glass.</p>
+
+<p>'I wish it would grow long,' said Kalliope. 'But it always was
+rather short and troublesome, and ever since it was cut short in
+the fever, I have been obliged to keep it like this.'</p>
+
+<p>'But it suits you,' said Gillian. 'And it is exactly the thing
+now.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is the worst of it. It looks as if I wore it so on
+purpose. However, all our hands know that I cannot help it, and
+so does Lady Flight.'</p>
+
+<p>The girl looked exceedingly well, though little Alice, the
+maid, would not have gone out to tea in such an ancient black
+dress, with no relief save a rim of white at neck and hands, and
+a tiny silver Maltese cross at the throat. Maura had a
+comparatively new gray dress, picked out with black. She was a
+pretty creature, the Irish beauty predominating over the Greek,
+in her great long-lashed brown eyes, which looked radiant with
+shy happiness. Miss Adeline was perfectly taken by surprise at
+the entrance of two such uncommon forms and faces, and the quiet
+dignity of the elder made her for a moment suppose that her
+sister must have invited some additional guest of undoubted
+station.</p>
+
+<p>Valetta, who had grown fond of Maura in their school life, and
+who dearly loved patronising, pounced upon her guest to show her
+all manner of treasures and curiosities, at which she looked in
+great delight; and Fergus was so well satisfied with her
+comprehension of the principles of the letter balance, that he
+would have taken her upstairs to be introduced to all his
+mechanical inventions, if the total darkness and cold of his den
+had not been prohibitory.</p>
+
+<p>Kalliope looked to perfection, but was more silent than her
+sister, though, as Miss Mohun's keen eye noted, it was not the
+shyness of a conscious inferior in an unaccustomed world, but
+rather that of a grave, reserved nature, not chattering for the
+sake of mere talk.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian's photograph-book was well looked over, with all the
+brothers and sisters at different stages, and the group of
+officers. Miss Mohun noted the talk that passed over these, as
+they were identified one by one, sometimes with little
+reminiscences, childishly full on Gillian's part, betraying on
+Kalliope's side friendly acquaintance, but all in as entirely
+ladylike terms as would have befitted Phyllis or Alethea. She
+could well believe in the words with which Miss White rather
+hastened the turning of the page, 'Those were happy days---I dare
+not dwell on them too much!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I like to do so!' cried Gillian. 'I don't want the little
+ones ever to forget them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes---you! But with you it would not be repining.'</p>
+
+<p>This was for Gillian's ear alone, as at that moment both the
+aunts were, at the children's solicitation, engaged on the
+exhibition of a wonderful musical-box--Aunt Adeline's share of
+her mother's wedding presents---containing a bird that hovered
+and sung, the mechanical contrivance of which was the chief merit
+in Fergus's eyes, and which had fascinated generations of young
+people for the last sixty years. Aunt Jane, however, could hear
+through anything--even through the winding-up of what the family
+called 'Aunt Ada's Jackdaw,' and she drew her conclusions, with
+increasing respect and pity for the young girl over whose life
+such a change had come.</p>
+
+<p>But it was not this, but what she called common humanity,
+which prompted her, on hearing a heavy gust of rain against the
+windows, to go into the lower regions in quest of a messenger boy
+to order a brougham to take the guests home at the end of the
+evening.</p>
+
+<p>The meal went off pleasantly on the whole, though there loomed
+a storm as to the ritual of St. Kenelm's; but this chiefly was
+owing to the younger division of the company, when Valetta broke
+into an unnecessary inquiry why they did not have as many lights
+on the altar at St. Andrew's as at St. Kenelm's, and Fergus put
+her down with unceremoniously declaring that Stebbing said Flight
+was a donkey.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian came down with what she meant for a crushing rebuke,
+and the indignant colour rose in the cheeks of the guests; but
+Fergus persisted, 'But he makes a guy of himself and a
+mountebank.'</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Jane thought it time to interfere. 'Fergus,' she said,
+'you had better not repeat improper sayings, especially about a
+clergyman.'</p>
+
+<p>Fergus wriggled.</p>
+
+<p>'And,' added Aunt Ada, with equal severity, 'you know Mr.
+Flight is a very kind friend to little Maura and her sister.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed he is,' said Kalliope earnestly; and Maura, feeling
+herself addressed, added, 'Nobody but he ever called on poor
+mamma, till Miss Mohun did; no, not Lady Flight.'</p>
+
+<p>'We are very grateful for his kindness,' put in Kalliope, in a
+repressive tone.</p>
+
+<p>'But,' said Gillian, 'I thought you said he had seemed to care
+less of late.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not know,' said Miss White, blushing; 'music seems to be
+his chief interest, and there has not been anything fresh to get
+up since the concert.'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose there will be for the winter,' said Miss Mohun, and
+therewith the conversation was safely conducted away to musical
+subjects, in which some of the sisters' pride and affection for
+their brothers peeped out; but Gillian was conscious all the time
+that Kalliope was speaking with some constraint when she
+mentioned Alexis, and that she was glad rather to dwell on little
+Theodore, who had good hopes of the drawing prize, and she
+seriously consulted Miss Mohun on the pupil-teachership for him,
+as after he had passed the seventh standard he could not
+otherwise go on with his education, though she did not think he
+had much time for teaching.</p>
+
+<p>'Would not Mr. White help him further?' asked Miss Mohun.</p>
+
+<p>'I do not know. I had much rather not ask,' said Kalliope. 'We
+are too many to throw ourselves on a person who is no near
+relation, and he has not seemed greatly disposed to help.'</p>
+
+<p>'Your elder brother?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, poor Richard, he is not earning anything yet. I can't ask
+him. If I only knew of some school I could be sure was safe and
+good and not too costly, Alexis and I would try to manage for
+Theodore after the examination in the spring.'</p>
+
+<p>The Woodward schools were a new light to her, and she was
+eagerly interested in Miss Mohun's explanations and in the scale
+of terms.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime Miss Adeline got on excellently with the younger
+ones, and when the others were free, proposed for their benefit a
+spelling game. All sat round the table, made words, and
+abstracted one another's with increasing animation, scarcely
+heeding the roaring of the wind outside, till there was a ring at
+the bell.</p>
+
+<p>'My brother has come for us,' said Kalliope.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, but it is not fit for you to walk home,' said Miss Mohun.
+'The brougham is coming by and by; ask Mr. White to come in,' she
+added, as the maid appeared with the message that he was come for
+his sisters.</p>
+
+<p>There was a confusion of acknowledgments and disclaimers, and
+word was brought back that Mr. White was too wet to come in. Miss
+Mohun, who was not playing, but prompting Fergus, jumped up and
+went out to investigate, when she found a form in an ancient
+military cloak, trying to keep himself from dripping where wet
+could do mischief. She had to explain her regret at his having
+had such a walk in vain; but she had taken alarm on finding that
+rain was setting in for the night, and had sent word by the
+muffin-boy that the brougham would be wanted, contriving to
+convey that it was not to be paid for.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing remained to be said except thanks, and Alexis emerged
+from the cloak, which looked as if it had gone through all his
+father's campaigns, took off his gaiters, did his best for his
+boots, and, though not in evening costume, looked very
+gentleman-like and remarkably handsome in the drawing-room, with
+no token of awkward embarrassment save a becoming blush.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian began to tremble inwardly again, but the game had just
+ended in her favour, owing to Fergus having lost all his
+advantages in Aunt Jane's absence, besides signalising himself by
+capturing Maura's 'bury,' under the impression that an additional
+R would combine that and straw into a fruit.</p>
+
+<p>So the coast being cleared, Miss Adeline greatly relieved her
+niece's mind by begging, as a personal favour, to hear the song
+whose renown at the concert had reached her; and thus the time
+was safely spent in singing till the carriage was announced, and
+good-nights exchanged.</p>
+
+<p>Maura's eyes grew round with delight, and she jumped for joy
+at the preferment.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!' she said, as she fervently kissed Valetta, 'it is the
+most delightful evening I ever spent in the whole course of my
+life, except at Lady Merrifield's Christmas-tree! And now to go
+home in a carriage! I never went in one since I can
+remember!'</p>
+
+<p>And Kalliope's 'Thank you, we have enjoyed ourselves very
+much,' was very fervent.</p>
+
+<p>'Those young people are very superior to what I expected,'
+said Aunt Adeline. 'What fine creatures, all so handsome; and
+that little Maura is a perfect darling.'</p>
+
+<p>'The Muse herself is very superior,' said Miss Mohun. 'One of
+those home heroines who do the work of Atlas without knowing it.
+I do not wonder that the marble girls speak of her so
+enthusiastically.'</p>
+
+<p>How Gillian might have enjoyed all this, and yet she could
+not, except so far that she told herself that thus there could be
+no reasonable objection made by her aunts to intercourse with
+those whom they so much admired.</p>
+
+<p>Yet perhaps even then she would have told all, but that, after
+having bound over Kalliope to secrecy, it would be awkward to
+confess that she had told all. It would be like owning herself in
+the wrong, and for that she was not prepared. Besides, where
+would be the secrecy of her 'great thing'?</p>
+
+<center>CHAPTER IX. GAUGING AJEE</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<p>Without exactly practising to deceive, Gillian began to find
+that concealment involved her in a tangled web; all the more
+since Aunt Jane had become thoroughly interested in the Whites,
+and was inquiring right and left about schools and scholarships
+for the little boys.</p>
+
+<p>She asked their master about them, and heard that they were
+among his best scholars, and that their home lessons had always
+been carefully attended to by their elder brother and sister. In
+fact, he was most anxious to retain Theodore, to be trained for a
+pupil-teacher, the best testimony to his value! Aunt Jane came
+home full of the subject, relating what the master said of Alexis
+White, and that he had begun by working with him at Latin and
+mathematics; but that they had not had time to go on with what
+needed so much study and preparation.</p>
+
+<p>'In fact, said Miss Mohun, 'I have a suspicion that if a
+certificated schoolmaster could own any such thing, the pupil
+knew more than the teacher. When your father comes home, I hope
+he will find some way of helping that lad.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian began to crimson, but bethought herself of the
+grandeur of its being found that she was the youth's helper. 'I
+am glad you have been lending him books,' added Aunt Jane.</p>
+
+<p>What business had she to know what had not been told her? The
+sense of offence drove back any disposition to consult her. Yet
+to teach Alexis was no slight task, for, though he had not gone
+far in Greek, his inquiries were searching, and explaining to him
+was a different thing from satisfying even Mr. Pollock. Besides,
+Gillian had her own studies on hand. The Cambridge examinations
+were beginning to assume larger proportions in the Rockquay mind,
+and 'the General Screw Company,' as Mr. Grant observed, was
+prevailing.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian's knowledge was rather discursive, and the
+concentration required by an examination was hard work to her,
+and the time for it was shortened by the necessity of doing all
+Alexis's Greek exercises and translations beforehand, and of
+being able to satisfy him why an error was not right, for, in all
+politeness, he always would know why it did not look right. And
+there was Valetta, twisting and groaning. The screw was on her
+form, who, unless especially exempted, were to compete for a
+prize for language examination.</p>
+
+<p>Valetta had begun by despising Kitty Varley for being excepted
+by her mother's desire and for not learning Latin; but now she
+envied any one who had not to work double tides at the book of
+Caesar that was to be taken up, and Vercingetorix and his Arverni
+got vituperated in a way that would have made the hair of her
+hero-worshipping mother fairly stand on end.</p>
+
+<p>But then Lilias Mohun had studied him for love of himself, not
+for dread of failure.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian had been displeased when Fergus deserted her for Aunt
+Jane as an assistant, but she would not have been sorry if
+Valetta had been off her hands, when she was interrupted in
+researches after an idiom in St. John's Gospel by the sigh that
+this abominable dictionary had no verb oblo, or in the
+intricacies of a double equation by despair at this horrid Caesar
+always hiding away his nominatives out of spite.</p>
+
+<p>Valetta, like the American child, evidently regarded the Great
+Julius in no other light than as writer of a book for beginners
+in Latin, and, moreover, a very unkind one; and she fully
+reciprocated the sentiment that it was no wonder that the Romans
+conquered the world, since they knew the Latin grammar by
+nature.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was Gillian's hasty and sometimes petulant assistance very
+satisfactory to the poor child, since it often involved hearing
+'Wait a minute,' and a very long one, 'How can you be so stupid?'
+'I told you so long ago'; and sometimes consisted of a gabbling
+translation, with rapidly pointed finger, very hard to follow,
+and not quite so painstaking as when Alexis deferentially and
+politely pointed out the difficulties, with a strong sense of the
+favour that she was doing him.</p>
+
+<p>Not that these personal lessons often took place. Kalliope
+never permitted them without dire necessity, and besides, there
+was always an uncertainty when Gillian might come down, or when
+Alexis might be able to come in.</p>
+
+<p>One day when Aunt Jane had come home with a story of how one
+of her 'business girls' had confessed to Miss White's counsel
+having only just saved her from an act of folly, it occurred to
+Aunt Adeline to say--</p>
+
+<p>'It is a great pity you have not her help in the G.F.S.'</p>
+
+<p>'I did not understand enough about her before, and mixed her
+up with the ordinary class of business girls. I had rather have
+her a member for the sake of example; but if not, she would be a
+valuable associate. Could not you explain this to her without
+hurting her feelings, as I am afraid I did, Gill? I did not
+understand enough about her when I spoke to her before.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian started. The conversation that should have been so
+pleasant to her was making her strangely uncomfortable.</p>
+
+<p>'I do not see how Gill is to get at her,' objected the other
+aunt. 'It would be of no great use to call on her in the nest of
+the Queen of the White Ants. I can't help recollecting the name,
+it was so descriptive.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; it was on her mother's account that she refused, and of
+course her office must not be invaded in business hours.'</p>
+
+<p>'I might call on her there before she goes home,' suggested
+Gillian, seeing daylight.</p>
+
+<p>'You cannot be walking down there at dusk, just as the workmen
+come away' exclaimed Aunt Ada, making the colour so rush into
+Gillian's cheeks that she was glad to catch up a screen.</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Miss Mohun emphatically; 'but I could leave her
+there at five o'clock, and go to Tideshole to take old Jemmy
+Burnet his jersey, and call for her on the way back.'</p>
+
+<p>'Or she could walk home with me,' murmured the voice behind
+the screen.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian felt with dismay that all these precautions as to her
+escort would render her friend more scrupulous than ever as to
+her visits. To have said, 'I have several times been at the
+office,' would have been a happy clearance of the ground, but her
+pride would not bend to possible blame, nor would she run the
+risk of a prohibition. 'It would be the ruin of hope to Alexis,
+and mamma knows all,' said she to herself.</p>
+
+<p>It was decided that she should trust to Kalliope to go back
+with her, for when once Aunt Jane get into the very fishy hamlet
+of Tideshole, which lay beyond the quarries, there was no knowing
+when she might get away, since</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>'Alike to her were time and tide,<br>
+ November's snow or July's pride.'</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>So after a few days, too wet and tempestuous for any
+expedition, they set forth accompanied by Fergus, who rushed in
+from school in time to treat his aunt as a peripatetic 'Joyce's
+scientific dialogues.' Valetta had not arrived, and Gillian was
+in haste to elude her, knowing that her aunt would certainly not
+take her on to Tideshole, and that there would be no comfort in
+talking before her; but it was a new thing to have to regard her
+little sister in the light of a spy, and again she had to reason
+down a sense of guiltiness. However, her aunt wanted Valetta as
+little as she did; and she had never so rejoiced in Fergus's
+monologue, 'Then this small fly-wheel catches into the Targe one,
+and so-- Don't you see?' ---only pausing for a sound of
+assent.</p>
+
+<p>Unacquainted with the private door, Miss Mohun entered the
+office through the showroom, exchanging greetings with the young
+saleswomen, and finding Miss White putting away her
+materials.</p>
+
+<p>Shaking hands, Miss Mohun said--</p>
+
+<p>'I have brought your friend to make a visit to you while I go
+on to Tideshole. She tells me that you will be kind enough to see
+her on her way home, if you are going back at the same time.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall be delighted,' said Kalliope, with eyes as well as
+tongue, and no sooner were she and Gillian alone together than
+she joyfully exclaimed--</p>
+
+<p>'Then Miss Mohun knows! You have told her.</p>
+
+<p>'No---'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!' and there were volumes in the intonation. 'I was alarmed
+when she came in, and then so glad if it was all over. Dear Miss
+Merrifield--'</p>
+
+<p>'Call me Gillian; I have told you to do so before! Phyllis is
+Miss Merrifield, and I won't be so before my time,' said Gillian,
+interrupting in a tone more cross than affectionate.</p>
+
+<p>'I was going to say,' pursued Kalliope, 'that the shock her
+entrance gave to me proved all the more that we cannot be
+treating her properly.</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind that! I did not come about that. She is quite
+taken with you, Kally, and wants you more than ever to be a
+Friendly Girl, because she thinks it would be so good for the
+others who are under you.'</p>
+
+<p>'They have told me something about it,' said Kalliope
+thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>'She fancied' added Gillian, 'that perhaps she did not make
+you understand the rights of it, not knowing that you were
+different from the others.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, it was not that,' said Kalliope. 'Indeed, I hope there
+is no such nonsense in me. It was what my dear father always
+warned us against; only poor mamma always gets vexed if she does
+not think we are keeping ourselves up, and she had just been
+annoyed at--something, and we did not know then that it was Lady
+Merrifield's sister.'</p>
+
+<p>This was contradictory, but it was evident that, while
+Kalliope disowned conceit of station for herself, she could not
+always cross her mother's wishes. It was further elicited that if
+Lady Flight had taken up the matter there would have been no
+difficulty. Half a year ago the Flights had seemed to the young
+Whites angelic and infallible, and perhaps expectations had been
+founded on their patronage; but there had since been a shadow of
+disappointment, and altogether Kalliope was less disposed to
+believe that my Lady was correct in pronouncing Miss Mohun's
+cherished society as 'dissentish,' and only calculated for low
+servant girls and ladies who wished to meddle in families.</p>
+
+<p>Clanship made Gillian's indignation almost bring down the
+office, and her eloquence was scarcely needed, since Kalliope had
+seen the value to some of her 'hands' from the class, the
+library, the recreation-room, and the influence of the ladies,
+above all, the showing them that it was possible to have variety
+and amusement free from vulgar and perilous dissipation; but
+still she hesitated. She had no time, she said; she could not
+attend classes, and she was absolutely necessary at home in the
+evenings; but Gillian assured her that nothing was expected from
+her but a certain influence in the right direction, and the
+showing the younger and giddier that she did not think the
+Society beneath her.</p>
+
+<p>'I see all that,' said Kalliope; 'I wish I had not been
+mistaken at first; but, Miss Mer--Gillian, I do not see how I can
+join it now.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why not? What do you mean?'</p>
+
+<p>Kalliope was very unwilling to speak, but at last it came.</p>
+
+<p>'How can I do this to please your aunt, who thinks better of
+me than I deserve, when--Oh! excuse me--I know it is all your
+kindness--but when I am allowing you to deceive her--almost, I
+mean--'</p>
+
+<p>'Deceive! I never spoke an untrue word to my aunt in my life,'
+said Gillian, in proud anger; 'but if you think so, Miss White, I
+had better have no more to do with it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I feel,' said Kalliope, with tears in her eyes, 'as if it
+might be better so, unless Miss Mohun knew all about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, if you think so, and like to upset all your brother's
+hopes--'</p>
+
+<p>'It would be a terrible grief to him, I know, and I don't
+undervalue your kindness, indeed I don't; but I cannot be happy
+about it while Miss Mohun does not know. I don't understand why
+you do not tell her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Because I know there would be a worry and a fuss. Either she
+would say we must wait for letters from mamma, or else that
+Alexis must come to Beechcroft, and all the comfort would be
+over, and it would be gossiped about all over the place. Can't
+you trust me, when I tell you I have written it all to my own
+father and mother, and surely I know my own family best?'</p>
+
+<p>Kalliope looked half convinced, but she persisted--</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose you do; only please, till there is a letter from
+Lady Merrifield, I had rather not go into this Society.'</p>
+
+<p>'But, Kally, you don't consider. What am I to say to my aunt?
+What will she think of you?'</p>
+
+<p>'I can't help that! I cannot do this while she could feel I
+was conniving at what she might not like. Indeed, I cannot. I beg
+your pardon, but it goes against me. When shall you be able to
+hear from Lady Merrifield?'</p>
+
+<p>'I wrote three weeks ago. I suppose I shall hear about
+half-way through December, and you know they could telegraph if
+they wanted to stop it, so I think you might be satisfied.'</p>
+
+<p>Still Kalliope could not be persuaded, and finally, as a sort
+of compromise, Gillian decided on saying that she would think
+about it and give her answer at Christmas; to which she gave a
+reluctant assent, with one more protest that if there were no
+objection to the lessons, she could not see why Miss Mohun should
+not know of them.</p>
+
+<p>Peace was barely restored before voices were heard, and in
+came Fergus, bringing Alexis with him. They had met on the beach
+road in front of the works, and Fergus, being as usual full of
+questions about a crane that was swinging blocks of stone into a
+vessel close to the little pier, his aunt had allowed him to stay
+to see the work finished, after which Alexis would take him to
+join his sister.</p>
+
+<p>So it came about that they all walked home together very
+cheerfully, though Gillian was still much vexed under the surface
+at Kalliope's old-maidish particularity.</p>
+
+<p>However, the aunts were not as annoyed at the delay as she
+expected. Miss Mohun said she would look out some papers that
+would be convincing and persuasive, and that it might be as well
+not to enrol Miss White too immediately before the Christmas
+festivities, but to wait till the books were begun next year.
+Plans began to prevail for the Christmas diversions and
+entertainments, but the young Merrifields expected to have
+nothing to do with these, as they were to meet the rest of the
+family at their eldest uncle's house at Beechcroft; all except
+Harry, who was to be ordained in the Advent Ember week, and at
+once begin work with his cousin David Merrifield in the Black
+Country. Their aunts would not go with them, as Beechcroft
+breezes, though her native air, were too cold for Adeline in the
+winter, and Jane could leave neither her, nor her various
+occupations, and the festivities of all Rockstone.</p>
+
+<p>It is not easy to say which Gillian most looked forward to:
+Mysie's presence, or the absence of the supervision which she
+imagined herself to suffer from, because she had set herself to
+shirk it. She knew she should feel more free. But behold! a
+sudden change, produced by one morning's letters.</p>
+
+<p>'It is a beastly shame!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Fergus! That's not a thing to say,' cried Valetta.</p>
+
+<p>'I don't care! It is a beastly shame not to go to Beechcroft,
+and be poked up here all the holidays.'</p>
+
+<p>'But you can't when Primrose has got the whooping-cough.'</p>
+
+<p>'Bother the whooping-cough.'</p>
+
+<p>'And welcome; but you would find it bother you, I
+believe.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shouldn't catch it. I want Wilfred, and to ride the pony,
+and see the sluice that Uncle Maurice made.'</p>
+
+<p>'You couldn't if you had the cough.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then I should stay there instead of coming back to school! I
+say it is horrid, and beastly, and abominable, and---'</p>
+
+<p>'Come, come, Fergus,' here put in Gillian, 'that is very
+wrong.'</p>
+
+<p>'You don't hear Gill and me fly out in that way,' added
+Valetta, 'though we are so sorry about Mysie and Fly.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, you are girls, and don't know what is worth doing. I
+<i>will</i> say it is beast--'</p>
+
+<p>'Now don't, Fergus; it is very rude and ungrateful to the
+aunts. None of us like having to stay here and lose our holiday;
+but it is very improper to say so in their own house, and I
+thought you were so fond of Aunt Jane.'</p>
+
+<p>'Aunt Jane knows a thing or two, but she isn't Wilfred.'</p>
+
+<p>'And Wilfred is always teasing you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Fergus is quite right,' said Miss Mohun, who had been taking
+off her galoshes in the vestibule while this colloquy was ending
+in the dining-room; 'it is much better to be bullied by a brother
+than made much of by an aunt, and you know I am very sorry for
+you all under the infliction.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Aunt Jane, we know you are very kind, and--' began
+Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind, my dear; I know you are making the best of us,
+and I am very much obliged to you for standing up for us. It is a
+great disappointment, but I was going to give Fergus a note that
+I think will console him.'</p>
+
+<p>And out of an envelope which she had just taken from the
+letter-box she handed him a note, which he pulled open and then
+burst out, 'Cousin David! Hurrah! Scrumptious!' commencing a
+war-dance at the same moment.</p>
+
+<p>'What is it? Has David asked you?' demanded both his sisters
+at the same moment.</p>
+
+<p>'Hurrah! Yes, it is from him. "My dear Fergus, I
+hope"---hurrah---"Harry, mm---mm---mm---brothers, 20th mm--mm.
+Your affectionate cousin, David Merrifield."'</p>
+
+<p>'Let me read it to you,' volunteered Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'Wouldn't you like it?'</p>
+
+<p>'How can you be so silly, Ferg? You can't read it yourself.
+You don't know whether he really asks you.'</p>
+
+<p>Fergus made a face, and bolted upstairs to gloat, and perhaps
+peruse the letter, while Valetta rushed after him, whether to be
+teased or permitted to assist might be doubtful.</p>
+
+<p>'He really does ask him,' said Aunt Jane. 'Your cousin David,
+I mean. He says that he and Harry can put up all the three boys
+between them, and that they will be very useful in the Christmas
+festivities of Coalham.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is very kind of him,' said Gillian in a depressed
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>'Fergus will be very happy.'</p>
+
+<p>'I only hope he will not be bent on finding a coal mine in the
+garden when he comes back,' said Aunt Jane, smiling; 'but it is
+rather dreary for you, my dear. I had been hoping to have Jasper
+here for at least a few days. Could he not come and fetch
+Fergus?'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian's eyes sparkled at the notion; but they fell at once,
+for Jasper would be detained by examinations until so late that
+he would only just be able to reach Coalham before Christmas Day.
+Harry was to be ordained in a fortnight's time to work under his
+cousin, Mr. David Merrifield, and his young brothers were to meet
+him immediately after.</p>
+
+<p>'I wish I could go too,' sighed Gillian, as a hungry yearning
+for Jasper or for Mysie took possession of her.</p>
+
+<p>'I wish you could,' said Miss Mohun sympathetically; 'but I am
+afraid you must resign yourself to helping us instead.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Aunt Jane, I did not mean to grumble. It can't be helped,
+and you are very kind.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, dear!' said poor Miss Jane afterwards in private to her
+sister, 'how I hate being told I am very kind! It just means,
+"You are a not quite intolerable jailor and despot," with fairly
+good intentions.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure you are kindness itself, dear Jenny,' responded
+Miss Adeline. 'I am glad they own it! But it is very inconvenient
+and unlucky that that unjustifiable mother should have sent her
+child to the party to carry the whooping-cough to poor little
+Primrose, and Mysie, and Phyllis.'</p>
+
+<p>'All at one fell swoop! As for Primrose, the worthy Halfpenny
+is quite enough for her, and Lily is well out of it; but Fly is a
+little shrimp, overdone all round, and I don't like the notion of
+it for her.'</p>
+
+<p>'And Rotherwood is so wrapped up in her. Poor dear fellow, I
+hope all will go well with her.'</p>
+
+<p>'There is no reason it should not. Delicate children often
+have it the most lightly. But I am sorry for Gillian, though, if
+she would let us, I think we could make her happy.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian meantime, after her first fit of sick longing for her
+brother and sister, and sense of disappointment, was finding some
+consolation in the reflection that had Jasper discovered her
+instructions to Alexis White, he would certainly have 'made no
+end of a row about it,' and have laughed to scorn the bare notion
+of her teaching Greek to a counting-house clerk! But then Jasper
+was wont to grumble and chafe at all employments--especially
+beneficent ones---that interfered with devotion to his lordly
+self, and on the whole, perhaps he was safer out of the way, as
+he might have set on the aunts to put a stop to her proceedings.
+Of Mysie's sympathy she was sure, yet she would have her scruples
+about the aunts, and she was a sturdy person, hard to
+answer--poor Mysie, whooping away helplessly in the schoolroom at
+Rotherwood! Gillian felt herself heroically good-humoured and
+resigned. Moreover, here was the Indian letter so long looked
+for, likely by its date to be an answer to the information as to
+Alexis White's studies. Behold, it did not appear to touch on the
+subject at all! It was all about preparations for the double
+wedding, written in scraps by different hands, at different
+times, evidently snatched from many avocations and much
+interruption. Of mamma there was really least of all; but
+squeezed into a corner, scarcely legible, Gillian read, 'As to
+lessons, if At. J. approves.' It was evidently an afterthought;
+and Gillian <i>could</i>, and chose to refer it to a certain
+inquiry about learning the violin, which had never been
+answered--for the confusion that reigned at Columbo was plainly
+unfavourable to attending to minute details in home letters.</p>
+
+<p>The longest portions of the despatch were papa's, since he was
+still unable to move about. He wrote:--'Our two "young men" think
+it probable you will have invitations from their kith and kin. If
+this comes to pass, you had better accept them, though you will
+not like to break up the Christmas party at Beechcroft
+Court.'</p>
+
+<p>There being no Christmas party at Beechcroft Court, Gillian,
+in spite of her distaste to new people, was not altogether sorry
+to receive a couple of notes by the same post, the first enclosed
+in the second, both forwarded from thence.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>'VALE LESTON PRIORY,<br>
+ '9th December.</p>
+
+<p>'MY DEAR MISS MERRIFIELD---We are very anxious to make
+acquaintance with my brother Bernard's new belongings, since we
+cannot greet our new sister Phyllis ourselves. We always have a
+family gathering at Christmas between this house and the
+Vicarage, and we much hope that you and your brother will join
+it. Could you not meet my sister, Mrs. Grinstead, in London, and
+travel down with her on the 23rd? I am sending this note to her,
+as I think she has some such proposal to make.---Yours very
+sincerely,<br>
+ 'WILMET U. HAREWOOD.'</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The other letter was thus--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>'BROMPTON, 10th December.</p>
+
+<p>'MY DEAR GILLIAN--It is more natural to call you thus, as you
+are becoming a sort of relation--very unwillingly, I dare
+say--for "in this storm I too have lost a brother." However, we
+will make the best of it, and please don't hate us more than you
+can help. Since your own home is dispersed for the present, it
+seems less outrageous to ask you to spend a Christmas Day among
+new people, and I hope we may make you feel at home with us, and
+that you will enjoy our beautiful church at Vale Leston. We are
+so many that we may be less alarming if you take us by driblets,
+so perhaps it will be the best way if you will come up to us on
+the 18th or 19th, and go down with us on the 23rd. You will find
+no one with us but my nephew--almost son---Gerald Underwood, and
+my niece, Anna Vanderkist, who will be delighted to make friends
+with your brother Jasper, who might perhaps meet you here. You
+must tell me all about Phyllis, and what she would like best for
+her Cingalese home.---Yours affectionately,</p>
+
+<p>GERALDINE GRINSTEAD.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Thus then affairs shaped themselves. Gillian was to take
+Fergus to London, where Jasper would meet them at the station,
+and put the little boy into the train for Coalham, whither his
+brother Wilfred had preceded him by a day or two.</p>
+
+<p>Jasper and Gillian would then repair to Brompton for two or
+three days before going down with Mr. and Mrs. Grinstead to Vale
+Leston, and they were to take care to pay their respects to old
+Mrs. Merrifield, who had become too infirm to spend Christmas at
+Stokesley.</p>
+
+<p>What was to happen later was uncertain, whether they were to
+go to Stokesley, or whether Jasper would join his brothers at
+Coalham, or come down to Rockstone with his sister for the rest
+of the holidays. Valetta must remain there, and it did not seem
+greatly to distress her; and whereas nothing had been said about
+children, she was better satisfied to stay within reach of Kitty
+and mamma, and the Christmas-trees that began to dawn on the
+horizon, than to be carried into an unknown region of
+'grown-ups.'</p>
+
+<p>While Gillian was not only delighted at the prospect of
+meeting Jasper, her own especial brother, but was heartily glad
+to make a change, and defer the entire question of lessons,
+confessions, and G.F.S. for six whole weeks. She might get a more
+definite answer from her parents, or something might happen to
+make explanation to her aunt either unnecessary or much more
+easy---and she was safe from discovery. But examinations had yet
+to be passed.</p>
+
+<center>CHAPTER X. AUT CAESAR AUT NIHIL</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<p>Examinations were the great autumn excitement. Gillian was
+going up for the higher Cambridge, and Valetta's form was under
+preparation for competition for a prize in languages. The great
+Mr. White, on being asked to patronise the High School at its
+first start, four years ago, had endowed it with prizes for each
+of the four forms for the most proficient in two tongues.</p>
+
+<p>As the preparation became more absorbing, brows were puckered
+and looks were anxious, and the aunts were doubtful as to the
+effect upon the girls' minds or bodies. It was too late, however,
+to withdraw them, and Miss Mohun could only insist on air and
+exercise, and permit no work after the seven-o'clock tea.</p>
+
+<p>She was endeavouring to chase cobwebs from the brains of the
+students by the humours of Mrs. Nickleby, when a message was
+brought that Miss Leverett, the head-mistress of the High School,
+wished to speak to her in the dining-room. This was no unusual
+occurrence, as Miss Mohun was secretary to the managing committee
+of the High School. But on the announcement Valetta began to
+fidget, and presently said that she was tired and would go to
+bed. The most ordinary effect of fatigue upon this young lady was
+to make her resemble the hero of the nursery poem--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>'I do not want to go to bed,<br>
+ Sleepy little Harry said.'</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, this willingness excited no suspicion, till Miss
+Mohun came to the door to summon Valetta.</p>
+
+<p>'Is there anything wrong!' exclaimed sister and niece
+together.</p>
+
+<p>'Gone to bed! Oh! I'll tell you presently. Don't you come,
+Gillian.'</p>
+
+<p>She vanished again, leaving Gillian in no small alarm and
+vexation.</p>
+
+<p>'I wonder what it can be,' mused Aunt Ada.</p>
+
+<p>'I shall go and find out!' said Gillian, jumping up, as she
+heard a door shut upstairs.</p>
+
+<p>'No, don't,' said Aunt Ada, 'you had much better not
+interfere.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is my business to see after my own sister,' returned
+Gillian haughtily.</p>
+
+<p>'I see what you mean, my dear,' said her aunt, stretching out
+her hand, kindly; 'but I do not think you can do any good. If she
+is in a scrape, you have nothing to do with the High School
+management, and for you to burst in would only annoy Miss
+Leverett and confuse the affair. Oh, I know your impulse of
+defence, dear Gillian; but the time has not come yet, and you
+can't have any reasonable doubt that Jane will be just, nor that
+your mother would wish that you should be quiet about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'But suppose there is some horrid accusation against her!'
+said Gillian hotly.</p>
+
+<p>'But, dear child, if you don't know anything about it, how can
+you defend her?'</p>
+
+<p>'I ought to know!'</p>
+
+<p>'So you will in time; but the more people there are present,
+the more confusion there is, and the greater difficulty in
+getting at the rights of anything.''</p>
+
+<p>More by her caressing tone of sympathy than by actual
+arguments, Adeline did succeed in keeping Gillian in the
+drawing-room, though not in pacifying her, till doors were heard
+again, and something so like Valetta crying as she went upstairs,
+that Gillian was neither to have nor to hold, and made a dash out
+of the room, only to find her aunt and the head-mistress
+exchanging last words in the hall, and as she was going to brush
+past them, Aunt Jane caught her hand, and said--</p>
+
+<p>'Wait a moment, Gillian; I want to speak to you.'</p>
+
+<p>There was no getting away, but she was very indignant. She
+tugged at her aunt's hand more than perhaps she knew, and there
+was something of a flouncing as she flung into the drawing-room
+and demanded--</p>
+
+<p>'Well, what have you been doing to poor little Val?'</p>
+
+<p>'We have done nothing,' said Miss Mohun quietly. 'Miss
+Leverett wanted to ask her some questions. Sit down, Gillian. You
+had better hear what I have to say before going to her. Well, it
+appears that there has been some amount of cribbing in the third
+form.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'm sure Val never would,' broke out Gillian. And her aunt
+answered--</p>
+
+<p>'So was I; but--'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh---'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, do hush,' pleaded Adeline. 'You must let yourself
+listen.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian gave a desperate twist, but let her aunt smooth her
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>'All the class---almost---seem to have done it in some
+telegraphic way, hard to understand,' proceeded Aunt Jane. 'There
+must have been some stupidity on the part of the class-mistress,
+Miss Mellon, or it could not have gone on; but there has of late
+been a strong suspicion of cribbing in Caesar in Valetta's class.
+They had got rather behindhand, and have been working up somewhat
+too hard and fast to get through the portion for examination.
+Some of them translated too well--used terms for the idioms that
+were neither literal, nor could have been forged by their small
+brains; so there was an examination, and Georgie Purvis was
+detected reading off from the marks on the margin of her
+notebook.'</p>
+
+<p>'But what has that to do with Val?'</p>
+
+<p>'Georgie, being had up to Miss Leverett, made the sort of
+confession that implicates everybody.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then why believe her?' muttered Gillian. But her aunt went
+on--</p>
+
+<p>'She said that four or five of them did it, from the notes
+that Valetta Merrifield brought to school.'</p>
+
+<p>'Never!' interjected Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'She said,' continued Miss Mohun, 'it was first that they saw
+her helping Maura White, and they thought that was not fair, and
+insisted on her doing the same for them.'</p>
+
+<p>'It can't be true! Oh, don't believe it!' cried the
+sister.</p>
+
+<p>'I grieve to remind you that I showed you in the drawer in the
+dining-room chiffonier a translation of that very book of Caesar
+that your mother and I made years ago, when she was crazy upon
+Vercingetorix.'</p>
+
+<p>'But was that reason enough for laying it upon poor Val?'</p>
+
+<p>'She owned it.'</p>
+
+<p>There was a silence, and then Gillian said--</p>
+
+<p>'She must have been frightened, and not known what she was
+saying.'</p>
+
+<p>'She was frightened, but she was very straightforward, and
+told without any shuffling. She saw the old copy-books when I was
+showing you those other remnants of our old times, and one day it
+seems she was in a great puzzle over her lessons, and could get
+no help or advice, because none of us had come in. I suppose you
+were with Lilian, and she thought she might just look at the
+passage. She found Maura in the same difficulty, and helped her;
+and then Georgie Purvis and Nelly Black found them out, and
+threatened to tell unless she showed them her notes; but the
+copying whole phrases was only done quite of late in the general
+over-hurry.'</p>
+
+<p>'She must have been bullied into it,' cried Gillian. 'I shall
+go and see about her.'</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Ada made a gesture as of deprecation; but Aunt Jane let
+her go without remonstrance, merely saying as the door
+closed--</p>
+
+<p>'Poor child! Esprit de famille!'</p>
+
+<p>'Will it not be very bad for Valetta to be petted and
+pitied?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know. At any rate, we cannot separate them at night,
+so it is only beginning it a little sooner; and whatever I say
+only exasperates Gillian the more. Poor little Val, she had not a
+formed character enough to be turned loose into a High School
+without Mysie to keep her in order.'</p>
+
+<p>'Or Gillian.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am not so sure of Gillian. There's something amiss, though
+I can't make out whether it is merely that I rub her down the
+wrong way. I wonder whether this holiday time will do us good or
+harm!<br>
+ At any rate, I know how Lily felt about Dolores.'</p>
+
+<p>'It must have been that class-mistress's fault.'</p>
+
+<p>'To a great degree; but Miss Leverett has just discovered that
+her cleverness does not compensate for a general lack of sense
+and discipline. Poor little Val---perhaps it is her
+turning-point!'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian, rushing up in a boiling state of indignation against
+everybody, felt the family shame most acutely of all; and though,
+as a Merrifield, she defended her sister below stairs, on the
+other hand she was much more personally shocked and angered at
+the disgrace than were her aunts, and far less willing to
+perceive any excuse for the culprit.</p>
+
+<p>There was certainly no petting or pitying in her tone as she
+stood over the little iron bed, where the victim was hiding her
+head on her pillow.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Valetta, how could you do such a thing? The Merrifields
+have never been so disgraced before!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, don't, Gill! Aunt Jane and Miss Leverett were--not so
+angry---when I said--I was sorry.'</p>
+
+<p>'But what will papa and mamma say?'</p>
+
+<p>'Must they--must they hear?'</p>
+
+<p>'You would not think of deceiving them, I hope.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not deceiving, only not telling.'</p>
+
+<p>'That comes to much the same.'</p>
+
+<p>'You can't say anything, Gill, for you are always down at
+Kal's office, and nobody knows.'</p>
+
+<p>This gave Gillian a great shock, but she rallied, and said
+with dignity, 'Do you think I do not write to mamma everything I
+do?'</p>
+
+<p>It sufficed for the immediate purpose of annihilating Valetta,
+who had just been begging off from letting mamma hear of her
+proceedings; but it left Gillian very uneasy as to how much the
+child might know or tell, and this made her proceed less
+violently, and more persuasively, 'Whatever I do, I write to
+mamma; and besides, it is different with a little thing like you,
+and your school work. Come, tell me how you got into this
+scrape.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Gill, it was so hard! All about those tiresome Gauls, and
+there were bits when the nominative case would go and hide
+itself, and those nasty tenses one doesn't know how to look out,
+and I knew I was making nonsense, and you were out of the way,
+and there was nobody to help; and I knew mamma's own book was
+there--the very part too--because Aunt Jane had shown it to us,
+so I did not think there was any harm in letting her help me out
+of the muddle.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! that was the beginning.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you had been in, I would not have done it. You know Aunt
+Jane said there was no harm in giving a clue, and this was
+mamma.'</p>
+
+<p>'But that was not all.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, then, there was Maura first, as much puzzled, and her
+brother is so busy he hasn't as much time for her as he used to
+have, and it does signify to her, for perhaps if she does not
+pass, Mr. White may not let her go on at the High School, and
+that would be too dreadful, for you know you said I was to do all
+I could for Maura. So I marked down things for her and she copied
+them off, and then Georgie and Nelly found it out, and, oh! they
+were dreadful! I never knew it was wrong till they went at me.
+And they were horrid to Maura, and said she was a Greek and I a
+Maltese, and so we were both false, and cheaty, and sly, and they
+should tell Miss Leverett unless I would help them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! Valetta, why didn't you tell me?'</p>
+
+<p>'I never get to speak to you, said Val. 'I did think I would
+that first time, and ask you what to do, but then you came in
+late, and when I began something, you said you had your Greek to
+do, and told me to hold my tongue.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am very sorry,' said Gillian, feeling convicted of having
+neglected her little sister in the stress of her own work and of
+the preparation for that of her pupil, who was treading on her
+heels; 'but indeed, Val, if you had told me it was important, I
+should have listened.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah I but when one is half-frightened, and you are always in a
+hurry,' sighed the child. And, indeed, I did do my best over my
+own work before ever I looked; only those two are so lazy and
+stupid, they would have ever so much more help than Maura or I
+ever wanted; and at last I was so worried and hurried with my
+French and all the rest, that I did scramble a whole lot down,
+and that was the way it was found out. And I am glad now it is
+over, whatever happens.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, that is right,' said Gillian, 'and I am glad you told no
+stories; but I wonder Emma Norton did not see what was going
+on.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, she is frightfully busy about her own.'</p>
+
+<p>'And Kitty Varley?'</p>
+
+<p>'Kitty is only going up for French and German. Miss Leverett
+is so angry. What do you think she will do to me, Gill? Expel
+me?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know--I can't guess. I don't know High School
+ways.'</p>
+
+<p>It would be so dreadful for papa and mamma and the boys to
+know,' sobbed Valetta. 'And Mysie! oh, if Mysie was but
+here!'</p>
+
+<p>'Mysie would have been a better sister to her,' said Gillian's
+conscience, and her voice said, 'You would never have done it if
+Mysie had been here.'</p>
+
+<p>'And Mysie would be nice,' said the poor child, who longed
+after her companion sister as much for comfort as for conscience.
+'Is Aunt Jane very very angry?' she went on; 'do you think I
+shall be punished?'</p>
+
+<p>'I can't tell. If it were I, I should think you were punished
+enough by having disgraced the name of Merrifield by such a
+dishonourable action.'</p>
+
+<p>'I---I didn't know it was dishonourable.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' said Gillian, perhaps a little tired of the scene, or
+mayhap dreading another push into her own quarters, 'I have been
+saying what I could for you, and I should think they would feel
+that no one but our father and mother had a real right to punish
+you, but I can't tell what the School may do. Now, hush, it is of
+no use to talk any more. Good-night; I hope I shall find you
+asleep when I come to bed.'</p>
+
+<p>Valetta would have detained her, but off she went, with a
+consciousness that she had been poor comfort to her little
+sister, and had not helped her to the right kind of repentance.
+But then that highest ground--the strict rule of perfect
+conscientious uprightness--was just what she shrank from bringing
+home to herself, in spite of those privileges of seniority by
+which she had impressed poor Valetta.</p>
+
+<p>The worst thing further that was said that night, when she had
+reported as much of Valetta's confidence as she thought might
+soften displeasure, was Aunt Ada's observation: 'Maura! That's
+the White child, is it not? No doubt it was the Greek blood.'</p>
+
+<p>'The English girls were much worse,' hastily said Gillian,
+with a flush of alarm, as she thought of her own friends being
+suspected.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; but it began with the little Greek,' said Aunt Ada.
+'What a pity, for she is such an engaging child! I would take the
+child away from the High School, except that it would have the
+appearance of her being dismissed.</p>
+
+<p>'We must consider of that,' said Aunt Jane. 'There will hardly
+be time to hear from Lilias before the next term begins. Indeed,
+it will not be so very long to wait before the happy return, I
+hope.'</p>
+
+<p>'Only two months,' said Gillian; 'but it would be happier but
+for this.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Aunt Jane. 'If we made poor little Val write her
+confession, and I do the same for not having looked after her
+better, it will be off our minds, and need not cloud the
+meeting.'</p>
+
+<p>'The disgrace!' sighed Gillian; 'the public disgrace!'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, I don't want to make you think lightly of such a
+thing. It was very wrong in a child brought up as you have all
+been, with a sense of honour and uprightness; but where there has
+been no such training, the attempt to copy is common enough, for
+it is not to be looked on as an extraordinary and indelible
+disgrace. Do you remember Primrose saying she had broken mamma's
+heart when she had knocked down a china vase? You need not be in
+that state of mind over what was a childish fault, made worse by
+those bullying girls. It is of no use to exaggerate. The sin is
+the thing--not the outward shame.'</p>
+
+<p>'And Valetta told at once when asked,' added Aunt Ada.</p>
+
+<p>'That makes a great difference.'</p>
+
+<p>'In fact, she was relieved to have it out,' said Miss Mohun.
+'It is not at all as if she were in the habit of doing things
+underhand.'</p>
+
+<p>Everything struck on Gillian like a covert reproach. It was
+pain and shame to her that a Merrifield should have lowered
+herself to the common herd so as to need these excuses of her
+aunts, and then in the midst of that indignation came that throb
+of self-conviction which she was always confuting with the
+recollection of her letter to her mother.</p>
+
+<p>She was glad to bid good-night and rest her head.</p>
+
+<p>The aunts ended by agreeing that it was needful to withdraw
+Valetta from the competition. It would seem like punishment to
+her, but it would remove her from the strain that certainly was
+not good for her. Indeed, they had serious thoughts of taking her
+from the school altogether, but the holidays would not long be
+ended before her parents' return.</p>
+
+<p>'I am sorry we ever let her try for the prize,' said Ada.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Aunt Jane, 'I suppose it was weakness; but having
+opposed the acceptance of the system of prizes by competition at
+first, I thought it would look sullen if I refused to let Valetta
+try. Stimulus is all very well, but competition leads to
+emulation, wrath, strife, and a good deal besides.'</p>
+
+<p>'Valetta wished it too, and she knew so much Latin to begin
+with that I thought she would easily get it, and certainly she
+ought not to get into difficulties.'</p>
+
+<p>'After the silken rein and easy amble of Silverfold, the spur
+and the race have come severely.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is, I suppose, the same with Gillian, though there it is
+not competition. Do you expect her to succeed?'</p>
+
+<p>'No. She has plenty of intelligence, and a certain sort of
+diligence, but does not work to a point. She wants a real hand
+over her! She will fail, and it will be very good for her.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should say the work was overmuch for her, and had led her
+to neglect Valetta.'</p>
+
+<p>'Work becomes overmuch when people don't know how to set about
+it, and resent being told-- No, not in words, but by looks and
+shoulders. Besides, I am not sure that it is her proper work that
+oppresses her. I think she has some other undertaking in hand,
+probably for Christmas, or for her mother's return; but as
+secrecy is the very soul of such things, I shut my eyes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Somehow, Jane, I think you have become so much afraid of
+giving way to curiosity that you sometimes shut your eyes rather
+too much.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, perhaps in one's old age one suffers from the reaction
+of one's bad qualities. I will think about it, Ada. I certainly
+never before realised how very different school supervision of
+young folks is from looking after them all round. Moreover,
+Gillian has been much more attentive to poor Lily Giles of late,
+in spite of her avocations.'</p>
+
+<p>Valetta was not at first heartbroken on hearing that she was
+not to go in for the language examination. It was such a relief
+from the oppression of the task, and she had so long given up
+hopes of having the prize to show to her mother, that she was
+scarcely grieved, though Aunt Jane was very grave while walking
+down to school with her in the morning to see Miss Leverett, and
+explain the withdrawal.</p>
+
+<p>That lady came to her private room as soon as she had opened
+the school. From one point of view, she said, she agreed with
+Miss Mohun that it would be better that her niece should not go
+up for the examination.</p>
+
+<p>'But,' she said, 'it may be considered as a stigma upon her,
+since none of the others are to give up.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed! I had almost thought it a matter of course.'</p>
+
+<p>'On the contrary, two of the mothers seem to think nothing at
+all of the matter. Mrs. Black--'</p>
+
+<p>'The Surveyor's wife, isn't she?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, she writes a note saying that all children copy, if they
+can, and she wonders that I should be so severe upon such a
+frequent occurrence, which reflects more discredit on the
+governesses than the scholars.'</p>
+
+<p>'Polite that! And Mrs. Purvis? At least, she is a lady!'</p>
+
+<p>'She is more polite, but evidently has no desire to be
+troubled. She hopes that if her daughter has committed a breach
+of school discipline, I will act as I think best.'</p>
+
+<p>'No feeling of the real evil in either! How about Maura
+White?'</p>
+
+<p>'That is very different. It is her sister who writes, and so
+nicely that I must show it to you.'</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>'MY DEAR MADAM---I am exceedingly grieved that Maura should
+have acted in a dishonourable manner, though she was not fully
+aware how wrongly she was behaving. We have been talking to her,
+and we think she is so truly sorry as not to be likely to fall
+into the same temptation again. As far as we can make out, she
+has generally taken pains with her tasks, and only obtained
+assistance in unusually difficult passages, so that we think that
+she is really not ill-prepared. If it is thought right that all
+the pupils concerned should abstain from the competition, we
+would of course readily acquiesce in the justice of the sentence;
+but to miss it this year might make so serious a difference to
+her prospects, that I hope it will not be thought a necessary act
+of discipline, though we know that we have no right to plead for
+any exemption for her. With many thanks for the consideration you
+have shown for her, I remain, faithfully yours,</p>
+
+<p>K. WHITE.'</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>'A very different tone indeed, and it quite agrees with
+Valetta's account,' said Miss Mohun.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, the other two girls were by far the most guilty.'</p>
+
+<p>'And morally, perhaps, Maura the least; but I retain my view
+that, irrespective of the others, Valetta's parents had rather
+she missed this examination, considering all things.'</p>
+
+<p>Valetta came home much more grieved when she had found she was
+the only one left out, and declared it was unjust.</p>
+
+<p>No,' said Gillian, 'for you began it all. None of the others
+would have got into the scrape but for you.'</p>
+
+<p>'It was all your fault for not minding me!'</p>
+
+<p>'As if I made you do sly things.'</p>
+
+<p>'You made me. You were so cross if I only asked a question,'
+and Val prepared to cry.</p>
+
+<p>'I thought people had to do their own work and not other
+folks'! Don't be so foolish.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh dear! oh dear! how unkind you are! I wish---I wish Mysie
+was here; every one is grown cross! Oh, if mamma would but come
+home!'</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Val, don't be such a baby! Stop that!'</p>
+
+<p>And Valetta went into one of her old agonies of crying and
+sobbing, which brought Aunt Jane in to see what was the matter.
+She instantly stopped the scolding with which Gillian was trying
+to check the outburst, and which only added to its violence.</p>
+
+<p>'It is the only thing to stop those fits,' said Gillian. 'She
+can if she will! It is all temper.'</p>
+
+<p>'Leave her to me!' commanded Aunt Jane. 'Go!'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian went away, muttering that it was not the way mamma or
+Nurse Halfpenny treated Val, and quite amazed that Aunt Jane, of
+all people, should have the naughty child on her lap and in her
+arms, soothing her tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>The cries died away, and the long heaving sobs began to
+subside, and at last a broken voice said, on Aunt Jane's
+shoulder, 'It's---a---little bit---like mamma.'</p>
+
+<p>For Aunt Jane's voice had a ring in it like mamma's, and this
+little bit of tenderness was inexpressibly comforting.</p>
+
+<p>'My poor dear child,' she said, 'mamma will soon come home,
+and then you will be all right.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shouldn't have done it if mamma had been there!'</p>
+
+<p>'No, and now you are sorry.'</p>
+
+<p>'Will mamma be very angry?'</p>
+
+<p>'She will be grieved that you could not hold out when you were
+tempted; but I am sure she will forgive you if you write it all
+to her. And, Val, you know you can have God's forgiveness at once
+if you tell Him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Valetta gravely; then, 'I did not before, because
+I thought every one made so much of it, and were so cross. And
+Georgie and Nellie don't care at all.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nor Maura?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Maura does, because of Kalliope.'</p>
+
+<p>'How do you mean?'</p>
+
+<p>Valetta sat up on her aunt's lap, and told.</p>
+
+<p>'Maura told me! She said Kally and Alec both were at her, but
+her mamma was vexed with them, and said she would not have her
+scolded at home as well as at school about nothing; and she told
+Theodore to go and buy her a tart to make up to her, but Theodore
+wouldn't, for he said he was ashamed of her. So she sent the
+maid. But when Maura had gone to bed and to sleep, she woke up,
+and there was Kally crying over her prayers, and whispering half
+aloud, "Is she going too? My poor child! Oh, save her! Give her
+the Spirit of truth--"'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Kalliope! She is a good sister.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; Maura says Kally is awfully afraid of their telling
+stories because of Richard--the eldest, you know. He does it
+dreadfully. I remember nurse used to tell us not to fib like Dick
+White. Maura said he used to tell his father stories about being
+late and getting money, and their mother never let him be
+punished. He was her pet. And Maura remembers being carried in to
+see poor Captain White just before he died, when she was getting
+better, but could not stand, and he said, "Truth before all,
+children. Be true to God and man." Captain White did care so
+much, but Mrs. White doesn't. Isn't that very odd, for she isn't
+a Roman Catholic?' ended Valetta, obviously believing that
+falsehood was inherent in Romanists, and pouring out all this as
+soon as her tears were assuaged, as if, having heard it, she must
+tell.</p>
+
+<p>'Mrs. White is half a Greek, you know,' said Aunt Jane, 'and
+the Greeks are said not to think enough about truth.'</p>
+
+<p>'Epaminondas did,' said Valetta, who had picked up a good deal
+from the home atmosphere, 'but Ulysses didn't.'</p>
+
+<p>'No; and the Greeks have been enslaved and oppressed for a
+great many years, and that is apt to make people get cowardly and
+false. But that is not our concern, Val, and I think with such a
+recollection of her good father, and such a sister to help her,
+Maura will not fall into the fault again. And, my dear, I quite
+see that neither you nor she entirely realised that what you did
+was deception, though you never spoke a word of untruth.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, we did not,' said Valetta.</p>
+
+<p>'And so, my dear child, I do forgive you, quite and entirely,
+as we used to say, though I have settled with Miss Leverett that
+you had better not go up for the examination, since you cannot be
+properly up to it. And you must write the whole history to your
+mother. Yes; I know it will be very sad work, but it will be much
+better to have it out and done with, instead of having it on your
+mind when she comes home.'</p>
+
+<p>'Shall you tell her!'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, certainly,' said the aunt, well knowing that this would
+clench the matter. 'But I shall tell her how sorry you are, and
+that I really think you did not quite understand what you were
+about at first. And I shall write to Miss White, and try to
+comfort her about her sister.'</p>
+
+<p>'You won't say I told!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no; but I shall have quite reason enough for writing in
+telling her that I am sorry my little niece led her sister into
+crooked paths.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian knew that this letter was written and sent, and it did
+not make her more eager for a meeting with Kalliope. So that she
+was not sorry that the weather was a valid hindrance, though a
+few weeks ago she would have disregarded such considerations.
+Besides, there was her own examination, which for two days was
+like a fever, and kept her at her little table, thinking of
+nothing but those questions, and dreaming and waking over them at
+night.</p>
+
+<p>It was over; and she was counselled on all sides to think no
+more about it till she should hear of success or failure. But
+this was easier said than done, and she was left in her tired
+state with a general sense of being on a wrong tack, and of going
+on amiss, whether due to her aunt's want of assimilation to
+herself, or to her mother's absence, she did not know, and with
+the further sense that she had not been the motherly sister she
+had figured to herself, but that both the children should show a
+greater trust and reliance on Aunt Jane than on herself grieved
+her, not exactly with jealousy, but with sense of failure and
+dissatisfaction with herself. She had a universal distaste to her
+surroundings, and something very like dread of the Whites, and
+she rejoiced in the prospect of quitting Rockstone for the
+present.</p>
+
+<p>She felt bound to run down to the office to wish Kalliope
+good-bye. There she found an accumulation of exercises and
+translations waiting for her.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, what a quantity! It shows how long it is since I have
+been here.'</p>
+
+<p>'And indeed,' began Kalliope, 'since your aunt has been so
+very kind about poor little Maura--'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, please don't talk to me! There's such a lot to do, and I
+have no time. Wait till I have done.'</p>
+
+<p>And she nervously began reading out the Greek exercise, so as
+effectually to stop Kalliope's mouth. Moreover, either her own
+uneasy mind, or the difficulty of the Greek, brought her into a
+dilemma. She saw that Alexis's phrase was wrong, but she did not
+clearly perceive what the sentence ought to be, and she perplexed
+herself over it till he came in, whether to her satisfaction or
+not she could not have told, for she had not wanted to see him on
+the one hand, though, on the other, it silenced Kalliope.</p>
+
+<p>She tried to clear her perceptions by explanations to him, but
+he did not seem to give his mind to the grammar half as much as
+to the cessation of the lessons and her absence.</p>
+
+<p>'You must do the best you can,' she said, 'and I shall find
+you gone quite beyond me.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall never do that, Miss Merrifield.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense!' she said, laughing uncomfortably 'a pretty
+clergyman you would be if you could not pass a girl. There!
+good-bye. Make a list of your puzzles and I will do my best with
+them when I come back.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you,' and he wrung her hand with an earnestness that
+gave her a sense of uneasiness.</p>
+
+<center>CHAPTER XI. LADY MERRIFIELD'S CHRISTMAS
+LETTER-BAG</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<p>(PRIMROSE.)</p>
+
+<p>'MY DEAR MAMMA---I wish you a merry Christmas, and papa and
+sisters and Claude too. I only hooped once to-day, and Nurse says
+I may go out when it gets fine. Fly is better. She sent me her
+dolls' house in a big box in a cart, and Mysie sent a new frock
+of her own making for Liliana, and Uncle William gave me a lovely
+doll, with waxen arms and legs, that shuts her eyes and squeals,
+and says Mamma; but I do not want anything but my own dear mamma,
+and all the rest. I am mamma's own little PRIMROSE.'</p>
+
+<p>(FERGUS.)</p>
+
+<p>'COALHAM.<br>
+ 'MY DEAR MAMMA---I wish you and papa, and all, a happy Crismas,
+and I send a plan of the great coal mine for a card. It is much
+jollier here than at Rockquay, for it is all black with cinders,
+and there are little fires all night, and there are lots of oars
+and oxhide and fossils and ferns and real curiozitys, and nobody
+minds noises nor muddy boots, and they aren't at one to wash your
+hands, for they can't be clean ever; and there was a real row in
+the street last night just outside. We are to go down a mine some
+day when Cousin David has time. I mean to be a great jeologist
+and get lots of specimens, and please bring me home all the
+minerals in Ceylon. Harry gave me a hammer.---I am, your
+affectionate son,<br>
+ FERGUS MERRIFIELD.'</p>
+
+<p>(VALETTA.)</p>
+
+<p>'MY DEAREST MAMMA---I hope you will like my card. Aunt Ada did
+none of it, only showed me how, and Aunt Jane says I may tell you
+I am really trying to be good. I am helping her gild fir-cones
+for a Christmas-tree for the quire, and they will sing carols.
+Macrae brought some for us the day before yesterday, and a famous
+lot of holly and ivy and mistletoe and flowers, and three turkeys
+and some hams and pheasants and partridges. Aunt Jane sent the
+biggest turkey and ham in a basket covered up with holly to Mrs.
+White, and another to Mrs. Hablot, and they are doing the church
+with the holly and ivy. We are to eat the other the day after
+to-morrow, and Mr. Grant and Miss Burne, who teaches the youngest
+form, are coming. It was only cold beef to-day, to let Mrs. Mount
+go to church; but we had mince pies, and I am going to Kitty's
+Christmas party to-morrow, and we shall dance--so Aunt Ada has
+given me a new white frock and a lovely Roman sash of her own.
+Poor old Mrs. Vincent is dead, and Fergus's great black rabbit,
+and poor little Mary Brown with dip--(blot). I can't spell it,
+and nobody is here to tell me how, but the thing in people's
+throats, and poor Anne has got it, and Dr. Ellis says it was a
+mercy we were all away from home, for we should have had it too,
+and that would have been ever so much worse than the
+whooping-cough.</p>
+
+<p>'I have lots of cards, but my presents are waiting for my
+birthday, when Maura is to come to tea. It is much nicer than I
+thought the holidays would be. Maura White has got the prize for
+French and Latin. It is a lovely Shakespeare. I wish I had been
+good, for I think I should have got it. Only she does want more
+help than I do---so perhaps it is lucky I did not. No, I don't
+mean lucky either.---Your affectionate little daughter, VAL.'</p>
+
+<p>(WILFRED.)</p>
+
+<p>'DEAR MOTHER--Fergus is such a little ape that he will send
+you that disgusting coal mine on his card, as if you would care
+for it. I know you will like mine much better--that old buffer
+skating into a hole in the ice. I don't mind being here, for
+though Harry and Davy get up frightfully early to go to church,
+they don't want us down till they come back, and we can have fun
+all day, except when Harry screws me down to my holiday task,
+which is a disgusting one, about the Wars of the Roses. Harry
+does look so rum now that he is got up for a parson that we did
+not know him when he met us at the station. There was an awful
+row outside here last night between two sets of Waits. David went
+out and parted them, and I thought he would have got a black eye.
+All the choir had supper here, for there was a service in the
+middle of the night; but they did not want us at it, and on
+Tuesday we are to have a Christmas ship, and a magic-lantern, and
+Rollo and Mr. Bowater are coming to help--he is the clergyman at
+the next place--and no end of fun, and the biggest dog you ever
+saw. Fergus has got one of his crazes worse than ever about old
+stones, and is always in the coal hole, poking after ferns and
+things. Wishing you a merry Christmas.---Your affectionate
+son,<br>
+ 'WILFRED MERRIFIELD.'</p>
+
+<p>(MYSIE.)</p>
+
+<p>'ROTHERWOOD, Christmas Day.</p>
+
+<p>'MY OWN DEAREST MAMMA---A very happy Christmas to you, and
+papa and Claude and my sisters, and here are the cards, which
+Miss Elbury helped me about so kindly that I think they are
+better than usual: I mean that she advised me, for no one touched
+them but myself. You will like your text, I hope, I chose it
+because it is so nice to think we are all one, though we are in
+so many different places. I did one with the same for poor
+Dolores in New Zealand. Uncle William was here yesterday, and he
+said dear little Primrose is almost quite well. Fly is much
+better to-day; her eyes look quite bright, and she is to sit up a
+little while in the afternoon, but I may not talk to her for fear
+of making her cough; but she slept all night without one whoop,
+and will soon be well now. Cousin Rotherwood was so glad that he
+was quite funny this morning, and he gave me the loveliest
+writing-case you ever saw, with a good lock and gold key, and
+gold tops to everything, and my three M's engraved on them all. I
+have so many presents and cards that I will write out a list when
+I have finished my letter. I shall have plenty of time, for
+everybody is gone to church except Cousin Florence, who went
+early.</p>
+
+<p>'I am to dine at the late dinner, which will be early, because
+of the church singers, and Cousin Rotherwood says he and I will
+do snapdragon, if I will promise not to whoop.</p>
+
+<p>'4.30.---I had to stop again because of the doctor. He says he
+does not want to have any more to do with me, and that I may go
+out the first fine day, and that Fly is much better. And only
+think! He says Rockquay is the very place for Fly, and as soon as
+we are not catching, we are all to go there. Cousin Rotherwood
+told me so for a great secret, but he said I might tell you, and
+that he would ask Aunt Alethea to let Primrose come too. It does
+warm one up to think of it, and it is much easier to feel
+thankful and glad about all the rest of the right sort of
+Christmas happiness, now I am so near having Gill and Val
+again.---Your very loving child,<br>
+ M. M. MERRIFIELD.'</p>
+
+<p>(JASPER.)</p>
+
+<p>'VALE LESTON PRIORY,<br>
+ '25th December.<br>
+ 'DEAREST MOTHER---Here are my Christmas wishes that we may all
+be right again at home this year, and that you could see the
+brace of pheasants I killed. However, Gill and I are in
+uncommonly nice quarters. I shall let her tell the long story
+about who is who, for there is such a swarm of cousins, and
+uncles, and aunts, and when you think you have hold of the right
+one, it turns out to be the other lot. There are three houses
+choke full of them, and more floating about, and all running in
+and out, till it gets like the little pig that could not be
+counted, it ran about so fast. They are all Underwood or
+Harewood, more or less, except the Vanderkists, who are all girls
+except a little fellow in knickerbockers. Poor little chap, his
+father was a great man on the turf, and ruined him horse and foot
+before he was born, and then died of D. T., and his mother is a
+great invalid, and very badly off, with no end of daughters---the
+most stunning girls you ever saw---real beauties, and no mistake,
+especially Emily, who is great fun besides. She is to be Helena
+when we act Midsummer Night's Dream on Twelfth Night for all the
+natives, and I am Demetrius, dirty cad that he is! She lives with
+the Grinsteads, and Anna with the Travis Underwoods, Phyllis's
+young man's bosses. If he makes as good a thing of it as they
+have done, she will be no end of a swell. Mr. Travis Underwood
+has brought down his hunters and gives me a mount. Claude would
+go stark staring mad to see his Campeador.</p>
+
+<p>'They are awfully musical here, and are always at carols or
+something, and that's the only thing against them. As to Gill,
+she is in clover, in raptures with every one, especially Mrs.
+Grinstead, and I think it is doing her good.---Your affectionate
+son,<br>
+ J. R. M.'</p>
+
+<p>(GILLIAN.)</p>
+
+<p>'DEAREST MAMMA---All Christmas love, and a message to Phyllis
+that I almost forgive her desertion for the sake of the set of
+connections she has brought us, like the nearest and dearest
+relations or more, but Geraldine--for so she told me to call
+her---is still the choicest of all. It is so pretty to see her
+husband--the great sculptor---wait on her, as if she was a queen
+and he her knight! Anna told me that he had been in love with her
+ever so long, and she refused him once; but after the eldest
+brother died, and she was living at St. Wulstan's, he tried
+again, and she could not hold out. I told you of her charming
+house, so full of lovely things, and about Gerald, all cleverness
+and spirit, but too delicate for a public school. He is such a
+contrast to Edward Harewood, a great sturdy, red-haired fellow,
+who is always about with Jasper, except when he---Japs, I
+mean---is with Emily Vanderkist. She is the prettiest of the
+Vanderkists. There are eight of them besides little Sir Adrian.
+Mary always stays to look after her mother, who is in very bad
+health, and has weak eyes. They call Mary invaluable and so very
+good, but she is like a homely little Dutchwoman, and nobody
+would think she was only twenty. Sophy, the next to her, calls
+herself pupil-teacher to Mrs. William Harewood, and together they
+manage the schoolroom for all the younger sisters the two little
+girls at the Vicarage, and Wilmet, the only girl here at the
+Priory; but, of course, no lessons are going on now, only
+learning and rehearsing the parts, and making the dresses,
+painting the scenes, and learning songs. They all do care so much
+about music here that I find I really know hardly anything about
+it, and Jasper says it is their only failing.</p>
+
+<p>'They say Mr. Lancelot Underwood sings and plays better than
+any of them; but he is at Stoneborough. However, he is coming
+over with all the Mays for our play, old Dr. May and all. I was
+very much surprised to find he was an organist and a bookseller,
+but Geraldine told me about it, and how it was for the sake of
+the eldest brother---"my brother," they all say; and somehow it
+seems as if the house was still his, though it is so many years
+since he died. And yet they are all such happy, merry people. I
+wish I could let you know how delightful it all is. Sometimes I
+feel as if I did not deserve to have such a pleasant time. I
+can't quite explain, but to be with Geraldine Grinstead makes one
+feel one's self to be of a ruder, more selfish mould, and I know
+I have not been all I ought to be at Rockstone; but I don't mind
+telling you, now you are so soon to be at home, Aunt Jane seems
+to worry me--I can't tell how, exactly--while there is something
+about Geraldine that soothes and brightens, and all the time
+makes one long to be better.</p>
+
+<p>'I never heard such sermons as Mr. Harewood's either; it seems
+as if I had never listened before, but these go right down into
+one. I cannot leave off thinking about the one last Sunday, about
+"making manifest the counsels of all hearts." I see now that I
+was not as much justified in not consulting Aunt Jane about
+Kalliope and Alexis as I thought I was, and that the concealment
+was wrong. It came over me before the beautiful early Celebration
+this morning, and I could not feel as if I ought to be there till
+I had made a resolution to tell her all about it, though I should
+like it not to be till you are come home, and can tell her that I
+am not really like Dolores, as she will be sure to think me, for
+I really did it, not out of silliness and opposition, but because
+I knew how good they were, and I did tell you. Honestly, perhaps
+there was some opposition in the spirit of it; but I mean to make
+a fresh start when I come back, and you will be near at hand
+then, and that will help me.</p>
+
+<p>'26th.---The afternoon service of song began and I was called
+off. I never heard anything so lovely, and we had a delightful
+evening. I can't tell you about it now, for I am snatching a
+moment when I am not rehearsing, as this must go to-day. Dr. and
+Miss May, and the Lances, as they call them, are just come. The
+Doctor is a beautiful old man. All the children were round him
+directly, and he kissed me, and said that he was proud to meet
+the daughter of such a distinguished man.</p>
+
+<p>'This must go.---Your loving daughter, 'JULIANA
+MERRIFIELD.'</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>(HARRY.)</p>
+
+<p>'COALHAM, Christmas Day.<br>
+ 'It is nearly St. Stephen's Day, for, dear mother, I have not
+had a minute before to send you or my father my Christmas
+greeting. We have had most joyous services, unusually well
+attended, David tells me, and that makes up for the demonstration
+we had outside the door last night. David is the right fellow for
+this place, though we are disapproved of as south country folk.
+The boys are well and amused, Wilfred much more comfortable for
+being treated more as a man, and Fergus greatly come on, and
+never any trouble, being always dead-set on some pursuit. It is
+geology, or rather mineralogy, at present, and if he carries home
+all the stones he has accumulated in the back yard, he will have
+a tolerable charge for extra luggage. David says there is the
+making of a great man in him, I think it is of an Uncle Maurice.
+Macrae writes to me in a state of despair about the drains at
+Silverfold; scarlet fever and diphtheria abound at the town, so
+that he says you cannot come back there till something has been
+done, and he wants me to come and look at them; but I do not see
+how I can leave David at present, as we are in the thick of
+classes for Baptism and Confirmation in Lent, and I suspect Aunt
+Jane knows more about the matter than I do.</p>
+
+<p>'Gillian and Jasper seem to be in a state of great felicity at
+Vale Leston---and Mysie getting better, but poor little Phyllis
+Devereux has been seriously ill.--Your affectionate son, H.
+MERRIFIELD.'</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>(AUNT JANE AND AUNT ADELINE.)</p>
+
+<p>'11.30, Christmas Eve.<br>
+ 'MY DEAREST LILY---This will be a joint letter, for Ada will
+finish it to-morrow, and I must make the most of my time while
+waiting for the Waits to dwell on unsavoury business. Macrae came
+over here with a convoy of all sorts of "delicacies of the
+season," for which thank you heartily in the name of Whites,
+Hablots, and others who partook thereof, according, no doubt, to
+your kind intention. He was greatly perturbed, poor man, for your
+cook has been very ill with diphtheria, and the scarlet fever is
+severe all round; there have been some deaths, and the gardener's
+child was in great danger. The doctor has analysed the water, and
+finds it in a very bad state, so that your absence this autumn is
+providential. If you are in haste, telegraph to me, and I will
+meet your landlord there, and the sanitary inspector, and see
+what can be done, without waiting for Jasper.<br>
+ At any rate, you cannot go back there at once. Shall I secure a
+furnished house for you here? The Rotherwoods are coming to the
+hotel next door to us, as soon as Phyllis is fit to move and
+infection over. Victoria will stay there with the children, and
+he go back and forwards. If Harry and Phyllis May should come
+home, I suppose their headquarters will be at Stoneborough; but
+still this would be the best place for a family gathering.
+Moreover, Fergus gets on very nicely at Mrs. Edgar's, and it
+would be a pity to disturb him. On the other hand, I am not sure
+of the influences of the place upon the--</p>
+
+<p>'Christmas Day, 3 P.M.---There came the Waits I suppose, and
+Jane had to stop and leave me to take up the thread. Poor dear
+Jenny, the festival days are no days of rest to her, but I am not
+sure that she would enjoy repose, or that it would not be the
+worse possible penance to her. She is gone down now to the
+workhouse with Valetta to take cards and tea and tobacco to the
+old people, not sending them, because she says a few personal
+wishes and the sight of a bright child will be worth something to
+the old bodies. Then comes tea for the choir-boys, before
+Evensong and carols, and after that my turn may come for what
+remains of the evening. I must say the church is lovely, thanks
+to your arums and camellias, which Macrae brought us just in
+time. It is very unfortunate that Silverfold should be in such a
+state, but delightful for us if it sends you here; and this
+brings me to Jenny's broken thread, which I must spin on, though
+I tell her to take warning by you, when you so repented having
+brought Maurice home by premature wails about Dolores. Perhaps
+impatience is a danger to all of us, and I believe there is such
+a thing as over-candour.</p>
+
+<p>'What Jane was going to say was that she did not think the
+place had been good for either of the girls; but all that would
+be obviated by your presence. If poor Miss Vincent joins you, now
+that she is free, you would have your own schoolroom again, and
+the locality would not make much difference. Indeed, if the
+Rotherwood party come by the end of the holidays, I have very
+little doubt that Victoria will allow Valetta to join Phyllis and
+Mysie in the schoolroom, and that would prevent any talk about
+her removal from the High School. The poor little thing has
+behaved as well as possible ever since, and is an excellent
+companion; Jane is sure that it has been a lesson that will last
+her for life, and I am convinced that she was under an influence
+that you can put an end to--I mean that White family. Jane thinks
+well of the eldest daughter, in spite of her fringe and of her
+refusal to enter the G.F.S.; but I have good reason for knowing
+that she holds assignations in Mr. White's garden on Sunday
+afternoons with young Stebbing, whose mother knows her to be a
+most artful and dangerous girl, though she is so clever at the
+mosaic work that there is no getting her discharged. Mrs.
+Stebbing called to warn us against her, and, as I was the only
+person at home, told me how she had learnt from Mr. White's
+housekeeper that this girl comes every Sunday alone to walk in
+the gardens---she was sure it must be to meet somebody, and they
+are quite accessible to an active young man on the side towards
+the sea. He is going in a few days to join the other partner at
+the Italian quarries, greatly in order that the connection may be
+broken off. It is very odd that Jane, generally so acute, should
+be so blind here. All she said was, "That's just the time Gillian
+is so bent on mooning in the garden." It is a mere absurdity;
+Gillian always goes to the children's service, and besides, she
+was absent last Sunday, when Miss White was certainly there. But
+Gillian lends the girl books, and altogether patronises her in a
+manner which is somewhat perplexing to us; though, as it cannot
+last long, Jane thinks it better not to interfere before your
+return to judge for yourself. These young people are members of
+the Kennel Church congregation, and I had an opportunity of
+talking to Mr. Flight about them. He says he had a high opinion
+of the brother, and hoped to help him to some higher education,
+with a view perhaps to Holy Orders; but that it was so clearly
+the youth's duty to support his mother, and it was so impossible
+for her to get on without his earnings, that he (Mr. Flight, I
+mean) had decided to let him alone that his stability might be
+proved, or till some opening offered; and of late there had been
+reason for disappointment, tokens of being unsettled, and reports
+of meetings with some young woman at his sister's office. It is
+always the way when one tries to be interested in those
+half-and-half people,---the essential vulgarity is sure to break
+out, generally in the spirit of flirtation conducted in an
+underhand manner. And oh! that mother! I write all this because
+you had better be aware of the state of things before your
+return. I am afraid, however, that between us we have not written
+you a very cheering Christmas letter.</p>
+
+<p>'There is a great question about a supply of water to the
+town. Much excitement is caused by the expectation of
+Rotherwood's visit, and it is even said that he is to be met here
+by the great White himself, whom I have always regarded as a sort
+of mythical personage, not to say a harpy, always snatching away
+every promising family of Jane's to the Italian quarries.</p>
+
+<p>'You will have parted with the dear girls by this time, and be
+feeling very sad and solitary; but it is altogether a good
+connection, and a great advantage. I have just addressed to
+Gillian, at Vale Leston, a coroneted envelope, which must be an
+invitation from Lady Liddesdale. I am very glad of it. Nothing is
+so likely as such society to raise her above the tone of these
+Whites.---Your loving A. M.'</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>'10.30 P.M.--These Whites! Really I don't think it as bad as
+Ada supposes, so don't be uneasy, though it is a pity she has
+told you so much of the gossip respecting them. I do not believe
+any harm of that girl Kalliope; she has such an honest, modest
+pair of eyes. I dare say she is persecuted by that young
+Stebbing, for she is very handsome, and he is an odious puppy.
+But as to her assignations in the garden, if they are with any
+one, it is with Gillian, and I see no harm in them, except that
+we might have been told--only that would have robbed the entire
+story of its flavour, I suppose. Besides, I greatly disbelieve
+the entire story, so don't be worried about it! There---as if we
+had not been doing our best to worry you! But come home, dearest
+old Lily. Gather your chicks under your wing, and when you cluck
+them together again, all will be well. I don't think you will
+find Valetta disimproved by her crisis. It is curious to hear how
+she and Gillian both declare that Mysie would have prevented it,
+as if naughtiness or deceit shrank from that child's very
+face.</p>
+
+<p>'It has been a very happy, successful Christmas Day, full of
+rejoicing. May you be feeling the same; that joy has made us one
+in many a time of separation.---Your faithful old Brownie,<br>
+ J. MOHUN.'</p>
+
+<p>(GILLIAN AGAIN.)</p>
+
+<p>'ROWTHORPE, 20th January.</p>
+
+<p>'DEAREST MAMMA---This is a Sunday letter. I am writing it in a
+beautiful place, more like a drawing-room than a bed-room, and it
+is all very grand; such long galleries, such quantities of
+servants, so many people staying in the house, that I should feel
+quite lost but for Geraldine. We came so late last night that
+there was only just time to dress for dinner at eight o'clock. I
+never dined with so many people before, and they are all staying
+in the house. I have not learnt half of them yet, though Lady
+Liddesdale, who is a nice, merry old lady, with gray hair, called
+her eldest granddaughter, Kitty Somerville, and told her to take
+care of me, and tell me who they all were. One of them is that
+Lord Ormersfield, whom Mysie ran against at Rotherwood, and, do
+you know, I very nearly did the same; for there is early
+Celebration at the little church just across the garden. Kitty
+talked of calling for me, but I did not make sure, because I
+heard some one say she was not to go if she had a cold; and, when
+I heard the bell, I grew anxious and started off, and I lost my
+way, and thought I should never get to the stairs; but just as I
+was turning back, out came Lord and Lady Ormersfield. He looks
+quite young, though he is rather lame--I shall like all lame
+people, for the sake of Geraldine--and Lady Ormersfield has such
+a motherly face. He laughed, and said I was not the first person
+who had lost my way in the labyrinths of passages, so I went on
+with them, and after all Kitty was hunting for me! I sat next him
+at breakfast, and, do you know, he asked me whether I was the
+sister of a little downright damsel he met at Rotherwood two
+years ago, and said he had used her truthfulness about the
+umbrella for a favourite example to his small youngest!</p>
+
+<p>'When I hear of truthfulness I feel a sort of shock. "Oh, if
+you knew!" I am ready to say, and I grow quite hot. That is what
+I am really writing about to-day. I never had time after that
+Christmas Day at Vale Leston to do more than keep you up to all
+the doings; but I did think: and there were Mr. Harewood's
+sermons, which had a real sting in them, and a great sweetness
+besides. I have tried to set some down for you, and that is one
+reason I did not say more. But to-day, after luncheon, it is very
+quiet, for Kitty and Constance are gone to their Sunday classes,
+and the gentlemen and boys are out walking, except Lord
+Somerville, who has a men's class of his own, and all the old
+ladies are either in their rooms, or talking in pairs. So I can
+tell you that I see now that I did not go on in a right spirit
+with Aunt Jane, and that I did poor Val harm by my example, and
+went very near deception, for I did not choose to believe that
+when you said "If Aunt J. approves," you meant about Alexis
+White's lessons; so I never told her or Kalliope, and I perceive
+now that it was not right towards either; for Kally was very
+unhappy about her not knowing. I am very sorry; I see that I was
+wrong all round, and that I should have understood it before, if
+I had examined myself in the way Mr. Harewood dwelt upon in his
+last Sunday in Advent sermon, and never gone on in such a
+way.</p>
+
+<p>'I am not going to wait for you now, but shall confess it all
+to Aunt Jane as soon as I go home, and try to take it as my
+punishment if she asks a terrible number of questions. Perhaps I
+shall write it, but it would take such a quantity of explanation,
+and I don't want Aunt Ada to open the letter, as she does any
+that come while Aunt Jane is out.</p>
+
+<p>'Please kiss my words and forgive me, as you read this, dear
+mamma; I never guessed I was going to be so like Dolores.</p>
+
+<p>'Kitty has come to my door to ask if I should like to come and
+read something nice and Sundayish with them in her grandmamma's
+dressing-room.---So no more from your loving GILL.'</p>
+
+<center>CHAPTER XII. TRANSFORMATION</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<p>'Well, now for the second stage of our guardianship!' said
+Aunt Ada, as the two sisters sat over the fire after Valetta had
+gone to bed. 'Fergus comes back to-morrow, and
+Gillian---when?'</p>
+
+<p>'She does not seem quite certain, for there is to be a day or
+two at Brompton with this delightful Geraldine, so that she may
+see her grandmother---also Mr. Clement Underwood's church, and
+the Merchant of Venice--an odd mixture of ecclesiastics and
+dissipations.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wonder whether she will be set up by it.'</p>
+
+<p>'So do I! They are all remarkably good people; but then good
+people do sometimes spoil the most of all, for they are too
+unselfish to snub. And on the other hand, seeing the world
+sometimes has the wholesome effect of making one feel
+small--'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Jenny!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! I did not mean you, who are never easily effaced; but I
+was thinking of youthful bumptiousness, fostered by country life
+and elder sistership.'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly, though Valetta is really much improved, Gillian
+has not been as pleasant as I expected, especially during the
+latter part of the time.'</p>
+
+<p>'Query, was it her fault or mine, or the worry of the
+examination, or all three?'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps you did superintend a little too much at first. More
+than modern independence was prepared for, though I should not
+have expected recalcitration in a young Lily; but I think there
+was more ruffling of temper and more reserve than I can quite
+understand.'</p>
+
+<p>'It has not been a success. As dear old Lily would have said,
+"My dream has vanished," of a friend in the younger generation,
+and now it remains to do the best I can for her in the few weeks
+that are left, before we have her dear mother again.'</p>
+
+<p>'At any rate, you have no cause to be troubled about the other
+two. Valetta is really the better for her experience, and you
+have always got on well with the boy.'</p>
+
+<p>Fergus was the first of the travellers to appear at Rockstone.
+Miss Mohun, who went to meet him at the station, beheld a small
+figure lustily pulling at a great canvas bag, which came bumping
+down the step, assisted by a shove from the other passengers, and
+threatening for a moment to drag him down between platform and
+carriages.</p>
+
+<p>'Fergus, Fergus, what have you got there? Give it to me. How
+heavy!'</p>
+
+<p>'It's a few of my mineralogical specimens,' replied Fergus.
+'Harry wouldn't let me put any more into my portmanteau---but the
+peacock and the dendrum are there.'</p>
+
+<p>Already, without special regard to peacock or dendrum,
+whatever that article might be, Miss Mohun was claiming the
+little old military portmanteau, with a great M and 110th painted
+on it, that held Fergus's garments.</p>
+
+<p>He would scarcely endure to deposit the precious bag in the
+omnibus, and as he walked home his talk was all of tertiary
+formations, and coal measures, and limestones, as he extracted a
+hammer from his pocket, and looked perilously disposed to use it
+on the vein of crystals in a great pink stone in a garden wall.
+His aunt was obliged to begin by insisting that the walls should
+be safe from geological investigations.</p>
+
+<p>'But it is such waste, Aunt Jane. Only think of building up
+such beautiful specimens in a stupid old wall.'</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Jane did not debate the question of waste, but assured
+him that equally precious specimens could be honestly come by;
+while she felt renewed amusement and pleasure at anything so like
+the brother Maurice of thirty odd years ago being beside her.</p>
+
+<p>It made her endure the contents of the bag being turned out
+like a miniature rockery for her inspection on the floor of the
+glazed verandah outside the drawing-room, and also try to pacify
+Mrs. Mount's indignation at finding the more valuable specimens,
+or, as she called them, 'nasty stones' and bits of dirty coal,
+within his socks.</p>
+
+<p>Much more information as to mines, coal, or copper, was to be
+gained from him than as to Cousin David, or Harry, or Jasper, who
+had spent the last ten days of his holidays at Coalham, which had
+procured for Fergus the felicity of a second underground
+expedition. It was left to his maturer judgment and the next move
+to decide how many of his specimens were absolutely worthless; it
+was only stipulated that he and Valetta should carry them, all
+and sundry, up to the lumber-room, and there arrange them as he
+chose;--Aunt Jane routing out for him a very dull little manual
+of mineralogy, and likewise a book of Maria Hack's, long since
+out of print, but wherein 'Harry Beaufoy' is instructed in the
+chief outlines of geology in a manner only perhaps inferior to
+that of "Madame How and Lady Why," which she reserved for a
+birthday present. Meantime Rockstone and its quarries were almost
+as excellent a field of research as the mines of Coalham, and in
+a different line.</p>
+
+<p>'How much nicer it is to be a boy than a girl!' sighed
+Valetta, as she beheld her junior marching off with all the
+dignity of hammer and knapsack to look up Alexis White and obtain
+access to the heaps of rubbish, which in his eyes held as
+infinite possibilities as the diamond fields of Kimberley. And
+Alexis was only delighted to bestow on him any space of daylight
+when both were free from school or from work, and kept a look-out
+for the treasures he desired. Of course, out of gratitude to his
+parents---or was it out of gratitude to his sister? Perhaps
+Fergus could have told, if he had paid the slightest attention to
+such a trifle, how anxiously Alexis inquired when Miss Gillian
+was expected to return. Moreover, he might have told that his
+other model, Stebbing, pronounced old Dick White a beast and a
+screw, with whom his brother Frank was not going to stop.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian came back a fortnight later, having been kept at
+Rowthorpe, together with Mrs. Grinstead, for a family festival
+over the double marriage in Ceylon, after which she spent a few
+days in London, so as to see her grandmother, Mrs. Merrifield,
+who was too infirm for an actual visit to be welcome, since her
+attendant grandchild, Bessie Merrifield, was so entirely occupied
+with her as to have no time to bestow upon a guest of more than
+an hour or two. Gillian was met at the station by her aunt, and
+when all her belongings had been duly extracted, proving a good
+deal larger in bulk than when she had left Rockstone, and both
+were seated in the fly to drive home through a dismal February
+Fill-dyke day, the first words that were spoken were,</p>
+
+<p>'Aunt Jane, I ought to tell you something.'</p>
+
+<p>Hastily revolving conjectures as to the subject of the coming
+confession, Miss Mohun put herself at her niece's service.</p>
+
+<p>'Aunt Jane, I know I ought to have told you how much I was
+seeing of the Whites last autumn.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, I know you wished to do what you could for them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Gillian, finding it easier than she expected. 'You
+know Alexis wants very much to be prepared for Holy Orders, and
+he could not get on by himself, so I have been running down to
+Kalliope's office after reading to Lily Giles, to look over his
+Greek exercises.'</p>
+
+<p>'Meeting him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Only sometimes. But Kally did not like it. She said you ought
+to know, and that was the reason she would not come into the
+G.F.S. She is so good and honourable, Aunt Jane.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure she is a very excellent girl,' said Aunt Jane
+warmly. 'But certainly it would have been better to have these
+lessons in our house. Does your mother know?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Gillian, 'I wrote to her all I was doing, and how
+I have been talking to Kally on Sunday afternoons through the
+rails of Mr. White's garden. I thought she could telegraph if she
+did not approve, but she does not seem to have noticed it in my
+letters, only saying something I could not make out--about "if
+you approved."'</p>
+
+<p>'And is that the reason you have told me?'</p>
+
+<p>'Partly, but I got the letter before the holidays. I think it
+has worked itself up, Aunt Jane, into a sense that it was not the
+thing. There was Kally, and there was poor Valetta's mess, and
+her justifying herself by saying I did more for the Whites than
+you knew, and altogether, I grew sorry I had begun it, for I was
+sure it was not acting honestly towards you, Aunt Jane, and I
+hope you will forgive me.'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mohun put her arm round the girl and kissed her
+heartily.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Gill, I am glad you have told me! I dare say I seemed
+to worry you, and that you felt as if you were watched; I will do
+my very best to help you, if you have got into a scrape. I only
+want to ask you not to do anything more till I can see Kally, and
+settle with her the most suitable way of helping the youth.'</p>
+
+<p>But do you think there is a scrape, aunt? I never thought of
+that, if you forgave me.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, I see you did not; and that you told me because you
+are my Lily's daughter, and have her honest heart. I do not know
+that there is anything amiss, but I am afraid young ladies can't
+do---well, impulsive things without a few vexations in
+consequence. Don't be so dismayed, I don't know of anything, and
+I cannot tell you how glad I am of your having spoken out in this
+way.'</p>
+
+<p>'I feel as if a load were off my back!' said Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>And a bar between her and her aunt seemed to have vanished, as
+they drove up the now familiar slope, and under the leafless
+copper beeches. Blood is thinker than water, and what five months
+ago had seemed to be exile, had become the first step towards
+home, if not home itself, for now, like Valetta, she welcomed the
+sound of her mother's voice in her aunt's. And there were Valetta
+and Fergus rushing out, almost under the wheels to fly at her,
+and Aunt Ada's soft embraces in the hall.</p>
+
+<p>The first voice that came out of the melee was Valetta's.
+'Gill is grown quite a lady!'</p>
+
+<p>'How much improved!' exclaimed Aunt Ada.</p>
+
+<p>'The Bachfisch has swum into the river,' was Aunt Jane's
+comment.</p>
+
+<p>'She'll never be good for anything jolly---no scrambling!'
+grumbled Fergus.</p>
+
+<p>'Now Fergus! didn't Kitty Somerville and I scramble when we
+found the gate locked, and thought we saw the spiteful stag, and
+that he was going to run at us?'</p>
+
+<p>'I'm afraid that was rather on compulsion, Gill.'</p>
+
+<p>'It wasn't the spiteful stag after all, but we had such a long
+way to come home, and got over the park wall at last by the help
+of the limb of a tree. We had been taking a bit of wedding-cake
+to Frank Somerville's old nurse, and Kitty told her I was her
+maiden aunt, and we had such fun--her uncle's wife's sister, you
+know.'</p>
+
+<p>'We sent a great piece of our wedding-cake to the Whites,' put
+in Valetta. 'Fergus and I took it on Saturday afternoon, but
+nobody was at home but Mrs. White, and she is fatter than
+ever.'</p>
+
+<p>'I say, Gill, which is the best formation, Vale Leston or
+Rowthorpe?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, nobody is equal to Geraldine; but Kitty is a dear
+thing.'</p>
+
+<p>'I didn't mean that stuff, but which had the best strata and
+specimens ?'</p>
+
+<p>'Geological, he means---not of society,' interposed Aunt
+Jane.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes! Harry said he had gone geology mad, and I really did
+get you a bit of something at Vale Leston, Fergus, that Mr.
+Harewood said was worth having. Was it an encrinite? I know it
+was a stone-lily.'</p>
+
+<p>'An encrinite! Oh, scrumptious!'</p>
+
+<p>Then ensued such an unpacking as only falls to the lot of
+home-comers from London, within the later precincts of Christmas,
+gifts of marvellous contrivance and novelty, as well as
+cheapness, for all and sundry, those reserved for others almost
+as charming to the beholders as those which fell to their own
+lot. The box, divided into compartments, transported Fergus as
+much as the encrinite; Valetta had a photograph-book, and, more
+diffidently, Gillian presented Aunt Ada with a graceful little
+statuette in Parian, and Aunt Jane with the last novelty in
+baskets. There were appropriate keepsakes for the maids, and
+likewise for Kalliope and Maura. Aunt Jane was glad to see that
+discretion had prevailed so as to confine these gifts to the
+female part of the White family. There were other precious
+articles in reserve for the absent; and the display of Gillian's
+own garments was not without interest, as she had been to her
+first ball, under the chaperonage of Lady Somerville, and Mrs.
+Grinstead had made her white tarletan available by painting it
+and its ribbons with exquisite blue nemophilas, too lovely for
+anything so fleeting.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Grinstead and her maid had taken charge of the damsel's
+toilette at Rowthorpe, had perhaps touched up her dresses, and
+had certainly taught her how to put them on, and how to manage
+her hair, so that though it had not broken out into fringes or
+tousles, as if it were desirable to imitate savages 'with
+foreheads marvellous low,' the effect was greatly improved. The
+young brown-skinned, dark-eyed face, and rather tall figure were
+the same, even the clothes the very same chosen under her aunt
+Ada's superintendence, but there was an indescribable change, not
+so much that of fashion as of distinction, and something of the
+same inward growth might be gathered from her conversation.</p>
+
+<p>All the evening there was a delightful outpouring. Gillian had
+been extremely happy, and considerably reconciled to her sisters'
+marriages; but she had been away from home and kin long enough to
+make her feel her nearness to her aunts, and to appreciate the
+pleasure of describing her enjoyment without restraint, and of
+being with those whose personal family interests were her own,
+not only sympathetic, like her dear Geraldine's. They were ready
+for any amount of description, though, on the whole, Miss Mohun
+preferred to hear of the Vale Leston charities and church
+details, and Miss Adeline of the Rowthorpe grandees and gaieties,
+after the children had supped full of the diversions of their own
+kind at both places, and the deeply interesting political scraps
+and descriptions of great men had been given.</p>
+
+<p>It had been, said Aunt Jane, a bit of education. Gillian had
+indeed spent her life with thoughtful, cultivated, and superior
+people; but the circumstances of her family had confined her to a
+schoolroom sort of existence ever since she had reached
+appreciative years, retarding, though not perhaps injuring, her
+development; nor did Rockquay society afford much that was
+elevating, beyond the Bureau de Charite that Beechcroft Cottage
+had become. Details were so much in hand that breadth of
+principle might be obscured.</p>
+
+<p>At Vale Leston, however, there was a strong ecclesiastical
+atmosphere; but while practical parish detail was thoroughly kept
+up, there was a wider outlook, and constant conversation and
+discussion among superior men, such as the Harewood brothers,
+Lancelot Underwood, Mr. Grinstead, and Dr. May, on the great
+principles and issues of Church and State matters, religion, and
+morals, together with matters of art, music, and literature,
+opening new vistas to her, and which she could afterwards go over
+with Mrs. Grinstead and Emily and Anna Vanderkist with enthusiasm
+and comprehension. It was something different from grumbling over
+the number of candles at St. Kenelm's, or the defective washing
+of the St. Andrew's surplices.</p>
+
+<p>At Rowthorpe she had seen and heard people with great historic
+names, champions in the actual battle. There had been a constant
+coming and going of guests during her three weeks' visit,
+political meetings, entertainments to high and low, the opening
+of a public institute in the next town, the exhibition of
+tableaux in which she had an important share, parties in the
+evenings, and her first ball. The length of her visit and her
+connection with the family had made her share the part of hostess
+with Lady Constance and Lady Katharine Somerville, and she had
+been closely associated with their intimates, the daughters of
+these men of great names. Of course there had been plenty of
+girlish chatter and merry trifling, perhaps some sharp satirical
+criticism, and the revelations she had heard had been a good deal
+of the domestic comedy of political and aristocratic life; but
+throughout there had been a view of conscientious goodness, for
+the young girls who gave a tone to the rest had been carefully
+brought up, and were earnest and right-minded, accepting
+representation, gaiety, and hospitality as part of the duty of
+their position, often involving self-denial, though there was
+likewise plenty of enjoyment.</p>
+
+<p>Such glimpses of life had taught Gillian more than she yet
+realised. As has been seen, the atmosphere of Vale Leston had
+deepened her spiritual life, and the sermons had touched her
+heart to the quick, and caused self-examination, which had
+revealed to her the secret of her dissatisfaction with herself,
+and her perception was the clearer through her intercourse on
+entirely equal terms with persons of a high tone of
+refinement.</p>
+
+<p>The immediate fret of sense of supervision and opposition
+being removed, she had seen things more justly, and a distaste
+had grown on her for stolen expeditions to the office, and for
+the corrections of her pupil's exercises. She recoiled from the
+idea that this was the consequence either of having swell
+friends, or of getting out of her depth in her instructions; but
+reluctance recurred, while advance in knowledge of the world made
+her aware that Alexis White, after hours, in his sister's office,
+might justly be regarded by her mother and aunts as an
+undesirable scholar for her, and that his sister's remonstrances
+ought not to have been scouted. She had done the thing in her
+simplicity, but it was through her own wilful secretiveness that
+her ignorance had not been guarded.</p>
+
+<p>Thus she had, as a matter of truth, conscience, and
+repentance, made the confession which had been so kindly received
+as to warm her heart with gratitude to her aunt, and she awoke
+the next morning to feel freer, happier, and more at home than
+she had ever yet done at Rockstone.</p>
+
+<p>When the morning letters were opened, they contained the
+startling news that Mysie might be expected that very evening,
+with Fly, the governess, and Lady Rotherwood,--at least that was
+the order of precedence in which the party represented itself to
+the minds of the young Merrifields. Primrose had caught a fresh
+cold, and her uncle and aunt would not part with her till her
+mother's return, but the infection was over with the other two,
+and sea air was recommended as soon as possible for Lady Phyllis;
+so, as the wing of the hotel, which was almost a mansion in
+itself, had been already engaged, the journey was to be made at
+once, and the arrival would take place in the afternoon. The
+tidings were most rapturously received; Valetta jumped on and off
+all the chairs in the room unchidden, while Fergus shouted,
+'Hurrah for Mysie and Fly!' and Gillian's heart felt free to
+leap.</p>
+
+<p>This made it a very busy day, since Lady Rotherwood had begged
+to have some commissions executed for her beforehand, small in
+themselves, but, with a scrupulously thorough person, occupying
+all the time left from other needful engagements; so that there
+was no chance of the promised conversation with Kalliope, nor did
+Gillian trouble herself much about it in her eagerness, and
+hardly heard Fergus announce that Frank Stebbing had come home,
+and the old boss was coming, 'bad luck to him.'</p>
+
+<p>All the three young people were greatly disappointed that
+their aunts would not consent to their being on the platform nor
+in front of the hotel, nor even in what its mistress termed the
+reception-room, to meet the travellers.</p>
+
+<p>'There was nothing Lady Rotherwood would dislike more than a
+rush of you all,' said Aunt Adeline, and they had to submit,
+though Valetta nearly cried when she was dragged in from
+demonstratively watching at the gate in a Scotch mist.</p>
+
+<p>However, in about a quarter of an hour there was a ring at the
+door, and in another moment Mysie and Gillian were hugging one
+smother, Valetta hanging round Mysie's neck, Fergus pulling down
+her arm. The four creatures seemed all wreathed into one like
+fabulous snakes for some seconds, and when they unfolded enough
+for Mysie to recollect and kiss her aunts, there certainly was a
+taller, better-equipped figure, but just the same round,
+good-humoured countenance, and the first thing, beyond happy
+ejaculations, that she was heard in a dutiful voice to say was,
+'Miss Elbury brought me to the door. I may stay as long as my
+aunts like to have me this evening, if you will be so kind as to
+send some one to see me back.'</p>
+
+<p>Great was the jubilation, and many the inquiries after
+Primrose, who had once been nearly well, but had fallen back
+again, and Fly, who, Mysie said, was quite well and as comical as
+ever when she was well, but quickly tired. She had set out in
+high spirits, but had been dreadfully weary all the latter part
+of the journey, and was to go to bed at once. She still coughed,
+but Mysie was bent on disproving Nurse Halfpenny's assurance that
+the recovery would not be complete till May, nor was there any
+doubt of her own air of perfect health.</p>
+
+<p>It was an evening of felicitous chatter, of showing off
+Christmas cards, of exchanging of news, of building of schemes,
+the most prominent being that Valetta should be in the constant
+companionship of Mysie and Fly until her own schoolroom should be
+re-established. This had been proposed by Lord Rotherwood, and
+was what the aunts would have found convenient; but apparently
+this had been settled by Lord Rotherwood and the two little
+girls, but Lady Rotherwood had not said anything about it, and
+quoth Mysie, 'Somehow things don't happen till Lady Rotherwood
+settles them, and then they always do.'</p>
+
+<p>'And shall I like Miss Elbury?' asked Valetta.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, if---if you take pains,' said Mysie; 'but you mustn't
+bother her with questions in the middle of a lesson, or she tells
+you not to chatter. She likes to have them all kept for the end;
+and then, if they aren't foolish, she will take lots of
+trouble.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I hate that!' said Valetta. 'I shouldn't remember them,
+and I like to have done with it. Then she is not like Miss
+Vincent?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no! She couldn't be dear Miss Vincent; but, indeed, she is
+very kind and nice.'</p>
+
+<p>'How did you get on altogether, Mysie! Wasn't it horrid?'
+asked Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'I was afraid it was going to be horrid,' said Mysie. 'You
+see, it wasn't like going in holiday time as it was before. We
+had to be almost always in the schoolroom; and there were lots of
+lessons--more for me than Fly.'</p>
+
+<p>'Just like a horrid old governess to slake her thirst on you,'
+put in Fergus; and though his aunts shook their heads at him,
+they did not correct him.</p>
+
+<p>'And one had to sit bolt upright all the time, and never twist
+one's ankles,' continued Mysie; 'and not speak except French and
+German---good, mind! It wouldn't do to say, "La jambe du table
+est sur mon exercise?"'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, oh! No wonder Fly got ill!'</p>
+
+<p>'Fly didn't mind one bit. French and German come as naturally
+to her as the days of the week, and they really begin to come to
+me in the morning now when I see Miss Elbury.'</p>
+
+<p>'But have you to go on all day?' asked Valetta
+disconsolately.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no! Not after one o'clock.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you didn't say that mamma thinks it only leads to
+slovenly bad grammar!' said Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'That would have been impertinent,' said Mysie; 'and no one
+would have minded either.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did you never play?'</p>
+
+<p>'We might play after our walk---and after tea; but it had to
+be quiet play, not real good games, even before Fly was ill---at
+least we did have some real games when Primrose came over, or
+when Cousin Rotherwood had us down in his study or in the hall;
+but Fly got tired, and knocked up very soon even then. Miss
+Elbury wanted us always to play battledore and shuttlecock, or
+Les Graces, if we couldn't go out.'</p>
+
+<p>'Horrid woman!' said Valetta.</p>
+
+<p>'No, she isn't horrid,' said Mysie stoutly; 'I only fancied
+her so when she used to say, "Vos coudes, mademoiselle," or
+"Redresses-vous," and when she would not let us whisper; but
+really and truly she was very, very kind, and I came to like her
+very much and see she was not cross--only thought it right.'</p>
+
+<p>'And redressez-vous has been useful, Mysie,' said Aunt Ada;
+'you are as much improved as Gillian.'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought it would be dreadful,' continued Mysie, 'when the
+grown-ups went out on a round of visits, and we had no
+drawing-room, and no Cousin Rotherwood; but Cousin Florence came
+every day, and once she had us to dinner, and that was nice; and
+once she took us to Beechcroft to see Primrose, and if it was not
+fine enough for Fly to go out, she came for me, and I went to her
+cottages with her. Oh, I did like that! And when the
+whooping-cough came, you can't think how very kind she was, and
+Miss Elbury too. They both seemed only to think how to make me
+happy, though I didn't feel ill a bit, except when I whooped, but
+they seemed so sorry for me, and so pleased that I didn't make
+more fuss. I couldn't, you know, when poor Fly was so ill. And
+when she grew better, we were all so glad that somehow it made us
+all like a sort of a kind of a home together, though it could not
+be that.'</p>
+
+<p>Mysie's English had scarcely improved, whatever her French had
+done; but Gillian gathered that she had had far more grievances
+to overcome, and had met them in a very different spirit from
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>As to the schoolroom arrangements, which would have been so
+convenient to the aunts, it was evident that the matter had not
+yet been decisively settled, though the children took it for
+granted.<br>
+ It was pretty to see how Mysie was almost devoured by Fergus and
+Valetta, hanging on either side of her as she sat, and Gillian,
+as near as they would allow, while the four tongues went on
+unceasingly.</p>
+
+<p>It was only horrid, Valetta said, that Mysie should sleep in a
+different house; but almost as much of her company was vouchsafed
+on the ensuing day, Sunday, for Miss Elbury had relations at
+Rockquay, and was released for the entire day; and Fly was still
+so tired in the morning that she was not allowed to get up early
+in the day.</p>
+
+<p>Her mother, however, came in to go to church with Adeline
+Mohun, and Gillian, who had heard so much of the great
+Marchioness, was surprised to see a small slight woman, not
+handsome, and worn-looking about the eyes. At the first glance,
+she was plainly dressed; but the eye of a connoisseur like Aunt
+Ada could detect the exquisiteness of the material and the taste,
+and the slow soft tone of her voice; and every gesture and phrase
+showed that she had all her life been in the habit of
+condescending--in fact, thought Gillian, revolving her recent
+experience, though Lady Liddesdale and all her set are taller,
+finer-looking people, they are not one bit so grand--no, not
+that---but so unapproachable, as I am sure she is. She is
+gracious, while they are just good-natured!</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Ada was evidently pleased with the graciousness, and
+highly delighted to have to take this distinguished personage to
+church. Mysie was with her sisters, Valetta was extremely anxious
+to take her to the Sunday drawing-room class---whether for the
+sake of showing her to Mrs. Hablot, or Mrs. Hablot to her, did
+not appear.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian was glad to be asked to sit with Fly in the meantime.
+It was a sufficient reason for not repairing to the garden, and
+she hoped that Kalliope was unaware of her return, little knowing
+of the replies by which Fergus repaid Alexis for his assistance
+in mineral hunting. She had no desire to transgress Miss Mohun's
+desire that no further intercourse should take place till she
+herself had spoken with Kalliope.</p>
+
+<p>She found little Phyllis Devereux a great deal taller and
+thinner than the droll childish being who had been so amusing two
+years before at Silverfold, but eagerly throwing herself into her
+arms with the same affectionate delight. All the table was spread
+with pretty books and outlined illuminations waiting to be
+painted, and some really beautiful illustrated Sunday books; but
+as Gillian touched the first, Fly cried out, 'Oh, don't! I am so
+tired of all those things! And this is such a stupid window. I
+thought at least I should see the people going to church, and
+this looks at nothing but the old sea and a tiresome garden.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is thought a special advantage,' said Gillian,
+smiling.</p>
+
+<p>'Then I wish some one had it who liked it!'</p>
+
+<p>'You would not be so near us.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, and that is nice, and very nice for Mysie. How are all
+the dear beasts at Silverfold--Begum, and all?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid I do not know more about them than Mysie does.
+Aunt Jane heard this morning that she must go down there
+to-morrow to meet the health-man and see what he says; but she
+won't take any of us because of the diphtheria and the scarlet
+fever being about.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh dear, how horrid those catching things are! I've not seen
+Ivinghoe all this winter! Ah! but they are good sometimes! If it
+had not been for the measles, I should never have had that most
+delicious time at Silverfold, nor known Mysie. Now, please tell
+me all about where you have been, and what you have been
+doing.'</p>
+
+<p>Fly knew some of the younger party that Gillian had met at
+Rowthorpe; but she was more interested in the revels at Vale
+Leston, and required a precise description of the theatricals, or
+still better, of the rehearsals. Never was there a more
+appreciative audience, of how it all began from Kit Harewood, the
+young sailor, having sent home a lion's skin from Africa, which
+had already served for tableaux of Androcles and of Una---how the
+boy element had insisted on fun, and the child element on
+fairies, and how Mrs. William Harewood had suggested Midsummer
+Night's Dream as the only combination of the three essentials,
+lion, fun, and fairy, and pronounced that education had
+progressed far enough for the representation to be 'understanded
+of the people,' at least by the 6th and 7th standards. On the
+whole, however, comprehension seemed to have been bounded by
+intense admiration of the little girl fairies, whom the old women
+appeared to have taken for angels, for one had declared that to
+hear little Miss Cherry and Miss Katie singing their hymns like
+the angels they was, was just like Heaven. She must have had an
+odd notion of 'Spotted snakes with double tongues.' Moreover,
+effect was added to the said hymns by Uncle Lance behind the
+scenes.</p>
+
+<p>Then there was the account of how it had been at first
+intended that Oberon should be represented by little Sir Adrian,
+with his Bexley cousin, Pearl Underwood, for his Titania; but
+though she was fairy enough for anything, he turned out so
+stolid, and uttered 'Well met by moonlight, proud Titania,' the
+only lines he ever learnt, exactly like a lesson, besides crying
+whenever asked to study his part, that the attempt had to be
+given up, and the fairy sovereigns had to be of large size, Mr.
+Grinstead pronouncing that probably this was intended by
+Shakespeare, as Titania was a name of Diana, and he combined
+Grecian nymphs with English fairies. So Gerald Underwood had to
+combine the part of Peter Quince (including Thisbe) with that of
+Oberon, and the queen was offered to Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'But I had learnt Hermia,' she said, 'and I saw it was
+politeness, so I wouldn't, and Anna Vanderkist is ever so much
+prettier, besides being used to acting with Gerald. She did look
+perfectly lovely, asleep on the moss in the scene Mrs. Grinstead
+painted and devised for her! There was--'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! not only the prettiness, I don't care for that. One gets
+enough of the artistic, but the fun--the dear fun.'</p>
+
+<p>'There was fun enough, I am sure,' said Gillian. 'Puck was
+Felix---Pearl's brother, you know--eleven years old, so clever,
+and an awful imp---and he was Moon besides; but the worst of it
+was that his dog---it was a funny rough terrier at the
+Vicarage---was so furious at the lion, when Adrian was roaring
+under the skin, that nobody could hear, and Adrian got
+frightened, as well he might, and crept out from under it,
+screaming, and there fell the lion, collapsing flat in the middle
+of the place. Even Theseus---Major Harewood, you know, who had
+tried to be as grave as a judge, and so polite to the
+actors---could not stand that interpolation, as he called it, of
+"the man in the moon---not to say the dog," came down too
+soon--Why, Fly---'</p>
+
+<p>For Fly was in such a paroxysm of laughter as to end in a
+violent fit of coughing, and to bring Lady Rotherwood in, vexed
+and anxious.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, mother! it was only---it was only the lion's skin--' and
+off went Fly, laughing and coughing again.</p>
+
+<p>'I was telling her about the acting or Midsummer Night's Dream
+at Vale Leston,' explained Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'I should not have thought that a suitable subject for the
+day,' said the Marchioness gravely, and Fly's endeavour to say it
+was her fault for asking about it was silenced by choking; and
+Gillian found herself courteously dismissed in polite disgrace,
+and, as she felt, not entirely without justice.</p>
+
+<p>It was a great disappointment that Aunt Jane did not think it
+well to take any of the young people to their home with her. As
+she said, she did not believe that they would catch anything; but
+it was better to be on the safe side, and she fully expected that
+they would spend most of the day with Mysie and Fly.</p>
+
+<p>'I wish I could go and talk to Kalliope, my dear,' she said to
+Gillian; 'but I am afraid it must wait another day.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, never mind,' said Gillian, as they bade each other
+good-night at their doors; 'they don't know that I am come home,
+so they will not expect me.'</p>
+
+<center>CHAPTER XIII.<br>
+ ST. VALENTINE'S DAY</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<p>Miss Mohun came back in the dark after a long day, for once in
+her life quite jaded, and explaining that the health-officer and
+the landlord had been by no means agreed, and that nothing could
+be done till Sir Jasper came home and decided whether to retain
+the house or not.</p>
+
+<p>All that she was clear about, and which she had telegraphed to
+Aden, was, that there must be no going back to Silverfold for the
+present, and she was prepared to begin lodging-hunting as soon as
+she received an answer.</p>
+
+<p>'And how have you got on?' she asked, thinking all looked
+rather blank.</p>
+
+<p>'We haven't been to see Fly,' broke out Valetta, 'though she
+went out on the beach, and Mysie must not stay out after dark,
+for fear she should cough.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mysie says they are afraid of excitement,' said Gillian
+gloomily.</p>
+
+<p>'Then you have seen nothing of the others?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I have seen Victoria, said Aunt Adeline, with a meaning
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mohun went up to take off her things, and Gillian
+followed her, shutting the door with ominous carefulness, and
+colouring all over.</p>
+
+<p>'Aunt Jane, I ought to tell you. A dreadful thing has
+happened!'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, my dear! What?'</p>
+
+<p>'I have had a valentine.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!' repressing a certain inclination to laugh at the bathos
+from the look of horror and shame in the girl's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'It is from that miserable Alexis! Oh, I know I brought it on
+myself, and I have been so wretched and so ashamed all day.'</p>
+
+<p>'Was it so very shocking! Let me see---'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! I sent it back at once by the post, in an envelope,
+saying, "Sent by mistake."'</p>
+
+<p>'But what was it like? Surely it was not one of the common
+shop things?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no; there was rather a pretty outline of a nymph or muse,
+or something of that sort, at the top--drawn, I mean---and verses
+written below, something about my showing a lodestar of hope, but
+I barely glanced at it. I hated it too much.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sorry you were in such a hurry,' said Aunt Jane. 'No
+doubt it was a shock; but I am afraid you have given more pain
+than it quite deserved.'</p>
+
+<p>'It was so impertinent!' cried Gillian, in astonished,
+shame-stricken indignation.</p>
+
+<p>'So it seems to you,' said her aunt, 'and it was very bad
+taste; but you should remember that this poor lad has grown up in
+a stratum of society where he may have come to regard this as a
+suitable opportunity of evincing his gratitude, and perhaps it
+may be very hard upon him to have this work of his treated as an
+insult.'</p>
+
+<p>'But you would not have had me keep it and tolerate it?'
+exclaimed Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'I can hardly tell without having seen it; but you might have
+done the thing more civilly, through his sister, or have let me
+give it back to him. However, it is too late now; I will make a
+point of seeing Kalliope to-morrow, but in the meantime you
+really need not be so horribly disgusted and ashamed.'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought he was quite a different sort!'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps, after all, your thoughts were not wrong; and he only
+fancied, poor boy, that he had found a pretty way of thanking
+you.'</p>
+
+<p>This did not greatly comfort Gillian, who might prefer feeling
+that she was insulted rather than that she had been cruelly
+unkind, and might like to blame Alexis rather than herself. And,
+indeed, in any case, she had sense enough to perceive that this
+very unacceptable compliment was the consequence of her own act
+of independence of more experienced heads.</p>
+
+<p>The next person Miss Mohun met was Fergus, lugging upstairs,
+step by step, a monstrous lump of stone, into which he required
+her to look and behold a fascinating crevice full of glittering
+spar.</p>
+
+<p>'Where did you get that, Fergus?'</p>
+
+<p>'Up off the cliff over the quarry.'</p>
+
+<p>'Are you sure that you may have it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes; White said I might. It's so jolly, auntie! Frank
+Stebbing is gone away to the other shop in the Apennines, where
+the old boss lives. What splendiferous specimens he must have the
+run of! Our Stebbing says 'tis because Kally White makes eyes at
+him; but any way, White has got to do his work while he's away,
+and go all the rounds to see that things are right, so I go after
+him, and he lets me have just what I like--such jolly
+crystals.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure I hope it is all right.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, I always ask him, as you told me; but he is awfully
+slow and mopy and down in the mouth to-day. Stebbing says he is
+sweet upon Gill; but I told him that couldn't be, White knew
+better. A general's daughter, indeed! and Will remembers his
+father a sergeant.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is very foolish, Fergus. Say no more about it, for it is
+not nice talk about your sister.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'll lick any one who does,' said Fergus, bumping his stone
+up another step.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Aunt Jane! There was more to fall on her as soon as the
+door was finally shut on the two rooms communicating with one
+another, which the sisters called their own. Mrs. Mount's
+manipulations of Miss Adeline's rich brown hair were endured with
+some impatience, while Miss Mohun leant back in her chair in her
+shawl-patterned dressing-gown, watching, with a sort of curious
+wonder and foreboding, the restlessness that proved that
+something was in store, and meantime somewhat lazily brushing out
+her own thinner darker locks.</p>
+
+<p>'You are tired, Miss Jane,' said the old servant, using the
+pet name in private moments. 'You had better let me do your
+hair.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, thank you, Fanny; I have very nearly done,' she said,
+marking the signs of eagerness on her sister's part. 'Oh, by the
+bye, did that hot bottle go down to Lilian Giles?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, ma'am; Mrs. Giles came up for it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did she say whether Lily was well enough to see Miss
+Gillian?'</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Mount coughed a peculiar cough that her mistresses well
+knew to signify that she could tell them something they would not
+like to hear, if they chose to ask her, and it was the younger
+who put the question--</p>
+
+<p>'Fanny, did she say anything?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Miss Ada, I told her she must be mistaken, but she
+stuck to it, though she said she never would have breathed a word
+if Miss Gillian had not come back again, but she thought you
+should know it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Know what?' demanded Jane.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Miss Jane, she should say 'tis the talk that Miss
+Gillian, when you have thought her reading to the poor girl, has
+been running down to the works---and 'tis only the ignorance of
+them that will talk, but they say it is to meet a young man. She
+says, Mrs. Giles do, that she never would have noticed such talk,
+but that the young lady did always seem in a hurry, only just
+reading a chapter, and never stopping to talk to poor Lily after
+it; and she has seen her herself going down towards the works,
+instead of towards home, ma'am. And she said she could not bear
+that reading to her girl should be made a colour for such
+doings.'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly not, if it were as she supposes,' said Miss Mohun,
+sitting very upright, and beating her own head vigorously with a
+very prickly brush; 'but you may tell her, Fanny, that I know all
+about it, and that her friend is Miss White, who you remember
+spent an evening here.'</p>
+
+<p>Fanny's good-humoured face cleared up. 'Yes, ma'am, I told her
+that I was quite sure that Miss Gillian would not go for to do
+anything wrong, and that it could be easy explained; but people
+has tongues, you see.'</p>
+
+<p>'You were quite right to tell us, Fanny. Good-night.'</p>
+
+<p>'People has tongues!' repeated Adeline, when that excellent
+person had disappeared. 'Yes, indeed, they have. But, Jenny, do
+you really mean to say that you know all about this?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I believe so.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I wish you had been at home to-day when Victoria came in.
+It really is a serious business.'</p>
+
+<p>'Victoria! What has she to do with it? I should have thought
+her Marchioness-ship quite out of the region of gossip, though,
+for that matter, grandees like it quite as much as other
+people.'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't, Jane , you know it does concern her through
+companionship for Phyllis, and she was very kind.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, I can see her sailing in, magnificently kind from her
+elevation. But how in the world did she manage to pick up all
+this in the time?' said poor Jane, tired and pestered into the
+sharpness of her early youth.</p>
+
+<p>'Dear Jenny, I wish I had said nothing to-night. Do wait till
+you are rested.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am not in the least tired, and if I were, do you think I
+could sleep with this half told?'</p>
+
+<p>'You said you knew.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then it is only about Gillian being so silly as to go down to
+Miss White's office at the works to look over the boy's Greek
+exercises.'</p>
+
+<p>'You don't mean that you allowed it!'</p>
+
+<p>'No, Gillian's impulsiveness, just like her mother's, began
+it, as a little assertion of modern independence; but while she
+was away that little step from brook to river brought her to the
+sense that she had been a goose, and had used me rather unfairly,
+and so she came and confessed it all to me on the way home from
+the station the first morning after her return. She says she had
+written it all to her mother from the first.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wonder Lily did not telegraph to put a stop to it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you suppose any mother, our poor old Lily especially, can
+marry a couple of daughters without being slightly frantic! Ten
+to one she never realised that this precious pupil was bigger
+than Fergus. But do tell me what my Lady had heard, and how she
+heard it.'</p>
+
+<p>'You remember that her governess, Miss Elbury, has connections
+in the place.'</p>
+
+<p>'"The most excellent creature in the world." Oh yes, and she
+spent Sunday with them. So that was the conductor.'</p>
+
+<p>'I can hardly say that Miss Elbury was to be blamed,
+considering that she had heard the proposal about Valetta! It
+seems that that High School class-mistress, Miss Mellon, who had
+the poor child under her, is her cousin.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh dear!'</p>
+
+<p>'It is exactly what I was afraid of when we decided on keeping
+Valetta at home. Miss Mellon told all the Caesar story in plainly
+the worst light for poor Val, and naturally deduced from her
+removal that she was the most to blame.'</p>
+
+<p>'Whereas it was Miss Mellon herself! But nobody could expect
+Victoria to see that, and no doubt she is quite justified in not
+wishing for the child in her schoolroom! But, after all, Valetta
+is only a child; it won't hurt her to have this natural recoil of
+consequences, and her mother will be at home in three weeks'
+time. It signifies much more about Gillian. Did I understand you
+that the gossip about her had reached those august ears?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, Jane, and it is ever so much worse. That horrid Miss
+Mellon seems to have told Miss Elbury that Gillian has a passion
+for low company, that she is always running after the Whites at
+the works, and has secret meetings with the young man in the
+garden on Sunday, while his sister carries on her underhand
+flirtation with another youth, Frank Stebbing, I suppose. It
+really was too preposterous, and Victoria said she had no doubt
+from the first that there was exaggeration, and had told Miss
+Elbury so; but still she thought Gillian must have been to blame.
+She was very nice about it, and listened to all my explanation
+most kindly, as to Gillian's interest in the Whites, and its
+having been only the sister that she met, but plainly she is not
+half convinced. I heard something about a letter being left for
+Gillian, and really, I don't know whether there may not be more
+discoveries to come. I never felt before the force of our dear
+father's saying, apropos of Rotherwood himself, that no one knows
+what it is to lose a father except those who have the care of his
+children.'</p>
+
+<p>'Whatever Gillian did was innocent and ladylike, and nothing
+to be ashamed of,' said Aunt Jane stoutly; 'of that I am sure.
+But I should like to be equally sure that she has not turned the
+head of that poor foolish young man, without in the least knowing
+what she was about. You should have seen her state of mind at his
+sending her a valentine, which she returned to him, perfectly
+ferociously, at once, and that was all the correspondence
+somebody seems to have smelt out.'</p>
+
+<p>'A valentine! Gillian must have behaved very ill to have
+brought that upon herself! Oh dear! I wish she had never come
+here; I wish Lily could have stayed at home, instead of
+scattering her children about the world. The Rotherwoods will
+never get over it.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's the least part of the grievance, in my eyes,' said her
+sister. 'It won't make a fraction of difference to the dear old
+cousin Rotherwood; and as to my Lady, it is always a liking from
+the teeth outwards.'</p>
+
+<p>'How can you say so! I am sure she has always been most
+cordial.'</p>
+
+<p>'Most correct, if you please. Oh, did she say anything about
+Mysie?'</p>
+
+<p>'She said nothing but good of Mysie; called her delightful,
+and perfectly good and trustworthy, said they could never have
+got so well through Phyllis's illness without her, and that they
+only wished to keep her altogether.'</p>
+
+<p>'I dare say, to be humble companion to my little lady, out of
+the way of her wicked sisters.'</p>
+
+<p>'Jane!'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, I don't think I can stand any more defence of her
+just now! No, she is an admirable woman, I know. That's enough. I
+really must go to bed, and consider which is to be faced first,
+she or Kalliope.'</p>
+
+<p>It was lucky that Miss Mohun could exist without much sleep,
+for she was far too much worried for any length of slumber to
+visit her that night, though she was afoot as early as usual. She
+thought it best to tell Gillian that Lady Rotherwood had heard
+some foolish reports, and that she was going to try to clear them
+up, and she extracted an explicit account as to what the extent
+of her intercourse with the Whites had been, which was given
+willingly, Gillian being in a very humble frame, and convinced
+that she had acted foolishly. It surprised her likewise that Aunt
+Adeline, whom she had liked the best, and thought the most
+good-natured, was so much more angry with her than Aunt Jane,
+who, as she felt, forgave her thoroughly, and was only anxious to
+help her out of the scrape she had made for herself.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mohun thought her best time for seeing Kalliope would be
+in the dinner-hour, and started accordingly in the direction of
+the marble works. Not far from them she met that young person
+walking quickly with one of her little brothers.</p>
+
+<p>'I was coming to see you,' Miss Mohun said. 'I did not know
+that you went home in the middle of the day.'</p>
+
+<p>'My mother has been so unwell of late that I do not like to be
+entirely out of reach all day,' returned Kalliope, who certainly
+looked worn and sorrowful; 'so I manage to run home, though it is
+but for a quarter of an hour.'</p>
+
+<p>'I will not delay you, I will walk with you,' and when Petros
+had been dismissed, 'I am afraid my niece has not been quite the
+friend to you that she intended.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Miss Mohun, do you know all about it? It is such a
+relief! I have felt so guilty towards you, and yet I did not know
+what to do.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have never thought that the concealment was your fault,'
+said Jane.</p>
+
+<p>'I did think at first that you knew,' said Kalliope, 'and when
+I found that was not the case, I suppose I should have insisted
+on your being told; but I could not bear to seem ungrateful, and
+my brother took such extreme delight in his lessons and Miss
+Merrifield's kindness, that--that I could not bear to do what
+might prevent them. And now, poor fellow, it shows how wrong it
+was, since he has ventured on that unfortunate act of
+presumption, which has so offended her. Oh, Miss Mohun, he is
+quite broken-hearted.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid Gillian was very discourteous. I was out, or it
+should not have been done so unkindly. Indeed, in the shock,
+Gillian did not recollect that she might be giving pain.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, yes! Poor Alexis! He has not had any opportunity of
+understanding how different things are in your class of life, and
+he thought it would show his gratitude and--and--Oh, he is so
+miserable!' and she was forced to stop to wipe away her
+tears.</p>
+
+<p>'Poor fellow! But it was one of those young men's mistakes
+that are got over and outgrown, so you need not grieve over it so
+much, my dear. My brother-in-law is on his way home, and I know
+he means to see what can be done for Alexis, for your father's
+sake.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Miss Mohun, how good you are! I thought you could never
+forgive us. And people do say such shocking things.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know they do, and therefore I am going to ask you to tell
+me exactly what intercourse there has been with Gillian.'</p>
+
+<p>Kalliope did so, and Miss Mohun was struck with the complete
+accordance of the two accounts, and likewise by the total absence
+of all attempt at self-justification on Miss White's part. If she
+had in any way been weak, it had been against her will, and her
+position had been an exceedingly difficult one. She spoke in as
+guarded a manner as possible; but to such acute and experienced
+ears as those of her auditor, it was impossible not to perceive
+that, while Gillian had been absolutely simple, and unconscious
+of all but a kind act of patronage, the youth's imagination had
+taken fire, and he had become her ardent worshipper; with
+calf-love, no doubt, but with a distant, humble adoration, which
+had, whether fortunately or unfortunately, for once found
+expression in the valentine so summarily rejected. The drawing
+and the composition had been the work of many days, and so much
+against his sister's protest that it had been sent without her
+knowledge, after she had thought it given up. She had only
+extracted the confession through his uncontrollable despair,
+which made him almost unfit to attend to his increased work,
+perhaps by his southern nature exaggerated.</p>
+
+<p>'The stronger at first, the sooner over,' thought Miss Mohun;
+but she knew that consolation betraying her comprehension would
+not be safe.</p>
+
+<p>One further discovery she made, namely, that on Sunday,
+Alexis, foolish lad, had been so wildly impatient at their having
+had no notice from Gillian since her return, that he had gone to
+the garden to explain, as he said, his sister's non-appearance
+there, since she was detained by her mother's illness. It was the
+only time he had ever been there, and he had met no one; but Miss
+Mohun felt a sinking of heart at the foreboding that the
+mauvaises langues would get hold of it.</p>
+
+<p>The only thing to be decided on was that there must be a
+suspension of intercourse, at any rate, till Lady Merrifield's
+arrival; not in unkindness, but as best for all. And, indeed,
+Kalliope had no time to spare from her mother, whose bloated
+appearance, poor woman, was the effect of long-standing
+disease.</p>
+
+<p>The daughter's heart was very full of her, and evidently it
+would have been a comfort to discuss her condition with this kind
+friend; but no more delay was possible; and Miss Mohun had to
+speed home, in a quandary how much or how little about Alexis's
+hopeless passion should be communicated to its object, and
+finally deciding that Gillian had better only be informed that he
+had been greatly mortified by the rude manner of rejection, but
+that the act itself proved that she must abstain from all renewal
+of the intercourse till her parents should return.</p>
+
+<p>But that was not all the worry of the day. Miss Mohun had
+still to confront Lady Rotherwood, and, going as soon as the
+early dinner was over, found the Marchioness resting after an
+inspection of houses in Rockquay. She did not like hotels, she
+said, and she thought the top of the cliff too bleak for Phyllis,
+so that they must move nearer the sea if the place agreed with
+her at all, which was doubtful. Miss Mohun was pretty well
+convinced that the true objection was the neighbourhood of
+Beechcroft Cottage. She said she had come to give some
+explanation of what had been said to her sister yesterday.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, my dear Jane, Adeline told me all about it yesterday. I
+am very sorry for you to have had such a charge, but what could
+you expect of girls cast about as they have been, always with a
+marching regiment?'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not think Mysie has given you any reason to think her
+ill brought up.'</p>
+
+<p>'A little uncouth at first, but that was all. Oh, no! Mysie is
+a dear little girl. I should be very glad to have her with
+Phyllis altogether, and so would Rotherwood. But she was very
+young when Sir Jasper retired.'</p>
+
+<p>'And Valetta was younger. Poor little girl! She was naughty,
+but I do not think she understood the harm of what she was
+doing.'</p>
+
+<p>Lady Rotherwood smiled.</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps not; but she must have been deeply involved, since
+she was the one amongst all the guilty to be expelled.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Victoria! Was that what you heard?'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Elbury heard it from the governess she was under. Surely
+she was the only one not permitted to go up for the examination
+and removed.'</p>
+
+<p>'True, but that was our doing---no decree of the High School.
+Her own governess is free now, and her mother on her way, and we
+thought she had better not begin another term. Yes, Victoria, I
+quite see that you might doubt her fitness to be much with
+Phyllis. I am not asking for that--I shall try to get her own
+governess to come at once; but for the child's sake and her
+mother's I should like to get this cleared up. May I see Miss
+Elbury?'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly; but I do not think you will find that she has
+exaggerated, though of course her informant may have done so.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Elbury was of the older generation of governesses,
+motherly, kind, but rather prim and precise, the accomplished
+element being supplied with diplomaed foreigners, who, since Lady
+Phyllis's failure in health, had been dispensed with. She was a
+good and sensible woman, as Jane could see, in spite of the
+annoyance her report had occasioned, and it was impossible not to
+assent when she said she had felt obliged, under the
+circumstances, to mention to Lady Rotherwood what her cousin had
+told her.</p>
+
+<p>'About both my nieces,' said Jane. 'Yes, I quite understand.
+But, though of course the little one's affair is the least
+important, we had better get to the bottom of that first, and I
+should like to tell you what really happened.'</p>
+
+<p>She told her story, and how Valetta had been tempted and then
+bullied into going beyond the first peeps, and finding she did
+not produce the impression she wished, she begged Miss Elbury to
+talk it over with the head-mistress. It was all in the telling.
+Miss Elbury's young cousin, Miss Mellon, had been brought under
+rebuke, and into great danger of dismissal, through Valetta
+Merrifield's lapse; and it was no wonder that she had warned her
+kinswoman against 'the horrid little deceitful thing,' who had
+done so much harm to the whole class. 'Miss Mohun was running
+about over the whole place, but not knowing what went on in her
+own house!' And as to Miss White, Miss Elbury mentioned at last,
+though with some reluctance, that it was believed that she had
+been on the point of a private marriage, and of going to Italy
+with young Stebbing, when her machinations were detected, and he
+was forced to set off without her.</p>
+
+<p>With this in her mind, the governess could not be expected to
+accept as satisfactory what was not entire confutation or
+contradiction, and Miss Mohun saw that, politely as she was
+listened to, it was all only treated as excuse; since there could
+be no denial of Gillian's folly, and it was only a question of
+degree.</p>
+
+<p>And, provoking as it was, the disappointment might work well
+for Valetta. The allegations against Gillian were a far more
+serious affair, but much more of these could be absolutely
+disproved and contradicted; in fact, all that Miss Mohun herself
+thought very serious, i.e. the flirtation element, was shown to
+be absolutely false, both as regarded Gillian and Kalliope; but
+it was quite another thing to convince people who knew none of
+the parties, when there was the residuum of truth undeniable,
+that there had been secret meetings not only with the girl, but
+the youth. To acquit Gillian of all but modern independence and
+imprudent philanthropy was not easy to any one who did not
+understand her character, and though Lady Rotherwood said nothing
+more in the form of censure, it was evident that she was
+unconvinced that Gillian was not a fast and flighty girl, and
+that she did not desire more contact than was necessary.</p>
+
+<p>No doubt she wished herself farther off! Lord Rotherwood, she
+said, was coming down in a day or two, when he could get away,
+and then they should decide whether to take a house or to go
+abroad, which, after all, might be the best thing for
+Phyllis.</p>
+
+<p>'He will make all the difference,' said Miss Adeline, when the
+unsatisfactory conversation was reported to her.</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know! But even if he did, and I don't think he will,
+I won't have Valetta waiting for his decision and admitted on
+sufferance.'</p>
+
+<p>'Shall you send her back to school?'</p>
+
+<p>'No. Poor Miss Vincent is free, and quite ready to come here.
+Fergus shall go and sleep among his fossils in the lumber-room,
+and I will write to her at once. She will be much better here
+than waiting at Silverton, though the Hacketts are very kind to
+her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, it will be better to be independent. But all this is
+very unfortunate. However, Victoria will see for herself what the
+children are. She has asked me to take a drive with her to-morrow
+if it is not too cold.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, she is not going to make an estrangement. You need
+not fear that, Ada. She does not think it your fault.'</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Jane pondered a little as to what to say to the two
+girls, and finally resolved that Valetta had better be told that
+she was not to do lessons with Fly, as her behaviour had made
+Lady Rotherwood doubt whether she was a good companion. Valetta
+stamped and cried, and said it was very hard and cross when she
+had been so sorry and every one had forgiven her; but Gillian
+joined heartily with Aunt Jane in trying to make the child
+understand that consequences often come in spite of pardon and
+repentance. To Gillian herself, Aunt Jane said as little as
+possible, not liking even to give the veriest hint of the foolish
+gossip, or of the extent of poor Alexis White's admiration; for
+it was enough for the girl to know that concealment had brought
+her under a cloud, and she was chiefly concerned as to how her
+mother would look on it. She had something of Aunt Jane's
+impatience of patronage, and perhaps thought it snobbish to seem
+concerned at the great lady's displeasure.</p>
+
+<p>Mysie was free to run in and out to her sisters, but was still
+to do her lessons with Miss Elbury, and Fly took up more of her
+time than the sisters liked. Neither she nor Fly were formally
+told why their castles vanished into empty air, but there
+certainly was a continual disappointment and fret on both sides,
+which Fly could not bear as well as when she was in high health,
+and poor Mysie's loving heart often found it hard to decide
+between her urgent claims and those of Valetta!</p>
+
+<p>But was not mamma coming? and papa? Would not all be well
+then? Yes, hearts might bound at the thought. But where was
+Gillian's great thing?'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Vincent's coming was really like a beginning of home, in
+spite of her mourning and depressed look. It was a great
+consolation to the lonely woman to find how all her pupils flew
+at her, with infinite delight. She had taken pains to bring a
+report of all the animals for Valetta, and she duly admired all
+Fergus's geological specimens, and even undertook to print labels
+for them.</p>
+
+<p>Mysie would have liked to begin lessons again with her; but
+this would have been hard on Fly, and besides, her mother had
+committed her to the Rotherwoods, and it was better still to
+leave her with them.</p>
+
+<p>The aunts were ready with any amount of kindness and sympathy
+for the governess's bereavement, and her presence was a
+considerable relief in the various perplexities.</p>
+
+<p>Even Lady Rotherwood and Miss Elbury had been convinced, and
+by no means unwillingly, that Gillian had been less indiscreet
+than had been their first impression; but she had been a young
+lady of the period in her independence, and was therefore to be
+dreaded. No more garden trystes would have been possible under
+any circumstances, for the house and garden were in full
+preparation for the master, who was to meet Lord Rotherwood to
+consult about the proposed water-works and other designs for the
+benefit of the town where they were the chief landowners.</p>
+
+<center>CHAPTER XIV.<br>
+ THE PARTNER</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<p>The expected telegram arrived two days later, requesting Miss
+Mohun to find a lodging at Rockstone sufficient to contain Sir
+Jasper and Lady Merrifield, and a certain amount of sons and
+daughters, while they considered what was to be done about
+Silverfold.</p>
+
+<p>'So you and I will go out house-hunting, Gillian?' said Aunt
+Jane, when she had opened it, and the exclamations were over.</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid there is no house large enough up here,' said her
+sister.</p>
+
+<p>'No, it is an unlucky time, in the thick of the season.'</p>
+
+<p>'Victoria said she had been looking at some houses in
+Bellevue.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid she will have raised the prices of them.'</p>
+
+<p>'But, oh, Aunt Jane, we couldn't go to Bellevue Church!' cried
+Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'Your mother would like to be so near the daily services at
+the Kennel,' said Miss Mohun. 'Yes, we must begin with those
+houses. There's nothing up here but Sorrento, and I have heard
+enough of its deficiencies!'</p>
+
+<p>At that moment in came a basket of game, grapes, and flowers,
+with Lady Rotherwood's compliments.</p>
+
+<p>'Solid pudding,' muttered Miss Mohun. 'In this case, I should
+almost prefer empty praise. Look here, Ada, what a hamper they
+must have had from home! I think I shall, as I am going that way,
+take a pheasant and some grapes to the poor Queen of the White
+Ants; I believe she is really ill, and it will show that we do
+not want to neglect them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, thank you, Aunt Jane!' cried Gillian, the colour rising
+in her face, and she was the willing bearer of the basket as she
+walked down the steps with her aunt, and along the esplanade,
+only pausing to review the notices of palatial, rural, and
+desirable villas in the house-agent's window, and to consider in
+what proportion their claims to perfection might be reduced.</p>
+
+<p>As they turned down Ivinghoe Terrace, and were approaching the
+rusty garden-gate, they overtook Mrs. Lee, the wife of the
+organist of St. Kenelm's, who lodged at Mrs. White's. In former
+times, before her marriage, Mrs. Lee had been a Sunday-school
+teacher at St. Andrew's, and though party spirit considered her
+to have gone over to the enemy, there were old habits of friendly
+confidence between her and Miss Mohun, and there was an exchange
+of friendly greetings and inquiries. When she understood their
+errand she rejoiced in it, saying that poor Mrs. White was very
+poorly, and rather fractious, and that this supply would be most
+welcome both to her and her daughter.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, I am afraid that poor girl goes through a great
+deal!'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed she does, Miss Mohun; and a better girl never lived. I
+cannot think how she can bear up as she does; there she is at the
+office all day with her work, except when she runs home in the
+middle of the day--all that distance to dish up something her
+mother can taste, for there's no dependence on the girl, nor on
+little Maura neither. Then she is slaving early and late to keep
+the house in order as well as she can, when her mother is
+fretting for her attention; and I believe she loses more than
+half her night's rest over the old lady. How she bears up, I
+cannot guess; and never a cross word to her mother, who is such a
+trial, nor to the boys, but looking after their clothes and their
+lessons, and keeping them as good and nice as can be. I often say
+to my husband, I am sure it is a lesson to live in the house with
+her.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure she is an excellent girl,' said Miss Mohun. 'I wish
+we could do anything to help her.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know you are a real friend, Miss Mohun, and never was there
+any young person who was in greater need of kindness; though it
+is none of her fault. She can't help her face, poor dear; and she
+has never given any occasion, I am sure, but has been as guarded
+and correct as possible.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I was in hopes that annoyance was suspended at least for
+a time!'</p>
+
+<p>'You are aware of it then, Miss Mohun? Yes, the young
+gentleman is come back, not a bit daunted. Yesterday evening what
+does he do but drive up in a cab with a great bouquet, and a
+basketful of grapes, and what not! Poor Kally, she ran in to me,
+and begged me as a favour to come downstairs with her, and I
+could do no less. And I assure you, Miss Mohun, no queen could be
+more dignified, nor more modest than she was in rejecting his
+gifts, and keeping him in check. Poor dear, when he was gone she
+burst out crying---a thing I never knew of her before; not that
+she cared for him, but she felt it a cruel wrong to her poor
+mother to send away the grapes she longed after; and so she will
+feel these just a providence.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then is Mrs. White confined to her room?'</p>
+
+<p>'For more than a fortnight. For that matter the thing was
+easier, for she had encouraged the young man as far as in her
+lay, poor thing, though my husband and young Alexis both told her
+what they knew of him, and that it would not be for Kally's
+happiness, let alone the offence to his father.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then it really went as far as that?'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Mohun, I would be silent as the grave if I did not know
+that the old lady went talking here and there, never thinking of
+the harm she was doing. She was so carried away by the idea of
+making a lady of Kally. She says she was a beauty herself, though
+you would not think it now, and she is perfectly puffed up about
+Kally. So she actually lent an ear when the young man came
+persuading Kally to get married and go off to Italy with him,
+where he made sure he could come over Mr. White with her beauty
+and relationship and all---among the myrtle groves--that was his
+expression--where she would have an association worthy of her. I
+don't quite know how he meant it to be brought about, but he is
+one who would stick at nothing, and of course Kally would not
+hear of it, and answered him so as one would think he would never
+have had the face to address her again, but poor Mrs. White has
+done nothing but fret over it, and blame her daughter for
+undutifulness, and missing the chance of making all their
+fortunes--breaking her heart and her health, and I don't know
+what besides. She is half a foreigner, you see, and does not
+understand, and she is worse than no one to that poor girl.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you say he is come back as bad as ever.'</p>
+
+<p>'Or worse, you may say, Miss Mohun; absence seems only to have
+set him the more upon her, and I am afraid that Mrs. White's
+talk, though it may not have been to many, has been enough to set
+it about the place; and in cases like that, it is always the poor
+young woman as gets the blame--especially with the gentleman's
+own people.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid so.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you see she is in a manner at his mercy, being son to one
+of the heads of the firm, and in a situation of authority.'</p>
+
+<p>'What can she do all day at the office?'</p>
+
+<p>'She keeps one or two of the other young ladies working with
+her,' said Mrs. Lee; 'but if any change could be made, it would
+be very happy for her; though, after all, I do not see how she
+could leave this place, the house being family property, and Mr.
+White their relation, besides that Mrs. White is in no state to
+move; but, on the other hand, Mr. and Mrs. Stebbing know their
+son is after her, and the lady would not stick at believing or
+saying anything against her, though I will always bear witness,
+and so will Mr. Lee, that never was there a more good,
+right-minded young woman, or more prudent and guarded.'</p>
+
+<p>'So would Mr. Flight and his mother, I have no doubt.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Flight would, Miss Mohun, but'---with an odd look--'I
+fancy my lady thinks poor Kally too handsome for it to be good
+for a young clergyman to have much to say to her. They have not
+been so cordial to them of late, but that is partly owing to poor
+Mrs. White's foolish talk, and in part to young Alexis having
+been desultory and mopy of late--not taking the interest in his
+music he did. Mr. Lee says he is sure some young woman is at the
+bottom of it.'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mohun saw her niece's ears crimson under her hat, and was
+afraid Mrs. Lee would likewise see them. They had reached the
+front of the house, and she made haste to take out a
+visiting-card and to beg Mrs. Lee kindly to give it with the
+basket, saying that she would not give trouble by coming to the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>And then she turned back with Gillian, who was in a strange
+tumult of shame and consternation, yet withal, feeling that first
+strange thrill of young womanhood at finding itself capable of
+stirring emotion, and too much overcome by these strange
+sensations---above all by the shock of shame--to be able to utter
+a word.</p>
+
+<p>I must make light of it, but not too light, thought Miss
+Mohun, and she broke the ice by saying, 'Poor foolish
+boy----'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Aunt Jane, what shall I do?'</p>
+
+<p>'Let it alone, my dear.'</p>
+
+<p>'But that I should have done so much harm and upset him
+so'---in a voice betraying a certain sense of being flattered.
+'Can't I do anything to undo it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly not. To be perfectly quiet and do nothing is all
+you can do. My dear, boys and young men have such foolish
+fits---more in that station than in ours, because they have none
+of the public school and college life which keeps people out of
+it. You were the first lady this poor fellow was brought into
+contact with, and---well, you were rather a goose, and he has
+been a greater one; but if he is let alone, he will recover and
+come to his senses. I could tell you of men who have had dozens
+of such fits. I am much more interested about his sister. What a
+noble girl she is!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, isn't she, Aunt Jane. Quite a real heroine! And now mamma
+is coming, she will know what to do for her!'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope she will, but it is a most perplexing case
+altogether.'</p>
+
+<p>'And that horrid young Stebbing is come back too. I am glad
+she has that nice Mrs. Lee to help her.'</p>
+
+<p>'And to defend her,' added Miss Mohun. 'Her testimony is worth
+a great deal, and I am glad to know where to lay my hand upon it.
+And here is our first house, "Les Rochers." For Madame de
+Sevigne's sake, I hope it will do!'</p>
+
+<p>But it didn't! Miss Mohun got no farther than the hall before
+she detected a scent of gas; and they had to betake themselves to
+the next vacant abode. The investigating nature had full scope in
+the various researches that she made into parlour, kitchen, and
+hall, desperately wearisome to Gillian, whose powers were limited
+to considering how the family could sit at ease in the downstairs
+rooms, how they could be stowed away in the bedrooms, and where
+there were the prettiest views of the bay. Aunt Jane, becoming
+afraid that while she was literally 'ferreting' in the offices
+Gillian might be meditating on her conquest, picked up the first
+cheap book that looked innocently sensational, and left her to
+study it on various sofas. And when daylight failed for
+inspections, Gillian still had reason to rejoice in the pastime
+devised for her, since there was an endless discussion at the
+agent's, over the only two abodes that could be made available,
+as to prices, repairs, time, and terms. They did not get away
+till it was quite dark and the gas lighted, and Miss Mohun did
+not think the ascent of the steps desirable, so that they went
+round by the street.</p>
+
+<p>'I declare,' exclaimed Miss Mohun, 'there's Mr. White's house
+lighted up. He must be come!'</p>
+
+<p>'I wonder whether he will do anything for Kalliope,' sighed
+Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Jenny,' exclaimed Miss Adeline, as the two entered the
+drawing-room. 'You have had such a loss; Rotherwood has been here
+waiting to see you for an hour, and such an agreeable man he
+brought with him!'</p>
+
+<p>'Who could it have been?'</p>
+
+<p>'I didn't catch his name---Rotherwood was mumbling in his
+quick way---indeed, I am not sure he did not think I knew him. A
+distinguished-looking man, like a picture, with a fine white
+beard, and he was fresh from Italy; told me all about the
+Carnival and the curious ceremonies in the country villages.'</p>
+
+<p>'From Italy? It can't have been Mr. White.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. White! My dear Jane! this was a gentleman--quite a
+grand-looking man. He might have been an Italian nobleman, only
+he spoke English too well for that, though I believe those
+diplomates can speak all languages. However, you will see, for we
+are to go and dine with them at eight o'clock---you, and I, and
+Gillian.'</p>
+
+<p>'You, Ada!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! I have ordered the chair round; it won't hurt me with the
+glasses up. Gillian, my dear, you must put on the white dress
+that Mrs. Grinstead's maid did up for you---it is quite simple,
+and I should like you to look nice! Well---oh, how tired you both
+look! Ring for some fresh tea, Gillian. Have you found a
+house?'</p>
+
+<p>So excited and occupied was Adeline that the house-hunting
+seemed to have assumed quite a subordinate place in her mind. It
+really was an extraordinary thing for her to dine out, though
+this was only a family party next door; and she soon sailed away
+to hold counsel with Mrs. Mount on dresses and wraps, and to get
+her very beautiful hair dressed. She made by far the most
+imposing appearance of the three when they shook themselves out
+in the ante-room at the hotel, in her softly-tinted sheeny
+pale-gray dress, with pearls in her hair, and two beautiful blush
+roses in her bosom; while her sister, in black satin and coral,
+somehow seemed smaller than ever, probably from being tired, and
+from the same cause Gillian had dark marks under her brown eyes,
+and a much more limp and languid look than was her wont.</p>
+
+<p>Fly was seated on her father's knee, looking many degrees
+better and brighter, as if his presence were an elixir of life,
+and when he put her down to greet the arrivals, both she and
+Mysie sprang to Gillian to ask the result of the quest of houses.
+The distinguished friend was there, and was talking to Lady
+Rotherwood about Italian progress, and there was only time for an
+inquiry and reply as to the success of the search for a house
+before dinner was announced--the little girls disappeared, and
+the Marquess gave his arm to his eldest cousin.</p>
+
+<p>'Grand specimen of marble, isn't he!' he muttered.</p>
+
+<p>'Ada hasn't the least idea who he is. She thinks him a great
+diplomate,' communicated Jane in return, and her arm received an
+ecstatic squeeze.</p>
+
+<p>It was amusing to Jane Mohun to see how much like a dinner at
+Rotherwood this contrived to be, with my lady's own footman, and
+my lord's valet waiting in state. She agreed mentally with her
+sister that the other guest was a very fine-looking man, with a
+picturesque head, and he did not seem at all out of place or
+ill-at-ease in the company in which he found himself. Lord
+Rotherwood, with a view, perhaps, to prolonging Adeline's
+mystification, turned the conversation to Italian politics, and
+the present condition and the industries of the people, on all of
+which subjects much ready information was given in fluent, good
+English, with perhaps rather unnecessarily fine words. It was
+only towards the end of the dinner that a personal experience was
+mentioned about the impossibility of getting work done on great
+feast days, or of knowing which were the greater---and the great
+dislike of the peasant mind to new methods.</p>
+
+<p>When it came to 'At first, I had to superintend every blasting
+with gelatine,' the initiated were amused at the expression of
+Adeline's countenance, and the suppressed start of frightful
+conviction that quivered on her eyelids and the corners of her
+mouth, though kept in check by good breeding, and then smoothed
+out into a resolute complacency, which convinced her sister that
+having inadvertently exalted the individual into the category of
+the distinguished, she meant to abide staunchly by her first
+impression.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Rotherwood, like most great ladies in public life, was
+perfectly well accustomed to have all sorts of people brought
+home to dinner, and would have been far less astonished than her
+cousins at sitting down with her grocer; but she gave the signal
+rather early, and on reaching the sitting-room, where Miss
+Elworthy was awaiting them, said--</p>
+
+<p>'We will leave them to discuss their water-works at their
+ease. Certainly residence abroad is an excellent education.'</p>
+
+<p>'A very superior man,' said Adeline.</p>
+
+<p>'Those self-made men always are.'</p>
+
+<p>'In the nature of things, added Miss Mohun, 'or they would not
+have mounted.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is the appendages that are distressing,' said Lady
+Rotherwood, 'and they seldom come in one's way. Has this man left
+any in Italy?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, none alive. He took his wife there for her health, and
+that was the way he came to set up his Italian quarries; but she
+and his child both died there long ago, and he has never come
+back to this place since,' explained Ada.</p>
+
+<p>'But he has relations here,' said Jane. 'His cousin was an
+officer in Jasper Merrifield's regiment.'</p>
+
+<p>She hoped to have been saying a word in the cause of the young
+people, but she regretted her attempt, for Lady Rotherwood
+replied--</p>
+
+<p>'I have heard of them. A very undeserving family, are they
+not?'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian, whom Miss Elworthy was trying to entertain, heard,
+and could not help colouring all over, face, neck, and ears, all
+the more for so much hating the flush and feeling it
+observed.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mohun's was a very decided, 'I should have said quite the
+reverse.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed! Well, I heard the connection lamented, for his sake,
+by---what was her name? Mrs. Stirling---or---'</p>
+
+<p>'Mrs. Stebbing,' said Adeline. 'You don't mean that she has
+actually called on you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Is there any objection to her?' asked Lady Rotherwood, with a
+glance to see whether the girl was listening.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, no! only he is a mere mason--or quarryman, who has
+grown rich,' said Adeline.</p>
+
+<p>The hostess gave a little dry laugh.</p>
+
+<p>'Is that all? I thought you had some reason for disapproving
+of her. I thought her rather sensible and pleasing'</p>
+
+<p>Cringing and flattering, thought Jane; and that is just what
+these magnificent ladies like in the wide field of inferiors. But
+aloud she could not help saying, 'My principal objection to Mrs.
+Stebbing is that I have always thought her rather a gossip---on
+the scandalous side.' Then, bethinking herself that it would not
+be well to pursue the subject in Gillian's presence, she
+explained where the Stebbings lived, and asked how long Lord
+Rotherwood could stay.</p>
+
+<p>'Only over Sunday. He is going to look over the place
+to-morrow, and next day there is to be a public meeting about it.
+I am not sure that we shall not go with him. I do not think the
+place agrees with Phyllis.'</p>
+
+<p>The last words were spoken just as the two gentlemen had come
+in from the dining-room, rather sooner than was expected, and
+they were taken up.</p>
+
+<p>'Agrees with Phyllis! She looks pounds--nay, hundred-weights
+better than when we left home. I mean to have her down to-morrow
+on the beach for a lark---castle-building, paddling--with Mysie
+and Val, and Fergus and all. That's what would set her up best,
+wouldn't it, Jane?'</p>
+
+<p>Jane gave a laughing assent, wondering how much of this would
+indeed prove castle-building, though adding that Fergus was at
+school, and that it was not exactly the time of year for
+paddling.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, ah, eh! Well, perhaps not---forestalling sweet St.
+Valentine---stepping into their nests they paddled. Though St.
+Valentine is past, and I thought our fortunes had been made, Mr.
+White, by calling this the English Naples, and what not.'</p>
+
+<p>'Those are the puffs, my lord. There is a good deal of
+difference even between this and Rocca Marina, which is some way
+up the mountain.'</p>
+
+<p>'It must be very beautiful,' said Miss Ada.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Miss Mohun, people do say it is striking.' And he was
+drawn into describing the old Italian mansion, purchased on the
+extinction of an ancient family of nobles, perched up on the side
+of a mountain, whose feet the sea laved, with a terrace whence
+there was a splendid view of the Gulf of Genoa, and fine slopes
+above and below of chestnut-trees and vineyards; and therewith he
+gave a hearty invitation to the company present to visit him
+there if ever they went to Italy, when he would have great
+pleasure in showing them many bits of scenery, and curious
+remains that did not fall in the way of ordinary tourists.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Rotherwood gratefully said she should remember the
+invitation if they went to the south, as perhaps they should do
+that very spring.</p>
+
+<p>'And,' said Ada, 'you are not to be expected to remain long in
+this climate when you have a home like that awaiting you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't call it home, Miss Mohun,' he said. 'I have not had
+that these many years; but I declare, the first sound of our
+county dialect, when I got out at the station, made my heart leap
+into my mouth. I could have shaken hands with the fellow.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then I hope you will remain here for some time. There is much
+wanting to be set going,' said Jane.</p>
+
+<p>'So I thought of doing, and I had out a young fellow, who I
+thought might take my place---my partner's son, young Stebbing.
+They wrote that he had been learning Italian, with a view to
+being useful to me, and so on; but when he came out, what was he
+but a fine gentleman--never had put his hand to a pick, nor a
+blasting-iron; and as to his Italian, he told me it was the
+Italian of Alfieri and Leopardi. Leopardi's Italian it might be,
+for it was a very mottled or motley tongue, but he might as well
+have talked English or Double-Dutch to our hands, or better, for
+they had picked up the meaning of some orders from me before I
+got used to their lingo. And then he says 'tis office work and
+superintendence he understands. How can you superintend, I told
+him, what you don't know yourself? No, no; go home and bring a
+pair of hands fit for a quarryman, before I make you
+overlooker.'</p>
+
+<p>This was rather delightful, and it further appeared that he
+could answer all Jane's inquiries after her beloved promising
+lads whom he had deported to the Rocca Marina quarries.</p>
+
+<p>They were evidently kindly looked after, and she began to
+perceive that it was not such a bad place after all for them,
+more especially as he was in the act of building them a chapel,
+and one of his objects in coming to England was to find a
+chaplain; and as Lord Rotherwood said, he had come to the right
+shop, since Rockquay in the spring was likely to afford a choice
+of clergy with weak chests, or better still, with weak-chested
+wives, to whom light work in a genial climate would be the
+greatest possible boon.</p>
+
+<p>Altogether the evening was very pleasant, only too short. It
+was a curious study for Jane Mohun how far Lady Rotherwood would
+give way to her husband. She always seemed to give way, but
+generally accomplished her own will in the end, and it was little
+likely that she would allow the establishment to await the influx
+of Merrifields, though certainly Gillian had done nothing
+displeasing all that evening except that terrible blushing, for
+which piece of ingenuousness her aunt loved her all the
+better.</p>
+
+<p>At half-past ten next morning, however, Lord Rotherwood burst
+in to borrow Valetta for a donkey-ride, for which his lady had
+compounded instead of the paddling and castle-building, and
+certainly poor Val could not do much to corrupt Fly on donkey
+back, and in his presence. He further routed out Gillian, nothing
+loth, from her algebra, bidding her put on her seven-leagued
+boots, and not get bent double---and he would fain have seized on
+his cousin Jane, but she was already gone off for an interview
+with the landlord of the most eligible of the two houses.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian and Valetta came back very rosy, and in fits of
+merriment. Lord Rotherwood had paid the donkey-boys to stay at
+home, and let him and Gillian take their place. They had gone out
+on the common above the town, with most amusing rivalries as to
+which drove the beast worst, making Mysie umpire. Then having
+attained a delightfully lonely place, Fly had begged for a race
+with Valetta, which failed, partly because Val's donkey would not
+stir, and partly because Fly could not bear the shaking; and then
+Lord Rotherwood himself insisted on riding the donkey that
+wouldn't go, and racing Gillian on the donkey that would--and he
+made his go so effectually that it ran away with him, and he
+pulled it up at last only just in time to save himself from being
+ignominiously stopped by an old fishwoman!</p>
+
+<p>He had, as Aunt Jane said, regularly dipped Gill back into
+childhood, and she looked, spoke, and moved all the better for
+it.</p>
+
+<center>CHAPTER XV.<br>
+ THE ROCKS OF ROCKSTONE</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<p>Lord Rotherwood came in to try to wile his cousin to share in
+the survey of the country; but she declared it to be impossible,
+as all her avocations had fallen into arrear, and she had to find
+a couple of servants as well as a house for the Merrifields. This
+took her in the direction of the works, and Gillian proposed to
+go with her as far as the Giles's, there to sit a little while
+with Lilian, for whom she had a new book.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, surely you must be tired out!' exclaimed the
+stay-at-home aunt.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, Aunt Ada! Quite freshened by that blow on the
+common.'</p>
+
+<p>And Miss Mohun was not sorry, thinking that to leave Gillian
+free to come home by herself would be the best refutation of Mrs.
+Mount's doubts of her.</p>
+
+<p>They had not, however, gone far on their way--on the walk
+rather unfrequented at this time of day--before Gillian
+exclaimed, 'Is that Kally? Oh! and who is that with her?' For
+there certainly was a figure in somewhat close proximity, the
+ulster and pork-pie hat being such as to make the gender
+doubtful.</p>
+
+<p>'How late she is! I am afraid her mother is worse,' said Miss
+Mohun, quickening her steps a little, and, at the angle of the
+road, the pair in front perceived them. Kalliope turned towards
+them; the companion---about whom there was no doubt by that
+time---gave a petulant motion and hastened out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>In another moment they were beside Kalliope, who looked shaken
+and trembling, with tears in her eyes, which sprang forth at the
+warm pressure of her hand.</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid Mrs. White is not so well,' said Miss Mohun
+kindly.</p>
+
+<p>'She is no worse, I think, thank you, but I was delayed. Are
+you going this way? May I walk with you?'</p>
+
+<p>'I will come with you to the office,' said Miss Mohun,
+perceiving that she was in great need of an escort and
+protector.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, thank you, thank you, if it is not too much out of your
+way.'</p>
+
+<p>A few more words passed about Mrs. White's illness and what
+advice she was having. Miss Mohun could not help thinking that
+the daughter did not quite realise the extent of the illness, for
+she added--</p>
+
+<p>'It was a good deal on the nerves and mind. She was so anxious
+about Mr. James White's arrival.'</p>
+
+<p>'Have you not seen him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no! Not yet.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think you will be agreeably surprised,' said Gillian. And
+here they left her at Mrs. Giles's door.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' added Miss Mohun, 'he gave me the idea of a kind, just
+man.'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Mohun,' said the poor girl, as soon as they were
+tete-a-tete, 'I know you are very good. Will you tell me what I
+ought to do? You saw just now--'</p>
+
+<p>'I did; and I have heard.'</p>
+
+<p>Her face was all in a flame and her voice choked. 'He
+says---Mr. Frank does---that his mother has found out, and that
+she will tell her own story to Mr. White; and---and we shall all
+get the sack, as he calls it; and it will be utter misery, and he
+will not stir a finger to vindicate me; but if I will listen to
+him, he will speak to Mr. White, and bear me through; but I
+can't--I can't. I know he is a bad man; I know how he treated
+poor Edith Vane. I never can; and how shall I keep out of his
+way?'</p>
+
+<p>'My poor child,' said Miss Mohun, 'it is a terrible position
+for you; but you are doing quite right. I do not believe Mr.
+White would go much by what that young man says, for I know he
+does not think highly of him.'</p>
+
+<p>'But he does go altogether by Mr. Stebbing--altogether, and I
+know he---Mr. Stebbing, I mean--can't bear us, and would not keep
+us on if he could help it. He has been writing for another
+designer---an artist---instead of me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Still, you would be glad to have the connection severed?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, I should be glad enough to be away; but what would
+become of my mother and the children?'</p>
+
+<p>'Remember your oldest friends are on their way home; and I
+will try to speak to Mr. White myself.'</p>
+
+<p>They had reached the little door of Kalliope's office, which
+she could open with a latch-key, and Miss Mohun was just about to
+say some parting words, when there was a sudden frightful
+rumbling sound, something between a clap of thunder and the
+carting of stones, and the ground shook under their feet, while a
+cry went up---loud, horror-struck men and women's voices raised
+in dismay.</p>
+
+<p>Jane had heard that sound once before. It was the fall of part
+of the precipitous cliff, much of which had been quarried away.
+But in spite of all precautions, frost and rain were in danger of
+loosening the remainder, and wire fences were continually needing
+to be placed to prevent the walking above on edges that might be
+perilous.</p>
+
+<p>Where was it? What had it done? was the instant thought.
+Kalliope turned as pale as death; the girls came screaming and
+thronging out of their workshop, the men from their sheds, the
+women from the cottages, as all thronged to the more open space
+beyond the buildings where they could see, while Miss Mohun found
+herself clasped by her trembling niece.</p>
+
+<p>Others were rushing up from the wharf. One moment's glance
+showed all familiar with the place that a projecting point,
+forming a sort of cusp in the curve of the bay, had gone, and it
+lay, a great shattered mass, fragments spreading far and wide,
+having crashed through the roof of a stable that stood below.</p>
+
+<p>There was a general crowding forward to the spot, and crying
+and exclamation, and a shouting of 'All right' from above and
+below. Had any one come down with it? A double horror seized Miss
+Mohun as she remembered that her cousin was to inspect those
+parts that very afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>She caught at the arm of a man and demanded, 'Was any one up
+there?'</p>
+
+<p>'Master's there, and some gentlemen; but they hain't brought
+down with it,' said the man. 'Don't be afraid, miss. Thank the
+Lord, no one was under the rock--horses even out at work.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank God, indeed!' exclaimed Miss Mohun, daring now to look
+up, and seeing, not very distinctly, some figures of men, who,
+however, were too high up and keeping too far from the dangerous
+broken edge for recognition.</p>
+
+<p>Room was made for the two ladies, by the men who knew Miss
+Mohun, to push forward, so as to have a clearer view of the
+broken wall and roof of the stable, and the great ruddy blue and
+white veined mass of limestone rock, turf, and bush adhering to
+what had been the top.</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment's silence through the crowd, a kind of awe
+at the spectacle and the possibilities that had been mercifully
+averted.</p>
+
+<p>Then one of the men said--</p>
+
+<p>'That was how it was. I saw one of them above---not
+Stebbing--No---coming out to the brow; and after this last frost,
+not a doubt but that must have been enough to bring it down.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not railed off, eh?' said the voice of young Stebbing from
+among the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, it were marked with big stones where the rail should
+go,' said another. 'I know, for I laid 'em myself; but there
+weren't no orders given.'</p>
+
+<p>'There weren't no stones either. Some one been and took 'em
+away,' added the first speaker.</p>
+
+<p>'I see how it is,' Frank Stebbing's metallic voice could
+plainly be heard, flavoured with an oath. 'This is your neglect,
+White, droning, stuck-up sneak as you always were and will be! I
+shall report this. Damage to property, and maybe life, all along
+of your confounded idleness.'</p>
+
+<p>And there were worse imprecations, which made Miss Mohun break
+out in a tone of shocked reproof--</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Stebbing!'</p>
+
+<p>'I beg your pardon, Miss Mohun; I was not aware of your
+presence--'</p>
+
+<p>'Nor of a Higher One,' she could not help interposing, while
+he went on justifying himself.</p>
+
+<p>'It is the only way to speak to these fellows; and it is
+enough to drive one mad to see what comes of the neglect of a
+conceited young ass above his business. Life and property--'</p>
+
+<p>'But life is safe, is it not?' she interrupted with a
+shudder.</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, ay, ma'am,' said the voice of the workman, 'or we should
+know it by this time.'</p>
+
+<p>But at that moment a faint, gasping cry caught Jane's ear.</p>
+
+<p>Others heard it too. It was a child's voice, and grew stronger
+after a moment. It came from the corner of the shed outside the
+stable.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, oh!' cried the women, pressing forward, 'the poor little
+Fields!'</p>
+
+<p>Then it was recollected that Mrs. Field--one of those
+impracticable women on whom the shafts of school officers were
+lost, and who was always wandering in the town---had been seen
+going out, leaving two small children playing about, the younger
+under the charge of the elder. The father was a carter, and had
+been sent on some errand with the horses.</p>
+
+<p>This passed while anxious hands were struggling with stones
+and earth, foremost among them Alexis White. The utmost care was
+needful to prevent the superincumbent weight from falling in and
+crushing the life there certainly was beneath, happily not the
+rock from above, but some of the debris of the stable. Frank
+Stebbing and the foreman had to drive back anxious crowds, and
+keep a clear space.</p>
+
+<p>Then came running, shrieking, pushing her way through the men,
+the poor mother, who had to be forcibly withheld by Miss Mohun
+and one of the men from precipitating herself on the pile of
+rubbish where her children were buried, and so shaking it as to
+make their destruction certain.</p>
+
+<p>Those were terrible moments; but when the mother's voice
+penetrated to the children, a voice answered--</p>
+
+<p>'Mammy, mammy get us out, there's a stone on Tommy,'--at least
+so the poor woman understood the lispings, almost stifled; and
+she shrieked again, 'Mammy's coming, darlings!'</p>
+
+<p>The time seemed endless, though it was probably only a few
+minutes before it was found that the children were against the
+angle of the shed, where the wall and a beam had protected the
+younger, a little girl of five, who seemed to be unhurt. But,
+alas! though the boy's limbs were not crushed, a heavy stone had
+fallen on his temple.</p>
+
+<p>The poor woman would not believe that life was gone. She
+disregarded the little one, who screamed for mammy and clutched
+her skirts, in spite of the attempts of the women to lift her up
+and comfort her; and gathering the poor lifeless boy in her arms,
+she alternately screamed for the doctor and uttered coaxing,
+caressing calls to the child.</p>
+
+<p>She neither heard nor heeded Miss Mohun, with whom, indeed,
+her relations had not been agreeable; and as a young surgeon,
+sniffing the accident from afar, had appeared on the scene, and
+had, at the first glance, made an all too significant gesture,
+Jane thought it safe to leave the field to him and a kind,
+motherly, good neighbour, who promised her to send up to
+Beechcroft Cottage in case there was anything to be done for the
+unhappy woman or the poor father. Mr. Hablot, who now found his
+way to the spot, promised to walk on and prepare him: he was gone
+with a marble cross to a churchyard some five miles off.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian had not spoken a word all this time. She felt
+perfectly stunned and bewildered, as if it was a dream, and she
+could not understand it. Only for a moment did she see the
+bleeding face and prone limbs of the poor boy, and that sent a
+shuddering horror over her, so that she felt like fainting; but
+she had so much recollection and self-consciousness, that horror
+of causing a sensation and giving trouble sent the blood back to
+her heart, and she kept her feet by holding hard to her aunt's
+arm and presently Miss Mohun felt how tight and trembling was the
+grasp, and then saw how white she was.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, we must get home directly,' she said kindly. 'Lean
+on me---there.'</p>
+
+<p>There was leisure now, as they turned away, for others to see
+the young lady's deadly paleness, and there were invitations to
+houses and offers of all succours at hand, but the dread of 'a
+fuss' further revived Gillian, and all that was accepted was a
+seat for a few moments and a glass of water, which Aunt Jane
+needed almost as much as she did.</p>
+
+<p>Though the girl's colour was coming back, and she said she
+could walk quite well, both had such aching knees and such shaken
+limbs that they were glad to hold by each other as they mounted
+the sloping road, and half-way up Gillian came to a sudden
+stop.</p>
+
+<p>'Aunt Jane,' she said, panting and turning pale again, 'you
+heard that dreadful man. Oh! do you think it was true? Fergus's
+bit of spar---Alexis not minding. Oh! then it is all our
+doing!'</p>
+
+<p>'I can't tell. Don't you think about it now,' said Aunt Jane,
+feeling as if the girl were going to swoon on the spot in the
+shock. 'Consequences are not in our hands. Whatever it came from,
+and very sad it was, there was great mercy, and we have only to
+thank God it was no worse.'</p>
+
+<p>When at last aunt and niece reached home, they had no sooner
+opened the front door than Adeline came almost rushing out of the
+drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! my dearest Jane,' she cried, clasping and kissing her
+sister, 'wasn't it dreadful? Where were you? Mr. White knows no
+one was hurt below, but I could not be easy till you came
+in.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. White!'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; Mr. White was so kind as to come and tell me--and about
+Rotherwood.'</p>
+
+<p>'What about Rotherwood?' exclaimed Miss Mohun, advancing into
+the drawing-room, where Mr. White had risen from his seat.</p>
+
+<p>'Nothing to be alarmed about. Indeed, I assure you, his
+extraordinary presence of mind and agility--'</p>
+
+<p>'What was it?' as she and Gillian each sank into a chair, the
+one breathless, the other with the faintness renewed by the fresh
+shock, but able to listen as Mr. White told first briefly, then
+with more detail, how---as the surveying party proceeded along
+the path at the top of the cliffs, he and Lord Rotherwood
+comparing recollections of the former outline, now much changed
+by quarrying--the Marquis had stepped out to a slightly
+projecting point; Mr. Stebbing had uttered a note of warning,
+knowing how liable these promontories were to break away in the
+end of winter, and happily Lord Rotherwood had turned and made a
+step or two back, when the rock began to give way under his feet,
+so that, being a slight and active man, a spring and bound
+forward had actually carried him safely to the firm ground, and
+the others, who had started back in self-preservation, then in
+horror, fully believing him borne down to destruction, saw him
+the next instant lying on his face on the path before them. When
+on his feet, he had declared himself unhurt, and solely anxious
+as to what the fall of rock might have done beneath; but he was
+reassured by those cries of 'All right' which were uttered before
+the poor little Fields were discovered; and then, when the party
+were going to make their way down to inspect the effects of the
+catastrophe, he had found that he had not escaped entirely
+unhurt. Of course he had been forced to leap with utter want of
+heed, only as far and wide as he could, and thus, though he had
+lighted on his feet, he had fallen against a stone, and pain and
+stiffness of shoulder made themselves apparent; though he would
+accept no help in walking back to the hotel, and was only anxious
+not to frighten his wife and daughter, and desired Mr. White, who
+had volunteered to go, to tell the ladies next door that he was
+convinced it was nothing, or, if anything, only a trifle of a
+collar-bone. Mr. White had, since the arrival of the surgeon,
+made an expedition of inquiry, and heard this verdict confirmed,
+with the further assurance that there was no cause for anxiety.
+The account of the damage and disaster below was new to him, as
+his partner had declared the stables to be certain to be empty,
+and moreover in need of being rebuilt; and he departed to find
+Mr. Stebbing and make inquiries.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mohun, going to the hotel, saw the governess, and heard
+that all was going on well, and that Lord Rotherwood insisted
+that nothing was the matter, and would not hear of going to bed,
+but was lying on the sofa in the sitting-room. Her ladyship
+presently came out, and confirmed the account; but Jane agreed
+with her that, if possible, the knowledge of the poor child's
+death should be kept from him that night, lest the shock should
+make him feverish. However, in that very moment when she was off
+guard, the communication had been made by his valet, only too
+proud to have something to tell, and with the pleasing addition
+that Miss Mohun had had a narrow escape. Whereupon ensued an
+urgent message to Miss Mohun to come and tell him all about
+it.</p>
+
+<p>Wife and cousin exchanged glances of consternation, and
+perhaps each knew she might be thankful that he did not come
+himself instead of sending, and yet feared that the abstinence
+was a proof more of incapacity than of submission.</p>
+
+<p>Lying there in a dressing-gown over a strapped shoulder, he
+showed his agitation by being more than usually unable to finish
+a sentence.</p>
+
+<p>'Jenny, Jenny--you are--are you all safe? not frightened?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, no, I was a great way off; I only heard the noise, and
+I did not know you were there.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! there must be---something must be meant for me to do.
+Heaven must mean---thank Him! But is it true---a poor child?
+Can't one ever be foolish without hurting more than one's
+self?'</p>
+
+<p>Jane told him the truth calmly and quietly, explaining that
+the survivor was entirely unhurt, and the poor little victim
+could not have suffered; adding with all her heart, 'The whole
+thing was full of mercy, and I do not think you need blame
+yourself for heedlessness, for it was an accident that the place
+was not marked.'</p>
+
+<p>'Shameful neglect' said Lady Rotherwood.</p>
+
+<p>'The partner---what's-his-name---Stebbing--said something
+about his son being away. An untrustworthy substitute, wasn't
+there?' said Lord Rotherwood.</p>
+
+<p>'The son was the proficient in Leopardine Italian we heard of
+last night,' said Jane. 'I don't know what he may be as an
+overlooker here. He certainly fell furiously on the substitute, a
+poor cousin of Mr. White's own, but I am much afraid the origin
+of the mischief was nearer home--Master Fergus's geological
+researches.'</p>
+
+<p>'Fergus! Why, he is a mite.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, but Maurice encore. However, I must find out from him
+whether this is only a foreboding of my prophetic soul!'</p>
+
+<p>'Curious cattle,' observed Lord Rotherwood.</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' put in his wife, 'I do not think Ivinghoe has ever
+given us cause for anxiety.'</p>
+
+<p>'Exactly the reason that I am always expecting him to break
+out in some unexpected place! No, Victoria,' he added, seeing
+that she did not like this, 'I am quite ready to allow that we
+have a model son, and I only pity him for not having a model
+father.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I am not going to stay and incite you to talk
+nonsense,' said Jane, rising to depart; 'I will let you know my
+discoveries.'</p>
+
+<p>She found Fergus watching for her at the gate, with the
+appeal, 'Aunt Jane, there's been a great downfall of cliff, and I
+want to see what formations it has brought to light, but they
+won't let me through to look at it, though I told them White
+always did.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not suppose that they will allow any one to meddle with
+it at present,' said Aunt Jane; then, as Fergus made an impatient
+exclamation, she added, 'Do you know that a poor little boy was
+killed, and Cousin Rotherwood a good deal hurt?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Fergus, 'Big Blake said so.'</p>
+
+<p>'And now, Fergus, I want to know where you took that large
+stone from that you showed me with the crack of spar.'</p>
+
+<p>'With the micaceous crystals,' corrected Fergus. 'It was off
+the top of that very cliff that fell down, so I am sure there
+must be more in it; and some one else will get them if they won't
+let me go and see for them.'</p>
+
+<p>'And Alexis White gave you leave to take it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, I always ask him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Were you at the place when you asked him, Fergus?'</p>
+
+<p>'At the place on the cliff? No. For I couldn't find him for a
+long time, and I carried it all the way down the steps.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you did not tell him where it came from?'</p>
+
+<p>'He didn't ask. Indeed, Aunt Jane, I always did show him what
+I took, and he would have let me in now, only he was not at the
+office; and the man at the gate, Big Blake, was as savage as a
+bear, and slammed the door on me, and said they wouldn't have no
+idle boys loafing about there. And when I said I wasn't an idle
+boy but a scientific mineralogist, and that Mr. Alexis White
+always let me in, he laughed in my face, and said Mr. Alexis had
+better look out for himself. I shall tell Stebbing how cheeky he
+was.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Fergus, there was good reason for keeping you out.
+You did not know it, nor Alexis; but those stones were put to
+show that the cliff was getting dangerous, and to mark where to
+put an iron fence; and it was the greatest of mercies that
+Rotherwood's life was saved.'</p>
+
+<p>The boy looked a little sobered, but his aunt had rather that
+his next question had not been: 'Do you think they will let me go
+there again!'</p>
+
+<p>However, she knew very well that conviction must slowly soak
+in, and that nothing would be gained by frightening him, so that
+all she did that night was to send a note by Mysie to her cousin,
+explaining her discovery; and she made up her mind to take Fergus
+to the inquest the next day, since his evidence would exonerate
+Alexis from the most culpable form of carelessness.</p>
+
+<p>Only, however, in the morning, when she had ascertained the
+hour of the inquest, did she write a note to Mrs. Edgar to
+explain Fergus's absence from school, or inform the boy of what
+she intended. On the whole he was rather elated at being so
+important as to be able to defend Alexis White, and he was quite
+above believing that scientific research could be reckoned by any
+one as mischief.</p>
+
+<p>Just as Miss Mohun had gone up to get ready, Mysie ran in to
+say that Cousin Rotherwood would be at the door in a moment to
+take Fergus down.</p>
+
+<p>'Lady Rotherwood can't bear his going,' said Mysie, 'and Mr.
+White and Mr. Stebbing say that he need not; but he is quite
+determined, though he has got his arm in a sling, for he says it
+was all his fault for going where he ought not. And he won't have
+the carriage, for he says it would shake his bones ever so much
+more than Shank's mare.'</p>
+
+<p>'Just like him,' said Aunt Jane. 'Has Dr. Dagger given him
+leave?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; he said it wouldn't hurt him; but Lady Rotherwood told
+Miss Elbury she was sure he persuaded him.'</p>
+
+<p>Mysie's confused pronouns were cut short by Lord Rotherwood's
+own appearance.</p>
+
+<p>'You need not go, Jane,' he said. 'I can take care of this
+little chap. They'll not chop off his head in the presence of one
+of the Legislature.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nice care to begin by chaffing him out of his wits,' she
+retorted. 'The question is, whether you ought to go.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Jenny, I must go. It can't damage me; and besides, to
+tell the truth, it strikes me that things will go hard with that
+unlucky young fellow if some one is not there to stand up for him
+and elicit Fergus's evidence.'</p>
+
+<p>'Alexis White!'</p>
+
+<p>'White---ay, a cousin or something of the exemplary boss. He's
+been dining with his partners--the old White, I mean--and they've
+been cramming him---I imagine with a view to scapegoat
+treatment--jealousy, and all the rest of it. If there is not a
+dismissal, there's a hovering on the verge.'</p>
+
+<p>'Exactly what I was afraid of,' said Jane. 'Oh, Rotherwood, I
+could tell you volumes. But may I not come down with you? Could
+not I do something?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, on the whole, you are better away, Jenny. Consider
+William's feelings. Womankind, even Brownies, are better out of
+it. Prejudice against proteges, whether of petticoats or
+cassocks---begging your pardon. I can fight battles better as an
+unsophisticated stranger coming down fresh, though I don't expect
+any one from the barony of Beechcroft to believe it, and maybe
+the less I know of your volumes the better till after--</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Rotherwood, as if I wasn't too thankful to have you to
+send for me!'</p>
+
+<p>'There! I've kept the firm out there waiting an unconscionable
+time. They'll think you are poisoning my mind. Come along, you
+imp of science. Trust me, I'll not bully him, though it's highly
+tempting to make the chien chasser de race.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Aunt Jane, won't you go?' exclaimed Gillian in despair,
+as her cousin waved a farewell at the gate.</p>
+
+<p>'No, my dear; it is not for want of wishing, but he is quite
+right. He can do much better than I could.'</p>
+
+<p>'But is he in earnest, aunt?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, most entirely, and I quite see that he is
+right--indeed I do, Gillian. People pretend to defer to a lady,
+but they really don't like her poking her nose in, and, after
+all, I could have no right to say anything. My only excuse for
+going was to take care of Fergus.'</p>
+
+<p>A further token of Lord Rotherwood's earnestness in the cause
+was the arrival of his servant, who was to bring down the large
+stone which Master Merrifield had moved, and who conveyed it in a
+cab, being much too grand to carry it through the streets.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian was very unhappy and restless, unable to settle to
+anything, and linking cause and effect together disconsolately in
+a manner Mysie, whom she admitted to her confidence, failed to
+understand.</p>
+
+<p>'It was a great pity Fergus did not show Alexis where the
+stone came from, but I don't see what your not giving him his
+lessons had to do with it. Made him unhappy? Oh! Gilly dear, you
+don't mean any one would be too unhappy to mind his business for
+such nonsense as that! I am sure none of us would be so stupid if
+Mr. Pollock forgot our Greek lessons.'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly not,' said Gillian, almost laughing; 'but you don't
+understand, Mysie. It was the taking him up and letting him down,
+and I could not explain it, and it looked so nasty and
+capricious.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I suppose you ought to have asked Aunt Jane's leave;
+but I do think he must be a ridiculous young man if he could not
+attend to his proper work because you did not go after him when
+you were only just come home.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, Mysie, you don't understand!'</p>
+
+<p>Mysie opened a round pair of brown eyes, and said, 'Oh! I did
+think people were never so silly out of poetry. There was Wilfrid
+in Hokeby, to be sure. He was stupid enough about Matilda; but do
+you mean that he is like that!'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't, don't, you dreadful child; I wish I had never spoken
+to you,' cried Gillian, overwhelmed with confusion. 'You must
+never say a word to any living creature.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure I shan't,' said Mysie composedly; 'for, as far as I
+can see, it is all stuff. This Alexis never found out what Fergus
+was about with the stone, and so the mark was gone, and Cousin
+Rotherwood trod on it, and the poor little boy was killed; but as
+to the rest, Nurse Halfpenny would say it was all conceited
+maggots; and how you can make so much more fuss about that than
+about the poor child being crushed, I can't make out.'</p>
+
+<p>'But if I think it all my fault?'</p>
+
+<p>'That's maggots,' returned Mysie with uncompromising
+common-sense. 'You aren't old enough, nor pretty enough, for any
+of that kind of stuff, Gill!'</p>
+
+<p>And Gillian found that either she must go without
+comprehension, or have a great deal more implied, if she turned
+for sympathy to any one save Aunt Jane, who seemed to know
+exactly how the land lay.</p>
+
+<center>CHAPTER XVI.<br>
+ VANISHED</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<p>It seemed to be a very long time before the inquest was over,
+and Aunt Jane had almost yielded to her niece's impatience and
+her own, and consented to walk down to meet the intelligence,
+when Fergus came tearing in, 'I've seen the rock, and there is a
+flaw of crystal-lisation in it! And the coroner-man called me an
+incipient geologist.'</p>
+
+<p>'But the verdict?'</p>
+
+<p>'They said it was accidental death, and something about more
+care being taken and valuable lives endangered.'</p>
+
+<p>'And Alexis White--'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! there was a great bother about his not being there. They
+said it looked very bad; but they could not find him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not find him! Oh! Where is Cousin Rotherwood?'</p>
+
+<p>'He is coming home, and he said I might run on, and tell you
+that if you had time to come in to the hotel he would tell you
+about it.'</p>
+
+<p>With which invitation Miss Mohun hastened to comply; Gillian
+was ardent to come too, and it seemed cruel to prevent her; but,
+besides that Jane thought that her cousin might be tired enough
+to make his wife wish him to see as few people as possible, she
+was not sure that Gillian might not show suspicious agitation,
+and speech and action would not be free in her presence. So the
+poor girl was left to extract what she could from her little
+brother, which did not amount to much.</p>
+
+<p>It was a propitious moment, for Jane met Lord Rotherwood at
+the door of the hotel, parting with Mr. White; she entered with
+him, and his wife, after satisfying herself that he was not the
+worse for his exertions, was not sorry that he should have his
+cousin to keep him quiet in his easy-chair while she went off to
+answer a pile of letters which had just been forwarded from
+home.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Jenny,' he said, 'I am afraid your protege does not
+come out of it very well; that is, if he is your protege. He must
+be an uncommonly foolish young man.'</p>
+
+<p>'I reserve myself on that point. But is it true that he never
+appeared?'</p>
+
+<p>'Quite true.'</p>
+
+<p>'Didn't they send for him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; but he could not be found, either at the works or at
+home. However, the first might be so far accounted for, since he
+met at his desk a notice of dismissal from White and
+Stebbing.'</p>
+
+<p>'No! Really. Concocted at that unlucky dinner yesterday! But,
+of course, it was not immediate.'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course not, and perhaps something might have been done for
+him; but a man who disappears condemns himself.'</p>
+
+<p>'But what for? I hope Fergus explained that the stone was not
+near the spot when he showed it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; Fergus spoke up like a little man, and got more credit
+than he deserved. If they had known that of all varieties of boys
+the scientific is the worst imp of mischief! It all went in order
+due--surgeon explained injuries to poor little being--men how the
+stone came down and they dug him out---poor little baby-sister
+made out her sad little story. That was the worst part of all.
+Something must be done for that child---orphanage or
+something---only unluckily there's the father and mother. Poor
+father! he is the one to be pitied. I mean to get at him without
+the woman. Well, then came my turn, and how I am afflicted with
+the habit of going where I ought not, and, only by a wonderful
+mercy, was saved from being part of the general average below.
+Then we got to the inquiry, Were not dangerous places railed off?
+Yes, Stebbing explained that it was the rule of the firm to have
+the rocks regularly inspected once a month, and once a fortnight
+in winter and spring, when the danger is greater. If they were
+ticklish, the place was marked at the moment with big stones,
+reported, and railed off. An old foreman-sort of fellow swore to
+having detected the danger, and put stones. He had reported it.
+To whom? To Mr. Frank. Yes, he thought it was Mr. Frank, just
+before he went away. It was this fellow's business to report it
+and send the order, it seems, and in his absence Alexander White,
+or whatever they call him, took his work. Well, the old man
+doesn't seem to know whether he mentioned the thing to young
+White or not, which made his absence more unlucky; but, anyway,
+the presence of the stones was supposed to be a sufficient
+indication of the need of the rail, or to any passenger to avoid
+the place. In fact, if Master White had been energetic, he would
+have seen to the thing. I fancy that is the long and short of it.
+But when the question came how the stones came to be removed, I
+put Fergus forward. The foreman luckily could identify his stone
+by the precious crack of spar; and the boy explained how he had
+lugged it down, and showed it to his friend far away from its
+place--had, in fact, turned over and displaced all the lot.'</p>
+
+<p>'Depend upon it, Alexis has gone out of the way to avoid
+accusing Fergus!'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't make me start, it hurts; but do you really believe
+that, Jane---you, the common-sense female of the family?'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed I do, he is a romantic, sensitive sort of fellow, who
+would not defend himself at the boy's expense.'</p>
+
+<p>'Whew! He might have stood still and let Fergus defend him,
+then, instead of giving up his own cause.'</p>
+
+<p>'And how did it end?'</p>
+
+<p>'Accidental death, of course; couldn't be otherwise; but
+censure on the delay and neglect of precaution, which the common
+opinion of the Court naturally concentrated on the absent;
+though, no doubt, the first omission was young Stebbing's; but
+owing to the hurry of his start for Italy, that was easily
+excused. And even granting that Fergus did the last bit of
+mischief, your friend may be romantically generous, if you
+please; but he must have been very slack in his work.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor fellow---yes. Now before I tell you what I know about
+him, I should like to hear how Mr. Stebbing represents him. You
+know his father was a lieutenant in the Royal Wardours.'</p>
+
+<p>'Risen from the ranks, a runaway cousin of White's. Yes, and
+there's a son in a lawyer's office always writing to White for
+money.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! I never had much notion of that eldest--'</p>
+
+<p>'They have no particular claim on White; but when the father
+died he wrote to Stebbing to give those that were old enough
+occupation at the works, and see that the young ones got
+educated.'</p>
+
+<p>'So he lets the little boys go to the National School, though
+there's no great harm in that as yet.'</p>
+
+<p>'He meant to come and see after them himself, and find out
+what they are made of. But meantime this youth, who did well at
+first, is always running after music and nonsense of all kinds,
+thinking himself above his business, neglecting right and left;
+while as to the sister, she is said to be very clever at
+designing---both ways in fact--so determined to draw young
+Stebbing in, that, having got proof of it at last, they have
+dismissed her too. And, Jane, I hardly like to tell you, but
+somehow they mix Gillian up in the business. They ate it up again
+when I cut them short by saying she was my cousin, her mother and
+you like my sisters. I am certain it is all nonsense, but had you
+any notion of any such thing? It is insulting you, though, to
+suppose you had not,' he added, as he saw her air of
+acquiescence; 'so, of course, it is all right.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is not all right, but not so wrong as all that. Oh no! and
+I know all about it from poor Gill herself and the girl. Happily
+they are both too good girls to need prying. Well, the case is
+this. There was a quarrel about a love story between the two
+original Whites, who must both have had a good deal of stuff in
+them. Dick ran away, enlisted, rose, and was respected by Jasper,
+etc., but was married to a Greco-Hibernian wife, traditionally
+very beautiful, poor woman, though rather the reverse at present.
+Lily and her girls did their best for the young people with good
+effect on the eldest girl, who really in looks and ways is worthy
+of her Muse's name, Kalliope. Father had to retire with rank of
+captain, and died shortly after. Letters failed to reach the
+Merrifields, who were on the move. This Quarry cousin was written
+to, and gave the help he described to you. Perhaps it was just,
+but it disappointed them, and while the father lived, Alexis had
+been encouraged to look to getting to the University and Holy
+Orders. He has a good voice, and the young curate at the Kennel
+patronised him, perhaps a little capriciously, but I am not quite
+sure. All this was unknown to me till the Merrifield children
+came, and Gillian, discovering these Whites, flew upon them in
+the true enthusiastic Lily-fashion, added to the independence of
+the modern maiden mistrustful of old cats of aunts. Like a little
+goose, she held trystes with Kalliope, through the rails at the
+top of the garden on Sunday afternoons.'</p>
+
+<p>'Only Kalliope!'</p>
+
+<p>'Cela va sans dire. The brother was walking the young ones on
+the cliffs whence she had been driven by the attentions of Master
+Frank Stebbing. Poor thing, she is really beautiful enough to be
+a misfortune to her, and so is the youth---Maid of Athens, Irish
+eyes, plus intellect. Gill lent books, and by and by volunteered
+to help the lad with his Greek.'</p>
+
+<p>'Whew---'</p>
+
+<p>'Just as she would teach a night-school class. She used to
+give him lessons at his sister's office. I find that as soon as
+Kalliope found it was unknown to me she protested, and did all in
+her power to prevent it, but Gillian had written all to her
+mother, and thought that sufficient.'</p>
+
+<p>'And Lily---? Victoria would have gone crazy--supposing such a
+thing possible,' he added, sotto voce.</p>
+
+<p>'Lily was probably crazy already between her sick husband and
+her bridal daughters, for she answered nothing intelligible.
+However, absence gave time for reflection, and Gillian came home
+after her visits convinced by her own good sense and principle
+that she had not acted fairly towards us, so that, of her own
+accord, the first thing she did was to tell me the whole, and how
+much the sister had always objected. She was quite willing that I
+should talk it over with Kalliope before she went near them
+again, but I have never been able really to do so.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then it was all Greek and---"Lilyism!" Lily's grammar over
+again, eh!'</p>
+
+<p>'On her side, purely so---but I am afraid she did upset the
+boy's mind. He seems to have been bitterly disappointed at what
+must have appeared like neglect and offence--and oh! you know how
+silly youths can be--and he had Southern blood too, poor fellow,
+and he went mooning and moping about, I am afraid really not
+attending to his business; and instead of taking advantage of the
+opening young Stebbing's absence gave him of showing his
+abilities, absolutely gave them the advantage against him, by
+letting them show him up as an idle fellow.'</p>
+
+<p>'Or worse. Stebbing talked of examining the accounts, to see
+if there were any deficiency.'</p>
+
+<p>'That can be only for the sake of prejudicing Mr. White---they
+cannot really suspect him.'</p>
+
+<p>'If not, it was very good acting, and Stebbing appears to me
+just the man to suspect a parson's pet, and a lady's--as he
+called this unlucky fellow.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ask any of the workmen---ask Mr. Flight.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I wish he had come to the front. It looks bad for him,
+and your plea, Jenny, is more like Lily than yourself.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you; I had rather be like Lily than myself.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you are equally sure that the sister is maligned?'</p>
+
+<p>'Quite sure---on good evidence---the thing is how to lay it
+all before Mr. White, for you see these Stebbings evidently want
+to prevent him from taking to his own kindred--you must help me,
+Rotherwood.'</p>
+
+<p>'When I am convinced,' he said. 'My dear Jenny, I beg your
+pardon---I have an infinite respect for your sagacity, but allow
+me to observe, though your theory holds together, still it has
+rather an ancient and fish-like smell.'</p>
+
+<p>'I only ask you to investigate, and make him do so. Listen to
+any one who knows, to any one but the Stebbings, and you will
+find what an admirable girl the sister is, and that the poor boy
+is perfectly blameless of anything but being forced into a
+position for which he was never intended, and of all his
+instincts rebelling.'</p>
+
+<p>They were interrupted by the arrival of the doctor, whom Lady
+Rotherwood had bound over to come and see whether her husband was
+the worse for his exertions. He came in apologising most
+unnecessarily for his tardiness. And in the midst of Miss Mohun's
+mingled greeting and farewell, she stood still to hear him say
+that he had been delayed by being called in to that poor woman,
+Mrs. White, who had had a fit on hearing the policeman inquiring
+for that young scamp, her son.</p>
+
+<p>'The policeman!' ejaculated Jane in consternation.</p>
+
+<p>'It was only to summon him to attend the inquest,' explained
+Dr. Dagger, 'but there was no one in the house with her but a
+little maid, and the shock was dreadful. If he has really
+absconded, it looks exceedingly ill for him.'</p>
+
+<p>'I believe he has only been inattentive,' said Jane firmly,
+knowing that she ought to go, and yet feeling constrained to wait
+long enough to ask what was the state of the poor mother, and if
+her daughter were with her.</p>
+
+<p>'The daughter was sent for, and seems to be an effective
+person---uncommonly handsome, by the bye. The attack was
+hysteria, but there is evidently serious disease about her, which
+may be accelerated.'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought so. I am afraid she has had no advice.'</p>
+
+<p>'No; I promised the daughter to come and examine her to-morrow
+when she is calmer, and if that son is good for anything, he may
+have returned.'</p>
+
+<p>And therewith Jane was forced to go away, to carry this
+wretched news to poor Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt and niece went as soon as the mid-day meal was over to
+inquire for poor Mrs. White, and see what could be done. She was
+sleeping under an opiate, and Kalliope came down, pale as marble,
+but tearless. She knew nothing of her brother since she had given
+him his breakfast that morning. He had looked white and haggard,
+and had not slept, neither did he eat. She caught at the theory
+that had occurred to Miss Mohun, that he did not like to accuse
+Fergus, for even to her he had not mentioned who had removed the
+stone. In that case he might return at night. Yet it was possible
+that he did not know even now whence the stone had come, and it
+was certain that he had been at his office that morning, and
+opened the letter announcing his dismissal. Kalliope, going
+later, had found the like notice, but had had little time to
+dwell on it before she had been summoned home to her mother. Poor
+Mrs. White had been much shaken by the first reports of
+yesterday's accident, which had been so told to her as to alarm
+her for both her children; and when her little maid rushed in to
+say that 'the pelis was come after Mr. Alec,' it was no wonder
+that her terror threw her into a most alarming state, which made
+good Mrs. Lee despatch her husband to bring home Kalliope; and as
+the attack would not yield to the soothing of the women or to
+their domestic remedies, but became more and more delirious and
+convulsive, the nearest doctor was sent for, and Dr. Dagger,
+otherwise a higher flight than would have been attempted, was
+caught on his way and brought in to discover how serious her
+condition already was.</p>
+
+<p>This Kalliope told them with the desperate quietness of one
+who could not afford to give way. Her own affairs were entirely
+swallowed up in this far greater trouble, and for the present
+there were no means of helping her. Mr. and Mrs. Lee were
+thoroughly kind, and ready to give her efficient aid in her home
+cares and her nursing; and it could only be hoped that Alexis
+might come back in the evening, and set the poor patient's mind
+at rest.</p>
+
+<p>'We will try to make Mr. White come to a better
+understanding,' said Miss Mohun kindly.</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you' said Kalliope, pushing back her hair with a
+half-bewildered look. 'I remember my poor mother was very anxious
+about that. But it seems a little thing now.'</p>
+
+<p>'May God bless and help you, my dear,' said Miss Mohun, with a
+parting kiss.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian had not spoken all the time; but outside she
+said--'Oh, aunt! is this my doing?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not quite,' said Aunt Jane kindly. 'There were other
+causes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, if I could do anything!'</p>
+
+<p>'Alas! it is easier to do than to undo.'</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Jane was really kind, and Gillian was grateful, but oh,
+how she longed for her mother!</p>
+
+<p>There was no better news the next morning. Nothing had been
+heard of Alexis, and nothing would persuade his mother in her
+half-delirious and wholly unreasonable state that he had not been
+sent to prison, and that they were not keeping it from her. She
+was exceedingly ill, and Kalliope had been up all night with
+her.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the report in a note sent up by Mrs. Lee by one of
+the little boys early in the morning, and, as soon as she could
+reasonably do so, Miss Mohun carried the report to Lord
+Rotherwood, whom she found much better, and anxious to renew the
+tour of inspection which had been interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>Before long, Mr. White was shown in, intending to resume the
+business discussion, and Miss Mohun was about to retreat with
+Lady Rotherwood, when her cousin, taking pity on her anxiety,
+said--</p>
+
+<p>'If you will excuse me for speaking about your family matters,
+Mr. White, my cousin knows these young people well, and I should
+like you to hear what she has been telling me.'</p>
+
+<p>'A gentleman has just been calling on me about them,' said Mr.
+White, not over-graciously.</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Flight?' asked Jane anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; a young clergyman, just what we used to call Puseyite
+when I left England; but that name seems to be gone out now.'</p>
+
+<p>'Anyway,' said Jane, 'I am sure he had nothing but good to say
+of Miss White, or indeed of her brother; and I am afraid the poor
+mother is very ill.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's true, Miss Mohun; but you see there may be one side to
+a lady or a parson, and another to a practical man like my
+partner. Not but that I should be willing enough to do anything
+in reason for poor Dick's widow and children, but not to keep
+them in idleness, or letting them think themselves too good to
+work.'</p>
+
+<p>'That I am sure these two do not. Their earnings quite keep
+the family. I know no one who works harder than Miss White,
+between her business, her lodgers, the children, and her helpless
+mother.'</p>
+
+<p>'I saw her mosaics---very fair, very clever, some of them; but
+I'm afraid she is a sad little flirt, Miss Mohun.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. White,' said Lord Rotherwood, 'did ever you hear of a
+poor girl beset by an importunate youth, but his family thought
+it was all her fault?'</p>
+
+<p>'If Mr. White would see her,' said Jane, 'he would understand
+at a glance that the attraction is perfectly involuntary; and I
+know from other sources how persistently she has avoided young
+Stebbing; giving up Sunday walks to prevent meeting him,
+accepting nothing from him, always avoiding tete-a-tetes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hum! But tell me this, madam,' said Mr. White eagerly, 'how
+is it that, if these young folks are so steady and diligent as
+you would make out, that eldest brother writes to me every few
+months for help to support them?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!' Jane breathed out, then, rallying, 'I know nothing about
+that eldest. Yes, I do though! His sister told my niece that all
+the rents of the three houses went to enable Richard to appear as
+he ought at the solicitor's office at Leeds.'</p>
+
+<p>'There's a screw loose somewhere plainly,' said Lord
+Rotherwood.</p>
+
+<p>'The question is, where it is,' said Mr. White.</p>
+
+<p>'And all I hope, said Jane, 'is that Mr. White will judge for
+himself when he has seen Kalliope and made inquiries all round. I
+do not say anything for the mother, poor thing, except that she
+is exceedingly ill just now, but I do thoroughly believe in the
+daughter.'</p>
+
+<p>'And this runaway scamp, Miss Mohun?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid he is a runaway; but I am quite sure he is no
+scamp,' said Jane.</p>
+
+<p>'Only so clever as to be foolish, eh?' said the Marquis,
+rather provokingly.</p>
+
+<p>'Exactly so,' she answered; 'and I am certain that if Mr.
+White will trust to his own eyes and his own inquiries, he will
+find that I am right.'</p>
+
+<p>She knew she ought to go, and Lord Rotherwood told her
+afterwards, 'That was not an ill-aimed shaft, Jane. Stebbing got
+more than one snub over the survey. I see that White is getting
+the notion that there's a system of hoodwinking going on, and of
+not letting him alone, and he is not the man to stand that.'</p>
+
+<p>'If he only would call on Kalliope!'</p>
+
+<p>'I suspect he is afraid of being beguiled by such a
+fascinating young woman.'</p>
+
+<p>It was a grievous feature in the case to Gillian that she
+could really do nothing. Mrs. White was so ill that going to see
+Kalliope was of no use, and Maura was of an age to be made useful
+at home; and there were features in the affair that rendered it
+inexpedient for Gillian to speak of it except in the strictest
+confidence to Aunt Jane or Mysie. It was as if she had touched a
+great engine, and it was grinding and clashing away above her
+while she could do nothing to stay its course.</p>
+
+<center>CHAPTER XVII.<br>
+ 'THEY COME, THEY COME'</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<p>Dr. Dagger examined Mrs. White and pronounced that there had
+been mortal disease of long standing, and that she had nearly, if
+not quite, reached the last stage. While people had thought her
+selfish, weak, and exacting, she must really have concealed
+severe suffering, foolishly perhaps, but with great
+fortitude.</p>
+
+<p>And from hearing this sentence, Kalliope had turned to find at
+last tidings of her brother in a letter written from Avoncester,
+the nearest garrison town. He told his sister that, heart-broken
+already at the result of what he knew to be his own presumption,
+and horrified at the fatal consequences of his unhappy neglect,
+he felt incapable of facing any of those whom he had once called
+his friends, and the letter of dismissal had removed all
+scruples. Had it not been for his faith and fear, he would have
+put an end to his life, but she need have no alarms on that
+score. He had rushed away, scarce knowing what he was doing, till
+he had found himself on the road to Avoncester and then had
+walked on thither and enlisted in the regiment quartered there,
+where he hoped to do his duty, having no other hope left in
+life!</p>
+
+<p>Part of this letter Kalliope read to Miss Mohun, who had come
+down to hear the doctor's verdict. It was no time to smile at the
+heart being broken by the return of a valentine, or all hope in
+life being over before twenty. Kalliope, who knew what the life
+of a private was, felt wretched over it, and her poor mother was
+in despair; but Miss Mohun tried to persuade her that it was by
+no means an unfortunate thing, since Alexis would be thus
+detained safely and within reach till Sir Jasper arrived to take
+up the matter, and Mr. White had been able to understand it.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; but he cannot come to my poor mother. And Richard will
+be so angry---think it such a degradation.'</p>
+
+<p>'He ought not. Your father--'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! but he will. And I must write to him. Mother has been
+asking for him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Tell me, my dear, has Richard ever helped you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, poor fellow, he could not. He wants all we can send
+him, or we would have put the little boys to a better
+school.'</p>
+
+<p>'I would not write before it is absolutely necessary,' said
+Miss Mohun. 'A young man hanging about with nothing to do, even
+under these circumstances, might make things harder.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I know,' said Kalliope, with a trembling lip. 'And if it
+was urgent, even Alexis might come. Indeed, I ought to be
+thankful that he is safe, after all my dreadful fears, and not
+far off.'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mohun refrained from grieving the poor girl by blaming
+Alexis for the impetuous selfish folly that had so greatly added
+to the general distress of his family, and rendered it so much
+more difficult to plead his cause. In fact, she felt bound to
+stand up as his champion against all his enemies, though he was
+less easy of defence than his sister; and Mr. Flight, the first
+person she met afterwards, was excessively angry and
+disappointed, speaking of such a step as utter ruin.</p>
+
+<p>'The lad was capable of so much better things,' said he. 'I
+had hoped so much of him, and had so many plans for him, that it
+is a grievous pity; but he had no patience, and now he has thrown
+himself away. I told him it was his first duty to maintain his
+mother, and if he had stuck to that, I would have done more for
+him as soon as he was old enough, and I could see what was to be
+done for the rest of them; but he grew unsettled and impatient,
+and this is the end of it!'</p>
+
+<p>'Not the end, I hope,' said Miss Mohun. 'It is not exactly
+slavery without redemption.'</p>
+
+<p>'He does not deserve it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who does? Besides, remember what his father was.'</p>
+
+<p>'His father must have been of the high-spirited, dare-devil
+sort. This lad was made for a scholar--for the priesthood, in
+fact, and the army will be more uncongenial than these marble
+works! Foolish fellow, he will soon have had enough of it, with
+his refinement, among such associates.'</p>
+
+<p>Jane wondered that the young clergyman did not regret that he
+had sufficiently tried the youth's patience to give the sense of
+neglect and oblivion. There had been many factors in the
+catastrophe, and this had certainly been one, since the loan of a
+few books, and an hour a week of direction of study, would have
+kept Alexis contented, and have obviated all the perilous
+intercourse with Gillian; but she scarcely did the Rev. Augustine
+Flight injustice in thinking that in the aesthetic and the
+emotional side of religion he somewhat lost sight of the daily
+drudgery that works on character chiefly as a preventive. 'He was
+at the bottom of it, little as he knows it,' she said to herself
+as she walked up the hill. 'How much harm is done by good
+beginnings of a skein left to tangle.'</p>
+
+<p>Lady Flight provided a trained nurse to help Kalliope, and
+sent hosts of delicacies; and plenty of abuse was bestowed on Mr.
+James White for his neglect. Meanwhile Mrs. White, though
+manifestly in a hopeless state, seemed likely to linger on for
+some weeks longer.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, Miss Mohun at last found an available house,
+and was gratified by the young people's murmur that 'Il Lido' was
+too far off from Beechcroft. But then their mother would be glad
+to be so near St. Andrew's, for she belonged to the generation
+that loved and valued daily services.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Rotherwood, perhaps owing to his exertions, felt the
+accident more than he had done at first, and had to be kept very
+quiet, which he averred to be best accomplished by having the
+children in to play with him; and as he always insisted on
+sending for Valetta to make up the party, the edict of separation
+fell to the ground, when Lady Rotherwood, having written his
+letters for him, went out for a drive, taking sometimes Miss
+Elbury, but more often Adeline Mohun, who flattered herself that
+her representations had done much to subdue prejudice and smooth
+matters.</p>
+
+<p>'Which always were smooth,' said Jane; 'smooth and polished as
+a mahogany table, and as easy to get into.'</p>
+
+<p>However, she was quite content that Ada should be the
+preferred one, and perhaps no one less acute than herself would
+have felt that the treatment as intimates and as part of the
+family was part of the duty of a model wife. Both sisters were in
+request to enliven the captive, and Jane forebore to worry him
+with her own anxieties about the present disgrace of the Whites.
+Nothing could be done for Kalliope in her mother's present state,
+Alexis must drink of his own brewst, and Sir Jasper and Lady
+Merrifield were past Brindisi! As to Mr. White, he seemed to be
+immersed in business, and made no sign of relenting; Jane had
+made one or two attempts to see him, but had not succeeded. Only
+one of her G.F.S. maidens, who was an enthusiastic admirer of
+Kalliope, and in perfect despair at her absence, mentioned that
+Mr. White had looked over all their work and had been immensely
+struck with Miss White's designs, and especially with the table
+inlaid with autumn leaves, which had been set aside as expensive,
+unprofitable, and not according to the public taste, and not
+shown to him on his first visit to the works with Mr. Stebbing.
+There were rumours in the air that he was not contented with the
+state of things, and might remain for some time to set them on a
+different footing.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Adeline had been driving with Lady Rotherwood, and on
+coming in with her for the afternoon cup of tea, found Mr. White
+conversing with Lord Rotherwood, evidently just finishing the
+subject---a reading-room or institute of some sort for the men at
+the works.</p>
+
+<p>'All these things are since my time,' said Mr. White. 'We were
+left pretty much to ourselves in those days.'</p>
+
+<p>'And what do you think? Should you have been much the better
+for them?' asked the Marquis.</p>
+
+<p>'Some of us would,' was the answer.</p>
+
+<p>'You would not have thought them a bore!'</p>
+
+<p>'There were some who would, as plenty will now; but we were a
+rough set--we had not so much to start with as the lads, willy
+nilly, have now. But I should have been glad of books, and
+diversion free from lawlessness might have prevented poor Dick's
+scrapes. By the bye, that daughter of his can do good work.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor thing,' said Miss Adeline, 'she is a very good girl, and
+in great trouble. I was much pleased with her, and I think, she
+has behaved remarkably well under very trying circumstances.'</p>
+
+<p>'I observed that the young women in the mosaic department
+seemed to be much attached to her,' said Mr. White.</p>
+
+<p>'My sister thinks she has been an excellent influence
+there.'</p>
+
+<p>'She was not there,' said Mr. White.</p>
+
+<p>'No; her mother is too ill to be left--dying, I should think,
+from what I hear.'</p>
+
+<p>'From the shock of that foolish lad's evasion?' asked Lord
+Rotherwood.</p>
+
+<p>'She was very ill before, I believe, though that brought it to
+a crisis. No one would believe how much that poor girl has had
+depending on her. I wish she had been at the works--I am sure you
+would have been struck with her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Have you any reason to think they are in any distress, Miss
+Mohun?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not actually at present; but I do not know what they are to
+do in future, with the loss of the salaries those two have had,'
+said Adeline, exceedingly anxious to say neither too much nor too
+little.</p>
+
+<p>'There is the elder brother.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! he is no help, only an expense.'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Mohun, may I ask, are you sure of that?'</p>
+
+<p>'As sure as I can be of anything. I have always heard that the
+rents of their two or three small houses went to support Richard,
+and that they entirely live on the earnings of the brother and
+sister, except that you are so good as to educate the younger
+girl. It has come out casually---they never ask for
+anything.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. White looked very thoughtful. Adeline considered whether
+importunity would do most harm or good; but thought her words
+might work. When she rose to take leave, Mr. White did the same,
+'evidently,' thought she, 'for the sake of escorting her home,'
+and she might perhaps say another word in confidence for the poor
+young people. She had much reliance, and not unjustly, on her
+powers of persuasion, and she would make the most of those few
+steps to her own door.</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, Mr. White,' she began, 'excuse me, but I cannot help
+being very much interested in those young people we were speaking
+of.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is your goodness, Miss Mohun. I have no doubt they are
+attractive---there's no end to the attractiveness of those
+Southern folk they belong to---on one side of the house at least,
+but unfortunately you never know where to have them---there's no
+truth in them; and though I don't want to speak of anything I may
+have done for them, I can't get over their professing never to
+have had anything from me.'</p>
+
+<p>'May I ask whether you sent it through that eldest
+brother?'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly; he always wrote to me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then, Mr. White, I cannot help believing that the family here
+never heard of it. Do you know anything of that young man?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; I will write to his firm and inquire. Thank you for the
+hint, Miss Mohun.'</p>
+
+<p>They were at Beechcroft Cottage gate, and he seemed about to
+see her even to the door. At that instant a little girlish figure
+advanced and was about to draw back on perceiving that Miss
+Adeline was not alone, when she exclaimed, 'Maura, is it you, out
+so late! How is your mother?'</p>
+
+<p>'Much the same, thank you, Miss Adeline!'</p>
+
+<p>'Here is one of the very young folks we were mentioning,' said
+Ada, seeing her opportunity and glad that there was light enough
+to show the lady-like little figure. 'This is Maura, Mr. White,
+whom you are kindly educating.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. White took the hand, which was given with a pretty
+respectful gesture, and said something kind about her mother's
+illness, while Adeline took the girl into the house and asked if
+she had come on any message.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, if you please,' said Maura, blushing; 'Miss Mohun was so
+kind as to offer to lend us an air-cushion, and poor mamma is so
+restless and uncomfortable that Kally thought it might ease her a
+little.'</p>
+
+<p>'By all means, my dear. Come in, and I will have it brought,'
+said Adeline, whose property the cushion was, and who was well
+pleased that Mr. White came in likewise, and thus had a full view
+of Maura's great wistful, long-lashed eyes, and delicate refined
+features, under a little old brown velvet cap, and the slight
+figure in a gray ulster. He did not speak while Maura answered
+Miss Adeline's inquiries, but when the cushion had been brought
+down, and she had taken it under her arm, he exclaimed--</p>
+
+<p>'Is she going back alone?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes,' said Maura cheerfully; 'it is not really dark out of
+doors yet.'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose it could not be helped,' said Miss Adeline.</p>
+
+<p>'No; Theodore is at the school. They keep him late to get
+things ready for the inspection, and Petros had to go to the
+doctor's to fetch something; but he will meet me if he is not
+kept waiting.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is not fit for a child like that to go alone so late,'
+said Mr. White, who perhaps had imbibed Italian notions of the
+respectability of an escort. 'I will walk down with her.'</p>
+
+<p>Maura looked as if darkness were highly preferable to such a
+cavalier; but Miss Adeline was charmed to see them walk off
+together, and when her sister presently came in with Gillian and
+Fergus, she could not but plume herself a little on her
+achievement.</p>
+
+<p>'Then it was those two!' exclaimed Jane. 'I thought so from
+the other side of the street, but it was too dark to be certain;
+and besides, there was no believing it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did not they acknowledge you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no; they were much too busy.'</p>
+
+<p>'Talking. Oh, what fun!' Adeline could not help observing in
+such glee that she looked more like 'our youngest girl' than the
+handsome middle-aged aunt.</p>
+
+<p>'But,' suggested Fergus, somewhat astonished, 'Stebbing says
+he is no end of a horrid brute of a screw.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed. What has he been doing?'</p>
+
+<p>'He only tipped him a coach wheel.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, to tip over as a coach wheel is the last thing I should
+have expected of Mr. White,' said Aunt Jane, misunderstanding on
+purpose.</p>
+
+<p>'A crown piece then,' growled Fergus; 'and of course he
+thought it would be a sovereign, and so he can't pay me my two
+ten--shillings, I mean, that I lent him, and so I can't get the
+lovely ammonite I saw at Nott's.'</p>
+
+<p>'How could you be so silly as to lend him any money?'</p>
+
+<p>'I didn't want to; but he said he would treat us all round if
+I wouldn't be mean, and after all I only got half a goody, with
+all the liqueur out of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'It served you right,' said Gillian. 'I doubt whether you
+would see the two shillings again, even if he had the
+sovereign.'</p>
+
+<p>'He faithfully promised I should,' said Fergus, whose
+allegiance was only half broken. 'And old White is a beast, and
+no mistake. He was perfectly savage to Stebbing's major, and he
+said he wouldn't be under him, at no price.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps Mr. White might say the same,' put in Aunt Ada.</p>
+
+<p>'He is a downright old screw and a bear, I tell you,'
+persisted Fergus. 'He jawed Frank Stebbing like a pickpocket for
+just having a cigar in the quarry.'</p>
+
+<p>'Close to the blasting powder, eh?' said Miss Mohun.</p>
+
+<p>'And he is boring and worrying them all out of their lives
+over the books,' added Fergus. 'Poking his nose into everything,
+so that Stebbing says his governor vows he can't stand it, and
+shall cut the concern it the old brute does not take himself off
+to Italy before long.'</p>
+
+<p>'What a good thing!' thought both sisters, looking into each
+other's eyes and auguring well for the future.</p>
+
+<p>All were anxious to hear the result of Maura's walk, and
+Gillian set out in the morning on a voyage of discovery with a
+glass of jelly for Mrs. White; but all she could learn was that
+the great man had been very kind to Maura, though he had not come
+in, at which Gillian was indignant.</p>
+
+<p>'Men are often shy of going near sickness and sorrow,' said
+her aunt Ada. 'You did not hear what they talked about?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; Maura was at school, and Kally is a bad person to
+pump.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should like to pump Mr. White,' was Aunt Jane's
+comment.</p>
+
+<p>'If I could meet him again,' said Aunt Ada, 'I feel sure he
+would tell me.'</p>
+
+<p>Her sister laughed a little, so well did she know that little
+half-conscious, half-gratified tone of assumption of power over
+the other sex; but Miss Adeline proved to be right. Nay, Mr.
+White actually called in the raw cold afternoon, which kept her
+in when every one else was out. He came for the sake of telling
+her that he was much pleased with the little girl---a pretty
+creature, and simple and true, he really believed. Quite
+artlessly, in answer to his inquiries, she had betrayed that her
+eldest brother never helped them. 'Oh no! Mamma was always
+getting all the money she could to send to him, because he must
+keep up appearances at his office at Leeds, and live like a
+gentleman, and it did not signify about Kalliope and Alexis doing
+common work.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's one matter cleared up,' rejoiced Jane. 'It won't be
+brought up against them now.'</p>
+
+<p>'And then it seems he asked the child about her sister's
+lovers.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!'</p>
+
+<p>'It was for a purpose. Don't be old maidish, Jenny!'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, he isn't a gentleman.'</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Jane, I'm sure--'</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind. I want to hear; only I should have thought you
+would have been the first to cry out.'</p>
+
+<p>'Little Maura seems to have risen to the occasion, and made a
+full explanation as far as she knew--and that was more than the
+child ought to have known, by the bye---of how Mr. Frank was
+always after Kally, and how she could not bear him, and gave up
+the Sunday walk to avoid him, and how he had tried to get her to
+marry him, and go to Italy with him; but she would not hear of
+it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Just the thing the little chatterbox would be proud of, but
+it is no harm that "Mon oncle des iles Philippines" should
+know.'</p>
+
+<p>'"I see his little game" was what Mr. White said,' repeated
+Adeline. '"The young dog expected to come over me with this
+pretty young wife---my relation, too; but he would have found
+himself out in his reckoning."'</p>
+
+<p>'So far so good; but it is not fair.'</p>
+
+<p>'However, the ice is broken. What's that? Is the house coming
+down?'</p>
+
+<p>No; but Gillian and Valetta came rushing in, almost tumbling
+over one another, and each waving a sheet of a letter. Papa and
+mamma would land in three days' time if all went well; but the
+pity was that they must go to London before coming to Rockquay,
+since Sir Jasper must present himself to the military and medical
+authorities, and likewise see his mother, who was in a very
+failing state.</p>
+
+<p>The children looked and felt as if the meeting were deferred
+for years; but Miss Mohun, remembering the condition of 'Il
+Lido,' alike as to the presence of workmen and absence of
+servants, felt relieved at the respite, proceeded to send a
+telegram to Macrae, and became busier than ever before in her
+life.</p>
+
+<p>The Rotherwoods were just going to London. The Marquis was
+wanted for a division, and though both he and Dr. Dagger declared
+his collar-bone quite repaired, his wife could not be satisfied
+without hearing for herself a verdict to the same effect from the
+higher authorities, being pretty sure that whatever their report
+might be, his abstract would be 'All right. Never mind.'</p>
+
+<p>Fly had gained so much in flesh and strength, and was so much
+more like her real self, that she was to remain at the hotel with
+Miss Elbury, the rooms being kept for her parents till Easter.
+Mysie was, however, to go with them to satisfy her mother, 'with
+a first mouthful of children,' said Lord Rotherwood. 'Gillian had
+better come too; and we will write to the Merrifields to come to
+us, unless they are bound to the old lady.'</p>
+
+<p>This, however, was unlikely, as she was very infirm, and her
+small house was pretty well filled by her attendants. Lady
+Rotherwood seconded the invitation like a good wife, and Gillian
+was grateful. Such a forestalling was well worth even the being
+the Marchioness's guest, and being treated with careful
+politeness and supervision as a girl of the period, always ready
+to break out. However, she would have Mysie, and she tried to
+believe Aunt Jane, who told her that she had conjured up a
+spectre of the awful dame. There was a melancholy parting on the
+side of poor little Lady Phyllis. 'What shall I do without you,
+Mysie dear?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is only for a few days.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; but then you will be in a different house, all down in
+the town---it will be only visiting--not like sisters.'</p>
+
+<p>'Sisters are quite a different thing,' said Mysie stoutly;
+'but we can be the next thing to it in our hearts.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is not equal,' said Fly. 'You don't make a sister of me,
+and I do of you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Because you know no better! Poor Fly, I do wish I could give
+you a sister of your own.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you know, Mysie, I think---I'm quite sure, that daddy is
+going to ask your father and mother to give you to us, out and
+out.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! I'm sure they won't do that,' cried Mysie in
+consternation. 'Mamma never would!'</p>
+
+<p>'And wouldn't you? Don't you like me as well as Gill and
+Val?'</p>
+
+<p>'I <i>like</i> you better. Stop, don't, Fly; you are what
+people call more of a companion to me--my friend; but friends
+aren't the same as sisters, are they? They may be more, or they
+may be less, but it is not the same kind. And then it is not only
+you, there are papa and mamma and all my brothers.'</p>
+
+<p>'But you <i>do</i> love daddy, and you have not seen yours for
+four years, and Aunt Florence and all the cousins at Beechcroft
+say they were quite afraid of him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Because he is so-- Oh! I don't know how to say it, but he is
+just like Epaminondas, or King Arthur, or Robert Bruce, or--'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, that's enough' said Fly; 'I am sure my daddy would
+laugh if you said he was like all those.'</p>
+
+<p>'To be sure he would!' said Mysie. 'And do you think I would
+give mine for him, though yours is so kind and good and such
+fun?'</p>
+
+<p>'And I'm sure I'd rather have him than yours,' said Fly.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, that's right. It would be wicked not to like one's own
+father and mother best.'</p>
+
+<p>'But if they thought it would be good for you to have all my
+governesses and advantages, and they took pity on my loneliness.
+What then?'</p>
+
+<p>'Then? Oh! I'd try to bear it,' said unworldly and
+uncomplimentary Mysie. 'And you need not be lonely now. There's
+Val!'</p>
+
+<p>The two governesses had made friends, and the embargo on
+intercourse with Valetta had been allowed to drop; but Fly only
+shook her head, and allowed that Val was better than
+nothing.'</p>
+
+<p>Mysie had a certain confidence that mamma would not give her
+away if all the lords and ladies in the world wanted her; and
+Gillian confirmed her in that belief, so that no misgiving
+interfered with her joy at finding herself in the train, where
+Lord Rotherwood declared that the two pair of eyes shone enough
+to light a candle by.</p>
+
+<p>'I feel,' said Mysie, jumping up and down in her seat, 'like
+the man who said he had a bird in his bosom.'</p>
+
+<p>'Or a bee in his bonnet, eh?' said Lord Rotherwood, while
+Mysie obeyed a sign from my lady to moderate the restlessness of
+her ecstasies.</p>
+
+<p>'It really was a bird in his bosom,' said Gillian gravely,
+'only he said so when he was dying in battle, and he meant his
+faith to his king.'</p>
+
+<p>'And little Mysie has kept her faith to her mother,' said
+their cousin, putting out his hand to turn the happy face towards
+him.<br>
+ 'So the bird may well sing to her.'</p>
+
+<p>'In spite of parting with Phyllis?' asked Lady Rotherwood.</p>
+
+<p>'I can't help it, <i>indeed</i>,' said Mysie, divided between
+her politeness and her dread of being given away; 'it has been
+very nice, but one's own, own papa and mamma must be more than
+any one.'</p>
+
+<p>'So they ought,' said Lord Rotherwood, and there it ended,
+chatter in the train not being considered desirable.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian longed to show Mysie and Geraldine Grinstead to each
+other, and the first rub with her hostess occurred when the next
+morning she proposed to take a cab and go to Brompton.</p>
+
+<p>'Is not your first visit due to your grandmother?' said Lady
+Rotherwood. 'You might walk there, and I will send some one to
+show you the way.'</p>
+
+<p>'We must not go there till after luncheon,' said Gillian. 'She
+is not ready to see any one, and Bessie Merrifield cannot be
+spared; but I know Mrs. Grinstead will like to see us, and I do
+so want Mysie to see the studio.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear' (it was not a favourable my dear), 'I had rather you
+did not visit any one I do not know while you are under my
+charge.'</p>
+
+<p>'She is Phyllis's husband's sister,' pleaded Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Rotherwood made a little bend of acquiescence, but said
+no more, and departed, while Gillian inly raged. A few months ago
+she would have acted on her own responsibility (if Mysie would
+not have been too much shocked), but she had learnt the wisdom of
+submission in fact, if not in word, for she growled about great
+ladies and exclusiveness, so that Mysie looked mystified.</p>
+
+<p>It was certainly rather dull in the only half-revivified
+London house, and Belgrave Square in Lent did not present a
+lively scene from the windows. The Liddesdales had a house there,
+but they were not to come up till the season began; and Gillian
+was turning with a sigh to ask if there might not be some books
+in Fly's schoolroom, when Mysie caught the sound of a bell, and
+ventured on an expedition to find her ladyship and ask leave to
+go to church.</p>
+
+<p>There, to their unexpected delight, they beheld not only
+Bessie, but a clerical-looking back, which, after some watching,
+they so identified that they looked at one another with
+responsive eyes, and Gillian doubted whether this were recompense
+for submission, or reproof for discontent.</p>
+
+<p>Very joyful was the meeting on the steps of St. Paul's,
+Knightsbridge, and an exchange of 'Oh! how did you come here?
+Where are you?'</p>
+
+<p>Harry had come up the day before, and was to go and meet the
+travellers at Southampton with his uncle, Admiral Merrifield, who
+had brought his eldest daughter Susan to relieve her sister or
+assist her. Great was the joy and eager the talk, as first Bessie
+was escorted by the whole party back to grandmamma's house, and
+then Harry accompanied his sisters to Belgrave Square, where he
+was kept to luncheon, and Lady Rotherwood was as glad to resign
+his sisters to his charge as he could be to receive them.</p>
+
+<p>He had numerous commissions to execute for his vicar, and
+Gillian had to assist the masculine brains in the department of
+Church needlework, actually venturing to undertake some herself,
+trusting to the tuition of Aunt Ada, a proficient in the same;
+while Mysie reverently begged at least to hem the borders.</p>
+
+<p>Then they revelled in the little paradises of books and
+pictures in Northumberland Avenue and Westminster Sanctuary, and
+went to Evensong at the Abbey, Mysie's first sight thereof, and
+nearly the like to Gillian, since she only remembered before a
+longing not to waste time in a dull place instead of being in the
+delightful streets.</p>
+
+<p>'It is a thing never to forget,' she said under her breath, as
+they lingered in the nave.</p>
+
+<p>'I never guessed anything could make one feel so,' added
+Mysie, with a little sigh of rapture.</p>
+
+<p>'That strange unexpected sense of delight always seems to me
+to explain, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it
+entered into the heart of man to conceive,"' said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>Mysie whispered--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>'Beneath thy contemplation<br>
+ Sink heart and voice opprest!'</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>'Oh, Harry, can't we stay and see Henry VII.'s Chapel, and
+Poets' Corner, and Edward I.'s monument?' pleaded the sister.</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid we must not, Gill. I have to see after some
+vases, and to get a lot of things at the Stores, and it will soon
+be dark. If I don't go to Southampton to-morrow, I will take you
+then. Now then, feet or cab?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, let us walk! It is ten times the fun.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then mind you don't jerk me back at the crossings.'</p>
+
+<p>There are few pleasures greater of their kind than that of the
+youthful country cousin under the safe escort of a brother or
+father in London streets. The sisters looked in at windows,
+wondered and enjoyed, till they had to own their feet worn out,
+and submit to a four-wheeler.</p>
+
+<p>'An hour of London is more than a month of Rockquay, or a year
+of Silverfold,' cried Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'Dear old Silverfold,' said Mysie; 'when shall we go
+back?'</p>
+
+<p>'By the bye,' said Harry, 'how about the great things that
+were to be done for mother?'</p>
+
+<p>'Primrose is all right,' said Mysie. 'The dear little thing
+has written a nice copybook, and hemmed a whole set of
+handkerchiefs for papa. She is so happy with them.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you, little Mouse?'</p>
+
+<p>'I have done my translation--not quite well, I am afraid, and
+made the little girl's clothes. I wonder if I may go and take
+them to her.'</p>
+
+<p>'And Val has finished her crewel cushion, thanks to the
+aunts,' said Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'Fergus's machine, how about that? Perpetual motion, wasn't
+it?'</p>
+
+<p>'That has turned into mineralogy, worse luck,' said
+Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'Gill has done a beautiful sketch of Rockquay,' added
+Mysie.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! don't talk of me,' said Gillian. 'I have only made a most
+unmitigated mess of everything.'</p>
+
+<p>But here attention was diverted by Harry's exclaiming--</p>
+
+<p>'Hullo! was that Henderson?'</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense; the Wardours are at Cork.'</p>
+
+<p>'He may be on leave.'</p>
+
+<p>'Or retired. He is capable of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I believe it was old Fangs.'</p>
+
+<p>The discussion lasted to Belgrave Square.</p>
+
+<p>And then Sunday was spent upon memorable churches and services
+under the charge of Harry, who was making the most of his
+holiday. The trio went to Evensong at St. Wulstan's, and a grand
+idea occurred to Gillian--could not Theodore White become one of
+those young choristers, who had their home in the Clergy
+House.</p>
+
+<center>CHAPTER XVIII.<br>
+ FATHER AND MOTHER</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<p>The telegram came early on Monday morning. Admiral Merrifield
+and Harry started by the earliest train, deciding not to take the
+girls; whereupon their kind host, to mitigate the suspense,
+placed himself at the young ladies' disposal for anything in the
+world that they might wish to see. It was too good an opportunity
+of seeing the Houses of Parliament to be lost, and the spell of
+Westminster Abbey was upon Mysie.</p>
+
+<p>Cousin Rotherwood was a perfect escort, and declared that he
+had not gone through such a course of English history since he
+had taken his cousin Lilias and his sister Florence the same
+round more years ago than it was civil to recollect. He gave a
+sigh to the great men he had then let them see and hear, and
+regretted the less that there was no possibility of regaling the
+present pair with a debate. It was all like a dream to the two
+girls. They saw, but suspense was throbbing in their hearts all
+the time, and qualms were crossing Gillian as she recollected
+that in some aspects her father could be rather a terrible
+personage when one was wilfully careless, saucy to authorities,
+or unable to see or confess wrong-doing; and the element of dread
+began to predominate in her state of expectation. The bird in the
+bosom fluttered very hard as the possible periods after the
+arrivals of trains came round; and it was not till nearly eight
+o'clock that the decisive halt of wheels was heard, and in a few
+moments Mysie was in the dearest arms in the world, and Gillian
+feeling the moustached kiss she had not known for nearly four
+long years, and which was half-strange, half-familiar.</p>
+
+<p>In drawing-room light, there was the mother looking none the
+worse for her journey, her clear brown skin neither sallow nor
+lined, and the soft brown eyes as bright and sweet as ever; but
+the father must be learnt over again, and there was awe enough as
+well as enthusiastic love to make her quail at the thought of her
+record of self-will.</p>
+
+<p>There was, however, no disappointment in the sight of the
+fine, tall soldierly figure, broad shouldered, but without an
+ounce of superfluous flesh, and only altered by his hair having
+become thinner and whiter, thus adding to the height of his
+forehead, and making his very dark eyebrows and eyes have a
+different effect, especially as he was still pallid beneath the
+browning of many years, though he declared himself so well as to
+be ashamed of being invalided.</p>
+
+<p>Time was short. Harry and the Admiral, who were coming to
+dinner, had rushed home to dress and to fetch Susan; and Lady
+Merrifield was conducted in haste to her bedroom, and left to the
+almost too excited ministrations of her daughters.</p>
+
+<p>It was well that attentive servants had unfastened the straps,
+for when Gillian had claimed the keys of the dear old familiar
+box, her hand shook so much that they jingled; the key would not
+go into the hole, and she had to resign them to sober Mysie, who
+had been untying the bonnet, with a kiss, and answering for the
+health of Primrose, whom Uncle William was to bring to London in
+two days' time.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear silly child,' said her mother, surprised at Gillian's
+emotion.</p>
+
+<p>And the reply was a burst of tears. 'Oh, so silly! so wrong! I
+have so wanted you.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know all about it. You told us all, like an honest
+child.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, such dreadful things--the rock---the poor child
+killed---Cousin Rotherwood hurt.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, yes, I heard! We can't have it out now. Here's papa! she
+is upset about these misadventures,' added Lady Merrifield,
+looking up to her husband, who stood amazed at the sobs that
+greeted him.</p>
+
+<p>'You must control yourself, Gillian,' he said gravely. 'Stop
+that! Your mother is tired, and has to dress! Don't worry her.
+Go, if you cannot leave off.'</p>
+
+<p>The bracing tone made Gillian swallow her tears, the more
+easily because of the familiarity of home atmosphere, confidence,
+and protection; and a mute caress from her mother was a promise
+of sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>The sense of that presence was the chief pleasure of the short
+evening, for there were too many claimants for the travellers'
+attention to enable them to do more than feast their eyes on
+their son and daughters, while they had to talk of other things,
+the weddings, the two families, the home news, all deeply
+interesting in their degree, though not touching Gillian quite so
+deeply as the tangle she had left at Rockstone, and mamma's view
+of her behaviour; even though it was pleasant to hear of
+Phyllis's beautiful home in Ceylon, and Alethea's bungalow, and
+how poor Claude had to go off alone to Rawul Pindee. She felt
+sure that her mother was far more acceptable to her hostess than
+either of the aunts, and that, indeed, she might well be so!</p>
+
+<p>Gillian's first feeling was like Mysie's in the morning, that
+nothing could go wrong with her again, but she must perforce have
+patience before she could be heard. Harry could not be spared for
+another day from his curacy, and to him was due the first
+tete-a-tete with his mother, after that most important change his
+life had yet known, and in which she rejoiced so deeply. 'The
+dream of her heart,' she said, 'had always been that one of her
+sons should be dedicated;' and now that the fulfilment had come
+in her absence, it was precious to her to hear all those feelings
+and hopes and trials that the young man could have uttered to no
+other ears.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Jasper, meantime, had gone out on business, and was to
+meet the rest at luncheon at his mother's house, go with them to
+call on the Grinsteads, and then do some further commissions,
+Lady Rotherwood placing the carriage at their disposal. As to
+'real talk,' that seemed impossible for the girls, they could
+only, as Mysie expressed it, 'bask in the light of mamma's eyes'
+and after Harry was gone on an errand for his vicar, there were
+no private interviews for her.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, the mother did not know how much Gillian had on her
+mind, and thought all she wanted was discussion, and forgiveness
+for the follies explained in the letter, the last received. Of
+any connection between that folly and the accident to Lord
+Rotherwood of course she was not aware, and in fact she had more
+on her hands than she could well do in the time allotted, and
+more people to see. Gillian had to find that things could not be
+quite the same as when she had been chief companion in the
+seclusion of Silverfold.</p>
+
+<p>And just as she was going out the following letter was put
+into her hands, come by one of the many posts from
+Rockstone:--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>'MY DEAR GILLIAN---I write to you because you can explain
+matters, and I want your father's advice, or Cousin Rotherwood's.
+As I was on the way to Il Lido just now I met Mr. Flight, looking
+much troubled and distressed. He caught at me, and begged me to
+go with him to tell poor Kalliope that her brother Alexis is in
+Avoncester Jail. He knew it from having come down in the train
+with Mr. Stebbing. The charge is for having carried away with him
+&pound;15 in notes, the payment for a marble cross for a grave at
+Barnscombe. You remember that on the day of the accident poor
+Field was taking it in the waggon, when he came home to hear of
+his child's death.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>'The receipt for the price was inquired for yesterday, and it
+appeared that the notes had been given to Field in an envelope.
+In his trouble, the poor man forgot to deliver this till the
+morning; when on his way to the office he met young White and
+gave it to him. Finding it had not been paid in, nor entered in
+the books, and knowing the poor boy to have absconded, off went
+Mr. Stebbing, got a summons, and demanded to have him committed
+for trial.</p>
+
+<p>'Alexis owned to having forgotten the letter in the shock of
+the dismissal, and to having carried it away with him, but said
+that as soon as he had discovered it he had forwarded it to his
+sister, and had desired her to send it to the office. He did not
+send it direct, because he could only, at the moment, get one
+postage-stamp. On this he was remanded till Saturday, when his
+sisters' evidence can be taken at the magistrates meeting. This
+was the news that Mr. Flight and I had to take to that poor girl,
+who could hardly be spared from her mother to speak to us, and
+how she is to go to Avoncester it is hard to say; but she has no
+fear of not being able to clear her brother, for she says she put
+the dirty and ragged envelope that no doubt contained the notes
+into another, with a brief explanation, addressed it to Mr.
+Stebbing, and sent it by Petros, who told her that he had
+delivered it.</p>
+
+<p>'I thought nothing could be clearer, and so did Mr. Flight,
+but unluckily Kalliope had destroyed her brother's letter, and
+had not read me this part of it, so that she can bring no actual
+tangible proof, and it is a much more serious matter than it
+appeared when we were talking to her. Mr. White has just been
+here, whether to condole or to triumph I don't exactly know. He
+has written to Leeds, and heard a very unsatisfactory account of
+that eldest brother, who certainly has deceived him shamefully,
+and this naturally adds to the prejudice against the rest of the
+family. We argued about Kalliope's high character, and he waved
+his hand and said, "My dear ladies, you don't understand those
+Southern women---the more pious, devoted doves they are, the
+blacker they will swear themselves to get off their scamps of
+men." To represent that Kalliope is only one quarter Greek was
+useless, especially as he has been diligently imbued by Mrs.
+Stebbing with all last autumn's gossip, and, as he confided to
+Aunt Ada, thinks "that they take advantage of his kindness!"</p>
+
+<p>'Of course Mr. Flight, and all who really know Alexis and
+Kalliope, feel the accusation absurd; but it is only too possible
+that the Avoncester magistrates may not see the evidence in the
+same light, as its weight depends upon character, and the money
+is really missing, so that I much fear their committing him for
+trial at the Quarter Sessions. It will probably be the best way
+to employ a solicitor to watch the case at once, and I shall
+speak to Mr. Norton tomorrow, unless your father can send me any
+better advice by post. I hope it is not wicked to believe that
+the very fact of Mr. Norton's being concerned might lead to the
+notes finding themselves.</p>
+
+<p>'Meantime, I am of course doing what I can. Kally is very
+brave in her innocence and her brother's, but, shut up in her
+mother's sickroom, she little guesses how bad things are made to
+look, or how Greek and false are treated as synonymous.</p>
+
+<p>'Much love to your mother. I am afraid this is a damper on
+your happiness, but I am sure that your father would wish to
+know. Aunt Ada tackles Mr. White better than I do, and means if
+possible to make him go to Avoncester himself when the case comes
+on, so that he should at least see and hear for himself.---Your
+affectionate aunt,<br>
+ J. M.'</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>What a letter for poor Gillian! She had to pocket it at first,
+and only opened it while taking off her hat at grandmamma's
+house, and there was only time for a blank feeling of
+uncomprehending consternation before she had to go down to
+luncheon, and hear her father and uncle go on with talk about
+India and Stokesley, to which she could not attend.</p>
+
+<p>Afterwards, Lady Merrifield was taken to visit grandmamma, and
+Bessie gratified the girls with a sight of her special den, where
+she wrote her stories, showing them the queer and flattering
+gifts that had come to her in consequence of her authorship,
+which was becoming less anonymous, since her family were growing
+hardened to it, and grandmamma was past hearing of it or being
+distressed. It was in Bessie's room that Gillian gathered the
+meaning of her aunt's letter, and was filled with horror and
+dismay. She broke out with a little scream, which brought both
+Mysie and Bessie to her side; but what could they do? Mysie was
+shocked and sympathising enough, and Bessie was trying to
+understand the complicated story, when the summons came for the
+sisters. There were hopes of communicating the catastrophe in the
+carriage; but no, the first exclamation of 'Oh, mamma!' was
+lost.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Jasper had something so important to tell his wife about
+his interviews at the Horse Guards, that the attempt to interrupt
+was silenced by a look and sign. It was a happy thing to have a
+father at home, but it was different from being mamma's chief
+companion and confidante, and poor Gillian sat boiling over with
+something very like indignation at not being allowed even to
+allow that she had something to tell at least as important as
+anything papa could be relating.</p>
+
+<p>She hardly knew whether to be glad or sorry that the
+Grinsteads proved to be out of town; but at any rate she might be
+grateful to Lady Rotherwood for preventing a vain expedition---a
+call on another old friend, Mrs. Crayon, the Marianne Weston of
+early youth, and now a widow, as she too was out. Then followed
+some shopping that the parents wanted to do together, but at the
+door of the stores Lady Merrifield said--</p>
+
+<p>'I have a host of things to get here for the two brides.
+Suppose, papa, that you walk home with Gillian across the Park.
+It will suit you better than this fearful list.'</p>
+
+<p>Lady Merrifield only thought of letting father and daughter
+renew their acquaintance, and though she saw that Gillian was in
+an agony to speak about something, did not guess what an ordeal
+the girl felt it to have to begin with the father, unseen for
+four years, and whose searching eyes and grave politeness gave a
+sense of austerity, so that trepidation was spoiling all the
+elation at having a father, and such a father, to walk with.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Gillian,' he said, 'we have a great deal of lee way to
+make up. I want to hear of poor White's children. I am glad you
+have had the opportunity of showing them some kindness.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, papa! it is so dreadful! If you would read this
+letter.'</p>
+
+<p>'I cannot do so here,' said Sir Jasper, who could not well
+make trial of his new spectacles in Great George Street. What is
+dreadful?'</p>
+
+<p>'This accusation. Poor Alexis! Oh! you don't know. The
+accident and all---our fault---mine really,' gasped Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'I am not likely to know at this rate,' said Sir Jasper. 'I
+hope you have not caught the infection of incoherency from Lord
+Rotherwood. Do you mean his accident?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; they have turned them both off, and now they have gone
+and put Alexis in prison.'</p>
+
+<p>'For the accident? I thought it was a fall of rock.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no---I mean yes---it wasn't for that; but it came of that,
+and Fergus and I were at the bottom of it,' said Gillian, in such
+confusion that her words seemed to tumble out without her own
+control.</p>
+
+<p>'How did you escape with your lives?'</p>
+
+<p>Was he misunderstanding her on purpose, or giving a lesson on
+slipslop at such a provoking moment? Perhaps he was really only
+patient with the daughter who must have seemed to him
+half-foolish, but she was forced to collect her senses and
+say--</p>
+
+<p>'I only meant that we were the real cause. Fergus is wild
+about geology, and took away a stone that was put to show where
+the cliff was unsafe. He showed the stone to Alexis White, who
+did not know where it came from and let him have it, and that was
+the way Cousin Rotherwood came to tread on the edge of the
+precipice.'</p>
+
+<p>'What had you to do with it?'</p>
+
+<p>'I--oh! I had disappointed Alexis about the lessons,' said
+Gillian, blushing a little;' and he was out of spirits, and did
+not mind what he was about.'</p>
+
+<p>'H'm! But you cannot mean that this youth can have been
+imprisoned for such a cause.'</p>
+
+<p>'No; that was about the money, but of course he sent it back.
+He ran away when he was dismissed, because he was quite in
+despair, and did not know what he was about.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think not, indeed!'</p>
+
+<p>'Papa,' said Gillian, steadying her voice, 'you must not,
+please, blame him so much, for it was really very much my fault,
+and that is what makes me doubly unhappy. Did you read my last
+letter to mamma?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. I understood that you thought you had not treated your
+aunts rightly by not consulting them about your intercourse with
+the Whites, and that you had very properly resolved to tell them
+all.<br>
+ I hope you did so.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed I did, and Aunt Jane was very kind, or else I should
+have had no comfort at all. Was mamma very much shocked at my
+teaching Alexis?'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not remember. We concluded that whatever you did had
+your aunts' sanction.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! that was the point.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did these young people persuade you to secrecy?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, no; Kalliope protested, and I overpowered her,
+because---because I was foolish, and I thought Aunt Jane
+interfering.'</p>
+
+<p>'I see,' said Sir Jasper, with perhaps more comprehension of
+the antagonism than sisterly habit and affection would have
+allowed to his wife. 'I am glad you saw your error, and tried to
+repair it; but what could you have done to affect this boy so
+much. How old is he? We thought of him as twelve or fourteen, but
+one forgets how time goes on, and you speak of him as in a kind
+of superintendent's position.'</p>
+
+<p>'He is nineteen.'</p>
+
+<p>Sir Jasper twirled his moustache.</p>
+
+<p>'I begin to perceive,' he said, 'you rushed into an
+undertaking that became awkward, and when you had to draw off,
+the young fellow was upset and did not mind his business. So far
+I understand, but you said something about prison.'</p>
+
+<p>The worst part of the personal confession was over now, and
+Gillian could go on to tell the rest of the Stebbing enmity, of
+Mr. White's arrival, and of the desire to keep his relations
+aloof from him.</p>
+
+<p>'This is guess work,' said Sir Jasper.</p>
+
+<p>'I think Cousin Rotherwood would say the same' rejoined
+Gillian, and then she explained the dismissal, the flight, and
+the unfortunate consequences, and that Aunt Jane hoped for advice
+by the morning's post.</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid it is too late for that,' said Sir Jasper,
+looking at his watch. 'I must read her letter and consider.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian gave a desperate sigh, and felt more desperate when at
+that moment the very man they had had a glimpse of on Saturday
+met them, exclaiming in a highly delighted tone--</p>
+
+<p>'Sir Jasper Merrifield!'</p>
+
+<p>Any Royal Wardour ought to have been welcome to the
+Merrifields, but this individual had not been a particular
+favourite with the young people. They knew he was the son of a
+popular dentist, who had made his fortune, and had put his son
+into the army to make a gentleman of him, and prevent him from
+becoming an artist. In the first object there had been very fair
+success; but the taste for art was unquenchable, and it had been
+the fashion of the elder half of the Merrifield family to make a
+joke, and profess to be extremely bored, when 'Fangs,' as they
+naughtily called him among themselves, used to arrive from leave,
+armed with catalogues, or come in with his drawings to find
+sympathy in his colonel's wife. Gillian had caught enough from
+her four elders to share in an unreasoning way their prejudice,
+and she felt doubly savage and contemptuous when she heard--</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I retired.'</p>
+
+<p>'And what are you doing now?'</p>
+
+<p>'My mother required me as long as she lived' (then Gillian
+noticed that he was in mourning). 'I think I shall go abroad, and
+take lessons at Florence or Rome, though it is too late to do
+anything seriously---and there are affairs to be settled
+first.'</p>
+
+<p>Then came a whole shoal of other inquiries, and even though
+they actually included 'poor White' and his family, Gillian was
+angered and dismayed at the wretch being actually asked by her
+father to come in with them and see Lady Merrifield, who would be
+delighted to see him.</p>
+
+<p>'What would Lady Rotherwood think of the liberty?' the
+displeased mood whispered to Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>But Lady Rotherwood, presiding over her pretty Worcester
+tea-set, was quite ready to welcome any of the Merrifield
+friends. There were various people in the room besides Lady
+Merrifield and Mysie, who had just come in. There was the Admiral
+talking politics with Lord Rotherwood, and there was Clement
+Underwood, who had come with Harry from the city, and Bessie
+discussing with them boys' guilds and their amusements.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian felt frantic. Would no one cast a thought on Alexis in
+prison? If he had been to be hanged the next day, her secret
+annoyance at their indifference to his fate could not have been
+worse.</p>
+
+<p>And yet at the first opportunity Harry brought Mr. Underwood
+to talk to her about his choir-boys, and to listen to her account
+of the 7th Standard boy, a member of the most musical choir in
+Rockquay, and the highest of the high.</p>
+
+<p>'I hope not cockiest of the cocky,' said Mr. Underwood,
+smiling. 'Our experience is that superlatives may often be so
+translated.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't think poor Theodore is cocky,' said Gillian; 'the
+Whites have always been so bullied and sat upon.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is his name Theodore?' asked Mr. Underwood, as if he liked
+the name, which Gillian remembered to have seen on a cross at
+Vale Leston.</p>
+
+<p>'Being sat upon is hardly the best lesson in humility,' said
+Harry.</p>
+
+<p>'There's apt to be a reaction,' said Mr. Underwood; 'but the
+crack voice of a country choir is not often in that condition, as
+I know too well. I was the veriest young prig myself under those
+circumstances!'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't be too hard on cockiness,' said Lord Rotherwood, who
+had come up to them, 'there must be consciousness of powers. How
+are you to fly, if you mustn't flap your wings and crow a
+little?'</p>
+
+<p>'On a les defauts de ses qualites,' put in Lady
+Merrifield.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' added Mr. Underwood. 'It is quite true that needful
+self-assertion and originality, and sense of the evils
+around--'</p>
+
+<p>'Which the old folk have outgrown and got used to,' said Lord
+Rotherwood.</p>
+
+<p>'May be condemned as conceit,' concluded Mr. Underwood.</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, exactly as Eliab knew David's pride and the naughtiness
+of his heart,' said Lord Rotherwood. 'If you won't fight your
+giant yourself, you've no business to condemn those who feel it
+in them to go at him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! we have got to the condemnation of others, instead of the
+exaltation of self,' said Lady Merrifield.</p>
+
+<p>'It is better to cultivate humility in one's self than other
+people, eh?' said the Marquis, and his cousin thought, though she
+did not say, that he was really the most humble and
+unself-conscious man she had ever known. What she did say was,
+'It is a plant that grows best uncultivated.'</p>
+
+<p>'And if you have it not by happy nature, what then?' said
+Clement Underwood.</p>
+
+<p>'Then I suppose you must plant it, and there will be plenty of
+tears of repentance to water it,' returned she.</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you,' said Clement. 'That is an idea to work upon.'</p>
+
+<p>'All very fine!' sighed Gillian to Mysie, 'but oh, how about
+Alexis in prison! There's papa, now he has got rid of Fangs,
+actually going to walk off with Uncle Sam, and mamma has let Lady
+Rotherwood get hold of her. Will no-body care for anybody?'</p>
+
+<p>'I think I would trust papa,' said Mysie.</p>
+
+<p>He was not long gone, and when he came back he said, 'You may
+give me that letter, Gillian. I posted a card to tell your aunt
+she should hear to-morrow.'</p>
+
+<p>All that Gillian could say to her mother in private that
+evening consisted of, 'Oh, mamma, mamma,' but the answer was, 'I
+have heard about it from papa, my dear; I am glad you told him.
+He is thinking what to do. Be patient.'</p>
+
+<p>Externally, awe and good manners forced Gillian to behave
+herself; but internally she was so far from patient, and had so
+many bitter feelings of indignation, that she felt deeply rebuked
+when she came down next morning to find her father hurrying
+through his breakfast, with a cab ordered to convey him to the
+station, on his way to see what could be done for Alexis
+White.</p>
+
+<p>That day Gillian had her confidential talk with her mother---a
+talk that she never forgot, trying to dig to the roots of her
+failures in a manner that only the true mother-confessor of her
+own child can perhaps have patience and skill for, and that only
+when she has studied the creature from babyhood. The
+concatenation, ending (if it was so to end) in the committal to
+Avoncester Jail, and beginning with the interview over the rails,
+had to be traced link by link, and was almost as long as 'the
+house that Jack built.'</p>
+
+<p>'And now I see,' said Gillian, 'that it all came of a nasty
+sort of antagonism to Aunt Jane. I never guessed how like I was
+to Dolores, and I thought her so bad. But if I had only trusted
+Aunt Jane, and had no secrets, she would have helped me in it
+all, I know now, and never have brought the Whites into
+trouble.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Lady Merrifield; 'perhaps I should have warned you
+a little more, but I went off in such a hurry that I had no time
+to think. You children are all very loyal to us ourselves; but I
+suppose you are all rather infected by the modern spirit, that
+criticises when it ought to submit to authorities.'</p>
+
+<p>'But how can one help seeing what is amiss? As some review
+says, how respect what does not make itself respectable? You know
+I don't mean that for my aunts. I have learnt now what Aunt Jane
+really is--how very kind and wise and clever and forgiving---but
+I was naughty enough to think her at first---'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, what? Don't be afraid.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then I did think she was fidgety and worrying--always at one,
+and wanting to poke her nose into everything.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Aunt Jane! Those are the faults of her girlhood, which
+she has been struggling against all her life!'</p>
+
+<p>'But in your time, mamma, would such difficulties really not
+have been seen---I mean, if she had been actually what I thought
+her?'</p>
+
+<p>'I think the difference was that no faults of the elders were
+dwelt upon by a loyal temper. To find fault was thought so wrong
+that the defects were scarcely seen, and were concealed from
+ourselves as well as others. It would scarcely, I suppose, be
+possible to go back to that unquestioning state, now the temper
+of the times is changed; but I belong enough to the older days to
+believe that the true safety is in submission in the spirit as
+well as the letter.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure I should have found it so,' said Gillian. 'And oh!
+I hope, now that papa is come, the Whites may be spared any more
+of the troubles I have brought on them.'</p>
+
+<p>'We will pray that it may be so.' said her mother.</p>
+
+<center>CHAPTER XIX.<br>
+ THE KNIGHT AND THE DRAGON</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<p>A telegram had been received in the morning, which kept
+Valetta and Fergus on the qui vive all day. Valetta was an
+unspeakable worry to the patient Miss Vincent, and Fergus
+arranged his fossils and minerals.</p>
+
+<p>Both children flew out to meet their father at the gate, but
+words failed them as he came into the house, greeted the aunts,
+and sat down with Fergus on his knee, and Valetta encircled by
+his arm.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Lilias is quite well, very busy and happy---with her
+first instalment of children.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am so thankful that you are come,' said Adeline. 'Jane
+ventured to augur that you would, but I thought it too much to
+hope for.'</p>
+
+<p>'There was no alternative,' said Sir Jasper.</p>
+
+<p>'I infer that you halted at Avoncester.'</p>
+
+<p>'I did so; I saw the poor boy.'</p>
+
+<p>'What a comfort for his sister!'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor fellow! Mine was the first friendly face he had seen,
+and he was almost overcome by it'---and the strong face quivered
+with emotion at the recollection of the boy's gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>'He is a nice fellow,' said Jane. 'I am glad you have seen
+him, for neither Mr. White nor Rotherwood can believe that he is
+not utterly foolish, if not worse.'</p>
+
+<p>'A boy may do foolish things without being a fool,' said Sir
+Jasper. 'Not that this one is such another as his father. I wish
+he were.'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose he has more of the student scholarly nature.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. The enlistment, which was the making of his father, was
+a sort of moral suicide in him. I got him to tell me all about
+it, and I find that the idea of the inquest, and of having to
+mention you, you monkey, drove him frantic, and the dismissal
+completed the business.'</p>
+
+<p>'I told them about it,' said Fergus.</p>
+
+<p>'Quite right, my boy; the pity was that he did not trust to
+your honour, but he seems to have worked himself into the state
+of mind when young men run amuck. I saw his colonel, Lydiard, and
+the captain and sergeant of his company, who had from the first
+seen that he was a man of a higher class under a cloud, and had
+expected further inquiry, though, even from the little that had
+been seen of him, there was a readiness to take his word. As the
+sergeant said, he was not the common sort of runaway clerk, and
+it was a thousand pities that he must go to the civil power--in
+which I am disposed to agree. What sort of man is the cousin at
+the marble works?'</p>
+
+<p>'A regular beast,' murmured Fergus.</p>
+
+<p>'I think,' said Jane, 'that he means to be good and
+upright.'</p>
+
+<p>'More than means,' said Ada, 'but he is cautious, and says he
+has been so often deceived.'</p>
+
+<p>'As far as I can understand,' said Jane, 'there was originally
+desperate enmity between him and his cousin.'</p>
+
+<p>'He forgave entirely,' said Ada; 'and he really has done a
+great deal for the family, who own that they have no claim upon
+him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Jane, 'but from a distance, with no personal
+knowledge, and a contempt for the foreign mother, and the
+pretensions to gentility. He would have been far kinder if his
+cousin had remained a sergeant.'</p>
+
+<p>'He only wished to try them,' said Adeline, 'and he always
+meant to come and see about them; besides, that eldest son has
+been begging of him on false pretences all along.'</p>
+
+<p>'That I can believe,' said Sir Jasper. 'I remember his
+father's distress at his untruth in the regimental school, and
+his foolish mother shielding him. No doubt he might do enough to
+cause distrust of his family; but has Mr. White actually never
+gone near them, as Gillian told me?'</p>
+
+<p>'Excepting once walking Maura home,' said Jane, 'no; but I
+ascribe all that to the partner, Mr. Stebbing, who has had it all
+his own way here, and seems to me to have systematically kept
+Alexis down to unnecessarily distasteful drudgery. Kalliope's
+talent gave her a place; but young Stebbing's pursuit of her,
+though entirely unrequited, has roused his mother's bitter
+enmity, and there are all manner of stories afloat. I believe I
+could disprove every one of them; but together they have set Mr.
+White against her, and he cannot see her in her office, as her
+mother is too ill to be left. I do believe that if the case
+against Alexis is discharged, they will think she has the
+money.'</p>
+
+<p>'Stebbing said Maura changed a five-pound note,' put in
+Fergus; 'and when I told him to shut up, for it was all bosh, he
+punched me.'</p>
+
+<p>I hope Richard sent it' said Ada, 'but you see the sort of
+report that is continually before Mr. White--not that I think he
+believes half, or is satisfied--with the Stebbings.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure he is not with Frank Stebbing,' said Jane. 'I do
+think and hope that he is only holding off in order to judge; and
+I think your coming may have a great effect upon him,
+Jasper.'</p>
+
+<p>The Rotherwoods had requested Sir Jasper to use their
+apartments at the hotel, and he went thither to dress, being
+received, as he said, by little Lady Phyllis with much grace and
+simplicity.</p>
+
+<p>The evening passed brightly, and when the children were gone
+to bed, their father said rather anxiously that he feared the
+aunts had had a troublesome charge hastily thrust on them.</p>
+
+<p>'We enjoyed it very much,' said Adeline politely.</p>
+
+<p>'We were thankful to have a chance of knowing the young
+people,' added Jane. 'I am only glad you did not come home at
+Christmas, when I was not happy about the two girls.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Valetta got into trouble and wrote a piteous little
+letter of confession about copying.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, but you need not be uneasy about that; it was one of
+those lapses that teach women without any serious loss. She did
+not know what she was about, and she told no falsehoods; indeed,
+each one of your children has been perfectly truthful
+throughout.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is the great point, after all. Lilias could hardly fail
+to make her children true.'</p>
+
+<p>'Fergus is really an excellent little boy, and Gillian--poor
+Gillian---I think she really did want more experience, and was
+only too innocent.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is what you really think,' said the father
+anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I do,' said Jane. 'If she had been a fast girl, she
+would have been on her guard against the awkward situation, and
+have kept out of this mess; but very likely would have run into a
+worse one.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not think that her elder sisters would have done like
+her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps not; but they were living in your regimental world at
+the age when her schoolroom life was going on. I think you have
+every reason to be satisfied with her tone of mind. As you said
+of the boy, a person may commit an imprudence without being
+imprudent.'</p>
+
+<p>'I quite agree to that,' he said, 'and, indeed, I see that you
+have managed her most wisely, and obtained her affection and
+gratitude, as indeed you have mine!' he added, with a tone in his
+voice that touched Jane to the core of her heart.</p>
+
+<p>'I never heard anything like it before,' she said to her
+sister over their fire at night, with a dew of pleasure in her
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'I never liked Jasper so well before. He is infinitely
+pleasanter and more amiable. Do you remember our first visit? No,
+it was not you who went with me, it was Emily. I am sure he felt
+bound to be on guard all the time against any young officer's
+attentions to his poor little sister-in-law,' said Ada, with her
+Maid-of-Athens look. 'The smallest approach brought those hawk's
+eyes of his like a dart right through one's backbone. It all came
+back to me to-night, and the way he used to set poor Lily to
+scold me.'</p>
+
+<p>'So that you rejoiced to be grown old. I beg your pardon, but
+I did. My experience was when I went to help Lily pack for
+foreign service, when I suppose my ferret look irritated him, for
+he snubbed me extensively, and I am sure he rejoiced to carry his
+wife out of reach of all the tribe. I dare say I richly deserved
+it, but I hope we are all "mellered down," as Wat Greenwood used
+to say of his brewery for the pigs.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, what a comparison!'</p>
+
+<p>'Redolent of the Old Court, and of Lily, waiting for her
+swan's nest among the reeds, till her stately warrior came, and
+made her day dreams earnest in a way that falls to the lot of
+few. I don't think his severity ever dismayed her for a moment,
+there was always such sweetness in it.</p>
+
+<p>'True knight and lady! Yes. He is grown handsomer than ever,
+too!'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope he will get those poor children out of their hobble!
+It is chivalrous enough of him to come down about it, in the
+midst of all his business in London.'</p>
+
+<p>Sir Jasper started the next morning with Fergus on his way to
+school, getting on the road a good deal of information, mingled
+together about forms and strata, cricket and geology. Leaving his
+little son at Mrs. Edgar's door, he proceeded to Ivinghoe
+Terrace, where he waited long at the blistered door of the
+dilapidated house before the little maid informed him that Mr.
+Richard was gone out, and missus was so ill that she didn't know
+as Miss White could see nobody; but she took his card and invited
+him to walk into the parlour, where the breakfast things were
+just left.</p>
+
+<p>Down came Kalliope, with a wan face and eyes worn with
+sleeplessness, but a light of hope and gratitude flashing over
+her features as she met the kind eyes, and felt the firm hand of
+her father's colonel, a sort of king in the eyes of all Royal
+Wardours.</p>
+
+<p>'My poor child,' he said gently, 'I am come to see if I can
+help you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! so good of you,' and she squeezed his hand tightly, in
+the effort perhaps not to give way.</p>
+
+<p>'I fear your mother is very ill.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very ill,' said Kalliope. 'Richard came last night, and he
+let her know what we had kept from her; but she is calmer
+now.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then your brother Richard is here.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; he is gone up to Mr. White's.'</p>
+
+<p>'He is in a solicitor's office, I think. Will he be able to
+undertake the case?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, no'---the white cheek flushed, and the hand trembled.
+'There is a Leeds family here, and he is afraid of their finding
+out that he has any connection with this matter. He says it would
+be ruin to his prospects.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then we must do our best without him,' Sir Jasper said in a
+fatherly voice, inexpressively comforting to the desolate wounded
+spirit. 'I will not keep you long from your mother, but will you
+answer me a few questions? Your brother tells me--'</p>
+
+<p>She looked up almost radiantly, 'You have seen him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. I saw him yesterday,' and as she gazed as if the news
+were water to a thirsty soul--'he sent his love, and begged his
+mother and you to forgive the distress his precipitancy has
+caused. I did not think him looking ill; indeed, I think the
+quiet of his cell is almost a rest to him, as he makes sure that
+he can clear himself.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Sir Jasper! how can we ever be grateful enough!'</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind that now, only tell me what is needful, for time
+is short. Your brother sent these notes in their own envelope, he
+says.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, a very dirty one. I did not open it or see them, but
+enclosed it in one of my own, and sent it by my youngest brother,
+Petros.'</p>
+
+<p>'How was yours addressed?'</p>
+
+<p>'Francis Stebbing, Esq., Marble Works; and I put in a note in
+explanation.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is the son's name likewise Francis?'</p>
+
+<p>'Francis James.'</p>
+
+<p>'Petros delivered it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, certainly.'</p>
+
+<p>Here they were interrupted by Maura's stealing timidly in with
+the message that poor mamma had heard that Sir Jasper was here,
+and would he be so very good as to come up for one minute and
+speak to her.</p>
+
+<p>'It is asking a great deal,' said Kalliope, 'but it would be
+very kind, and it might ease her mind.'</p>
+
+<p>He was taken to the poor little bedroom full of oppressive
+atmosphere, though the window was open to relieve the labouring
+breath. It seemed absolutely filled with the enormous figure of
+the poor dropsical woman with white ghastly face, sitting
+pillowed up, incapable of lying down.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, so good! so angelic!' she gasped.</p>
+
+<p>'I am sorry to see you so ill, Mrs. White.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! 'tis dying I am, Colonel Merrifield---begging your
+pardon, but the sight of you brings back the times when my poor
+captain was living, and I was the happy woman. 'Tis the thought
+of my poor orphans that is vexing me, leaving them as I am in a
+strange land where their own flesh and blood is unnatural to
+them,' she cried, trying to clasp her swollen hands, in the
+excitement that brought out the Irish substructure of her nature.
+'Ah, Colonel dear, you'll bear in mind their father that would
+have died for you, and be good to them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, I hope to do what I can for them.'</p>
+
+<p>'They are good children, Sir Jasper, all of them, even the
+poor boy that is in trouble out of the very warmth of his heart;
+but 'tis Richard who would be the credit to you, if you would
+lend him the helping hand. Where is the boy, Kally?'</p>
+
+<p>'He is gone to call on Mr. White.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! and you'll say a good word for him with his cousin,' she
+pleaded, 'and say how 'tis no discredit to him if things are laid
+on his poor brother that he never did.'</p>
+
+<p>The poor woman was evidently more anxious to bespeak patronage
+for her first-born, the pride and darling of her heart, than for
+those who might be thought to need it more, but she became
+confused and agitated when she thought of Alexis, declaring that
+the poor boy might have been hasty, and have disgraced himself,
+but it was hard, very hard, if they swore away his liberty, and
+she never saw him more, and she broke into distressing sobs. Sir
+Jasper, in a decided voice, assured her that he expected with
+confidence that her son would be freed the next day, and able to
+come to see her.</p>
+
+<p>'It's the blessing of a dying mother will be on you, Colonel
+dear! Oh! bring him back, that his mother's eyes may rest on the
+boy that has always been dutiful. No---no, Dick, I tell you 'tis
+no disgrace to wear the coat his father wore.' Wandering was
+beginning, and she was in no condition for Kalliope to leave her.
+The communicative Maura, who went downstairs with him, said that
+Richard was so angry about Alexis that it had upset poor mamma
+sadly. And could Alexis come?' she asked, 'even when he is
+cleared?'</p>
+
+<p>'I will ask for furlough for him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! thank you---that would do mamma more good than anything.
+She is so fond of Richard, he is her favourite, but Alexis is the
+real help and comfort.'</p>
+
+<p>'I can quite believe so. And now will you tell me where I
+shall find your brother who took the letter, Peter or
+Petros?'</p>
+
+<p>'Petros is his name, but the boys call him Peter. He is at
+school---the Bellevue National School--up that street.'</p>
+
+<p>Repairing to that imposing building, Sir Jasper knocked at the
+door, and sent in his card by an astonished pupil-teacher with a
+request to the master that he might speak to Petros White,
+waiting in the porch till a handsome little fellow appeared,
+stouter, rosier, and more English looking than the others of his
+family, but very dusty, and rather scared.</p>
+
+<p>'You don't remember me,' said Sir Jasper, 'but I was your
+father's colonel, and I want to find some way of helping your
+brother. Your sister tells me she gave you a letter to carry to
+Mr. Stebbing.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Where did you take it?'</p>
+
+<p>'To his house, Carrara.'</p>
+
+<p>'Was it not directed to the Marble Works?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, but---'</p>
+
+<p>'But what? Speak out, my man.'</p>
+
+<p>'At the gate Blake, the porter, was very savage, and would not
+let us in. He said he would have no boys loafing about, we had
+done harm enough for one while, and he would set his dog at
+us.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then you did not give him the letter?'</p>
+
+<p>'No. I wouldn't after the way he pitched into me. I didn't
+know if he would give it. And he wouldn't hear a word, so we went
+up to Rockstone to the house.'</p>
+
+<p>'Whom did you give it to there?'</p>
+
+<p>'I dropped it into the slit in the door.'</p>
+
+<p>'You only told your sister that you delivered it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir. Theodore said I must not tell sister; it would only
+vex her more to hear how every one pitches into us, right and
+left,' he said, with trembling lip.</p>
+
+<p>'Is Theodore your next brother?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Was he with you?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; it was Sydney Grove.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is he here? Or---Did any one else see you leave the
+letter?'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Stebbing's son---the young one, George, was in the drive
+and slanged us for not going to the back door.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is important. Thank you, my boy. Give my--my compliments
+to your master, and ask him to be kind enough to spare this
+Sydney Grove to me for a few moments.'</p>
+
+<p>This proved to be an amphibious-looking boy, older and rougher
+than Petros, and evidently his friend and champion. He was much
+less shy, and spoke out boldly, saying how he had gone with
+little Peter, and the porter had rowed them downright shameful,
+but it was nothing to that there young Stebbing ordering them out
+of the grounds for a couple of beastly cads, after no good. He
+(Grove) had a good mind to ha' give 'un a good warming, only
+'twas school time, and they was late as it was. Everybody was
+down upon the Whites, and it was a shame when they hadn't done
+nothing, and he didn't see as they was stuck up, not he.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Jasper made a note of Master Grove's residence, and
+requested an interview with the master, from whom he obtained an
+excellent character of both the Whites, especially Theodore. The
+master lamented that this affair of their brother should have
+given a handle against them, for he wanted the services of the
+elder one as a monitor, eventually as a pupil-teacher, but did
+not know whether the choice would be advisable under the present
+circumstances. The boys' superiority made them unpopular, and
+excited jealousy among a certain set, though they were perfectly
+inoffensive, and they had much to go through in consequence of
+the suspicion that had fallen on their brother. Petros and Sydney
+should have leave from school whenever their testimony was
+wanted.</p>
+
+<p>As Sir Jasper walked down the street, his elder sister-in-law
+emerged from a tamarisk-flanked gateway. 'This is our new abode,
+Jasper,' she said. 'Come in and see what you think of it! Well,
+have you had any success?'</p>
+
+<p>He explained how the letter could be traced to Mr. Stebbing's
+house, and then consulted her whether to let all come out at the
+examination before the magistrates, or to induce the Stebbings to
+drop the prosecution.</p>
+
+<p>'It would serve them right if it all came out in public,' she
+said.</p>
+
+<p>'But would it be well?'</p>
+
+<p>'One must not be vindictive! And to drag poor Kalliope to
+Avoncester would be a dreadful business in her mother's state.
+Besides, Frank Stebbing is young, and it may be fair to give them
+a chance of hushing it up. I ought to be satisfied with clearing
+Alexis.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then I will go to the house. When shall I be likely to find
+Mr. Stebbing!'</p>
+
+<p>'Just after luncheon, I should say.'</p>
+
+<p>'And shall I take the lawyer?'</p>
+
+<p>'I should say not. If they hope to keep the thing secret, they
+will be the more amenable, but you should have the two boys
+within reach. Let us ask for them to come up after their dinner
+to Beechcroft. No, it must not be to dinner. Petros must not be
+sent to the kitchen, and Ada would expire if the other came to
+us! Now, do you like to see your house? Here is Macrae dying to
+see you.'</p>
+
+<p>The old soldier had changed his quarters too often to be
+keenly interested in any temporary abode, provided it would hold
+the requisite amount of children, and had a pleasant sitting-room
+for his Lily, but he inspected politely and gratefully, and had a
+warmly affectionate interview with Macrae, who had just arrived
+with a great convoy of needfuls from Silverfold, and who
+undertook to bring up and guard the two boys from any further
+impertinences that might excite Master Grove's pugnacity.</p>
+
+<p>It was a beautiful day, of the lamb-like entrance weather of
+March, and on the way home Miss Adeline was met taking advantage
+of the noontide sunshine to exchange her book at the library,
+'where,' she said, 'I found Mr. White reading the papers, so I
+asked him to meet Jasper at luncheon, thinking that may be
+useful.'</p>
+
+<p>If Sir Jasper would rather have managed matters by himself, he
+forebore to say so, and he got on very well with Mr. White on
+subjects of interest, but, to the ladies' vexation, he waited to
+be alone before he began, 'I have come down to see what can be
+done for this poor young man, Mr. White, a connection of yours, I
+believe.</p>
+
+<p>'A bad business, Sir Jasper, a bad business.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sorry to hear you say so. I have seen a great deal of
+service with his father, and esteemed him very highly--'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, ay, very likely. I had a young man's differences with my
+cousin, as lads will fall out, but there was the making of a fine
+fellow in him. But it was the wife, bringing in that Greek taint,
+worse even than the Italian, so that there's no believing a word
+out of any of their mouths.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, the schoolmaster has just given me a high character of
+the younger one, for truthfulness especially.'</p>
+
+<p>'All art, Sir Jasper, all art. They are deeper than your
+common English sort, and act it out better. I'll just give you an
+instance or two. That eldest son has been with me just now, a
+smart young chap, who swears he has been keeping his mother all
+this time---he has written to me often enough for help to do so.
+On the other hand, the little sister tells me, "Mamma always
+wants money to send to poor Richard." Then again, Miss Mohun
+assures me that the elder one vows that she never encouraged
+Frank Stebbing for a moment, and to his mother's certain
+knowledge she is keeping up the correspondence.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed,' said Sir Jasper. 'And may I ask what is your opinion
+as to this charge? I never knew a young man enlist with fifteen
+pounds in his pocket.'</p>
+
+<p>'Spent it by the way, sir. Ran through it at billiards.
+Nothing more probable; it is the way with those sober-looking
+lads when something upsets them. Then when luck went against him,
+enlisted out of despair. Sister, like all women, ready to lie
+through thick and thin to save him, most likely even on
+oath.'</p>
+
+<p>'However,' said Sir Jasper, 'I can produce independent witness
+that the youngest boy set off with the letter for the office, and
+the porter not admitting him, carried it to the house.'</p>
+
+<p>'What became of it then?'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Stebbing will have to answer that. I propose to lay the
+evidence before him in his own house, so that he may make
+inquiry, and perhaps find it, and drop the prosecution. Will you
+come with me?'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly, Sir Jasper. I should be very glad to think as you
+do. I came prepared to act kindly by these children, the only
+relations I have in the world; but I confess that what I have
+seen and heard has made me fear that they, at least the elder
+ones, are intriguing and undeserving. I should be glad of any
+proof to the contrary.'</p>
+
+<p>Carrara was not far off, and they were just in time to catch
+Mr. Stebbing in his arm-chair, looking over his newspaper, before
+repairing to his office. Mrs. Stebbing stood up, half-flattered,
+half-fluttered, at the call of this stately gentleman, and was
+scarcely prepared to hear him say--</p>
+
+<p>'I have come down about this affair of young White's. His
+father was my friend and brother-officer, and I am very anxious
+about him.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have been greatly disappointed in those young people, Sir
+Jasper,' said Mr. Stebbing uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>'I understand that you are intending to prosecute Alexis White
+for the disappearance of the fifteen pounds he received on behalf
+of the firm.'</p>
+
+<p>'Exactly so, Sir Jasper. There's no doubt that the carter,
+Field, handed it to him; he acknowledges as much, but he would
+have us believe that after running away with it, he returned it
+to his sister to send to me. Where is it? I ask.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' put in Mrs. Stebbing, 'and the girl, the little one,
+changed a five-pound note at Glover's.'</p>
+
+<p>'I can account for that,' said Mr. White, with somewhat of an
+effort. 'I gave her one for her sister, and charged them not to
+mention it.'</p>
+
+<p>He certainly seemed ashamed to mention it before those who
+accounted it a weakness; and Sir Jasper broke the silence by
+proposing to produce his witnesses.</p>
+
+<p>'Really, Sir Jasper, this should be left for the court,' said
+Mr. Stebbing.</p>
+
+<p>'It might be well to settle the matter in private, without
+dragging Miss White into Avoncester away from her dying
+mother.'</p>
+
+<p>'Those things are so exaggerated,' said the lady.</p>
+
+<p>'I have seen her,' said Sir Jasper gravely.</p>
+
+<p>'May I ask who these witnesses are?' demanded Mr.
+Stebbing.</p>
+
+<p>'Two are waiting here---the messenger and his companion.
+Another is your porter at the marble works, and the fourth is
+your youngest son.'</p>
+
+<p>This caused a sensation, and Mrs. Stebbing began--</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure I can't tell what you mean, Sir Jasper.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is he in the house?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; he has a bad cold.'</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Stebbing opened the door and called 'George,' and on the
+boy's appearance, Sir Jasper asked him--</p>
+
+<p>'Do you remember the morning of the 17th of last month---three
+days after the accident? I want to know whether you saw any one
+in the approach to the house.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know what day it was,' said the boy, somewhat
+sulkily.</p>
+
+<p>'You did see some one, and warned them off!'</p>
+
+<p>'I saw two little ca---two boys out of the town on the front
+door steps.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did you know them?'</p>
+
+<p>'No---that is to say, one was a fisherman's boy.'</p>
+
+<p>'And the other?'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought he belonged to the lot of Whites.'</p>
+
+<p>'Should you know them again?'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose so.'</p>
+
+<p>'Will you excuse me, and I will call them into the hall?' said
+Sir Jasper.</p>
+
+<p>This was effected, and Master George had to identify the boys,
+after which Sir Jasper elicited that Petros had seen the dirty
+envelope come out of his brother's letter, and that his sister
+had put it into another, which she addressed as he described, and
+gave into his charge to deliver. Then came the account of the way
+he had been refused admittance by the porter.</p>
+
+<p>'Why didn't you give him the letter?' demanded Mr.
+Stebbing.</p>
+
+<p>'Catch us,' responded Sydney Grove, rejoiced at the
+opportunity, 'when what we got was, "Get out, you young
+rascals!"'</p>
+
+<p>Petros more discreetly added--</p>
+
+<p>'My sister wanted it to be given to Mr. Stebbing, so we went
+up to the house to wait for him, but it got late for school, and
+I saw the postman drop the letters into the slit in the door, so
+I thought that would be all right.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did you see him do so?' asked Sir Jasper of the independent
+witness.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir, and he there'---pointing to George---'saw it too,
+and---'</p>
+
+<p>'Did you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, and thought it like their impudence.'</p>
+
+<p>'That will do, my boys,' said Sir Jasper. 'Now run away.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. White put something into each paw as the door was opened
+and the pair made their exit.</p>
+
+<p>If Sir Jasper acted as advocate, Mr. White seemed to take the
+position of judge.</p>
+
+<p>'There can be no doubt,' he said, 'that the letter containing
+the notes reached this house.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Mr. Stebbing hotly. 'Why was I not told? Who
+cleared the letter-box?'</p>
+
+<p>It was the page's business, but to remember any particular
+letter on any particular day was quite beyond him, and he only
+stared wildly and said, 'Dun no,' on which he was dismissed to
+the lower regions.</p>
+
+<p>'The address was "Francis Stebbing, Esq.,"' said Sir Jasper
+meditatively, perhaps like a spider pulling his cord.
+'Francis--your son's name. Can he--'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. White, I'll thank you to take care what you say of my
+son!' exclaimed Mrs. Stebbing; but there was a blank look of
+alarm on the father's face.</p>
+
+<p>'Where is he?' asked Mr. White.</p>
+
+<p>'He may be able to explain'---courtesy and pity made the
+General add.</p>
+
+<p>'No, no,' burst out the mother. 'He knows nothing of it. Mr.
+Stebbing, can't you stand up for your own son?'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps,' began the poor man, his tone faltering with a
+terrible anxiety, but his wife exclaimed hastily--</p>
+
+<p>'He never saw nor heard of it. I put it in the fire.'</p>
+
+<p>There was a general hush, broken by Mr. Stebbing saying
+slowly--</p>
+
+<p>'You---put---it---in---the---fire.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; I saw those disreputable-looking boys put it into the
+box. I wasn't going to have that bold girl sending billy-doos on
+the sly to my son.'</p>
+
+<p>'Under these circumstances,' drily said Sir Jasper, 'I presume
+that you will think it expedient to withdraw the
+prosecution.'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly, certainly,' said Mr. Stebbing, in the tone of one
+delivered from great alarm. 'I will write at once to my solicitor
+at Avoncester.' Then turning on his wife, 'How was it that I
+never heard this before, and you let me go and make a fool of
+myself?'</p>
+
+<p>'How was I to know, Mr. Stebbing? You started off without a
+word to me, and all you told me when you came back was that the
+young man said he had posted the letter to his sister. I should
+like to know why he could not send it himself to the proper
+place!'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Mrs. Stebbing,' said her husband, 'I hope it will be a
+lesson to you against making free with other people's
+letters.'</p>
+
+<p>She tossed her head, and was about to retire, when Sir Jasper
+said--</p>
+
+<p>'Before leaving us, madam, in justice to my old friend's
+daughter, I should be much obliged if you would let me know your
+grounds for believing the letter to be what you say.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why---why, Sir Jasper, it has been going on this year or
+more! She has perfectly infatuated the poor boy.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am not asking about your son's sentiments but can you
+adduce any proof of their being encouraged!'</p>
+
+<p>'Sir Jasper! a young man doesn't go on in that way without
+encouragement.'</p>
+
+<p>'What encouragement can you prove?'</p>
+
+<p>'Didn't I surprise a letter from her--?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well'---checked the tone of triumphant conviction.</p>
+
+<p>'A refusal, yes, but we all know what that means, and that
+there must have been something to lead to it'---and as there was
+an unconvinced silence--'Besides---oh, why, every one knew of her
+arts. You did, Mr. Stebbing, and of poor Frank's infatuation. It
+was the reason of her dismissal.'</p>
+
+<p>'I knew what you told me, Mrs. Stebbing,' he answered grimly,
+not at all inclined to support her at this moment of anger. 'I am
+sure I wish I had never listened to you. I never saw anything
+amiss in the girl's behaviour, and they are all at sixes and
+sevens without her at the mosaic work---though she is only absent
+from her mother's illness at present.'</p>
+
+<p>'You! of course she would not show her goings on before you,
+said the lady.</p>
+
+<p>'Is Master Frank in the house?' put in Mr. White; 'I should
+like to put the question before him.'</p>
+
+<p>'You can't expect a young man to make mortifying admissions,'
+exclaimed the mother, and as she saw smiles in answer she added,
+'Of course, the girl has played the modest and proper throughout!
+That was her art, to draw him on, till he did not know what he
+was about.'</p>
+
+<p>'Setting aside the supposed purpose,' said Sir Jasper, 'you
+admit, Mrs. Stebbing, that of your own knowledge, Miss White has
+never encouraged your son's attentions.'</p>
+
+<p>'N---no; but we all know what those girls are.'</p>
+
+<p>'Fatherless and unprotected,' said Sir Jasper, 'dependent on
+their own character and exertion, and therefore in especial need
+of kind construction. Good morning, Mrs. Stebbing; I have learnt
+all that I wish to know.'</p>
+
+<p>Overpowered, but not convinced, Mrs. Stebbing saw her visitors
+depart.</p>
+
+<p>'And I hope her husband will give it to her well,' said Mr.
+White, as they left the house.</p>
+
+<p>They looked in at Beechcroft Cottage with the tidings.</p>
+
+<p>'All safe, I see!' cried Miss Jane. 'Is the money found?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; Mrs. Stebbing burnt it, under the impression that it was
+a love-letter,' drily said Sir Jasper.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mohun led the way in the hearty fit of laughter, to which
+the gentlemen gave way the more heartily for recent suppression;
+and Mr. White added--</p>
+
+<p>'I assure you, it was as good as a play to hear Sir Jasper
+worm it out. One would think he had been bred a lawyer.'</p>
+
+<p>'And now,' said the General, 'I must go and relieve that poor
+girl's suspense.'</p>
+
+<p>'I will come with you,' volunteered Mr. White. 'I fully
+believe that she is a good girl, though this business and Master
+Richard's applications staggered me; and this soldier fellow must
+be an ass if he is not a scamp.'</p>
+
+<p>'Scarcely that, I think,' said Miss Adelaide, with her
+pleading smile.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, discipline will be as good for him as for his father,'
+said Mr. White. 'He has done for himself, but that was a nice
+little lad that you had up---too good for a common national
+school.'</p>
+
+<p>Wherewith they departed, and found that Kalliope must have
+been on the watch, for she ran down to open the door to them, and
+the gladness which irradiated her face as Sir Jasper's first 'All
+right,' lighted up her features, which were so unlike the
+shop-girl prettiness that Mr. White expected as quite to startle
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Richard was in the parlour in a cloud of smoke, and began to
+do the honours.</p>
+
+<p>'Our acknowledgments are truly due to Sir Jasper. Mr. White,
+we are much honoured. Pray be seated, please to excuse---'</p>
+
+<p>They paid little attention to him, while Sir Jasper told as
+much to his sister as could well be explained as to the fate of
+her envelope, and added--</p>
+
+<p>'You will not be wanted at Avoncester, as the case will not
+come on. I shall go and see all safe, then on to town, but I mean
+to see your brother's commanding officer, and you may tell your
+mother that I have no doubt that he will be allowed a
+furlough.'</p>
+
+<p>'But, Sir Jasper' broke in Richard, 'I beg your pardon; but
+there is a family from Leeds at Bellevue, the Nortons, and
+imagine what it would be if they reported me as connected with a
+common private soldier, just out of prison too!'</p>
+
+<p>'Let him come to me then,' exclaimed Mr. White.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of appearances of disgust, Richard took the
+invitation to himself, and looked amiable and gratified.</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, Mr. White, that will obviate the difficulty. When
+shall I move up?'</p>
+
+<p>'You, sir? Did you think I meant you?' said Mr. White
+contemptuously. 'No; I prefer a fool to a knave!'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. White,' interposed Sir Jasper, 'whatever you may have to
+say to Richard White, consider his sister. Or had you not better
+report our success to your mother, my dear?'</p>
+
+<p>'One moment,' said Mr. White. 'Tell me, young lady, if you do
+not object, what assistance have you ever received from me.'</p>
+
+<p>'You have most kindly employed us, and paid for Maura's
+education,' said Kalliope.</p>
+
+<p>'Is that all? Has nothing been transmitted through this
+brother?'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not understand,' said Kalliope, trembling, as Richard
+scowled at her.</p>
+
+<p>'Sir,' said he, 'I always intended, but unforeseen
+circumstances---'</p>
+
+<p>'That's enough for the present, sir,' said Mr. White. 'I have
+heard all I wish, and more too.'</p>
+
+<p>'Sir,' said Kalliope, still trembling, 'indeed, Richard is a
+kind son and brother. My mother is much attached to him. I am
+generally out all day, and it is quite possible that she did not
+tell me all that passed between them, as she knew that I did not
+like you to be applied to.'</p>
+
+<p>'That will do, my dear,' said Mr. White. 'I don't want to say
+any more about it. You shall have your brother to-morrow, if Sir
+Jasper can manage it. I will bring him back to Rockstone as my
+guest, so that his brother need not be molested with his
+company.'</p>
+
+<center>CHAPTER XX.<br>
+ IVINGHOE TERRACE</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<p>On an east-windy Friday afternoon Valetta and Fergus were in a
+crowning state of ecstasy. Rigdum Funnidos was in a hutch in the
+small garden under the cliff, Begum and two small gray kittens
+were in a basket under the kitchen stairs, Aga was purring under
+everybody's feet, Cocky was turning out the guard upon his
+perch--in short, Il Lido was made as like Silverfold as
+circumstances would permit. Aunt Ada with Miss Vincent was
+sitting on the sofa in the drawing-room, with a newly-worked
+cosy, like a giant's fez, over the teapot, and Valetta's crewel
+cushion fully displayed. She was patiently enduring a rush in and
+out of the room of both children and Quiz once every minute, and
+had only requested that it should not be more than once, and that
+the door should neither be slammed nor left open.</p>
+
+<p>Macrae and the Silverfold carriage were actually gone to the
+station, and, oh! oh! oh! here it really was with papa on the
+box, and heaps of luggage, and here were Primrose and Gillian and
+mamma and Mrs. Halfpenny, all emerging one after another, and
+Primrose, looking--oh dear! more like a schoolroom than a nursery
+girl--such a great piece of black leg below the little crimson
+skirt; but the dear little face as plump as ever.</p>
+
+<p>That was the first apparent fact after the disengaging from
+the general embrace, when all had subsided into different seats,
+and Aunt Jane, who had appeared from somewhere in her little
+round sealskin hat, had begun to pour out the tea. The first
+sentence that emerged from the melee of greetings and
+intelligence was--</p>
+
+<p>'Fly met her mother at the station; how well she looks!'</p>
+
+<p>'Then Victoria came down with you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; I am glad we went to her. I really do like her very
+much.'</p>
+
+<p>Then Primrose and Valetta varied the scene by each laying a
+kitten in their mother's lap; and Begum, jumping after her
+progeny, brushed Lady Merrifield's face with her bushy tail,
+interrupting the information about names.</p>
+
+<p>'Come, children,' said Sir Jasper, 'that's enough; take away
+the cats.' It was kindly said, but it was plain that liberties
+with mamma would not continue before him.</p>
+
+<p>'The Whites?' was Gillian's question, as she pressed up to
+Aunt Jane.</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Mrs. White died the night before last,' was the return.
+'I have just come from Kally. She is in a stunned state
+now---actually too busy to think and feel, for the funeral must
+be to-morrow.'</p>
+
+<p>Sir Jasper heard, and came to ask further questions.</p>
+
+<p>'She saw Alexis,' went on Miss Mohun. 'They dressed him in his
+own clothes, and she seemed greatly satisfied when he came to sit
+by her, and had forgotten all that went before. However, the end
+came very suddenly at last, and all those poor children show
+their southern nature in tremendous outbursts of grief---all
+except Kalliope, who seems not to venture on giving way, will not
+talk, or be comforted, and is, as it were, dried up for the
+present. The big brothers give way quite as much as the children,
+in gusts, that is to say. Poor Alexis reproaches himself with
+having hastened it, and I am afraid his brother does not spare
+him. But Mr. White has bought his discharge.'</p>
+
+<p>'You don't mean it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; whether it was the contrast between Alexis's air of
+refinement and his private soldier's turn-out, or the poor
+fellow's patience and submission, or the brother's horrid
+behaviour to him, Mr. White has taken him up, and bought him
+out.'</p>
+
+<p>'All because of Richard's brutal speech. That is good! Though
+I confess I should have let the lad have at least a year's
+discipline for his own good, since he had put himself into it;
+but I can't be sorry. There is something engaging about the
+boy.'</p>
+
+<p>'And Mr. White is the right man to dispose of them.'</p>
+
+<p>No more passed, for here were the children eager and
+important, doing the honours of the new house, and intensely
+happy at the sense of home, which with them depended more on
+persons than on place.</p>
+
+<p>One schoolroom again,' said Mysie. 'One again with Val and
+Prim and Miss Vincent. Oh, it is happiness!'</p>
+
+<p>Even Mrs. Halfpenny was a delightful sight, perhaps the more
+so that her rightful dominion was over; the nursery was no more,
+and she was only to preside in the workroom, be generally useful,
+wait on my lady, and look after Primrose as far as was
+needful.</p>
+
+<p>The bustle and excitement of settling in prevented much
+thought of the Whites, even from Gillian, during that evening and
+the next morning; and she was ashamed of her own oblivion of her
+friend in the new current of ideas, when she found that her
+father meant to attend the funeral out of respect to his old
+fellow-soldier.</p>
+
+<p>Rockquay had outgrown its churchyard, and had a cemetery half
+a mile off, so that people had to go in carriages. Mr. White had
+made himself responsible for expenses, and thus things were not
+so utterly dreary as poverty might have made them. It was a
+dreary, gusty March day, with driving rushes of rain, which had
+played wildly with Gillian's waterproof while she was getting
+such blossoms and evergreen leaves as her aunt's garden afforded,
+not out of love for the poor Queen of the White Ants herself, but
+thinking the attention might gratify the daughters; and her
+elders moralised a little on the use and abuse of wreaths, and
+how the manifestation of tender affection and respect had in many
+cases been imitated in empty and expensive compliment.</p>
+
+<p>'The world spoils everything with its coarse finger,' said
+Lady Merrifield.</p>
+
+<p>'I hope the custom will not be exaggerated altogether out of
+fashion,' said Jane. 'It is a real comfort to poor little
+children at funerals to have one to carry, and it is as Mrs.
+Gaskell's Margaret said of mourning, something to prevent
+settling to doing nothing but crying; besides that afterwards
+there is a wholesome sweetness in thus keeping up the
+memory.'</p>
+
+<p>Sir Jasper shared a carriage with Mr. White, and returned
+somewhat wet and very cold, and saying that it had been sadly
+bleak and wretched for the poor young people, who stood
+trembling, so far as he could see; and he was anxious to know how
+the poor girls were after it. It had seemed to him as if Kalliope
+could scarcely stand. He proved to be right. Kalliope had said
+nothing, not wept demonstratively, perhaps not at all; but when
+the carriage stopped at the door, she proved to be sunk back in
+her corner in a dead faint. She was very long in reviving, and no
+sooner tried to move than she swooned again, and this time it
+lasted so long that the doctor was sent for. Miss Mohun arrived
+just as he had partially restored her, and they had a
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p>'They must get that poor girl to bed as soon as it is possible
+to undress her,' he said. 'I have seen that she must break down
+sooner or later, and I'm afraid she is in for a serious illness;
+but as yet there is no knowing.'</p>
+
+<p>Nursing was not among Jane's accomplishments, except of her
+sister Ada's chronic, though not severe ailments; but she fetched
+Mrs. Halfpenny as the most effective person within reach,
+trusting to that good woman's Scotch height, strong arms, great
+decision, and the tenderness which real illness always
+elicited.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was she wrong. Not only did Mrs. Halfpenny get the
+half-unconscious girl into bed, but she stayed till evening, and
+then came back to snatch a meal and say--</p>
+
+<p>'My leddy, if you have no objection, I will sit up with that
+puir lassie the night. They are all men-folk or bairns there,
+except the lodger-lady, who is worn out with helping the mother,
+and they want some one with a head on her shoulders.'</p>
+
+<p>Lady Merrifield consented with all her heart; but the Sunday
+morning's report was no better, when Mrs. Halfpenny came home to
+dress Primrose, and see her lady.</p>
+
+<p>'That eldest brother, set him up, the idle loon, was off by
+the mail train that night, and naething wad serve him but to come
+in and bid good-bye to his sister just as I had gotten her off
+into something more like a sleep. It startled her up, and she
+went off her head again, poor dearie, and began to talk about
+prison and disgrace, and what not, till she fainted again; and
+when she came to, I was fain to call the other lad to pacify her,
+for I could see the trouble in her puir een, though she could
+scarce win breath to speak.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is Alexis there?'</p>
+
+<p>'Surely he is, my leddy; he's no the lad to leave his sister
+in sic a strait. It was all I could do to gar him lie down when
+she dozed off again, but there's sair stress setting in for all
+of them, puir things. I have sent the little laddie off to beg
+the doctor to look in as soon as he can, for I am much mistaken
+if there be not fever coming on.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed! And what can those poor children do?'</p>
+
+<p>'That's what I'm thinking, my leddy. And since 'tis your
+pleasure that the nursery be done awa' wi', and I have not ta'en
+any fresh work, I should like weel to see the puir lassie through
+wi' it. Ye'll no mind that Captain White and my puir Halfpenny
+listed the same time, and always forgathered as became douce
+lads. The twa of them got their stripes thegither, and when
+Halfpenny got his sunstroke in that weary march, 'twas White who
+gave him his last sup of water, and brought me his bit Bible. So
+I'd be fain to tend his daughter in her sickness, if you could
+spare me, my leddy, and I'd aye rin home to dress Missie Primrose
+and pit her to bed, and see to matters here.'</p>
+
+<p>'There's no better nurse in the world, dear old Halfpenny,'
+said Lady Merrifield, with tears in her eyes. 'I do feel most
+thankful to you for proposing it. Never mind about Primrose, only
+you must have your meals and a good rest here, and not knock
+yourself up.'</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Halfpenny smiled grimly at the notion of her being sooner
+knocked up than a steam-engine. Dr. Dagger entirely confirmed her
+opinion that poor Kalliope was likely to have a serious illness,
+low nervous fever, and failing action of the heart, no doubt from
+the severe strain that she had undergone, more or less, for many
+months, and latterly fearfully enhanced by her mother's illness,
+and the shock and suspense about Alexis, all borne under the
+necessity of external composure and calmness, so that even Mrs.
+Lee had never entirely understood how much it cost her. The
+doctor did not apprehend extreme danger to one young and healthy,
+but he thought much would depend on good nursing, and on absolute
+protection from any sort of excitement, so that such care as Mrs.
+Halfpenny's was invaluable, since she was well known to be a dove
+to a patient, but a dragon to all outsiders.</p>
+
+<p>Every one around grieved at having done so little to lighten
+these burthens, and having even increased them, her brother
+Alexis above all; but on the other hand, he was the only person
+who was of any use to her, or was suffered to approach her, since
+his touch and voice calmed the recurring distress, lest he were
+still in prison and danger.</p>
+
+<p>Alexis went back dutifully on the Monday morning to his post
+at the works. The young man was much changed by his fortnight's
+experiences, or rather he had been cured of a temporary fit of
+distraction, and returned to his better self. How many
+discussions his friends held about him cannot be recorded, but
+after a conversation with Mr. Flight, with whom he was really
+more unreserved than any other being except Kalliope, this was
+the understanding at which Miss Mohun and Lady Merrifield arrived
+as to his nature and character.</p>
+
+<p>Refined, studious, and sensitive, thoroughly religious-minded,
+and of a high tone of thought, his aspirations had been blighted
+by his father's death, his brother's selfishness, and his
+mother's favouritism. In a brave spirit of self-abnegation, he
+had turned to the uncongenial employment set before him for the
+sake of his family, and which was rendered specially trying by
+the dislike of his fellows to 'the gentleman cove,' and the
+jealousy of the Stebbings. Alike for his religious and his
+refined habits he had suffered patiently, as Mr. Flight had
+always known more or less, and now bore testimony. The curate,
+who had opened to him the first door of hope and comfort, had in
+these weeks begun to see that the apparent fitfulness of his
+kindness had been unsettling.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the brief dream of felicity excited by Gillian and
+the darkness of its extinction, just as Frank Stebbing's failure
+and the near approach of Mr. White had made the malice of his
+immediate superiors render his situation more intolerable than
+ever. There was the added sting of self-reproach for his
+presumption towards Gillian, and the neglect caused by his fit of
+low spirits. Such a sensitive being, in early youth, wearied and
+goaded on all sides, might probably have persevered through the
+darkness till daylight came; but the catastrophe, the dismissal,
+and the perception that he could only defend himself at the
+expense of his idol's little brother, all exaggerated by youthful
+imagination, were too much for his balance of judgment, and he
+fled without giving himself time to realise how much worse he
+made it for those he left behind him.</p>
+
+<p>Of course he perceived it all now, and the more bitterly from
+his sister's wanderings, but the morbid exaggeration was gone.
+The actual taste of a recruit's life had shown him that there
+were worse things than employment at the quarries with his home
+awaiting him, and his cell had been a place of thought and
+recovery of his senses. He had never seriously expected
+conviction, and Sir Jasper's visit had given him a spring of
+hopeful resignation, in which thoughts stirred of doing his duty,
+and winning his way after his father's example, and taking the
+trials of his military life as the just cross of his wrong-doing
+in entering it.</p>
+
+<p>His liberation and Mr. White's kindness had not altered this
+frame. He was too unhappy to feel his residence in the great
+house anything but a restraint; he could not help believing that
+he had hastened his mother's death, and could only bow his head
+meekly under his brother's reproaches, alike for that and for his
+folly and imprudence and the disgrace he had brought on the
+family.</p>
+
+<p>'And now you'll, be currying favour and cutting out every one
+else,' had been a sting which added fresh force to Alexis's
+desire to escape from his kinsman's house to sleep at home as
+soon as his brother had gone; and Richard had seen enough of Sir
+Jasper and of Mr. White to be anxious to return to his office at
+Leeds as soon as possible, and to regulate his affairs beyond
+their reach.</p>
+
+<p>Alexis knew that he had avoided a duty in not working out his
+three months' term, and likewise that his earnings were necessary
+to the family all the more for his sister being laid aside. He
+knew that he hardly deserved to resume his post, and he merely
+asked permission so to do, and it was granted at once, but curtly
+and coldly.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Flight had asked if he had not found the going among the
+other clerks very trying.</p>
+
+<p>'I had other things to think of,' said Alexis sadly, then
+recalling himself. 'Yes; Jones did sneer a little, but the others
+stopped that. They knew I was down, you see.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you mean to go on?'</p>
+
+<p>'If I may. That, and for my sister to get better, is all I can
+dare to hope. My madness and selfishness have shown me unworthy
+of all that I once dreamt of.'</p>
+
+<p>In that resolution it was assuredly best to leave him, only
+giving him such encouragement and sympathy as might prevent that
+more dangerous reaction of giving up all better things; and Sir
+Jasper impressed on Mr. Flight, the only friend who could have
+aided him in fulfilling his former aspirations, that Mr. White
+had in a manner purchased the youth by buying his discharge, and
+that interference would not only be inexpedient, but unjust. The
+young clergyman chafed a little over not being allowed to atone
+for his neglect; but Sir Jasper was not a person to be easily
+gainsayed. Nor could there be any doubt that Mr. White was a good
+man, though in general so much inclined to reserve his hand that
+his actions were apt to take people by surprise at last, as they
+had never guessed his intentions, and he had a way of sucking
+people's brains without in the least letting them know what use
+he meant to make of their information. The measures he was taking
+for the temporal, intellectual, and spiritual welfare of the
+people at the works would hardly have been known except for the
+murmurs of Mrs. Stebbing, although, without their knowing what he
+was about with them, Mr. Stebbing himself, Mr. Hablot, Miss
+Mohun, to say nothing of Alexis, the foremen and the men and
+their wives, had given him the groundwork of his reforms.
+Meantime, he came daily to inquire for Kalliope, and lavished on
+her all that could be an alleviation, greatly offending Mrs.
+Halfpenny by continually proffering the services of a hospital
+nurse.</p>
+
+<p>'A silly tawpie that would be mair trouble than half a dozen
+sick,' as she chose to declare.</p>
+
+<p>She was a born autocrat, and ruled as absolutely in No. l as
+in her nursery, ordering off the three young ones to their
+schools, in spite of Maura's remonstrances and appeals to Lady
+Merrifield, who agreed with nurse that the girl was much better
+away and occupied than where she could be of very little use.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, Mrs. Halfpenny banished every one from the room except
+Mrs. Lee and Alexis, whom she would allow to take her place,
+while she stalked to Il Lido for her meals, and the duties she
+would not drop. As to rest, she always, in times of sickness,
+seemed to be made of cast iron, and if she ever slept at all, it
+was in a chair, while Alexis sat by his sister in the
+evening.</p>
+
+<p>The fever never ran very high, but constant vigilance was
+wanted from the extreme exhaustion and faintness. There was no
+violent delirium, but more of delusion and distress; nor was it
+easy to tell when she was conscious or otherwise, for she hardly
+spoke, and as yet the doctor forbade any attempt to rouse her
+more than was absolutely needful. They were only to give
+nourishment, watch her, and be patient.</p>
+
+<p>A few months ago Gillian would have fussed herself into a
+frantic state of anxiety and self-reproach, but her parents, when
+her mother had once heard as much outpouring as she thought
+expedient, would not permit what Sir Jasper called 'perpetual
+harping.'</p>
+
+<p>'You have to do your duties all the same, and not worry your
+mother and all the family with your feelings,' he said. She
+thought it very unkind, and went away crying.</p>
+
+<p>'Nobody could hinder her from thinking about Kalliope,' she
+said to herself, and think she did at her prayers, and when the
+bulletins came in, but the embargo on discussion prevented her
+from being so absolutely engrossed, as in weaker hands she might
+have been, and there was a great deal going on to claim her
+attention. For one thing, the results of the Cambridge
+Examination showed that while Emma Norton and a few others had
+passed triumphantly, she had failed, and conscience carried her
+back to last autumn's disinclination to do just what Aunt Jane
+especially recommended.</p>
+
+<p>She cried bitterly over the failure, for she had a feeling
+that success there would redeem her somewhat in her parents'
+eyes; but here again she experienced the healing kindness of her
+father. He would not say that he should not have been much
+pleased by her success, but he said failure that taught her to do
+her best without perverseness was really a benefit; and as
+arithmetic and mathematics had been her weakest points, he would
+work at them with her and Mysie for an hour every morning.</p>
+
+<p>It was somewhat formidable, but the girls soon found that what
+their father demanded was application, and that inattention
+displeased him much more than stupidity. His smile, though rare,
+was one of the sweetest things in the world, and his approbation
+was delightful, and gave a stimulus to the entire day's doings.
+Mysie was more than ever in dread of being handed over to the
+Rotherwoods, though her love for poor Fly and pity for her
+solitude were so strong. She would have been much relieved if she
+had known what had passed; when the offer was seriously made,
+Lord Rotherwood insisted that his wife should do it.</p>
+
+<p>'Then they will believe in it,' he said.</p>
+
+<p>'I do not know why you should say that,' she returned, always
+dutifully blinding herself to that which all their intimates knew
+perfectly well. However, perhaps from having a station and
+dignity of her own, together with great simplicity, Lady
+Merrifield had from her first arrival got on so well with her
+hostess as not quite to enter into Jane's sarcastic descriptions
+of her efforts at cordiality; and it was with real warmth that
+Lady Rotherwood begged for Mysie as a permanent companion and
+adopted sister to Phyllis, who was to be taken back to London
+after Easter, and in the meantime spent every possible moment
+with her cousins.</p>
+
+<p>Tears at the unkindness to lonely Fly came into Lady
+Merrifield's eyes as she said--</p>
+
+<p>'I cannot do it, Victoria; I do not think I ought to give away
+my child, even if I could.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is not only our feelings,' added Sir Jasper, 'but it is
+our duty to bring up our own child in her natural station; and
+though we know she would learn nothing but good in your family, I
+cannot think it well that a girl should acquire habits, and be
+used to society ways and of life beyond those which she can
+expect to continue.'</p>
+
+<p>They both cried out at this, Lord Rotherwood with a halting
+declaration of perfect equality, which his lady seconded, with a
+dexterous reference to connections.</p>
+
+<p>'We will not put it on rank then,' said Sir Jasper, 'but on
+wealth. With you, Maria must become accustomed to much that she
+could not continue, and had better not become natural to her. I
+know there are great advantages to manners and general
+cultivation in being with you, and we shall be most thankful to
+let her pay long visits, and be as much with Phyllis as is
+consistent with feeling her home with us, but I cannot think it
+right to do more.'</p>
+
+<p>'But with introductions,' pleaded Lady Rotherwood, 'she might
+marry well. With her family and connections, she would be a match
+for any one.'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope so,' said Sir Jasper; 'but at the same time it would
+not be well for her to look on such a marriage as the means of
+continuing the habits that would have become second nature.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Mysie,' exclaimed Lord Rotherwood, bursting out laughing
+at the idea, and at Lady Merrifield's look as she murmured, 'My
+Mysie!'</p>
+
+<p>'You misunderstand me,' said the Marchioness composedly. 'I
+was as far as possible from proposing marriage as a speculation
+for her.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know you were,' said Sir Jasper. 'I know you would deal by
+Maria as by your own daughter, and I am very grateful to you,
+Lady Rotherwood, but I can only come back to my old decision,
+that as Providence did not place her in your rank of life, she
+had better not become so accustomed to it as to render her own
+distasteful to her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Exactly what I expected,' said Lord Rotherwood.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' returned his wife, with an effort of generosity; 'and I
+believe you are right, Jasper, though I am sorry for my little
+solitary girl, and I never saw a friend so perfectly suitable for
+her as your Mysie.'</p>
+
+<p>'They may be friends still,' said Lord Rotherwood, 'and we
+will be grateful to you whenever you can spare her to us.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps,' added Sir Jasper, 'all the more helpful friends for
+seeing different phases of life.'</p>
+
+<p>'And, said his wife, with one of her warm impulses, 'I do
+thank you, Victoria, for so loving my Mysie.'</p>
+
+<p>'As if any one could help it, after last winter,' said that
+lady, and an impromptu kiss passed between the two mothers, much
+to the astonishment of the Marquis, who had never seen his lady
+so moved towards any one.</p>
+
+<p>The Merrifields were somewhat on the world, for Sir Jasper, on
+going to Silverfold and corresponding with the trustees of the
+landlord, had found that the place could not be put in a state
+either of repair or sanitation, such as he approved, without more
+expense than either he or the trustees thought advisable, and he
+decided on giving it up, and remaining at Il Lido till he could
+find something more suitable.</p>
+
+<p>The children, who had been there during the special homemaking
+age, bewailed the decision, and were likely always to look back
+on Silverfold as a sort of Paradise; but the elder ones had been
+used to changes from infancy, and had never settled down, and
+their mother said that place was little to her as long as she had
+her Jasper by her side, and as to the abstract idea of home as a
+locality, that would always be to her under the tulip-tree and by
+the pond at the Old Court at Beechcroft, just as her abstract
+idea of church was in the old family pew, with the carved oak
+panels, before the restoration, in which she had been the most
+eager of all.</p>
+
+<p>Thus a fortnight passed, and then the fever was decidedly
+wearing off, but returning at night. Kalliope still lay weak,
+languid, silent, fainting at any attempt to move her, not
+apparently able to think enough to ask how time passed, or to be
+uneasy about anything, simply accepting the cares given to her,
+and lying still. One morning, however, Alexis arrived in great
+distress to speak to Sir Jasper, not that his sister was worse,
+as he explained, but Richard had been selling the house. The
+younger ones at home had never troubled themselves as to whose
+property the three houses in Ivinghoe Terrace were. Perhaps
+Kalliope knew, but she could not be asked; but the fact was that
+Captain White had been so lost sight of, that he had not known
+that this inheritance had fallen to him under the will of his
+grandfather, who was imbecile at the time of his flight. On his
+deathbed, the Captain had left the little he owned to his wife,
+and she had died intestate, as Richard had ascertained before
+leaving home, so that he, as eldest son, was heir to the ground.
+He had written to Kalliope, a letter which Alexis had opened,
+informing her that he had arranged to sell the houses to a Mr.
+Gudgeon, letting to him their own till the completion of the
+legal business necessary, and therefore desiring his brothers and
+sisters to move out with their lodgers, if not by Lady Day
+itself, thus giving only a week's spare notice, at latest by Old
+Lady Day.</p>
+
+<p>'Is he not aware of your sister's state?'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not imagine that he has read the letter that I wrote to
+him. He was very much displeased with me, and somewhat disposed
+to be angry at my sister's fainting, and to think that we were
+all trying to work on his feelings. He used to be rather fond of
+Maura, so I told her to write to him, but he has taken no notice,
+and he can have no conception of Kalliope's condition, or he
+would not have addressed his letter to her. I came to ask if you
+would kindly write to him how impossible it is to move her.'</p>
+
+<p>'You had better get a certificate from Dr. Dagger. Either I or
+Lady Merrifield will meet him, and see to that. That will serve
+both to stay him and the purchaser.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is another misfortune. This Gudgeon is the chief
+officer, or whatever they call it, of the Salvation Army. I knew
+they had been looking out for a place for a barracks, and could
+not get one because almost everything belongs to Lord Rotherwood
+or to Mr. White.'</p>
+
+<p>Sir Jasper could only reply that he would see what could be
+done in the matter, and that, at any rate, Kalliope should not be
+disturbed.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly Lady Merrifield repaired to Ivinghoe Terrace for
+the doctor's visit, and obtained from him the requisite
+certificate that the patient could not be removed at present. He
+gave it, saying, however, to Lady Merrifield's surprise, that
+though he did not think it would be possible to remove her in a
+week's time, yet after that he fully believed that she would have
+more chance of recovering favourably if she could be taken out of
+the small room and the warm atmosphere beneath the cliffs--though
+of course all must depend on her state at the time.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime there was a council of the gentlemen about outbidding
+the Salvation Army. Lord Rotherwood was spending already as much
+as he could afford, in the days of agricultural depression, on
+the improvements planned with Mr. White. That individual was too
+good a man of business to fall, as he said, into the trap, and
+make a present to that scamp Richard of more than the worth of
+the houses, and only Mr. Flight was ready to go to any cost to
+keep off the Salvation Army; but the answer was curt. Richard
+knew he had no chance with Mr. White, and did not care to keep
+terms with him.</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Richard White begs to acknowledge the obliging offer of
+the Rev. Augustine Flight, and regrets that arrangements have so
+far progressed with Mr. Gudgeon that he cannot avail himself of
+it.'</p>
+
+<p>Was this really regret or was the measure out of spite? Only
+the widest charity could accept the former suggestion, and even
+Sir Jasper Merrifield's brief and severe letter and Dr. Dagger's
+certificate did not prevent a letter to Alexis, warning him not
+to make their sister's illness a pretext for unreasonable
+delay.</p>
+
+<p>What was to be done? Kalliope was still unfit to be consulted
+or even informed, and she had been hitherto so entirely the real
+head and manager of the family that Alexis did not like to make
+any decision without her; and even the acceptance of the St.
+Wulstan's choristership for Theodore had been put off for her to
+make it, look to his outfit, and all that only the woman of the
+family could do for them.</p>
+
+<p>And here they were at a loss for a roof over their heads, and
+nowhere to bestow the battered old furniture, of which Richard
+magnanimously renounced his sixth share; while she who had
+hitherto toiled, thought, managed, and contrived for all the
+other four, without care of their own, still lay on her bed,
+sensible indeed and no longer feverish, but with the perilous
+failure of heart, renewed by any kind of exertion or excitement,
+a sudden movement, or a startling sound in the street; and Mrs.
+Halfpenny, guarding her as ferociously as ever, and looking
+capable of murdering any one of her substitutes if they durst
+hint a word of their perplexities. Happily she asked no
+questions; she was content when allowed to be kissed by the
+others, and to see they were well. Nature was enforcing repose,
+and so far "her senses was all as in a dream bound up." Alexis
+remembered that it had been somewhat thus at Leeds, when, after
+nursing all the rest, she had succumbed to the epidemic; but then
+the mother had been able to watch over her, and had been a more
+effective parent to the rest than she had since become.</p>
+
+<p>The first practical proposal was Mrs. Lee's. They thought of
+reversing the present position, and taking a small house where
+their present hosts might become their lodgers. Moreover, Miss
+Mohun clenched the affair about Theodore, and overcame Alexis's
+scruples, while Lady Merrifield, having once or twice looked in,
+and been smiled at and thanked by Kalliope, undertook to prepare
+her for his farewell.</p>
+
+<p>Alexis and Maura both declared that she would instantly jump
+up, and want to begin looking over his socks; but she got no
+further than--</p>
+
+<p>'Dear boy! It is the sort of thing I always wished for him.
+People are very good! But his things--'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, dearie, ye need not fash yourself. I've mended them
+as I sat by you, and packed them all. Lie still. They are all
+right.'</p>
+
+<p>There was an atmosphere of the Royal Wardours about Mrs.
+Halfpenny, which was at once congenial and commanding; and
+Kalliope's mind at once relinquished the burthen of socks,
+shirts, and even the elbows of the outgrown jacket, nor did any
+of the family ever know how the deficiencies had been
+supplied.</p>
+
+<p>And when Theodore, well admonished, came softly and timidly
+for the parting kiss, his face quivering all over with the effort
+at self-control, she lay and smiled; but with a great crystal
+tear on each dark eyelash, and her thin transparent fingers
+softly stroked his cheeks, as the low weak voice said--</p>
+
+<p>'Be a good boy, dear---speak truth. Praise God well. Write;
+I'll write when I am better.'</p>
+
+<p>It was the first time she had spoken of being better, and they
+told Theodore to take comfort from it when all the other three
+walked him up to the station.</p>
+
+<center>CHAPTER XXI. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<p>In the search for a new abode Mrs. Lee was in much difficulty,
+for it was needful to be near St. Kenelm's, and the only vacant
+houses within her means were not desirable for the reception of a
+feeble convalescent; moreover, Mr. Gudgeon grumbled and inquired,
+and was only withheld by warnings enhanced by the police from
+carrying the whole charivari of the Salvation Army along Ivinghoe
+Terrace on Sunday afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps it was this, perhaps it was the fact of having
+discussed the situation with the two Miss Mohuns, that made Mr.
+White say to Alexis, 'There are two rooms ready for your sister,
+as soon as Dagger says she can be moved safely. The person who
+nurses her had better come with her, and you may as well come
+back to your old quarters.'</p>
+
+<p>Alexis could hardly believe his ears, but Mr. White waved off
+all thanks. The Mohun sisters were delighted and triumphant, and
+Jane came down to talk it over with her elder sister, auguring
+great things from that man who loved to deal in surprises.</p>
+
+<p>'That is true,' said Sir Jasper.</p>
+
+<p>'What does that mean, Jasper?' said his wife. 'It sounds
+significant.'</p>
+
+<p>'I certainly should not be amazed if he did further surprise
+us all. Has it never struck you how that noontide turn of
+Adeline's corresponds with his walk home from the
+reading-room?'</p>
+
+<p>Lady Merrifield looked rather startled, but Jane only laughed,
+and said, 'My dear Jasper, if you only knew Ada as well as I do!
+Yes, I have seen far too many of those little affairs to be taken
+in by them. Poor Ada! I know exactly how she looks, but she is
+only flattered, like a pussy-cat waggling the end of its
+tail---it means nothing, and never comes to anything. The thing
+that is likely and hopeful is, that he may adopt those young
+people as nephews and nieces.'</p>
+
+<p>'Might it not spoil them?' said Lady Merrifield.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! I did not mean that. They might work with him still.
+However, there is no use in settling about that. The only thing
+to be expected of him is the unexpected!'</p>
+
+<p>'And the thing to be done,' added her sister, 'is to see how
+and when that poor girl can be got up to Cliff House.'</p>
+
+<p>To the general surprise, Dr. Dagger wished the transit to take
+place without loss of time. A certain look of resigned
+consternation crossed Kalliope's face on being informed of her
+destiny, but she justified Mrs. Halfpenny's commendation of her
+as the maist douce and conformable patient in the world, for she
+had not energy enough even to plead against anything so
+formidable, and she had not yet been told that Ivinghoe Terrace
+was her home no longer.</p>
+
+<p>The next day she was wrapped in cloaks and carried downstairs
+between her brother and Mrs. Halfpenny, laid on a mattress in the
+Merrifield waggonette, which went up the hill at a foot's pace,
+and by the same hands, with her old friend the caretaker's wife
+going before, was taken upstairs to a beautiful large room, with
+a window looking out on vernal sky and sea. She was too much
+exhausted on her arrival to know anything but the repose on the
+fresh comfortable bed, whose whiteness was almost rivalled by her
+cheek, and Mrs. Halfpenny ordered off Alexis, who was watching
+her in great anxiety. However, when he came back after his
+afternoon's work, it was to find that she had eaten and slept,
+and now lay, with her eyes open, in quiet interested admiration
+of a spacious and pleasant bedroom, such as to be a great novelty
+to one whose life had been spent in cheap lodging houses. The
+rooms had been furnished twenty years before as a surprise
+intended for the wife who never returned to occupy them, and
+though there was nothing extraordinary in them, there was much to
+content the eyes accustomed to something very like squalidness,
+for had not Kalliope's lot always been the least desirable
+chamber in the family quarters?</p>
+
+<p>At any rate, from that moment she began to recover, ate with
+appetite, slept and woke to be interested, and to enjoy
+Theodore's letter of description of St. Wulstan's, and even to
+ask questions. Alexis was ready to dance for joy when she first
+began really to talk to him; and could not forbear imparting his
+gladness to the Miss Mohuns that very evening, as well as to Mr.
+White, and running down after dinner with the good news to Maura,
+Mrs. Lee, and Lady Merrifield. Dinners with Mr. White had, on his
+first sojourn in that house, been a great penance, though there
+were no supercilious servants, for all the waiting was by the
+familiar housekeeper, Mrs. Osborne, who had merely added an
+underling to her establishment on her master's return; but Alexis
+then had been utterly miserable, feeling guilty and ashamed, as
+one only endured on sufferance out of compassion, because his
+brother cast him out, and fresh from the sight of his mother's
+dying bed; a terrible experience altogether, which had entirely
+burnt out and effaced his foolish fit of romantic calf-love, and
+rendered him much more of a man. Now, though not a month had
+passed, he seemed to be on a different footing. He was doing his
+work steadily, and the hope of his sister's recovery had
+brightened him. Mr. White had begun to talk to him, to ask him
+questions about the doings of the day, and to tell him in return
+some of his own experiences in Italy, and in the earlier days of
+the town. Maura came up to see her sister every day, and
+tranquillised her mind when the move was explained, and anxiety
+as to the transport of all their worldly goods began to set in.
+Mrs. Lee had found a house where she could place two bedrooms and
+a sitting-room at the disposal of the Whites if things were to
+continue as before, and no hint had been given of any change, or
+of what was to happen when the three months' notice given to
+Kalliope and Alexis should have expired.</p>
+
+<p>By the Easter holidays Mrs. Halfpenny began to get rather
+restless as to the overlooking of the boys' wardrobes; and,
+indeed, she thought so well of her patient's progress as to
+suggest to Mr. White that the lassie would do very well if she
+had her sister to be with her in the holidays, and she herself
+would come up every day to help at the getting up, for Kalliope
+was now able to be dressed and to lie on a couch in the
+dressing-room, where she could look out over the bay, and she had
+even asked for some knitting.</p>
+
+<p>'And really, Miss Gillian, you could not do her much harm if
+you came up to see her,' said the despot. 'So you may come this
+very afternoon, if ye'll be douce, and not fash her with any of
+your cantrips.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian did not feel at all in a mood for cantrips as she
+slowly walked up the broad staircase, and was ushered into the
+dressing-room, cheerful with bright fire and April sunshine, and
+with a large comfortable sofa covered with a bright rug, where
+Kalliope could enjoy both window and fire without glare. The
+beauty of her face so much depended on form and expression that
+her illness had not lessened it. Gillian had scarcely seen her
+since the autumn, and the first feeling was what an air of rest
+and peace had succeeded the worn, harassed look then almost
+perpetual. There was a calmness now that far better suited the
+noble forehead, dark pencilled eyebrows, and classical features
+in their clear paleness; and with a sort of reverence Gillian
+bent over her, to kiss her and give her a bunch of violets. Then,
+when the thanks had passed, Gillian relieved her own shyness by
+exclaiming with admiration at a beautiful water-coloured copy of
+an early Italian fresco, combining the Nativity and Adoration of
+the Magi, that hung over the mantelpiece.</p>
+
+<p>'Is it not exquisite?' returned Kalliope. 'I do so much enjoy
+making out each head and dwelling on them! Look at that old
+shepherd's simple wonder and reverence, and the little child with
+the lamb, and the contrast with the Wise Man from the East, whose
+eyes look as if he saw so much by faith.'</p>
+
+<p>'Can you see it from there?' asked Gillian, who had got up to
+look at these and further details dwelt on by Kalliope.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. Not at first; but they come out on me by degrees. It is
+such a pleasure, and so kind of Mr. White to have put it there.
+He had it hung there, Mrs. Halfpenny told me, instead of his own
+picture just before I came in here.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, he is not a bad-looking man, but it is no harm to him
+or his portrait to say that this is better to look at!'</p>
+
+<p>'It quite does me good! And see,' pointing to a photograph of
+the Arch of Titus hung on the screen that shielded her from the
+door, 'he sends in a fresh one by Alexis every other day.</p>
+
+<p>'How very nice! He really seems to be a dear old man. Don't
+you think so?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure he is wonderfully kind, but I have only seen him
+that once when he came with Sir Jasper, and then I knew nothing
+but that when Sir Jasper was come things must go right.'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course; but has he never been to see you now that you are
+up and dressed?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, he lavishes anything on me that I can possibly want, but
+I have only seen him once--never here.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is like Beauty and the Beast!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, no ; don't say that!'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, George Stebbing really taught Fergus to call him a
+beast, and you---Kally---I won't tease you with saying what you
+are.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish I wasn't, it would be all so much easier.'</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind! I do believe the Stebbings are going away! Does
+Maura never see him?'</p>
+
+<p>'She has met him on the stairs and in the garden, but she has
+her meals here. I trust by the time her Easter holidays are over
+I may be fit to go back with her. But I do hope I may be able to
+copy a bit of that picture first, though, any way, I can never
+forget it.'</p>
+
+<p>'To go on as before?' exclaimed Gillian, with an interrogative
+sigh of wonder.</p>
+
+<p>'If that notice of dismissal can be revoked,' said
+Kalliope.</p>
+
+<p>But would you like it---must you?'</p>
+
+<p>'I <i>should</i> like to go back to my girls,' said Kalliope;
+'and things come into my head, now I am doing nothing, that I
+want to work out, if I might. So, you see, it is not at all a
+pity that I <i>must</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>And why is it must?' said Gillian wistfully. 'You have to get
+well first.'</p>
+
+<p>Yes, I know that; but, you see, there are Maura and Petros.
+They must not be thrown on Alexis, poor dear fellow! And if he
+could only be set free, he might go on with what he once hoped
+for, though he thinks it is his duty to give all that entirely up
+now and work obediently on. But I know the longing will revive,
+and if I only could improve myself, and be worth more, it might
+still be possible.'</p>
+
+<p>'Only you must not begin too soon and work yourself to
+death.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hardly after such a rest,' said Kalliope. 'It is not work I
+mind, but worry'---and then a sadder look crossed her for a
+moment, and she added, 'I am so thankful.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thankful?' echoed Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, indeed! For Sir Jasper's coming and saving us at that
+dreadful moment, and my being able to keep up as long as dear
+mamma wanted me, and then Mrs. Halfpenny being spared by dear
+Lady Merrifield to give me such wonderful care and kindness, and
+little Theodore being so happily placed, and this rest---such a
+strange quiet rest as I never knew before. Oh! it is all so
+thankworthy'--and the great tears came to dim her eyes. 'It seems
+sent to help me to take strength and courage for the future. "He
+hath helped me hitherto."'</p>
+
+<p>'And you are better?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, much better. Quite comfortable as long as I am quite
+still.'</p>
+
+<p>'And content to be still?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I'm very lazy.'</p>
+
+<p>It was a tired voice, and Gillian feared her half-hour was
+nearly over, but she could not help saying--</p>
+
+<p>'Do you know, I think it will be all nicer now. Mr. White is
+doing so much, and Mr. Stebbing hates it so, that Mrs. Stebbing
+says he is going to dissolve the partnership and go away.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then it would all be easier. It seems too good to be
+true.'</p>
+
+<p>'And that man Mr. White. He must do something for you! He
+ought.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no! He has done a great deal already, and has not been
+well used. Don't talk of that.'</p>
+
+<p>'I believe he is awfully rich. You know he is building an
+Institute for the workmen, and a whole row of model
+cottages.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Alexis told me. What a difference it will make! I hope
+he will build a room where the girls can dine and rest and read,
+or have a piano; it would be so good for them.'</p>
+
+<p>'You had better talk to him about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I never see him, and I should not dare.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'll tell my aunts. He always does what Aunt Ada tells him.
+Is that really all you wish?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! I don't wish for anything much--I don't seem able to care
+now dear mamma is where they cease from troubling, and I have
+Alec again.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I can't help having great hopes. I can't see why that
+man should not make a daughter of you! Then you would travel and
+see mountains and pictures and everything. Oh, should you not
+like that?'</p>
+
+<p>'Like? Oh, one does not think about liking things impossible!
+And for the rest, it is nonsense. I should not like to be
+dependent, and I ought not.'</p>
+
+<p>'You don't think what is to come next?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, it would be taking thought for the morrow, would it not?
+I don't want to, while I can't do anything, it would only make me
+fret, and I am glad I am too stupid still to begin vexing myself
+over it. I suppose energy and power of considering will come when
+my heart does not flutter so. In the meantime, I only want to
+keep quiet, and I hope that's not all laziness, but some trust in
+Him who has helped me all this time.'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Gillian, you've clavered as long as is good for Miss
+White, and here are the whole clanjamfrie waiting in the road for
+you. Now be douce, my bairn, and mind you are not in the woods at
+home, and don't let the laddies play their tricks with Miss
+Primrose.'</p>
+
+<p>'I must go,' said Gillian, hastily kissing Kalliope. 'The
+others were going to call for me. When Lady Phyllis was riding
+with her father she spied a wonderful field of daffodils and a
+valley full of moss at a place called Clipston, two miles off,
+and we are all going to get some for the decorations. I'll send
+you some. Good-bye.'</p>
+
+<p>The clanjamfrie, as Mrs. Halfpenny called it, mustered strong,
+and Gillian's heart leapt at the resumption of the tumultuous
+family life, as she beheld the collection of girls, boys, dogs,
+and donkeys awaiting her in the approach; and, in spite of the
+two governesses' presence, her mind misgave her as to the
+likelihood of regard to the hint that her mother had given that
+she hoped the elder ones would try to be sober in their ways, and
+not quite forget what week it was. It was in their favour that
+Jasper, now in his last term at school, was much more of a man
+and less of a boy than hitherto, and was likely to be on the side
+of discretion, so that he might keep in order that always
+difficult element, Wilfred, whose two years of preparatory school
+as yet made him only more ingenious in the arts of teasing, and
+more determined to show his superiority to petticoat government.
+He had driven Fergus nearly distracted by threatening to use all
+his mineralogical specimens to make ducks and drakes, and
+actually confusing them together, so that Fergus repented of
+having exhibited them, and rejoiced that Aunt Jane had let them
+continue in her lumber-room till they could find a permanent
+home.</p>
+
+<p>Wilfred had a shot for Mrs. Halfpenny, when she came down with
+Gillian and looked for Primrose to secure that there were no
+interstices between the silk handkerchief and fur collar.</p>
+
+<p>'Ha, ha, old Small Change, don't you wish you may get
+it?'---as Primrose proved to be outside the drive on one of the
+donkeys. 'You've got nothing to do but gnaw your fists at us like
+old Giant Pope.'</p>
+
+<p>'For shame, Wilfred!' said Jasper. 'My mother did Primrose's
+throat, nurse, so she is all right.'</p>
+
+<p>'Bad form,' observed Lord Ivinghoe, shaking his head.</p>
+
+<p>'I'm not going to Eton,' replied Wilfred audaciously.</p>
+
+<p>'I should hope not!'---in a tone of ineffable contempt, not
+for Wilfred's person, but his manners, and therewith his Lordship
+exclaimed, 'Who's that?' as Maura came flying down with Gillian's
+forgotten basket.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, that's Maura White!' said Valetta.</p>
+
+<p>'I say, isn't she going with us?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, she has to look after her sister!'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't you think we might take her, Gill?' said Fly. 'She
+never gets any fun.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't think she ought to leave Kalliope to-day, Fly, for
+nurse is going down to Il Lido; and besides, Aunt Jane said we
+must not take <i>all</i> Rockquay with us.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, they would not let us ask Kitty and Clement Varley, said
+Fergus disconsolately.</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure she is five times as pretty as your Kitty!'
+returned Ivinghoe. 'She is a regular stunner.' Whereby it may be
+perceived that a year at Eton had considerably modified his
+Lordship's correctness of speech, if not of demeanour. Be it
+further observed that, in spite of the escort of the governesses,
+the young people were as free as if those ladies had been absent,
+for, as Jasper observed, the donkeys neutralised them. Miss
+Elbury, being a bad walker, rode one, and Miss Vincent felt bound
+to keep close to Primrose upon the other; and as neither animal
+could be prevailed on to moderate its pace, they kept far ahead
+of all except Valetta, who was mounted on the pony intended for
+Lady Phyllis, but disdained by her until she should be tired.
+Lord Ivinghoe's admiration of Maura was received contemptuously
+by Wilfred, who was half a year younger than his cousin, and
+being already, in his own estimation, a Wykehamist, had endless
+rivalries with him.</p>
+
+<p>'She! She's nothing but a cad! Her sister is a shop-girl, and
+her brother is a quarryman.'</p>
+
+<p>'She does not look like it,' observed Ivinghoe, while Mysie
+and Fly, with one voice, exclaimed that her father was an officer
+in the Royal Wardours.</p>
+
+<p>'A private first,' said Wilfred, with boyhood's reiteration.
+'Cads and quarrymen all of them--the whole boiling, old White and
+all, though he has got such a stuck-up house!'</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense, Will,' said Fly. 'Why, Mr. White has dined with
+us.'</p>
+
+<p>'A patent of nobility, said Jasper, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>'I don't care,' said Wilfred; 'if other people choose to chum
+with old stonemasons and convicts, I don't.'</p>
+
+<p>'Wilfred, that is too bad,' said Gillian. 'It is very wrong to
+talk in that way.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!' said the audacious Wilfred, 'we all know who is Gill's
+Jack!'</p>
+
+<p>'Shut up, Will!' cried Fergus, flying at him. 'I told you not
+to--'</p>
+
+<p>But Wilfred bounded up a steep bank, and from that place of
+vantage went on--</p>
+
+<p>'Didn't she teach him Greek, and wasn't he spoony; and didn't
+she send back his valentine, so that--'</p>
+
+<p>Fergus was scrambling up the bank after him, enraged at the
+betrayal of his confidence, and shouting inarticulately, while
+poor Gillian moved on, overwhelmed with confusion, and Fly
+uttered the cutting words, 'Perfectly disgusting!'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, so it was!' cried the unabashed Wilfred, keeping on at
+the top of the bank, and shaking the bushes at every pause. 'So
+he broke down the rocks, and ran away with the tin, and enlisted,
+and went to prison. Such a sweet young man for Gill!'</p>
+
+<p>Poor Gillian! was her punishment never to end? That scrape of
+hers, hitherto so tenderly and delicately hinted at, and which
+she would have given worlds to have kept from her brothers, now
+shouted all over the country! Sympathy, however, she had, if that
+would do her any good. Mysie and Fly came on each side of
+Ivinghoe, assuring him, in low eager voices, of the utter
+nonsense of the charge, and explaining ardently; and Jasper, with
+one bound, laid hold of the tormentor, dragged him down, and,
+holding his stick over him, said--</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Wilfred, if you don't hold your tongue, and not behave
+like a brute, I shall send you straight home.'</p>
+
+<p>'It's quite true,' growled Wilfred. 'Ask her.'</p>
+
+<p>'What does that signify? I'm ashamed of you! I've a great mind
+to thrash you this instant. If you speak another word of that
+sort, I shall. Now then, there are the governesses trying to stop
+to see what's the row. I shall give you up to Miss Vincent, if
+you choose to behave so like a spiteful girl.'</p>
+
+<p>A sixth-form youth was far too great a man to be withstood by
+one who was not yet a public schoolboy at all; and Wilfred
+actually obeyed, while Jasper added to Fergus--</p>
+
+<p>'How could you be such a little ass as to go and tell him all
+that rot?'</p>
+
+<p>'It was true,' grumbled Fergus.</p>
+
+<p>'The more reason not to go cackling about it like an old hen,
+or a girl! Your own sister! I'm ashamed of you both. Mind, I
+shall thrash you if you mention it again.'</p>
+
+<p>Poor Fergus felt the accusation of cackling unjust, since he
+had only told Wilfred in confidence, and that had been betrayed,
+but he had got his lesson on family honour, and he subsided into
+his wonted look-out for curious stones, while Gillian was
+overtaken by Jasper--whether willingly or not, she hardly
+knew--but his first word was, 'Little beast!'</p>
+
+<p>'You didn't hurt him, I hope,' said Gill, accepting the
+invitation to take his arm.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no! I only threatened to make him walk with the
+governesses and the donkeys.'</p>
+
+<p>'Asses and savants to the centre,' said Gillian; 'like the
+orders to the French army in Egypt.'</p>
+
+<p>'But what's all this about? You wanted me to look after you!
+Is it that Alexis?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Japs! Mamma knows all about it and papa. It was only that
+he was ridiculous because I was so silly as to think I could help
+him with his Greek.'</p>
+
+<p>'You! With his Greek! I pity him!'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. I found he soon knew too much for me,' said Gillian
+meekly; 'but, indeed, Japs, it wasn't very bad! He only sent me a
+valentine, and Aunt Jane says I need not have been so angry.'</p>
+
+<p>'A cat may look at a king,' said Jasper loftily. 'It is a
+horrid bad thing for a girl to be left to herself without a
+brother worth having.'</p>
+
+<p>So Gillian got off pretty easily, and after all the walk was
+not greatly spoilt. They coalesced again with the other three,
+who were tolerably discreet, and found the debate on the White
+gentility had been resumed. Ivinghoe was philosophically
+declaring 'that in these days one must take up with everybody, so
+it did not matter if one was a little more of a cad than another;
+he himself was fag at Eton to a fellow whose father was an
+oilman, and who wasn't half a bad lot.'</p>
+
+<p>'An oilman, Ivy,' said his sister; 'I thought he imported
+petroleum.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, it's all the same. I believe he began as an
+oilman.'</p>
+
+<p>'We shall have Fergus reporting that he's a petroleuse,' put
+in Jasper.</p>
+
+<p>'No, a petroleuse is a woman.'</p>
+
+<p>'I like Mr. White,' said Fly; 'but, Gillian, you don't think
+it is true that he is going to marry your Aunt Jane?'</p>
+
+<p>There was a great groan, and Japs observed--</p>
+
+<p>'Some one told us Rockquay was a hotbed of gossip, and we seem
+to have got it strong.'</p>
+
+<p>'Where did this choice specimen come from, Fly!' demanded
+Ivinghoe, in his manner most like his mother.</p>
+
+<p>Fly nodded her head towards her governess in the advanced
+guard.</p>
+
+<p>'She had a cousin to tea with her, and they thought I didn't
+know whom they meant, and they said that he was always up at
+Rockstone.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, he is; and Aunt Jane always stands up for him,' said
+Gillian; 'but that was because he is so good to the workpeople,
+and Aunt Ada took him for some grand political friend of Cousin
+Rotherwood's.'</p>
+
+<p>'Aunt Jane!' said Jasper. 'Why, she is the very essence and
+epitome of old maids.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Gillian. 'If it came to that, she would quite as
+soon marry the postman.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's lucky' said Ivinghoe. 'One can swallow a good deal,
+but not quite one's own connections.'</p>
+
+<p>'In fact,' said Jasper, 'you had rather be an oilman's fag
+than a quarryman's---what is it?---first cousin once removed in
+law?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is much more likely,' said Gillian, as they laughed over
+this, 'that Kalliope and Maura will be his adopted daughters,
+only he never comes near them.'</p>
+
+<p>Wherewith there was a halt. Miss Elbury insisted that Phyllis
+should ride, the banks began to show promise of flowers, and, in
+the search for violets, dangerous topics were forgotten, and
+Wilfred was forgiven. They reached the spot marked by Fly, a
+field with a border of sloping broken ground and brushwood, which
+certainly fulfilled all their desires, steeply descending to a
+stream full of rocks, the ground white with wood anemones, long
+evergreen trails of periwinkles and blue flowers between,
+primroses clustering under the roots of the trees, daffodils
+gilding the grass above, and the banks verdant with exquisite
+feather-moss. Such a springtide wood was joy to all, especially
+as the first cuckoo of the season came to add to their delights
+and set them counting for the augury of happy years, which proved
+so many that Mysie said they would not know what to do with
+them.</p>
+
+<p>'I should,' said Ivinghoe. 'I should like to live to be a
+great old statesman, as Lord Palmerston did, and have it all my
+own way. Wouldn't I bring things round again!'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps they would have gone too far,' suggested Jasper, 'and
+then you would have to gnaw your hand like Giant Pope, as Wilfred
+says.'</p>
+
+<p>'Catch me, while I could do something better.'</p>
+
+<p>'If one only lived long enough,' speculated Fergus, 'one might
+find out what everything was made of, and how to do
+everything.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wonder if the people did before the Flood, when they lived
+eight or nine hundred years,' said Fly.</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps that is the reason there is nothing new under the
+sun,' suggested Valetta, as many a child has before
+suggested.</p>
+
+<p>'But then,' said Mysie, they got wicked.'</p>
+
+<p>'And then after the Flood it had all to be begun over again,'
+said Ivinghoe. 'Let me see, Methuselah lived about as long as
+from William the Conqueror till now. I think he might have got to
+steam and electricity.'</p>
+
+<p>'And dynamite,' said Gillian. 'Oh, I don't wonder they had to
+be swept away, if they were clever and wicked both!'</p>
+
+<p>'And I suppose they were,' said Jasper. 'At least the giants,
+and that they handed on some of their ability through Ham, to the
+Egyptians, and all those queer primeval coons, whose works we are
+digging up.'</p>
+
+<p>'From the Conquest till now,' repeated Gillian. 'I'm glad we
+don't live so long now. It tires one to think of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'But we shall,' said Fly.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Mysie, 'but then we shall be rid of this nasty old
+self that is always getting wrong.'</p>
+
+<p>'That little lady's nasty old self does so as little as any
+one's,' Jasper could not help remarking to his sister; and Fly,
+pouncing on the first purple orchis spike amid its black-spotted
+leaves, cried--</p>
+
+<p>'At any rate, these dear things go on the same, without any
+tiresome inventing.'</p>
+
+<p>'Except God's just at first,' whispered Mysie.</p>
+
+<p>'And the gardeners do invent new ones,' said Valetta.</p>
+
+<p>'Invent! No; they only fuss them and spoil them, and make
+ridiculous names for them,' said Fly. These darling creatures are
+ever so much better. Look at Primrose there.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Gillian, as she saw her little sister in quiet
+ecstasy over the sparkling bells of the daffodils; 'one would not
+like to live eight hundred years away from that experience.'</p>
+
+<p>'But mamma cares just as much still as Primrose does,' said
+Mysie. 'We must get some for her own self as well as for the
+church.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mine are all for mamma,' proclaimed Primrose; and just then
+there was a shout that a bird's nest had been found--a
+ring-ousel's nest on the banks. Fly and her brother shared a
+collection of birds' eggs, and were so excited about robbing the
+ousels of a single egg, that Gillian hoped that Fergus would not
+catch the infection and abandon minerals for eggs, which would be
+ever so much worse--only a degree better than butterflies,
+towards which Wilfred showed a certain proclivity.</p>
+
+<p>'I shall be thirteen before next holidays,' he observed, after
+making a vain dash with his hat at a sulphur butterfly, looking
+like a primrose flying away.</p>
+
+<p>'Mamma won't allow any "killing collection" before thirteen
+years old,' explained Mysie.</p>
+
+<p>'She says,' explained Gillian, 'by that time one ought to be
+old enough to discriminate between the lawfulness of killing the
+creatures for the sake of studying their beauty and learning
+them, and the mere wanton amusement of hunting them down under
+the excuse of collecting.'</p>
+
+<p>'I say,' exclaimed Valetta, who had been exploring above,
+'here is such a funny old house.'</p>
+
+<p>There was a rush in that direction, and at the other end of
+the wide home-field was perceived a picturesque gray stone house,
+with large mullioned windows, a dilapidated low stone wall, with
+what had once been a handsome gateway, overgrown with ivy, and
+within big double daffodils and white narcissus growing wild.</p>
+
+<p>'It's like the halls of Ivor,' said Mysie, awestruck by the
+loneliness; 'no dog, nor horse, nor cow, not even a goose,'</p>
+
+<p>'And what a place to sketch!' cried Miss Vincent. 'Oh,
+Gillian, we must come here another day.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, may we gather the flowers?' exclaimed the insatiable
+Primrose.</p>
+
+<p>'Those poetic narcissuses would be delicious for the choir
+screen,' added Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'Poetic narcissus---poetic grandmother,' said Wilfred. 'It's
+old butter and eggs.'</p>
+
+<p>'I say!' cried Mysie. 'Look, Ivy---I know that pair of
+fighting lions--ain't these some of your arms over the door?'</p>
+
+<p>'By which you mean a quartering of our shield,' said Ivinghoe.
+'Of course it is the Clipp bearing. Or, two lions azure,
+regardant combatant, their tails couped.'</p>
+
+<p>'Two blue Kilkenny cats, who have begun with each other's
+tails,' commented Jasper.</p>
+
+<p>'Ivinghoe glared a little, but respected the sixth form, and
+Gillian added--</p>
+
+<p>'They clipped them! Then did this place belong to our
+ancestors?'</p>
+
+<p>'Poetic grandmother, really!' said Mysie.</p>
+
+<p>'Great grandmother,' corrected Ivinghoe. 'To be sure. It was
+from the Clipps that we got all this Rockstone estate!'</p>
+
+<p>'And I suppose this was their house? What a shame to have
+deserted it!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, it has been a farmhouse,' said Fly. 'I heard something
+about farms that wouldn't let.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then is it yours?' cried Valetta, 'and may we gather the
+flowers?'</p>
+
+<p>'And mayn't we explore?' asked Mysie. 'Oh, what fun!'</p>
+
+<p>'Holloa!' exclaimed Wilfred, transfixed, as if he had seen the
+ghosts of all the Clipps. For just as Valetta and Mysie threw
+themselves on the big bunches of hepatica and the white
+narcissus, a roar, worthy of the clip-tailed lions, proceeded
+from the window, and the demand, 'Who is picking my roses?'</p>
+
+<p>Primrose in terror threw herself on Gillian with a little
+scream. Wilfred crept behind the walls, but after the general
+start there was an equally universal laugh, for between the stout
+mullions of the oriel window Lord Rotherwood's face was seen, and
+Sir Jasper's behind him.</p>
+
+<p>Great was the jubilation, and there was a rush to the tall
+door, up the dilapidated steps, where curls of fern were peeping
+out; but the gentlemen called out that only the back-door could
+be opened, and the intention of a 'real grand exploration' was
+cut short by Miss Elbury's declaring that she was bound not to
+let Phyllis stay out till six o'clock.</p>
+
+<p>Fly, in her usual good-humoured way, suppressed her sighs and
+begged the others to explore without her, but the general vote
+declared this to be out of the question. Fly had too short a time
+to remain with her cousins to be forsaken even for the charms of
+'the halls of Ivor,' or the rival Beast's Castle, as Gillian
+called it, which, after all, would not run away.</p>
+
+<p>'But it might be let,' said Mysie.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I've got a tenant in agitation,' said Lord Rotherwood
+mischievously. 'Never mind, I dare say he won't inquire what you
+have done with his butter and eggs.'</p>
+
+<p>So with a parting salute to the ancestral halls, the cavalry
+was set in order, big panniers full of moss and flowers disposed
+on the donkeys, Fly placed on her pony, and every maiden taking
+her basket of flowers, Jasper and Ivinghoe alone being amiable,
+or perhaps trustworthy enough to assist in carrying. Fly's pony
+demurred to the extra burthen, so Jasper took hers; and when
+Gillian declared herself too fond of her flowers to part with
+them, Ivinghoe astonished Miss Vincent, on whom some stones of
+Fergus's, as well as her own share of flowers, had been bestowed,
+by taking one handle of her most cumbrous basket.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Jasper and Lord Rotherwood rode together through the happy
+young troop on the homeward way. Perhaps Ivinghoe was conscious
+of a special nod of approval from his father.</p>
+
+<p>On passing Rock House, the youthful public was rather amused
+at his pausing, and saying--</p>
+
+<p>'Aren't you going to leave some flowers there?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes!' said Gillian. 'I have a basket on purpose.'</p>
+
+<p>'And I have some for Maura,' said Valetta.</p>
+
+<p>Valetta's was an untidy bunch; Gillian's a dainty basket,
+where white violets reposed on moss within a circle of larger
+blossoms.</p>
+
+<p>'That's something like!' quoth Ivinghoe.</p>
+
+<p>He lingered with them as if he wanted to see that vision
+again, but only the caretaker appeared, and promised to take the
+flowers upstairs.</p>
+
+<p>Maura afterwards told how they were enjoyed, and they knew of
+Kalliope's calm restfulness in Holy Week thoughts and Paschal
+Joys.</p>
+
+<p>It was on Easter Tuesday that Mr. White first sent a message
+asking to see his guest, now of nearly three weeks.</p>
+
+<p>He came in very quietly and gently--perhaps the sight of the
+room he had prepared for his young wife was in itself a shock to
+him, and he had lived so long without womankind that he had all a
+lonely man's awe of an invalid. He took with a certain respect
+the hand that Kalliope held out, as she said, with a faint flush
+in her cheeks--</p>
+
+<p>'I am glad to thank you, sir. You have been very good to
+me.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am glad to see you better,' he said, with a little
+embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>'I ought to be, in this beautiful air, and with these lovely
+things to look at,' and she pointed to the reigning photograph on
+the stand---the facade of St. Mark's.</p>
+
+<p>'You should see it as I did.' And he began to describe it to
+her, she putting in a question or two here and there, which
+showed her appreciation.</p>
+
+<p>'You know something about it already,' he said.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; when I was quite a little girl one of the officers in
+the Royal Wardours brought some photographs to Malta, and told me
+about them.'</p>
+
+<p>'But,' he said, recalling himself, that is not my object now.
+Your brother says he does not feel competent to decide without
+you.' And he laid before her two or three prospectuses of grammar
+schools. 'It is time to apply,' he added, 'if that little
+fellow--Peter, you call him, don't you?---is to begin next
+term.'</p>
+
+<p>'Petros! Oh, sir, this is kindness!'</p>
+
+<p>'I desired that the children's education should be attended
+to,' said Mr. White. 'I did not intend their being sent to an
+ordinary National school.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed,' said Kalliope; 'I do not think much time has been
+lost, for they have learnt a good deal there; but I am
+particularly glad that Petros should go to a superior school just
+now that he has been left alone, for he is more lively and
+sociable than Theodore, and it might be less easy for him to keep
+from bad companions.'</p>
+
+<p>The pros and cons of the several schools were discussed, and
+Hurstpierpoint finally fixed on.</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind about his outfit,' added Mr. White. 'I'll give
+that fellow down in Bellevue an order to rig him out. He is a
+sharp little sturdy fellow, who will make his way in the
+world.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, I trust so, now that his education is secured. It is
+another load off my mind,' said Kalliope, with a smile of
+exceeding sweetness and gratitude, her hands clasped, and her
+eyes raised for a moment in higher thankfulness,---a look that so
+enhanced her beauty that Mr. White gazed for a moment in wonder.
+The next moment, however, the dark eyes turned on him with a
+little anxiety, and she said--</p>
+
+<p>'One thing more, sir. Perhaps you will be so kind as to
+relieve my mind again. That notice of dismissal at the quarter's
+end. Was it not in some degree from a mistake?'</p>
+
+<p>'An utter mistake, my dear,' he said hastily. 'Never trouble
+your head about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then it does not hold?'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly not.'</p>
+
+<p>'And I may go back to my office as soon as I am well
+enough?'</p>
+
+<p>'Is that your wish?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir. I love my work and my assistants, and I think I
+could do better if a little more scope could be allowed me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well, we will see about that--you have to get well first
+of all.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am so much better that I ought to go home. Mr. Lee is quite
+ready for me.'</p>
+
+<p>Nonsense! You must be much stronger before Dagger would hear
+of your going.'</p>
+
+<p>After this Mr. White came to sit with Kalliope for a time in
+the course of each day, bringing with him something that would
+interest her, and seeming gratified by her responsiveness, quiet
+as it was, for she was still very feeble, and exertion caused a
+failure of breath and fluttering of heart that were so
+distressing that ten days more passed before she was brought
+downstairs and drawn out in the garden in a chair, where she
+could sit on the sheltered terrace enjoying the delicious spring
+air and soft sea-breezes, sometimes alone, sometimes with the
+company of one friend or another. Gillian and Aunt Jane had, with
+the full connivance of Mr. White, arranged a temporary entrance
+from one garden to the other for the convenience of attending to
+Kalliope, and here one afternoon Miss Mohun was coming in when
+she heard through the laurels two voices speaking to the girl. As
+she moved forward she saw they were the elder and younger
+Stebbings, and that Kalliope had risen to her feet, and was
+leaning on the back of her chair. While she was considering
+whether to advance Kalliope heard her, and called in a breathless
+voice, 'Miss Mohun! oh, Miss Mohun, come!'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Mohun! You will do us the justice---' began Mr.
+Stebbing, speaking more to her indignant face and gesture than to
+any words.</p>
+
+<p>'Miss White is not well,' she said. 'You had better leave her
+to me.'</p>
+
+<p>And as they withdrew through the house, Kalliope sank back in
+her chair in one of those alarming attacks of deadly faintness
+that had been averted for many days past. Happily an electric
+bell was always at hand, and the housekeeper knew what remedies
+to bring. Kalliope did not attempt a word for many long minutes,
+though the colour came back gradually to her lips. Her first
+words were,</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you! Oh, I did hope that persecution was over!'</p>
+
+<p>'My poor child! Don't tell me unless you like! Only--it wasn't
+about your work?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, the old story! But he brought his father---to say he
+consented---and wished it---now.'</p>
+
+<p>There was no letting her say any more at that time, but it was
+all plain enough. This had been one more attempt of the Stebbing
+family to recover their former power; Kalliope was assumed to be
+Mr. White's favoured niece; Frank could make capital of having
+loved her when poor and neglected, and his parents were ready to
+back his suit. The father and son had used their familiarity with
+the house to obtain admittance to the garden without announcement
+or preparation, and had pressed the siege, with a confidence that
+could only be inspired by their own self-opinion. Kalliope had
+been kept up by her native dignity and resolution, and had at
+first gently, then firmly, declined the arguments, persuasions,
+promises, and final reproaches with which they beset her--even
+threatening to disclose what they called encouragement, and
+assuring her that she need not reckon on Mr. White, for the
+general voice declared him likely to marry again, and then where
+would she be?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know what would have become of me, if you had not
+come,' she said.</p>
+
+<p>And when she had rested long enough, and crept into the house,
+and Alexis had come home to carry her upstairs, it was plain that
+she had been seriously thrown back, and she was not able to leave
+her room for two or three days.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. White was necessarily told what had been the cause of the
+mischief. He smiled grimly. 'Ay! ay! Master Frank thought he
+would come round the old man, did he? He will find himself out.
+Ha, ha! a girl like that in the house is like a honey-pot near a
+wasps' nest, and the little sister will be as bad. Didn't I see
+the young lord, smart little prig as he looks, holding an
+umbrella over her with a smile on his face, as much as to say, "I
+know who is a pretty girl! No one to look after them either!" But
+maybe they will all find themselves mistaken,' and his grim smile
+relaxed into a highly amiable one.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mohun was not at all uneasy as to the young lord. An Eton
+boy's admiration of a pretty face did not amount to much, even if
+Ivinghoe had not understood 'Noblesse oblige' too well to leave a
+young girl unsheltered. Besides, he and all the rest were going
+away the next day. But what did that final hint mean?</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<center>CHAPTER XXII. THE MAIDEN ALL FORLORN</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>One secret was soon out, even before the cruel parting of Fly
+and Mysie, which it greatly mitigated.</p>
+
+<p>Clipston was to be repaired and put in order, to be rented by
+the Merrifields. It was really a fine old substantial squire's
+house, though neglected and consigned to farmers for four
+generations. It had great capabilities---a hall up to the roof,
+wainscoted rooms--at present happy hunting-grounds to boys and
+terriers--a choked fountain, numerous windows, walled up in the
+days of the 'tax on light,' and never reopened, and, moreover, a
+big stone barn, with a cross on the gable, and evident traces of
+having once been a chapel.</p>
+
+<p>The place was actually in Rockstone Parish, and had a hamlet
+of six or seven houses, for which cottage services were held once
+a week, but the restoration of the chapel would provide a place
+for these, and it would become a province for Lady Merrifield's
+care, while Sir Jasper was absolutely entreated, both by Lord
+Rotherwood and the rector of Rockstone, to become the valuable
+layman of the parish, nor was he at all unwilling thus to bestow
+his enforced leisure.</p>
+
+<p>It was a beautiful place. The valley of daffodils already
+visited narrowed into a ravine, where the rivulet rushed down
+from moorlands, through a ravine charmingly wooded, and
+interspersed with rock. It would give country delights to the
+children, and remove them from the gossip of the watering-place
+society, and yet not be too far off for those reading-room
+opportunities beloved of gentlemen.</p>
+
+<p>The young people were in ecstasies, only mourning that they
+could not live there during the repairs, and that those
+experienced in the nature of workmen hesitated to promise that
+Clipston would be habitable by the summer vacation. In the
+meantime, most of the movables from Silverfold were transported
+thither, and there was a great deal of walking and driving to and
+fro, planning for the future, and revelling in the spring
+outburst of flowers.</p>
+
+<p>Schoolroom work had begun again, and Lady Merrifield was
+hearing Mysie read the Geruasalemme Liberata, while Miss Vincent
+superintended Primrose's copies, and Gillian's chalks were
+striving to portray a bust of Sophocles, when the distant sounds
+of the piano in the drawing-room stopped, and Valetta came in
+with words always ominous--</p>
+
+<p>'Aunt Jane wants to speak to you, mamma.'</p>
+
+<p>Lady Merrifield gathered up her work and departed, while
+Valetta, addressing the public, said, 'Something's up.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!' cried Primrose, 'Sofi hasn't run away again?'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope Kalliope isn't worse,' said Mysie anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>'I guess,' said Valetta, 'somebody said something the other
+day!'</p>
+
+<p>'Something proving us the hotbeds of gossip,' muttered
+Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'You had better get your German exercise, Valetta,' said Miss
+Vincent. 'Mysie, you have not finished your sums.'</p>
+
+<p>And a sigh went round; but Valetta added one after-clap.</p>
+
+<p>'Aunt Jane looked---I don't know how!'</p>
+
+<p>Whereat Gillian nodded her head, and looked up at Miss
+Vincent, who was as curious as the rest, but restrained the
+manifestation manfully.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime Lady Merrifield found her sister standing at the
+window, and, without turning round, the words were uttered--</p>
+
+<p>'Jasper was right, Lily.'</p>
+
+<p>'You don't mean it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; he is after her!'---with a long breath.</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. White!'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes'---then sitting down. 'I did not think much of it before.
+They always are after Ada more or less--and she likes it; but it
+never has come to anything.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why should it now?'</p>
+
+<p>'It has! At least, it has gone further than ever anything did
+before, except Charlie Scott, that ridiculous boy at Beechcroft
+that William was so angry with, and who married somebody
+else.'</p>
+
+<p>'You don't say that he has proposed to her?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, he has---the man! By a letter this morning, and I could
+see she expected it---not that that's any wonder!'</p>
+
+<p>'But, my dear, she can't possibly be thinking of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I should have said it was impossible; but I see she has
+not made up her mind. Poor dear Ada! It is too bad to laugh; but
+she does like the having a real offer at last, and a great
+Italian castle laid at her feet.'</p>
+
+<p>'But he isn't a gentleman! I don't mean only his birth---and I
+know he is a good man really--but Jasper said he could feel he
+was not a gentleman by the way he fell on Richard White before
+his sister.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know! I know! I wonder if it would be for her
+happiness?'</p>
+
+<p>'Then she has not answered him?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; or, rather, I left her going to write. She won't accept
+him certainly now; but I believe she is telling him that she must
+have time to consider and consult her family.'</p>
+
+<p>'She must know pretty well what her family will say. Fancy
+William! Fancy Emily! Fancy Reginald!'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, oh yes! But Ada--I must say it---she does like to
+prolong the situation.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is not fair on the poor man.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, she will act as she chooses; but I think she really
+does want to see what amount of opposition-- No, not that, but of
+estrangement it would cause.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did you see the letter?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; no doubt you will too. I told her I should come to you,
+and she did not object. I think she was glad to be saved
+broaching the subject, for she is half ashamed.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should have thought she would have been as deeply offended
+at the presumption as poor Gillian was with the valentine.'</p>
+
+<p>'Lily, my dear, forty-two is not all one with seventeen,
+especially when there's an estate with an Italian countship
+attached to it! Though I'm sure I'd rather marry Alexis than this
+man. <i>He</i> is a gentleman in grain!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Jenny, you are very severe!'</p>
+
+<p>'I'm afraid it is bitterness, Lily; so I rushed down to have
+it all out with you, and make up my mind what part to take.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is very hard on you, my dear, after you have nursed and
+waited on her all these years.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is the little titillation of vanity---exactly like the Ada
+of sixteen, nay, of six, that worries me, and makes me naughty,'
+said Jane, dashing off a tear. 'Oh, Lily! how could I have borne
+it if you had not come home!'</p>
+
+<p>'But what do you mean about the part to take?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, you see, Lily, I really do not know what I ought to do.
+I want to clear my mind by talking to you.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid it would make a great difference to you in the
+matter of means.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't mean about that; but I am not sure whether I ought to
+stand up for her. You see the man is really good at heart, and
+religious, and he is taking out this chaplain. The climate,
+mountains, and sea might really suit her health, and she could
+have all kinds of comforts and luxuries; and if she can get over
+his birth, and the want of fine edge of his manners, I don't know
+that we have any right to set ourselves against it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should have thought those objections would have weighed
+most of all with her.'</p>
+
+<p>'And I do believe that if the whole family are unanimous in
+scouting the very idea, she will give it up. She <i>is</i> proud
+of Mohun blood, and the Rotherwood connection and all, and if
+there were a desperate opposition--well, she would be rather
+flattered, and give in; but I am not sure that she would not
+always regret it, and pine after what she might have had.'</p>
+
+<p>'Rotherwood likes the man.'</p>
+
+<p>'Like---but that's not liking him to marry his cousin.'</p>
+
+<p>'Rotherwood will not be the person most shocked.'</p>
+
+<p>'No. We shall have a terrible time, however it ends. Oh. I
+wish it was all over!'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you think she really cares for the man---loves him, in
+fact?'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Lily, if Ada ever was in love with anybody, it was
+with Harry May, and that was all pure mistake. I never told
+anybody, but I believe it was that which upset her health. But
+they are both too old to concern themselves about such trifles.
+He does not expect it!'</p>
+
+<p>'I have seen good strong love in a woman over forty.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; but this is quite another thing. A lady of the house
+wanted! That's the motive. I should not wonder if he came home as
+much to look for a lady-wife as to set the Stebbings to rights;
+or, if not, he is driven to it by having the Whites on his
+hands.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't quite see that. I was going to ask you how it would
+affect them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, you see, though she is perfectly willing and anxious to
+begin again, poor dear Kally really can't. She did try to arrange
+a design that had been running in her head for a long time, and
+she was so bad after it that Dr. Dagger said she must not attempt
+it. Then, though she is discreet enough for anything, Mr. White
+is not really her uncle, and could not take her about with him
+alone or even with Maura; so I gather from some expressions in
+his letter that he would like to take her out with them, spend
+the summer at Rocca Marina, and let her have a winter's study at
+Florence. Then, I suppose she might come back and superintend on
+quite a different footing.</p>
+
+<p>'So he wants Ada as a chaperon for Kalliope?'</p>
+
+<p>'That is an element in the affair, and not a bad one, and I
+don't think Ada will object. She won't be left entirely to his
+companionship.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Jane! Then I'm sure she ought not to marry him!'
+cried Lady Merrifield indignantly. 'Here comes Jasper. May I tell
+him?'</p>
+
+<p>'You will, whether you may or not.'</p>
+
+<p>And what Sir Jasper said was--</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>'"Who married the maiden all forlorn--"'</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>At which both sisters, though rather angry, could not help
+laughing, and Lady Merrifield explained that they had always said
+the events had gone on in a concatenation, like the house that
+Jack built, from Gillian's peep through the rails. However, he
+was of opinion that it was better not to make a strenuous
+opposition.</p>
+
+<p>'Adeline is quite old enough to judge for herself whether the
+incongruities will interfere with her happiness,' he said; 'and
+this is really a worthy man who ought not to be contemned.
+Violent contradiction might leave memories that would make it
+difficult to be on affectionate terms afterwards.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Jane; 'that is what I feel. Thank you, Jasper. Now
+I must go to my district. Happily those things run on all the
+same for the present.'</p>
+
+<p>But when she was gone Sir Jasper told his wife that he thought
+it ought to be seriously put before Adeline that Jane ought to be
+considered. She had devoted herself to the care of her sister for
+many years, and the division of their means would tell seriously
+upon her comfort.</p>
+
+<p>'If it were a matter of affection, there would be nothing to
+say,' he observed; 'but nobody pretends that it is so, and surely
+Jane deserves consideration.</p>
+
+<p>'I should think her a much more comfortable companion than Mr.
+White,' said Lady Merrifield. 'I can't believe it will come to
+anything. Whatever the riches or the castle at Rocca Marina may
+be, Ada would, in a worldly point of view, give up a position of
+some consideration here, and I think that will weigh with
+her.'</p>
+
+<p>As soon as possible, Lady Merrifield went up to see her
+sister, and found her writing letters in a great flutter of
+importance. It was quite plain that the affair was not to be
+quashed at once, and that, whether the suit were granted or not,
+all the family were to be aware that Adeline had had her choice.
+Warned by her husband, Lady Merrifield guarded the form of her
+remonstrances.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, dear Lily, I know! It is a sacrifice in many points
+of view, but think what a field is open to me! There are all
+those English workmen and their wives and families living out
+there, and Mr. White does so need a lady to influence them.'</p>
+
+<p>'You have not done much work of that kind. Besides, I thought
+this chaplain was married.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, but the moral support of a lady at the head must be
+needful,' said Ada. 'It is quite a work.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps so,' said her sister, who had scarcely been in the
+habit of looking on Ada as a great moral influence. 'But have you
+thought what this will be to Jane?'</p>
+
+<p>'Really, Lily, it is a good deal for Jane's sake. She will be
+so much more free without being bound to poor me!'--and Ada's
+head went on one side. 'You know she would never have lived here
+but for me; and now she will be able to do what she pleases.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not pecuniarily.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, it will be quite possible to see to all that! Besides,
+think of the advantage to her schemes. Oh yes, dear Jenny, it
+will be a wrench to her, of course, and she will miss me; but,
+when that is once got over, she will feel that I have acted for
+the best. Nor will it be such a separation; he means always to
+spend the summer here, and the winter and spring at Florence or
+Rocca Marina.' It was grand to hear the Italian syllables roll
+from Adeline's tongue. 'You know he could take the title if he
+pleased.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure I hope he will not do anything so ridiculous!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, of course not!' But it was plain that the secret
+consciousness of being Countess of Rocca Marina was an offset
+against being plain Mrs. White, and Adeline continued: 'There is
+another thing--I do not quite see how it can be managed about
+Kalliope otherwise, poor girl!'</p>
+
+<p>It was quite true that the care of Kalliope would be greatly
+facilitated by Mr. White's marriage; but what was absurd was to
+suppose that Ada would have made any sacrifice for her sake, or
+any one else's, and there was something comical as well as
+provoking in this pose of devotion to the public good.</p>
+
+<p>'You are decided, then?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no! I am only showing you what inducements there are to
+give up so much as I should do here--if I make up my mind to
+it.'</p>
+
+<p>'There's only one inducement, I should think, valid for a
+moment.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes'---bridling a little. 'But, Lily, you always had your
+romance. We don't all meet with a Jasper at the right moment,
+and--and'---the Maid of Athens drooped her eyelids, and
+ingenuously curved her lips. 'I do think the poor man has it very
+much at heart.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then you ought not to keep him in suspense.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you---you really are not against it, Lily?' (rather in a
+disappointed tone), as if she expected to have her own value
+enhanced.</p>
+
+<p>'I think you ought to do whatever is most right and just by
+him, and everybody else. If you really care for the man enough to
+overlook his origin, and his occasional betrayals of it, and
+think he will make you better and happier, take him at once; but
+don't pretend to call it a sacrifice, or for anybody's sake but
+for your own; and, any way, don't trifle with him and his
+suspense.'</p>
+
+<p>Lady Merrifield spoke with unwonted severity, for she was
+really provoked.</p>
+
+<p>'But, Lily, I must see what the others say---William and
+Emily. I told him that William was the head of our family.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you mean to be guided by them, well and good; if not, I
+see no sense in asking them.'</p>
+
+<p>After all, the family commotion fell short of what was
+expected by either of the sisters. The eldest brother, Mr. Mohun,
+of Beechcroft Court, wrote to the lady herself that she was quite
+old enough to know what was for her own happiness, and he had no
+desire to interfere with her choice if she preferred wealth to
+station. To Lady Merrifield his letter began: 'It is very well it
+is no worse, and as Jasper vouches for this being a worthy man,
+and of substantial means, there is no valid objection. I shall
+take care to overhaul the settlements, and, if possible, I must
+make up poor Jane's income.'</p>
+
+<p>The sister, Lady Henry Grey, in her dowager seclusion at
+Brighton, contented herself with a general moan on the decadence
+of society, and the levelling up that made such an affair
+possible. She had been meditating a visit to Rockquay, to see her
+dear Lilias (who, by the bye, had run down to her at Brighton for
+a day out of the stay in London), but now she would defer it till
+this matter was over. It would be too trying to have to accept
+this stonemason as one of the family.</p>
+
+<p>As to Colonel Mohun, being one of the younger division of the
+family, there was no idea of consulting him, and he wrote a
+fairly civil little note to Adeline, hoping that she had decided
+for the best, and would be happy; while to the elder of the pair
+of sisters he said: 'So Ada has found her crooked stick at last.
+I always thought it inevitable. Keep up heart, old Jenny, and
+hold on till Her Majesty turns me off, and then we will see what
+is to be done.'</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps this cool acquiescence was less pleasing to Adeline
+Mohun than a contest that would have proved her value and
+importance, and her brother William's observation that she was
+old enough to know her own mind was the cruellest cut of all. On
+the other hand, there was no doubt of her swain's devotion. If he
+had been influenced in his decision by convenience or
+calculation, he was certainly by this time heartily in love. Not
+only was Adeline a handsome, graceful woman, whose airs and
+affectations seemed far more absurd to those who had made merry
+over them from childhood than to a stranger of an inferior grade;
+but there was a great charm to a man, able to appreciate
+refinement, in his first familiar intercourse with thorough
+ladies. Jane began to be touched by the sight of his devotion,
+and convinced of his attachment, and sometimes wondered with Lady
+Merrifield whether Adeline would rise to her opportunities and
+responsibilities, or be satisfied to be a petted idol.</p>
+
+<p>One difficulty in this time of suspense was, that the sisters
+had no right to take into their confidence the young folks, who
+were quite sharp-eyed enough to know that something was going on,
+and, not being put on honour, were not withheld from
+communicating their discoveries to one another in no measured
+words, though fortunately they had sense enough, especially under
+the awe of their father, not to let them go any further than
+Mysie, who was entertaining because she was shocked at their
+audacious jokes and speculations, all at first on the false scent
+of their elder aunt, who certainly was in a state of excitement
+and uncertainty enough to throw her off the even tenor of her way
+and excite some suspicion. When she actually brought down a
+number of the Contemporary Review instead of Friendly Work for
+the edification of her G.F.S., Gillian tried not to look too
+conscious when some of the girls actually tittered in the rear;
+and she absolutely blushed when Aunt Jane deliberately stated
+that Ascension Day would fall on a Tuesday. So Gillian averred as
+she walked up the hill with Jasper and Mysie. It seemed a climax
+to the diversion she and Jasper had extracted from it in private,
+both wearing Punch's spectacles for the nonce, and holding such
+aberrations as proof positive. Mysie, on the other hand, was much
+exercised.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you think she is in love, then?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes! People always do those things in love. Besides, the
+Sofi hasn't got a single white hair in her, and you know what
+that always means!'</p>
+
+<p>'I can't make it out! I can't think how Aunt Jane can be in
+love with a great man like that. His voice isn't nice, you
+know--'</p>
+
+<p>'Not even as sweet as Bully Bottom's,' suggested Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'You're a chit,' said Jasper, 'or you'd be superior to the
+notion of love being indispensable.'</p>
+
+<p>'When people are so <i>very</i> old,' said Mysie in a
+meditative voice, 'perhaps they can't; but Aunt Jane is very
+good---and I thought it was only horrid worldly people that
+married without love.'</p>
+
+<p>'Trust your good woman for looking to the main chance,' said
+Jasper, who was better read in Trollope and Mrs. Oliphant than
+his sisters.</p>
+
+<p>''Tis not main chance,' said Gillian. 'Think of the lots of
+good she would do! What a recreation room for the girls, and what
+schools she would set up at Rocca Marina! Depend upon it, it's
+for that!'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose it is right if Aunt Jane does it,' said Mysie.</p>
+
+<p>'Well done, Mysie! So, Aunt Jane is your Pope!'</p>
+
+<p>'No; she's the King that can do no wrong,' said Gillian,
+laughing.</p>
+
+<p>'Wrong---I didn't say wrong---but things aren't always real
+wrong that aren't somehow quite right, said Mysie, with the
+bewildered reasoning of perceptions that outran her powers of
+expression.</p>
+
+<p>'Mysie's speeches, for instance,' said Jasper.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Japs, what did I say wrong?'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't tease her, Japs. He didn't mean morally, but
+correctly.'</p>
+
+<p>The three were on their way up the hill when they met
+Primrose, who had accompanied Mrs. Halfpenny to see Kalliope, and
+who was evidently in a state of such great discomposure that they
+all stood round to ask what was the matter; but she hung down her
+head and would not say.</p>
+
+<p>'Hoots! toots! I tell her she need not make such a work about
+it,' said Mrs. Halfpenny. 'The honest man did but kiss her, and
+no harm for her uncle that is to be.'</p>
+
+<p>'He's a nasty man! And he snatched me up! And he is all
+scrubby and tobacco-ey, and I won't have him for an uncle,' cried
+Primrose.</p>
+
+<p>'I hope he is not going to proceed in that way,' said Gillian
+sotto voce to Mysie.</p>
+
+<p>'People always do snatch up primroses,' said Jasper.</p>
+
+<p>'Don't, Japs! I don't like marble men. I wish they would stay
+marble.'</p>
+
+<p>'You don't approve of the transformation?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Japs, is it true? Mysie, you know the statue at
+Rotherwood, where Pig-my-lion made a stone figure and it turned
+into a woman.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; but it was a woman and this is a man.'</p>
+
+<p>Mysie began an exposition of classic fable to her little
+sister, while Mrs. Halfpenny explained that this came of
+Christian folk setting up heathen idols in their houses as 'twas
+a shame for decent folk to look at, let alone puir bairnies;
+while Jasper and Gillian gasped in convulsions of laughter, and
+bandied queries whether their aunt were the statue 'Pig-my-lion'
+had animated, as nothing could be less statuesque than she,
+whether the reverse had taken place, as Primrose observed, and
+she had been the Pygmalion to awaken the soul in the man of
+marble. Here, however, Mrs. Halfpenny became scandalised at such
+laughter in the open street; and, perceiving some one in the
+distance, she carried off Primrose, and enjoined the others to
+walk on doucely and wiselike.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian was on her way to visit Kalliope and make an
+appointment for her mother to take her out for a drive; but as
+they passed the gate at Beechcroft out burst Valetta and Fergus,
+quite breathless.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Gill, Gill! Mr. White is in the drawing-room, and he has
+brought Aunt Ada the most beautiful box you ever saw, with all
+the stoppers made of gold !'</p>
+
+<p>'And he says I may get all the specimens I like at Rocca
+Marina,' shouted Fergus.</p>
+
+<p>'Ivory brushes, and such a ring---sparkling up to the
+ceiling!' added Valetta.</p>
+
+<p>'But, Val, Ferg, whom did you say?' demanded the elders,
+coming within the shadow of the copper beeches.</p>
+
+<p>'Aunt Ada,' said Valetta; 'there's a great A engraved on all
+those dear, lovely bottles, and--oh, they smell!'</p>
+
+<p>'Aunt Ada! Oh, I thought----'</p>
+
+<p>'What did you think, Gill?' said Aunt Jane, coming from the
+grass-plat suddenly on them.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Aunt Jane, I am so glad!' cried Gillian. 'I
+thought'---and she blushed furiously.</p>
+
+<p>'They made asses of themselves,' said Jasper.</p>
+
+<p>'They said it was you,' added Mysie. 'Miss Mellon told Miss
+Elbury,' she added in excuse.</p>
+
+<p>'Me? No, I thank you! So you are glad, Gillian?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, aunt! I couldn't have borne for you to do
+anything---queer'---and there was a look in Gillian's face that
+went to Jane's heart, and under other circumstances would have
+produced a kiss, but she rallied to her line of defence.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, you must not call this queer. Mr. White is very much
+attached to your aunt Ada, and I think he will make her very
+happy, and give her great opportunities of doing good.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's just what Gillian said when she was afraid it was
+you,' said Mysie. 'I suppose that's it? And that makes it real
+right.'</p>
+
+<p>'And the golden stoppers!' said Valetta innocently, but almost
+choking Jasper with laughter, which must be suppressed before his
+aunt.</p>
+
+<p>'May one know it now?' asked Gillian, sensible of the perilous
+ground.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, my dears; you must have been on tenter-hooks all this
+time, for, of course, you saw there was a crisis, and you behaved
+much better than I should have done at your age; but it was only
+a fait accompli this very day, and we couldn't tell you
+before.'</p>
+
+<p>'When he brought down the golden stoppers,' Jasper could not
+help saying.</p>
+
+<p>'No, no, you naughty boy! He would not have dared to bring it
+in before; he came before luncheon--all that came after. Oh, my
+dear, that dressing-case is perfectly awful! I wouldn't have such
+a burthen on my mind---for---for all the orphans in London! I
+hope there are no banditti at Rocca Marina.'</p>
+
+<p>'Only accepted to-day! How did he get all his great A's
+engraved?' said Jasper practically.</p>
+
+<p>'He could not have had many doubts,' said Gillian. 'Does
+Kalliope know?'</p>
+
+<p>'I cannot tell; I think he has probably told her.'</p>
+
+<p>'He must have met Primrose there,' said Jasper. 'Poor Prim!'
+And the offence and the Pig-my-lion story were duly related, much
+to Aunt Jane's amusement.</p>
+
+<p>'But,' she said, 'I think that the soul in the marble man is
+very real, and very warm; and, dear children, don't get into the
+habit of contemning him. Laugh, I suppose you must; I am afraid
+it must look ridiculous at our age; but please don't despise. I
+am going down to your mother.</p>
+
+<p>'May I come with you! said Gillian. 'I don't think I can go to
+Kally till I have digested this a little; and, if you are going
+to mamma, she won't drive her out.'</p>
+
+<p>Jane was much gratified by this volunteer, though Jasper did
+suggest that Gill was afraid of Primrose's treatment. He went on
+with the other three to Clipston, while Gillian exclaimed--</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Aunt Jane, shall not you be very lonely?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not nearly so much so as if you were not all here,' said her
+aunt cheerfully. 'When you bemoaned your sisters last year we did
+not think the same thing was coming on me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Phyllis and Alethea! It was a very different thing,' said
+Gillian. 'Besides, though I hated it so much, I had got used to
+being without them.'</p>
+
+<p>'And to tell you the truth, Gill, nothing in that way ever was
+so bad to me as your own mother going and marrying; and now, you
+see, I have got her back again--and more too.'</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Jane's smile and softened eyes told that the young niece
+was included in the 'more too'; and Gillian felt a thrill of
+pleasure and affection in this proof that after all she was
+something to the aunt, towards whom her feelings had so entirely
+changed. She proceeded, however, to ask with considerable anxiety
+what would be done about the Whites, Kalliope especially; and in
+return she was told about the present plan of Kalliope's being
+taken to Italy to recover first, and then to pursue her studies
+at Florence, so as to return to her work more capable, and in a
+higher position.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, how exquisite!' cried Gillian. 'But how about all the
+others?'</p>
+
+<p>'The very thing I want to see about, and talk over with your
+mother. I am sure she ought to go; and it will not even be
+wasting time, for she cannot earn anything.'</p>
+
+<p>Talking over things with Lady Merrifield was, however,
+impeded, for, behold, there was a visitor in the drawing-room.
+Aunt and niece exchanged glances of consternation as they
+detected a stranger's voice through the open window, and Gillian
+uttered a vituperative whisper.</p>
+
+<p>'I do believe it is that dreadful Fangs;' then, hoping her
+aunt had not heard---'Captain Henderson, I mean. He threatened to
+come down after us, and now he will always be in and out; and we
+shall have no peace. He has got nothing on earth to do '</p>
+
+<p>Gillian's guess was right. The neat, trim, soldierly figure,
+with a long fair moustache and pleasant gray eyes, was introduced
+to Miss Mohun as 'Captain Henderson, one of my brother officers,'
+by Sir Jasper, who stood on the rug talking to him. Looks and
+signs among the ladies were token enough that the crisis had
+come; and Lady Merrifield soon secured freedom of speech by
+proposing to drive her sister to Clipston, while Sir Jasper asked
+his visitor to walk with him.</p>
+
+<p>'You will be in haste to sketch the place,' he said, 'before
+the workmen have done their best to demolish its beauty.'</p>
+
+<p>As for Gillian, she saw her aunt hesitating on account of a
+parochial engagement for that afternoon; and, as it was happily
+not beyond her powers, she offered herself as a substitute, and
+was thankfully accepted. She felt quite glad to do anything
+obliging towards her aunt Jane, and in a mood very unlike last
+year's grudging service; it was only reading to the 'mothers'
+meeting,' since among the good ladies there prevailed such a
+strange incapacity of reading aloud, that this part of the
+business was left to so few that for one to fail, either in
+presence or in voice, was very inconvenient. All were settled
+down to their needlework, with their babies disposed of as best
+they might be. Mr. Hablot had finished his little lecture, and
+the one lady with a voice had nearly exhausted it, and there was
+a slight sensation at the absence of the unfailing Miss Mohun,
+when Gillian came in with the apologies about going to drive with
+her mother.</p>
+
+<p>'And,' as she described it afterwards 'didn't those wretched
+beings all grin and titter, even the ladies, who ought to have
+had more manners, and that old Miss Mellon, who is a real growth
+of the hotbed of gossip, simpered and supposed we must look for
+such things now; and, though I pretended not to hear, my cheeks
+would go and flame up as red as---that tasconia, just with
+longing to tell them Aunt Jane was not so ridiculous; and so I
+took hold of For Half a Crown, and began to read it as if I could
+bite them all!'</p>
+
+<p>She read herself into a state of pacification, but did not
+attempt to see Kalliope that day, being rather shy of all that
+might be encountered in that house, especially after working
+hours. The next day, however, Lady Merrifield's services were
+required to chaperon the coy betrothed in an inspection of Cliff
+House and furniture, which was to be renovated according to her
+taste, and Gillian was to take that time for a visit to Kalliope,
+whom she expected to find in the garden. The usual corner was,
+however, vacant; and Mr. White was heard making a growl of
+'Foolish girl! Doesn't know which way her bread is buttered.'</p>
+
+<p>Maura, however, came running up, and said to Gillian, 'Please
+come this way. She is here.'</p>
+
+<p>'What has she hidden herself for?' demanded Mr. White. 'I
+thought she might have been here to welcome this--Miss
+Adeline.'</p>
+
+<p>'She is not very well to-day,' faltered Maura.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! ay, fretting. Well, I thought she had more sense.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian followed Maura, who was no sooner out of hearing than
+she began: 'It is too bad of him to be so cross. Kally really is
+so upset! She did not sleep all night, and I thought she would
+have fainted quite away this morning!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh dear! has he been worrying her?'</p>
+
+<p>'She is very glad and happy, of course, about Miss Ada! and he
+won't believe it, because he wants her to go out to Italy with
+them for all next winter.'</p>
+
+<p>'And won't she? Oh, what a pity!'</p>
+
+<p>'She said she really could not because of us; she could not
+leave us, Petros and all, without a home. She thought it her duty
+to stay and look after us. And then he got cross, and said that
+she was presuming on the hope of living in idleness here, and
+making him keep us all, but she would find herself mistaken, and
+went off very angry.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, horrid! how could he?'</p>
+
+<p>'I believe, if Kally could have walked so far, she would have
+gone down straight to Mr. Lee's. She wanted to, but she was all
+in a tremble, and I persuaded her not, though she did send me
+down to ask Mrs. Lee when she can be ready. Then when Alexis came
+home, Mr. White told him that he didn't in the least mean all
+that, and would not hear of her going away, though he was angry
+at her being so foolish, but he would give her another chance of
+not throwing away such advantages. And Alexis says she ought not.
+He wants her to go, and declares that he and I can very well
+manage with Mrs. Lee, and look after Petros, and that she must
+not think of rushing off in a huff for a few words said in a
+passion. So, between the two, she was quite upset and couldn't
+sleep, and, oh, if she were to be ill again!'</p>
+
+<p>By this time they were in sight of Kalliope lying back in a
+basket-chair, shaded by the fence of the kitchen-garden, and her
+weary face and trembling hand showed how much this had shaken her
+in her weakness. She sent Maura away, and spoke out her troubles
+freely to Gillian. 'I thought at first my duty was quite clear,
+and that I ought not to go away and enjoy myself and leave the
+others to get on without me. Alec would find it so dreary; and
+though Mr. and Mrs. Lee are very good and kind, they are not
+quite companions to him. Then Maura has come to think so much
+about people being ladies that I don't feel sure that she would
+attend to Mrs. Lee; and the same with Petros in the holidays. If
+I can't work at first, still I can make a home and look after
+them.'</p>
+
+<p>'But it is only one winter, and Alexis thinks you ought; and,
+oh, what it would be, and how you would get on!'</p>
+
+<p>'That is what puzzles me. Alexis thinks Mr. White has a right
+to expect me to improve myself, and not go on for ever making
+white jessamines with malachite leaves, and that he can look
+after Maura and Petros. I see, too, that I ought to try to
+recover, or I might be a burthen on Alexis for ever, and hinder
+all his better hopes. Then, there's the not liking to accept a
+favour after Mr. White said such things, though I ought not to
+think about it since he made that apology; but it is a horrid
+feeling that I ought not to affront him for the sake of the
+others. Altogether I do feel so tossed. I can't get back the
+feeling I had when I was ill that I need not worry, for that God
+will decide.'</p>
+
+<p>And there were tears in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'Can't you ask some one's advice?' said Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'If I were sure they quite understood! My head is quite tired
+with thinking about it.'</p>
+
+<p>Not many moments had passed before there were steps that made
+Kalliope start painfully, and Maura appeared, piloting another
+visitor. It was Miss Mohun, who had escaped from the survey of
+the rooms,---so far uneasy at what she had gathered from Mr.
+White, that she was the more anxious to make the offer previously
+agreed to.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear,' she said, 'I am afraid you look tired.'</p>
+
+<p>'They have worried her and knocked her up,' said Gillian
+indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>'I see! Kally, my dear, we are connections now, you know, and
+I have heard of Mr. White's plan. It made me think whether you
+would find the matter easier if you let me have Maura while you
+are away to cheer my solitude. Then I could see that she did her
+lessons, and, between all Gillian's brothers, we could see that
+Petros was happy in the holidays.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Miss Mohun! how can I be grateful enough? There is an end
+of all difficulties.'</p>
+
+<p>And when the inspecting party came round, and Adeline bent to
+kiss the white, weary, but no longer distressed face, and kindly
+said, 'We shall see a great deal of each other, I hope,' she
+replied, with an earnest 'thank you,' and added to Mr. White,
+'Miss Mohun has made it all easy to me, sir, and I am very
+grateful!'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, ay! You're a good girl at the bottom, and have some
+sense!'</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<center>CHAPTER XXIII. FANGS</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>Events came on rapidly that spring. Mr. White was anxious that
+his marriage should take place quickly---afraid, perhaps, that
+his prize would escape him, and be daunted by the passive
+disapproval of her family, though this was only manifested to him
+in a want of cordiality. This, being sincere people, they could
+not help; and that outbreak to Kalliope had made the sisters so
+uneasy, that they would have willingly endured the ridicule of a
+broken engagement to secure Adeline from the risks of a rough
+temper where gentlemanly instincts were not inbred.</p>
+
+<p>Adeline, however, knew she had gone too far to recede, though
+she would willingly have delayed, in enjoyment of the present
+homage and shrinking from the future plunge away from all her
+protectors. Though the strong, manly will overpowered hers, and
+made her submit to the necessities of the case and fix a day
+early in July, she clung the more closely to her sisters, and
+insisted on being accompanied by Jane on going to London to
+purchase the outfit that she had often seen in visions before. So
+Miss Mohun's affairs were put in commission, Gillian taking care
+of them, and the two sisters were to go to Mrs. Craydon, once, as
+Marianne Weston, their first friend out of their own family, and
+now a widow with a house in London, well pleased at any recall of
+old times, though inclined, like all the rest, to speak of 'poor
+Ada.'</p>
+
+<p>Lord Rotherwood was, as his cousins had predicted, less
+disgusted than the rest, as in matters of business he had been
+able to test the true worth that lay beneath the blemishes of
+tone and of temper; and his wife thought the Italian residence
+and foreign tincture made the affair much more endurable than
+could have been expected. She chose an exquisite tea-service for
+their joint wedding present; but she would not consent to let
+Lady Phyllis be a bridesmaid; though the Marquis, discovering
+that her eldest brother hated the idea of giving her away to the
+stonemason, offered 'not to put too fine a point on it, but to
+act the part of Cousin Phoenix.'</p>
+
+<p>Bridesmaids would have been rather a difficulty; but then the
+deep mourning of Kalliope and Maura made a decided reason for
+excluding them; and Miss Adeline, who knew that a quiet wedding
+would be in much the best taste, resolved to content herself with
+two tiny maidens, Primrose and the contemporary Hablot, her own
+goddaughter, who, being commonly known as Belle, made a reason
+for equipping each in the colour and with the flowers of her
+name, and the idea was carried out with great taste.</p>
+
+<p>Valetta thought it hard that an outsider should be chosen. The
+young Merrifields had the failing of large families in clannish
+exclusiveness up to the point of hating and despising more or
+less all who interfered with their enjoyment of one another, and
+of their own ways. The absence of society at Silverfold had
+intensified this farouche tone, and the dispersion, instead of
+curing it, had rendered them more bent on being alone together.
+Worst of all was Wilfred, who had been kept at home very
+inconveniently by some recurring delicacy of brain and eyes, and
+who, at twelve years old, was enough of an imp to be no small
+torment to his sisters. Valetta was unmercifully teased about her
+affection for Kitty Varley and Maura White, and, whenever he
+durst, there were attempts at stings about Alexis, until new game
+offered itself on whom no one had any mercy.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Henderson was as much in the way as a man could be who
+knew but one family in the place, and had no resource but
+sketching. His yellow moustache was to be seen at all manner of
+unexpected and unwelcome times. If that great honour, a walk with
+papa, was granted, out he popped from Marine Hotel, or a seat in
+the public gardens, evidently lying in ambush to spoil their
+walk. Or he was found tete-a-tete with mamma before the
+five-o'clock tea, talking, no doubt, 'Raphaels, Correggios, and
+stuff,' as in the Royal Wardour days. Even at Clipston, or in the
+coves on the beach, he was only too apt to start up from some
+convenient post for sketching. He really did draw beautifully,
+and Mysie would have been thankful for his counsels if public
+opinion had not been so strong.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, Kitty Varley conveyed to Valetta the speculations of
+Rockstone whether Gillian was the attraction.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Val,' said Mysie, 'how can you listen to such
+nonsense!'</p>
+
+<p>'You said so before, and it wasn't nonsense.'</p>
+
+<p>'It wasn't Aunt Jane.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, but it was somebody.'</p>
+
+<p>'Everybody does marry somebody; but it is no use for us to
+think about it, for it always turns out just the contrary to all
+the books one ever read; so there's no going by anything, and I
+don't believe it right to talk about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why not? Every one does.'</p>
+
+<p>'All the good teachings say one should not talk of what one
+does not want one's grown-ups to hear.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, but then one would never talk of anything!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Val! I won't be sure, but I don't believe I should mind
+mamma's hearing all I say.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; but you've never been to school, and I heard Bee Varley
+say she never saw anybody so childishly simple for her age.'</p>
+
+<p>This brought the colour into Mysie's face, but she said--</p>
+
+<p>'I'd rather be simple than talk as mamma does not like; and,
+Val, do on no account tell Gillian.'</p>
+
+<p>'I haven't.'</p>
+
+<p>'And don't; don't tell Wilfred, or you know how horrid he
+would be.'</p>
+
+<p>There was a tell-tale colour in Valetta's cheeks, by which
+Mysie might have discerned that Valetta had not resisted the
+charm of declaring 'that she knew something,' even though this
+was sure to lead to tortures of various kinds from Wilfred until
+it was extracted. Still the youth as yet was afraid to do much
+worse than look preternaturally knowing at his sister and give
+hints about Fangs' holding fast and the like, but quite enough to
+startle her into something between being flattered and indignant.
+She was scarcely civil to the Captain, and felt bound to express
+her dislike on every possible occasion, though only to provoke a
+grin from Wilfred and a giggle from Valetta.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Merrifield's basket-carriage and little rough pony had
+been brought from Silverfold, and she took Kalliope out for quiet
+drives whenever it was possible; but a day of showers having
+prevented this, she was concerned to find herself hindered on a
+second afternoon. Gillian offered to be her substitute.</p>
+
+<p>'You know I always drive you, mamma.'</p>
+
+<p>'These are worse hills than at Silverfold, and I don't want
+you to come down by the sea-wall.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure I would not go there for something, among all the
+stupid people.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you keep to the turnpike you can't come to much harm with
+Bruno.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is awfully---I mean horribly dusty! There's the cliff
+road towards Arnscombe.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is safe enough. I don't think you could come to much
+real damage; but remember that for Kally a start or an alarm
+would be really as hurtful as an accident to a person in
+health.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor old Bruno could hardly frighten a mouse,' said
+Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'Only take care, and don't be enterprising.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian drove up to the door of Cliff House, and Kalliope took
+her seat. It was an enjoyable afternoon, with the fresh clearness
+of June sunshine after showers, great purple shadows of clouds
+flitting over the sea, dimpled by white crests of wave that broke
+the golden path of sunshine into sparkling ripples, while on the
+other side of the cliff road lay the open moorland, full of
+furze, stunted in growth, but brilliant in colour, and relieved
+by the purple browns of blossoming grasses and the white stars of
+stitchwort.</p>
+
+<p>'This is delicious!' murmured Kalliope, with a gesture of
+enjoyment.</p>
+
+<p>'Much nicer than down below!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes; it seems to stretch one's very soul!'</p>
+
+<p>'And the place is so big and wide that no one can worry with
+sketching.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, it defies that!' said Kalliope, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>'So, Fa---Captain Henderson won't crop up as he does at every
+sketchable place. Didn't you know he was here?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Alexis told me he had seen him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Everybody has seen him, I should think; he is always about
+with nothing to do but that everlasting sketching.'</p>
+
+<p>'He must have been very sorry to be obliged to retire.'</p>
+
+<p>'Horrid! It was weak, and he might have been in Egypt, well
+out of the way. No, I didn't mean that'---as Kalliope looked
+shocked---'but he might have been getting distinction and
+promotion.'</p>
+
+<p>'He used to be very kind,' said Kalliope, in a tone of
+regretful remonstrance. 'It was he who taught me first to
+draw.'</p>
+
+<p>'He! What, Fa---Captain Henderson?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; when I was quite a little girl, and he had only just
+joined. He found me out before our quarters at Gibraltar trying
+to draw an old Spaniard selling oranges, and he helped me, and
+showed me how to hold my pencil. I have got it still---the
+sketch. Then he used to lend me things to copy, and give me hints
+till---oh, till my father said I was too old for that sort of
+thing! Then, you know, my father got his commission, and I went
+to school at Belfast.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you have never seen him since?'</p>
+
+<p>'Scarcely. Sometimes he was on leave in my holidays, and you
+know we were at the depot afterwards, but I shall always feel
+that all that I have been able to do since has been owing to
+him.'</p>
+
+<p>'And how you will enjoy studying at Florence!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, think what it would be if I could ever do a reredos for a
+church! I keep on dreaming and fancying them, and now there
+really seems a hope. Is that Arnscombe Church?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, you know it has been nicely restored.'</p>
+
+<p>'We had the columns to do. The reredos is alabaster, I
+believe, and we had nobody fit to undertake that. I so longed for
+the power! I almost saw it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Have you seen what it is?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; I never had time.'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose it would be too tiring for you now; but we could
+see the outside.'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian forgot that Arnscombe, whose blunt gray spire
+protruded through the young green elms, lay in a little valley
+through which a stream rushed to the sea. The lane was not very
+steep, but there were loose stones. Bruno stumbled, he was down;
+the carriage stood still, and the two girls were out on opposite
+sides in a moment, Gillian crying out--</p>
+
+<p>'Don't be frightened--no harm done!'---as she ran to the
+pony's head. He lay quite still with heaving sides, and she felt
+utterly alone and helpless in the solitary road with an invalid
+companion whom she did not like to leave.</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid I cannot run for help,' said Kalliope quietly,
+though breathlessly; 'but I could sit by the horse and hold his
+head while you go for help.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't like. Oh, here's some one coming!'</p>
+
+<p>'Can I be of any use?'</p>
+
+<p>Most welcome sound!--though it was actually Captain Henderson
+the ubiquitous wheeling his bicycle up the hill, knapsack of
+sketching materials on his back.</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Merrifield! Miss White! I trust no one is hurt!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, thank you, unless it is the poor pony! Kally, sit down
+on the bank, I insist! Oh, I am so glad you are come!'</p>
+
+<p>'Can you sit on his head while I cut the traces?'</p>
+
+<p>Gillian did that comfortable thing till released, when the
+pony scrambled up again, but with bleeding knees, hip, and side,
+though the Captain did not think any serious harm was done; but
+it was even more awkward at the moment that both the shafts were
+broken!</p>
+
+<p>'What is to be done?' sighed Gillian. 'Miss White can't walk.
+Can I run down to the village to get something to take her
+home?'</p>
+
+<p>'The place did not look likely to supply any conveyance better
+than a rough cart,' said their friend.</p>
+
+<p>'It is quite impossible to put the poor pony in anyhow! I
+don't mind walking in the least; but you know how ill she has
+been.'</p>
+
+<p>'I see. Only one thing to be done,' said the Captain, who had
+already turned the carriage round by the stumps of the shafts;
+'you must accept me in lieu of your pony.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, thank you!' cried Gillian eagerly. 'I can lead poor
+Bruno, and take care of your bicycle. Jump in, Kally!'</p>
+
+<p>Kalliope, who had wisely abstained from adding a useless voice
+to the discussion, here demurred. She could not think of such a
+thing; they could very well wait in the carriage while Captain
+Henderson went on to the town on his bicycle and sent out a
+midge.</p>
+
+<p>But there were showers about, and a damp feeling in the lane.
+Both the others thought this perilous; besides that, there might
+be rude passengers to laugh at their predicament; and Captain
+Henderson protested that the weight was nothing. He prevailed at
+last; and she allowed him to hand her into the basket, when she
+could hardly stand, and wrap the dust-cloth about her. Thus the
+procession set forth, Gillian with poor drooping Bruno's rein in
+one hand and the other on the bicycle, and the Captain gallantly
+drawing the carriage with Kalliope seated in the midst. He
+tramped on so vigorously as quite to justify his declaration that
+it was no burthen to him. It was not a frequented road, and they
+met no one in the least available to do more than stare or ask a
+question or two, until, as they approached the town and Rockstone
+Church was full in view, who should appear before their eyes but
+Sir Jasper, Wilfred carrying on his back a huge kite that had
+been for many evenings in course of construction, and Fergus
+acting as trainbearer.</p>
+
+<p>Thus came on the first moment of Gillian's explanation, as Sir
+Jasper took the poor pony from her and held counsel over the
+damage, with many hearty thanks to Captain Henderson.</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure, sir, no one could have shown greater presence of
+mind than the young ladies,' said that gentleman; and her
+father's 'I am glad to hear it!' would have gratified Gillian the
+more, but for the impish grimace with which Wilfred favoured her
+behind Kalliope's impassive back.</p>
+
+<p>The kite-fliers turned, not without an entreaty from the boys
+that they might go on alone and fly their kite.</p>
+
+<p>'No, no, boys,' said their father---'not here; we shall have
+the kite pulling you into the sea over the cliffs. I must take
+the pony home; but I will come if possible to-morrow.'</p>
+
+<p>Much disappointed, they went dolefully in the rear, grumbling
+sotto voce their conviction that there would be no wind
+to-morrow, and that it was all 'Fangs's' fault in some
+incomprehensible manner.</p>
+
+<p>At Cliff House Kalliope was carefully handed out by Sir
+Jasper, trying, but with failing voice, to thank Captain
+Henderson, and declaring herself not the worse, though her hand
+shook so much that the General was not content without giving her
+his arm up the stairs, and telling Maura that he should send Mrs.
+Halfpenny up to see after her. The maimed carriage was left in
+the yard, and Captain Henderson then took charge of his iron
+horse, and the whole male party proceeded to the livery stables;
+so that Gillian was able to be alone, when she humbly repeated to
+her mother the tale parents have so often to hear of
+semi-disobedience leading to disaster, but with the self-reproach
+and sorrow that drew the sting of displeasure. Pity for Bruno,
+grief for her mother's deprivation, and anxiety for Kalliope
+might be penance and rebuke sufficient for a bit of
+thoughtlessness. Lady Merrifield made no remark; but there was an
+odd expression in her face when she heard who had come so
+opportunely to the rescue.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Jasper brought a reassuring account of the poor little
+steed, which would be usable again after a short rest, and the
+blemish was the less important as there was no intention of
+selling him. Mrs. Halfpenny, too, reported that her patient was
+as quiet as a lamb. 'She wasn't one to fash herself for nothing
+and go into screaming cries, but kenned better what was fitting
+for one born under Her Majesty's colours.'</p>
+
+<p>So there was nothing to hinder amusement when at dinner Sir
+Jasper comically described the procession as he met it. Kalliope
+White, looking only too like Minerva, or some of those Greek
+goddess statues they used to draw about, sitting straight and
+upright in her triumphal car, drawn by her votary; while poor
+Gillian came behind with the pony on one side and the bicycle on
+the other, very much as if she were conducting the wheel on which
+she was to be broken, as an offering to the idol.</p>
+
+<p>'I think,' said Mysie, 'Captain Henderson was like the two
+happy sons in Solon's story, who dragged their mother to the
+temple.'</p>
+
+<p>'Only they died of it,' said Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'And nobody asked how the poor mother felt afterwards,' added
+Lady Merrifield.</p>
+
+<p>'I thought they all had an apotheosis together,' said Sir
+Jasper. 'Let us hope that devotion may have its reward.'</p>
+
+<p>There was a little lawn outside the drawing-room windows at Il
+Lido. Lady Merrifield was sitting just within, and her husband
+had just brought her a letter to read, when they heard Wilfred's
+impish voice.</p>
+
+<p>'Jack---no, not Jack--Fangs!'</p>
+
+<p>'But Fangs's name is Jack, so it will do as well,' said
+Valetta's voice.</p>
+
+<p>'Hurrah---so it is! Jack---'</p>
+
+<p>'Hush, Wilfred---this is too foolish!' came Gillian's tones in
+remonstrance.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>'Jack and Jill went up the hill<br>
+ To draw--'</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>'To draw! Oh, that's lovely!' interrupted Valetta.</p>
+
+<p>'He is always drawing,' said Gillian, with an odd laugh.</p>
+
+<p>'He was brought up to it. First teeth, and then "picturs," and
+then--oh, my---ladies home from the wash!' went on Wilfred.</p>
+
+<p>'But go on, Will!' entreated Valetta.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>'Jack and Jill went up the hill<br>
+ To draw a piece of water--'</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>'No, no,' put in Wilfred---'that's wrong!</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>'To draw the sergeant's daughter;<br>
+ Fangs dragged down unto the town,<br>
+ And Jill came moaning after!'</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>'I didn't moan---'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, you don't know how disconsolate you looked! Moaning, you
+know, because her Fangs had to draw the other young woman---eh,
+Gill? Fangs always leave an aching void, you know.'</p>
+
+<p>'You ridiculous boy! I'm sure I wish Fangs would leave a void.
+It wouldn't ache!'</p>
+
+<p>The two parents had been exchanging glances of something very
+like consternation, and of the mute inquiry on one side, 'Were
+you aware of this sort of thing? and an emphatic shake of the
+head on the other. Then Sir Jasper's voice exclaimed aloud--</p>
+
+<p>'Children, we hear every word you say, and are shocked at your
+impertinence and bad taste!'</p>
+
+<p>There was a scatter. Wilfred and Valetta, who had been
+pinioning Gillian on either side by her dress, released her, and
+fled into the laurels that veiled the guinea-pigs; but their
+father's long strides pursued them, and he gravely said--</p>
+
+<p>'I am very sorry to find this is your style of so-called
+wit!'</p>
+
+<p>'It was only chaff,' said Valetta, the boldest in right of her
+girlhood.</p>
+
+<p>'Very improper chaff! I am the last person to object to
+harmless merriment; but you are both old enough to know that on
+these subjects such merriment is not harmless.'</p>
+
+<p>'Everybody does it,' whined Valetta, beginning one of her
+crying fits.</p>
+
+<p>'I am sorry you have been among people who have led you to
+think so. No nicely-minded girl will do so, nor any brother who
+wishes to see his sisters refined, right-feeling women. Go in,
+Valetta--I can't suffer this howling! Go, I say! Your mother will
+talk to you. Now, Wilfred, do you wish to see your sisters like
+your mother?'</p>
+
+<p>'They'll never be that, if they live to a hundred!'</p>
+
+<p>'Do not you hinder it, then; and never let that insulting
+nickname pass your lips again.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilfred's defence as to universal use in the family was
+inaudible, and he was allowed to slouch away.</p>
+
+<p>Gillian had fled to her mother, entreating her to explain to
+her father that such jests were abhorrent to her.</p>
+
+<p>'But you know, mamma, if I was cross and dignified, Wilfred
+would enjoy it all the more, and be ten times worse.'</p>
+
+<p>'Quite true, my dear. Papa will understand; but we are sorry
+to hear that nickname.</p>
+
+<p>'It was an old Royal Wardour name, mamma. Harry and Claude
+both used it, and--oh, lots of the young officers!'</p>
+
+<p>'That does not make it more becoming in you.'</p>
+
+<p>'N---no. But oh, mamma, he was very kind to-day! But I do wish
+it had been anybody else!'</p>
+
+<p>And her colour rose so as to startle her mother.</p>
+
+<p>'Why, my dear, I thought you would have been glad that a
+stranger did not find you in that plight!'</p>
+
+<p>'But it makes it all the worse. He does beset us, mamma; and
+it is hard on me, after all the other nonsense!'</p>
+
+<p>Lady Merrifield burst out laughing.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear child, he thinks as much of you as of old
+Halfpenny!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, mamma, are you sure?' said Gillian, still hiding her
+face. 'It was not silliness of my own; but Kitty Varley told Val
+that everybody said it---her sister, and Miss Mohun, and all. Why
+can't he go away, and not be always bothering about this horrid
+place with nothing to do?'</p>
+
+<p>'How thankful I shall be to have you all safe at
+Clipston!'</p>
+
+<p>'But, mamma, can't you keep him off us?'</p>
+
+<p>Valetta's sobbing entrance here prevented more; but while
+explaining to her the causes of her father's displeasure, her
+mother extracted a good deal more of the gossip, to which she
+finally returned answer--</p>
+
+<p>'There is no telling the harm that is done by chattering
+gossip in this way. You might have learnt by what happened before
+what mistakes are made. What am I to do, Valetta? I don't want to
+hinder you from having friends and companions; but if you bring
+home such mischievous stories, I shall have to keep you entirely
+among ourselves till you are older and wiser.'</p>
+
+<p>'I never---never will believe---anybody who says anybody is
+going to marry anybody!' sobbed Valetta desperately and
+incoherently.</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly no one who knows nothing about the matter. There is
+nothing papa and I dislike much more than such foolish talk; and
+to tease your sister about it is even worse; but I will say no
+more about that, as I believe it was chiefly Wilfred's
+doing.'</p>
+
+<p>'I---told---Will,' murmured Valetta. 'Mysie begged me not, but
+I had done it.'</p>
+
+<p>'How much you would have saved yourself and everybody else if
+you had let the foolish word die with you! Now, good-night, my
+dear. Bathe your eyes well, or they will be very uncomfortable
+to-morrow; and do try to cure yourself of roaring when you cry.
+It vexes papa so much more.'</p>
+
+<p>Another small scene had to follow with the boy, who was quite
+willing to go off to bed, having no desire to face his father
+again, though his mother had her fears that he was not
+particularly penitent for 'what fellows always did when people
+were spooning.' He could only be assured that he would experience
+unpleasant consequences if he recurred to the practice; but
+Wilfred had always been the problem in the family.</p>
+
+<p>The summer twilight was just darkening completely, and Lady
+Merrifield had returned to the drawing-room, and was about to
+ring for lights, when Sir Jasper came in through the window,
+saying--</p>
+
+<p>'No question now about renewal. Angelic features, more than
+angelic calmness and dignity. Ha! you there, young ladies!' he
+added in some dismay as two white dresses struck his eye.</p>
+
+<p>'There's no harm done,' said Lady Merrifield, laughing. 'I was
+thinking whether to relieve Gillian's mind by telling her the
+state of the case, and Mysie is to be trusted.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, mamma, then it is Kalliope!' exclaimed Gillian, already
+relieved, for even love could not have perceived calmness and
+dignity in her sitting upon Bruno's head.</p>
+
+<p>'Has she ever talked about him?' asked Lady Merrifield.</p>
+
+<p>'No; except to-day, when I said I hoped she was safe from him
+on that road. She said he had always been very kind to her, and
+taught her to draw when she was quite a little girl.'</p>
+
+<p>'Just so,' said Lady Merrifield. 'Well, when she was a little
+older, poor Mr. White, who was one of the most honourable and
+scrupulous of men, took alarm, and saw that it would never do to
+have the young officers running after her.'</p>
+
+<p>'It was an uncommonly awkward position,' added Sir Jasper,
+'with such a remarkable-looking girl, and a foolish unmanageable
+mother. It made poor White's retirement the more reasonable when
+the girl was growing too old to be kept at school any
+longer.'</p>
+
+<p>'And has he been constant to her all these years? How nice!'
+cried Mysie.</p>
+
+<p>'After a fashion,' said Lady Merrifield. 'He made me the
+receptacle of a good deal of youthful despair.'</p>
+
+<p>'All the lads did,' said her husband.</p>
+
+<p>'But he got over it, and it seemed to have passed out of his
+life. However, he asked after the Whites as soon as we met him in
+London; and now he tells me that he never forgot Kalliope--her
+face always came between him and any one whom his mother threw in
+his way; and he came down here, knowing her history, and with the
+object of seeing her again.'</p>
+
+<p>'And he has not, till now?'</p>
+
+<p>'No. Besides the absolute need of keeping her quiet, it would
+not exactly do for him to visit her while she is alone with Maura
+at Cliff House, and I wished him first to see her casually
+amongst us, for I dreaded her not fulfilling his ideal.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!'</p>
+
+<p>'When I think of her at fourteen or fifteen, with that
+exquisite bloom and the floating wavy hair, I see a very
+different creature from what she is now.'</p>
+
+<p>'Peach or ivory carving,' said Sir Jasper.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; she is nobler, finer altogether, and has gained in
+countenance greatly; but he may not think so, and I should like
+her to be looking a little less ill.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I can't help hoping he will be disappointed, and be too
+stupid to care for her!' exclaimed Gillian.</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed?' said her father in a tone of displeased
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p>'He is so insignificant; he does not seem to suit with her,'
+said Gillian in a tone of defence;' and there does not seem to be
+anything in him.'</p>
+
+<p>'That only shows the effect of nursing prejudice by using
+foolish opprobrious nicknames. Henderson was a good officer, he
+has shown himself an excellent son, always sacrificing his own
+predilections for the sake of duty. He is a right-minded,
+religious, sensible man, his own master, and with no connections
+to take umbrage at Miss White's position. It is no commonplace
+man who knows how to honour her for it. Nothing could be a
+happier fate for her; and you will be no friend to her if you use
+any foolish terms of disparagement of him because he does not
+happen to please your fancy.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure Gillian will do no such thing, now that she
+understands the case' said her mother.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, indeed! said Gillian. 'It was only a first
+feeling.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you will allow for a little annoyance, papa,' added Lady
+Merrifield. 'We really have had a great deal of him, and he does
+spoil the children's walks with you.'</p>
+
+<p>Sir Jasper laughed.</p>
+
+<p>'I agree that the sooner this is over the better. You need
+have no doubts as to the first view, now that Gillian has
+effected the introduction. No words can do justice to her beauty,
+though, by the bye, he must have contemplated her through the
+back of his head!'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, won't that do! Can't he be sent off for the present,
+for as to love-making now, with all the doubts and scruples in
+the way, it would be the way to kill her outright.'</p>
+
+<p>'You must take that in hand, my lady---it is past me! Come,
+girls, give us some music!'</p>
+
+<p>The two girls went up at bed-time to their room, Mysie
+capering and declaring that here was real, true, nice love, like
+people in stories, and Gillian still bemoaning a little that,
+whatever papa might say, Fa---Captain Henderson would always be
+too poor a creature for Kalliope.</p>
+
+<p>'If I was quite sure it was not only her beauty,' added
+Gillian philosophically.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Merrifield went up to Cliff House as early as she could
+the next day. She found her patient there very white and shaken,
+but not so much by the adventure of yesterday as by a beautiful
+bouquet of the choicest roses which lay on the table before her
+sofa, left by Captain Henderson when he had called to inquire
+after her.</p>
+
+<p>'What ought I to do, dear Lady Merrifield?' she asked. 'They
+came while I was dressing, and I did not know.'</p>
+
+<p>'You mean about a message of thanks?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; my dear father was so terribly displeased when I wore a
+rose that he gave me before the great review at Belfast that I
+feel as if I ought not to touch these; and yet it is so kind, and
+after all his wonderful kindness yesterday.'</p>
+
+<p>The hand on the side and the trembling lip showed the painful
+fluttering of heart, and the voice died away.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, things are very different now. Take my word for it,
+your father could not be displeased for a moment at any kindness
+between you and Captain Henderson. Ten years ago he was a very
+young man, and his parents were living, and your father was bound
+in honour, and for your sake too, to prevent attentions from the
+young officers.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, I know it would have been shocking to have got into
+that sort of thing!'</p>
+
+<p>'But now he is entirely at his own disposal, and a man of four
+or five-and-thirty, who has gone through a great deal, and I do
+not think that to send him a friendly message of thanks for a
+bunch of flowers to his old fellow-soldier's daughter would be
+anything but what Captain White would think his due.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh,'---a sigh of relief,---'please tell him, dear Lady
+Merrifield!' And she stretched out her hand for the flowers, and
+lovingly cooled her cheek with their petals, and tenderly admired
+them singly, venturing now to enjoy them and even caress
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Merrifield ventured on no more; but she carried off
+ultimately hopeful auguries for the gentleman who had been
+watching for her, very anxious to hear her report. She was,
+however, determined on persuading him to patience, reinforcing
+her assurances with Dr. Dagger's opinion, that though Kalliope's
+constitution needed only quiet and rest entirely to shake off the
+effects of the overstrain of that terrible half-year, yet that
+renewed agitation would probably entail chronic heart-complaint;
+and she insisted that without making any sign the lover should go
+out of reach for several months, making, for instance, the
+expedition to Norway of which he had been talking. He could not
+understand at first that what he meant to propose would not be
+the best means of setting that anxious heart at rest; and Lady
+Merrifield had to dwell on the swarm of conscientious scruples
+and questions that would arise about saddling him with such a
+family, and should not be put to rest as easily as he imagined.
+At last, by the further representation that she would regard her
+mother's death as far too recent for such matters to occupy her,
+and by the assertion of the now fixed conviction that attentions
+from him at present could only agitate and distress her
+harmfully, and bring on her malicious remarks, the Captain was
+induced to believe that Rocca Marina or Florence would be a far
+better scene for his courtship, and to defer it till he could
+find her there in better health.</p>
+
+<p>He was brought at last to promise to leave Rockquay at once,
+and dispose of himself in Norway, if only Lady Merrifield would
+procure him one meeting with Kalliope, in which he solemnly
+promised to do nothing that could startle her or betray his
+intentions.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Merrifield managed it cunningly. It had been already
+fixed that Kalliope should come down to a brief twelve-o'clock
+service held at St. Kenelm's for invalids, there to return thanks
+for her recovery, in what she felt as her own church; and she was
+to come to Il Lido and rest there afterwards. Resolving to have
+no spectators, Lady Merrifield sent off the entire family for a
+picnic at Clipston, promising them with some confidence that they
+would not be haunted by Captain Henderson, and that she would
+come in the waggonette, bringing Fergus as soon as he was out of
+school, drink tea, and fetch home the tired.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Jasper went too, telling her, with a smile, that he was
+far too shy to assist her in acting chaperon.</p>
+
+<p>'Dragon, you had better say---I mean to put on all my teeth
+and claws.'</p>
+
+<p>These were not, however, very visible at the church door when
+she met Kalliope, who had come down in a bath-chair, but was able
+afterwards to walk slowly to Il Lido. Perhaps Captain Henderson
+was, however, aware of them; for Kalliope had no knowledge of his
+presence in the church or in the street, somewhat in the rear,
+nor did he venture to present himself till there had been time
+for luncheon and for rest, and till Kalliope had been settled in
+the cool eastern window under the verandah, with an Indian
+cushion behind her that threw out her profile like a cameo.</p>
+
+<p>Then, as if to call on Lady Merrifield, Captain Henderson
+appeared armed, according to a wise suggestion, with his
+portfolio; and there was a very quiet and natural overlooking of
+his drawings, which evidently gave Kalliope immense pleasure,
+quite unsuspiciously. Precautions had been taken against other
+visitors, and all went off so well and happily that Lady
+Merrifield felt quite triumphant when the waggonette came round,
+and, after picking up Fergus, she set Kalliope down at her own
+door, with something like a colour in her cheeks and lips, and
+thanks for a happy afternoon, and the great pleasure in seeing
+one of the dear old Royal Wardours again.</p>
+
+<p>But, oh mamma,' said Gillian, feeling as if the thorn in her
+thoughts must be extracted, 'are you sure it is not all her
+beauty?'</p>
+
+<p>'Her beauty, no doubt, began it, and gratifies the artist eye;
+but I am sure his perseverance is due to appreciation of her
+noble character,' said Lady Merrifield.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, mamma, would he if she had been ever so good, and no
+prettier than other people?'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't pick motives so, my child; her beauty helps to make up
+the sum and substance of his adoration, and she would not have
+the countenance she has without the goodness. Let that satisfy
+you.'</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<center>CHAPTER XXIV. CONCLUSION</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>The wedding was imminent by this time. The sisters returned
+from London, the younger looking brilliant and in unusual health,
+and the elder fagged and weary. Shopping, or rather looking on at
+shopping, had been a far more wearying occupation than all the
+schools and districts in Rockquay afforded.</p>
+
+<p>And besides the being left alone, there was the need of
+considering her future. The family had certainly expected that a
+rich and open-handed man like Mr. White would bethink him that
+half what was sufficient for two was not enough for one to live
+in the same style, and would have resigned his bride's fortune to
+her sister, but, as a rule, he never did what was expected of
+him, and he had, perhaps, been somewhat annoyed by Mr. Mohun's
+pertinacity about settlements, showing a certain distrust of
+commercial wealth. At any rate, all he did was to insist on
+paying handsomely for Maura's board; but still Miss Mohun
+believed she should have to give up the pretty house built by
+themselves, and go into smaller quarters, more especially as it
+was universally agreed that Adeline must have Mrs. Mount with
+her, and Mrs. Mount would certainly be miserable in 'foreign
+parts' unless her daughter went with her. It was demonstrated
+that the remaining means would just suffice to keep up
+Beechcroft; but Jane knew that it could be only done at the cost
+of her subscriptions and charities, and she merely undertook to
+take no measures till winter---the Rockquay season.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Jasper, who thought she behaved exceedingly well about it,
+authorised an earnest invitation to make her home at Clipston;
+but though she was much gratified, she knew she should be in his
+way, and, perhaps, in that of the boys, and it was too far from
+the work to which she meant to devote herself even more
+completely, when it would be no longer needful to be
+companionable to a semi-invalid fond of society.</p>
+
+<p>However, just then her brother, the Colonel, came at last for
+his long leave. He knew that his retirement was only a matter of
+months, and declared his intention of joining forces with her, if
+she would have him, and, in the meantime, he was desirous of
+contributing his full share in keeping up the home. Nor did Jane
+feel it selfish to accept his offer, for she knew that Clipston
+would give him congenial society and shooting, and that there was
+plenty of useful layman work for him in the town; and that 'old
+Reggie' should wish to set up his staff with her raised her
+spirits, so that cheerfulness was no longer an effort.</p>
+
+<p>The wedding was to be very quiet. Only just after the day was
+finally fixed, Mrs. Merrifield's long decay ended unexpectedly,
+and Sir Jasper had to hasten to London, and thence to the funeral
+at Stokesley. She was a second wife, and he her only son, so that
+he inherited from her means that set him much more at his ease
+with regard to his large family than he had ever been before. The
+intention that Lady Merrifield should act mistress of the house
+at the wedding breakfast had, of course, to be given up, and only
+Primrose's extreme youth made it possible to let her still be a
+bridesmaid.</p>
+
+<p>So the whole party, together with the Whites, were only
+spectators in the background, and the procession into church
+consisted of just the absolutely needful persons--the bride in a
+delicate nondescript coloured dress, such as none but a French
+dressmaker could describe, and covered with transparent lace,
+like, as Mysie averred, a hedgeback full of pig-nut flowers, the
+justice of the comparison being lost in the ugliness of the name;
+and as all Rockquay tried to squeeze into the church to see and
+admire, the beauty was not thrown away.</p>
+
+<p>No tears were shed there; but afterwards, in her own familiar
+room, between her two sisters, Adeline White shed floods of
+tears, and, clinging to Jane's neck, asked how she could ever
+have consented to leave her, extracting a promise of coming to
+her in case of illness. Nothing but a knock at the door by
+Valetta, with a peremptory message that Mr. White said they
+should be late for the train, induced her to dry her tears and
+tear herself away.</p>
+
+<p>Kalliope and Maura remained with Miss Mohun during the bridal
+journey to Scotland, and by the time it was ended the former had
+shaken off the invalid habits, and could hardly accept the
+doctor's assurance that she ought not to resume her work, though
+she was grateful for the delights before her, and the
+opportunities of improvement that she was promised at Florence.
+Her health had certainly been improved by Frank Stebbing's
+departure for America. Something oozed out that made Miss Mohun
+suspect that he had been tampering with the accounts, and then it
+proved that there had been a crisis and discovery, which Mr.
+White had consented to hush up for his partner's sake. Alexis had
+necessarily known of the investigation and disclosure, but had
+kept absolute silence until it had been brought to light in other
+ways, and the culprit was beyond seas. Mr. Stebbing was about to
+retire from the business, but for many reasons the dissolution of
+the partnership was deferred.</p>
+
+<p>Alexis was now in a post of trust, with a larger salary. He
+lodged at Mrs. Lee's, and was, in a manner, free of Miss Mohun's
+house; but he spent much of his leisure time in study, being now
+able to pay regularly for instruction from the tutor who taught
+at Mrs. Edgar's school.</p>
+
+<p>Maura asked him rather pertly what was the use of troubling
+himself about Latin and Greek, if he held himself bound to the
+marble works.</p>
+
+<p>'It is not trouble---it is rest,' he said; and at her gasp,
+'Besides, marble works or no, one ought to make the best of one's
+self.'</p>
+
+<p>By the time Mr. and Mrs. White came back from Scotland, the
+repairs at Clipston had been accomplished, and the Merrifields
+had taken possession. It all was most pleasant in that summer
+weather going backwards and forwards between the houses; the
+Sunday coming into church and lunching at Aunt Jane's, where
+Valetta and Primrose stayed for Mrs. Hablot's class, and were
+escorted home by Macrae in time for evening service at Clipston,
+where their mother, Gillian, and Mysie reigned over their little
+school. There was a kind of homely ease and family life, such
+that Adeline once betrayed that she sometimes felt as if she was
+going into banishment. However, there was no doubt that she
+enjoyed her husband's pride in and devotion to her, as well as
+all the command of money and choice of pretty things that she had
+obtained, and she looked well, handsome, and dignified.</p>
+
+<p>Still it was evident that she was very glad of Kalliope's
+companionship, and that the pair were not on those exclusively
+intimate terms that would make a third person de trop.</p>
+
+<p>By Sir Jasper's advice, Lady Merrifield did not mention the
+possibility of a visit from Captain Henderson, who would come
+upon Mr. White far better on his own merits, and had better not
+be expected either by Adeline or Kalliope.</p>
+
+<p>Enthusiastic letters from both ladies described the delights
+of the journey, which was taken in a leisurely sight-seeing
+manner; and as to Rocca Marina, it seemed to be an absolute
+paradise. Mr. White had taken care to send out an English
+upholsterer, so that insular ideas of comfort might be fulfilled
+within. Without, the combination of mountain and sea, the
+vine-clad terraces, the chestnut slopes, the magical colours of
+the barer rocks, the coast-line trending far away, the azure
+Mediterranean, with the white-sailed feluccas skimming across it,
+filled Kalliope with the more transport because it satisfied the
+eyes that had unconsciously missed such colouring scenes ever
+since her early childhood.</p>
+
+<p>The English workmen and their families hailed with delight an
+English lady. The chaplain and his wife were already at work
+among them, and their little church only waiting for the bride to
+lay the first stone.</p>
+
+<p>The accounts of Kalliope's walks as Mrs. White's deputy among
+these people, of her scrambles and her sketching made her
+recovery evident. Adeline had just been writing that the girl was
+too valuable to both herself and Mr. White ever to be parted
+with, when Captain Henderson came back from Norway, and had free
+permission from Lady Merrifield to put his fate to the touch.</p>
+
+<p>English tourists who know how to behave themselves were always
+welcome to enliven the seclusion of Rocca Marina, and admire all,
+of which Adeline was as proud as Mr. White himself.
+Recommendations to its hospitality did not fail, and the first of
+Adeline's long letters showed warm appreciation of this pleasant
+guest, who seemed enchanted with the spot.</p>
+
+<p>Next, Mrs. White's sagacity began to suspect his object, and
+there ensued Kalliope's letter, full of doubts and scruples,
+unable to help being happy, but deferring her reply till she
+should hear from Lady Merrifield, whether it could be right to
+burthen any man with such a family as hers.</p>
+
+<p>The old allegiance to her father's commanding officer, as well
+as the kindness she had received, seemed to make her turn to ask
+their approval as if they were her parents; and of course it was
+heartily given, Sir Jasper himself writing to set before her that
+John Henderson was no suddenly captivated youth unable to
+calculate consequences, but a man of long-tried affection and
+constancy, free from personal ties, and knowing all her concerns.
+The younger ones all gave promise of making their own way, and a
+wise elder brother was the best thing she could give them. Even
+Richard might be the better for the connection, and Sir Jasper
+had taken care that there should be some knowledge of what he
+was.</p>
+
+<p>There was reason to think that all hesitation had been
+overcome even before the letters arrived. For it appeared that
+Captain Henderson had fraternised greatly with Mr. White, and
+that having much wished for an occupation, he had decided to
+become a partner in the marble works, bringing the art-knowledge
+and taste that had been desirable, and Kalliope hoped still to
+superintend the mosaic workers. It was agreed that the marriage
+had far better take place away from Rockquay, and it was resolved
+that it should be at Florence, and that the couple should remain
+there for the winter, studying art, and especially Florentine
+mosaic, and return in the spring, when the Stebbings would have
+concluded their arrangements and vacated their house.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. White, in great delight, franked out Alexis and Maura to
+be present at the wedding, and a longing wish of Kalliope's that
+Mr. Flight would officiate was so far expressed that Lady
+Merrifield mentioned it to him. He was very much moved, for he
+had been feeling that his relations with the Whites had been
+chiefly harmful, though, as Alexis now assured him, his notice
+had been their first ray of comfort in their changed life at
+Rockquay. The experience had certainly made him older and wiser.
+Mrs. White---or, as her nieces could not help calling her among
+themselves, the Contessa di Rocca Marina---urged that her sister
+Jane should join the company, and bring Gillian to act as the
+other bridesmaid. This, after a little deliberation, was
+accepted, and the journey was the greatest treat to all
+concerned. Mr. Flight, the only one of the party who had
+travelled before in the sense of being a tourist, was amused by
+the keen and intense delight of Miss Mohun as well as the younger
+ones in all they beheld, and he steered them with full experience
+of hotels and of what ought to be visited, so as to be an
+excellent courier.</p>
+
+<p>As to Rocca Marina, where they spent a few days, no words
+would describe their admiration, though they brought home a whole
+book of sketches to back their descriptions. They did not,
+however, bring back Maura. Mrs. White had declared that she must
+remain to supply the place of her sister. She was nearly fifteen
+years old, and already pretty well advanced in her studies, she
+would pick up foreign languages, the chaplain would teach her
+when at Rocca Marina, and music and drawing would be attainable
+in the spring at Florence. Moreover, Mr. White promised to regard
+her as a daughter.</p>
+
+<p>Another point was settled. Alexis had worked in earnest for
+eight months, and had convinced himself that the marble works
+were not his vocation, though he had acquitted himself well
+enough to induce Mr. White to offer him a share in the business,
+and he would have accepted it if needful. He had, however, made
+up his mind to endeavour to obtain a scholarship at Oxford, and
+Captain Henderson promised that whether successful in this or
+not, he should be enabled to keep his terms there. Mr. White
+could not understand how a man could prefer being a poor curate
+to being a rich quarrymaster, but his wife and the two sisters
+had influence enough to prevent him from being offended, and this
+was the easier, because Theodore had tastes and abilities that
+made it likely that he would be thoroughly available at the
+works.</p>
+
+<p>What shall be said of the return to Rockstone? Mr. Flight came
+home first, then, after many happy days of appreciative
+sightseeing, Aunt Jane and Gillian. They had not been ashamed of
+being British spinsters with guide-books in their hands; nor, on
+the other hand, had they been obliged to see what they did not
+care about, and Mr. White had put them in the way of the best
+mode of seeing what they cared about; and above all, the
+vicissitudes of travel, even in easy-going modern fashion, had
+made them one with each other according to Jane's best hopes. It
+was declared that the aunt looked five years younger for such
+recreation as she had never known before, and she set to work
+with double energy.</p>
+
+<p>When, in May, Captain and Mrs. Henderson took possession of
+the pretty house that had been fitted up for them, though Miss
+Mellon might whisper to a few that she had only been one of the
+mosaic hands, there was not much inclination to attend to the
+story among the society to which Lady Merrifield introduced her.
+These acquaintances would gladly have seen more of her than she
+had time to give them, between family claims and home cares, her
+attention to the artistic side of the business, for which she had
+not studied in vain, and her personal and individual care for the
+young women concerned therein. For years to come, even, it was
+likely that visitors to Rockstone would ask one another if they
+had seen that remarkably beautiful Mrs. Henderson.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. White, reigning there in the summer, in her fine house
+and gardens, though handsome as ever, had the good sense to
+resign the palm of beauty, and be gratified with the admiration
+for one whom she accepted as a protegee and appendage, whose
+praise reflected upon herself. And Cliff House under the new
+regime was a power in Rockstone, with its garden-parties,
+drawing-room meetings on behalf of everything good and desirable,
+its general superintendence and promotion of all that could aid
+in the welfare of the place. There was general rejoicing when it
+was occupied.</p>
+
+<p>Adeline, in better health than she had enjoyed since her early
+girlhood, and feeling her consequence both in Italy and at
+Rockstone, was often radiant, always kind and friendly and ready
+with patronage and assistance. Her sisters wondered at times how
+absolute her happiness was; they sometimes thought she said too
+much about it, and about her dear husband's indulgence, in her
+letters, to be quite satisfactory; and when she came to Rockstone
+there was an effusiveness of affection towards her family, an
+unwillingness to spare her sisters or nieces from her side, an
+earnest desire to take one back to Italy with her, that betrayed
+something lacking in companionship. Jane detected likewise such
+as the idolising husband felt this attachment a little over
+much.</p>
+
+<p>It was not quite possible to feel him one with her family, or
+make him feel himself one. He would always be 'company' with
+them. He had indeed been invited to Beechcroft Court, but it was
+plain that the visit had been stiff and wearisome to both
+parties, even more so than that to Rotherwood, where there was no
+reason to look for much familiarity.</p>
+
+<p>In the same way, to Reginald Mohun, who had been obliged to
+retire as full Colonel, Mr. White was so absolutely distasteful
+that it was his sister's continual fear that he would encourage
+the young people's surreptitious jokes about their marble uncle.
+Sir Jasper, always feeling accountable for having given the first
+sanction, did his best for the brother-in-law; but in spite of
+regard, there was no getting over the uncongeniality that would
+always be the drop in Adeline's cup. The perfect ease and
+confidence of family intercourse would alter on his entrance!</p>
+
+<p>Nobody got on with him so well as Captain Harry May. For I do
+not speak to that dull elf who cannot figure to himself the great
+family meeting that came to pass when the colonists came
+home--how sweet and matronly 'Aunt Phyllis' looked, how fresh and
+bright her daughters were, and how surprised Valetta was to find
+them as well instructed and civilised as herself, though she did
+not like Primrose, expect to see them tattooed. One of the party
+was no other than Dolores Mohun. She had been very happy with her
+father for three years. They had been at Kotorua at the time of
+the earthquake, and Dolores had acquired much credit for her
+reasonableness and self-possession, but there had been also a
+young lady, not much above her own age, who had needed protection
+and comfort, and the acquaintance there begun had ended in her
+father deciding on a marriage with a pretty gentle creature as
+unlike the wife of his youth as could be imagined.</p>
+
+<p>Dolores had behaved very well, as her Aunt Phyllis warmly
+testified, but it was a relief to all parties when the proposal
+was made that, immediately after the wedding, she should go home
+under her aunt's escort to finish her education. She had learnt
+to love and trust Aunt Phyllis; but to be once more with Aunt
+Lily and Mysie was the greatest peace and bliss she could
+conceive. And she was a very different being from the angular
+defiant girl of those days which seemed so long ago.</p>
+
+<p>There is no need to say more at present of these old friends.
+There is no material for narrative in describing how the 'calm
+decay' of Dr. May in old age was cheered by the presence of his
+sailor son, nor in the scenes where the brothers, sisters, and
+friends exchanged happy recollections, brightened each other's
+lives with affection and stimulated one another in serving God in
+their generation.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<center>THE END</center>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<pre>
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, BEECHCROFT AT ROCKSTONE ***
+
+This file should be named brock10h.htm or brock10h.zip
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, brock11h.htm
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, brock10ah.htm
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+<a href="http://gutenberg.net">http://gutenberg.net</a> or
+<a href="http://promo.net/pg">http://promo.net/pg</a>
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+<a href=
+"http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04">http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04</a> or
+<a href=
+"ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03">ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03</a>
+
+Or /etext03, 02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+<a href=
+"http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html">http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html</a>
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart &lt;hart@pobox.com&gt;
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+<a href="mailto:hart@pobox.com">hart@pobox.com</a>
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+
+
+</pre>
+</body>
+</html>
+
+
diff --git a/old/2004-02-brock10h.zip b/old/2004-02-brock10h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d684956
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/2004-02-brock10h.zip